This folder contains correspondence and other documents relating to the commercial and technical development of Edison's alkaline storage battery and its use in electric vehicles. Most of the documents concern electric vehicle manufacturers, market development, and the products of rival battery makers. Included are assessments of the Phaeton (or touring car) made by S. R. Bailey & Co. of Amesbury, Massachusetts; promotional material for the Klaxon automobile horn, invented by Miller Reese Hutchison; and discussion of marketing practices involving central stations of the Edison Electric Illuminating Co. of Boston. Additional items pertain to the Electric Storage Battery Co. of Philadelphia, its corporate investors, and the promotion of its Ironclad-Exide battery. The correspondents include Arthur I. Clymer, an investor in the Edison Storage Battery Co.; Louis A. Ferguson of the Commonwealth Edison Co. of Chicago; advertising executive Converse D. Marsh; and longtime Edison associate T. Commerford Martin. There is also a postcard written by Edison's son Charles while in Morristown, New Jersey, testing an electric wagon.
Approximately 80 percent of the documents have been selected. The items not selected include duplicates, unsolicited correspondence with no substantive reply, miscellaneous credit reports, and blank questionnaires. Courtesy of Thomas Edison National Historical Park.