Thomas Edison and the authority of inven
Ia n Wills
Tho ma s Ed iso n a nd the a utho rity o f inve ntio ns
Tho ma s Ed iso n a nd the a utho rity o f inve ntio ns
Ian Wills
Unit for History and Philosophy of Science
Faculty of Science
Carlsaw F07
The University of Sydney,
NSW 2006 Australia
E: ian.wills@sydney.edu.au
The inve nto r's a utho rity
The extent of Thomas Edison s authority as an inventor can be illustrated by an incident
that occurred in 1878, when Edison was aged 31. In September of the year, the New York Sun
reported that Edison was working on his newest marvel , electric lighting, and predicting
that electricity would provide for 12 to 15 cents, the same amount of light as gas did for $2.50
to $3 (New York Sun 1878). The announcement had an immediate effect on the gas lighting
industry. The price of gas lighting stocks fell, causing major gas lighting investors including
William Vanderbilt to seek a financial interest in Edison s competing lighting system. It is
notable that the article contained only Edison s claim that he had solved a basic problem of
electric lighting and a description of his plans for such a system. At this stage he did not
claim that he had invented an electric lighting system nor that he had one to demonstrate.
For Vanderbilt and others in the gas industry, Edison s authority was sufficient for his plans
to be seen as a real threat to their investments.
The day after Thomas Edison died in 1931, the New York Times devoted a third of its front
page and three of its inner pages to him in articles under headlines such as Prospero is
Dead , describing him no only as a wizard but as the wonder‐smith of the age and
likening him to Leonardo da Vinci as a symbol of American culture (New York Times 1931b,
1931c). Thousands filed past his coffin and President Hoover asked Americans to extinguish
their electric lights as a monument to Edison (New York Times 1931a, 1931d).
While this prominence is understandable on the death of a person who had been voted
the Greatest Living American Man (New York Times 1922), Edison continues to draw
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attention 80 years after his death. Figure 1 plots the number of New York Times articles
mentioning Thomas Edison from 1860 to 2010. It is notable is that in the 21st century, Edison
is mentioned more often than he was a century before when he was still actively inventing.
500
450
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
2010
2000
1990
1980
1970
1960
1950
1940
1930
1920
1910
1900
1890
1880
1870
1860
0
Figure 1 Number of articles in the New York Times mentioning
Thomas Edison, by year. (Derived from data in New York Times article
archive (2011)).
At the time of his death in 1931, Edison may have been the revered symbol of American
inventiveness but it was not always so. Early in his career, when New York Times articles
might have been expected to be neutral, they were often negative, lampooning his claims
and his inventions, treating him as more a Falstaff than a Prospero. This paper traces
Edison s transition from marginal eccentric to iconic inventor thorough its reflection in the
pages of the New York Times and other newspapers. Aspects of Edison s authority as an
inventor are illustrated by contrasting two episodes in Edison s early career. One, his 1877
invention of the Phonograph, made him a national and international celebrity and
crystallised his authority with the public. The other, his 1875 claim to have discovered a new
force of nature, which he named Etheric force, led to ridicule and nearly ended his plans for
a purpose built laboratory at Menlo Park, New Jersey. These lead to an exploration of the
nature and source of Edison s authority, and some its consequences.
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Ethe ric fo rc e
Figure 2 (notation added) The electrical vibrator on which Edison
first noticed Etheric force sparks (TAED NE1691:15).1 When the
contact C closes completing the circuit, the iron rod, R, is pulled
towards the electromagnet, M, opening the contact, C, breaking the
circuit, causing the rod to return to its original position. The process
is cyclic causing the rod to vibrate. In operating principle it is
identical to an electric bell.
The Etheric force episode began in optimism and ended, at least for Edison, in
embarrassment and public scepticism.2 On the night of 22 November 1875, while
experimenting on an electrical vibrator for use in telegraphy, Edison and his associate,
Charles Batchelor3, noticed sparks at S in Figure 2, a point at which no current should have
been flowing (TAEB D665).4 Further investigation revealed sparks could also be drawn by
touching metal objects to the vibrating bar R and that, when a wire was connected at X,
1 TAED citations refer to documents in the Edison Papers digital edition and use the notation recommended
by the Edison Papers editors (The Thomas Edison Papers 2010a). For example, in the citation (TAED NE1691:15),
TAED indicates the Edison Papers digital edition, NE1691 is the Folder/Volume ID used in the Edison Papers
digital edition database and 15 the image number in the Folder/Volume. Document images can be accessed
through the Edison Papers website (The Thomas Edison Papers 2010b) using the Folder/Volume ID to locate the
folder, then the page cited from the image number within the folder.
Wills (2009) discusses the Etheric force episode in detail together with Edison s approach to science and
inventing.
2
3 Charles Batchelor (1845 ‐ 1910) was an English born textile mechanic who became Edison s primary
associate in invention for 20 years, later holding senior positions in Edison enterprises. Batchelor s careful and
meticulous approach to inventing complimented Edison s fountain of ideas and together they made an effective
team. Edison recognised Batchelor s contribution by allocating him a significant proportion of the royalties from
patents they worked on together.
TAEB citations refer to documents in the Edison Papers book edition. Documents in the book edition are
numbered consecutively across the volumes and it is the document number, rather than page number, that is
used in these citations. For example, in the citation, (TAEB D678n3), TAEB indicates the Edison Papers book
edition and D678n3 document number 679, note 5. Documents cited using this notation can be located from the
following key:
4
Documents 341 to 737: Edison Papers Book Edition Volume 2, (Edison 1989a)
Documents 738 to 1163: Edison Papers Book Edition Volume 3, (Edison 1989b).
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sparks could be produced by touching it to other metal objects. In each instance sparks were
observed in places where there should have been no electrical current flowing. Next they
connected the wire to a gas pipe and found they could draw sparks throughout the room by
touching metal objects to the gas jets. Most surprising, was that they could produce sparks
by bending the wire into a loop and touching it back onto itself, a phenomenon that was
impossible within the direct current and static electric theories of the period.
Although they had seen similar sparks often before and had previously attributed them
to electrical induction, Batchelor commented that these sparks, seemed so strong that it
struck us forcibly there might be something more than induction (TAED MBN002:4). Edison
went further and declared on this surprising but limited evidence that, This is simply
wonderful & a good proof that the cause of the spark is a true unknown force (TAEB D665).
Encouraged by these surprising results and the belief that he had discovered a new force
of nature, Edison immediately embarked on a comprehensive course of experiments. Some
experiments focused on the apparatus itself, Edison altering the circuit and adding
components to it while observing the effect on the Etheric force sparks (TAEB D666‐D669). A
second line of experiment sought to eliminate alternative explanations for the phenomenon.
Edison noted that he could detect no current using his most sensitive galvanometer nor did it
have any effect on an electroscope. In an attempt to eliminate electrical induction as an
explanation, he removed the iron cores from the coils and found no difference. He even went
to the extent of repeating Galvani s experiment, testing the spark s effect on the legs of
recently killed frogs, again with no detectable effect (Beard 1876). Edison concluded that
these sparks or force . . . do not follow the laws of either voltaic or Static electricity (TAED
NE1691:15).
Edison s largest group of tests were directed towards determining the effects of Etheric
force sparks on a wide variety of metals, liquid solutions and powders (TAEB D666, D669,
D673, D680). Edison had patented a number of inventions that exploited electrically initiated
chemical reactions including a recording telegraph (Edison 1872). This group of experiments
appears to have been directed to identifying effects that could be exploited in similar
inventions.
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Other experiments revealed more surprising properties of Etheric force sparks. On 30
November Edison found that by holding the gas pipe in one hand he could draw sparks
from metal objects using a metal rod held in the other and concluded that Etheric force
passed through his body (TAEB D673). In a similar test the same result was achieved with
three people holding hands in a chain (TAED MBN002:6).
On 24 November, Edison connected the Etheric force apparatus to a telegraph line
running from his Newark, New Jersey, laboratory to New York, and back. When he found he
could draw sparks from the return end of this line Edison concluded that, This force can be
transmitted over long telegraph wires [and] may be transmitted over uninsulated iron wires
buried in the earth for instance the sheathing of the Atlantic Cable (TAED NE1691:17).
