If you liked the earlier mucker biographies, here are several more. These profiles include Edison associates from the Menlo Park days as well as from Edison's years in West Orange. These biographies go into greater depth than those in the previous section. As more archival collections are processed, we will add additional profiles.

From TAE, Inc. to NPS:
Harold S. Anderson (1895-1988)

Harold Stephen Anderson was born on May 6, 1895 in Thompsonville, Michigan. After graduation from high school, he attended Harvard University, receiving an A.B. degree in 1917. That summer Anderson joined the 15th U.S. Engineers Regiment and spent the next year and a half repairing railroad lines in France. Returning to the United States in mid-1919, Anderson was hired as a stock record clerk for the Cushman and Denison Manufacturing Company in New York City. Upon news of his father's death in June of 1920 Anderson returned home to Michigan for six months. He then traveled back to New York and was rehired at the same firm as a purchasing agent where he remained for three years. He married Dorothy Josephine Holland in April 1921 and their first two sons were born in 1922 and 1924.

In November 1924, after the sale of Cushman and Denison to a competitor, Anderson passed the TAE, Inc., application questionnaire and was hired as Inspector in the Disc Record Manufacturing Division. He later moved to the advertising department of the radio and phonograph divisions where he remained until the complete withdrawal of TAE, Inc., from those businesses in 1931. Soon afterward Anderson was named Treasurer of the newly formed Calibron Products, Inc., a company established by Theodore Edison to keep some of his late father's employees and engineers working together on research projects.

In 1939 Anderson transferred to the Research Department, General Division of TAE, Inc., and, along with other duties, began taking on a curatorial role in the Edison Laboratories. Anderson was officially named Museum Curator in 1948 when the laboratory buildings were turned over to the Thomas A. Edison Foundation. Anderson remained museum curator through the 1956 takeover by the National Park Service until his retirement in the 1970s. In 1969 Anderson was presented with a U.S. Department of the Interior Citation for Meritorious Service for thirty years service as Museum Curator.  Top

Edison's right hand man:
Charles Batchelor (1845-1910)

Charles Batchelor, one of Edison's closest laboratory assistants and business partners during the 1870s and 1880s, was born in London on Christmas Day, 1845, and grew up in Manchester. Trained as a mechanic, he was sent to the United States in 1870 to install machinery at the Clark Sewing Thread Mills in Newark, New Jersey. There he met Edison and joined the inventor in his Newark shop, later moving with him to Menlo Park.

Batchelor worked with Edison on numerous technologies including telegraphy, telephony, electrical lighting, and the phonograph. A gifted experimenter, he was Edison's "hands," testing, tinkering with, and improving the models and apparatus built for Edison by John Kruesi.

Batchelor undertook several overseas assignments for Edison. In 1879 he went to London to supervise technical operations of the Edison Telephone Company of Great Britain, but he was taken ill there and returned to Menlo Park. Two years later Batchelor installed a model of an electrical lighting station for the Paris Electrical Exposition of 1881. He stayed on in the city for three years to manage the recently-founded Société Continentale Edison which controlled Edison's lighting patents; technicians trained there built central stations throughout Europe.

Along with other Edison assistants such as Samuel Insull, John Kruesi, Francis Upton, and E.H. Johnson, Batchelor was an investor in Edison manufacturing enterprises, beginning with the Edison Electric Light Company (1878), and continuing with the Edison Lamp Company (1880), the Edison Machine Works (1881), which Batchelor managed between 1884 and 1888, and the Edison General Electric Company (1888). It was through their positions as both investors in, and employees of, these concerns that Edison and his men derived much of their income.

When Edison relocated his experimental laboratory to West Orange, New Jersey, in 1887, Batchelor supervised the construction of the buildings. Later, Batchelor became Treasurer and General Manager of the General Electric Company (which succeeded the Edison General Electric Company in 1892). Following his retirement from that position, Batchelor returned in 1899 to assist Edison with his ore milling project, regularly inspecting the Ogden plant and reporting his findings to Edison.

Batchelor was President of the Taylor Foundry Company at the time of his death, New Year's Day, 1910.

