Laboratory Facility Hierarchy Before 1878
Chart 1: Laboratory Facility Hierarchy Before 1878
As the facility and the workforce expanded, Edison’s oversight and management was spread thin across the facility. In Autumn 1878, Edison received sufficient funding to expand his laboratory from a single building, containing an experiment room, office, and machine shop, to a moderate-sized compound. Before the end of the year, the facility had grown to include an office/library, laboratory, and machine shop, as well as a carbon production, and glass-blower and carpenter sheds (see Figure 6). Two years later, in October 1880, an incandescent lamp manufactory was added. As the facility expanded,
so too did the workforce. 11 For example, 10 assistants were employed by Edison during 1876, and during 1880, that number had risen to approximately 146, which included a full-time and a temporary, part-time workforce.
By the early 1880s, the Menlo Park laboratory facility was larger than any other privately-owned laboratory at the time. Operations in each of the new buildings required Edison’s attention. So to did eager reporters seeking interviews, curious inventors who wanted to converse with Edison on electrical matters, and investors who demanded constant updates on the progress of the lamp. Beginning in late 1880, Edison had also begun spending increasing amounts of time in New York City, where he purchased a house and concentrated on establishing manufactories to produce electrical components for his urban central generating station and incandescent illumination ventures. Between 1881 and 1882, Edison also began spending more time at the manufactories he created and their experimental departments. Unless complications in the experimental process
11 In his article, “Working at Menlo Park,” Bernard Finn details the workforce expansion in a graph. Finn, “Working at Menlo Park,” 34.
arose that required his attention, Edison seldom visited Menlo Park during the years 1881 and 1882. 12
As the size of the operation became more complex, Edison’s time he allocated to each project was significantly reduced. Pressure from investors to quickly make significant advances toward his goal for incandescent lighting, forced the inventor to modernize his management strategy to more efficiently coordinate the tasks of invention, and oversee business operations. Consequently, Edison developed a new structure of
administration (Chart 2). 13 Edison now depended upon his knowledgeable and competent core group of skilled assistants to carry out his orders, oversee projects, and assign tasks to assistants- in-training. Each of the new buildings in the facility comprised a distinct
department responsible for specific tasks. 14 All departments were staffed by a manager or general overseer, who efficiently coordinated the small teams of workers and their
projects (Chart 3). Tasks conducted within each department, especially in the laboratory, were subdivided among small groups or teams. 15 Each team “specialized” in different aspects related to the incandescent lamp experiments, but some individuals such as the day laborers and unskilled assistants still conducted general work and assisted where they
were best needed. 16 Team projects included analysis of various materials for use as lamp filaments,
the creation and improvement of simple vacuum pump apparatus, tests on chemical compounds for use in insulating electrical wires, glass blowing, and metal working. The
12 Israel, Edison: A Life of Invention, 199, 204. 13 Soltow, “Origins of Small Business and the Relationships Between Large and Small Firms,” 194;
Chandler, Jr., The Visible Hand, 9-10.
14 The term “department” is not found in the primary documents to describe different activity centers in the complex except at the Edison Lamp Work. However, for the purposes of this essay the term “department”
will be used to designate different activity centers within the facility. 15 Israel, Edison: A Life of Invention, 192.
16 Finn, “Working at Menlo Park,” 41.
Thomas A. Edison
Experimental
Machinists, Mechanics, Assistants
Chief Experimental
Machine Shop
Assistants
Foreman
and Engineers
Inside Contractors
Assistants and Apprentices
Assistants and Day Laborers
Apprentices and Day Laborers
Chemists Carpenters
Glass Blowers
Draftsman
Accountant and
Bookkeeper
Assistants Assistants and
Prospectors
Day Laborers
Apprentices
and Solicitors
Office Hands