While it was possible that the Etheric force travelled from Newark to New York and back,
Batchelor observed in his private notebook that, it might be that the force travels across the
table instead of going out on the line (TAED MBN002:4). If Batchelor was correct and the
signal crossed the table without a conducting medium, they had observed wireless
communication.
A week after Edison first noticed the anomalous sparks, reports began appearing in the
press, describing Etheric force as a, Wonderful Invention and, Startling Discovery , and
repeating Edison s claim that it would lead to a new era in communication (TAEB D678n3,
n5). The New York Herald quoted Edison s view that it would put an end to, The
cumbersome appliances of transmitting ordinary electricity, such as telegraph poles,
insulating knobs, cable sheathings and repeating his claim that Etheric force was an
entirely unknown force, subject to laws different from those of heat, light, electricity or
magnetism (TAEB D678).
While Edison s claims may have created a sensation in the popular press, the scientific
community for the most part dismissed Etheric force as an induction effect and not a new
force of nature.5 In contrast to the enthusiastic reaction Edison received in other newspapers,
5 For example, Edison wrote to George Barker, professor of physics at the University of Pennsylvania who
replied, It seems to me clear that the force is only an induction current (TAED X120B:1).
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New York Times reports of Etheric force were not just sceptical, they were derisive. The Times
parodied Edison s gas pipe demonstrations and drew unfavourable associations between
Etheric force and Reichenbach s Odic force which the New York Times claimed was associated
with such supernatural wonders such as clairvoyance. The article concluded with the ironic
observation that Edison was wasting his time with gas pipes and should instead, begin the
manufacture of ghosts and establish direct communication with the other world (New York
Times 1875).
The views of those sceptical of Edison s Etheric force theory came to the notice of his
principal client, The Western Union Telegraph Company (Western Union), with which
Edison was negotiating finance for his plans for a new laboratory at Menlo Park, New Jersey.
On 10 December Edison s agent, Norman Miller, wrote inviting him to a meeting with
Western Union s president, William Orton, and warning that The papers are so full of, new
force that I want you to show that it has not taken up too much of your time (TAEB D687).
Edison appears to have succeeded in allaying these fears, and the contract was signed several
days later (TAEB D891).
Edison heeded the warning and ceased Etheric force experiments for many months
except for one on 26 December, 1875 the record of which began, an experiment tried tonight
gives a curious result (TAED NE1691:29). Figure 3 is the sketch that accompanied the entry.
Figure 3 Sketch from Edison s laboratory notebook of the 26
December 1875 wireless transmission experiment (TAED NE1691:29).
The left hand side of the sketch shows the apparatus Edison used on 22 November
(Figure 2). B, C, D and E are sheets of tinfoil hung on insulating supports and the object in
the lower right is Edison s Etheriscope, a darkened box containing two carbon points
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separated by a small gap, used to observe Etheric force sparks. One side of the Etheriscope is
earthed to a gas pipe, the other connected to a tinfoil sheet, E. Although B and E were 100
inches (2.5 m) apart and there was no wire or other conductor between them, Edison
observed sparks at intervals although insulated by such space (TAED NE1691:29). What
Edison observed was wireless transmission between B and E, confirming Batchelor s
speculation of 24 November that Etheric force could travel through space without a
conductor.
There are many examples of Edison developing such curious results into successful
inventions and, in other circumstances, Edison might have developed the 26 December result
into a patentable invention. This time however, the opposition of Western Union, meant that
this experiment signalled the end of Edison s research rather than the beginning and
although he returned to Etheric force several times over the next few years, it was never
with the enthusiasm he showed at the end of 1875.6
The Pho no g ra p h
Edison, like most others working on the telephone (but not Alexander Graham Bell),
conceived it as an alternative to Morse Code for sending telegraph messages. On 17 July
1877, Edison noted that a transmission rate of 100 words per minute was possible with the
telephone compared to only 25 words per minute by Morse code, concluding that there
would be a bottleneck in the process caused by the slow speed at which the spoken message
was transcribed (TAED NV12:8). What was needed was a means for recording the messages
so they could be transcribed at a slower rate. The following day he made a brief laboratory
notebook entry:
I do not suggest that opposition of Western Union and other experts was the only reasons for Edison not
pursuing Etheric force. Another significant impediment was his theoretical perspective of Etheric force which he
repeatedly discusses as a form of conduction. Put simply, although Batchelor could conceive wireless
communication, Edison, as an expert on wired telegraphy, seems not to have given it credence, despite the
existence of claims by others, including several patents (e.g. Loomis (1872)), to have achieved wireless
communication. Edison appears to have been the victim of what Hounshell (1975) describes as the disadvantage
of being an expert.
6
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Just tried experiment with a diaphragm having an embossing point & held
against parafin paper moving rapidly the new spkg7 vibrations are indented
nicely & theres no doubt that I shall be able to store up & reproduce
automatically at any future time the human voice perfectly (TAEB D972).
Batchelor related the details of this initial experiment in testimony he gave in 1896. He
said that Edison had been speaking into a telephone mouthpiece and feeling the vibrations of
the diaphragm with his finger. (Since Edison was partially deaf, he sometimes resorted to
feeling when he could not hear sounds.) After a while, Edison turned to Batchelor and said,
Batch, if we had a point on this we could make a record on some material which we could
afterwards pull under the point, and it would give us the speech back (TAEB D972n4).
Batchelor fitted a sharp point to the diaphragm of the telephone mouthpiece and mounted it
on a grooved piece of wood such that a strip of paper coated in wax could be pulled under it.
Inte rlud e : Re p lic a ting Ed iso n's first Pho no g ra p h e xp e rime nt
While the Phonograph was being developed in the later part of 1877 it was no more than
a peripheral activity for Edison, whose principal interest was in the telephone. As a result we
have few contemporary records of his experimental work but in 1895‐96 Edison and
Batchelor gave detailed testimony in connection with patent infringement litigation8 (TAED
QP001:5‐11, 47‐72). In this they recalled details of the first Phonograph experiment and,
although no drawing has survived it has been possible to reconstruct it from Edison s and
Batchelor s testimony (Figure 4).
7
spkg = speaking
8
American Graphophone Company versus Edison Phonograph Works.
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Figure 4 Reconstruction of Edison s first Phonograph experiment
(TAED QP001:63). The strips of waxed paper were cut from sheets
about 18 by 36 inches (about 0.45 by 0.9 m).
This is a remarkably crude instrument but with the results he achieved with it, Edison
was able to assert that he would be able to store up & reproduce automatically at any future
time the human voice perfectly . Using Edison s laboratory notebooks of the period and
Edison s and Batchelor s testimony, I set out to replicate Edison s first experiment to assess
what evidence it provided him.
My first step was to replicate the device that prompted him to try to build a machine to
record sounds. In Edison s case it was a telephone mouthpiece with a point fitted to the
diaphragm. Figure 5 shows the replication model I built from plastic pipe components.
Speaking into it when held close to the mouth, the vibration of the diaphragm was quite
distinct with the point pressed against my finger.
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Figure 5 Replication model of Edison s telephone mouthpiece with
point attached to diaphragm.
Encouraged by this result which was achieved after about an hour of experimenting I
then set out to build something like the device illustrated in Figure 4. Since Batchelor
mentioned an automatic telegraph in his evidence, I set out to build my device based loosely
on an automatic telegraph (see Edison (1871) for an illustration).
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Figure 6 Replication model of Edison s first paper tape Phonograph.
Figure 6 shows the device built. It consists of the diaphragm‐mouthpiece assembly in
Figure 5 mounted above guides for the paper tape. The recording point presses into the
waxed tape over a small platen. Whereas the hand held device produced results quickly, it
took over 70 hours to produce a meaningful recording with this device. I will omit details of
the variations tried but these included paraffin and beeswax, each in a range of thicknesses,
several different shapes of recording points and a large number of drive arrangements. The
biggest problems were finding the most appropriate combination of wax and recording point
shape, a problem faced by Edison and discussed in detail in Edison s and Batchelor s
testimony. It was a process of building a considerable amount of know‐how relating to the
device and specific knowledge like how to achieve the most appropriate thickness of wax on
the tape. Eventually a poor quality recording was produced with a thick coating of beeswax,
trimmed to a uniform thickness and pulled through the machine by hand (considerable
effort is needed to cut the wax). The recorded sound can be heard at Wills (2011)9. This
9 The words recorded (Wills 2011) are barely intelligible. It may be helpful to know that the words recorded
are Zero, one, two, three, four .
