The Wizard of Menlo Park (41 page)

Edison complained:
TAE to J. W. S. Arnold, in margin of J. W. S. Arnold to TAE, 20 March 1878,
PTAED,
D7802ZDX1.

the advertising was too effective:
Charles Cheever to Gardiner Hubbard, 15 March 1878,
PTAED,
X012G1AO.

Gardiner Hubbard:
Gardiner Hubbard to Uriah Painter, 2 April 1878,
PTAE,
4:210–213.

Cheever was more concerned:
Charles Cheever to Gardiner Hubbard, 20 March 1878,
PTAED,
X012G1AW.

he doggedly insisted:
“Edison, the Magician.”

reported Edison’s claim:
“The Inventor of the Age,”
NYS,
29 April 1878,
PTAED,
MBSB10561.

a bright little three-year-old:
“Inventor Edison’s Last,”
NYW,
21 March 1878,
PTAED,
SB031052a.

the phonograph as a source of humor:
“Miseries of the Phonograph,”
Washington Herald,
1 April 1878,
PTAED,
SM029004b.

The
New York Times
said:
“The Aerophone,”
NYT,
25 March 1878. The
Times
also ribbed Edison for his claimed discovery of the etheric force and the embarrassment that had followed: “He has been addicted to electricity for many years, and it is not very long ago that he became notorious for having discovered a new force that he has kept carefully concealed, either upon his person or elsewhere.”

One professor urged Edison:
“The Inventor of the Age,”
NYS,
29 April 1878,
PTAED,
MBSB10561.

Croffut wrote of a lunch:
“A Food Creator,”
NYDG,
1 April 1878,
PTAED,
MBSB10470X.

some listeners failed to hear:
“Radio Listeners in Panic, Taking War Drama as Fact,”
NYT,
31 October 1938.

some readers, and some newspapers:
“They Bite,”
NYDG,
6 April 1878,
PTAED,
SB031084a.

Edison was tickled:
TAE to William Croffut, 6 April 1878,
PTAE,
4:223–224.

another visiting reporter:
“Long-Range Chatting,”
Philadelphia Times,
3 April 1878,
PTAED,
MBSB10493X.

Ten days after:
“The Wizard of Menlo Park,”
NYDG,
10 April 1878,
PTAED,
MBSB10500X.

Croffut’s previous attempt:
“The Papa of the Phonograph,”
NYDG,
2 April 1878,
PTAED,
MBSB10472.

the Mania has broken out:
George Bliss to TAE, 13 April 1878,
PTAED,
D7805ZAL.

Croffut had similar news:
William Croffut to TAE, 25 April 1878,
PTAED,
D7805ZAR.

In a recent profile:
“Papa of the Phonograph.”

Six days after the publication:
TAE to Uriah Painter, 16 April 1878,
PTAE,
4:234.

Mrs. Andrew Coburn:
Mrs. Andrew W. Coburn to TAE, 13 May 1878,
PTAED,
D7802ZLG.

A few weeks later:
Mrs. Andrew D. Coburn to TAE, 13 July 1878,
PTAED,
D7802ZSI.

Then Mr. Coburn:
Andrew Coburn to Charles Batchelor, 25 July 1878,
PTAED,
D7802ZTQ.

separately the surgeon wrote:
George Fowler to TAE, 1 September 1878,
PTAED,
D7802ZXQ.

Mrs. Coburn followed:
Mrs. Andrew Coburn to TAE, 31 October 1878,
PTAED,
D7802ZZIM.

Zenas Wilber:
PTAE,
4:225n3.

He said he had to borrow:
Zenas Wilber to TAE, 31 March 1878,
PTAED,
D7802ZFN. Robert Conot provides interesting detail about Wilber, whom he says was an alcoholic, was chronically in need of money, and was the person whom Edison’s associates had persuaded to execute a crude forgery in the Patent Office to protect the group’s interest in the quadruplex. See Conot,
Streak of Luck,
82–83.

He had Batchelor send:
Charles Batchelor, diary entry, 6 April 1878,
PTAED,
MBJ001 for beginning of diary; this entry also found in
PTAE,
4:225.

He had accepted an invitation:
Conot,
Streak of Luck,
109.

Before the meeting:
“The Man Who Invents,”
Washington Post and Union,
19 April 1878,
PTAED,
MBSB10532.

The phonograph demonstration:
“National Academy of Sciences,”
Washington Star,
19 April 1878,
PTAED,
SM005003.

Edison was set free:
Conot,
Streak of Luck,
82, 109.

