Thomas A. Edison Type Universal Stock Ticker.
EDISON, Thomas A.
Thomas A. Edison Type Universal Stock Ticker.
Rare Thomas A. Edison Type Universal Stock Ticker, Manufactured by J.H. Bunnell & Co. for Western Union
New York: J.H. Bunnell & Co., c. 1870s.
$22,500.00
In Stock
Item Number: 152309
A rare Universal Stock Ticker of the type developed by Thomas A. Edison, the instrument that transmitted real-time stock quotations to brokerage and banking houses across the United States. Model 3-A, serial number 3054, produced for Western Union and manufactured by J.H. Bunnell & Co. of New York, circa 1870s. In near fine condition. The piece measures 13.25 inches tall.
The Thomas A. Edison Type Universal Stock Ticker is one of the most consequential and historically significant artifacts in the history of American finance, representing the invention that first made real-time market information available to investors across the country and laid the technological foundation for the modern financial system. Edison worked on improving the ticker tape machine in the early 1870s, leading to the development of the Universal Stock Ticker, which was his first commercially successful product and provided him with the financial resources to establish his own laboratory. Edison did not invent the original stock ticker, which was created by Edward A. Calahan of the American Telegraph Company in 1867, but his improvements were transformative: realizing he could increase the ticker’s speed by adding a second wheel, Edison’s design featured two small wheels spinning simultaneously, one for letters and one for numbers, nearly doubling its speed, with his ticker hitting the market in 1871 and quickly becoming the industry standard. The Universal incorporated several key innovations, most notably a unison that ensured all printers on the line were synchronized with the transmitter, alongside a typewheel-shifting mechanism that reduced friction and a new paper-feed mechanism that led to significantly lower battery consumption, with nearly 5,000 Universal stock tickers sold between 1871 and 1874. The instruments received stock information via telegraph line and printed the company’s abbreviated name and share price on a continuous spool of paper tape, with Edison’s screw-thread unison incorporated into every machine manufactured after 1871 constituting the mechanical invention that made the whole network function.
Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor who developed many devices including the motion picture camera, the phonograph and the electric light bulb. Among his earliest commercial successes was his work on the stock ticker. In 1869 Edison improved upon the printing telegraph to create the Universal Stock Printer, which synchronized the movement of tickers across a network so that every machine printed the same quotation at the same moment. The sale of his stock ticker patents and improvements to the Gold and Stock Telegraph Company, a Western Union affiliate, brought Edison the then-enormous sum of roughly $40,000, the capital that allowed him to leave the life of an itinerant telegraph operator and devote himself fully to invention, establishing his workshops first at Newark and later at Menlo Park. The Universal Stock Ticker became the standard instrument of the American financial markets, carrying price quotations to brokerage houses and remaining in use in improved forms for decades.
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