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recording is only marginally intelligible but knowing that the recorded words are on two
three four helps. (As a point of comparison, what is claimed to be the oldest surviving
cylinder recording (from 1878) can be heard at tinfoil.com (2011).)
Two points emerge from the replication of Edison s first experiment. The first is that the
quality of the sound recorded by Edison was probably very poor and of marginal
intelligibility. The second point is that to produce this recording took me over 70 hours
despite starting with details of what Edison and Batchelor built. Edison and Batchelor
produced recorded sound at least as intelligible as this, in less than one night and with no
precedent to work from. For me, it is a convincing demonstration of Edison s expertise as an
inventor.
De ve lo p ing the Pho no g ra p h
Edison and Batchelor s testimony and contemporary laboratory notebooks reveal two
interrelated strands in the development process that followed the first meagre recordings.
Firstly, Edison sought a more effective recording medium, experimenting with a variations
on his original waxed tape and other materials, notably metal foil. He also investigated
alternative methods of making recordings including drawing with a thick ink, inscribing in
soft metal, embossing thin metal foil and knocking down prepared ridges on paper tape
(Figure 13) (TAED QP001:56 57). Edison and Batchelor recalled testing a wide range of waxes
and recording point shapes, the problem being that the original wax tape recordings made
by cutting the wax were plagued by the long wax shavings produced. By November 1877
Edison had settled on tinfoil as recording medium (Figure 11).
His second development strand involved the transport mechanism. Initially he proposed
rolls of paper (Figure 7, Figure 8 and Figure 9). (Edison already had patents on a recording
telegraph ( stock ticker ) using paper tape e.g. Edison (1871).) He later worked with a
cylinder Phonograph (Figure 8, Figure 10 and Figure 11) and proposed a disk Phonograph
(Figure 12).
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Figure 7 Edison s sketch of 12 August 1877 (TAEB D1004)10
Figure 8 Edison s first sketch of a cylinder Phonograph (TAEB
D1062).
Figure 9 Edison s 1 November Phonograph sketch using wax coated
paper tape (TAEB D1099).
10 This device is based on Edison s automatic telegraph. It may be this connection that led Batchelor to later
recall them using automatic telegraph paper rather than waxed paper.
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Figure 10 Edison s Phonograph sketch of 10 November 1878 (TAED
TI2:366).
Figure 11 Edison s sketch of 29 November 1877 from which the first
demonstration Phonograph was built (TAED NS77:3).
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Figure 12 Edison sketch of 2 December showing cylinder, disk and
paper Phonographs (TAEB D1137) (TAED NV17:21).
Figure 13 Detail from Edison s first Phonograph patent showing
alternative recording mechanisms (Edison 1877). In Fig 4 the
recording is made using a special high build ink and in Fig 3 by
pressing a thread into the surface.
At the beginning of December 1877, Edison had a demonstration model built of the
Phonograph which used tinfoil wrapped around a grooved cylinder as recording medium,
the recording being made by embossing the foil rather than cutting it as had been the case
with his experiment. Edison s reaction to the first recording made with this device was one of
surprise, and he later recalled, I didn t have much faith that it would work, expecting that I
might possibly hear a word or so that would give hope of a future for the idea [but] . . . the
machine reproduced perfectly. I was never so taken aback in my life (Edison quoted in Dyer
and Martin 1910b, 208). A few days later, Edison and Batchelor took it to the offices of
Scientific American where it created a sensation as more and more people crowded into the
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editors office to hear it. In its next issue, Scientific American described how the machine had,
inquired as to our health, asked how we liked the Phonograph, informed us that it was very
well, and bid us a cordial good night , the article s author adding that, No matter how
familiar a person may be with modern machinery and its wonderful performances, or how
clear in his mind the principle underlying this strange device may be, it is impossible to
listen to the mechanical speech without his experiencing the idea that his senses are
deceiving him (Scientific American 1877).
The Phonograph made Edison a national and international celebrity.11 Joseph Henry,
who had described Edison as the most ingenious inventor (Israel 141), invited him to
Washington to address National Academy of Sciences in April 1878. While in the capital,
Edison also demonstrated the Phonograph to members of congress and diplomats, and to US
President Hayes (Baldwin 2001, 96‐97). The Washington Post headed its report Genius before
science and described his presentation to the National Academy of Sciences as, a scene . . .
that will live in history (Washington Post 1878). In London, the Evening Star, reported
Edison s demonstration, referring to him as the modern magician (TAED MBSB1:171). The
effect of the Phonograph on Edison s authority was substantial. Not only did it lead to him
being described as a wizard and magician , but went some way to restoring his scientific
credibility, damaged by his Etheric force claims. An outcome of the Washington visit was
that Edison was invited to join a major scientific expedition to Wyoming in July 1878 to
observe a solar eclipse.
Autho rity a nd inve ntio ns
Edison began work on both Etheric force and the Phonograph following the observation
of a novel phenomenon. In each case he accompanied his laboratory records with claims
about their significance that seem, in retrospect, rather optimistic, given the meagre
evidence. Motivated by these claims, he followed the initial discoveries with a period of
experimentation but it was these experimental phases that the two episodes diverged
11 The influence of Edison s inventions was pervasive, even to the classic gothic novel. Part of Bram Stoker s
Dracula is told as transcribed Phonograph recordings, one character commenting How I miss my phonograph!
To write a diary with a pen is irksome to me! (Stoker 1897).
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because, while both involved experimental exploration of the phenomenon and development
of artefacts, the mix of these experimental streams differed greatly.
Edison s Etheric force research in November and December 1875 concentrated on
exploration of the phenomenon, that is, in acquiring the kind of knowledge that is often
referred to as know‐how or a feel . One of Edison s early associates, Francis Jehl12
discussed Edison s acquisition of such knowledge in recounting the development of Edison s
first electrical generators. Such knowledge enabled Edison to develop the electric generator
in the absence of relevant theory, Jehl commenting that Edison knew then the modern
principles of magnetism, long before they were formulated into the rules we use today (Jehl
1937, 141). Prior to the Etheric force episode, the approach had served Edison well, for
example in 1873‐74, when he largely abandoned inventing to explore electrical induction
phenomena. In so doing he acquired a deep understanding of the subject that he exploited in
inventions such as the quadruplex telegraph (Edison 1874).
A consequence of Edison s emphasis on acquiring an understanding of the Etheric force
phenomenon at the expense of developing an invention, was that the instrument he used on
26 December to generate Etheric force sparks was the one used in his first Etheric force
experiment. Had he investigated the phenomenon in private as he did with induction in
1873‐74, this concentration on exploring phenomenon would have had little effect on his
authority, but in 1875 Edison had made an ambitious public claim about a new scientific
theory and the decision not to concentrate on an invention seriously impaired his ability to
deal with attacks on his credibility and authority.
In contrast to his concentration on experiments exploring Etheric force, when Edison
began work on the Phonograph two years later he concentrated on developing the artefact,
spending little time on exploring the phenomenon. Instead Edison s experimental effort was
directed to finding better combinations of materials and an effective mechanical
configuration. The result of this emphasis on the artefact was that when he announced the
12 Francis Jehl studied at Cooper Union and worked for Western Union before joining Edison. He played a
prominent role in the development of electric lighting. In 1926, Jehl became the first custodian of Henry Ford s
reconstruction of Edison s Menlo Park laboratory complex at Dearborn, Michigan.
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Phonograph to the press in December 1877, Edison had both a novel phenomenon and an
artefact to demonstrate it with. While it was to be another decade before the Phonograph
became a mass market device, the instrument that Edison demonstrated in 1877 and 1878,
despite its technical limitations, could do what nothing had done before: it could record and
reproduce sound.
