The Value Of Edison's Inventions To The World - 5

The Value Of Edison's Inventions To The World - 5

In this, as well as in the phonograph business, there are many other manufacturers in the

field. Indeed, the annual product of the Edison Manufacturing Company in this line is

only a fractional part of the total that is absorbed by the 8000 or more motion- picture

theatres and exhibitions that are in operation in the United States at the present time, and

which represent an investment of some $45,000,000. Licensees under Edison patents in

this country alone produce upward of 60,000,000 feet of films annually, containing more

than a billion and a half separate photographs. To what extent the motion-picture business

may grow in the not remote future it is impossible to conjecture, for it has taken a place

in the front rank of rapidly increasing enterprises.

The manufacture and sale of the Edison-Lalande primary battery, conducted by the

Edison Manufacturing Company at the Orange Valley plant, is a business of no mean

importance. Beginning about twenty years ago with a battery that, without polarizing,

would furnish large currents specially adapted for gas-engine ignition and other important

purposes, the business has steadily grown in magnitude until the present output amounts

to about 125,000 cells annually; the total number of cells put into the hands of the public

up to date being approximately 1,500,000. It will be readily conceded that to most men

this alone would be an enterprise of a lifetime, and sufficient in itself to satisfy a

moderate ambition. But, although it has yielded a considerable profit to Edison and gives

employment to many people, it is only one of the many smaller enterprises that owe an

existence to his inventive ability and commercial activity.

So it also is in regard to the mimeograph, whose forerunner, the electric pen, was born of

Edison's brain in 1877. He had been long impressed by the desirability of the rapid

production of copies of written documents, and, as we have seen by a previous chapter,

he invented the electric pen for this purpose, only to improve upon it later with a more

desirable device which he called the mimeograph, that is in use, in various forms, at this

time. Although the electric pen had a large sale and use in its time, the statistics relating

to it are not available. The mimeo- graph, however, is, and has been for many years, a

standard office appliance, and is entitled to consideration, as the total number put into use

up to this time is approximately 180,000, valued at $3,500,000, while the annual output is

in the neighborhood of 9000 machines, sold for about $150,000, besides the vast quantity

of special paper and supplies which its use entails in the production of the many millions

of facsimile letters and documents. The extent of production and sale of supplies for the

mimeograph may be appreciated when it is stated that they bring annually an equivalent

of three times the amount realized from sales of machines. The manufacture and sale of

the mimeograph does not come within the enterprises conducted under Edison's personal

direction, as he sold out the whole thing some years ago to Mr. A. B. Dick, of Chicago.

In making a somewhat radical change of subject, from duplicating machines to cement,

we find ourselves in a field in which Edison has made a most decided impression. The

reader has already learned that his entry into this field was, in a manner, accidental,

although logically in line with pronounced convictions of many years' standing, and

following up the fund of knowledge gained in the magnetic ore-milling business. From

being a new-comer in the cement business, his corporation in five years has grown to be

the fifth largest producer in the United States, with a still increasing capacity. From the

inception of this business there has been a steady and rapid development, resulting in the

production of a grand total of over 7,300,000 barrels of cement up to the present date,

having a value of about $6,000,000, exclusive of package. At the time of this writing, the

rate of production is over 8000 barrels of cement per day, or, say, 2,500,000 barrels per

year, having an approximate selling value of a little less than $2,000,000, with prospects

of increasing in the near future to a daily output of 10,000 barrels. This enterprise is

carried on by a corporation called the Edison Portland Cement Company, in which he is

very largely interested, and of which he is the active head and guiding spirit.

Had not Edison suspended the manufacture and sale of his storage battery a few years

ago because he was not satisfied with it, there might have been given here some

noteworthy figures of an extensive business, for the company's books show an

astonishing number of orders that were received during the time of the shut-down. He

was implored for batteries, but in spite of the fact that good results had been obtained

from the 18,000 or 20,000 cells sold some years ago, he adhered firmly to his

determination to perfect them to a still higher standard before resuming and continuing

their manufacture as a regular commodity. As we have noted in a previous chapter,

however, deliveries of the perfected type were begun in the summer of 1909, and since

that time the business has continued to grow in the measure indicated by the earlier

experience.