Walter L. Welch has written a biography, Charles Batchelor: Edison's Chief Partner (Syracuse, 1972).  Top

Lawyer, author, inventor:
Frank L. Dyer (?-1941)

Dyer first became involved in Edison's patent affairs in 1897. In November 1903 he became general counsel in charge of all of Edison's legal business. Dyer succeeded William Gilmore as president of the National Phonograph Company in July 1908. He also held positions in a number of other Edison companies, including general manager of the Edison Phonograph Works, president of the Bates Manufacturing Company, vice president of the Edison Manufacturing Company, and general manager of the Edison Storage Battery Company. Dyer was also instrumental in organizing the Motion Picture Patents Company in 1908, which attempted to eliminate price cutting in the motion picture industry by pooling the patents of major producers. In 1910 he helped organize the General Film Company, which distributed films to motion picture theaters. Dyer was also the treasurer of the Condensite Company of America from 1910 to 1920.

Dyer played a role in the formation of Thomas A. Edison, Incorporated (TAE, Inc.) in February 1911. This firm brought together under unified management the various Edison companies. Dyer served as president of TAE, Inc., until December 1912, when he resigned to become president of the General Film Company. He left this firm in 1914 to open a patent consulting firm in New York, which he managed until his retirement in 1929.

Dyer was also an inventor and author. In 1910 he co-authored with Thomas Comerford Martin a two-volume biography, Edison: His Life and Inventions. Dyer also invented a special long-playing phonograph record which was used to produce talking books for the blind, as well as a cotton bale press, an electric steering gear for ships, and liquid air. Dyer was married three times and had two sons. He died in Ventnor, New Jersey, on June 4, 1941.  Top

Company man:
Miller Reese Hutchison (1876-?)

Miller Reese Hutchison was an inventor and businessman who was associated with Thomas Edison between 1910 and 1918. Born in Montrose, Alabama, in 1876, Hutchison was educated at the Alabama Polytechnic Institute. Upon graduation he worked as an engineer for the U.S. Light House Service and, during the Spanish-American War, helped lay submarine cables in the Gulf of Mexico.

After the war Hutchison established a research laboratory in New York City where he developed a number of inventions, including the klaxon auto horn and a hearing aid. Hutchison traveled to London and Paris in 1902 to test his hearing aid and to present the device to Queen Alexandra of Great Britain.

Hutchison began his work with Edison in 1910 as a consultant and promoter of the Edison storage battery. On November 1, 1912 Hutchison became Chief Engineer of Edison's West Orange laboratory. Hutchison also became advertising manager of the Edison Storage Battery Co. and played an important role in the promotion of the storage battery for use in U.S. Navy submarines. Hutchison acted as an intermediary between Edison and U.S. Navy Secretary Josephus Daniels, leading to Edison's appointment as President of the Naval Consulting Board, a civilian board of inventors and business who solicited and reviewed suggested inventions from the public which might help the military.

On January 1, 1917 Hutchison left the Edison Storage Battery Co to organize his own firm to distribute Edison batteries. He resigned as Chief Engineer of Edison's West Orange Laboratory on July 6, 1918.  Top

"The greatest inspiration of my life...":
Arthur E. Kennelly (1864-1939)

Arthur Edwin Kennelly was a prominent contributor to the science of electrical engineering. He was born on December 17, 1864 in Colaba, Bombay, India. He worked for Thomas A. Edison on a variety of projects from 1887 to 1893. He later stated, "The privilege which I had being with this great man for six years was the greatest inspiration of my life." Between 1893 to 1901, he worked as a consulting engineer with the Edison General Electric Company, the General Electric Company of New York, and Houston and Kennelly in Philadelphia, Pa. He was affiliated with Harvard from 1902 until 1930 as well as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1913 until 1930. He died on June 18, 1939.   Top

The man who built Edison's phonograph:
John Kruesi (1843-1899)

John Kruesi was born in Switzerland on May 15, 1843. He served an apprenticeship as a clock maker and instrument builder and later worked as a journeyman machinist in Zurich and Paris. He immigrated to the United States in 1870 and found a position with the Singer Sewing Machine Co. in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He joined the staff of Edison's Newark shop in 1872.

Kruesi functioned principally as a shop foreman, building models, instruments, and apparatus for Edison's experimental work in various technologies: phonograph, telephone, electric railway, incandescent lamp, and, especially, electric lighting delivery systems, to which he made significant contributions.

