THOMAS A. EDISON - AUTOGRAPH NOTE SIGNED CIRCA 1922 CO-SIGNED BY: BRUNO WOLNITZKY - HFSID 155423

THOMAS A. EDISON. ANS: "Edison" in pencil at lower margin of handwritten memo signed: "B. Wolnitzky", 1p, 8½x10½ lined sheet. Orange, New Jersey, 1922 October 23. Wolnitzky's memo is headed: ""Memorandum for Mr Thomas A. Edison". In full: "In compliance with your suggestion I am going to send one of our phonographs to Morristown where our men are working in Mail Order House Service Clubs. What kind of an instrument shall I send and from whom shall I obtain it? Please keep in mind that this instrument is not only going to be used for demonstrating our records, but will also be used in the tone test which we are going to have in Morristown on the 8th of November." Edison sends the memo on to another department, with his response, in full: "Barley Loan Wolnitzky one of your Chippendale Demonstration machines if you can spare one". The phonograph was the favorite invention of prolific inventor Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931), who had debuted his first phonograph in 1877. The original phonograph had a receiver, a delicate metal needle that operated on a phonograph blank of white wax. Between 1912 and 1926, Edison continually refined his discs, but in December 1920, less than two years before he wrote this memo, Edison had been forced to close both his phonograph works and his battery factory. In the summer of 1921, he put up one million dollars in bonds for an $800,000 loan to reopen and operate his factories. By the year of this memo, there was a phonograph industry and competition was keen, so Edison was concentrating on improving sound quality. Edison, who had launched his marketing sensation, The Re-Creation Disk, in 1919, introduced his New Edison Long Playing Records in 1926. Lightly creased. Chipped at blank left and right edges, nicked at lower left blank edge. Upper corners torn, lower left corner chipped off. ¼-inch tear at upper right blank edge, 2 tape repairs at blank left margin. Overall, fine condition.