Charles Batchelor
Encyclopedia
Biographical Information
Charles Batchelor was born on Christmas Day, 1845, and raised in Manchester, England. In 1870, while working for a textile equipment manufacturer, he was sent to the United States to install some equipment in a Newark, New JerseyNewark, New Jersey
Newark is the largest city in the American state of New Jersey, and the seat of Essex County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Newark had a population of 277,140, maintaining its status as the largest municipality in New Jersey. It is the 68th largest city in the U.S...
textile factory. At this time Thomas Edison’s main laboratory and shop were also located in Newark where the two met. By the end of October 1871 Batchelor was working at Edison's American Telegraph Works and by the summer of 1873 was assisting Edison in inventing. Their working relationship lasted thirty years, Batchelor later moving with Edison to Menlo Park, New Jersey then West Orange, New Jersey
West Orange, New Jersey
West Orange is a township in central Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township population was 46,207...
.
Charles Batchelor became one of Edison's closest laboratory assistants and business partners during the 1870s and 1880s. He assisted Edison with some of his most important projects in the fields of telegraphy, telephony, the phonograph
Phonograph
The phonograph record player, or gramophone is a device introduced in 1877 that has had continued common use for reproducing sound recordings, although when first developed, the phonograph was used to both record and reproduce sounds...
, and electric lighting.
A gifted experimenter, he was Edison's "hands," testing, tinkering with, and improving the models and apparatus built for Edison by John Kruesi
John Kruesi
John Kruesi was a Swiss born machinist and close associate of Thomas Edison.-Career:Kruesi had been apprenticed as a clock maker in Switzerland, migrating to the United States where he settled in Newark, New Jersey...
. In 1873, Edison named his friend "Batch" as "chief experimental assistant". Together Batchelor and Edison would come up with prospective products.
Edison also frequently entrusted him with responsibility for special projects. In 1879, he went to London to supervise technical operations of the Edison Telephone Company of Great Britain, but he was taken ill there and returned to Menlo Park. Two years later Batchelor installed a model of an electrical lighting station for the Paris Electrical Exposition of 1881. Batchelor stayed in Paris for the next three years as manager of the Edison electric light companies that were established there.
It was Edison’s practice to give his key assistants shares in his companies and to let them invest in the business ventures that resulted from their inventive activity. Along with other Edison assistants such as Samuel Insull
Samuel Insull
Samuel Insull was an Anglo-American innovator and investor based in Chicago who greatly contributed to creating an integrated electrical infrastructure in the United States. Insull was notable for purchasing utilities and railroads using holding companies, as well as the abuse of them...
, John Kruesi
John Kruesi
John Kruesi was a Swiss born machinist and close associate of Thomas Edison.-Career:Kruesi had been apprenticed as a clock maker in Switzerland, migrating to the United States where he settled in Newark, New Jersey...
, Francis Upton, and Edward H. Johnson
Edward H. Johnson
Edward Hibberd Johnson was an inventor and business associate of American inventor Thomas Alva Edison. He was involved in many of Edison's projects, and was a partner in an early organization which evolved into the General Electric Company, one of the largest Fortune 500 companies in the United...
, Batchelor was an investor in Edison manufacturing enterprises, beginning with the Edison Electric Light Company (1878), and continuing with the Edison Lamp Company (1880), the Edison Machine Works (1881), which Batchelor managed between 1884 and 1888, and the Edison General Electric Company (1888). It was through their positions as both investors in, and employees of, these concerns that Edison and his men derived much of their income.
Charles Batchelor is also credited with introducing a young Nikola Tesla to Thomas Edison. In 1884, he wrote an introduction letter to Edison stating: “I know two great men, one is you and the other is this young man.”
In 1887, when Edison relocated his experimental laboratory to West Orange, New Jersey
West Orange, New Jersey
West Orange is a township in central Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township population was 46,207...
, Batchelor supervised the construction of the buildings. Later, Batchelor became Treasurer and General Manager of the General Electric Company (which succeeded the Edison General Electric Company in 1892). The General Electric Company grew to become one of the largest Fortune 500
Fortune 500
The Fortune 500 is an annual list compiled and published by Fortune magazine that ranks the top 500 U.S. closely held and public corporations as ranked by their gross revenue after adjustments made by Fortune to exclude the impact of excise taxes companies collect. The list includes publicly and...
companies in the United States.
Following his retirement from General Electric, Batchelor returned in 1899 to assist Edison with his ill-fated ore milling project. After the failure of the ore-refining business (in which he was a large investor), Batchelor left Edison’s employ to pursue work elsewhere. He traveled with his wife Rosanna and their daughters, worked selling securities, and eventually became president of Taylor Foundry Company.
At the time of his death on New Year's Day 1910 Batchelor was President of the Taylor Foundry Company.
External articles
- "Charles Batchelor". IEEE Global History Network, IEEE 2009.
- ""http://www.teslasociety.com/biography.htm"". Dr. Ljubo Vujovic (1998), Tesla Memorial Society of New York
Biographies
- "Charles Batchelor: Edison's chief partner" by Walter L. Welch, Syracuse: Syracuse University, 1972.