The Wizard of Menlo Park (43 page)

At times:
Francis Upton to Elijah Upton, 2 March 1879,
PTAED,
MU008.

A few weeks later:
Francis Upton to Elijah Upton, 23 March [1879],
PTAED,
MU009.

In May:
Francis Upton to TAE, 19 May 1879,
PTAED,
D7919ZAP.

Inexperience with the world:
Francis Upton to TAE, 19 May 1879,
PTAED,
D7919ZAQ. Upton sent his note with the correct figures on the same day as he had sent the first note to Edison.

Edison made his offer:
Francis Upton to Elijah Upton, 15 June 1879,
PTAED,
MU017. In Silicon Valley in the 1990s, equity in the form of stock options became the most important component of compensation at technology-based start-up companies. For a good description of the “options culture,” see Justin Fox, “The Next Best Thing to Free Money,”
Fortune,
7 July 1997, 70–84.

In writing about his quandary:
Francis Upton to Elijah Upton, 22 June 1879,
PTAED,
MU018.

Upton elected:
Francis Upton to Elijah Upton, 6 July 1879,
PTAED,
MU021.

He immediately felt:
Francis Upton to Elijah Upton, 7 September 1879,
PTAED,
MU030.

As time passed:
Francis Upton to Elijah Upton, 19 October 1879,
PTAED,
MU031.

his laboratory colleague:
Jehl,
Reminiscences,
351–356.

Batchelor wrote:
Charles Batchelor, laboratory notebook, 22 October 1879,
PTAED,
N052105.

He did tell the
New York Times:
“Edison’s Electric Light,”
NYT,
21 October 1879.

“He is always sanguine”:
Francis Upton to Elijah Upton, 2 November 1879,
PTAED,
MU033.

“Continual trouble”:
Francis Upton to Elijah Upton, 9 November 1879,
PTAED,
MU034.

in mid-November:
Francis Upton to Elijah Upton, 22 November 1879,
PTAED,
MU036.

Upton, however, did not have to wait:
Francis Upton to Elijah Upton, 30 November 1879,
PTAED,
MU037.

CHAPTER 5. STAGECRAFT

Occasionally, on a Saturday night:
Jehl,
Reminiscences,
503.

one New York paper:
“Edison’s Life,”
NYH,
10 January 1880,
PTAED,
MBSB21414X.

French actress and singer:
On the occasion of the opening in December 2005 of an exhibition, Sarah Bernhardt: The Art of High Drama, at the Jewish Museum in New York, the
New York Times
art critic Edward Rothstein said contemporaneous accounts of Bernhardt’s voice described it as being “almost animalistic.” See “A Celebrity Extraordinaire Who Rivaled Eiffel Tower,”
NYT,
2 December 2005.

Bernhardt’s original plan:
Sarah Bernhardt,
My Double Life: The Memoirs of Sarah Bernhardt
(Albany: State University of New York, 1999), 261–264; Dyer and Martin,
Edison,
737.

By that time:
Francis Upton to Elijah Upton, 7 December 1879,
PTAED,
MU038. Lizzie Upton came up with the idea of decorating the lamps with ribbons and flowers. Francis Upton to Elijah Upton, 21 December 1879,
PTAED,
MU040.

was given exclusive access:
Jehl,
Reminiscences,
380. Fox knew he would be able to paint a much better “pen picture” if he could gain access to the laboratory and witness events for himself rather than rely upon someone else’s account obtained through an interview. In a letter he had sent Edison a year earlier, he wrote, “A man may sit down and open out words by the hour descriptive, say, if you please of the beauty of some picturesque landscape, yet unless his eyes have feasted upon the glory he describes his words fall flat and aimless.” Edwin Fox to TAE, 5 November 1878,
PTAED,
D7805ZEG.

On Sunday:
“Edison’s Light,”
NYH,
28 December 1879,
PTAED,
MBSB21395X.

catching Edison by surprise:
Upton assumed that Fox had deliberately broken his agreement with Edison, selling out “at a good price.” Francis Upton to Elijah Upton, 21 December 1879,
PTAED,
MU040; Jehl’s later account told a different story: that the
Herald
had been given clearance by someone at the laboratory, but not by Edison. Jehl repeatedly refers to Edwin Fox as “Marshall Fox.” Jehl,
Reminiscences,
380–381.

A
New York Herald
editorial: “Edison’s Eureka—the Electric Light at Last,”
NYH,
21 December 1879,
PTAED,
MBSB21378X.

