It wasn’t just the dramatic photograph of Thomas Edison that captured Dave Grabowsky’s imagination.It wasn’t the inventor’s beautiful signature. It was much more.The photo shows the Ohio inventor holding an early alkaline storage battery.And on the photograph are the words written by Edison to his chief engineer that are coming to pass a century later.The photograph, signed by Edison, was purchased by Grabowsky, president of Standing Plumbing and Heating Co. of Canton, for $31,554 this week, according to RR Auction of Amherst, N.H.The signed 1911 photograph, taken a year before Grabowsky’s firm was started in Canton, is inscribed by Edison with these words: “I believe time will prove that the Alkaline Storage battery will produce important changes in our present transportation system.”And for Grabowsky, who is a collector of autographs, this was what clinched his decision to buy the 5 ¤ -inch-by 7 ¤ -inch black and white photograph from a glass negative.“This will be more important 100 years from now because the internal combustion engine will be in a museum,” Grabowsky predicted.Grabowsky liked the message Edison wrote because of the hybrid cars being sold now that use battery power.Edison began working on the alkaline battery in 1890, according to RR Auction. After 50,000 experiments, in 1910 the inventor produced his first nickel-iron-alkaline battery, which later became one of the world’s most commonly used energy sources.The photo originally was the property of Wayne E. Holland, who was associated with Edison’s work on the battery and was chief electrical engineer of the Edison Storage Battery Co. at Edison’s West Orange facility.Bobby Livingston, vice president of sales and marketing for RR Auctions, who specializes in autographs, said the photograph was consigned to them by a client who acquired it from Holland’s descendants.“It is remarkable in many ways,” he said. “The quality of the photo is stunning.”The words Edison wrote are so important, Livingston said.“It [the signature] is spectacular,” he said. “It is huge, the sweeping T is so insightful into his personality.”He said Edison’s quote is significant now because automotive engineers “are just getting battery-operated cars to be practical.”Grabowsky, 55, is the third generation of his family to be president of the company started by his grandfather, Herman Grabowsky. His company is a contractor working on the Bridgestone Technical Center being built in South Akron.“I have been looking for an Edison for three years,” he said.He studied the photograph on the auction firm’s website and submitted the successful bid on Wednesday. He expects to receive the photograph in the next few weeks.“[Edison] has an absolutely gorgeous signature,” Grabowsky said.“One hundred years from now, we are all going to be driving electric cars.”The photograph was sold in an online auction with an unsigned portrait of Holland; an advertisement from the Literary Digest, dated May 10, 1930, featuring Holland as the chief engineer for RCA; and two books written by Holland, The 1910 Edison Storage Battery and an autobiography called Reflections from 1965 about his days working with Edison.Jim Carney can be reached at 330-996-3576 or at jcarney@thebeaconjournal.com.