A command performance:
TAE reminiscence, “Book No. 2,” 1908–1909 [conjectured],
PTAE,
4:863. A contemporaneous account contains a direct quotation of Edison’s that is opaque to a modern reader but appears to say that Hayes did not reveal his reaction. Recounting the next month his encounter at the White House, Edison said to a reporter: “I scanned [Hayes’s] forehead very carefully, but the letters were not there.” “The Magician of Science,”
NYS,
31 May 1878,
PTAED,
MBSB10632X.

Edison, Batchelor, and the phonograph:
“Astonished Congressmen,”
Baltimore Gazette,
20 April 1878,
PTAED,
MBSB10538X.

leaving Congress:
“Edisonia,”
NYDG,
9 May 1878,
PTAED,
MBSB10590X.

Having been honored:
“The Inventor of the Age,”
NYS,
29 April 1878,
PTAED,
MBSB10561.

Beneath Edison’s unassuming appearance:
“A Visit to Edison,”
Philadelphia Weekly Times,
29 April 1878,
PTAED,
SM029055f.

CHAPTER 3. FLIGHT

as a member of a class of “martyrs”:
The author, who signed the letter only with “S.,” heaped praise on Edison in terms that are notable for their excess: “Gods! how an Edison towers, head and shoulders above the ‘professors’ assembled at the Smithsonian last week! Stand aside, examiners of old fossils, delvers in the earth, dissectors of insects, book-learned bigots—day is dawning…. What has the Government done for the discoverer, the originator, the inventor? Messrs. Representatives, your constituents are asking these questions. The time must come when the king among men will be recognized.” “The Man Who Towers,”
Washington Post and Union,
22 April 1878,
PTAED,
MBSB10544X.

Typical was his remark:
TAE to Uriah Painter, 12 March 1878,
PTAE,
4:171. Here “[money]” is substituted for the slang term Edison used in the quoted passage: “rhino.”

Gardiner Hubbard lamented:
Gardiner Hubbard to Thomas Watson, 24 April 1878,
PTAED,
X012IAR.

Edison decided to renew:
“Edison’s ‘Ear Telescope,’”
NYS,
8 June 1878,
PTAED,
SM029144a.

Uriah Painter:
Uriah Painter to TAE, 29 April 1878,
PTAED,
D7802ZJF.

Edward Johnson:
Edward Johnson to Uriah Painter, 15 March 1878,
PTAE,
4:179.

It would turn out:
PTAE,
4:253n5.

Imagining fabulous profits:
Uriah Painter to TAE, 29 April 1878,
PTAED,
D7802ZJF. The portraits were taken not by Brady but by Levin Handy.

no one at the Edison Speaking Phonograph Company:
PTAE,
4:251n2.

a group of thirty businesspeople:
“Bores of Science,”
Sentinel of Freedom and Weekly Advertiser,
21 May 1878,
PTAED,
MBSB10609X.

A Newark paper:
“A Call upon the Phonograph,”
Newark Daily Advertiser,
3 May 1878,
PTAED,
MBSB10574X.

Another paper suggested:
“Bores of Science.”

Edison was cooperative:
Thomas A. Edison, “To the Editor of the Daily Graphic,”
NYDG,
16 May 1878,
PTAED,
SM029062a.

What the letter did not disclose:
William Croffut to TAE, 10 May 1878,
PTAED,
D7805ZAW. That it was Croffut who proposed the letter is my hypothesis, based on context. The Edison-Croffut exchange makes little sense were we to assume the alternative scenario, that it was Edison who proposed to Croffut a letter of praise, and then asked Croffut to ghostwrite it for him.

While giving Croffut a tour:
“Papa of the Phonograph.”

relationship of diet to national destiny:
“New York Letter,”
Cincinnati Commercial,
5 May 1878,
PTAED,
SM029047a.

He told a visiting reporter:
Ibid.

In May, he accepted:
“Magician of Science.”

Before Batchelor began:
“Mr. Edison in a Convent,”
NYW,
31 May 1878,
PTAED,
SM029120b.

A few weeks later:
“An Evening with Edison,”
NYT,
4 June 1878.

One journalist described Mary:
“Phonograph, Etc.”

Edward Johnson pretended to confide:
“Edison, the Magician.”

On another occasion:
“Edison’s Trip and Inventions,”
NYS,
28 August 1878,
PTAED,
MBSB10858.

