He was not
willing to say "Let us rest and be thankful," as was one of England's
great Liberal leaders after a long period of reform. On the contrary, he
was never more active than immediately after the work we have summed
up at the beginning of this chapter. While he had been pursuing his
investigations of the generator in conjunction with the experiments
on the incandescent lamp, he gave much thought to the question of
distribution of the current over large areas, revolving in his mind
various plans for the accomplishment of this purpose, and keeping his
mathematicians very busy working on the various schemes that suggested
themselves from time to time. The idea of a complete system had been in
his mind in broad outline for a long time, but did not crystallize into
commercial form until the incandescent lamp was an accomplished fact.
Thus in January, 1880, his first patent application for a "System of
Electrical Distribution" was signed. It was filed in the Patent Office a
few days later, but was not issued as a patent until August 30, 1887. It
covered, fundamentally, multiple arc distribution, how broadly will
be understood from the following extracts from the New York Electrical
Review of September 10, 1887: "It would appear as if the entire field
of multiple distribution were now in the hands of the owners of this
patent.... The patent is about as broad as a patent can be, being
regardless of specific devices, and laying a powerful grasp on the
fundamental idea of multiple distribution from a number of generators
throughout a metallic circuit."

Mr. Edison made a number of other applications for patents on electrical
distribution during the year 1880. Among these was the one covering the
celebrated "Feeder" invention, which has been of very great commercial
importance in the art, its object being to obviate the "drop" in
pressure, rendering lights dim in those portions of an electric-light
system that were remote from the central station. [10]

[Footnote 10: For further explanation of "Feeder" patent,
see Appendix.]

From these two patents alone, which were absolutely basic and
fundamental in effect, and both of which were, and still are, put into
actual use wherever central-station lighting is practiced, the reader
will see that Mr. Edison's patient and thorough study, aided by his keen
foresight and unerring judgment, had enabled him to grasp in advance
with a master hand the chief and underlying pri