This folder contains correspondence and other documents relating to the purchase and use of tools and raw materials in Edison's laboratory and factories. Included is correspondence with former Edison employee Edward G. Acheson about an order for electrodes placed with the Acheson Graphite Co.; with Edison's brother-in-law Halbert G. Hitchcock concerning custom-cut glass discs ordered from the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co.; and with U.S. Bureau of Standards director Samuel W. Stratton regarding the loan of a double spectroscope for Walter S. Mallory's examination of lithium mining regions in the western United States. Related correspondence by Mallory can be found in E-19-47 (Mining - General)
In addition, there are letters pertaining to a search for suppliers of ceramic crocks; lists of equipment billed to various war-related shop orders; an inventory of the Columbia Street recording studio; and a list compiled by Theodore Edison of equipment at the U.S. Naval Station in Key West, Florida. Other correspondents include optical instrument maker John A. Brashear, electrical instrument manufacturer Leeds & Northrup Co., and filter press makers T. Shriver & Co.
Approximately 30 percent of the documents have been selected. The unselected material includes routine correspondence about orders and shipping; catalogs and other printed matter; additional copies of standard inquiries sent to multiple vendors; and other items duplicating the information in the selected documents. Also not selected are letters pertaining to the disposal of gardening equipment and to bills for government contract work; copies of long lists of stock equipment and chemicals at the plants in Silver Lake, New Jersey; and routine business letters unrelated to Edison. Courtesy of Thomas Edison National Historical Park.