Edison also frequently entrusted him with responsibility for special projects. In 1879, he went to London to supervise technical operations of the Edison Telephone Company of Great Britain, but he became ill there and returned to Menlo Park. Two years later Batchelor, installed a model of an electrical lighting station for the 1881 International Exposition of Electricity in Paris. Batchelor stayed there for the next three years as manager of the Edison electric light companies that were established in France.