Thomas A. Edison, Incorporated (originally the National Phonograph Company) was the main

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...

for the various manufacturing companies established by the inventor and entrepreneur

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventi ...

. It was a successor to

Edison Manufacturing Company The Edison Manufacturing Company, originally registered as the United Edison Manufacturing Company and often known as simply the Edison Company, was organized by inventor and entrepreneur Thomas Edison and incorporated in New York City in May 188 ...

and operated between 1911 and 1957, when it merged with

McGraw Electric The McGraw Electric Company was a US manufacturer of electric appliances founded by Max McGraw in 1900. It grew through mergers and acquisitions to become a major enterprise. The best known product may have been the Toastmaster pop-up toaster. In 1 ...

to form

McGraw-Edison McGraw-Edison was an American manufacturer of electrical equipment. It was created in 1957 through a merger of McGraw Electric and Thomas A. Edison, Inc., and was in turn acquired by Cooper Industries in 1985. Today, the McGraw-Edison brand is us ...

History

The National Phonograph Company was incorporated on 27 January 1896. It was restructured and reincorporated as Thomas A. Edison, Inc. on 28 February 1911.

also became a division of Thomas A. Edison, Inc. at this time. The company had an industrial research laboratory in

West Orange, New Jersey West Orange is a suburban township in Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States Census, its population was 48,843, an increase of 2,636 (+5.7%) from the 46,207 counted in the 2010 Census.

where up to 200 people were employed in the "rapid and cheap development of inventions." Frank L. Dyer was president until December 1912, when Thomas Edison took over the position himself. C.H. Wilson, general manager, was also vice president from 1912. Edison resigned as president in August 1926 in favor of his son,

Charles Edison Charles Edison (August 3, 1890 – July 31, 1969) was an American politician, businessman, inventor and animal behaviorist. He was the Assistant and then United States Secretary of the Navy, and served as the 42nd governor of New Jersey. Commonly ...

, and became chairman of the board. The company had divisions handling different products such as phonographs, Ediphone, and storage batteries. One of the first products were

Blue Amberol Blue Amberol Records was the trademark name for cylinder records manufactured by Thomas A. Edison, Inc. in the US from 1912 to 1929. They replaced the 4-minute black wax Amberol cylinders introduced in 1908, which had replaced the 2-minute wa ...

cylinders and the Amberola player, an early sound recording medium and player. This was followed by the Edison Diamond Disc. In 1915 the soprano Anna Case and contralto Christine Miller showed in a tone test at the West Orange lab that there was no difference between their live voices and Diamond Disc recordings of their voices. Other Edison companies were absorbed in the years that followed, including Edison Phonograph Works (28 August 1924),

Edison Storage Battery Company The Edison Storage Battery Company was organized in New Jersey on May 27, 1901. Edison Storage Battery Division label. The Edison Storage Battery was filed for patent in November 1900 and launched publicly on May 21, 1901. Building Edison Stor ...

(30 June 1932) and Emark Battery Corporation (30 December 1933). Charles Edison

In the 1920s the recording company began to lag in technical innovation, and also failed to attract recording stars of the same quality as its rivals Victor and

Columbia Columbia may refer to: * Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America Places North America Natural features * Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region i ...

. An attempt to market a long playing record in 1926 did not succeed, and the company did not begin recording electrically (with condenser microphones) until mid-1927, two years after the rest of the industry had adopted the process. In 1928 the company finally moved into radio with the purchase of the Splitdorf Radio Corp. On 1 November 1929 Edison halted production of records apart from dictation records made by the Voicewriter division. In the late 1920s the "Edicraft" line of high-quality consumer appliances was developed at the laboratory and manufactured by Thomas A. Edison, Inc. Production of appliances was discontinued in 1934 due to lack of demand for luxury goods during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

Merger

Max McGraw Max McGraw (1 February 1883 – 26 October 1964) was an American entrepreneur who founded McGraw-Edison and Centel. He financed marketing of the first domestic toaster, the Toastmaster. He was also a conservationist and hunter. Early years Ma ...

, founder and president of

, had always been an admirer of Thomas Alva Edison, and had his picture hanging in his office. In 1956 he arranged a meeting with his son

, former Governor of New Jersey and Secretary of the Navy, to discuss merging their two companies. They spent a few days at

the Broadmoor The Broadmoor (stylized as THE BRODMOOR) is a hotel and resort in the Broadmoor neighborhood of Colorado Springs, Colorado. The Broadmoor is a member of Historic Hotels of America of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Its visitors ha ...

resort in

Colorado Springs, Colorado Colorado Springs is a home rule municipality in, and the county seat of, El Paso County, Colorado, United States. It is the largest city in El Paso County, with a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States Census, a 15.02% increase since ...

and came to an agreement. The merger was effective 2 January 1957. The combined company was named the McGraw-Edison Company. Max McGraw would joke after the merger that his name now appeared before Edison's on the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its liste ...

References

Sources

* * * * *

External links

Edison Sheet Music Collection, 1830-1958
and the onlin
Historic Sheet Music Collection, 1800 to 1922
at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas A. Edison, Incorporated 1896 establishments in New Jersey 1957 disestablishments in New Jersey Thomas Edison Articles containing video clips Manufacturing companies established in 1896 American companies established in 1896 Manufacturing companies disestablished in 1957 American companies disestablished in 1957 Defunct manufacturing companies based in New Jersey 1957 mergers and acquisitions

History

Merger

See also

References

Sources

External links