Edison, Thomas Alva

Autograph letter signed with initials ("TAE"), 4 pages ( 6 7/8 x 4 3/8 in.; 174 x 113 mm) on a bifolium of Glenmont Llewellyn Park letterhead, [West Orange, NJ], "Monday" [ca. 1896], to his wife Mina Miller Edison ("Dear Billy"); lightly creased. Blue buckram portfolio.

Edison updates his wife on his laboratory work while she vacations at Chautauqua. "I have been working on filament this evening & have just returned home 11 pm. We have an X ray lamp now that you can see all the bones of the body and see the heart beat plainly."

Edison then councils Mina about the treatment of their ill son, Charles, encouraging her to "keep up the Quinine, I said seven days perhaps it will require 10 days but it will ultimately bring it." And he comments  at length on one of the most significant issues of the 1896 presidential election: Democrat William Jenning Bryan's proposal to put the United States on a silver standard, while Republican William McKinley held firm for gold. "Don't fear but what I have read both sides of the silver question. Any person that believes in free silver must be absolutely ignorant of the history of money. Innumerable Experiments have in times past been tried Billions of money have been lost and untold misery produced." Edison then draws an analogy for political theorists from his own pragmatic field of endeavor: "If a man will not learn by Experiments actually performed his thinking apparatus must be a poor affair." He concludes his letter in humorous vein, "I must close darling Billy with oceans of Love (gold) for yourself and babies. I am your Constant par 100 c[ents] on $ Lover."

A significant letter revealing that Edison was experimenting with X-rays almost immediately after their discovery by Wilhelm Roetgen—and demonstrating his homey wit.