| Feb 23-Apr 17 | Vacations in Fort Myers, Florida, with the Ford family and John Burroughs; explores the Everglades and later remembers this excursion as his first camping trip with Ford and Burroughs. |
| May 12 | Inspired by Henry Ford's anti-cigarette campaign, bans cigarettes from all his plants, although he continues to smoke cigars and chew tobacco; subsequently engages in a newspaper debate with Percival S. Hill of the American Tobacco Co. regarding the merits of cigarette smoking. |
| Sep 8 | Five weeks after the outbreak of war in Europe, announces the erection of a plant for the manufacture of phenol and other chemicals now in short supply. Known as Phenol Plant No. 1, it is the first of five chemical plants constructed at Silver Lake, N.J., during the war and the only one owned by Thomas A. Edison, Inc. |
| Fall | Announces the commercial introduction of the telescribe -- a combination telephone and phonograph that permits the recording of both sides of a telephone conversation. |
| Dec 9 | An explosion in the Film Inspection Building triggers a conflagration that destroys or damages more than half of the buildings in the West Orange laboratory complex. |
