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Edison Manufacturing Company

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Edison Manufacturing Company
Founded1889
FounderThomas Edison
Defunct1926
SuccessorThomas A. Edison, Inc.
Headquarters
New York City
,
U.S.

The Edison Manufacturing Company, originally registered as under the name of the United Edison Manufacturing Company and often known as simply the Edison Company, was organized by scientist / inventor and entrepreneur, Thomas A. Edison (1847-1931), and incorporated in New York City in May 1889. It succeeded the earlier Edison United Manufacturing Company, founded in 1886 as a sales agency for the old Edison Lamp Company (forerunner of the modern General Electric Company), Edison Machine Works, and Bergmann & Company, which made electric lighting fixtures, bulbs, sockets, and other accessories. In April 1894, the Edison laboratory's new invention of the Kinetoscope motion pictures / filming process and cameras operation, which was about to be commercialized, was brought under the Edison Company umbrella. Six years later in 1900, the United Edison Manufacturing Company was evidently succeeded by the New Jersey–incorporated of the reorganized Edison Manufacturing Company. The company's assets and operations were transferred to his personal estate / corporation of Thomas A. Edison, Inc. a decade later in 1911.

History

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The Edison United Manufacturing Company was incorporated in July 1886 to consolidate the sales operations of the various Edison manufacturing concerns. The company went into liquidation—finalized October 31, 1889—and was succeeded by the United Edison Manufacturing Company, incorporated in New York City under New York state law in May 1889.[1] On May 4, 1900, the Edison Manufacturing Company—evidently the successor to the previous United Edison Manufacturing Company—was incorporated in Newark, New Jersey (under New Jersey state law), with its headquarters located in West Orange, New Jersey, the geographic site of the Edison laboratories and shops.[2]

From April 1894 to June 1908, William E. Gilmore was vice-president and general manager of the Edison Manufacturing Company. He took over from Alfred O. Tate and was succeeded by patent lawyer Frank Dyer.[3] Edison's films were made by the Kinetograph Department of the Edison Manufacturing Company.[4]

Edison's first moviemaking studio—and also the world's first—was the "Black Maria" in West Orange, New Jersey, where production of Kinetoscope films began in early 1893. The Edison Studios productions moved to a Manhattan facility in New York City after the turn of the 20th century, and a few years later to a studio further north in the then rural countryside of the borough of The Bronx. Filming locations around the United States and abroad / overseas were also used.[5][6][7][8]

The company had the same senior executives as the more profitable but older and separate National Phonograph Company (established 1896, reorganized 1911, dissolved 1957), to which Edison paid more attention. Edison was also distracted by other enterprises including storage electric batteries, iron ore and cement, which competed for his financial resources and led to occasional loss of focus and setting of priorities.[3]

In February 1911 the Edison Company's assets were assigned to the personal estate and corporation of Thomas A. Edison, Inc., and The Edison Manufacturing Company was formally dissolved on 9 November 1926, five years before the Great Geniuses' death.

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  • Silent movie with tinting Lighthouse by the Sea (1911) directed by Edwin S. Porter for Edison Manufacturing Company. Running time: 14:46.
  • Silent movie with Lord and the Peasant (1912) directed by J. Searle Dawley for Edison Manufacturing Company. Running time: 8:52
  • Silent comedy movie Mr. Toots' Tooth (1913) directed by Charles M. Seay for Edison Manufacturing Company. Running time: 06:35. Mr. Toots miraculously loses his tooth.