When Edison made his Etheric force claim to the press, he had a novel, even astonishing,
phenomenon to demonstrate, but no invention. This absence meant that it was possible to
dispute Edison s Etheric force explanation in a way that was impossible with the
Phonograph. (The best that Phonograph doubters could do was to claim that Edison
produced the sounds by ventriloquism (Conot 1979, 109‐110).) Edison may have acquired a
substantial knowledge of the Etheric force phenomenon through his experiments, but the
lack of an invention meant he had nothing embodying this knowledge. For the hard financial
heads at Western Union, the absence of an invention, especially an invention relevant to their
telegraph business, meant that the publicity over Etheric force was, as the New York Times
suggested, associated with such dubious concepts as clairvoyance, astral light and the
Philosopher s stone (New York Times 1875).
Western Union did however, have good reason to acknowledge Edison s authority as the
inventor of important improvements to telegraphy, inventions that increased the profitability
of their business. On the basis of these inventions they were prepared, in December 1875, to
finance Edison s Menlo Park laboratory in exchange for exclusive access to telegraph
inventions he would create. Western Union had learnt the danger of not respecting that
authority, when, in January 1875, frustrated by what he saw as Western Union s lack of
recognition of it in the form of his quadruplex telegraph (which permitted 4 messages to be
sent on one wire), he had sold the rights to the quadruplex to Western Union s competitor,
Jay Gould s Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph.
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We can only speculate in how different Western Union s view of Etheric force might have
been had Edison developed the 26 December 1875 experiment a little13 and demonstrated
that he could transmit signals without wires, but Western Union s opposition, in part, meant
that this never came to pass and Edison was later to regret that, If I had made use of my
own work [on Etheric force] I should have had long distance wireless telegraphy (Dyer and
Martin 1910a, 578).
The inve nto r's a utho rity
An invention is evidence that the inventor knows how to create the invention and that
the invention, as a novel artefact, is evidence that its inventor possesses novel knowledge.14
In the case of a professional inventor like Edison who produced many inventions, the
authority of his inventions extends beyond individual inventions to a more general
knowledge: that is, that the professional inventor like Edison possesses not only the
know‐how to create inventions already produced, but also possesses the know‐how to
produce future inventions, perhaps that have not yet been imagined, inventions for which
there is no precedent as opposed to inventions that are improvements to existing inventions.
Early in Edison s career his ability to produce telegraph inventions gave him the authority
needed for Western Union to finance him to produce more. As his fields of invention
expanded, notably with the Phonograph, so did his authority as inventor in new fields.
Edison was an astute self‐promoter so, while his authority was built on his actual
inventions, it was enhanced by this self‐promotion. When the Phonograph made Edison
famous, New York journalists began making regular visits to his laboratory including the
Daily Graphicʹs William Croffut and Heraldʹs Edwin Fox. There they witnessed Edison s latest
In December 1875, Edison s most effective critics in the American scientific community, Edwin Houston
and Elihu Thomson, were able, using a Ruhmkorff coil, to draw Etheric force sparks on the roof of the
Philadelphia Central High School, six floors above their laboratory (Snyder 1920). However, because they
believed the sparks were caused by induction they treated the result as no more than a curiosity.
13
14 Zzz this is just parked here. Needs tidying up. It is the thesis of this book that we need to stretch the
concept of knowledge to include the things of science and technology. (Baird 2004, 117) Baird (2004, 117) argues
that we need to stretch the concept of knowledge to include the things of science and technology referring to
the knowledge carried by these things (artefacts) as thing knowledge . Among other qualities, thing knowledge
can be read by those who understand the relevant language of the thing.
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creations and were told of his plans for future inventions, the journalists duly reporting what
they heard and saw to an eager audience. It was after one such visit that Croffut (1878)
named Edison the Wizard of Menlo Park, a title that stayed with him long after Menlo Park
was abandoned. In hindsight, many of the planned inventions he described to these visitors
appear quite fanciful15, but Edison had only to produce the occasional successful remarkable
invention, like the Phonograph and electric lighting, to maintain his credibility.
100%
Articles (% maximum)
90%
Patents (% maximum)
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
2010
2000
1990
1980
1970
1960
1950
1940
1930
1920
1910
1900
1890
1880
1870
1860
0%
Figure 14 Edison patents by year compared to articles mentioning
him. Edison s patent output peaked in 1882 when he applied for 106
patents.
Acceptance of an inventor s authority is not only a matter of what they actually invented.
The difference between what Edison invented and the acceptance of his authority is
illustrated in Figure 14 which plots Edison s patent output by year, against the data in Figure
1, revealing a significant mismatch between the two. The year 1882 was Edison s most
prolific as an inventor (106 patents) yet the New York Times largely ignored him, his name
15 In 1878, for example, it was reported that Edison had invented a machine that would manufacture biscuit,
meat air and wine out of air water and common earth (New York Daily Graphic 1878). The report was, however,
published on 1 April.
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appearing in only 14 articles. In 1915, by contrast, Edison applied for only two patents but
the New York Times mentioned him in 206 articles. By 1875 Western Union was convinced of
Edison s authority as an inventor (and their ability to curb his excursions into supernatural
wonders ), agreeing to finance Menlo Park on the expectation of valuable telegraph
inventions flowing from it. The New York Times was far from convinced in 1875, mentioning
him in only three articles, two in connection with the quadruplex litigation, the third being
its derisive article on Etheric force.
The New York Times however, remained unconvinced and continued to publish articles
treating Edison as a figure of fun rather than authority. When rumours began to appear of
Edison s work on the Phonograph, but before he had demonstrated it, the New York Times
lampooned the idea, suggesting that its owners would bore their acquaintances by playing
vintage recordings and predicted that both book‐making and reading will fall into disuse
(New York Times 1877). In 1878 it continued to scoff, beginning an article on several of
Edison s inventions, Something ought to be done to Mr Edison, and there is a growing
conviction that it had better be done with a hemp rope (New York Times 1878). Even when
he had inventions to demonstrate, Times journalists remained negative but shifted tack. In
1880, a few days after Edison s demonstration of Menlo Park lit by electricity, an event that
other newspapers hailed as a remarkable achievement, a New York Times article cast doubts
on his ability to do the same on a commercial scale (New York Times 1880). But by 1882, the
New York Times was also persuaded to the point that the Times building being in the first
group connected to first generating station on 4 September 1882, the newspaper conceded
that the Edison electric light has proved in every way satisfactory (New York Times 1882).
Once established, Edison s authority did not decline, even though his inventive ability
did. Edison s inventive peak occurred in the 1880s and after 1910 diminished to near zero,
although he continued to work at inventing until the year of his death. Despite this, Edison s
authority was such that in 1915, as America approached World War I, US Secretary of the
Navy Josephus Daniels chose him to head the Naval Consulting Board, charged with
applying America s inventive capacity to modern warfare. Edison modelled the board on his
own practice, spurning graduates and professional scientists, and filling it with practical
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men like himself. Although Edison made some inventive contributions personally, the
Board was essentially a failure. Edison s authority had surpassed his ability.
This highlights an aspect of authority that is perhaps more generally applicable: once
established, authority tends to become frozen in the sense that critical assessment is
inhibited, so that when Edison was at his inventive peak they New York Times was most
sceptical but not in 1915, when he was well past his prime and scepticism would have been
justified.
