This folder contains correspondence and other documents relating to the technical and commercial development of Edison's alkaline storage battery in the United States and abroad. Among the documents for 1916 are numerous testimonial letters, which Edison solicited from customers after an explosion aboard an E-2 submarine in the Brooklyn Navy Yard in January raised questions concerning the safety of Edison's batteries. Related documents can be found in E-16-22 (E-2 Explosion).
Also included are items pertaining to negotiations with Vickers, Ltd., concerning British manufacturing rights. The correspondents include Edison's chief engineer, Miller Reese Hutchison; longtime Edison associate Samuel Insull; John F. Monnot of Edison Accumulators, Ltd.; and mathematician and electrical engineer Charles P. Steinmetz.
Approximately 50 percent of the documents have been selected. The material not selected consists primarily of letters of transmittal and acknowledgment and unsolicited correspondence that received no substantive response from Edison. Courtesy of Thomas Edison National Historical Park.