How History Unfolds on Paper: Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection, Part IX

EDISON, Thomas (1847-1931). Patent for Edison’s Improvements on the Electric-Light, No. 219,628. [Washington, D.C.: U.S. Patent Office], 16 September 1879. On two conjoined sheets, small 4to (279 x 191 mm), lithographed illustrations on sheet facing the text. Provenance: extracted from a collection of U.S. Patents granted to Edison, that was owned by Charles L. Clarke. Clarke (1853-1941) was Chief Engineer of the Edison Electric Light Company and as such responsible for Pearl Street Station in New York, the world’s first commercial power plant. The only other Edison patents we could locate are in the Smithsonian and were once owned by another Edison scientist, William J. Hammer, who also worked alongside Clarke. On 27 January 1880, Edison would be granted a patent for “Improvements on Electric-Lamps”, better known as the light bulb.