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THOMAS A. EDISON

THOMAS A . EDISON

THE LIFE-STORY OF A GREAT

AMERICAN

WI TH E IGHT ILLUS TRATI ONS

LONDON

GEORGE G . HARRAP 6‘ COMPANY2 U 3 PORTSMOUTH STREET KINGSWAY W.C.

MCMXVII

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I . THE AMERICAN WAY—THE CHILDHOODOF A SELF-MADE MAN —HOW ANEWSPAPER IS FOUNDED WITHOUT

MONEY AND WITHOUT COLLABORATORS

II . APPRENTICED TO MAGIC—HOW ELE C

TRICITY IS TRANSFORMED INTO MONEY— SCIENCE AND BUSINESS

III . EDISON THE NAPOLEON OF MODERNTIMES— THE FAIRYLAND OF MENLOPARK—EDISON ATWORK AND EDISONAT PLAY

IV. DISTANCE IS ABOLISHED EDISONSTARTS UPON THE CONQUEST OF THEOLD WORLD OF EUROPE

V. RECORDING THE VOICE—I S IT A VENTRILOQUIST —GLORY AND HARMONYIMPRISONED IN A CYLINDER

VI . LET THERE BE LIGHT $ AND THERE

WAS LIGHT $—AND THIS LIGHT

EMANATED FROM AMERICA

M368123

PAGE

6 THOMAS A. EDISON

CHAPTER PAGE

VII . RECORDING THE GESTURE—IN FULLFAIRYLAND—A FEW OTHER MARVELS ,SMALL AND GREAT

VIII MR EDISON DOES NOT RECEIVE—BUTHE WILL RECEIVE US—LLEWELYNPARK AT ORANGE, NEW $ ERSEY—THERECIPE FOR GENIUS AND SUCCESS

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

THOMAS A. EDISON Fronti spi ece

EDISON FOUND HIMSELF ON THE PLATFORM,IN

THE MIDST OF HIS BROKEN INSTRUMENTS

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO FORTY THOUSANDDOLLARS

THE FIRST PHONOGRAPH

EDISON AND THE PHONOGRAPH

THERE CAME A BREATH OF WIND,AND

THE FILAMENT WAS , BROKEN LIKE ITS PREDECESSOR

EDISON THE CHEMIST

LLEWE LYN PARK

THOMAS A . EDISON

CHAPTER I

THE AMERICAN WAY— THE CHILDHOOD OF A‘

SELF-MADE MAN -HOW A NEWSPAPERI S FOUNDED WITHOUT MONEY AND WITH

OUT COLLABORATORS

F there is any one far-echoing name inscribed in the full light of day above theportals of the Tem ple of Fame in thi s

first half of the twentieth century, so fertilein human progress

,it is beyond question

that of Ed ison . He is not only one of themaster minds of his time, but the most extraordi nary type of the modern inventor. Thi she is to the full extent of his creative power,devoted Wholly to the needs of real andpractical life . No one before him and noone since has equalled him in placing theunknown forces of Nature at the service ofsociety

,subduing them to our use

,and at the

same time obtaining from them a maximumof efficacy.

9

10 THOMAS A . EDISON

It is in thi s sense that Thomas AlvaEdison, thi s essentially American genius,utilitarian by defini tion, appears as a sortof Poet Extraordinary of the uni verse, amarvellous magician of these later times .His fertile and prodigious ingenui ty, by extending the domain of our senses

,has opened

up vast and unlimited fields to our activity .

We are witnessing the beneficent and at thesame time formidable reign of mechanismand industry, which are the characteristicelements of civilization . It is the reign ofSpeed , it is the reign of electricity, it is thereign of Edison .

Wh at is the secret of these famous discoveries by EdisonEdison himself believes in effort

,in work

,

in fearless and persistent thinking. Chance,no doubt

,plays its part in the success of

intellectual research, just as in all otherenterprises . But it i s made effective onlyby prolonged reflection and unflagging toil .It is thanks to these qualities alone that inspiration bears its fruit. Without a constantexpendi ture of physical labour

,the most

penetrating glance, the keenest insight run

HIS CHILDHOOD 11

the risk of remaining sterile . Think of thecare whi ch must be lavished upon a beautifulplant inorder to bring it to its full flowering 1And is it not the same with human genius,in spite of lucky chances and the gifts ofNature $In this respect the life of Thomas Alva

Edi son serves as an adm irable lesson .

We have said that Edison is the type ofAmerican genius ; and , as a matter of fact,he appears at first sight as the finishedand exemplary type of the self-made man,

’

who has succeeded in triumphing over allthe diffi culties of existence, thanks to theinexh austible resources of hi s own energy .

We are constantly hearing of the importanceof putting one’s heart into one ’s work ; it isthe favourite advice given to the young whoare eagerly preparing to enter the struggle forlife . But formulas are employed far too

often without trouble being taken to definethem . In this respect there is no betterexample nor a more significant one thanthat of Edi son . His dazzling ascent towardfortune, toward uni versal and immortalfame, has the value, equally in France andthe United States

,of a lesson of the very


first order, we might even say a uni quelesson .

We shall see presently in what sort of anenvironment and as a consequence of whatevents Edison unhesitatingly sought andfound himself. But, Without attributing anexcessive influence to heredity in shaping thedestinies of great men

,it is only fair that we

should ask in the first place what were theantecedents of Thomas Alva Edi son, andwhether, in revealing himself to us with allthe marks of a striking originality

,he has not

been simply obeying certain family traditionsof high intelligence and audacious initiative .

On his father’s Side he comes of Dutch '

stock . His ancestors were mill-owners inthe Netherlands . Certain members of the

Edison family, in the company of other emigrants

,landed in North Am erica about the

year 1737 . Among them was John Edi son,

the great-grandfather of the inventor, whobefore long achieved distinction and becamea banker of repute in New York . But whenwar broke out between England and theColonies he openly took sides with the mothercountry and declared himself an implacablefoe to separation . In spite of his advanced

HIS CHILDHOOD 13

age,h e was forced to seek safety, with his

entire family,in Nova Scotia .

The loyalists were entitled to compensation . Accordi ngly, in the year 1811, JohnEdi son received , as the price of hi s fidelity

,

six hundred acres of land for himself, fourhundred for his son Samuel

,and two hundred

for each of his grandchildren .

All of the Edisons seem to have enj oyedexcellent health and to have lived to a ripeold age . John and Samuel were both upward of a hundred years old at the time oftheir death . A son of the latter, the secondSamuel Edison

,lived in Bayfield , on the

shore of Lake Erie . It is said that he wassix feet in height

,that he had the suppleness

of an Indian and the strength of an athlete,

and that there was no one who could outrunhim . These advantages proved to be di stinctly useful during one memorable epi sodein his career. This Samuel Edison was veryfar from sharing the sentiments of his grandfather in regard to England . The flame ofrebellion leaped up among the Canadians

,

fanned by the sustaini ng sympathy of theUnited States . Samuel Edison, who had beenone of the most important leaders of the


revolt, was forced to flee,and

,in order to

save his life, accomplished a journey ofalmost a hundred and eighty miles withoutfood or sleep . He did not feel that hewas safe until he had reached United Statesterritory, after crossing the St Clair River.We must not forget that this energetic

man, capable of such prodi gious efforts, wasthe father of Thomas Edi son .

After a short stay in Detroit he removedto Milan

,a small village in Ohio

,where he

opened up a business in grain and lumber,

which was greatly stimulated by the extensive traffic of the canal . On the 16th

of August, 1828,he married Miss Nancy

Elliot, who, although a Canadian by birth,belonged to a family that originally camefrom Scotland . Highly educated, with refinedmann ers and unusual strength of character,she appears to have been an exceptionalwoman

,as well as a teacher of rare ability .

As a matter of fact, sh e had held a positionin a hi gh school. Possessing some of therarest qualities of heart and mind, she wasdestined to exercise a peculiarly beneficentinfluence over the awakening of an excep

tional intellect .

HIS CHILDHOOD 15

It was in this little Ohio village of Milanthat Thomas Alva Edison was born, on th e11th of February, 1847. It is pleasant toimagine his free

,happy childhood , in and

out among the big grain elevators or alongthe lively shores of the little lake, near thebanks of the canal . His parents, who atthat time were in easy circumstances, thanksto a prosperous business, and were able tolook forward to a promising future

,watched

over their son with the tenderest solicitude .We may feel doubtful as to the pictur

esque anecdotes which are so freely told re

garding the precociousness of children wholater become celebrated . Here is a pointwhere legend blends so easily with history .

We do not see any necessity for adding a fewlittle useless inventions to the great inventions made by Edison himself. Neverthe

less, it is easy to understand why his admirers

love to surround with mystery even theslightest acts and gestures of thi s remarkablewizard, the inventor of the phonograph .

As a matter of fact, it is a waste of time totry to add anything to the simple eloquenceof the bare facts of his life .We should be equally careful not to


attribute an exaggerated importance to certainpleasing childish traits

,on the basis of which

the attempt is made to explain the futureman . Nevertheless

,it will do no harm to

make a passing mention of the followingamusing incident

,that tends to Show the

earliest manifestations of an inqui ring mind,already accompanied by a practical determ ination to improve upon Nature by utilizingher own methods . The story runs that littleEdison, at the age of five

,was astonished to

see a duck engaged in the long and patientprocess of hatching her eggs . Picture thesurprise of this small boy when he subse

quently witnessed the successful hatching ofthe entire brood $ How did it happenAnd why $ The chi ld became deeply preoccupied over this mystery. He asked questions and learned that the bird obtained thi shappy result through the natural warmthof her body . Shortly afterward the boy wassought for and could not be found . But atlast he was discovered in a barn, sittingupon a number of eggs, waiting confidentlyfor them to hatch .

Wh at countless experiments Edi son hasattempted since that time $ Once again we

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one of his compani ons disappeared beneaththe surface . On several occasions Edisonhimself narrowly escaped drowni ng. He wasblessed with splendid health ; and, far fromshrinking from adventures, he went in searchof them . During one of his cross-countryescapades he was attacked and badly injured

It is interesting to note in passing that thisbrave little dare-devil already foreshadows thefuture man of action

,who never spares himself

,

just as the little reasoner who wishes to informhimself as to the how and why of everythingforeshadows the future man of thought .These two things are never separated in

Edison,whose physical and mental endur

ance have always been equally remarkable .

Must he not necessarily have been somewhatfoolhardy before the audacity of his first impulse was tempered by more judi cious secondthoughts His ability to di sm iss all thoughtof fear

,when he undertakes to explore the

possibilities of any problem that has en

gaged his serious attention,forms an element

of fundamental importance in his success .

Thi s is a point that cannot be too stronglyemphasized .

HIS CHILDHOOD 19

It was not long before Edison’s parentssaw the downfall of their bright hopes . Theconstruction of a railway along the shore ofLake Erie dealt a fatal blow to SamuelEdi son ’s business, in spite of all that he coulddo to save it . The situation had alreadybecome precarious

,when a financial crisis

rendered it still more alarming. But SamuelEdison was not of the kind that allow themselves to be beaten down by the adversestrokes of Fate . He removed to Michigan,and installed himself and hi s family in PortHuron

, on the boundary line between Canadaand the Uni ted States .Little Thomas was at this time seven years

old and had been attending school for onlytwo months . Partly as a matter of economy,partly also because she wished to di rect personally the development of an intellect thatwas so near and dear to her, hi s motherdecided that sh e herself would give him hisgroundi ng in the first principles of the sciences,striving always to keep the child ’s eagercuriosity on the alert and to keep a watchfuleye over these first efforts of the imaginationmade in conjunction with study and reflection .

It is pleasant to conjure up the pretty


picture, in its setting of that broad and suIm yfarm in Michigan : Edison’s mother transforming herself into his one and only preceptor, a school teacher as far-seeing as sh e

was sympathetic . Young Thomas Edisoncould not have been slow to profit by a systemof instruction which recognized the full importance of the pupil ’s initiative

,and to show

the full extent of hi s courage and originality .

In Spite of his precocious astonishment in thepresence of the phenomena of Nature and hisswiftly kindled love of experimenting, thechild showed the keenest desire to acquire abroad grounding in the theoretical branches .For that matter

,Edison has never at any

time been disdainful of the mental culturethat is derived from books . Even now,

allthe sources of documentary knowledge areregarded by him as profitable . And how isit possible to conceive of the present and thefuture if the past remains unknown to us $At the age of ten this son of a vigorous

race,in his keen desire to know and to

do,had read Gibbon and Montesquieu,

d’

Aubigne s History of the Reform ation, Sear’ s

History of the World, The Penny Encyclo

paedia, and Ure’s Di ctionary of Sciences. He

HIS CHILDHOOD 21

devoured works of all kinds,and could re

member the precise page and position of

passages which had impressed hi m as eSpecially curious . It is also related that he hadbeen introduced very early, no doubt tooearly

,to Newton ’s Princip i a, and that, being

discouraged by the obscure reasoning fromaxiom to axiom

,he was destined to preserve

a certain degree of aversion for everythingpertaining to mathematics .This determination to enrich his mind by

eager and abundant reading, which was animportant trait to note in connexion withEdison’s early youth

,has remained

,no doubt

,

characteristic of the man . But it is necessary to see him at work , actively engaged inhis tasks

,in the midst of li fe which was forced

to smile upon him because he did not fear toconfront it with the marvellous resources ofa most tenacious energy

,united to a faculty

whi ch from the start was amazing and soonbecame miraculous, the faculty of creating,through means that were exactly adapted topresent needs

,or to the exigencies of real life .

It is in thi s aspect that Thomas Edisonhas revealed himself ; and he has done it ina manner that may be defined at one and the


same time as extremely American and extrem ely ,

even sensationally,individual .

At Port Huron the Edisons continued tolive in a very modest fashi on . But thereports that their financial condi tion wasdisastrous are qui te unfounded .

