the packed lunches and dinners Mina Edison sent down from Glenmont, ate
them wherever happened working the time. Wilson, vice president and general manager
of Thomas Edison, Inc., January 1915, 16,
178 "Notes taken Mrs.
The 1914 fire West Orange brought changes the laboratory, and the library
was pressed into use during rebuilding. Sloane," from Mina Edison interview, September 18, 1931 (in 1931, Edison,
T.176
After Edison died October 18, 1931, his body lay state the library for two
days. Edison used the library his command
post direct the rebuilding his organization.A. The crowds were great, however, that the original plan was
discarded and the public was admitted immediately after the library was opened.
177 The New York Times, October 19, 1931, 25; and the New York Times, October 21, 1931, col.
An estimated 2,000 visitors hour passed through the library for the two days
Edison’s body lay there, with estimated 40,000 mourners passing through on
the second day.H.172
172 See figures 52, 60, and 67."173 The laboratory photographer photographed construction daily from the
same vantage point, and delivered new prints Edison’s desk every morning so
that could trace each day’s progress.
175 Ibid. also hosted meals for
employees business associates long tables set through the center the
library, when fewer people were attending, the director’s table placed front
of the fireplace. 174 For some time after the fire, all of
the executives formerly the Administration Building set their offices
elsewhere within the complex. 3.177
58
. C. early 1915 photograph shows
Edison reviewing charts tracing the progress the work, while the foreground
sits cylinder attached placard proclaiming Thousand Day these wax
cylinders for dictating machines made 482 hours after the fire Dec. Plans for viewing the body were established advance Edison’s death,
during his last illness September.-Death, Undertaker/Cemetery Arrangements).
174 "The Edison Phonograph Monthly," February 15, 1915, [?]. Mina wanted the body lie the library
for one day, and suggested that "simple orchestra" play during the viewing.176
The orchestra idea was abandoned, but there were plenty police hand outside
the laboratory, and plainclothesmen guard the library and Building It
was originally planned that employees and members their families admitted
to the library hour before the public viewing began the morning the
second day.
173 See figure 73., moved his office into the library this time. 9th,
1914
