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THE
V O L . XXXII. N o . 4 . Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill at 3 East Fourteenth Street, New York, Jan. 26,1901.
Big Suit Against Edison.
AN INJUNCTION AND DAMAGES OF $ 2 2 5 , 0 0 0
ASKED FOR—NEW YORK PHONOGRAPH
CO. CLAIM INVENTOR BROKE HIS
CON'iRACTS.
Hostilities that have long existed were
brought to an issue Thursday by the be-
ginning of a suit for $225,0^0 damages
against Thomas A. Edison and his various
phonograph companies by the New York
Phonograph Co. Elisha K. Camp, of No.
135 Broadway, filed the bill of complaint
in the Clerk's office of the United States
Circuit Court in this city. Besides Mr.
Edison personally the defendants include
the Edison Phonograph Co., the Edison
Phonograph Works and the National
Phonograph Co.
The advisability of bringing the suit
was made the subject of investigation and
report by a special committee appointed
last September by the members of the
National Phonograph Association in its
fifth annual convention at Cincinnati, O.
This association includes officers of the
Ohio, New England, Nebraska, Michigan,
Iowa, Minnesota, Columbia, Louisiana,
Chicago, New Jersey, Kentucky, Western
Pennsylvania, State of Illinois, Eastern
Pennsylvania, Texas, Kansas, Montana,
Missouri, Wisconsin, Wyoming, Tennes-
see, Central Nebraska, Colorado and Utah,
Florida, Old Dominion, New York, Pacific,
Alabama, Georgia, South Dakota, Spokane
and West Coast Phonograph Companies.
The special committee reported to the
convention:
The sale of phonographs and supplies in
various parts of the United States by Thos.
A. Edison, through the National Phono-
graph Co. is in flagrant violation of the
rights of the various local companies hav-
ing exclusive franchises covering the ter-
ritory where such sales are conducted.
Your committee therefore recommend
that immediate concerted action be taken
by said local companies to enforce their
rights by injunction and to recover the
profits and damages resulting from such
unlawful sales.
Your committee further recommend that
to give effect to the foregoing resolution a
special committee of five be appointed, of
whom the president of this association, A.
W. Clancey, shall be chairman; the said
special committee be invested with the full
power of this association to determine a
basis of concerted action to secure the co-
operation of all companies therein, to em-
ploy counsel, to begin and prosecute actions
at law or in equity for the benefit of the
allied interests, and to determine an equi-
table plan for distribution of the costs and
benefits of such actions among the com-
panies who ratify the plan of procedure
and participate therein.
In the bill of complaint in the action
begun Thursday, the New York Phono-
graph Company sets forth in detail the
organization of the North American
Phonograph Company, its acquisition
from Mr. Edison of all his phonograph
patents and inventions, past and future;
the franchises granted to the complain-
ant by the North American Company;
the failure of the North American
Co to supply salable phonographs and
appliances to the complainant, the mis-
management of the North American Co.
under Mr. Edison's presidency implying a
design to wreck the company and acquire
the wreckage; the purchase by Mr. Edison
of the assets of the North American Phono-
graph Co., and his subsequent business
operations, conducted, as the complainant
avers, in disregard of its rights. The
company asks for an injunction to prevent
Mr. Edison from continuing in the phono-
graph business and for damages to the ex-
tent of $225,000. .The complaint is sworn
to by H. M. Funston, president of the New
York Phonograph Co. The amount al-
leged to have been paid to Mr. Edison in
cash by the companies is $724,000.
Ex-Judge Howard W. Hayes, of New-
ark, counsel for Thomas A. Edison, when
interviewed regarding the suit, said:
"The action is undoubtedly based on a
claim to territorial right for New York
State on Mr. Edison's phonographic in-
ventions. We are quite ready to meet it.
The New York Phonograph Co. claims, I
believe, to possess the patent rights for
New York on all the Edison inventions
relating to the phonograph since 1888 and
for fifteen years after that date. The fact is
that instead of Mr. Edison having violated
his contract he lost between $400,000 and
$500,000 in the deal out of which this case
has grown.
In 1888 Mr. Edison agreed to transfer
to Jesse H. Lippincott, of Pennsylvania,
who is now dead, certain patent rights.
Lippincott never carried out his part of
the contract, though he disposed of his
rights under the contract of the North
American Phonograph Company. When
the life of the North American Company
expired with the disposal of its assets to
the National Phonograph Company the
rights secured by the North American re-
verted back to Mr. Edison and the Na-
tional Phonograph Company.
|a.oo PER YBAR.
SINGLE COPIES IO CENTS
Recent Incorporations.
Pennsylvania.
Articles of incorporation were filed with
the Secretaiy of State of Pennsylvania on
Tuesday by the Pittsburg Organ and Piano
Co., Aspinwall; capital, $25,000.
New York.
Gt-o. S. Beech wood Co., of Utica, was
granted a certificate of incorporation by
the Secretary of State at Albany on Mon-
day last, to deal in musical instruments;
capital, $10,000. Directors: G. S. Beech-
wood, Mary L. Beech wood , and Edward G.
Beechwood, Utica.
A Go=ahead English House.
The Messrs. Rushworth, who represent
the "Crown" pianos and the Wilcox &
White specialties in Liverpool, Eng., have
recently been celebrating the diamond
jubilee of the foundation of the firm
which was established in 1840, when the
late William Rushworth started in busi-
ness as a church organ builder. Five years
afterwards the manufacture of pianos was
added, and as the business rapidly forged
ahead the two sons, Edwin and Walter,
were taken in partnership. After the
death of the founder the business was car-
ried on by the two sons until 1870, when
they dissolved partnership, Walter Rush-
worth confining himself solely to the
building of church organs, which he, with
the help of two sons, still successfully
carries on, while the other brother, Edwin,
continued to carry on the manufacture of
pianos, and at the same time branching
out into the general musical instrument
and music business. Since Edwin Rush-
worth retired from the business it has been
Cartied on by his three sons, under the old
name of E. Rushworth, so that the house
is now in its third generation. William
Rushworth of the firm attributes the great
success of their business to the fact that
every member of the family has had a
thorough and practical training in all the
details of the business. As an example,
his brother who had charge of the manu-
facturing department is now in a Chicago
factory to spend twelve months, so as to
obtain a practical insight into the ways of
what Mr. Rushworth describes as "our
most formidable competitors." A younger
brother is serving his apprenticeship in a
London piano factory at the present time.