At the age of twelve, as a result of his owninitiative

,the lad succeeded in obtaining the

profitable privilege of train-boy on theGrand Trunk Railroad

,the great through

line running from Quebec to Montreal, and ,by way of Toronto and Detroit

,all the way

to Chicago . His duties consisted in goingfrom car to car

,between the two stations of

Detroit and Port Huron, and selling newspapers

,fruit, and various other articles to the

passengers,whom he delighted by hi s quick

Wit and engaging manners . He put so muchenergy and ability into thi s small businessventure that it is said that his profits rose tosomething over forty dollars a month, to thegreat delight of his family. He passed thehours between trains in the Detroit publiclibrary

,or busied himself with sorting out

his papers in the printing offi ce of The DetroitFree Press. Meanwhile the energetic ladbegan, little by little, to extend his business

HIS CHILDHOOD 23

operations in various ingenious directions,

notably, as the celebrated inventor himselfrevealed later ou— and for these far-off yearsit is well to be mistrustful of hearsay andaccept only the evidence of the man himself—by transporting two large baskets of vegetables from the Detroit markets to PortHuron

,where they sold to excellent advan

tage . Along the line he bought butter fromthe farmers , and blackberries, whi ch he soldat a low price to wives of engineers and tothe employees on the train . When a specialemigrant train of from seven to ten cars wasput on he hi red an assistant to sell bread,sweets

,and tobacco .

In these ways hi s profits began to multiply

,and

,t hanks to his far-sighted business

activity,they increased to the point of be

tween eight and ten dollars a day. Out of thishe regularly sent one dollar to his motherbut the greater part of h is savings was devotedto the purchase of technical works

,and more

especially to his experiments in chemistry .

For this purpose he actually went so far as toinstall a sort of laboratory

,with flasks and test

tubes, in a car that was intended for baggage .This determined young fellow, whom every

24 THOMAS A. EDISON

body liked for hi s ready wit and self-assurance—thi s veritable young scamp

,as he was

freely called—made Sport of diffi culties . Be

fore long hi s natural gifts for taking theinitiative and for making inventions wererevealed in a still more conspicuous manner.The civil war had broken out . Passengerswere eager for news . Young Edison straightway recogni zed the advantage that he mightderive from these circumstances

,whi ch gave

special importance to the sale of his papers .In Detroit he made the acquaintance of thetype—setters on The Detroit Free Press. Byrunning his eye over a proof sheet of the paperhe could inform himself of anything that itcontained of special interest . It was in thisway that on a certain day in April 1862 hewas one of the first to read the absolutelysensational news relating to the battle ofShiloh

,which lasted for two days

,in which

General Grant won a victory over theSouthern forces

,General Johnston was

killed,and the dead and wounded were

estimated at But after the firstreports the issue of the battle remained un

certain and there were rumours of from fiftyto sixty thousand victims . It was a matter


He insisted upon seeing the editor upon amatter of important business . At all events,it was a matter of importance to him . Hewas shown into an office where two men weretalking. One of these men, the younger one,after hearing Edison ’s plan of having thelatest bulletin telegraphed ahead

,and hi s

request for credit for a thousand copies,in

place of three hundred,curtly refused . But

the older man,Mr Wilbur F . Storey, who

subsequently founded The Chi cago Tim es,

intervened in favour of this lad with thedecided manner. With the aid of anotherboy

,Edison transported the thousand Copies to

the train , and, as it started out of the station,set himself to the task of folding them .

At this point let us allow Edison to relatein his own spirited way this characteristicadventure : The first station, called Utica,was a small one where I generally sold twopapers . I saw a crowd ahead on the platform

,and thought it some excursion, but the

moment I landed there was a rush for methen I realized that the telegraph was a greatinvention . I sold thirty-five papers there .The next station was Mount Clemens

, now awatering-place, but then a town of about one

HIS CHILDHOOD 27

thousand . I usually sold six to eight papersthere . I decided that, if I found a correSponding crowd there, the only thing to do tocorrect my lack of judgment in not gettingmore papers was to raise the price from fivecents to ten . The crowd was there, and Iraised the price . At the various towns therewere corresponding crowds . It had been mypractice at Port Huron to jump from thetrain at a point about one-fourth of a milefrom the station

,where the train generally

slackened speed . I l had drawn several loadsof sand to this point to jum p on, and hadbecome quite expert . The little Dutch boywith the hofse met me at thi s point . Whenthe wagon approached the outskirts of thetown I was met by a large crowd . I thenyelled . Twenty-five cents apiece, gentlemen $ I haven’t enough to go round $ Isold all out

,and made what to me then was

an immense sum of money.

” 1

In spite,however

,of all the pleasing results

that he achieved,this business of selling news

papers failed to satisfy young Edison . Hedetermined to have a paper of his own

,of

which he should be the editor. And he did1 From Dyer and Mart in

’s s e of E d ison.


it. He bought a fount of type and a littlepress which was intended for printing billheads and catalogues . And there he was,installed as editor

,type-setter, and reporter,

all of which in no way interfered with hi scontinuing his business of selling newspapers .It was in hi s luggage-van laboratory, whilemaking the daily run

,that he compiled and set

up The Weekly Herald , single copies of whichwere sold for three cents

,while the monthly

subscription was to be had for eight . Let us,out of curiosity

,cast a glance over a copy of

this Weekly Herald, which must be remembered by the inventor as one of the earliestand most picturesque products of his creativespirit . The leading article, under the headline ‘ Local News

,

’ is nothing more nor lessthan a respectful recommendation callingthe attention of the company ’s offi cials to themerits of a certain engineer. Every sixmonths a prize was given to the one who hadbeen most economical in the use of woodand oil during his daily run, and a certainE . L . Northrop was recommended to the consideration of the company as one of the mostdeserving.

It is easy to see that this young Al,

’ this

HIS CHILDHOOD 29

irrepressible young imp who amused everybody by the variety of h is ideas and therapidity of his movements, had a truej ournalist’s instinct for the art of profitable advertisement . Thanks to this instinct,he secured for himself much valuable co

operation . He never was above inserting afriendly paragraph

,in tribute to the humblest

of the railway’s employees,and he secured

their goodwill in return .

Another article of thirty-six lines is devoted to the misadventure of a certain MrWatkins

,who claimed damages to a large

amount from the company,on the ground

that it had lost hi s valise . Now,the said

valise was finally discovered in the possessionof the claimant himself. His friends wereendeavouring to hush the matter up, butagainst this the journalist protested withlively indignation .

On the second page of The Weekly Herald

we find information relative to the scheduleof trains

,with the hours of arrival and de

parture,commendatory notes such as this

S . A . Frink . Mr Frink is one of the mostprudent drivers in the Uni ted State s

,

” andnews items such as the following : Cassius


M . Clay wi ll enter the army on his returnhome

,

” The thousandth birthday of theEmpire of Russia will be celebrated at Novgorod in August .” Then follow announcements of lost articles and a list of the currentmarket prices in Baltimore— for butter

,eggs ,

lard,beans, potatoes, chickens, geese, turkeys,

and wild ducks .Last of all

,advertisements occupy, qui te

properly, considerable Space . Here are someSpecimens :Railroad Exchange . At Baltimore Sta

tion . The above-named hotel is now Openfor the reception of travellers . The bar willbe supplied with the best of liquors

,and

every effort will be made to promote thecomfort of guests . S . Davis, Proprietor.Ridgeway Refreshment Rooms . I would

inform my friends that I have opened a re

freshment room for the accommodation of

the travelling public . R . Allen, Proprietor.”

To the Railroad Men . Railroad men,send in your orders for butter

,eggs , lard ,

cheese,turkeys

,chi ckens, and geese . W. C .

Hulets,New Baltimore Station .

”

This singular journal, uni que of its kind ,published and sold upon a moving train, to

HIS CHILDHOOD 31

the extent of several hundred copies, broughtin a m ontlily profit of between £6 and £8.

It was thi s Weekly Herald, published byEdi son

,that made his name known to the

readers of The Tim es, the English engineerStephenson

,whi le inspecting the Grand

Trunk system,being much struck by the

ingenui ty of thi s enterprise by a young ladof barely fifteen years .Meanwhi le

,a slight incident was destined

to change the whole course of his exi stence .At the same time that he developed anabsorbing interest in fiction and exhi bitedmanifestations of poetic genius to such anextent that he was nicknamed Victor HugoEd ison

,

’ he continued,in his compartment

in the luggage-van,his experiments in

physics and chemistry, by the aid of moreor less perfected apparatus .One fine day

,or

,more accurately speaking

,

one very evil day, the train, while runningat high speed, gave a sudden and violentlurch . A piece of phosphorus fell to thefloor and burst into flame . The car caughtfire . The young experimenter, with the aid of

the conductor,succeeded in putting out the

blaze . This conductor, a brutal and vindictive


individual,did not hesitate

,at the very next

station,to fling out upon the platform the

contents of poor Edison ’s laboratory and hi sentire printing outfit besides .When the train started again Edi son found

himself on the platform,in the midst of

his broken instruments and ruined hopes $Messrs F . L . Dyer and T . C . Martin, theauthors of the authoritative Life of Edi son,

add that the angry conductor had,in addi

tion,boxed the boy ’ s ears so vi gorously that

his ill-considered violence was the,cause of

the famous inventor’s permanent deafness .Thi s incident amounted at the time to

a veritable disaster. But, like his father,young Edison was incapable of being discouraged , or of yielding to circumstances .Accordingly

,he removed his laboratory to

his parents ’ home,promising that he would

observe the greatest possible prudence .

Meanwhile he did not abandon j ournalism .

On the contrary,he j oined forces with the

son of a printer, and between them theyfounded The Paul Pry, in whi ch they proceeded to lampoon with a good deal offreedom the doings and peculi arities of theirfellow-citi zens . One of the latter, smarting

HIS CHILDHOOD 33

from the sting of their satire,laid Vlolent

hands upon t h e impertinent editor—in-chiefand flung hi m into the St Clair River .This incident caused little concern to the

youthful adventurer,for he knew how to

swim . But he felt that his'

dominant tastesand aptitudes were drawing him in anotherdirection . Accordingly, he renounced j ournalism ,

notwithstanding that it was a profession whi ch appealed to his adventurousspirit and might have procured him somenew and pleasurable experiences . Whoknows whether Edison, in the full floweringof his glory and his fortune, does not lookback longingly to his profession of long ago

,

even while he dreams of replacing paper,

upon which thought is materialized,by some

better and more durable substance

But at that period young Al was alreadyexperiencing a passionate curiosity regardingthe extraordinary phenomena of electricity .

He asked himself how it was that telegraphicmessages could be transmitted

,and more

especially what were the fundamentalprinciples of telegraphy. Since hi s motherhad allowed him to install his laboratory in


the cellar,he decided to run a wire from this

somewhat primitive workshop to the homeof one of his friends, John Ward by name,in the immedi ate neighbourhood . The twocollaborators set to work . They constructedtheir line out of ordinary iron wire . Bottlesserved as insulators . And they used a pieceof cable, fished out of the river . All thiswas very good

,so far as it went . But how

were they to produce electricity $ That wasthe questionEdison set himself energetically to work

,

stroking the back of a cat in order toproduce a current . The story is an amusingone

,but it has its signi ficance . However, by

uniting their resources, the two boys wereable to purchase the needed supplies

,and

before long had completed their apparatus .Minds that are too narrowly precise andmen of limited attainment, as has been veryjustly observed

,are seldom apt to leave the

beaten track ; they are afraid of ridicule .

And they are readily induced to considertendencies of thi s sort as clear proofs of weakmindedness, instead of recognizing them asthe first manifestations of a forceful nature .Consequently, people who are too much

HIS CHILDHOOD 35

afraid of appearing foolish in the eyes of themultitude of frivolous critics with whom weare always surrounded will never reap anyprofit themselves and will never profit anyone else through their discoveries— and forthe very good reason that they are totallyincapable of doing so, even by accident .As a matter of fact

,all great discoverers

worthy of the name have at one time oranother been regarded as dreamers

,not to

say insane . It has been only too often theirsad fate to have ridicule heaped upon themfor

,in order to create an unknown order of

ideas or of things,i s it not necessary, in

many cases,to act in defiance of common

senseMr Johnson

,who was for a long time a

collaborator of Edison,has made a very

sensible comm ent in this connexion Hestrokes the back of his cat. Well, that is anact that is characteristic of hi s temperament .Even to-day he still continues to undertakeexperiments and to multiply them withinfinite care and marvellous patience

,not

withstanding that hi s own reasoning has notonly not encouraged him

,but even tended

to prove to hi m their utter futility . Thi s is


precisely why he now stands at the head ofthose who succeed in making observationsand inventions of which the majority ofmankind are incapable .

”When we study in

detail the history of Edison ’s inventions, werecognize how much truth and profound insight is contained in such an appreciation asthe foregoing .

Edison ’ s inventive Spirit revealed itselfin more ways than one, in connexion withhi s early attempts at telegraphy. Hisfather had given him permission to sit up atnight until half-past eleven

,but no later .

This by no means sui ted his purpose,because

the business of selling papers, which he stillcontinued , took up a great deal of his time .It was his habit, when he came home in theevening

,to turn over to his father such

papers as had not been sold . The latterwould read them before going to bed . Butone evening the wily lad pretended that hehad left the papers at his friend ’s house bymistake . But that did not matter, becausehis telegraph line could immediately put hisfather in possession of all the latest news $It was in such ways as this that this youngEdison made his earli est inventions serve his

HIS CHILDHOOD 37

own personal needs . For, with the father’s

willing co-operation, the two chums continued to carry on a telegraphi c conversationup to one o ’clock in the morning.

Before long,however, the line was wrecked

by a cow Which had broken loose and conceived the unfortunate idea of taking a shortcut through the orchard . Meanwhile our

amateur telegraphist was dreaming of sup

plem enting, by practical and serious study,his few vague notions of electricity

,which he

had nevertheless already used to advantage .

