The Thomas A. Edison Papers is a historical editing project that is preparing and publishing two major editions of Edison and Edison-related documents. One of the most prolific and influential inventors in history, Thomas Edison was at the center of majro social and technical changes that shaped the twentieth century. He left five million pages of correspondence, lab notes, and related business records that provide significant insights into his diverse technical creativity, his relationships with technial and financial communities, and his world-wide entrepreneurship-- insights that should inform current and future scholarship, education, public discourse, and public policy. This grant supports two editors to select, organize, index, research, and annotate the most historically significant documents among these 5 million pages to text. During the period of this grant, the staff is preparing Part III of the microfilm edition and Volume Three of the editon. Among materials to be covered by these publications and the next volumes to follow are Edison's work with ore milling, motion pictures, phonograph and phonograph recording manufacture, mass scale cement production, priamary battery and chemical manufacture, telegraphy and telephony, the introducition of sound recornding, and development of incandescent lgithing and electric power generation and distribution systems.