William Sawyer:
“Edison’s Electric Light,”
NYW,
24 December 1879,
PTAED,
QD012G4172.

He dared Edison:
William Sawyer, “Electrician Sawyer’s Challenge to Electrician Edison,”
NYS,
22 December 1879,
PTAED,
CC014016.

Edison returned the challenge:
“Edison’s Horseshoe Light,”
NYS,
23 December 1879,
PTAED,
MBSB21390.

the publicity:
“Edison’s Electric Light.”

At that time, Edison bragged:
“Edison’s Lamp Yet Burning,”
NYS,
24 December 1879,
PTAED,
MBSB21392X.

He responded with a public promise:
“Edison’s Horseshoe Light.”

On 26 December:
Egisto Fabbri to TAE, 26 December 1879,
PTAED,
D7920ZBO.

He did not openly defy:
“Edison’s Light,”
NYH,
28 December 1879,
PTAED,
MBSB21395X.

The next night:
[article title omitted],
NYH,
29 December 1879, cited in Jehl,
Reminiscences,
411.

more arrived the next night:
“Electricity and Gas,”
NYH,
30 December 1879,
PTAED,
MBSB21401X.

Two and then four more:
“A Night with Edison,”
NYH,
31 December 1879,
PTAED,
MBSB21402b. Sarah Jordan was Mary Edison’s stepsister.

Edison Electric Light Company:
Grosvenor Lowrey to TAE, 13 November 1879,
PTAED,
D7920ZBI.

Company stock:
Francis Upton to Elijah Upton, 28 December 1879,
PTAED,
MU041.

The spike in prices:
“Edison and the Skeptics,”
NYT,
4 January 1880.

On New Year’s Eve:
“Edison’s Great Work,”
NYH,
1 January 1880,
PTAED,
MBSB21405a.

When he appeared:
“Crowding Edison,”
NYH,
2 January 1880,
PTAED,
MBSB21407a.

lab assistants were convinced:
PTAE,
5:540.

the printed condemnation:
“Crowding Edison.”

Their vigilance was needed:
TAE reminiscence, “Second Batch,” n.d.,
PTAE,
5:1025–1026.

the
New York Tribune:
“A Malicious Visitor,”
New York Tribune,
2 January 1880,
PTAED,
MBSB21407b.

What a happy man:
“The Great Edison Scare,”
Journal of Gas Lighting,
20 January 1880,
PTAED,
MBSB21440X. Reprinted from the
Saturday Review
published in England on 10 January 1880.

The price of Edison Electric Light Company stock:
“Mr. Edison and His Critics,”
NYS,
24 January 1880,
PTAED,
MBSB21450X.

At this moment Edison:
“The Coming Light,”
Philadelphia Record,
12 February 1880,
PTAED,
SM014034.

Edward Johnson sighed:
Edward Johnson to Uriah Painter, 10 December 1880,
PTAE,
5:492–493n5.

Edison took what solace he could:
“The Coming Light.”

A professional snoop:
Jehl,
Reminiscences,
700–703.

The company directors were willing:
Ibid., 558–559, 562–563.

“Be thou to me”:
Grosvenor Lowrey to Kate Armour, n.d. [May 1880], HFM & GVRC, Box 10, Folder 34.

Lowrey also told his beloved:
Grosvenor Lowrey to Kate Armour [written in Menlo Park, New Jersey], 30 April 1880, HFM & GVRC, Box 10, Folder 34.

When Lowrey showed Edison:
Grosvenor Lowrey to Kate Armour, 14 March 1880, HFM & GVRC, Box 10, Folder 34.

A man who did odd jobs:
David Trumbull Marshall,
Recollections of Edison
(Boston: Christopher, 1931), 26.

he first sketched out:
“Edison at Home,”
Denver Tribune,
25 April 1880,
PTAED,
SM015018a.

It was the picture:
Marshall,
Recollections of Edison,
17–18.

“The smell was terrific”:
Dyer and Martin,
Edison,
634–635.

In early June:
Grosvenor Lowrey to Kate Armour, 5 June 1880, HFM & GVRC, Box 10, Folder 34.

The first bamboo hunter:
Dyer and Martin,
Edison,
636–637.