References

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  1. ^ Andrews, W. S. (1904). "Information Relating to the Old Edison Companies". "Edisonia": A Brief History of the Early Edison Electric Lighting System. New York: Association of Edison Illuminating Companies. pp. 164–65.
  2. ^ "Notes for Investors". Electricity. XVIII (18): 288. May 9, 1900.
  3. ^ a b Musser, Charles (1991). Before the Nickelodeon: Edwin S. Porter and the Edison Manufacturing Company. University of California Press. p. 44. ISBN 978-0-520-06986-2. Retrieved November 15, 2022. The passing mention in the introduction (p. 13) of Gilmore having been hired in April 1895 is clearly an error. See also McKernan, Luke. "William Edward Gilmore". Who's Who of Victorian Cinema. Retrieved November 15, 2022.
  4. ^ Musser, Charles (1991). Before the Nickelodeon: Edwin S. Porter and the Edison Manufacturing Company. University of California Press. p. 44. ISBN 978-0-520-06986-2. Retrieved November 15, 2022.
  5. ^ "RELIEF OF LUCKNOW: Dinna Ye Hear It?". The Royal Gazette. City of Hamilton, Pembroke, Bermuda. 1912-08-13. it was created by the Edison artistes who made their headquarters last spring at Villa Monticello, Flatts.
  6. ^ "HUMANOPHONE COMPANY. Famous Historic Picture Shown-Relief of Lucknow". The Royal Gazette. City of Hamilton, Pembroke, Bermuda. 1912-08-17. To Bermudians this picture has peculiar interest ; for it was at Flatts while Mr. Dawley and his company were there that they produced this most remarkable picture.
    The Highlanders, Sepoys, Artillery-men &c. who appear in the scene are men of The Queen's Regiment whose services were secured for the occasion.
  7. ^ "RELIEF OF LUCKNOW (Indian Mutiny) - A mute film from The Tornos Studio's Collection". Youtube: tornosindia. CREDITS FOR THIS VIDEO: The Arts and Humanities Research Council, British Film Institute, The Imperial War Museum and the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum. (UK). Retrieved 2022-05-01. CONTEXT: The Relief of Lucknow was produced by the Edison Company for the British market. Around 1911, Edison began to make films on specifically European themes to increase sales in the United Kingdom (Great Britain). The company also started sending actors and personnel to shoot films in outdoor locations, away from its original / first New Jersey studio (Musser 1995, 49). J. Searle Dawley (1877-1949), director of The Relief, led several of these trips. In the same year of 1912 that he directed The Relief of Lucknow, Dawley also shot the epic silent film of The Charge of the Light Brigade (1912), further out West in Cheyenne, Wyoming, adapting Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)'s poem to depict the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War of the early 1850s as a tale of British loyalty and sacrifice. Just as he did earlier in Bermuda, Dawley recruited the cooperation of the commander of nearby Fort D.A. Russell at Cheyenne, to provide about 800 experienced mounted cavalry troops of the United States Army to reenact the heroic charge of 58 years earlier and half a world away, although in different uniforms and equipment. His earlier The Relief was shot in the British Royal colony islands of Bermuda, which offered the advantages of tropical scenery and the presence of the 2nd Battalion of the "Queen's Own" Regiment of the British Army, stationed on site
  8. ^ "HUMANOPHONE COMPANY. "FOR VALOUR". Beautiful Bermuda Film". The Royal Gazette. City of Hamilton, Pembroke, Bermuda. 1913-05-15. p. 2. This evening the Humanophone Company offer as the central attraction of their moving picture exhibition at the Colonial Opera House the Edison, Bermuda film "For Valour," made while Mr. Dawley and his company were at work last year at the Villa Montecello, Flatts. The story concerns the loves of a pretty Bermuda maiden who finds herself unable to choose between two representatives of the British Army until they are on the eve of departure for the South African War (Second Boer War, 1899-1902). Her choice falls upon one who eventually turns out to be a mean coward. But the other undertakes to bring him back to her and fulfils the self-imposed task although the coward has won a medal for an act which his rival performed. Eventually the truth, becomes known, and the Bermuda beauty rectifies her mistake. It is a pleasing picture and, the local setting lends it a peculiar interest for Bermudians. There was a large attendance of the lovers of good moving pictures at the Town Hall, St. George's on Monday night to see the splendid exhibition given by the Humanophone Company. There are a large number of young boys and girls who regularly attend the Monday night shows and Master Arthur said on Monday night' that Mr. Kaplan might put a real funny one in for their benefit. The Humanphone Co's. pictures are of a very high class, but a little nonsense now and then is relished by the best of men. Miss Silverstone delighted the audience With her performance at the piano and the people of St. George's appreciate her playing more and more as the season advances.
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