After purchasing the American Graphophone
Company (the successor Bell and Tainter's Volta Company),
Lippincott set out acquire the Edison Company, paying
$500,000 for Edison's interest September 1888.IV- 9
Financial salvation was finally found the form of
Jesse Lippincott, venture capitalist with his eye a
phonograph monopoly. had established small
shop Bloomfield 1887, and although was working full
capacity during that summer, its production component parts
could not support the ambitious plans the North American
Company. Each customer could chose between
Edison's phonograph and the graphophone which Tainter
manufactured factory Bridgeport, Conn.
. franchised local companies to
market, lease, and service machines and alloted each company an
exclusive sales area. Consequently, larger facility was planned West
Orange with target output 200 machines day, made 500
1
employees. Lippincott's new
organization was named the North American Phonograph Company
and its goal was produce commercial dictating machine to
be leased businesses. The latter
urgently needed the capital supplied Lippincott; the costs
of developing the phonograph were growing rapidly, and by
September 1888 estimated that had $67,000 his own
money phonograph experiments. Edison must have
been confident that could remedy all the faults his
existing machine because began prepare for mass
production the summer 1888
