The Black Flag - 5

The Black Flag - 5

 "What was to be done? Mr. Edison has never been greater than when he met and solved

this crisis. `If there are no factories,' he said, `to make my inventions, I will build the

factories myself. Since capital is timid, I will raise and supply it. The issue is factories or

death.' Mr. Edison invited the co- operation of his leading stockholders. They lacked

confidence or did not care to increase their investments. He was forced to go on alone.

The chain of Edison shops was then created. By far the most perplexing of these new

manufacturing problems was the lamp. Not only was it a new industry, one without

shadow of prototype, but the mechanical devices for making the lamps, and to some

extent the very machines to make those devices, were to be invented. All of this was done

by the courage, capital, and invincible energy and genius of the great inventor. But Mr.

Edison could not create these great and diverse industries and at the same time give

requisite attention to litigation. He could not start and develop the new and hard business

of electric lighting and yet spare one hour to pursue infringers. One thing or the other

must wait. All agreed that it must be the litigation. And right there a lasting blow was

given to the prestige of the Edison patents. The delay was translated as meaning lack of

confidence; and the alert infringer grew strong in courage and capital. Moreover, and

what was the heaviest blow of all, he had time, thus unmolested, to get a good start.

"In looking back on those days and scrutinizing them through the years, I am impressed

by the greatness, the solitary greatness I may say, of Mr. Edison. We all felt then that we

were of importance, and that our contribution of effort and zeal were vital. I can see now,

however, that the best of us was nothing but the fly on the wheel. Suppose anything had

happened to Edison? All would have been chaos and ruin.. To him, therefore, be the

glory, if not the profit."

The foregoing remarks of Major Eaton show authoritatively how the much-discussed

delay in litigating the Edison patents was so greatly misunderstood at the time, and also

how imperatively necessary it was for Edison and his associates to devote their entire

time and energies to the commercial development of the art. As the lighting business

increased, however, and a great number of additional men were initiated into its

mysteries, Edison and his experts were able to spare some time to legal matters, and an

era of active patent litigation against infringers was opened about the year 1885 by the

Edison company, and thereafter continued for many years.

While the history of this vast array of legal proceedings possesses a fascinating interest

for those involved, as well as for professional men, legal and scientific, it could not be

expected that it would excite any such feeling on the part of a casual reader. Hence, it is

not proposed to encumber this narrative with any detailed record of the numerous suits

that were brought and conducted through their complicated ramifications by eminent

counsel. Suffice it to say that within about sixteen years after the commencement of

active patent litigation, there had been spent by the owners of the Edison lighting patents

upward of two million dollars in prosecuting more than two hundred lawsuits brought

against persons who were infringing many of the patents of Edison on the incandescent

electric lamp and component parts of his system. Over fifty separate patents were

involved in these suits, including the basic one on the lamp (ordinarily called the

"Filament" patent), other detail lamp patents, as well as those on sockets, switches,

dynamos, motors, and distributing systems.

The principal, or "test," suit on the "Filament" patent was that brought against "The

United States Electric Lighting Company," which became a cause celebre in the annals of

American jurisprudence. Edison's claims were strenuously and stubbornly contested

throughout a series of intense legal conflicts that raged in the courts for a great many

years. Both sides of the controversy were represented by legal talent of the highest order,

under whose examination and cross-examination volumes of testimony were taken, until

the printed record (including exhibits) amounted to more than six thousand pages.

Scientific and technical literature and records in all parts of the civilized world were

subjected to the most minute scrutiny of opposing experts in the endeavor to prove

Edison to be merely an adapter of methods and devices already projected or suggested by

others. The world was ransacked for anything that might be claimed as an anticipation of

what he had done. Every conceivable phase of ingenuity that could be devised by

technical experts was exercised in the attempt to show that Edison had accomplished

nothing new. Everything that legal acumen could suggest-- every subtle technicality of

the law--all the complicated variations of phraseology that the novel nomenclature of a

young art would allow--all were pressed into service and availed of by the contestors of

the Edison invention in their desperate effort to defeat his claims. It was all in vain,

however, for the decision of the court was in favor of Edison, and his lamp patent was

sustained not only by the tribunal of the first resort, but also by the Appellate Court some

time afterward.