He found hi s opportunity, as the sequel toan incident which di d him honour

,and whi ch

furthermore gave his life a new and definitebent that was soon destined to becomepermanent .The train which Edison was in the habitof taking for Port Huron, where he boughthis papers and other supplies

,used to make

quite a long stop at Mount Clemens . Therehe had made friends with the station-master

,

an excellent sort of man by the name ofMackenzie . One morning, in the month ofAugust 1862, he discovered Mackenzie

’s son,

Jimmy,a child of two and a half

,playing

with pebbles and sand, in the middle of the


railway track , oblivious of the fact that amoving car, uncoupled from the rest of thetrain

,was only a few yards away. Edison

barely had time to drop his bundle of papers,

fling himself upon Jimmy,and snatch him

away from certain death . The two rolledover and over on the ground, escaping withonly a few scratchesMackenzie was eager to Show his gratitude

for the brave deed . But he was poor andburdened with a large family

,so that a pre

sent worthy of such an act of devotion wasout of the question . Accordingly he offeredto teach Edison not only how to operatea telegraph key

,but whatever else he hi m

self knew of electricity . The boy joyfullyaccepted the offer, and made arrangementswith one of his comrades so that he couldspend the longest possible time at MountClemens . It is told that within ten dayshe had constructed a complete mini ature set

of telegraphic instruments whi ch worked toperfection

,to the great amazement of the

station-master .Edison gave himself up to these new

studies with extraordinary ardour . Hesometimes spent as much as ten hours at a

40 THOMAS A. EDISON

initiative,sometimes more fertile than at

others,but always interesting because of the

unexpectedness of his ideas and even hissmallest efforts . It happened that the telegraph operator at Port Huron

,wishing to

resign in order to j oin the army, recom

mended Edison to his brother-in-law, namedWalker, as his successor. It should be re

membered that the telegraph lines werenot controlled by the Government

,but by

private companies . The ofli ce was situatedin the shop of a j eweller

,who also sold news

papers and magazines . The ingenious andpersevering boy spent his entire days andnights in the office

,and before long had made

himself useful through various innovations,

notably the completion of the line from PortHuron to Sarnia .

Nevertheless Edison did not at this timeflatter himself that he was either a mod elOperator or a model employee . He turneddeliberately, at the beck and call of a passingfancy, from one line of research to another ;at one time we find him handling the watchmaker’s outfit ; at another, he has revertedto his chemical experiments

,or is deep in the

pages of some new scientific work . It is

HIS CHILDHOOD 41

necessary to dwell upon the very personalcharacter of these miscellaneous pur suits,this strange capacity for giving a maximumof attention successively to most widelydifferent subj ects . Such was Edison at thisearly epoch

,and such he still impresses one

as being at the present day.

Accordingly it is easy to understand that,while he had in him great creative genius

,

h is originality and intellectual independencedid not predispose him to become a modelservant . He did not stay long at PortHuron . His ambition was to become a telegraph operator on the Grand Trunk Railroad .

He obtained the position of night operatorat Stratford , in Canada, a station not far distant from Bayfield , where the Edison fam ilystill had friends . His salary was twenty-five

dollars a month .

This brings us to the year 1863 . YoungThomas Alva Edison was at that time sixteen years old . He had already given mostremarkable proofs of his energy

,and of a

knowledge which his peculiar education hadadapted in an astonishing degree to theneeds of the moment . Also

,he had already

acquired a rather extensive experience .


Henceforth he is launched upon the fulltide of life . He is proceeding to multiply h isefforts . He is defini tely upon the road tofame and fortune . From Stratford to MenloPark and to his laboratory at Orange

,from

which hi s renown Shines out with all thebrilliance of electric light itself

,over the New

World and the Old,he has traversed a vast

number of intermediate stages . But wehave already seen that he was fashioned tofight Victoriously against all obstacles

,and

to triumph little by little,thanks to the

innumerable resources of courage,of perse

verance,and of that ind efinable something

which,in the last analysis

,spells genius .

CHAPTER II

APPRENTICED TO MAGIC— HOW ELECTRICITYI S TRANSFORMED INTO MONEY— SCIENCEAND BUSINESS

DISON, telegraph operator at Stratford , still impresses us as the sameindependent young fellow

,little in

clined to submit to any sort of yoke, savethat of ‘

h is own thoughts and the strong sug

gestions of what may be called his creativeimagination .

His stay in Stratford,which , by the way,

was a brief one, is an essential date in thecourse of this life of incredible intensity andmore than Am erican keenness . As a matterof fact, it was at Stratford that young Edisonrevealed himself for the first time and verydecidedly in the aspect of an inventor . Thenight operators worked from seven o ’clockin the evening until seven in the morni ng .

Their principal duty was to send dispatchesannouncing the passing of the trains . Themanagement of the railway w as naturally

43


anxious to know whether their dispatcherswere awake and at their posts . As proof oftheir presence and watchfulness

,they were

required to telegraph every half hour on theminute the number six to the manager ofthe section .

It is easy to understand that thi s requi rement was not at all to the taste of our youngscientist

,perpetually absorbed in his experi

ments and his dreams . That is why he gavemore thought to a means of escaping fromthi s interruption than to fulfilling his dutiespunctually. Accordingly he constructed awheel the circumference of which containedcertain notches

,and he connected this wheel

by wires with the telegraphic apparatus insuch a manner that he was able to turn overh is duty to the office clock and trust it totelegraph in his stead the required numbersix at even half-hour intervals .But he was not able to congratulate him

self for long upon his neat contrivance .Unfortunately for him

,the manager soon

di scovered that even immediately after thetransmission of the signal, messages addressedto Edison remained without response . Aninvestigation followed . The trick was dis

APPRENTICED TO MAGIC 45

covered and the young operator was repri

m anded , although without great severity .

As a matter of fact, this contrivance whi chpermitted him to evade a necessary regulationcould be utilized in a legitimate manner underother circumstances ; it was destined , at alater date, to be patented and sold to theAmerican District Telegraph Company.

Not long after this Edison had anotheradventure which might have led to veryserious consequences . One night he receiveda telegraphic order

,instructing hi m to stop

a certain train , in order to prevent a collision .

As he was not expecting any such order, helet the train go by . Horrified with thethought of the danger facing the passengersin the two trains, he started on a run for agoods station near by where the trains werein the habit of stopping. As he ran hestumbled and fell into a ditch . When hepicked himself out he was too late . Hereturned to his post in hot haste

,determined

at any cost to send a warning which,late

as it was, could not possibly d o any good .

By good fortune,however, the two engine

drivers had happened to see each other intime to avert a tragedy.


Young Edison, however, was held to benone the less negligent . He was promptlysuspended from his duties and summonedto appear before the general manager atToronto . The latter censured him unsparingly and even let fall a threat of exemplarypunishment : five years in prison . At thi smoment some visitors were introduced intothe manager ’ s office . They were strangers

,

and the manager received them affably .

Edison seized his Opportunity and di sappeared .

A few minutes later he had boarded a trainfor Sarnia

,where he caught the steamer that

landed him safe and sound on the shore ofMichigan . Mr Edison has not preserved analtogether pleasant memory of Toronto .

After his return to Port Huron he hadoccasion

,during the winter of 1863—64

,to

bring himself into prominence,under quite

memorable circumstances . Enormous cakesof ice had broken the telegraph cable whichconnected Sarnia with Port Huron . Whatwas to be done $ Was there any way ofdispensing with the cable and maintainingcommunication by some other method ofsending dispatches $ We Should note thatthe river is more than half a m ile wide .


Wayne, at Indianapolis, Cincinnati , andMemphis . And he is not yet at the end eitherof his troubles or of his j ourneyings . At allevents, he is all the time continuing hisself-instruction , making observations andmultiplying by actual experience his practicalknowledge of the instruments employed andthe utilization of electric currents .It was during his stay in Indianapoli s that

he invented the automatic repeater,whi ch

rendered possible the transmission of a dispatch from one line to another

,without the

intervention of an operator . Edison ’s taskwas to transmit dispatches to the newspaperswith the utmost promptness and perfectaccuracy . Now at this time he had not yetacquired that rapid handwriting for whichhe was subsequently famous . Consequently,in Spite of his good intentions, neither henor his colleagues were able

,because of the

rapidity of the transmission , to write out

with suffi cient swiftness the dispatches re

ceived . Hence the delays of which thenewspapers complained and whi ch woundedyoung Edison ’s self-esteem . Accordingly, heinvented a method of connecting two Morseinstruments . The speed with which the


telegrams were received upon the first wasfrom forty to fifty words per minute . Onthe second the rate was reduced to betweentwenty and thirty. Thanks to this method— which$ was also an exceedingly Interestingcontrivance— Edison and his companionshad all the time they needed for taking downin luxurious ease whatever dispatches werereceived . As may well be imagined, theyhad all sworn not to reveal this efficaciousmethod of working in peace . The managerwas delighted with the unusual clearness andaccuracy of the dispatches handled by them ,

no matter how complicated the nature of thematter might be . But it happened that therewere some extremely important debates inconnexion with a certain new law. Thetelegraphic report of these debates was sentoff in hot haste . Thanks to the slowing-upaction of the automatic repeater

,Edison and

his accomplices finished their Share of thetask after a delay of more than two hours .This was very far from being satisfactory

to the publishers and editors of the newspapers . They hastened to enter a bitter andindignant complaint with the general manager,who promptly made an investigation . The

D


secret contrivance was discovered and theover-clever inventor forthwith discharged .

Edison was forced to leave Indiana . Hebetook himself to Cincinnati

,where he found

employment as an operator at a monthlysalary of sixty dollars . It was here that hemade the acquaintance of another operatorof some twenty years of age

,whose adventur

ous and picturesque career in America andAfrica would make a veritable romance— Mr

Milton F . Adams . He was one of Edison ’searliest friends .Messrs Dyer and Martin have recorded his

comments and impressions regarding Edison,which it is worth while to repeat here as beinga bit of authentic testimony of great interest . ’

He was,

” said Mr Adams,a young man of

about eighteen years and rather uncouth inmanner . He was quite thin and his nose wasvery prominent

,giving a Napoleonic look to

his face . He was lonesome . I sym

path ised with him and we became close companions . As an operator he had no superiorsand very few equals . He was all the timeinventing one thing and another to relievethe monotony of the office work .

” And Mr


Adams goes on to describe the tricks thatEdison used to play upon his companionswith the aid of electricity, and how he oncearranged a battery in the cellar for the purposeof electrocuting the rats .The chief amusements of the two friends

in Cincinnati were reading, scientific experi

ments,and an occasional visit to the theatre .

Edison had a passion for Othello, but thi sin no wise diminished the remarkable ardourthat he Showed in the practice of his ownduties . Although he was now a day operator,he did not hesitate to take night work also,which brought him considerable extra pay .

Furthermore, his salary was increased to one

hundred and five dollars,and he was entrusted

with the important wire that connects NewYork with Louisville, by way of Cincinnati .The operator in thi s last-named city wascelebrated for his Speed and accuracy. I t

was in this school that Edison acquired anability of the first order. But he evidentlyfound it impossible to remain in anyone place .He was eager for new scenes ; and , besides,he was anxious to secure a more and moreadvantageous situation and one in keepingwith h is qualifications as a telegraph operator.

52 T HOMAS A . EDISON

Accordingly, he betook himself to Memphis,Tennessee, where operators were receiving ahundred and twenty-five dollars a month .

Fortune, however, was chary of her smiles ,and our conquering hero found little else inMemphis than trouble and disappointment .The manager there had for some time pastbeen seeking to perfect a repeater of his owninvention . But in Spite ofall his efforts hecould not arrive at any practical result .Edison very quickly found the requiredsolution . But the manager

,j ealous of such

exceptional ability,discharged a c ollaborator

who was so little likely to add new glory tohi s own merits .A dramatic

,not to say melodramatic ,

account has been given of the young man ’sarrival in Louisville

,half dead from cold and

hunger,dressed in rags

,and without a penny

in his pockets . There is , no doubt, someexaggeration in all this

,just as there is in

the much too gloomy picture drawn of hisparent ’s modest pecuniary situation .

It is none the less true that this j ourney inthe company of a comrade who had himselfbeen unkindly dealt with by Fate, Mr W .

Foley, was a distressing experience : in short,


it was a good Specimen of what the famousinventor calls his hard years . His healthhad been undermined by the countless sleepless nights devoted to toil

,his purse was

sadly empty as a result of many an unpro

fitable experience, and the two young menhad been forced to make the j ourney on foot,in Spite of bitterly inclement weather thataccompanied them the greater part of theway .

Although his outward appearance scarcelyspoke in his favour, Edison promptly founda position in a telegraph office in Louisville

,

where,curiously enough , after all his mani

fold wanderings, he was destined to remainfor two years . During the early part ofthis stay in Louisville he could by no meanscongratulate himself upon the character andbehaviour of the people with whom he wasthrown in contact . None the less, he com

pelled esteem by his loyalty, his industry,his fidelity , and the perfect dignity of hismanners .It is related that one night, when Edison

was on d uty, another operator in the sameofli ce, who was usually very skilful , arrivedin a state of absolute intoxication . In a


sort of alcoholic frenzy he amused himself bydemolishing the stove and proceeded to turnthe whole place upside down

,includi ng the

entire telegraphic apparatus . Far from be

coming excited,Edison calmly proceeded to

repair the wires as best he could,and settled

down,single-handed

,to perform the double

task .

The equipment of telegraph offices in thosedays was at best rudimentary , and the instrum ents were in deplorable condition . Buthis residence in Loui sville offered all sorts ofcompensations . By the very nature of hisduties Edison was now brought into continual relations with the members of thePress . He made the acquaintance of journalists and of poets . He loved to listen totheir discussions . At the same time, whilebecoming an almost unequalled operator

,

capable of sending his forty-five words aminute

,Edison continued to pursue his

'

studies and passed his nights devouringarticles in The North Am eri can Review. Thereis a significant and picturesque anecdoterelated in this connexion . The young manhad succeeded in buying at a bargain acertain number of issues of this magazine .

5c THOMAS A. EDISON

vigorously urged him to give up such a senseless enterprise . Edison certam had nocause to regret having abandoned the pro

j ect . It was only a few years later that helearned of the death of both of his companions ,victims of yellow fever in Mexico .