A thread that runs through the preceding examples is that Edison s authority was
established through contact with his inventions. His Quadruplex telegraph and automatic
telegraph (stock ticker) were both successful inventions in the 1870s and, for Western Union,
valuable, but they established Edison s authority only among those in the telegraph industry
who had contact with them. The Phonograph, at least to the New York Times, was a thing of
jest before Edison demonstrated it, but those to who experienced it later, it was a something
to be marvelled at. While these were significant inventions, few people had contact with
them, other than through newspaper reports. In contrast, the inventions that emerged from
Edison s laboratory in the 1880s, notably electric lighting, the Phonograph and motion
pictures, touched the lives of many. As the New York Times observed on Edison s death, He
did more than any one man to put luxury into the lives of the masses (New York Times
1931c). This contact with inventions suggests that the paradox in New York Times reporting of
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Ian Wills
Unit for History and Philosophy of Science
Faculty of Science
Carlsaw F07
The University of Sydney,
NSW 2006 Australia
E: ian.wills@sydney.edu.au
The inve nto r's a utho rity
The extent of Thomas Edison s authority as an inventor can be illustrated by an incident
that occurred in 1878, when Edison was aged 31. In September of the year, the New York Sun
reported that Edison was working on his newest marvel , electric lighting, and predicting
that electricity would provide for 12 to 15 cents, the same amount of light as gas did for $2.50
to $3 (New York Sun 1878). The announcement had an immediate effect on the gas lighting
industry. The price of gas lighting stocks fell, causing major gas lighting investors including
William Vanderbilt to seek a financial interest in Edison s competing lighting system. It is
notable that the article contained only Edison s claim that he had solved a basic problem of
electric lighting and a description of his plans for such a system. At this stage he did not
claim that he had invented an electric lighting system nor that he had one to demonstrate.
For Vanderbilt and others in the gas industry, Edison s authority was sufficient for his plans
to be seen as a real threat to their investments.
The day after Thomas Edison died in 1931, the New York Times devoted a third of its front
page and three of its inner pages to him in articles under headlines such as Prospero is
Dead , describing him no only as a wizard but as the wonder‐smith of the age and
likening him to Leonardo da Vinci as a symbol of American culture (New York Times 1931b,
1931c). Thousands filed past his coffin and President Hoover asked Americans to extinguish
their electric lights as a monument to Edison (New York Times 1931a, 1931d).
While this prominence is understandable on the death of a person who had been voted
the Greatest Living American Man (New York Times 1922), Edison continues to draw
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attention 80 years after his death. Figure 1 plots the number of New York Times articles
mentioning Thomas Edison from 1860 to 2010. It is notable is that in the 21st century, Edison
is mentioned more often than he was a century before when he was still actively inventing.
500
450
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
2010
2000
1990
1980
1970
1960
1950
1940
1930
1920
1910
1900
1890
1880
1870
1860
0
Figure 1 Number of articles in the New York Times mentioning
Thomas Edison, by year. (Derived from data in New York Times article
archive (2011)).
At the time of his death in 1931, Edison may have been the revered symbol of American
inventiveness but it was not always so. Early in his career, when New York Times articles
might have been expected to be neutral, they were often negative, lampooning his claims
and his inventions, treating him as more a Falstaff than a Prospero. This paper traces
Edison s transition from marginal eccentric to iconic inventor thorough its reflection in the
pages of the New York Times and other newspapers. Aspects of Edison s authority as an
inventor are illustrated by contrasting two episodes in Edison s early career. One, his 1877
invention of the Phonograph, made him a national and international celebrity and
crystallised his authority with the public. The other, his 1875 claim to have discovered a new
force of nature, which he named Etheric force, led to ridicule and nearly ended his plans for
a purpose built laboratory at Menlo Park, New Jersey. These lead to an exploration of the
nature and source of Edison s authority, and some its consequences.
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Ethe ric fo rc e
Figure 2 (notation added) The electrical vibrator on which Edison
first noticed Etheric force sparks (TAED NE1691:15).1 When the
contact C closes completing the circuit, the iron rod, R, is pulled
towards the electromagnet, M, opening the contact, C, breaking the
circuit, causing the rod to return to its original position. The process
is cyclic causing the rod to vibrate. In operating principle it is
identical to an electric bell.
The Etheric force episode began in optimism and ended, at least for Edison, in
embarrassment and public scepticism.2 On the night of 22 November 1875, while
experimenting on an electrical vibrator for use in telegraphy, Edison and his associate,
Charles Batchelor3, noticed sparks at S in Figure 2, a point at which no current should have
been flowing (TAEB D665).4 Further investigation revealed sparks could also be drawn by
touching metal objects to the vibrating bar R and that, when a wire was connected at X,
1 TAED citations refer to documents in the Edison Papers digital edition and use the notation recommended
by the Edison Papers editors (The Thomas Edison Papers 2010a). For example, in the citation (TAED NE1691:15),
TAED indicates the Edison Papers digital edition, NE1691 is the Folder/Volume ID used in the Edison Papers
digital edition database and 15 the image number in the Folder/Volume. Document images can be accessed
through the Edison Papers website (The Thomas Edison Papers 2010b) using the Folder/Volume ID to locate the
folder, then the page cited from the image number within the folder.
Wills (2009) discusses the Etheric force episode in detail together with Edison s approach to science and
inventing.
2
3 Charles Batchelor (1845 ‐ 1910) was an English born textile mechanic who became Edison s primary
associate in invention for 20 years, later holding senior positions in Edison enterprises. Batchelor s careful and
meticulous approach to inventing complimented Edison s fountain of ideas and together they made an effective
team. Edison recognised Batchelor s contribution by allocating him a significant proportion of the royalties from
patents they worked on together.
TAEB citations refer to documents in the Edison Papers book edition. Documents in the book edition are
numbered consecutively across the volumes and it is the document number, rather than page number, that is
used in these citations. For example, in the citation, (TAEB D678n3), TAEB indicates the Edison Papers book
edition and D678n3 document number 679, note 5. Documents cited using this notation can be located from the
following key:
4
Documents 341 to 737: Edison Papers Book Edition Volume 2, (Edison 1989a)
Documents 738 to 1163: Edison Papers Book Edition Volume 3, (Edison 1989b).
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sparks could be produced by touching it to other metal objects. In each instance sparks were
observed in places where there should have been no electrical current flowing. Next they
connected the wire to a gas pipe and found they could draw sparks throughout the room by
touching metal objects to the gas jets. Most surprising, was that they could produce sparks
by bending the wire into a loop and touching it back onto itself, a phenomenon that was
impossible within the direct current and static electric theories of the period.
Although they had seen similar sparks often before and had previously attributed them
to electrical induction, Batchelor commented that these sparks, seemed so strong that it
struck us forcibly there might be something more than induction (TAED MBN002:4). Edison
went further and declared on this surprising but limited evidence that, This is simply
wonderful & a good proof that the cause of the spark is a true unknown force (TAEB D665).
Encouraged by these surprising results and the belief that he had discovered a new force
of nature, Edison immediately embarked on a comprehensive course of experiments. Some
experiments focused on the apparatus itself, Edison altering the circuit and adding
components to it while observing the effect on the Etheric force sparks (TAEB D666‐D669). A
second line of experiment sought to eliminate alternative explanations for the phenomenon.
Edison noted that he could detect no current using his most sensitive galvanometer nor did it
have any effect on an electroscope. In an attempt to eliminate electrical induction as an
explanation, he removed the iron cores from the coils and found no difference. He even went
to the extent of repeating Galvani s experiment, testing the spark s effect on the legs of
recently killed frogs, again with no detectable effect (Beard 1876). Edison concluded that
these sparks or force . . . do not follow the laws of either voltaic or Static electricity (TAED
NE1691:15).
Edison s largest group of tests were directed towards determining the effects of Etheric
force sparks on a wide variety of metals, liquid solutions and powders (TAEB D666, D669,
D673, D680). Edison had patented a number of inventions that exploited electrically initiated
chemical reactions including a recording telegraph (Edison 1872). This group of experiments
appears to have been directed to identifying effects that could be exploited in similar
inventions.
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Other experiments revealed more surprising properties of Etheric force sparks. On 30
November Edison found that by holding the gas pipe in one hand he could draw sparks
from metal objects using a metal rod held in the other and concluded that Etheric force
passed through his body (TAEB D673). In a similar test the same result was achieved with
three people holding hands in a chain (TAED MBN002:6).
On 24 November, Edison connected the Etheric force apparatus to a telegraph line
running from his Newark, New Jersey, laboratory to New York, and back. When he found he
could draw sparks from the return end of this line Edison concluded that, This force can be
transmitted over long telegraph wires [and] may be transmitted over uninsulated iron wires
buried in the earth for instance the sheathing of the Atlantic Cable (TAED NE1691:17).
