This journal covers the period January 15, 1886-September 5, 1887 and contains numbered entries by Batchelor about his business and personal affairs. Many of the entries concern Edison's electric light and his manufacturing companies. Included are comments about labor disputes at the Edison Lamp Co. and the Edison Machine Works, the formation of the Edison United Manufacturing Co., and the transfer of the Edison Machine Works to Schenectady, New York. There are also newspaper clippings relating to labor disputes and legal actions involving Edison and his companies, including a legal opinion on the validity of Edison's electric light patents in the United Kingdom. A number of entries concern experiments on dynamos, lamps, transformers, and phonographs. Also discussed are Edison's health, his marriage to Mina Miller, and the construction of the new laboratory at West Orange, New Jersey. An anecdote about Edison that was related by his father, Samuel Edison, is recorded. Statements of Batchelor's personal assets and liabilities appear at intervals of six months. The book contains 285 numbered pages.
Blank pages: 1-3, 284-285.
Missing page numbers: 69-70. Courtesy of Thomas Edison National Historical Park.