He very wisely hastened to return to hisformer post in Louisville , where he was cord ially received . Meanwhile the telegraphoffi ces had been installed in fine

,roomy

quarters in a new bui lding . Here the youngman was fortunate enough to win the friendshi p and confidence of his colleagues . It is afamiliar fact that Americans are engaged

,to

an even greater extent than the English,in

a constant fight against intemperance . Wehave already seen that strict sobriety wasnot always the rule even among the mostexperienced of telegraph Operators . Becauseof his known sobriety and irreproachableconduct

,Edison received from his companions

the office of treasurer of a common fund,hi s

duty being to determine the quantity of

liquor to be allowed to each of them, according to their several duties and individualcapacity for drinking. The treasurer’s de

cision was to be accepted without argument


and followed to the letter . A new-comerin the office accepted these conditionswithout demur . Edison had the right torefuse to give out money deposited in thecommon fund for libations that were judgedto be dangerous . This right he exercisedone day against the new arrival in question .

The latter rebelled , but could find no betterargument to advance against an authoritythat was recognized by all the others than tofli ng himself upon this Spoil-Sport with theintention of knocking him out . ’ But theothers intervened with so much energy thatthe rebellious one had to resign himself to alengthy stay in the hospital , to recover fromhis many bruises .In many respects this honourable office of

treasurer was lacking in attraction . Sincethe others knew that he was saving money

,

appeals were made all too often to hi s pursesometimes they even stole his books . Andthere was one evening when he found hisbed occupied by two of his companions

,who

had so singularly abused his hospitality asto have retired completely dressed

,without

even so much as removing their shoes Thisalso was a result of alcohol and accordingly


they were ej ected without mercy upon thefloor.In Louisville, as elsewhere, Edison found

occasion to display hi s peculiar aptitudes,

hi s marvellous quality of endurance,and

that extraordi nary adaptation of his mindto the needs of the moment which has givento many of his actions an ind efinable air oflofty and simple heroism .

It was he who received Johnson ’s Presidential message for the Press . He remainedat his post for thirteen consecutive hours

,

taking down the text of that sensationaltelegram

,from half-past three in the after

noon until the following morning at half-pastfour. With great ingenui ty he divided itinto little paragraphs of three lines each

,

which were distributed in rotation to thecompositors . In this manner the readers ofthe Loui sville papers were enabled to readthis important communication, properlyprinted in its entirety, only a few minutesafter the last words of it had been transmitted .

As an evidence of their appreciation of theservices of this operator who had provedhimself so abundantly equal to his difficulttask

,the editors of the Loui sville papers gave


a banquet in h is honour, a high complimentto h is youthful reputation .

It seems probable that Edison would havecontinued to live quite happily in Louisvilleif an accident had not reopened a phase in hislife that was undoubtedly rich in results

,that

of his love Of travel , his pursuit of successacross the length and breadth of the UnitedStates . At this time he still continued todevote his spare time to his experiments .But one night he had the misfortune to upseta carboy of sulphuric acid . It ran out uponthe floor, went through to the manager

’soffi ce below

,spattered over his desk and

ruined his carpet . It was a veritable disastercomparable only to that of setting fire to thebaggage car of the Grand Trunk Railroad .

The following morning Edison was thankedfor his services

,with the parting comment

that what they needed was an operator andnot an experimental chemist .After this Edison returned for a Short time

to Cincinnati , and while there found oppor

tunity to study the mechanism and speed oflocomotives . The problem of rapid locomotion in all its forms had always hauntedhim — a subj ect to which we shall have


occasion to revert later . To this day Edisonremains the man of miracles in the matter ofSpeed .

Thanks to the kindness of the telegraphinspector of the Cincinnati and IndianapolisRailroad , he was enabled to pursue a numberof interesting experiments , and to evolve theidea for a contrivance which he was destinedto use much later

,in his laboratory at Menlo

Park, where we shall find him in the fullexpansion of his genius .As a matter of fact

,an invention is not

merely a discovery,a distinction that Edison

himself has freely discussed in personal interviews : it is a result, its value dependingupon long and laborious thought and a seriesof more or less obscure efforts .While at Port Huron

,where he once again

stayed for a time with his family, he furnishedthe Grand Trunk Railroad with a means ofusing a single cable for two currents . Oneof the two submarine cables which passedunder the river had been destroyed, and theproblem was to find a means of doing thework of both cables with the remaining one .

It was the same problem as that of hisduplex telegraphy, which be definitely and


practically solved a short time later . Meanwhile he profited by the occasion, and theservice he had rendered , to obtain freetransport to Boston .

He had written to his staunch friend ,Adams

,who was in Boston at the time, and

had learned that there were Openings thereand a better chance to have his talents re

cognized . This prediction was fulfilled . Likea new Franklin, Edison was destined toaccomplish in Boston that definite forwardstep which would allow him henceforth tofollow his chosen path with comparativesecurity . The road traversed by great inventors and great creators

,no matter who

they are,is always full of stumbling-blocks .

How many small successes they must achi evebefore arriving at the fulfilment of theirdreamsThe j ourney from Port Huron to Boston

was a most unpleasant one . Edison sufferedfrom both cold and hunger. The train madeslow and difficult progress through a blizzard, was held up for twenty-four hours,and finally reachedMontreal four days behindhand . It was a rough experience . But itwas soon banished from his mind by other


experiences of a very different order whichawaited the young inventor in Boston . Thiswas in the year 1868.

Milton Adams welcomed him like a brother .He had found him a place as operator in theoffice of the Western Union Te legraph Company . When Edison presented himself themanager asked himWhen will you be ready to go to workNow

,

” answered Edison . A few hourslater he had commenced and was assigned tonight duty. His future colleagues in thetelegraph office decided to have some sportwith thi s ill-clad Western guy

,

’ and puttheir heads together to do it properly

,in a

thoroughly artistic manner . They told himto Sit down at a particular table and receive aSpecial report for The Boston Herald . Edisontook hi s seat without the least suspicion .

In later years Edison enjoyed relating thisamusing story

,which turned singularly to

his own advantage . The conspirators had arranged with one of the most skilful Operatorsin New York to send the dispatch with disconcerting speed

,in order to salt the new

man . The New York sender did his best .He began fairly fast

,but continued to send


returned to work with all the greater courageand with that amazing power of endurancewhich is decidedly one of his most characteristic traits . At night he fulfilled his routineduties , whi ch no longer contained unsolvedproblems . In the daytime he buried himself in Faraday ’s Experim ental Researches

in Electri ci ty . Faraday, whose works werethen far too little known or understood ,opened up new horizons . Edison gave himself up to this line of reading and to hi s ownreflections with such passionate absorptionthat he forgot to eat

,drink or sleep . He

said to his friend Adams,who ‘roomed with

him Adams,I have so much to do and life

is so short I am going to hustleEdison ’s long reflections on scientific pro

blem s did not prevent him from living whollyin the midst of reality ; and the reason whyhe became a devoted admirer of Faraday wasprecisely because Faraday did not employthe methods of mathematicians, but that ofexperimenters

,which

,accordi ng to Edison , is

the only true one . He continued to amazeall who knew him by his extreme ingenuity,which was always ready to be called intoaction

,and in the most widely diverse fields .


Thus,for instance

,when he found that the

walls of the Boston offices were infested withcockroaches in spite of all that could be done,he proceeded to exterminate them by meansof electric batteries . This feat earned hima publicity whi ch he was more anxious toacquire by a different order of exploits

,more

worthy of fame and fortune .It was precisely at this epoch— the l st of

June,1869— that he took out his first patent

,

for a voting machine, on which he had beenworking for several months . Th e obj ect ofthis machine, whi ch was never put into use,was to obtain a practically instantaneousvote

,accurate beyond the possibility of con

test,in any deliberative assembly . The

oscillation of a needle to the right or to theleft recorded the aye or no of the membervoting. An electric current registered thisvote by discolouring a paper impregnatedwith a certain chemical composition . Thanksto this same current, the number of ayes andnoes was displayed automatically upon abulletin board . This device was intendedfor use in Parliament and Congress . But,apart from the fact that it prevented fraud

,

it had a number of inconveniences . In fact,E


by permitting each member to vote privately,it did away with discussions before thevote was taken . Messrs Dyer and Martin ,who give some valuable details regardingthis curious machi ne

,

1 record the significantremark made by an important memberof the committee to whi ch it was referred ,at Washington If there is any inventionon earth that we don ’t want here

,it is this .

One of the greatest weapons in the hands ofa minority to prevent bad legislation is filibustering on votes, and this instrument wouldprevent it .” Such was the verdict of aprofessional politician

,which the young in

ventor must have pondered over, not withoutsome bitterness, while he promised himselfthat he would henceforth adapt himself moreand more, better and better, to the clearlyexpressed needs of the public .We Shall see that Edison continued to

prosecute his experiments in chemistry andelectricity, and that from thi s time onwaTrd

he was marvellously successful in makingthe former come to the aid of the latter .He and one of his associates amused themselves by manufacturing chemical compounds .

1s e of Edz

'

sorz .


Thus it happened that, having found theformula for making nitro-glycerine, theyundertook one day to make some. But, asa matter of fact, they were so frightened tofind themselves in possession of an explosiveof such a dangerous nature that they hastenedto put their product into a bottle, wrap theirbottle in a paper and throw the whole verycautiously into a sewer .There are several amusing anecdotes re

garding Edison’s life in Boston,in company

with hi s friend Adams, a Singular individual,richer in ideas than in money. A well-knownpublic man who knew Edi son at this periodpictures him as fertile in ideas , but of uncouthmanners and lacking in all niceties of dress.Without stopping to comment upon thosecharacteristics , we must not fail to relate anepisode that is not without its humorous Side .A good deal of interest was being taken in

Boston in the life and inventions of Morse .The principal of a certain school applied tothe offices of the Western Uni on for a lecturerwell versed in the subject and capable ofholding the interest of an audi ence of youngpeople . Edison, being recommended, acceptedwith pleasure, all the more because he


was delighted at the chance of augmentinghis salary from outside sources, which wouldpermit h im to indulge himself more extensively in experiments and in his taste forbooks . It is said, however, that he was soabsorbed in hi s various problems that heforgot the hour of the lecture

,and that when

his friend Adams looked for hi m to remindhim , Edison was found on the roof, busilyengaged in putting up a telegraph wi re . Itwould be rash to guarantee the absoluteauthenticity of this statement . But howeverthat may be, without changing his clothes,Edison , accompanied by Adams , who helpedhim to carry the apparatus necessary fori llustrating the lecture, took hi s way to theschool . Imagine his stupefaction when hefound himself in the presence of a score ofyoung girls

,all dressed in their very prettiest

frocks $ But after a few moments of embarrassed silence he began to speak, and,thanks to his thorough knowledge and perfectclearness, he Obtained a genuine triumph .

The main point in connexion with thi sanecdote is that it proves what a wellestabli shed reputation this experienced youngOperator already enjoyed in such a city as


Boston . It also serves to Show in whatdirection Edi son ’s thoughts were tending.

In Spite of his manifold proj ects, his diverseinventions suggested by reflection and bycircumstances, it was not in vain that he hadbestowed minute and persistent attentionupon the manipulation of the telegraph .

He had in his hands an instrument thepossibilities of which seemed to him to bemarvellous, but which he judged to be stillin a very rudimentary state . Morse hadconstructed the first telegraph line in 1843,between Baltim ore and Washington . In1869 Edison felt sure that he had discoveredthe improvements necessary to perfect it .It was not a question of interfering withthe fundamental principle of telegraphy, butsimply, given this principle, of deducing fromit all the practical results . Now Edison hadimmediately realized the extreme value of

discovering a way to send two dispatches ,or even four, in place of one over the samewire at one and the same time .This idea was the origin of his duplex andquadruplex telegraphy . Having gatheredtogether the sum Of eight hundred dollars

,he

made h is first attempt at duplex telegraphy

70 THOMAS A. EDISON

with an apparatus of his own construction,over the telegraph line connecting Rochesterand New York . The attempt was unsuc

cessful because his assistant had failed tounderstand and follow out his instructions .This set-back did not in the least discouragethe inventor, but he saw the necessity ofremoving to New York, where he would havefar greater Opportunities of exploiting hisdiscovery . Would it not be worth millionsto the telegraph compani es of the New World ,and quite as much to those of the Old Worldas well $ And was it not quite legitimate thathis labours Should bring him the necessarymeans for pursuing his researches in peace $But Edison had not yet climbed his

Calvary, the Calvary of all inventors , eventhose whom chance, aided by their own en

deavours, seems determined to favour . Hehad exhausted his resources . When he tookthe boat for New York he was literally without a remaining penny, besides having toleave behind him in Boston h is instruments,h i s books and hi s few other modest possesSions . His first thought when he landed inNew York was to get breakfast . An Operatorwhom he knew lent him a dollar. The problem

72 THOMAS A. EDISON

Simple truth is quite sufficiently interestingand dramatic to be adhered to

,just as Edison

himself relates it,without any useless em

bellishm ents. In New York he had appliedwithout delay at the offices of the WesternUnion for a position as telegraphist . Meanwhile

,by a stroke of luck that was destined

to bear most happy results, he obtainedemployment with the Gold Reporting Company .

The same Dr Laws who afterward becamepresident of the University of Missouri , andwas distinguished as an engineer and electrician , had patented an instrument of hisown invention , the Gold Reporting Telegraph ,a patent which he was then successfully ex

ploiting. Dur ing the Civil War the nationaldebt had greatly increased and the price of

gold had risen to a high premium ; conse

quently the value of all other commoditiesvaried according to its fluctuations . Thetelegraphic device of Dr Laws had for itsobj ect the transmission of the price of goldto the offices of all brokers and moneychangers . The commercial life of the bigcity was subordinated to this rise and fall

,

and to the informati on sent out from the


ofl'

i ce of Dr Laws . The least disturbance ofthe machine meant business and financialstagnation . Let us follow the story as toldby Edison himself.On the third day after hi s arrival in New

York,while he was Sitting in the office, this

extremely complicated instrument, whi ch wasresponsible for the transmission of dispatchesall over the city

,and which made a deafening

noise in doing so, suddenly stopped working,with an ominous crash . The tumult thatresulted was indescribable three hundr edbrokers ’ clerks burst into the room, whichwas hardly capable of holding one hundred,every one of them adding to the hubbub,and every one of course wasting his breath.

