In the summer of 1883 Edison devised tests for prospective employees, soliciting a "variety of answers" from his "boys" (as in these letters to W. S. Andrews and Thomas Conant). One test covered dynamos, another steam engines, and the third meters. This document has the questions and most of the answers (unfortunately, it is a carbon copy and diagrams did not reproduce). Many of the questions are more or less technical, but some are simply tests of common sense. The last four pages are Edison's summary "Instructions" for running an electric lighting power station.
School of Arts and Sciences
