[Ads-l] Thomas Edison's quotation about solar power and the Sterling Memorial Library at Yale

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

This message is primarily addressed to people who have access to the
Sterling Memorial Library at Yale, e.g. Fred and LH.

On Facebook yesterday Senator Bernie Sanders shared a prescient
quotation about solar power attributed to Thomas Edison.

[Begin excerpt]
I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power!
I hope we don’t have to wait till oil and coal run out before we
tackle that.
[End excerpt]

https://www.facebook.com/senatorsanders/posts/10155813026367908:0

Some of the Facebook discussants referred to the analysis of the
quotation available on the "Quote Investigator" website.

http://quoteinvestigator.com/2015/08/09/solar/

The quotation appeared in the 1987 book "Uncommon Friends: Life with
Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, Alexis Carrel, & Charles
Lindbergh" by James D. Newton. The words were reportedly spoken more
than fifty years before the publication of Newton's book. This long
delay reduces the credibility of the quotation.

A correspondent just told me that the Sterling Memorial Library at
Yale has a collection of correspondence, audiotape transcripts, and
other documents from James D. Newton that were used during the writing
of "Uncommon Friends".

http://drs.library.yale.edu/HLTransformer/HLTransServlet?stylename=yul.ead2002.xhtml.xsl&pid=mssa:ms.1592&clear-stylesheet-cache=yes

Have Yale librarians (or visiting scholars) examined the James D.
Newton papers to determine whether there is any supporting
documentation for the Edison quotation?

Garson

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