Edison examined the instrument and qui cklysaw what the trouble was a contact Springhad broken and had dropped down betweenthe two gear wheels , thus preventing themfrom turni ng . There was nothing seriousthe matter . He was on the point of givingthe necessary instructions to the man incharge of the machine, who had completelylost his head . But at that moment Dr Lawshimself made his appearance in a state of

the greatest imaginable excitement . When


questioned , the man in charge only stared inopen-mouthed silence . Edison then Spokebriefly, giving the explanations asked andpointing out the repairs to be immedi atelymade . Two hours later the precious instrument was once more working to perfection .

Dr Laws questioned this well informedoperator who had saved him from h is diffi

culties and asked him to call at his privateofli ce the following morning.

Edison did so, and before the interviewwas over it had been agreed that he shouldhave the superintendence of all the machinesin the establishment

,at a monthly salary of

three hundred dollars .Three hundred dollars $ At that time it

seemed a fortune to the young man . Thebargain was profitable to them both, forEdison made some advantageous improvements, and at the same time had abundantopportunity for pursui ng his personal re

searches . Furthermore, he was now relievedfrom poverty and anxiety . He was free tofollow his chosen path to fame and progress .The rapidity of his advance was almost unparalleled

,although it could hardly be said

to have been unforeseen, because his courage,


hi s energy, his extreme cleverness in takingadvantage of circumstances and seizing theopportune moment give to Edison’s creativegenius a prodigious advantage which easilyexplains his most astonishing results .

Henceforth Edison was no longer contentmerely to solve the problems that ceaselesslypresented themselves to his ever-alert mind ;he wanted , in solving them, to benefitlargely by the results . And since he appliedhimself to questions that most directly concerned the big industrial and financial movements that were taking place in th e UnitedStates, and especially in such a centre as New

York, he was able within a few months tobear off the proud trophies of reputation andmoney. Money, above all, is the ind ispensable equipment of the inventor, whose expenses are

,one may almost say , as limitless

as his conceptions,in which dreams must

constantly play a part until such time as theyare transformed into realities fi realities thatoften are promptly assumed to be ind ispensable necessities in a state of society that iseager to enjoy all the benefits of civilization.

Besides,that period of financial cri sis was


favourable for the development of new ideasthat answered to the immedi ate needs of

banks and commercial houses . And it iswell known what formidable intensity theyassume in the land of dollars

,where fortunes

are built up and lost again with dizzyrapidity .

Thanks to the improvements made byEdison in the gold indicator, and in ameasure to the position he now occupied , hewas brought into continual relations with ayoung engineer of the highest merit

,Mr

Franklin L . Pope, who later became President of the American Institute of ElectricalEngineers . The two men were quick tounderstand and measure each other . Together with a publisher, Mr J . N. Ashley,they formed a firm known as Pope

,Edison

and Company, Electrical Engineers andGeneral Telegraphic Ag ency . They openedtheir office in New York in October 1869 .

They offered their services to all personsdesirous of applying electricity to the artsand sciences

,and of learning what instru

ments were necessary and how to use them .

The company undertook the construction,

maintenance and repair of wires, cables,


batteries, etc . , in Short, of all forms of telegraphic apparatus, and would also furni shall necessary drawings, engravings and catalogu es.

Meanwhi le the Gold Reporting Companyhad undergone considerable developmentand had been merged with another companyand become the Gold and Stock TelegraphCompany, under the direction of GeneralLefferts . Edison was entru sted with theinstallation of various private lines . Meanwhile he had been seeking methods for

obtaini ng the more rapid transmission ofdispatches, and these improvements hadbrought about an important change in theorder of things . xHe also invented a newtelegraphic printer, or stock ticker,

’to

record the current price of gold and stockquotations and this invention also wastaken over by the company.

After this he proceeded to multiply hisinventions of contrivances to be applied totelegraphy, and obtained patents of themwhi ch secured him in his rights . One dayGeneral Lefferts summoned the young inventor to his office .

See here,young man, he said, I want


the entire lot of your inventions . What willyou take for themEdison , who had previously made a cal

culation based upon the time he had spent,and also upon his desire to be at liberty tooccupy himself exclusively with his personalresearches

,was vaguely dreaming of an out

side sum of five thousand dollars , and aminimum of three thousand . But, brave ashe usually was , he did not dare to put sucha sum into words , so he contented himselfwith replyingMake me an offer, General, and I will

consider it .”

What would you say to forty thousanddollarsAt thi s point Edison , who has himself

narrated the incident with much humorousappreciation, admits that he came very nearfainting. His heart began to beat with suchviolence that he was almost afraid thatthe General would hear i t. He contentedhimself wi th replying that he thought theoffer was a fai r one and that he would acceptit . With a satisfied All right,

” GeneralLefferts assured him that the contract shouldbe prepared and signed within three days


and that he should receive the money at thesame time . In spite of all his self-possession ,Edison could not help feeling that he wastaking part in a dream- a very beautifulone , but none the less only a dream . How

ever,the contract was duly presented to him

and he Signed , without even looking at it .How many authors have celebrated , with allthe magic of their loftiest style, the memoryof their first love $ Should there not alsobe a place

,in the positivi sm of our present

century, for glorifying the memory of thefirst cheque received $ At all events , youngEdison was in a state bordering upon intoxication as he made his way to the Bankof New York .

At the paying teller ’s window,where he

presented his cheque—the first,as a matter

of fact, that he had ever received—a briefremark was addressed to him which his deafness prevented him from understanding. Insome anxiety he returned to find GeneralLefferts, who, after enjoying a good laugh,instructed the young scientist in the art of

endorsing cheques . Accompanied thi s timewith a clerk instructed to identify him, heonce more sought the paying teller ’s window.


After a little good-natured j oking the entiresum was handed over to him in a mass ofbills which he had great trouble in stowingaway, with infinite precautions , in his variouspockets, those of h is overcoat included .

Without being a miser, Edison found himself unable to sleep

,because of the thought

that he might be robbed . For did not thi smoney mean freedom from drudgery, a soaring fl ight opening before his genius, which haddecreed the advent of a new era, thanks tothe fairy power of electricityOnce again the General came to his aid,

findi ng much amusement in the trials of aman of science who was so unfamiliar withbanking operations

,and he gave Edison the

friendly and wise advice to deposit h is moneyand open an account .We shall soon see that Edison was no more

capable of sleeping upon his laurels than uponhis money . He had got what in sportnparlance is called his second wind .

’ Henceforth, thanks to an intense, inexhaustible,miraculous activity, this great conqueror ofmodern times was destined to speed onwardfrom victory to victory.

CHAPTER III

EDISON THE NAPOLEON OF MODERN TIMESTHE FAIRYLAND OF MENLO PARK— EDISONAT WORK AND EDISON AT PLAY

DISON Was incapable by nature ofstifling the interior flame and contenting himself with a gilded medi ocrity .

His good fortune did not intoxicate him , butit augmented his audacity and increased hi senergy .

The hour had struck when he was to actfor himself, following his natural bent . Atlast he could work as he pleased

,elsewhere

than in a blacksmith’s ShOp ,a cellar

,the

corner of a bed-chamber $ Eager to exploithis new inventions

,he hired a Shop

,bought

machi nery , installed a laboratory containingall the apparatus necessary for his experi

ments in physics, chemistry and electricity .

This shop soon became too small . He foundanother in Newark

,New Jersey

,a large four

story bui lding situated in Ward Street,that

is to say, in the business centre . The rent ofF 81


such a bui lding was , as may be imagined ,considerable . But men like Edison do not

care to play for small stakes ; they are so

constructed that they take no interest unlessthe game runs high . Since he had not triedto economize

,he was not surprised to see his

money disappear little by little . He wassowing in order to reap , and the harvestproved most bountiful . General Leffertsgave him big orders for stock tickers

,and

before$ very long he was employing over fifty

workmen .

It Should be observed at once that Edison,like all great conquerors , is an admirablemanager of men . He is able to communicatehis enthusiastic ardour to all who surroundhim, or who are in touch with him, whetherfrom near or far . His power of persuasionis fully equal to his power of work . He isastonishing as a great inventor ; but as agreat manufacturer and director he commands no less admiration . If he haspromised to deliver certain apparatus withina brief Space of time, he will easily remaintwenty-four hours consecutively at thebreech

,in the midst of h is subordinates .

Two or three half-hours of sleep suffi ce to

NAPOLEON OF MODERN TIMES 83

leave him once more fresh and alert . Hismental vigour is supplemented by a physicalvigour of a rare, not to say unique, character .From the year 1869 down to the present

date Edison has taken out something likefourteen hundred patents in the United Statesalone $ Yet, with characteristic caution ,he has refrained from patenting all of hisinventions .Unquestionably he has a gift for surround

ing himself with chosen men, of picking out

those of Special promise, and it may be safelyasserted that a majority of the eminentelectricians In America have served theirapprenticeship under Edison before goingforth in their turn to teach the theory andpractice of their science .The co-operation which he thus secured,

thanks to his extreme clairvoyance, has enabled him to build up a vast organi zation .

Without detracting from the merit of all theothers who have had a share in it, we mustnevertheless recognize that it remains thefruit of his own unequalled initiative . It

is like the limbs of the body which act inobedience to the commands of the brain .

It is very difficult , if not impossible, from


1870 onward , to follow Edi son step by step ,from discovery to discovery

,from business

venture to business venture,because of the

vastness and complexity of his activity andthe diversity of h is occupations and preoccupations . It is his habit to carry forward Simultaneously a number of differenttasks in his varied capacity of physicist ,chemist, and business man . He invents aninstrument , then abandons it in order to givehis attention to some other proj ect whichhaunts his thoughts, then presently revertsto the instrument in question, transformingand perfecting it . Then he seems once moreto forget it, but only to come back to it, tenor twenty times , without ever becoming tiredof seeking and finding.

His success as a manufacturer was rapidand continuous . Circumstances favouredhim quite as much as his audacity andperseverance . Fluctuations on the StockExchange and the fever of Speculation inNew York brought a steadily increasing profitfrom the manufacture of his stock printers .Following the example of the Gold and

Stock Telegraph Company, other equallypowerful organi zations, such as the Auto

86 THOMAS A. EDISON

This contract was a veritable source of lifeand prosperity for his enterprises . His shopbecame a manufactory which , from 1873

onward , employed three hundred workmen .

His character at that time as director-inchief was extremely original . He broke withall customs and traditions , and manifested anindependence which gave a flavour of ind ividuality to all his words and actions . Forinstance, he discovered one day that his headbook-keeper had credited the concern with

37000 , when, as a matter of fact, they hadincurred a loss of On the strengthof this experience the great inventor madeup his mind that book-keeping was a uselessluxury and accordingly discontinued it .Like all geniuses , Edison recognizes the

value of impulse, and he has persistently mistrusted

,for others as well as for himself, the

influence of rules and conventions which soeasily lead to inertia and routine . That iswhy his entire staff is modelled after his ownpattern . In those workrooms where thechief obj ect is to capture and subdue themysterious force of electr icity it seems asthough every engineer and every mechanicwere united by unseen currents with the


master mind . Through contact with himthe humblest workman conceives a passionate devotion to the common task . Hestimulates them by appealing to the heartquite as much as to the purse . He amazesthem with his technical knowledge

,and he

obtains from them a heroic degree of effortwhich results in a most efficacious harmony .

In order to understand the power of thiswizard it i s worth while, even at the risk ofrepetition

,to dwell emphatically upon his

ability to win the admiration and devotion ofhis assistants . In this connexion a numberof Signi ficant instances might be cited . Thereis one to which we must not fail to drawattention , because it is sufficient in itself toprove the authority which this extraordinarydirector of men already possessed , notwithstanding hi s youth , as well as the strange,almost alarming, vigour of his physical andmoral nature . He had received an orderfor stock printers amounting to the sum of

The instruments, when finished,

for some unknown reason, failed to work .

Yet they had to be delivered within a giventime

, or the contract would be void .

Edison had the defective instruments

88 THOMAS A. EDISON

brought into his laboratory, summoned hiscollaborators and mechanics

,locked the door ,

and said Now, boys , let’s get busy ; we

don ’t go out of here until this work is doneThere was no complaint

,not even a

murmur . They fell to work, and continuedat it for sixty$ consecutive hours , hardlystopping long enough to take food . As forEdi son h Im self, he did not waste a singlemoment in rest or Sleep . But at the end ofthe Sixty hours the instruments were inworking order .Where in the world could such workmen be

found , except under the command of such achief $ It is said , by the way, that Edisonrecuperated his strength by a Sleep of thirtysix hours .

The story of his first marriage, which hasbeen very pleasantly related by an Englishwriter

,Mr Frank Mundell , is equally enter

taining. While we cannot rigorously andscientifically guarantee its absolute accuracy,it does not seem to be at variance with thegreater part of the deeds and actions of theillustrious king of electricity . It took place

in 1873, two years after the death of Edison’s


mother, who had watched with great solicitude the ripening of his intellectual powers,and had lived to witness only the earliestmanifestations of h is genius .One day he paused behind one of his young

women assistants, who was quite absorbed inher task , before an electric writing machine .

He stood there a long time, so long, in fact,that the young girl became nervous andinterrupted her work . Was she doing itwrong, She wondered , and was it the machinewhich had attracted the attention of thegreat inventor —or was it the operator Heasked her whether he had startled her . Thenhe perceived that what She felt was not fear,but a more tender sentiment .Well ,

” he continued ,$ will you be my

wife And that was how Mr Edison cameto marry Miss Mary E . Stillwell .Far from assuming a share of responsibility

for this pleasant and qui te electric idyll , ourown belief is that the inventor required acertain degree of premeditation in the case ofthi s di scovery , just as in all h is others , andthat he had assured himself of the charmingqualities of Miss Stillwell before decidingto make her the partner of hi s hard and


laborious life . Yet we could not forgive ourselves if we failed to relate the sequel to thi spicturesque recital, notwithstanding thatMr Mundell himself admits that his versionrests upon hearsay evidence .At all events the story goes that on the

evening of his wedding, at a very late hour ,a friend of Edison ’s passed by his laboratory .

To his great surprise he perceived gleams oflight filtering through th e window blinds .He entered the isolated building and foundthe scientist absorbed , as usual , over anexperiment.Look here, Tom , he said familiarly,

what are you thinking of It is past midnight . Aren ’t you going homeWhat, is it as late as that already $ Past

midni ght How extraordinary $ And , nowthat I think of it, I was married to-day .

