This folder contains correspondence and other documents relating to the commercial development of Edison's alkaline storage battery in countries other than the United States and Canada. Most of the letters concern administrative changes in the European battery business. Included are letters to the banking houses of J. P. Morgan & Co. in New York and Morgan, Harjes & Co. in Paris in which Edison discusses his lack of confidence in longtime associate Sigmund Bergmann, head of the Deutsche Edison-Akkumulatoren-Co. in Berlin. Other letters concern the appointment of John F. Monnot, a friend of Miller Reese Hutchison, as agent for France and England. A few documents pertain to the use of batteries in French submarines. There is also a list of Edison's patents for storage batteries and the cost of working them in countries other than the United States and Canada. Among the correspondents are H. W. Balk, who solicited the market rights for Edison's storage batteries in Cuba and Ceylon; longtime Edison associate Samuel Insull; consulting engineer Horace F. Parshall; and Willis N. Stewart, an electric light agent in South America during the 1880s.
Approximately 70 percent of the documents have been selected. Among the items not selected are promotional material published by Berliner Electromobil-Fabrik, GmbH; unsolicited correspondence; and duplicates. Courtesy of Thomas Edison National Historical Park.