Even in
decline the 1920s the revenue from phonographs and records had been an
important source income for both laboratory and company. With Edison dead there was reason be
interested the remnants his laboratory and what was doing the 1930s
and 1940s.
The Great Depression had already begun when Edison died and reduced the
declining business Thomas Edison, Inc.
Thomas Edison, Inc. Into this space went one Edison’s automobiles and the automobile
motors used test lighting equipment devised Building 1914 Hutchison
reported Edison that this equipment was taking all the room this
space. Horner John Constable, 1917 Thomas Edison, Inc.508
508 Edison Phonograph Monthly, January 1916, 9. With the
phonograph gone, the laboratory and Works were deprived major function.boilers continued supply steam the laboratory buildings until around 1914-
1915 when steam was piped from the Works. The phonograph product had
been the basis the prosperity Thomas Edison, Inc. continued with the manufacture radios, dictating
machines and batteries. financial accounts, Engineering
Department files.
The collapse Edison’s phonograph business 1929 was nearly great a
disaster the laboratory the death its leader. and had been a
foundation the West Orange laboratory the twentieth century.
509 MRH TAE, February 1914 and July 1914 (in 1914, Automobiles). The records small laboratory basically concerned with production
engineering were not deemed important enough preserve.
510 Mr.
The boilers and steam plant this building were removed make another
garage.509 1917 automobile battery charging station was installed in
Building part the project develop electrical systems for Ford motor
cars. even more. Only the dictating
machine and batteries remained viable products through the 1930s, supported
154
.610
THE POST-EDISON YEARS: Period IV: 1932-1962
Historical Occupancy and Furnishings
The activities the laboratory the years after Edison’s death are not well
documented the West Orange site. The fame and prestige the great inventor
were responsible for the accumulation documents and for the publication of
memoirs and accounts his life