Bless me , yes , I really ought to go homeOne thing that is certain is that he found

in his wife a companion who was an enthusi

astio admirer of his ideas and achi evementsand wholly devoted to his gigantic enterprises . It could not, indeed , have beenotherwise, for Mr Edison could never haveendured to live outside his own sphere and


apart from the occupations to which he hadwholly given himself up from the beginning .

In seeing her husband at work , hi s wife couldnot do otherwise than esteem and respecthim more and more, while leaving him theliberty required for that sort of fermentationof ideas which must necessarily precede theirfinal ripening into deeds . She died in 1884,profoundly regretted by all .After his marriage Edison endeavoured to

conform a little more closely to the requirements of society by returning home at fixedhours for the purpose of eating, drinking , andsleeping

,after the fashion of the rest of

humanity . He did his best, but could neveraltogether succeed in resigning himself toabandoning h is experiments when they deeplyengrossed h is attention . At the moment whenbe grasped the key to a problem , Edisonceased to belong to that social order whichhe has so magnificently placed in hisdebt .Three children were born of the marriage,

Thomas Alva , William Leslie, and MarionEstelle . He was an excellent and affectionate father

,and had the habit of calling the

two elder children Dot and Dash , in memory

92 THOMAS A. EDISON

of that telegraphic language whose secrets hehad so rapidly made his own .

During the years in Newark, from 1873 to1876, Edi son came into full possession of hisformidable omnipotence

,due to h is energy,

his knowledge, and his creative geni us . Itseems as though , throughout those three yearsduring which he was directing his establishment and consecrating long days and longnights to perfecting h is new apparatus , hebecame able , after many and oft-repeatedexperiments , to contemplate with a pro

founder and keener gaze the great problemof the utilization of electric force . He passedfrom one question to another

,with unerr

ing glance and method,Speeding ever faster

along the road that leads to wealth andfame .

Surrounded as he was by an admiringpublic which too often sought to satisfy itscuriosity at the expense of his time andliberty— both of which he has always soughtto protect against the mounting tide of idleintruders— Edison dreamed of seeking a moresheltered asylum $ for h is personal work .

Although possessed of an activity surpassingthat

,not of one

,but of several ordinary men,


Philadelphia . Edison himself has given aclear and entertaining explanation of thischange . His words have been accuratelyreported by his friends and bfilliant inter

preters, Mr F . L . Dyer, the lawyer, who hasfull charge of all his legal interests , and MrT . C . Martin, former president of the AmericanInstitute of Electrical Engineers, who furni shus, in the course of their study, with all sortsof enlightenments of inestimable value .Edison relates that he had occasion to rent

by the month a small offi ce situated in a hugebui lding used for the manufacture of pad

locks . He gave noti ce, at the end of a certainmonth , and , having paid h is rent, went off,leaving the keys behind him . Shortly afterward he received a legal notice requiring himto pay an additional nine months ’ rent . Itmay have been in accordance with the law,

but it seemed to him so unjust that he madeup his mind to leave a locality in which suchan outrage was tolerated .

On the other hand,there is no doubt

that the great inventor found all sorts ofadvantages in transferring himself to MenloPark . Before choosing this particular sitehe had made excursions for a number of


successive Sundays . He wanted to be quitesure that he had a certain number of

conveniences within easy reach .

It proved to be a happy choice . Duringthe period from 1876 to 1886Menlo Park wasdestined to be a unique centre, mysteriousand colossal , animated by the astoundinggenius of this American whose fame hadradiated throughout the length and breadthof the Old World with a brilliance unsurpassedby his own electric light and dazzling all eyesas it shone through the surrounding Shadows .For Edison is a sort of modern Faust whohas passed into legend not merely during hislifetime, but in the fullness of youth and inhis Singular, unparalleled maturity ; and hewas destined before long to b e known as theGreat Wizard ofMenlo Park .

To-day that famous laboratory and thosemachine shops which the master had animated with his intense ardour and prodigiouswill-power have fallen into silence . They arebui ldings without a name and seem to haveretained no memory of their former glory .

Edison, to be sure, has since chosen anotherbattle-field for his peaceful victories .Nevertheless it was at Menlo Park that his


fertile genius brought into existence a hordeof amazing productions

,ranging from the

carbon transmitter to the phonograph , fromthe incandescent lamp to the apparatus forelectrical distribution

,to the megaphone, the

taximeter,and the electric street car . It

was also in Menlo Park that, while perfectinghis instrum ents for multiplex transmission ,he laid the foundation for wireless telegraphy,thus uniting the past with the future .Just as he unh esitatingly transformed his

first cheque for forty thousand dollars intoan establishment where he would be free towork as he chose , so at a later period he madeuse of the four hundred thousand dollars ofnet profits resulting from the three years spentin Newark .

Before long the new buildings , of modernand comfortable design, had begun to rise .

Edison was at last going to have a laboratoryworthy of him , equipped with all the necessary appliances and all the innumerablesubstances whi ch a wizard of science mightwant . It is said that he spent one hundredthousand dollars just for the physical andchemical apparatus .There were seven buildings . Edison in

98 THOMAS A. EDISON

who so gladly gave him the aid of their zealouscollaboration and often their rare and Specialknowledge it is only fair that, after havinghad the toil, they should now receive thecredit .In the foremost rank Should be mentionedMr Charles Batchelor, his chief assistant, whoparticipated in many of his inventions andwho entered his service as early as 1870 .

Mr Batchelor is an Engli shman,a mechanic

of rare attainments , loyal-hearted and withan intelligence as alert as hi s fingers aredexterous .Mr Francis Upton, another of his principal

collaborators , was a mathematician andscientist of considerable distinction, who hadcompleted hi s studies under one of the greatest of all masters, Helmholtz . Edison, whobefore all else is a practical worker, whosestarting-point is experience and experimenting, while Sincerely admiring Mr Upton ,freely laughed at some of his fine theoriesand did not hesitate to replace his calculations with actual facts that were moredirectly helpful .Conspicuous among the other pioneers of

the New World created by electricity were


Messrs William J . Hammer, Martin Force,Francis Jehl , who has given a most interestingaccount of his life and experiences at MenloPark John Kruesi , a mechanic of rare skillC . T . and S . D . Mott, Dr E . L . Nichols

,Mr

Isaacs , the photographer ; Ludwig K . Boehm,

who throughout long and studious eveningsused to Sing and play his guitar for the entertainm ent of his comrades ; S . L . Griffin,Edison’s old telegraph friend, who now actedas his secretary, and Professor MacInry , whowith two assistants undertook to make thenecessary public demonstrations of the newinventions and their manipulation, etc .At Menlo Park there was a constant com

ing and going of visitors from every countryof the Old World as well as of the New.

Artists there met and mingled with scientists,

professors , engineers and mechanics , all eagerto draw inspiration from this same mightyfountain-head .

Edison continued to set an example of

dogged industry . When he was followingup a course of experiments he would notstir from his laboratory, but Slept upon atable . A few books served him for a pillow .

This improvised bed satisfied him adm ir


ably, for he was able to Sleep at no matterwhat hour, quickly and soundly, wi thoutdreams .In the midst of h is comrades he habitually

was and still is delightfully good-humoured .

At Menlo Park, after luncheon and a cigar,it was the habit to indulge in a Short sessionof music and entertaining stories . Edisonenjoyed a hearty laugh

,and he was de

lighted when he drew an answering laughfrom men who were ordinarily so seriousand so profoundly absorbed in their commontask .

Among his visitors, in addition to intimatefriends like Mr Johnson and the learnedProfessor Barker, there were strangers whowere destined later to carry Edison’s processesto nearly every country on the globe : suchmen, for instance , asM . Loui s Rau, a Parisian,the founder of the Edison Company in France,Professor Colombo and Signor Buzzi

,who

organized the Italian company,and Herr

Rathenau and Herr Fodor, who came re

Spectively from Germany and Hungary . Wemight also have met there some old-timeacquaintances , among them Edison s father,a rugged and hi gh ly respected patriarch who

102 THOMAS A. EDISON

fatigue, or nerve strain . On the contrary ,while he was the first to begin work andthe last to leave it, he had, nevertheless, noequal in his appreciation of a funny story,and was largely responsible for the bursts ofhilarity in which the staff indulged from timeto time, becoming for the moment so manygrown-up children , during intervals of respiteand recreation .

His one mistake was occasionally to thinkthat everybody else was capable of physicaland moral endurance such as h is. He wasalways on foot

,calm and sure of himself,

when even the most valiant of the others wereexhausted and sued for mercy, because theyfelt the need of food , drink and sleep . Yetat hours when an indispensable and finaleffort must be made, he would end by com

m unicating even to the weariest somethingof his own energy and faith .

We are beginning to see and know theinventor, as he really is in his workingclothes , greater in actual life than any fictioncould make him . That is why we have triedto visualize him in the appropriate settingwhich he himself created with all his energyand all h is faith .


The next step is to cast a glance athi s discoveries , and attempt to estimatetheir value as well as their influence uponthe grateful generations of to—day and tomorrow.

CHAPTER IV

DISTANCE I S ABOLI SHED fi ED I SON STARTSUPON THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD WORLDOF EUROPE

E have mentioned Edison ’s firstsuccesses as a telegraphist

,and

we have shown him engaged inresearches after other apparatus adapted tomodern needs . Although not the inventorof the telegraph

,Edison discovered so many

and such diverse improvements to it that heremains , in this regard , a pioneer of the firstrank .

It will suffice to recall that it was he whoperfected the automatic telegraph inventedby an Englishman named George Little . Thesystem had produced good results on veryShort lines

,but it prod extremely defective

in the majority of cases .Edison and E . H . Johnson introduced

modifications,the value of which was proved

by practical tests . In 1872 the automatictelegraph was installed between New York

104


the same time over a single wire,two in

each direction . This method of simultaneous transmission, which has been continuallymade more and more practical , thanks toEdison ’s prolonged efforts

,constituted a most

important improvement . The use of thequadruplex could not fail to constitute asaving to the companies of many millions ofdollars .But before he had passed from theory to

a result that satisfied his expectations , theyoung inventor was necessarily long absorbedin his reflections and in the patient workingout of a vast number of attempts and experi

ments . In fact , the achievement of a quadruplex capable of realizing his dream becamea sort of obsession . It was in consequenceof this preoccupation that he experienced thefollowing amusing little adventure . He wasso absorbed in working out the details of hisapparatus that he not only spent day afterday in his Newark laboratory without eating,drinking and sleeping, all of which was, aswe have seen, of little or no importance tohim , but he even forgot to pay his taxes .Consequently , like any other free and equalcitizen, he received a notice one day to call

DISTANCE ABOLISHED 107

the following morning at the tax collector ’soffi ce, in default of which he would be liableto a surcharge, like any one else who was inarrears . Accordingly

,the following morning

Edison reluctantly tore himself away fromhis laboratory and presented himself at theCity Hall

,where he had to take his place in

a long line of people all holding similar noticesin their hands . When his turn came he wasonce more absorbed in the problem of hisquadruplex .

Well,well

,young man

,said the clerk ,

pay attention . What is your nameBut Edison was paying such profound

attention— to h is own thoughts— that helooked the questioner calmly in the face andansweredI don ’t knowBefore his memory had awakened another

tax-payer had taken his place . Before heworked up again in the line it was too late ,and he had to pay the surcharge . But thesolution of the problem of his quadruplexmore than compensated him .

But to return to the telegraph . In addition to the above-mentioned inventions , wealso owe to Edison the multiplex harmonic


telegraph , which succeeds by the aid of

musical sounds in sending Sixteen messagessimultaneously

,eight in each direction .

Furthermore, this magician, for whom theword im possible really does not seem to exist ,has invented a telegraph instrument for useupon railway trains in motion . The instrument is installed in one of the cars of thetrain, and is so constructed that the electriccurrent passes from it to a wire suspendedabove the lines . In this manner messageshave been transmitted from trains in motion,even when the telegraph wire was at somelittle distance from the lines . The practicalimportance of this instrument was promptlyrecognized ; it obviously offered a mostvaluable means for Signalling warnings of

danger to and from moving trains , and thuspreventing accidents in a great many cases .Edison has transformed the telegraph into

a practical and commercial instrument ofwonderful efficacy

,thanks to the Speed with

which it has made it possible to transact thebusiness and financial relations of the entireworld .

The rdle that he has played in regard tothe telephone is quite similar . This marvel


hope to receive a sum of twenty-five thousanddollars . Less timid than in those earlierdays when he had sold his first telegraphicinventions to General Lefferts , he met MrOrton ’s inquiry as to his price for his patentwith the counter suggestion : Make me anoffer .Mr Orton ’s offer was one hundred thousand

dollars . Edison accepted , stipulating, however, that the sum should be paid in annualinstalments of $6000 . Accordingly the payments would extend over seventeen years

,or

throughout the entire period covered by thepatent . Edison himself has since given theexplanation of this clause . He knew himselfonly too well , and realized that he wouldpromptly squander the entire sum on furtherexperiments . He felt that it was wiser toprovide himself with seventeen years ofsecurity .

But it was not in accordance with Edison ’snature to rest content wi th having given thetelephone its entire importance and reliabilityby the use of his carbon transmitter . Withhis magic ingenuity, he proceeded to extractfrom this instrument a whole series of

other instruments depending upon the same


principle : such as the water telephone, thecondenser telephone, the chemical telephone,the mercury telephone and the voltaic piletelephone .

On the other hand,we must not forget the

electromotograph . Edison had observed thefollowing phenomenon when a metal pencilis brought into contact with a sheet of paperand an electric current sent through it, thesurface of the

,paper becomes smooth and

shiny where the pencil has passed . Thisproperty of diminished friction, thanks tothe electric current , is the principle of themotograph . The inventor worked Six yearsupon this problem . The electric motographconsists of a chalk cylinder, moistened with achemical solution, and revolving on its axis .A pen, provided with a palladium point,Sli des over this cylinder

,being drawn for

ward by the friction and drawn back againinto position by the employment of theelectric current . It is asserted that, thanksto the oscillation of this pen , Edison hassucceeded

,through this application of the

principle of diminished friction, in sendinga dispatch with the Speed of twelve thousandwords a minute .


