This folder contains letters and reports that were written to keep Edison informed about laboratory and company operations while he was vacationing in Florida in March-April 1912. Included are references to Edison's country house lighting system, the development of an electric starter for the Ford Motor Co., tests on Lansden vehicles, experiments with nickel hydrate, and other work involving alkaline storage batteries. There are also reports concerning Edison's motion picture interests, including the development of sound motion pictures, color photography, the Home Projecting Kinetoscope, and educational films. Additional reports relate to the development of the disk phonograph, the Blue Amberol cylinder record, an Amberola concrete cabinet, and new reproducers for cylinder phonographs. Some of the reports mention visitors to the laboratory such as industrialist Henry Ford who discussed the electric starter with Donald M. Bliss, Edison's chief engineer, and William G. Bee, manager of sales for the Edison Storage Battery Co.
The reports were prepared by department heads and other employees including William Walter Dinwiddie, Ignacy Goldstein, Ludwig F. Ott, Charles Poyer, Harold H. Smith, and Selden G. Warner. They were transmitted to Edison by his personal assistant, William H. Meadowcroft, who generally prepared a summary letter along with the individual reports. Many of the reports mentioned by Meadowcroft are not in this folder and are most likely scattered in other folders in the Edison General File.
All of the documents have been selected. Courtesy of Thomas Edison National Historical Park.