Illustration 12-2 aerial view West Orange. A
measure the status the lab 1920 revealed the
following comments made Edison's secretary: "the laboratory
has been quite popularly conceived place where sundry
mysterious experiments are carried Mr. that was expensive luxury. the twentieth century was
forced justify its existence, and overcome the prevailing
attitude within TAE Inc.XII-31
corporate employee service organization. The laboratory had once
enjoyed the highest status the organization, its work a
source pride and confidence. Instead the
"old man," had answer administrators and division
managers who let him know that the old "aloof and
scientifically impersonal viewpoint" was inappropriate for a
modern business organization."
In physical terms, the changing status the laboratory
can seen the transition from free standing structure of
1887 small part great industrial complex 1920. The life West Orange had been dramatically
changed the growth Edison's plant. The
laboratory dwarfed many factory buildings, its brick
construction contrast the modern cement-clad buildings
around it. The labor force included many immigrants— Italians,
Greeks, Poles, Ukrainians— who spilled into the Oranges from
. Once rural retreat
for affluent New Yorkers, was now industrial suburb of
Newark. Edison and charged
to other Edison functions arbitrarily without any corresponding
advantage them
