This scrapbook covers the period April 1880-November 1883 and contains correspondence and other documents relating to Edison's work on electric railroads. Most of the material pertains to the experimental railroad constructed at Menlo Park in 1880. Included are equipment specifications; cost accounts; progress reports from Charles T. Hughes, the engineer in charge of the railroad; and an agreement between Edison and Henry Villard for the construction of a longer, improved railway at Menlo Park. There are also letters concerning proposed electric railway systems in the United States and elsewhere; agreements pertaining to the rights to Edison's railway patents; a report by Sherburne B. Eaton summarizing ownership of European rights to various railway inventions; and newspaper and journal articles relating to the electric railways of Edison and Stephen Dudley Field.
The material in this book was removed from Edison's files and assembled in scrapbook form by William J. Hammer in the spring of 1898. The documents were used by the General Electric Board of Patent Control in patent litigation and were returned to Edison on May 9, 1902. The scrapbook has been disbound, and the documents appear as arranged by Hammer.
Related material can be found in the "Railroad -- Electric" folders in the Document File Series. Courtesy of Thomas Edison National Historical Park.