Edison Tweets Feb 11-March 11, 1911
2/11/1911 TAE spends 64th birthday working at West Orange lab, refuses to go home for lunch
2/11/1911 TAE receives a pretty birthday card from Mabel Folger of Pawlet, Vermont
2/11/1911 TAE donates $250 for the heater of the library in Milan, Ohio, his birthplace
2/11/1911 TAE writes four-page letter to city of Toronto recommending storage batteries to power streetcars
2/12/1911 Mrs Edison invites son Charles to attend performance of opera Aida with her, complains of daughter Madeleine’s upcoming engagement
2/13/1911 TAE writes “Finance is out of my line – 40 million Americans think they know all about it, and it will be a big job to explain
2/14/1911 Edison Co releases film “The Rajah.”Wyncot returns to England and finds his estate mismanaged and the miners on strike. He settles the strike honorably
2/14/1911 TAE is in the market for bismuth ore for storage batteries but doesn’t want to mine it himself
2/14/1911 TAE says he has invented no hearing aid for the deaf, but recommends the Acousticon
2/14/1911 TAE thanks schoolteacher Aldelphia Mitchell of Manly, Iowa for letters from her class. Takes them home to read
2/15/1911 TAE signs application for US patent 1,184,333 for improvement on disc phonograph
2/15/1911 Edison Co releases motion picture “The Ransom of Red Chief,” O. Henry’s classic tale of a kidnapping gone wrong
2/16/1911 Wesley Healy, a poor 18 year old from Poole, Nebraska asks TAE advice on getting a patent
2/17/1911 Edison Co releases film “A Stage Romance” -- Drama backstage as a leading lady is unable to choose between her two leading men
2/18/1911 TAE writes Mr. Peterson of Perth Amboy, NJ that in his opinion a perpetual motion machine is impossible
2/19/1911 Frank Owen of Colton, CA suggests TAE invent an electric piano tuning instrument
2/20/1911 TAE tells W.H. Conkling of Springfield, Ill the molds for the first cement house are complete
2/20/1911 TAE writes Mrs. Fay of Ontario that if she sends one of the quilt blocks, he will sign it for the autograph quilt
2/21/1911 TAE tells NY World reporter: I do not want to get into any controversy over religion – have plenty to do investigating realities
2/21/1911 Edison Co releases film The Rival Sculptors - A rich ancient Athenian holds a contest between 2 sculptors– the prize, his daughter
2/22/1911 Edison Co releases film “Mr. Bumptious, Detective” A bumbling gumshoe finds a woman who wasn’t lost in the first place
2/23/1911 TAE declines invitation to attend meeting of Inventors Guild at the Café Martin in NYC
2/24/1911 TAE writes inventing isn’t getting ideas, it’s long laborious trouble working them out and producing aparatus that’s commercial
2/24/1911 Thomas and Mina Edison celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary
2/25/1911 TAE tells Dr. Grant his diagnosis is wrong – his gas caused by a kink in the intestine relieved by a violent wrench of the tummy
2/26/1911 Paul Zollars of Edgerton, Mo. wants TAE to market his new plow, says “you are a great inventor and people will listen to you”
2/27/1911 Harley Wright of Stillwater, OK wants TAE to be his partner in developing a motor truck
2/27/1911 August Newmark of NYC asks TAE if he’s interested in making oxygen gas for acetylene welding. Wants a job
2/28/1911 Col Josiah Reiff, early financial supporter of Edison’s telegraph experiments in the 1870s, dies
2/28/1911 TAE merges several of his companies to create Thomas A. Edison Inc.
3/1/1911 Edison Co releases film “The Rival Candidates” A wife is alarmed by the scum her husband has to associate with as he runs for mayor
3/1/1911 Edison Co releases Amberol cylinder recording “Napoleon’s Last Charge,” a 2-step march by the New York Military Band
3/2/1911 Oregon Iron & Steel Co asks TAE if electricity can be used to burn tree stumps. TAE says idea not practical
3/3/1911 Edison Co releases film “The Writing on the Blotter” - cashier framed in an embezzlement scheme but his wife proves his innocence
3/4/1911 West Orange Lab employs 110 experiments with a total payroll of $2487.11 for the week ending 3/7/1911
3/5/1911 Edison machinist Fred Ott is highest paid lab worker, paid salary of $55 for week ending 3/7/1911
3/6/1911 TAE working on new phonograph disc. Mrs Edison says “he cannot get the pure tones and it is annoying him greatly”
3/6/1911 Mrs Edison fears Victor phonograph will surpass Edison-“Victor has all the fine singers tied up and those are what the people want”
3/7/1911 Edison Co releases film “Love and the Stock Market” about a rich young woman with 2 suitors. The one who beats the market wins her
3/8/1911 Edison Co releases film “A Night of Terror” A traveler fears his ax-wielding innkeeper, but he’s just killing a chicken for supper
3/9/1911 TAE receives a copy of the book “Death and Resurrection” by Gustaf Bjorklund, on the re-circulation of matter
3/9/1911 TAE writes Layton & Co of Vienna, Austria that his cement house is not yet ready for mass production
3/10/1911 Edison Co releases film “How Bella Was Won” based on Dickens’ Our Mutual Friend. Poor man gains a fortune and his true love
3/11/1911 TAE recommends a student buy a copy of the Edison biography by Dyer & Martin to get details for her commencement speech