That's an Edison motor-dynamo. The design of it would date to the invention of the incandescent lamp in 1879 or thereabouts, so the 1882 patent date is probably right. Edison had to invent the entire power generation, distribution, and consumer product line of products right along with the lamp to ensure that there was a market for the lamp products. He literally had to invent the entire market for distributed-power electricity in the home and much of industry and small businesses. Most people either don't know this or have forgotten it in all the hoopla over the lamp and the phonograph. Unlike Rockefeller and Vanderbilt in his own gilded age, and Bill Gates, Rupert Murdock, and all the other fat capitalist pigs of our modern Second Gilded Age (have YOUR wages kept up with inflation? Murdock's has and plenty more), Edison wasn't in business to get filthy, stinking rich. He could have EASILY done so with several of his inventions, the lamp and its accoutrements in particular. He wanted to invent things. He sold them so that he could afford to buy more equipment and personnel to invent more things. Consequently, he created the Edison General Electric Company, together with some fat cash investors to handle the drudgery of dealing with the whole lamp and power distribution business. When he needed more cash for his laboratory, he sold out his interest in the company to the fat butts, they dropped the "Edison" from the company name, and they went on to create one of the biggest cash cows in Murkan history. Greg Bogantz ----- Original Message ----- From: "John Maeder" <appywander at hotmail.com> To: <phono-l at oldcrank.org> Sent: Monday, February 25, 2008 2:02 PM Subject: [Phono-L] Interesting Edison item on Craigslist Here's an interesting piece of Edisonia . . . is this as early as the patent indicates? Don't know if the price is good or not. John http://huntsville.craigslist.org/grd/580738136.html _______________________________________________ Phono-L mailing list http://phono-l.oldcrank.org