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World War I-dated DS, signed “Thos. A. Edison,” one page, 8.25 x 9.5, personal “From the Laboratory of Thomas A. Edison" letterhead, October 1, 1915. Business contract concerning the sale of aniline oil to the Racine Rubber Company of Racine, Wisconsin. The agreement provides for Edison's supply of aniline oil during the 1916 calendar year, specifying quantity, pricing, delivery terms, and payment conditions. In part: "Racine Rubber Company…hereby purchases, and agrees to receive from Thomas A. Edison, and the said Thomas A. Edison hereby sells to Racine Rubber Company, Aniline Oil required by said Racine Rubber Company for its own use and consumption in factory located at Racine, Wis., during the period from January 1st, 1916, to December 31st, 1916." The contract establishes a price of "sixty (60) cents per pound" and deliveries of "one thousand (1,000) pounds per month."
Particularly notable is the contract's wartime contingency clause, which permits deliveries to be suspended in the event of "war, fire, flood, strike, lockout, accident, or other like causes beyond the control of said Edison," reflecting the uncertainties facing American industry during the First World War. In very good to fine condition, with fold splits, slightly irregular toning to the left edge, and irregular trimming to the bottom edge.
Issued on Edison’s distinctive laboratory letterhead, this uncommon industrial contract dates to a period when the inventor was deeply engaged in chemical manufacturing ventures. Before World War I, Germany dominated the global market for synthetic dyes and related chemicals, including aniline products. With wartime disruptions sharply curtailing those imports, Edison expanded domestic production of chemicals such as benzol, phenol, and aniline derivatives, helping to fill shortages that affected numerous American industries. Aniline oil was an important industrial chemical used in dyes and rubber production, making its purchase by the Racine Rubber Company particularly fitting. Signed on October 1, 1915, the contract predates by just six days the formal convening of the Naval Consulting Board on October 7th, at which Edison was elected chairman, placing the document at the moment when he was supplying American industry with critical wartime chemicals and assuming a leading role in the nation’s military preparedness effort.
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