While it was possible that the Etheric force travelled from Newark to New York and back,
Batchelor observed in his private notebook that, it might be that the force travels across the
table instead of going out on the line (TAED MBN002:4). If Batchelor was correct and the
signal crossed the table without a conducting medium, they had observed wireless
communication.
A week after Edison first noticed the anomalous sparks, reports began appearing in the
press, describing Etheric force as a, Wonderful Invention and, Startling Discovery , and
repeating Edison s claim that it would lead to a new era in communication (TAEB D678n3,
n5). The New York Herald quoted Edison s view that it would put an end to, The
cumbersome appliances of transmitting ordinary electricity, such as telegraph poles,
insulating knobs, cable sheathings and repeating his claim that Etheric force was an
entirely unknown force, subject to laws different from those of heat, light, electricity or
magnetism (TAEB D678).
While Edison s claims may have created a sensation in the popular press, the scientific
community for the most part dismissed Etheric force as an induction effect and not a new
force of nature.5 In contrast to the enthusiastic reaction Edison received in other newspapers,
5 For example, Edison wrote to George Barker, professor of physics at the University of Pennsylvania who
replied, It seems to me clear that the force is only an induction current (TAED X120B:1).
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New York Times reports of Etheric force were not just sceptical, they were derisive. The Times
parodied Edison s gas pipe demonstrations and drew unfavourable associations between
Etheric force and Reichenbach s Odic force which the New York Times claimed was associated
with such supernatural wonders such as clairvoyance. The article concluded with the ironic
observation that Edison was wasting his time with gas pipes and should instead, begin the
manufacture of ghosts and establish direct communication with the other world (New York
Times 1875).
The views of those sceptical of Edison s Etheric force theory came to the notice of his
principal client, The Western Union Telegraph Company (Western Union), with which
Edison was negotiating finance for his plans for a new laboratory at Menlo Park, New Jersey.
On 10 December Edison s agent, Norman Miller, wrote inviting him to a meeting with
Western Union s president, William Orton, and warning that The papers are so full of, new
force that I want you to show that it has not taken up too much of your time (TAEB D687).
Edison appears to have succeeded in allaying these fears, and the contract was signed several
days later (TAEB D891).
Edison heeded the warning and ceased Etheric force experiments for many months
except for one on 26 December, 1875 the record of which began, an experiment tried tonight
gives a curious result (TAED NE1691:29). Figure 3 is the sketch that accompanied the entry.
Figure 3 Sketch from Edison s laboratory notebook of the 26
December 1875 wireless transmission experiment (TAED NE1691:29).
The left hand side of the sketch shows the apparatus Edison used on 22 November
(Figure 2). B, C, D and E are sheets of tinfoil hung on insulating supports and the object in
the lower right is Edison s Etheriscope, a darkened box containing two carbon points
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separated by a small gap, used to observe Etheric force sparks. One side of the Etheriscope is
earthed to a gas pipe, the other connected to a tinfoil sheet, E. Although B and E were 100
inches (2.5 m) apart and there was no wire or other conductor between them, Edison
observed sparks at intervals although insulated by such space (TAED NE1691:29). What
Edison observed was wireless transmission between B and E, confirming Batchelor s
speculation of 24 November that Etheric force could travel through space without a
conductor.
There are many examples of Edison developing such curious results into successful
inventions and, in other circumstances, Edison might have developed the 26 December result
into a patentable invention. This time however, the opposition of Western Union, meant that
this experiment signalled the end of Edison s research rather than the beginning and
although he returned to Etheric force several times over the next few years, it was never
with the enthusiasm he showed at the end of 1875.6
The Pho no g ra p h
Edison, like most others working on the telephone (but not Alexander Graham Bell),
conceived it as an alternative to Morse Code for sending telegraph messages. On 17 July
1877, Edison noted that a transmission rate of 100 words per minute was possible with the
telephone compared to only 25 words per minute by Morse code, concluding that there
would be a bottleneck in the process caused by the slow speed at which the spoken message
was transcribed (TAED NV12:8). What was needed was a means for recording the messages
so they could be transcribed at a slower rate. The following day he made a brief laboratory
notebook entry:
I do not suggest that opposition of Western Union and other experts was the only reasons for Edison not
pursuing Etheric force. Another significant impediment was his theoretical perspective of Etheric force which he
repeatedly discusses as a form of conduction. Put simply, although Batchelor could conceive wireless
communication, Edison, as an expert on wired telegraphy, seems not to have given it credence, despite the
existence of claims by others, including several patents (e.g. Loomis (1872)), to have achieved wireless
communication. Edison appears to have been the victim of what Hounshell (1975) describes as the disadvantage
of being an expert.
6
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Just tried experiment with a diaphragm having an embossing point & held
against parafin paper moving rapidly the new spkg7 vibrations are indented
nicely & theres no doubt that I shall be able to store up & reproduce
automatically at any future time the human voice perfectly (TAEB D972).
Batchelor related the details of this initial experiment in testimony he gave in 1896. He
said that Edison had been speaking into a telephone mouthpiece and feeling the vibrations of
the diaphragm with his finger. (Since Edison was partially deaf, he sometimes resorted to
feeling when he could not hear sounds.) After a while, Edison turned to Batchelor and said,
Batch, if we had a point on this we could make a record on some material which we could
afterwards pull under the point, and it would give us the speech back (TAEB D972n4).
Batchelor fitted a sharp point to the diaphragm of the telephone mouthpiece and mounted it
on a grooved piece of wood such that a strip of paper coated in wax could be pulled under it.
Inte rlud e : Re p lic a ting Ed iso n's first Pho no g ra p h e xp e rime nt
While the Phonograph was being developed in the later part of 1877 it was no more than
a peripheral activity for Edison, whose principal interest was in the telephone. As a result we
have few contemporary records of his experimental work but in 1895‐96 Edison and
Batchelor gave detailed testimony in connection with patent infringement litigation8 (TAED
QP001:5‐11, 47‐72). In this they recalled details of the first Phonograph experiment and,
although no drawing has survived it has been possible to reconstruct it from Edison s and
Batchelor s testimony (Figure 4).
7
spkg = speaking
8
American Graphophone Company versus Edison Phonograph Works.
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Figure 4 Reconstruction of Edison s first Phonograph experiment
(TAED QP001:63). The strips of waxed paper were cut from sheets
about 18 by 36 inches (about 0.45 by 0.9 m).
This is a remarkably crude instrument but with the results he achieved with it, Edison
was able to assert that he would be able to store up & reproduce automatically at any future
time the human voice perfectly . Using Edison s laboratory notebooks of the period and
Edison s and Batchelor s testimony, I set out to replicate Edison s first experiment to assess
what evidence it provided him.
My first step was to replicate the device that prompted him to try to build a machine to
record sounds. In Edison s case it was a telephone mouthpiece with a point fitted to the
diaphragm. Figure 5 shows the replication model I built from plastic pipe components.
Speaking into it when held close to the mouth, the vibration of the diaphragm was quite
distinct with the point pressed against my finger.
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Figure 5 Replication model of Edison s telephone mouthpiece with
point attached to diaphragm.
Encouraged by this result which was achieved after about an hour of experimenting I
then set out to build something like the device illustrated in Figure 4. Since Batchelor
mentioned an automatic telegraph in his evidence, I set out to build my device based loosely
on an automatic telegraph (see Edison (1871) for an illustration).
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Figure 6 Replication model of Edison s first paper tape Phonograph.
Figure 6 shows the device built. It consists of the diaphragm‐mouthpiece assembly in
Figure 5 mounted above guides for the paper tape. The recording point presses into the
waxed tape over a small platen. Whereas the hand held device produced results quickly, it
took over 70 hours to produce a meaningful recording with this device. I will omit details of
the variations tried but these included paraffin and beeswax, each in a range of thicknesses,
several different shapes of recording points and a large number of drive arrangements. The
biggest problems were finding the most appropriate combination of wax and recording point
shape, a problem faced by Edison and discussed in detail in Edison s and Batchelor s
testimony. It was a process of building a considerable amount of know‐how relating to the
device and specific knowledge like how to achieve the most appropriate thickness of wax on
the tape. Eventually a poor quality recording was produced with a thick coating of beeswax,
trimmed to a uniform thickness and pulled through the machine by hand (considerable
effort is needed to cut the wax). The recorded sound can be heard at Wills (2011)9. This
9 The words recorded (Wills 2011) are barely intelligible. It may be helpful to know that the words recorded
are Zero, one, two, three, four .
