| Winter | Purchases fourteen acres of land in West Orange, New Jersey, near his home in Llewellyn Park; plans to construct a new laboratory. |
| Jan-Apr | Conducts experiments on squirted cellulose filaments for incandescent lamps at the Edison Lamp Works; continues this work at the West Orange laboratory |
| Feb-Apr | Recuperates from pleurisy at his winter home in Fort Myers, Florida. |
| May 3 | Hires H. Hudson Holly as the architect for the West Orange laboratory. |
| May 24 | Executes patent applications (U.S. Pats. 380,100 and 476,983) for a pyromagnetic motor and generator. |
| July 30 | Dismisses H. Hudson Holly as architect and supervising contractor for construction of the West Orange laboratory. |
| Summer | Rents a factory in Bloomfield, New Jersey, for phonograph manufacture. |
| Summer-Fall | Charles Batchelor oversees construction and outfitting of the West Orange laboratory. |
| Oct 1 | Reaches agreement with Lowell Briggs and William W. Jacques for the rights to manufacture and market dolls with Edison phonographs. |
| Oct 10 | Organizes the Edison Phonograph Company. |
| Oct 14 | Reaches agreement with George E. Gouraud for the international marketing rights for the phonograph. |
| Oct 28 | Appoints Ezra T. Gilliland as general sales agent for the Edison Phonograph Company. |
| Oct 28 | Transfers his phonograph patents to the Edison Phonograph Company in exchange for 11,960 shares of company stock. |
| early Dec | West Orange laboratory opens. |
| Dec | Arthur E. Kennelly joins the laboratory staff at West Orange to direct electrical research in the Galvanometer Room. |