At the Edison Machine Works, Kruesi supervised several hundred employees engaged in the production of dynamos for electric lighting systems. In 1881 he developed an underground electric tube system (patented in 1883) and became general manager and treasurer of the Electric Tube Co. When the company merged with the Edison Machine Works, Kruesi served as assistant general manager under Charles Batchelor and assumed Batchelor's position in 1885.

The following year the Machine Works moved to Schenectady, New York, and was later absorbed into the Edison General Electric Co. Kruesi, as assistant general manager under Samuel Insull, greatly expanded the shops to accommodate a work force that grew from 200 to 4,000 employees in six years. He became general manager of the newly organized General Electric Co. in 1892, and chief mechanical engineer in 1896; he served in that capacity until his death, February 22, 1899.

Kruesi married Emily Zwinger of Allegheny, Pennsylvania, in 1873; they had eight children. His wife died in 1897.   Top

As solid as cement:
Walter S. Mallory (1860-1944)

Walter S. Mallory was born on July 12, 1860. He first met Edison the summer of 1885 at Chautauqua, New York. The following year he was an usher at the wedding of Edison and Mina Miller. Mallory started working for Edison in 1888 or 1889. He was an officer and stockholder in the Edison ore milling companies and later served as vice-president of the New Jersey and Pennsylvania Concentrating Works from 1895 to 1908. Later, he became president of the Edison Portland Cement Company. He died on February 13, 1944.   Top

Treasured treasurer:
Harry F. Miller (1869-1950)

Harry F. Miller (no relation to Mina Miller Edison) was scheduled to start work for Thomas A. Edison on March 11, 1888 but a blizzard prevented his arrival. He made it the next day, and began work as an assistant to John F. Randolph, bookkeeper. Documents indicate that he may also have served as office manager for the Edison Manufacturing Company in Silver Lake, New Jersey.

From 1896 to 1908 he was the cashier for the National Phonograph Company. When John F. Randolph died in 1908, Miller took his place as private secretary to Edison and assistant treasurer for the Edison Phonograph Works, the National Phonograph Company, the Edison Manufacturing Company and the Bates Manufacturing Company. In 1910, William H. Meadowcroft became Edison's private secretary, but the records indicate that Miller continued to act as assistant treasurer for the various Edison companies and, in some capacity, as secretary, until 1916.

In 1916, Miller succeeded Ernest J. Berggren as treasurer of Thomas A. Edison, Inc. He later became treasurer and director of Thomas A. Edison, Inc., Edison Portland Cement Company and affiliated Companies. He maintained these responsibilities until his retirement on January 1, 1937.  Top

Dynamic dynamo designer:
Francis R. Upton (1852-1921)

Francis R. Upton was born in Peabody, Massachusetts on July 26, 1852. He studied mathematics at Bowdoin College, Princeton University, and the University of Berlin (under Hermann von Helmholtz) before joining Edison at Menlo Park in December 1878. At Menlo Park he worked as Edison's chief scientific assistant, preparing blueprints, performing calculations, and solving mathematical problems associated with Edison's incandescent electric lighting system. He also helped design incandescent lamps, dynamos, and the electric railway.

Following the perfection of the incandescent lamp and Edison's consequent expansion into lamp manufacture, Upton became general manager of the Edison Lamp Co. in Menlo Park and later in Harrison, New Jersey. There he combined his managerial duties with experimental work on lamp improvements.

Upton traveled to Europe in 1886 to inspect Edison's financially-troubled electric lighting companies. While there, he examined a transformer used in alternating current electrical delivery systems and advised Edison to purchase the American rights. Edison did so, but later allowed his option to lapse, preferring the direct current delivery system. During the 1880s Upton also served on the board of the Edison General Electric Co.

He left the Edison Lamp Works in 1894 but returned to Edison's employ in 1898 as an efficiency engineer at the New Jersey & Pennsylvania Concentrating Works. Upton's talent for selling sand (a by-product of ore-milling) to cement manufacturers helped persuade Edison to enter the cement business himself. Following the collapse of the ore-milling venture, Upton joined the Edison Portland Cement Co., eventually serving as company representative for northern New Jersey. He left that position in 1911, continuing to sell brick and crushed sand independently.

Upton married twice and had three children by each wife. He served as first president of the Edison Pioneers (1918). He later retired to California, but died in Orange, New Jersey, March 10, 1921.  Top

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updated: 05-Nov-2004 11:35