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recording is only marginally intelligible but knowing that the recorded words are on two
three four helps. (As a point of comparison, what is claimed to be the oldest surviving
cylinder recording (from 1878) can be heard at tinfoil.com (2011).)
Two points emerge from the replication of Edison s first experiment. The first is that the
quality of the sound recorded by Edison was probably very poor and of marginal
intelligibility. The second point is that to produce this recording took me over 70 hours
despite starting with details of what Edison and Batchelor built. Edison and Batchelor
produced recorded sound at least as intelligible as this, in less than one night and with no
precedent to work from. For me, it is a convincing demonstration of Edison s expertise as an
inventor.
De ve lo p ing the Pho no g ra p h
Edison and Batchelor s testimony and contemporary laboratory notebooks reveal two
interrelated strands in the development process that followed the first meagre recordings.
Firstly, Edison sought a more effective recording medium, experimenting with a variations
on his original waxed tape and other materials, notably metal foil. He also investigated
alternative methods of making recordings including drawing with a thick ink, inscribing in
soft metal, embossing thin metal foil and knocking down prepared ridges on paper tape
(Figure 13) (TAED QP001:56 57). Edison and Batchelor recalled testing a wide range of waxes
and recording point shapes, the problem being that the original wax tape recordings made
by cutting the wax were plagued by the long wax shavings produced. By November 1877
Edison had settled on tinfoil as recording medium (Figure 11).
His second development strand involved the transport mechanism. Initially he proposed
rolls of paper (Figure 7, Figure 8 and Figure 9). (Edison already had patents on a recording
telegraph ( stock ticker ) using paper tape e.g. Edison (1871).) He later worked with a
cylinder Phonograph (Figure 8, Figure 10 and Figure 11) and proposed a disk Phonograph
(Figure 12).
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Figure 7 Edison s sketch of 12 August 1877 (TAEB D1004)10
Figure 8 Edison s first sketch of a cylinder Phonograph (TAEB
D1062).
Figure 9 Edison s 1 November Phonograph sketch using wax coated
paper tape (TAEB D1099).
10 This device is based on Edison s automatic telegraph. It may be this connection that led Batchelor to later
recall them using automatic telegraph paper rather than waxed paper.
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Figure 10 Edison s Phonograph sketch of 10 November 1878 (TAED
TI2:366).
Figure 11 Edison s sketch of 29 November 1877 from which the first
demonstration Phonograph was built (TAED NS77:3).
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Figure 12 Edison sketch of 2 December showing cylinder, disk and
paper Phonographs (TAEB D1137) (TAED NV17:21).
Figure 13 Detail from Edison s first Phonograph patent showing
alternative recording mechanisms (Edison 1877). In Fig 4 the
recording is made using a special high build ink and in Fig 3 by
pressing a thread into the surface.
At the beginning of December 1877, Edison had a demonstration model built of the
Phonograph which used tinfoil wrapped around a grooved cylinder as recording medium,
the recording being made by embossing the foil rather than cutting it as had been the case
with his experiment. Edison s reaction to the first recording made with this device was one of
surprise, and he later recalled, I didn t have much faith that it would work, expecting that I
might possibly hear a word or so that would give hope of a future for the idea [but] . . . the
machine reproduced perfectly. I was never so taken aback in my life (Edison quoted in Dyer
and Martin 1910b, 208). A few days later, Edison and Batchelor took it to the offices of
Scientific American where it created a sensation as more and more people crowded into the
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editors office to hear it. In its next issue, Scientific American described how the machine had,
inquired as to our health, asked how we liked the Phonograph, informed us that it was very
well, and bid us a cordial good night , the article s author adding that, No matter how
familiar a person may be with modern machinery and its wonderful performances, or how
clear in his mind the principle underlying this strange device may be, it is impossible to
listen to the mechanical speech without his experiencing the idea that his senses are
deceiving him (Scientific American 1877).
The Phonograph made Edison a national and international celebrity.11 Joseph Henry,
who had described Edison as the most ingenious inventor (Israel 141), invited him to
Washington to address National Academy of Sciences in April 1878. While in the capital,
Edison also demonstrated the Phonograph to members of congress and diplomats, and to US
President Hayes (Baldwin 2001, 96‐97). The Washington Post headed its report Genius before
science and described his presentation to the National Academy of Sciences as, a scene . . .
that will live in history (Washington Post 1878). In London, the Evening Star, reported
Edison s demonstration, referring to him as the modern magician (TAED MBSB1:171). The
effect of the Phonograph on Edison s authority was substantial. Not only did it lead to him
being described as a wizard and magician , but went some way to restoring his scientific
credibility, damaged by his Etheric force claims. An outcome of the Washington visit was
that Edison was invited to join a major scientific expedition to Wyoming in July 1878 to
observe a solar eclipse.
Autho rity a nd inve ntio ns
Edison began work on both Etheric force and the Phonograph following the observation
of a novel phenomenon. In each case he accompanied his laboratory records with claims
about their significance that seem, in retrospect, rather optimistic, given the meagre
evidence. Motivated by these claims, he followed the initial discoveries with a period of
experimentation but it was these experimental phases that the two episodes diverged
11 The influence of Edison s inventions was pervasive, even to the classic gothic novel. Part of Bram Stoker s
Dracula is told as transcribed Phonograph recordings, one character commenting How I miss my phonograph!
To write a diary with a pen is irksome to me! (Stoker 1897).
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because, while both involved experimental exploration of the phenomenon and development
of artefacts, the mix of these experimental streams differed greatly.
Edison s Etheric force research in November and December 1875 concentrated on
exploration of the phenomenon, that is, in acquiring the kind of knowledge that is often
referred to as know‐how or a feel . One of Edison s early associates, Francis Jehl12
discussed Edison s acquisition of such knowledge in recounting the development of Edison s
first electrical generators. Such knowledge enabled Edison to develop the electric generator
in the absence of relevant theory, Jehl commenting that Edison knew then the modern
principles of magnetism, long before they were formulated into the rules we use today (Jehl
1937, 141). Prior to the Etheric force episode, the approach had served Edison well, for
example in 1873‐74, when he largely abandoned inventing to explore electrical induction
phenomena. In so doing he acquired a deep understanding of the subject that he exploited in
inventions such as the quadruplex telegraph (Edison 1874).
A consequence of Edison s emphasis on acquiring an understanding of the Etheric force
phenomenon at the expense of developing an invention, was that the instrument he used on
26 December to generate Etheric force sparks was the one used in his first Etheric force
experiment. Had he investigated the phenomenon in private as he did with induction in
1873‐74, this concentration on exploring phenomenon would have had little effect on his
authority, but in 1875 Edison had made an ambitious public claim about a new scientific
theory and the decision not to concentrate on an invention seriously impaired his ability to
deal with attacks on his credibility and authority.
In contrast to his concentration on experiments exploring Etheric force, when Edison
began work on the Phonograph two years later he concentrated on developing the artefact,
spending little time on exploring the phenomenon. Instead Edison s experimental effort was
directed to finding better combinations of materials and an effective mechanical
configuration. The result of this emphasis on the artefact was that when he announced the
12 Francis Jehl studied at Cooper Union and worked for Western Union before joining Edison. He played a
prominent role in the development of electric lighting. In 1926, Jehl became the first custodian of Henry Ford s
reconstruction of Edison s Menlo Park laboratory complex at Dearborn, Michigan.
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Phonograph to the press in December 1877, Edison had both a novel phenomenon and an
artefact to demonstrate it with. While it was to be another decade before the Phonograph
became a mass market device, the instrument that Edison demonstrated in 1877 and 1878,
despite its technical limitations, could do what nothing had done before: it could record and
reproduce sound.
