Several shop orders were used account
for the work Edison's house the lab and one even covered
the making lunch box for Edison's daughter Marion.
.^ Another source funds were his personal
notes, discounted financiers like Chapman and the
banks Newark, which often provided emergency cash for the
laboratory. The "personal"
account paid for experiments carried out specifically for
Edison's personal interest and was often used cover the
expense experiments that had not been billed another
party.
Edison funnelled money into the lab's accounts by
transferring funds from his "private" account, where held
his income, his "personal" account with the laboratory which
provided advances cover experimental costs.2
his money. The major source funds for the lab was Edison's
personal fortune and difficult, not impossible, to
distinguish between his own finances and those the
laboratory.
NOTES
1) Insull TAE, Jan 1888, Electricity. The Edison Machine Works, for example, owed Edison
$94,457 1888. When business was slack, often put the laboratory
staff tasks his own household; they carried out
construction and repair work for him and also for some his
leading assistants