Edison placed the blame:
TAE to Vesey Butler, 4 November 1880,
PTAED,
LB006521.

another emissary, William Moore,
Dyer and Martin,
Edison,
300–301. Before departing from San Francisco in October, Moore visited the
Columbia
and wrote back to Edison that half of the bulbs had burned out, leaving the captain rather desperate for replacements. William Moore to TAE, 17 October 1880,
PTAED,
D8020ZHY.

John Branner:
Dyer and Martin,
Edison,
301–302. Dyer and Martin misspell Branner’s name as “Brauner.” Many decades later, Branner served as president of Stanford University, from 1913 to 1915. Edison funded another bamboo hunter, Frank McGowan, who was sent to Brazil in September 1887 and returned a year and a half later with bamboo and incredible stories of his inland travels. See “Frank McGowan’s Journey Through South American Wilds,”
NYS,
2 May 1889,
PTAED,
MBSB2457.

Edison designated Menlo Park itself:
Francis Upton to Elijah Upton, 9 May 1880,
PTAED,
MU048.

The work was well advanced:
Friedel and Israel,
Edison’s Electric Light,
179.

In October, Edwin Fox:
Edwin Fox to TAE, 22 October 1880,
PTAED,
D8020ZHZ.

As far as Edison was concerned:
“Electric Light,”
NYH,
18 November 1880.

installed a working exhibition:
“Lights for a Great City,”
NYT,
21 December 1880.

Edison must have been upset:
George Barker to TAE, 26 November 1880,
PTAED,
D8020ZJC.

cartoons that turned:
Cartoon captioned “The Decadence of the Wizard of Menlo Park,” General Electric Corporation, 1880, cited in David E. Nye,
The Invented Self: An Anti-Biography from Documents of Thomas A. Edison
(Odense, Denmark: Odense University Press, 1983), 116–117.

The Brush Electric Light Company:
“The Electric Light,”
New York Post,
21 December 1880,
PTAED,
MBSB21560X; “Rival Electric Lights,”
New York Star,
21 December 1880,
PTAED,
MBSB21559X.

The debut of Brush lighting:
“Lights for a Great City”; “Broadway Illuminated,”
NYH,
21 December 1880; “Electric Light,”
New York Post.

Department of Public Works tried:
“Electric Light,”
New York Post.

Edison’s consent:
Lowrey had Edison handwrite the invitation, which was a very straightforward invitation to see “an exhibition of Electric Lighting,” without reference to a special feast. Letterpress invitation to exhibition of lighting at Menlo Park, 18 December 1880, HFM & GVRC, Box 47, Folder 47–40,

All were alight:
“The Aldermen Visit Edison,”
NYT,
21 December 1880.

Two years before:
Jehl,
Reminiscences,
690–693.

one reporter described Edison:
“Rival Electric Lights.”

“That’s the last”:
“The Wizard of Menlo Park,”
NYH,
21 December 1880.

It fell to Lowrey:
Jehl,
Reminiscences,
781–782.

Edison did not know:
“The Aldermen Visit Edison.”

The guests then followed:
“Aldermen at Menlo Park,”
New York Truth,
21 December 1880,
PTAED,
MBSB21557X.

the aldermen would not back down:
“Lightning over Snow,”
NYH,
20 January 1881,
PTAED,
MBSB21573.

Brush Electric had not had to pay:
“The Aldermen and the Electric Light,”
NYH,
21 January 1881,
PTAED,
MBSB21571X.

He also made noises:
Charles Bazerman,
The Languages of Edison’s Light
(Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1999), 226.

His representatives:
Friedel and Israel,
Edison’s Electric Light,
207.

In the meantime:
Ibid., 192–193.

on Fifth Avenue:
Jehl,
Reminiscences,
924.

With the installation of a gas-powered power plant:
Edward Johnson to Uriah Painter, 9 February 1881,
PTAE,
5:983–984.

In early February 1881:
Ibid.

At the end of the month:
Jehl,
Reminiscences,
926.

make himself available:
Samuel Insull,
The Memoirs of Samuel Insull: An Autobiography,
ed. Larry Plachno (Polo, Ill.: Transportation Trails, 1992), 32.

he would do wicked impressions:
Jehl,
Reminiscences,
996.

In its first year:
Dyer and Martin,
Edison,
361.

The Menlo Park laboratory:
Jehl,
Reminiscences,
862.

CHAPTER 6. IMMERSION

Only “the very rich”:
James D. McCabe,
New York by Sunlight and Gaslight
(Philadelphia: Douglass Bros.; repr. by Greenwich House, 1882; 1984 repr.), 62–63.