When Edison made his Etheric force claim to the press, he had a novel, even astonishing,
phenomenon to demonstrate, but no invention. This absence meant that it was possible to
dispute Edison s Etheric force explanation in a way that was impossible with the
Phonograph. (The best that Phonograph doubters could do was to claim that Edison
produced the sounds by ventriloquism (Conot 1979, 109‐110).) Edison may have acquired a
substantial knowledge of the Etheric force phenomenon through his experiments, but the
lack of an invention meant he had nothing embodying this knowledge. For the hard financial
heads at Western Union, the absence of an invention, especially an invention relevant to their
telegraph business, meant that the publicity over Etheric force was, as the New York Times
suggested, associated with such dubious concepts as clairvoyance, astral light and the
Philosopher s stone (New York Times 1875).
Western Union did however, have good reason to acknowledge Edison s authority as the
inventor of important improvements to telegraphy, inventions that increased the profitability
of their business. On the basis of these inventions they were prepared, in December 1875, to
finance Edison s Menlo Park laboratory in exchange for exclusive access to telegraph
inventions he would create. Western Union had learnt the danger of not respecting that
authority, when, in January 1875, frustrated by what he saw as Western Union s lack of
recognition of it in the form of his quadruplex telegraph (which permitted 4 messages to be
sent on one wire), he had sold the rights to the quadruplex to Western Union s competitor,
Jay Gould s Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph.
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We can only speculate in how different Western Union s view of Etheric force might have
been had Edison developed the 26 December 1875 experiment a little13 and demonstrated
that he could transmit signals without wires, but Western Union s opposition, in part, meant
that this never came to pass and Edison was later to regret that, If I had made use of my
own work [on Etheric force] I should have had long distance wireless telegraphy (Dyer and
Martin 1910a, 578).
The inve nto r's a utho rity
An invention is evidence that the inventor knows how to create the invention and that
the invention, as a novel artefact, is evidence that its inventor possesses novel knowledge.14
In the case of a professional inventor like Edison who produced many inventions, the
authority of his inventions extends beyond individual inventions to a more general
knowledge: that is, that the professional inventor like Edison possesses not only the
know‐how to create inventions already produced, but also possesses the know‐how to
produce future inventions, perhaps that have not yet been imagined, inventions for which
there is no precedent as opposed to inventions that are improvements to existing inventions.
Early in Edison s career his ability to produce telegraph inventions gave him the authority
needed for Western Union to finance him to produce more. As his fields of invention
expanded, notably with the Phonograph, so did his authority as inventor in new fields.
Edison was an astute self‐promoter so, while his authority was built on his actual
inventions, it was enhanced by this self‐promotion. When the Phonograph made Edison
famous, New York journalists began making regular visits to his laboratory including the
Daily Graphicʹs William Croffut and Heraldʹs Edwin Fox. There they witnessed Edison s latest
In December 1875, Edison s most effective critics in the American scientific community, Edwin Houston
and Elihu Thomson, were able, using a Ruhmkorff coil, to draw Etheric force sparks on the roof of the
Philadelphia Central High School, six floors above their laboratory (Snyder 1920). However, because they
believed the sparks were caused by induction they treated the result as no more than a curiosity.
13
14 Zzz this is just parked here. Needs tidying up. It is the thesis of this book that we need to stretch the
concept of knowledge to include the things of science and technology. (Baird 2004, 117) Baird (2004, 117) argues
that we need to stretch the concept of knowledge to include the things of science and technology referring to
the knowledge carried by these things (artefacts) as thing knowledge . Among other qualities, thing knowledge
can be read by those who understand the relevant language of the thing.
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creations and were told of his plans for future inventions, the journalists duly reporting what
they heard and saw to an eager audience. It was after one such visit that Croffut (1878)
named Edison the Wizard of Menlo Park, a title that stayed with him long after Menlo Park
was abandoned. In hindsight, many of the planned inventions he described to these visitors
appear quite fanciful15, but Edison had only to produce the occasional successful remarkable
invention, like the Phonograph and electric lighting, to maintain his credibility.
100%
Articles (% maximum)
90%
Patents (% maximum)
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
2010
2000
1990
1980
1970
1960
1950
1940
1930
1920
1910
1900
1890
1880
1870
1860
0%
Figure 14 Edison patents by year compared to articles mentioning
him. Edison s patent output peaked in 1882 when he applied for 106
patents.
Acceptance of an inventor s authority is not only a matter of what they actually invented.
The difference between what Edison invented and the acceptance of his authority is
illustrated in Figure 14 which plots Edison s patent output by year, against the data in Figure
1, revealing a significant mismatch between the two. The year 1882 was Edison s most
prolific as an inventor (106 patents) yet the New York Times largely ignored him, his name
15 In 1878, for example, it was reported that Edison had invented a machine that would manufacture biscuit,
meat air and wine out of air water and common earth (New York Daily Graphic 1878). The report was, however,
published on 1 April.
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appearing in only 14 articles. In 1915, by contrast, Edison applied for only two patents but
the New York Times mentioned him in 206 articles. By 1875 Western Union was convinced of
Edison s authority as an inventor (and their ability to curb his excursions into supernatural
wonders ), agreeing to finance Menlo Park on the expectation of valuable telegraph
inventions flowing from it. The New York Times was far from convinced in 1875, mentioning
him in only three articles, two in connection with the quadruplex litigation, the third being
its derisive article on Etheric force.
The New York Times however, remained unconvinced and continued to publish articles
treating Edison as a figure of fun rather than authority. When rumours began to appear of
Edison s work on the Phonograph, but before he had demonstrated it, the New York Times
lampooned the idea, suggesting that its owners would bore their acquaintances by playing
vintage recordings and predicted that both book‐making and reading will fall into disuse
(New York Times 1877). In 1878 it continued to scoff, beginning an article on several of
Edison s inventions, Something ought to be done to Mr Edison, and there is a growing
conviction that it had better be done with a hemp rope (New York Times 1878). Even when
he had inventions to demonstrate, Times journalists remained negative but shifted tack. In
1880, a few days after Edison s demonstration of Menlo Park lit by electricity, an event that
other newspapers hailed as a remarkable achievement, a New York Times article cast doubts
on his ability to do the same on a commercial scale (New York Times 1880). But by 1882, the
New York Times was also persuaded to the point that the Times building being in the first
group connected to first generating station on 4 September 1882, the newspaper conceded
that the Edison electric light has proved in every way satisfactory (New York Times 1882).
Once established, Edison s authority did not decline, even though his inventive ability
did. Edison s inventive peak occurred in the 1880s and after 1910 diminished to near zero,
although he continued to work at inventing until the year of his death. Despite this, Edison s
authority was such that in 1915, as America approached World War I, US Secretary of the
Navy Josephus Daniels chose him to head the Naval Consulting Board, charged with
applying America s inventive capacity to modern warfare. Edison modelled the board on his
own practice, spurning graduates and professional scientists, and filling it with practical
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men like himself. Although Edison made some inventive contributions personally, the
Board was essentially a failure. Edison s authority had surpassed his ability.
This highlights an aspect of authority that is perhaps more generally applicable: once
established, authority tends to become frozen in the sense that critical assessment is
inhibited, so that when Edison was at his inventive peak they New York Times was most
sceptical but not in 1915, when he was well past his prime and scepticism would have been
justified.
A thread that runs through the preceding examples is that Edison s authority was
established through contact with his inventions. His Quadruplex telegraph and automatic
telegraph (stock ticker) were both successful inventions in the 1870s and, for Western Union,
valuable, but they established Edison s authority only among those in the telegraph industry
who had contact with them. The Phonograph, at least to the New York Times, was a thing of
jest before Edison demonstrated it, but those to who experienced it later, it was a something
to be marvelled at. While these were significant inventions, few people had contact with
them, other than through newspaper reports. In contrast, the inventions that emerged from
Edison s laboratory in the 1880s, notably electric lighting, the Phonograph and motion
pictures, touched the lives of many. As the New York Times observed on Edison s death, He
did more than any one man to put luxury into the lives of the masses (New York Times
1931c). This contact with inventions suggests that the paradox in New York Times reporting of