This folder contains correspondence and other documents pertaining to sound detection experiments conducted by Edison and Absalom M. Kennedy at Sandy Hook, New Jersey, and at Greenport, Long Island, near Sag Harbor. The documents consist primarily of reports by Kennedy regarding the use of audion amplifiers to detect torpedoes from moving boats. Included are descriptions of the various configurations of underwater listening apparatus and the results of field tests on towed models. The experiments were conducted in conjunction with Navy tests of E. W. Bliss Co. torpedoes fired from the USS Emblane. In addition, there are notes and drawings by Edison, many of them unlabeled and undated, along with some technical material by Lee De Forest, inventor of the audion tube. Edison employees involved in the experiments include Isidor (Jerry) Chesler, E. Rowland Dawson, John A. Hanley, Sherwood T. (Sam) Moore, and Samuel C. Shaffner. Also included are letters discussing general progress and personnel matters addressed to Edison or his personal assistant, William H. Meadowcroft and an undated letter of resignation by Dawson. The last document contains a notation by Meadowcroft regarding Edison's decision to discharge Kennedy. Related material can be found in the general correspondence folders for 1917.
Approximately 70 percent of the documents have been selected. The unselected items consist primarily of duplicates, rough notes on unrelated subjects, and other notes not directly connected to Edison. Courtesy of Thomas Edison National Historical Park.