Mr Orton promptly asked Edi son what hi sprice was for the electromotograph . Edi son

,

who was acquiring a decided habit for thissort of conversation , once again replied$ Make me an offer . ” And once again theoffer was one hundred thousand dollars .Edison accepted , on the same conditions thathe had made for his carbon transmitterthat is to say , in six-thousand-dollar instalments for seventeen years . Consequentlyhe had an assured income from the WesternUnion Telegraph Company of twelve thousanddollars a year for these two inventions

,both

covering the same number of years .On the other hand , Edison

’s telephone wasmeanwhile making the conquest of Europe,beginning with England . Thanks to its

separate transmitter and receiver,it had an

unquestionable superiority . One of Edison ’sformer associates—namely, Colonel Gouraudwho had worked with him in connexion withthe automatic telegraph , now undertook tolook after his interests in England . A com

pany was formed , and a large number of

machines emanating from the workshops of

Menlo Park were forwarded to London .

Edison organi zed a corps of twenty young


acceptance . When the contract arrived hewas most pleasantly surprised to di scoverthat it was not for thirty thousand dollars ,but foi' thirty thousand pounds sterling, or

approximately five times the amount he hadexpected .

In thus sending his emissaries to Europe,for the purpose of introducing his instrumentsand methods, Edison did not fail to meetwith a certain number of set-backs

, notwith

standing that he had at his com mand everylegal and pecun iary means of defending hisinterests . For a patent right is a fertilesource of losses , as well as of profits .The Edison telephone, admirably exploited

by his corps of young American electricians,

wholly devoted to their inimitable chief,

and looking upon Graham Bell as a sort of

second Lucifer, did not fail to create a

s ensation .

Mr Edison himself, as well as Messrs Dyerand Martin, has not failed to recall the factthat Mr Bernard Shaw, the well-knownwriter

,was in his younger days an employee

of the Edi son Telephone Company . He gavepublic demonstrations which were certainlynot lacking in liveliness and picturesque


colouring . With his characteristic andhumorous fashion of seeing and describingthings

,Mr Shaw gave the following amusing

definition of Edison’s telephone : A muchtoo ingenious invention, being nothing lessthan a telephone of such stentorian efficiencythat it bellowed your most private communications all over the house, instead ofwhispering them with some sort of discretion 1

In addition to Colonel Gouraud , severalmen of prominence undertook to Spreadabroad Edison ’s well-earned fame in a mannerworthy of him . One of these, Mr SamuelInsull , testifies to the great interest takenby many of the most distinguished men andwomen of England regarding this greatcuriosity , the loud-Speaking telephone . MrsGladstone, the wife of the famous statesman,Spoke into the receiver, probably with con

sid erable energy, and asked the operator atthe other end whether a man or a woman wasSpeaking, and the answer came back un

hesitatingly in loud , clear tones that it was aman .

Mr Charles Edison, a nephew of theinventor, who died prematurely at Paris in

1 From Dyer and Mart in’s Life of Edison.


1874, had also undertaken to popularize hi suncle ’s methods in Europe . He was receivedby King Edward , at that time Prince of

Wales,also by the King of Belgium , with

whom he discussed the proj ect of establishi ngtelephonic communication between Belgiumand England .

In the course of his labours on the telephone, Edison had observed the diverse andvariable degrees of resistance offered bycarbon to the

,passage of an electric current .

This phenomenon afforded him a basis onwhich to create his microphone, the purposeof which was to give back sound in an intensified form . The microphone reproducedthe faintest murmurs greatly magnified . Thesensitiveness of this instrument is so greatthat the walking of a fly can produce theeffect of soldiers on th

‘

e march,and a mere

rustling becomes transformed into a ragingtempest .When in the course of time Edison turned

his attention to the cinematograph,he was

obliged to take a different class of phenomena for his starting-point, but there was acertain analogy between the two conceptions .

Meanwhi le the microphone gave rise to a


of a cigar at the distance of ten feet . On the9th of July, 1878, during a total eclipse of

the sun, Edison demonstrated at Rawling,Wyoming, the value of his tasimeter fornoting the differences in temperature of thedifferent rays of the sun.

But , even aside from astronomical observations, it is easy to realize the many important uses to which this instrument could beput ; such , for instance, as that of detectinga sudden outbreak of fire in a building

, or ofdetermining the position of an iceberg at sea .

But it is impossible to dwell in turn uponeach and all of Edison ’s remarkable inventions . The more important have overshadowed the lesser ones , which neverthelessretain their own interest and value andwould have been suffi cient in themselves toestablish the fame of many another inventor .The year which we have just mentioned ,

1878, coincides with the date of the birthof one of the most curious manifestationsof Edison ’s genius . We may also say , one of

the most flamboyant mani festations, Since itproclaimed more loudly and more widely thanever the name of Edison . The invention inquestion was the phonograph .

CHAPTER V

RECORDING THE VOICE— Is IT A VENTRILO

QUIST —GLORY AND HARMONY IMPRI

SONED IN A CYLINDER

N a certain morning all Paris wasinformed that the extraordinary‘M . Edd ison

’ had ceased to belongto himself and had become the property of

a certain telegraph company which had installed him in a magnificent hotel in NewYork , where he lived in unimaginable luxury,and that the aforesaid company paid him anenormous salary in order to reap the soleprofits from all his discoveries . Guards werehired to watch over him, and never leave himalone , either at meals , or in the street

,or

in his laboratory . Consequently, this M .

Edd ison was a greater Slave than the worstof criminals . He could not devote a Singleinstant to his private affairs without oneof hi s guards immediately calling him toorder . He was the inventor of an instrumentwhich would make the human voice audible

119


at the distance of two miles . This was madepossible by the aid of a j et of steam ; and afriend , if notified beforehand , could reply bythe same method . It was after this fashionthat The Figaro, following the example of

many another quite serious paper, madesport of Edison in the year 1878, in an ultraAmerican and quite misleading manner .It was excusable

,for this man , barely

thirty years of age , had just invented thephonograph

,a unique and prodigious instru

ment,well fitted to arouse throughout the

entire world the greatest surprise and ad

m iration .

The phonograph $ The talking machine,which records sounds and preserves them intheir integrity for the benefit of to-morrow,

the day after to-morrow, and the futurecenturies Was there not an abundance inthis thought to stir the heart and the brain,and to open up immense and infinite horizonsto the dreams and ideals of all future generationsThe phonograph $ Henceforth the secret

contained in words which translate thethought

,whether that thought be poetic

,

religious , social, or musical , could be taken


Let us , in any case, return thanks to Edisonfor affording us the pleasure of enjoying thepowerful voice of Caruso and the melodioussounds that could emanate from no otherviolin than that of Kubelik .

Let us record at once,in this connexion

,

that almost from the moment of this m iraculous discovery , which invested his personalitywith a mantle of wizardry, Edison alreadyforesaw the various possible applicationswhich might be made of his phonograph .

As a matter of fact, he enumerated themin The North Am eri can Revi ew as early as1878, and in view of what the closing yearsof the nineteenth century and the openingyears of the twentieth have brought, we cannot help feeling that the list was singularlyprophetic .Among the many uses to which the

phonograph will be applied are the following1. Letter-writing and all kinds of dicta

tion without the aid of a stenographer .2 . Phonographic books which will Speak

to blind people without effort on their part .3 . The teaching of elocution .

4 . Reproduction of music .5 . The Family Record - a regi stry of

RECORDING THE VOICE 123

sayings, reminiscences , etc . ,by members of

a family in their own voices , and of the lastwords of dying persons .

6. Music-boxes and toys .7 . Clocks that Should announce in articu

late Speech the time for going home, gom g to

meals, etc .8. The preservation of languages by

exact reproduction of the manner Of pronouncing .

9 . Educational purposes ; such as preserving the explanations made by a teacher

,

so that the pupil can refer to them at anymoment

,and Spelling or other lessons placed

upon the phonograph for convenience incommitting to memory .

10 . Connexion with the telephone,so as

to make that instrument an auxiliary In thetransmission of permanent and invaluablerecords

,instead of being the recipient of

momentary and fleeting communication .

”

Edison thought,at one and the same time

,

of the utility and the entertainment to bederived from the phonograph , its possibilitiesfor training the mind as well as for affordi ngan unforeseen and agreeable pastime . Withthe perfected instrument

,we have made a


vast advance upon the hum ble parrot, whichwas Robinson Crusoe ’s sole consolation on

his desert island $On 24th December, 1877, Edison applied to

the Patent Office at Washington for a patent,

which was granted him , 17th February, 1878.

But what was the origin of this inventionEdison , as we have already shown, has ingenera l more faith in patient and methodicalresearch than in sudden illuminations . Thephonograph

,nevertheless , is the fruit of a

sort of flash of inspiration , although naturallyEdison had to work a long time to completehis first idea and little by little improve theoriginal machine . For instance

,in Jun e

1888—that is to say , more than ten yearssubsequent to his first patent—we find himSpending five consecutive days and nights inperfecting his primitive type of wax cylinder.But the idea of the phonograph itself came

to him suddenly and without effort . For, asa matter of fact, all his previous labours hadformed a singularly fitting preparation for

the conception of this wonderful talkingmachine .Already

,while working upon his automatic

telegraph and causing strips of metal , marked


he caught and recorded the movements of thediaphragm .

When a rather rough design of the instrument was first shown to his assistants , theycould not restrain their laughter at the ideaof this fantastic dream of building a machinethat could talk . Even Edison himself entertained no great hope of success when heasked his collaborator, John Kruesi , to goahead and construct the machine . Kruesi ,

for his part, did not attempt to hide thefact that the whole proj ect seemed to himabsurd .

But when this rudimentary machine wascompleted , and the Sheet of tinfoil had beenadjusted

,the inventor proceeded to recite

into it the familiar nursery rhyme : Maryhad a little lamb .

” Then he adjusted thereproducer and the machine promptly proceed ed to echo back his words . Everybodywas astonished . At the first attempt thesuccess had been unmistakable and overwhelming . Gott in Him m el cried Kruesi,and the whole night was Spent in singing,talking, and reciting into the instrument .This first phonograph is now to be seen inthe South Kensington Museum , at London .

THE FIRST PHONOGRAPH


great Mr Beach was afraid the floor wouldcollapse ; and we were compelled to stop .

The papers next morning contained columns .None of the writers seemed to understandhow it was done . I tried to explain

,it was

so very simple,but the results were so sur

prising they made up their minds probablythat they never would understand it— andthey didn’t .I started immediately making several

larger and better machines,which I exhibited

at Menlo Park to crowds . The PennsylvaniaRailroad ran Special trains . Washi ngtonpeople telegraphed me to come on . I took aphonogr aph to Washington and exhibited itthere . Members of Congress and notablepeople of that city came all day long untillate in the evening . I made one break . Irec ited Mary ,

’ etc . , and another ditty :

$ There was a lit tle girl, who had a li t tle curlRigh t in the m iddle of her forehead ;

And when she was good she was very, very good,But when she was bad she was horrid .

It will be remembered that SenatorRoscoe Conkling

,then very prominent

,had

a curl of hair on his forehead ; and all thecaricaturi sts developed it abnormally . He


was very sensitive about the subj ect . Whenhe came in he was introduced ; but , beingrather deaf, I didn

’t catch his name,but sat

down and started the curl ditty . Everybodytittered

,and I was told that Mr Conkling was

displeased . About eleven o ’clock at nightword was received from President Hayesthat he would be very much pleased if Iwould come up to the White House . I wastaken there, and found Mr Hayes and severalothers waiting . Among them I rememberCarl Schurz

,who was playing the piano when

I entered the room . The exhibition con

tinued till about A .M . , when Mrs Hayesand several other ladies , who had beeninduced to get up and dress, appeared . Ileft at A.M .

For a long time some people thoughtthere was trickery . One morni ng at MenloPark a gentleman came to the laboratory andasked to see the phonograph . It was BishopVincent . I exhibited it, and then heasked if he could Speak a few words . I puton a fresh foil and told hi m to go ahead . Hecommenced to recite Biblical names withimmense rapidi ty . On reproducing it hesaid : I am satisfied now . There isn’t a


man in the Uni ted States who could recitethose names with the same rapidity .

’ 1

A company was immedi ately organized ,which agreed to pay Edison a lump sum of

ten thousand dollars , in addition to a royaltyof twenty per cent . But the enterprise didnot become a commercial success on a largescale until ten years later

,when the in

ventor, after long absorption in his work uponelectric lamps

,again turned his attention to

the phonograph,and succeeded , after various

improvements,in making it more accurate

and practical .It was in

‘

1888 that Edison resumed hiswork upon the phonograph . In the meantime

,however, he had become perfectly

aware of the instrument ’s defects . The problem was extremely delicate . A recordingcylinder of wax had been substituted for theSheet of tinfoil

, and the steel pencil was replaced by a little knife made of sapph ire,whose function was to plough a channel inthe wax

,forming a Spiral around the cylinder .

Edison was obliged to prolong and multiplyhis efforts before his phonograph was broughtto the point of exactly imitating the human

1 From Dyer and Martin’s Life of Edison


—that i s to say , a letter recorded upon awax cylinder . One of Edison’s assistantsin America, a most diligent workman, hadformed the habit of communicating with hisfamily by means of these phonograms . Theywould place the wax cylinders in the instrument , which would then promptly reproducehis words with more accuracy than the mostfaithful messenger could have done . In one

of his phonograms he sent a message to hisdog and even called it with his customarywhistle . On hearing his master ’s voice

,the

faithful beast began to bark and to hunteverywhere for him , greatly surprised at notfinding him after having heard the famili arcall .Colonel Gouraud ’

s guests had the pleasureof hearing Edison read his own letter .Furthermore, he had taken advantage of theopportunity to express his thanks to themembers of the London Press , who had devoted some highly eulogistic articles to him .