The “telescopophon”:
Edison said he hoped to have the miniature ear trumpet released before Christmas. “Ears for the Deaf,”
NYDG,
5 June 1878,
PTAED,
SM029128a.

yet be so small:
“Edison ‘at Home,’”
Philadelphia Record,
[6 June 1878?],
PTAED,
MBSB10648.

Theodore Puskas:
“Edison’s Phonograph in Paris,”
NYDG,
8 June 1878,
PTAED,
MBSB10664X.

Puskas secured:
“Edison’s Trip and Inventions.” Edison was impressed that Puskas cleared the hall “every hour and begins a new exhibition, and if a man wants to stay he has to pay over again.” The
New York Daily Graphic
(
PTAED,
MBSB10664X) said that the exhibition was held three times a day, not hourly. A brief mention in a Paris newspaper said shows ran “four or five times a day.” See untitled article from the
Paris Advertiser,
9 May 1878,
PTAED,
SM029060c. Puskas was perhaps too zealous in his pursuit of pecuniary gain: in the opinion of Andrew White, the honorary U.S. commissioner at the exposition, Puskas was so preoccupied with extracting profits from the commercial exhibition that he neglected an opportunity to put the phonograph before a key Paris Exposition committee that awarded prizes.
PTAE,
4:408n.11.

One of Edison’s associates:
James Adams to Charles Batchelor, 5 July 1878,
PTAED,
D7802ZRK.

Typical was this brief item:
“America Is Still Ahead,”
NYDG,
11 June 1878,
PTAED,
MBSB10667X. The
Daily Graphic
credited the item to the
Boston Post.
Another example from this same story, which had originally appeared in the
Buffalo Express:
“We shall have the great question regarding the hereafter settled beyond dispute directly, for have we not Mr. Edison?”

they were harmless:
The phonograph was also the subject of good-natured teasing. Humorists said it was going to be a surrogate mother in the nursery; a cost-saving replacement of human chaplains in the Army; and a boon to tongue-tied lovers. See Mrs. Elizabeth S. Bladen, “Ladie’s Department,”
Philadelphia Times,
7 June 1878,
PTAED,
SB031099a; “Army Chaplains vs. Phonographs,”
NYT,
2 June 1878.

letters from strangers:
“Edison ‘At Home.’”

making plans to stay:
John Vincent to TAE, 25 February 1878,
PTAED,
D7829N. The prior correspondence that included Vincent’s original invitation is missing; I assume that the participation of Edison’s family was included in the arrangement, even though it was not made explicit here.

“all the marvels of electricity”:
John Vincent to TAE, 27 February 1878,
PTAED,
D7829N.

Vincent pressed on:
John Vincent to TAE, 25 February 1878,
PTAED,
D7829N.

Vincent was unmoved:
John Vincent to TAE, 27 February 1878,
PTAED,
D7829N.

Croffut was also proving rather pushy:
William Croffut to TAE, 1 June 1878,
PTAED,
D7802ZNN, is Croffut’s announcement of his plans. Given how close Menlo Park was situated to New York, his claim that he and his wife needed to stay overnight makes little sense. Edison’s reply is not extant, but its tone can be guessed by the chagrin in Croffut’s letter that followed: “Yours of yesterday is at hand. I don’t know when I’ve felt so much like a fool as I do this minute. It didn’t seem exactly so when I wrote you the other day, but now I feel like a self-invited guest. It isn’t my way to impose myself upon friends, but I allowed my interest in you and my desire to gratify my wife’s inclination to get the better of my discretion.” William Croffut to TAE, 8 June 1878,
PTAED,
D7802ZOH.

Painter urged Edison:
Uriah Painter to TAE, 12 June 1878,
PTAED,
D7802ZOU.

a threat he had made:
J. W. S. Arnold to TAE, 20 March 1878, ENHS, in
PTAED,
D7802ZDX1.

He abruptly accepted:
Edison apparently made the decision in early July. See his telegram to Professor Henry Draper, apparently sent in July 1878,
PTAED,
D7802ZUC.

It was Barker’s inspired idea:
George Barker to TAE, 12 July [1878],
PTAED,
D7802ZSG.

The journal told readers:
“How to Build a Working Phonograph,”
Scientific American,
20 July 1878,
PTAED.

Batchelor’s first reaction:
Charles Batchelor to TAE, 24 July 1878,
PTAED,
MBLB2003. If Edison responded, his letter or cable is not cataloged by
PTAED.

The manufacture, sale or use:
Office of Edison Speaking Phonograph Co., circular, 1 August 1878,
PTAED,
SB032127.