The Wizard of Menlo Park (40 page)

failed to appreciate:
When Edison got back in touch with William Preece in England in early August 1877, three months after Preece’s visit to Menlo Park, Edison spoke excitedly of the speaking version of the telephone, able to articulate human speech, dog barks, cricket chirps—it is “now
absolutely perfect,
” he claimed. TAE to William Preece, 2 August 1877,
PTAED,
Z005AB. His motive in writing Preece was to ask him to find an agency that would market his telephones in England (“I should feel greatly obliged”), so he put the very best face on the current state of his telephone equipment. Yet Edison did not deem his discovery two weeks’ previous of how to record sound to be sufficiently important to mention.

Batchelor’s diary:
Charles Batchelor, Diary, 1877–78,
PTAED,
MBJ001.

George Field:
George Field to TAE, 18 July 1877,
PTAED,
D7702ZAM. ENHS has no record that indicates Edison replied to Field.

Edward Johnson told:
ENHS does not have a copy of the clipping, which apparently appeared on 14 August 1877 in the
Philadelphia Record.
In an interview with a reporter from the same paper the following year, the reporter claimed that the August 1877 brief had been the first public announcement of the phonograph. Edison requested a copy “for my scrapbook,” and the reporter reprinted the item in its brief entirety. See “Edison ‘At Home’,”
Philadelphia Record,
6 June 1878 [conjectured],
PTAED,
MBSB10648.

By this time:
Laboratory notebook, 12 August 1877,
PTAED,
NS7703A. Side note: 12 August 1877 is the same date affixed erroneously (and, I believe, intentionally) to a sketch of a cylinder phonograph actually drawn much later and signed by Edison. See
PTAE,
3:495n1.

An unidentified staff member:
Untitled sheets with T. A. Edison letterhead on first page, n.d.,
PTAED,
D7702ZEO.

The sensitivity of Edison’s carbon microphone:
TAE to William Orton, 27 July 1877,
PTAE,
3:469.

In September:
TAE to Franklin Badger, 17 September 1877,
PTAED,
LB001285.

he wrote his father:
TAE to Samuel Edison, 21 October [1877],
PTAE,
3:599–600.

Edison seems to have been disappointed:
TAE to Benjamin Butler, 13 October 1877,
PTAED,
LB001306.

Benjamin Butler:
PTAE,
3:324n6.

could at least capture:
Ibid.

Butler thought:
Benjamin Butler to TAE, 23 October 1877,
PTAED,
D7702ZCQ.

He was infuriated by an article:
“Speech Automatically Transmitted in Shorthand by the Telegraph,”
Scientific American,
3 November 1877,273. This brief article served to preview the longer article that appeared, with illustrations, in the next issue: “Graphic Phonetics,”
Scientific American,
14 November 1877,
PTAED,
MBSB10276X.

With Edison’s permission:
Edward Johnson, “Wonderful Invention: Speech Capable of Indefinite Repetition from Automatic Records,” letter to the editor,
Scientific American,
17 November 1877,
PTAED,
MBSB10274 (or identical copy: SM030022a). Although the cover date was 17 November 1877, the journal was available by 6 November 1877, the same date it was reprinted in the
New York Sun
(see the following citation).
PTAE,
3:617n1.

The
New York Sun:
“Echoes from Dead Voices,”
NYS,
6 November 1877,
PTAED,
MBSB10269X.

The
New York Times:
It is striking how the disparagement of women seems to have been endlessly amusing to male writers, and presumably their male readers, in 1877. “Bottled sermons” would not displace the sermons delivered in person by clergy because “in no other way can a weekly opportunity be afforded to ladies for mutual bonnet inspections.” “The Phonograph,”
NYT,
7 November 1877.

To the
English Mechanic:
“Edison’s Phonograph,”
English Mechanic,
30 November 1877,
PTAED,
MBSB10290X.

Edison had shifted his experimental focus:
Johnson most likely composed his undated letter on 6 November 1877. The Menlo Park notebooks show that on 1 November 1877 work continued on strips of wax paper (
PTAED,
QP001779), but on 5 November 1877 Edison proposed using a sheet of tinfoil to be placed on a grooved cylinder (
PTAED,
TI2348).

When setting down:
Laboratory notebook, 5 November 1877,
PTAED,
TI2348.

Edison had begun:
PTAE,
1:xliii. Edison wrote in a pocket notebook in October 1870 that “all new inventions I will here after keep a full record.”

