Edison In Commerce And Manufacture - 7

Edison In Commerce And Manufacture - 7

 Both the primary and the storage battery employ certain chemical products as essential

parts of their elements, and indeed owe their very existence to the peculiar preparation

and quality of such products, as exemplified by Edison's years of experimentation and

research. Hence the establishment of his own chemical works at Silver Lake, where,

under his personal supervision, the manufacture of these products is carried on in charge

of specially trained experts. At the present writing the plant covers about seven acres of

ground; but there is ample room for expansion, as Edison, with wise forethought, secured

over forty acres of land, so as to be prepared for developments.

Not only is the Silver Lake works used for the manufacture of the chemical substances

employed in the batteries, but it is the plant at which the Edison primary battery is wholly

assembled and made up for distribution to customers. This in itself is a business of no

small magnitude, having grown steadily on its merits year by year until it has now arrived

at a point where its sales run into the hundreds of thousands of cells per annum, furnished

largely to the steam railroads of the country for their signal service.

As to the storage battery, the plant at Silver Lake is responsible only for the production of

the chemical compounds, nickel-hydrate and iron oxide, which enter into its construction.

All the mechanical parts, the nickel plating, the manufacture of nickel flake, the

assembling and testing, are carried on at the Orange works in two of the large concrete

buildings above referred to. A visit to this part of the plant reveals an amazing fertility of

resourcefulness and ingenuity in the devising of the special machines and appliances

employed in constructing the mechanical parts of these cells, for it is practically

impossible to fashion them by means of machinery and tools to be found in the open

market, notwithstanding the immense variety that may be there obtained.

Since Edison completed his final series of investigations on his storage battery and

brought it to its present state of perfection, the commercial values have increased by leaps

and bounds. The battery, as it was originally put out some years ago, made for itself an

enviable reputation; but with its improved form there has come a vast increase of

business. Although the largest of the concrete buildings where its manufacture is carried

on is over four hundred feet long and four stories in height, it has already become

necessary to plan extensions and enlargements of the plant in order to provide for the

production of batteries to fill the present demands. It was not until the summer of 1909

that Edison was willing to pronounce the final verdict of satisfaction with regard to this

improved form of storage battery; but subsequent commercial results have justified his

judgment, and it is not too much to predict that in all probability the business will assume

gigantic proportions within a very few years. At the present time (1910) the Edison

storage-battery enterprise is in its early stages of growth, and its status may be compared

with that of the electric-light system about the year 1881.

There is one more industry, though of comparatively small extent, that is included in the

activities of the Orange works, namely, the manufacture and sale of the Bates numbering

machine. This is a well- known article of commerce, used in mercantile establishments

for the stamping of consecutive, duplicate, and manifold numbers on checks and other

documents. It is not an invention of Edison, but the organization owning it, together with

the patent rights, were acquired by him some years ago, and he has since continued and

enlarged the business both in scope and volume, besides, of course, improving and

perfecting the apparatus itself. These machines are known everywhere throughout the

country, and while the annual sales are of comparatively moderate amount in comparison

with the totals of the other Edison industries at Orange, they represent in the aggregate a

comfortable and encouraging business.

In this brief outline review of the flourishing and extensive commercial enterprises

centred around the Orange laboratory, the facts, it is believed, contain a complete

refutation of the idea that an inventor cannot be a business man. They also bear abundant

evidence of the compatibility of these two widely divergent gifts existing, even to a high

degree, in the same person. A striking example of the correctness of this proposition is

afforded in the present case, when it is borne in mind that these various industries above

described (whose annual sales run into many millions of dollars) owe not only their very

creation (except the Bates machine) and existence to Edison's inventive originality and

commercial initiative, but also their continued growth and prosperity to his incessant

activities in dealing with their multifarious business problems. In publishing a portrait of

Edison this year, one of the popular magazines placed under it this caption: "Were the

Age called upon to pay Thomas A. Edison all it owes to him, the Age would have to

make an assignment." The present chapter will have thrown some light on the

idiosyncrasies of Edison as financier and as manufacturer, and will have shown that while

the claim thus suggested may be quite good, it will certainly never be pressed or

collected.