Skip to main content

This auction has ended. View lot details

You may also be interested in

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

Lot 30

EDISON, THOMAS ALVA. 1847-1931.
Typed Letter Signed ("Thos A Edison"),

4 December 2019, 13:00 EST
New York

Sold for US$956.25 inc. premium

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

How to sell

Looking for a similar item?

Our Books & Manuscripts specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.

Find your local specialist

Ask about this lot

EDISON, THOMAS ALVA. 1847-1931.

Typed Letter Signed ("Thos A Edison"), 1 p, 4to, Orange, NJ, December 27, 1912, to "City Editor," Mail & Express, inviting the newspaper to send someone to a demonstration of the "Combined Talking and Picture Machine," on Edison's letterhead, fold creases, adhesive residue on verso, browning to corners.

Edison writes to an anonymous editor, saying that he had been "asked by reporters of various New York papers" to let them know when the machine could be demonstrated, but that he "did not take their names...." As early as 1894, Edison collaborated with W.K.L. Dickson on the Kinetophone, which combined a phonograph with his Kinetoscope viewer. It wasn't until 1913 that a new version of the Kinetophone was introduced to the public, this time projecting the image onto a screen instead of having to be viewed through eye holes in the machine. He produced 19 sound motion pictures, but problems with the synchronization of sound and images during projection prevented the technology from catching on, and it was abandoned in 1915.

Additional information

Bid now on these items

ADVERTISING POSTERfor 'The Suffragette' newspaper, [c.1913-1914]

ARCHITECTURE - STUART (JAMES) AND NICHOLAS REVETT The Antiquities of Athens, 4 vol. bound in 2, 1825-1830

ILLUMINATED ADDRESS – CLARA CODD Illuminated printed address signed by Emmeline Pankhurst, [1909]

ARMENIAN - HISTORY, THEOLOGY AND PRINTING. Group of books/a map in Armenian, c.1825-1901 (12)

MUSIC & RECORDINGS – ETHEL SMYTH Collection of printed music, song sheets and records, [c.1911-1912]

BANK NOTES - MANUFACTURING BRADBURY (HENRY) On the Security and Manufacture of Bank Notes, FIRST EDITION, Bradbury and Evans, 1856