On a page:
Laboratory notebook, 23 November 1877,
PTAED,
NV17018.

conceptualized, then refined:
A sketch entered on 29 November 1877, just before Kruesi started building the first model, shows side and end views of the design of what would, in a few days, be realized as a working model. Laboratory notebook, 29 November 1877,
PTAED,
NS7703D.

On 4 December 1877:
Charles Batchelor, Diary, 1877–1878,
PTAED,
MBJ001.

Even the loquacious Johnson:
Edward Johnson to Uriah Painter, 7 December 1877,
PTAE,
3:661.

feeling quite well:
Over one hundred years later, Steve Jobs borrowed the same parlor trick when he pulled the first Macintosh computer out of a bag and had it introduce itself on stage in January 1984: “Hello, I am Macintosh. It sure is great to get out of that bag.” See Steven Levy,
Insanely Great: The Life and Times of Macintosh, the Computer That Changed Everything
(New York: Viking, 1994), 182.

Edison was given credit:
“The Talking Phonograph,”
Scientific American,
22 December 1877,
PTAED,
MBSB10300. In France, Leon Scott claimed that his phonautograph anticipated Edison’s phonograph, which he criticized for not creating an intelligible visual record of human speech. See
PTAE,
4:188n3.

This was stop-the-presses news:
Edward Johnson to Uriah Painter, 8 December 1877,
PTAE,
3:663–667. On the same day, Edison composed an unrelated letter to a famous figure whom he did not know, seeking recognition. “Dear Sir,” wrote Edison to Charles Darwin, “several small green colored insects were caught by me this summer having come into my laboratory windows at night.” The bugs gave off a strong smell that resembled naphthalene, and if Darwin was not already aware of such an insect, Edison offered to mail him some specimens the following summer. It was signed “Thomas A. Edison, Telegraph Engineer.” Darwin’s son Francis politely declined the offer, explaining his father was already “at work on different subjects.” TAE to Charles Darwin, 7 December 1877, Cambridge University Library, UK,
PTAE,
3:657–658.

“I want to know you”:
Amos Cummings to TAE, 8 January 1878,
PTAED,
D7805C.

Edison welcomed:
PTAE,
4:195.

The
New York World
referred: “Mr. Edison’s Inventions,”
NYW,
12 January 1878,
PTAED,
MBSB10327.

This was especially galling:
Alexander Graham Bell to Gardiner Hubbard, 18 March 1878, Library of Congress, Alexander Graham Bell Papers,
PTAE,
4:185–186.

He recovered sufficiently:
Alexander Graham Bell to Gardiner Hubbard, n.d., American Telephone and Telegraph Company, Corporate Research Archives,
PTAE,
4:187n2.

CHAPTER 2. THE WIZARD OF MENLO PARK

“The Phonograph is creating”:
Edward Johnson to Uriah Painter, 4 January [1878],
PTAE,
4:15–17.

In early January 1878:
Edison’s Toy Contract, 7 January 1878,
PTAED,
D7932ZBF08.

To pursue opportunities:
Edison Speaking Phonograph Company, Memorandum of Agreement, 30 January 1878,
PTAED,
D7932ZBF01.

The investors feared:
Charles Cheever to Gardiner Hubbard, 9 February 1878,
PTAE,
4:68–69.

According to a psychological profile:
“Thomas A. Edison,”
Phrenological Journal
66.2 (February 1878),
PTAED,
MBSB10352X.

Edison wrote one of his representatives:
TAE to Theodore Puskas, 12 February 1878,
PTAED,
Z400AF.

When Edison finally wrote to Preece:
TAE to William Preece, 11 February 1878,
PTAED,
Z005AL.

A clockwork mechanism also:
TAE to Alfred Mayer, 11 February 1878,
PTAED,
X095AA.

Listening comprehension was influenced:
Ibid.

If a speaker shouted:
TAE to Henry Edmunds Jr., 12 February 1878,
PTAED,
X322AA.

He got the idea:
PTAE,
4:89n1. The germ of the idea can be seen in his doodling a design for a steam telephone to be used in railroad signaling, which he had also called an “airophone.” TAE, technical note, 17 January 1878,
PTAED,
NV14015.

Recitations, conversational remarks:
Edward Johnson, prospectus, 18 February 1878,
PTAED,
D7838J1.

