This folder contains correspondence and other documents relating to electric lighting and power. Included are letters pertaining to the incandescent lamp, the alternating current controversy, and electrocution experiments conducted by Harold P. Brown, a New York electrical engineer. There are also documents concerning lamp tests conducted by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad and by the Niagara River Hydraulic Tunnel Co., which was established to develop a hydroelectric power system in Buffalo, N.Y. Edison advised the company about the construction of central stations and about a direct-current distribution system. A series of lengthy memoranda written by Edison on this subject can be found near the end of the folder. There is also an undated pamphlet Dangers of Electric Lighting: A Reply to Mr. Edison, almost certainly published by the Edison interests, lampooning "George Westringhouse" and Westinghouse's alternating current system and alluding to Brown's experiments and to recent patent litigation involving the Edison Electric Light Co. and its competitors. Among the correspondents are H. Ward Leonard, an electrical engineer involved in lamp tests, and Edward D. Adams, president of the Cataract Construction Co. and a promoter of the Niagara Falls project.
Approximately 80 percent of the documents have been selected. The following categories of documents have not been selected: routine requests for information about electric lighting, electrocution, and Edison's fiber search; letters of transmittal; other routine business correspondence; duplicate copies of selected documents. Courtesy of Thomas Edison National Historical Park.