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Jersey in 1876, the world’s fi rst, and began to develop
a commercially viable carbon telephone transmitter. He
patented the cylinder phonograph in 1877, intending it
for offi ce dictation, and his experiments on electric light
systems began the next year. Edison’s high-resistance
carbon fi lament lamp was patented on 1 November
1879, and over the next three years he patented some
111 electrical devices ranging from generators and
batteries to lamps and electric-powered railroads. At
the same time he began constructing demonstration
electrical stations and commercially manufacturing
lamps and other electrical apparatus. Moving his
laboratory to larger quarters in West Orange, New
Jersey in 1887, his fertile workshop continued to in-
vent and patent a large number of products including
storage batteries, magentic ore mining apparatus, and
a camera with its moving picture viewer called the
Kinetoscope. Amongst the scores of domestic and in-
ternational fi rms established to promote and exploit his
work, The Edison Electric Light Company eventually
evolved into the General Electric Company, and the
Deutsche Edison Gesellschaft became the Allgemeine
Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft (AEG). By the early 1900s
his advice was sought by businessmen from all sectors
of the economy, while his unusual gift for describing
new technologies in a simple turn of phrase turned him
into a favourite of the press and the public alike. His
rags-to-riches story had an immense appeal: the fi rst
of many biographies was published in 1879, when he
was only 32, and Edison was a leading character in a
French science-fi ction novel by Villiers de l’Isle-Adam
in 1886. His last patent application was fi led in 1931,
the year he died, and his life and work were promptly
memorialised in hagiographic fi lms from Hollywood,
fi rst in Young Tom Edison with Mickey Rooney as the
inventor and then in Edison the Man starring Spencer
Tracy (both 1940).
See also: Emulsions; and Eastman, George.Further Reading
Baldwin, Neil, Edison: Inventing the Century, New York: Hy-
perion, 1995.
Israel, Paul, Edison: A Lfe of Invention, New York: John Wiley
& Sons, 1988.
Link to the Thomas A. Edison Papers project: http://www.rci.
rutgers.edu/~taep/.
Musser, Charles, Edison Motion Pictures, 1890–1900. An Anno-
tated Filmography, Pordenone/Washington, D.C.: Le Giornate
del Cinema Muto/Smithsonian Institution Press, 1887.
Rossell, Deac, “Exploding Teeth, Unbreakable Sheets and
Continuous Casting: Nitrocellulose from Guncotton to Early
Cinema,” In: Roger Smither and Carol Surowiec, eds., This
Film is Dangerous, Brussels: Fédération Internationale des
Archivs du Film, 2002.
Spehr, Paul, “Unaltered to Date: Developing 35mm Film,” In:
John Fullerton & Astrid Soderbergh Widding, eds., MovingImages: From Edison to the Webcam, Sydney: John Libby
Co., 2000.
Wachorst, Wyn, Thomas Alva Edison: An American Myth, Cam-
bridge: MIT Press, 1981.EDLER, ANTON (1798–1856)
German daguerreotypistAnton Edler, born in 1798 in Munich, was first a
draughtsman, lithographer and engraver. From 1813 he
worked in a surveying offi ce of the Bavarian Army draft-
ing the topographical atlas of Bavaria and maps of Mu-
nich. In the process he fell victim to an eye illness and
was pensioned in 1850. Although he stoped his drafting
work, he continued to photograph, having in 1840 begun
practising the daguerreotype, taking mainly portraits. In
1854 he contributed daguerreotypes and calotypes to
the Deutsche Industrieausstellung [German Industrial
Exhibition] in Munich. Edler died on 20 May 1856. His
photographic work is preserved in the Deutsche Museum
Munich and the Stadtmuseum Munich.
Stefanie KlammEDUCATION AND TRAINING IN
PHOTOGRAPHY
The roots of photographic education and training go
back almost as far as the fi rst public announcement of
photography in 1839. By October of the same year, the
Polytechnic Institution in Regent Street, London was
advertising lectures on the daguerreotype process by its
resident chemist Mr. J. T. Cooper three times a week.
In the early days photographers were self-taught.
Frequently it was a hit and miss affair but those with
backgrounds in chemistry and physics were able to
decipher the processes with the minimum of informa-
tion. J. B. Dancer of Manchester explained the prob-
lem: ‘The early descriptions of Daguerre’s method of
proceeding were crude and obscure. In consequence of
this I had six weeks of hard work, numerous failures,
and accidentally was nearly suffocated by the vapour
of iodine before I obtained satisfactory results.’ As a
‘practical optician’ Dancer was able to construct his
own camera and lens. By 1841 he was able to supply
‘daguerreotype apparatus’ and taught the process ‘to
Manchester gentlemen who became amateur photog-
raphers.’ (Dancer, 1886)
Photography became a popular pursuit with the relax-
ation of Talbot’s patent in July 1852. With that increase
in amateur sales came the need for instruction of the
fashionable hobby. By the following spring, classes were
available from T. A. Malone at the Royal Polytechnic
Institution, Philip H. Delamotte at the Photographic
Institution in New Bond Street and Nikolaas HennemanEDUCATION AND TRAINING IN PHOTOGRAPHY
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