This newest volume in the acclaimed Papers of Thomas A. Edison
covers one year in the life of America's greatest inventor -- 1878.
That year Edison, whom a New York newspaper in the spring first
called "the Wizard of Menlo Park," developed the phonograph, one of
his most famous inventions; made a breakthrough in the development
of telephone transmitters, which made the instrument commercially
viable; and announced the advent of domestic electric lighting,
with only a few weeks' worth of tinkering necessary to complete its
design (the announcement sent gas-company stocks plummeting; the
research and development went on for four years).
These inventions brought Edison financial support for his work
and attention from the public. In January investors in the Edison
Speaking Phonograph Company agreed to fund development work on the
phonograph. The invention made Edison internationally famous and in
May he traveled to Washington, D.C., to show the phonograph at the
National Academy of Sciences, to Congress, and to President
Rutherford B. Hayes at the White House. That same month Western
Union agreed to pay Edison an annual salary of $6,000 for his
telephone inventions, although other support from the company
declined following the death of its president, William Orton. The
stress of unceasing public attention, including a trans-Atlantic
dispute over the question of who invented the microphone, led an
exhausted Edison to travel west during the summer to witness a
solar eclipse but also to seek rest. His six-week trip took him to
San Francisco and the Yosemite region of California. Edison began
working on electric lighting after his return and in October the
Edison Electric Light Companywas formed to support his
research.
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