as apparent that incandescent
lighting had come to stay, the Edison Company was a shining mark at
which the shafts of the dishonest were aimed. Many there were who
stood ready to furnish affidavits that they or some one else whom they
controlled had really invented the lamp, but would obligingly withdraw
and leave Edison in possession of the field on payment of money.
Investigation of these cases, however, revealed invariably the purely
fraudulent nature of all such offers, which were uniformly declined.

As the incandescent light began to advance rapidly in public favor, the
immense proportions of the future market became sufficiently obvious to
tempt unauthorized persons to enter the field and become manufacturers.
When the lamp became a thoroughly established article it was not a
difficult matter to copy it, especially when there were employees to be
hired away at increased pay, and their knowledge utilized by the more
unscrupulous of these new competitors. This is not conjecture but known
to be a fact, and the practice continued many years, during which new
lamp companies sprang up on every side. Hence, it is not surprising
that, on the whole, the Edison lamp litigation was not less remarkable
for quantity than quality. Between eighty and ninety separate suits upon
Edison's fundamental lamp and detail patents were brought in the courts
of the United States and prosecuted to completion.

In passing it may be mentioned that in England France, and Germany also
the Edison fundamental lamp patent was stubbornly fought in the judicial
arena, and his claim to be the first inventor of practical incandescent
lighting was uniformly sustained in all those countries.

Infringement was not, however, confined to the lamp alone, but, in
America, extended all along the line of Edison's patents relating to
the production and distribution of electric light, including those on
dynamos, motors, distributing systems, sockets, switches, and other
details which he had from time to time invented. Consequently, in order
to protect its interests at all points, the Edison Company had found it
necessary to pursue a vigorous policy of instituting legal proceedings
against the infringers of these various patents, and, in addition to the
large number of suits on the lamp alone, not less than one hundred and
twenty-five other separate actions, involving some fifty or more of
Edison's principal electric-lighting patents, were brought against
conc