Existing comment:
Edison the Business
"My ambition is to build up a great industrial works in the Orange Valley starting in a small way and gradually working up -- the laboratory supplying the perfected invention models pattern[s] & fitting up necessary special machinery in the factory for each invention."
-- Thomas A Edison, draft letter to John Hood Wright, c August 1887
Edison surrounded the West Orange laboratory with factories that produced a steady stream of products based on his inventions; profits provided the funds for more inventing. By 1915, the factories employed about 10,000 people and the lab 150 under the organizational name of Thomas A Edison, Incorporated. The laboratory and its surrounding factories evolved into a corporation run by professional managers who presided over an international business with specialized departments governing advertising, accounting, purchasing, and legal matters.
Frank Dyer:
Frank Dyer first became involved in Edison's patent affairs in 1897. An attorney, business manager, and inventor, he was soon in charge of all Edison's legal matters. Dyer held positions in many Edison companies; National Phonograph, Bates Manufacturing, Edison Manufacturing, Edison Storage Battery, and others. Dyer played a role in unifying the various Edison companies into one -- Thomas A Edison, Incorporated -- 1911. |