1881 - 1890

Jan 25	Signs an agreement with Alexander Graham Bell and others to organize the Oriental Telephone Company.
Feb 28	Employs Samuel lnsull as his private secretary.
Mar 1	Establishes a testing department at the Edison Lamp Works, which also becomes headquarters for lamp experiments.
c. Mar 10	Moves his business operations to 65 5th Avenue in New York City, where he daily advises the managers of the various Edison light companies.
Mar	Moves his residence to New York City.
Winter	Organizes the Edison Electric Lamp Company, the Edison Machine Works, and other companies to manufacture lamps, generators, conductors, and other components for his electric lighting system.
Apr 30	Places Charles Hughes in charge of experiments to preserve fruit by placing it in a vacuum.
May 17-June 25	Executes twenty-three patent applications on electric lighting.
Spring	Begins laying conductors for the Pearl Street central station in New York City.
July 1	Sends Charles Batchelor to Paris to supervise the Edison exhibit at the International Electrical Exhibition and to oversee Edison electric lighting interests in Europe.
July 26	Executes a patent application with Patrick Kenny for a facsimile telegraph (U.S. Pat. 479,184).
Aug 10	Edison's exhibit opens at the Paris Electrical Exhibition.
Sep 14	Signs a contract with Henry Villard, who agrees to provide funds for experiments on electric railroads.
Sep	Edison's ore separator is used by the Edison Ore Milling Company to separate iron ore from black sand at Quonocontaug, Rhode Island.
Fall	Establishes at the Edison Machine Works a testing department that also becomes the headquarters for dynamo and other electric lighting experiments.

Jan 12	Edison's central station on Holborn Viaduct in London begins operation.
Jan 17	Edison's exhibit opens at the Crystal Palace Exhibition in London.
Winter	Establishes companies in London and Paris to manufacture electric light system components and to install central stations in Europe and the United Kingdom.
	Establishes electric light companies in Latin America.
May 8	Begins at the Menlo Park laboratory an extensive series of electric lighting experiments that he considers beyond the capacity of the newly established Edison Machine Works.
Spring-Summer	Executes fifty-three patent applications covering electric lighting, electric railways, and secondary batteries.
Sep 4	Opens the Pearl Street central station in the Wall Street district of New York.
Oct 4-Nov 28	Executes thirty-four patent applications covering electric lighting and electric railways.
Nov	Closes his Menlo Park laboratory and establishes a laboratory on the top floor of the Bergmann and Company factory in New York City.

Jan 19	Edison's first village electric lighting system using overhead wires begins operation in Roselle, New Jersey.
c. May 1	Forms the Thomas A. Edison Construction Department and spends the next year promoting and building central stations in the United States.
May-June	Exhibits his electric railway at the Railway Exhibition in Chicago.
June	Executes seventeen patent applications covering electric lighting.
July 4	Attends the opening of the first three-wire Edison incandescent electric light central station (village system) at Sunbury, Pennsylvania.
Oct 1	Edison's first three-wire underground central station system goes into operation at Brockton, Massachusetts.
Nov 2	Executes a patent application for an electrical indicator using what becomes known as an Edison effect lamp (U.S. Pat. 307,031).

Feb 9	Executes a patent application with Patrick Kenny for a chemical recording stock quotation telegraph (U.S. Pat. 314,115).
Feb-Mar	Vacations in Florida with his ill wife, Mary Stilwell Edison.
May 14	Is elected a vice-president of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, an organization of which he is a founding member.
Spring	Charles Batchelor returns from Europe and becomes general manager of the Edison Machine Works.
Aug 9	Mary Stilwell Edison dies at Menlo Park.
Sep 1	Merges the Thomas A. Edison Construction Department with the Edison Company for Isolated Lighting.
Sep 2	Attends the opening of the International Electrical Exhibition in Philadelphia.
Oct	Negotiates a contract with American Bell Telephone Company, which agrees to pay his expenses and salary for telephone experiments.