Tremendous partly printed DS, signed “Thomas Alva Edison,” six total pages, 7.75 x 12.75, October 28, 1882. A patent application for the “Improvements in means for regulating the generative capacity of dynamo or magneto electric machines,” which reads, in part: “The said Invention has for its object providing simple and efficient means for regulating the generative capacity of dynamo or magneto electric machines supplying lamps or other translating devices located in derived or multiple arc circuits, by acting upon the commutator brushes or springs to move them away from and towards the points of greatest difference in potential, or most effective generation. This object is accomplished by mechanism hereinafter described which is both actuated and controlled by the current generated and is connected with the commutator brushes so as [to] move them together in one or the other direction. The electric [current] to this mechanism supplied by the current generated are made and broken by an electro magnet also energized by the current generated by the machine.” Boldly signed at the conclusion by Edison with his trademark ‘umbrella’ signature, and countersigned by Henry Wessells Seely, Edward Hamilton Pyatt, and notarized by William Henry Meadowcroft. Orange New York County notary seal remains affixed to lower left corner. Also includes a pair of printed mechanical diagrams with a stapled partly printed document relating to the above patent, also dated October 28, 1882, and signed on behalf of Edison in a secretarial hand. In very good to fine condition, with splitting to intersecting folds, and some paper loss to the edges of the fragile sheets.
This magnificent document dates to a period of great activity for Edison in his pursuit of electric lights and distribution, with Edison executing a total of thirty-four patent applications covering electric lighting and electric railways between October 4th and November 28th; amazingly, Edison had executed fifty-three patent applications earlier that summer. In early September 1882, roughly two months before signing this document, Edison delivered electricity to his first paying customers when he opened the Pearl Street power station in New York City. Seely patented the electric flat iron on June 6, 1882, and was a witness to many of Edison's patents, including his 1881 ‘incandescing electric lamp.’ Seely’s signature appeared on more than 100 patents in the early 1880s, and he served as an occasional witness up to 1892. Meadowcroft was a close friend and former secretary of Edison, as well as a co-author of the famed inventor’s biography. A wonderful and highly displayable Edison patent.
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