His show played:
Edward Johnson to Uriah Painter, 27 January 1878,
PTAE,
4:43–44.

sent out a premature announcement:
TAE to Henry Edmunds Jr., 12 February 1878,
PTAED,
X322AA.

To another friend:
TAE to Benjamin Butler, 12 February 1878,
PTAED,
X042AB.

In the early 1870s:
Walter P. Phillips,
Sketches Old and New
(New York: J. H. Bunnell, 1897), 184–185. This usage of “bugs” occurs in a reminiscence, I grant. But even if it is used anachronistically here and was not used in 1872 or 1873, when Edison was working on the quadruplex, it was definitely used by Edison in November 1878, as we shall see in a later chapter. The
Oxford English Dictionary
cites Edison’s mention of a “bug” in his phonograph as the first instance of the word’s usage meaning “defect or fault in a machine plan,” but this example comes from 1889, at least eleven years later than earlier instances of Edison’s usage.

For example, Alfred Mayer:
Alfred M. Mayer to TAE, 15 January 1878,
PTAED,
D7829C.

In early February:
TAE to Clarence Blake, [9 February 1878],
PTAED,
X011AA; Charles Cheever to Gardiner Hubbard, 9 February 1878,
PTAED,
X012G1AF.

Edison must have slapped:
Amos Cummings to TAE, 7 February 1878,
PTAED,
D7805F.

Cummings was not to be denied:
Amos Cummings to TAE, 14 February 1878,
PTAED,
D7805L. In a postscript to his letter confirming the date of the interview, Cummings joked, “Hope electricity is not so much a fraud as ‘newspapericity.’”

the resulting story:
“A Marvelous Discovery,”
NYS,
22 February 1878,
PTAED,
MBSB10378. The discussion below is based on this article.

“My wife Dearly Beloved”:
Laboratory notebook, Newark Shops, 1 February 1872,
PTAED,
NE1676031A. Edison had made the same point again in another notebook entry: “My Wife Popsy Wopsy Can’t Invent.” 14 February 1872,
PTAED,
NE1678055, notebook p. 56.

Mary would leave:
Jehl,
Reminiscences,
499.

Robert Heller:
PTAE,
4:35n3. A detailed account of the Hellers’ performance is provided in “The Mystery of Second Sight,”
NYS,
7 February 1878,
PTAED,
MBSB10353, but the copy that was microfilmed is in poor shape and illegible in places.

unsettled clergy:
Milbourne Christopher and Maurine Christopher,
The Illustrated History of Magic
(1973; reprint, Portsmouth, N.H.: Heine-mann, 1996), 212.

The evening’s entertainment:
“That Wonderful Edison,”
NYW,
29 March 1878,
PTAED,
MBSB10463.

“The one thing”:
“The Magician of Science,”
NYS,
31 May 1878,
PTAED,
MBSB10632X.

Having noticed sparks:
PTAE,
2:581.

the etheric force could revolutionize telegraphy:
For a full discussion of Edison’s “etheric force,” see Israel,
Edison,
111–115.

scientists came to realize:
Ibid., 115.

“I find I cannot get away”:
TAE to Benjamin Butler, 25 March 1878, Library of Congress, Benjamin F. Butler Papers,
PTAED,
X042AC.

His “telephonoscope”:
“The Phonograph, Etc.,”
Daily Evening Traveler,
23 May 1878,
PTAED,
SM029106a.

When letters came pouring in:
“He Is a Great Man Now,” unlabeled clipping, 24 May 1878,
PTAED,
SM029099b.

When Vanity Fair:
William S. Kimball & Co. to TAE, 25 March 1878,
PTAED,
D7802ZEO.

“I am very sorry”:
“Inventor Edison’s Last,”
NYW,
21 March 1878,
PTAED,
SB031052a.

In early March:
Gardiner Hubbard to Thomas Watson, 24 April 1878, American Telephone and Telegraph Company, Corporate Research Archives,
PTAED,
X012IAR; “Inventor Edison’s Last.” Hubbard’s letter describes the Menlo Park lab as he saw it when he visited on 23 March 1878.

Ladies and gentlemen:
“Edison, the Magician,”
Cincinnati Commercial,
1 April 1878,
PTAED,
SB031094a. The reporter described Edison as “an atheist in religion, and doesn’t believe in guesswork about anything.” This may well have been the last time Edison talked publicly about his atheism; subsequently, he sensed the unspoken parameters for those in the American public’s eye, and atheism fell outside of them.