The Papers of Thomas A. Edison: From Workshop to Laboratory, June 1873-March 1876

The second volume of The Papers of Thomas A. Edison, which covers the inventors life from the end of June 1873 to the end of March 1876, reveals a remarkable diversity of activities and interests. During his late twenties Thomas Edison pursued his pathbreaking work in telegraph technology, formed a business alliance with the notorious financier Jay Gould, and became embroiled in a bitter legal battle over commercial rights to his quadruplex telegraph. From Workshop to Laboratory also follows Edisons manufacturing activities: making telegraph and fire alarm equipment with Joseph Murray and introducing the electric pen, a new commercial copying technology. He searched for new forces, discovering the electromotograph phenomenon and etheric force, and began important experiments in acoustic telegraphy which paralleled the work of Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray. During these years Edison assembled an inventive team and established a laboratory independent of his manufacturing shop. In the spring of 1876, at the volumes end, he left Newark for his newly built invention factory in Menlo Park.