An Original Drawing By Thomas Edison Of One of His Inventions - a Medicine for Rheumatism, Created For Use By His Aid in Making or Testing the Substance: Letters or sketches of Edison directly relating to his inventions, written at the time of the inventions themselves, are incredibly uncommon, only a small handful ever having reached the market. We acquired this directly from a Kruesi descendant, and it h

Thomas Edison’s inventions were not limited to lighting or the phonograph. He also worked in the field of medicine.

In 1879 in New York, the Menlo Park Manufacturing Company was incorporated to market Polyform, a topical analgesic formulated by young Thomas Alva Edison. Though devised originally to cure himself, Polyform was released to the public by Edison as a compound to cure neuralgia, rheumatism, headache and all nervous pain, by external application. Within 5 years, the company moved to Boston and eventually reorganized. Of all of Edison’s inventions, “none will confer so much happiness upon mankind” as Polyform or so the reorganized company promised.

The product was a subject of a famous copyright suit, where Edison sued the new owners to stop them from using his name.

John Kruesi was Edison's head machinist through his Newark and Menlo Park periods, responsible for translating Edison's numerous rough sketches into working devices. Since constructing and testing models was central to Edison's method of inventing, Kruesi's skill in doing this was critical to Edison's success as an inventor.

Document, 1878-1879, being his original formula, devised as a sketch, of his neuralgia invention, showing the composition and approximate proportion, likely given to Kruesi to make or test.

Letters or sketches of Edison directly relating to his inventions, written at the time of the inventions themselves, are incredibly uncommon. We acquired this directly from a Kruesi descendant, and it has never before before been offered for sale.