Then followed a concert , in which not onlythe human voice , but the music of various

instruments, ranging from the flute to thetrombone

,had their part . Many illustrious

personages sent their congratulations to


Edi son in the form of phonographic records .The enthusiasm was Shared by QueenVictoria herself and her Court, as well as bysome of the most famous English statesmen . The celebrated tragedian Henry Irvingrecited for the phonograph

,and the instru

ment had the further distinction of recording for the benefit of posterity the voiceof Cardinal Manning, of Tennyson, and of

Browning. The last-named , when his memoryfailed him

,while reciting one of his own

poems,interrupted the harmonious flow of

his verse with exclamations of annoyance .Thanks to Edison ’s genius

,these voices

may still be heard in Spite of the silence ofthe tomb . The King of Greece

,when so

licited in his turn,expressed regrets similar

to those that we ourselves just formulated ,deploring the absence of the phonograph inthe days of Homer .Shortly afterward the Paris Exhibition of

1889 confirmed the triumph of Edison inEurope . Forty thousand persons a dayflocked to become initiated into thi s greatmiracle . The scientific and social use of thephonograph was further demonstrated in anumber of other ways . Savorgnan de Brazza


was present at th e Exposition with a numberof negroes belonging to various African tribes .They consented to talk into the phonograph ,and it was then rea lized how valuable theinstrument might become for the comparative study of these little-known dialects .A Sioux chief belonging to Buffalo Bill ’s

Wild West Show was terror-stricken whenhe heard his own voice reproduced with suchexactness

,and insisted that it was due to the

intervention of the Great Spirit .When perfected

,the new phonograph be

came what it had not previously been, anarticle of commerce . The first companywhich attempted to put the machi ne on themarket ended in disaster . Edison took upthe enterprise on his own account and foundedthe National Phonograph Company . Fromthat time forward the industrial and comm ercial success was complete, since from thedate of the reorganization the company hassold over a million and a half phonographs .At the present time the annual sales amountto about including the cylinders andother supplementary apparatus .Without wishing to detract in any way

from Edison ’s glory as an inventor, it is at


problem of the automatic recording of soundshad been found .

In 1857 Scott had deposited a sealed comm uni cation with the secretary of the FrenchAcademy of Sciences . It was opened 15th

July, 1861, and was entitled The Principlesof Phonautography .

”

What Scott had written ran in part asfollows :Is it possible to obtain, in regard to

sound,a result analogous to What is being

done to-day in regard to light, by means ofphotography May we hope that the day isnear at hand when a musical phrase, emanating from the lips of a singer, will recorditself of its own accord and without themusician ’s knowledge upon an obedient Sheetof paper, leaving an imperishable record of

those fugitive melodies,for which memory

might afterward have sea rched in vainWill it be possible to place between two men

,

brought together in a Silent chamber, an

automatic stenographer,which will preserve

the interview down to the most minutedetails , adapting itself at the same time tothe Speed of the conversation $ Will it bepossible to preserve for the benefit of future


generations some records of the manner of

Speech of certain of our eminent men , our

great actors,who die without leaving behind

them the faintest trace of their geniusIt is my belief that the principle has been

found . There remain only the difficulties ofits appli cation, great, no doubt , but not insurmountable

,thanks to the present state of

physical and mechanical arts .”

Here followed a theoretical exposition ofScott ’s discovery and a description of hisapparatus consisting of four principal parts1. An acoustic shell , designed to collect

and condense the vibrations .2 . A tympanum or inner drum of gold

beater’s Skin,besides an external membrane ,

the tension or relaxation of the membranesbeing controlled by two rings .3 . An index-point for tracing the record .

4 . A glass table moving according tocertain laws and coated above with lampblack and below with paper covered with ascale of millimetric divi sions .The scientific societies , impressed chiefly

with its errors and imperfections , gave Scott’s

invention a rather ironical reception . At thetime of a conference on acoustics

,held in


1860 , Scott’s phonautograph was seen in

operation , and recorded the sounds of twoorgan-pipes connected with a single bellows ,at a distance of about three feet from thesound receiver .Lack of influence

,and more especially of

money, prevented Scott from perfecting hisphonautograph . But it seemed necessaryhere, while rendering to Caesar the things thatare Caesar’s , to pay a sincere tribute also tothe obscure, but none the less remarkable,efforts ofEdouard-Leon Scott de Martinville .As a matter of fairness , we ought also to

make brief mention of a compatriot of Scott ’s,the poet and imaginative writer

,Charles Cros ,

who in a communication deposited with theAcademy of Sciences , 3rd April , 1887, described the main principles of an instrumentfor the reproduction of Speech by means oftracings recorded on a prepared disk .

My invention,” wrote Charles Cros , who,

as this goes to prove,was something more

than the picturesque author of the Coffret deSantal and Hareng Saar , consists in themain of a process for obtaining a tracing ofthe movements of a vibrating membrane ,and afterward using this tracing for the


vibrations of the membrane , with theirrelative duration and intensity .

This undulating Spiral , traced upon atransparent plate

,must now be reproduced , by

means of photographic processes , such as areat present quite familiar, by a line of Similardimensions traced in a series of indentationsor raised points

, on some rigid material, such ,for example, as tempered steel .When this has been done

,the rigid record

is placed in the machine , which sets it turningand moving forward with the same Speed andmovement as that previously given to therecording surface . A metallic point , in casethe tracing is a furrow , or a notched index , ifthe tracing is in relief, is held by a Springagainst the tracing, while the opposite end of

the rod which holds this point or notch isfastened to the middle of the membranedesigned to reproduce the sounds . Underthese conditions the membrane will be set inmotion , not by the vibrations of the air, butby the tracing which controls the pointed or

notched index, receiving impulses exactlySimilar in duration and intensity to thosewhich the recording membrane previouslyreceived .


This special tracing represents successiveand equal periods of time , while its lengthslightly increases at each revolution . Thisdoes not present any d ifli culties if only theportion near the margin of the revolving diskis used , Since the turns of the Spiral are veryclose together ; but, on the other hand , thecentral surface is lost .In any case , a Spiral tracing around a

cylinder is preferable, and I am at presentendeavouring to find a practi cal applicationof it .”

There seems to have been good reason forM . Siry to cite Charles Cros , as well as Scott,as a precursor of Edison . Cros never hadsufficient material resources to achieve asuccessful result for his enterprise . And inthe end this ingenious discoverer fell a victimto the hardships of life It is known—or

rather, hardly any one knows— that he alsoadvanced some very definite ideas regardingcolour photography . In 1877, only a fewmonths before Edison’s di scovery , the Abb$Leblanc called attention to Charles Cros ’sdiscovery in the following terms , the importance of which cannot fail to be recognizedIt is no longer a question of S irnple


transmission of sounds , as in the case of thetelephone, at the moment when they are produced ; it i s a question of no less a miraclethan that of recording and storing up soundsand reproducing them at will to an unlimitedextent . Thus , if you take M . Cros ’s inventionand sing into it , let us say , a little song or

make a Speech , the instrument which has received and , as it were, taken down in shorthand your words , your song, your music ,retains a record which may be transferredto metal by the electroplating process

,and

which,when set in motion, will reproduce

your voice, your articulation , your very tone,in Short

,the Speech that you delivered or the

song that you sang exactly as though youyourself were repeating the one or the otherin your natural voice .By means of this instrument which , if

we were called upon to serve as godfather,we

should Christen phonograph , it will be possibleto take photographs of the voice as we nowtake them of the face ; and these photographs

,which ought to receive the name of

phonogram s, wi ll enable us to hear men andwom en Speak and sing and declaim centuriesafter they have passed away, precisely as


adapted to our desires and our needs . Andhe is no less astonishi ng for hi s gi ft of extracting from his inventions a host of otherinventions of all sorts , every one of whichpossesses its own Special interest and bearsthe imprint of his mind , and of his uni queand unsurpassed ingenuity . In this way

,for

example,among other masterpieces born of

the union of electricity and mechanics , wehave the telephonograph , whi ch is a com

bination of the phonograph and the telephone . It was tried experimentally betweenNew York and Philadelphia for the first timein February 1889 .

We may cite further the megaphone andthe aerophone . The megaphone serves tomake sounds audible when they come froma long distance and consequently have losttheir intensity . It consists of two hugeacoustic tubes or horns about six feet longand tapering from a diameter of two and one

half feet to a small aperture provided withear-tubes

,and they are mounted on a tripod

of about the height of a man . Thanks to thisapparatus

,and in Spite of its Simplicity

,it

is possible to carry on a conversation at adistance of more than two miles .

EDISON AND THE PHONOGRAPH

Above : Edison at h is Phonograph , after several days and nights of toil.


awakened by a deep , grave voice pronouncingthe following words

Midnight has struck ; prepare to meetyour GodBut a few moments later the same voice

added Don’t be frightened,old man , it is

only the clockEdison

,however

,had it in his power to

give his guests an emotion of qui te a differentsort and of a far higher order . He had askedhis friend

,Colonel Gouraud

,to send him a

record of Gladstone’s far-famed voice . Oneeveni ng, after Gladstone had listened, thanksto the phonograph, to Israel in Egypt exactly as it was given at the Handel Festivalin 1888—that is to say, with a full orchestra,a chorus of four thousand voices and an immense organ—h e sent his thanks to Edisonin the following terms

,recorded by Mr Mundel

and reproduced by the obedient machi neI am profoundly grateful to you , not only

for a highly artistic entertainment,but for an

initiation into the possibilities of a scientificmarvel which has given me one of the mostdelightful evenings of my li fe . Yours is thenation which shows us the road to discoveri es .And it is with all my heart that I take the


liberty of offering you, who are one of

America ’s greatest glories,my warmest con

gratulations and sincerest good wishes . Mayyou long be Spared to continue your work foryour country ’s higher honour and the greatergood of humanity .

mmwa z :

I ‘

m $

EDISON’S HANDWRITING

CHAPTER VI

LET THERE BE LIGHT $ AND THERE WAS

LIGHT AND THI S LIGHT EMANATED

FROM AMERICA

HEN Edison is asked whi ch amongall his inventions— and they are somany that it is almost impossible

to enumerate them— is the one that he prefers, he answers readily My lamp and mysystem of lighting .

”

The incandescent electric lamp,invented

by Edison, continued in use for a period oftwenty years . In this order of ideas he wasand still remains the great inventive geniusit was he who conceived the modern methodof lighting .

We can no longer imagine what life andciviliz ation would be without electricity andwi thout electric light . Nevertheless our

parents contented themselves with the moremodest gas j et . We, having become morepretentious , demand that we shall see as wellat night as in the day , and even better .

148


In Germany the city streets were lightedby means of arc lamps . But this form of

li ght was not adapted for small,enclosed

Spaces . In England and America attemptswere being made to perfect the incandescentlamp on account of its moderate cost andnumerous other advantages . The stumblingblock

,in the first type of lamp , was the bum

ing out of the carbon, and , in the second type,the burning out of the filaments, whether ofcarbon or of metal . How was an incand escent lamp adapted to practical purposes to beobtainedAnd this question necessarily included a

second question : How was a complete systemof electric lighting to be created capable of

taking the place of gas by combining allthe advantages of gas with those offered byelectricityIn 1877, in the full height of hi s powers

,

Edison,without losing Sight of his talking

machine,turned h is attention to the incan

descent lamp . He began his experimentwith filaments of platinum , then substitutedcarbon

,then returned to platinum , and then

once again to carbon .

Day after day and night after night,with a

LET THERE BE LIGHT $ 151

dogged determination that before long hadinvolved an expense of more than fortythousand dollars, Edison devoted himself tothe solution of this problem . It seemed todepend upon just one little detail ; but heforesaw— and before long all America foresawwith him— that the results would be mostimpressive . Yet there were other able scientists who were working toward the same goal .A sort of feverish expectancy had been

awakened within the best-informed circles ;they put their trust in Edison

,in Spite of the

doubts and the incredulous smiles of manytheorists and in 1878, notwithstanding thathis lamp was very far from giving him satisfaction, a number of financiers came togetherand formed a company . They placed enormous sums at the inventor’s disposal . TheShares in the

.

company rose in value andbecame one of the best investments in theNew York Market .

From that time onward a formidableactivity reigned throughout the laboratoriesof Menlo Park . To manufacture filaments,to raise them to the point of incandescence,and to note the length of their endurance, wasnow the whole obj ect of the investigation


conducted by Edi son and his assistants . All

the resources of the intelligence andwill-powerof this Titan of modern science and civilization were consecrated to the creation of alamp that would consent to burn for fortyeight hours .Little by little he had acqui red the con

vi ction that the fibres of plants were the onlysubstance that would Offer sufficient resistance . After long research he came down toemploying a filament of cotton . His achievement , in collaboration with Batchelor, fromthe 18th to the 21st of October, 1879 , deservesto be related at full length upon the honourpage of the golden book of modern invention ,on which is proclaimed the patient energy of

the modern scientist who , through his strugglewi th the elements of nature, is destined by aidof new combinations to enrich the patrimonyof civilization .

Beginn ing on the 18th , Edison and Batch elor succeeded in carbonizing a filamentof

,

cotton . Their delight may be imagined .

But when they attempted to test it by con

necting it with the electric current, it broke .

Thi s did not disturb the experimenters ,whose business it is to expect all sorts of


and it continued to burn for more thanforty-eight hours . The filament had Shownan excellent resistance to the heat .By producing a more perfect vacuum in

the bulb , a greater length of endurance wasobtained . At the same time the search wascontinued for some better method of producing filaments .The public hailed with delight this new

and dazzling mani festation without , however,even beginning to realize the prodigiousqualities of Edison’s inventive genius . Itwas easy enough , without such realization , toadm ire the daylight brilliance of the sevenhundred lamps installed in the laboratoryand various other buildings and workroomsof Menlo Park . This demonstration wascertainly as decisive as it was impressive .It became necessary to revise the scheduleof railway trains, in order to give every one

a chance , engineers , scientists , business men,and Simple sightseers , to marvel over theEdison lighting system .

Straightway the shares of the Edison Company soared from $106 to $3000 . Withi nthe year and with equal success an electriclighting plant of one hundred and twenty

THERE CAME A BREATH OF W IND AND THERE THE FILAMENTWAS

,BROKEN LIKE ITS PREDECESSOR


produced a sensation throughout allParis . Ithas been said , with good reason , that Paris isthe City of Light . At that period Paris wasthe City of Edison Light .Consequently the inventor was well repaid

for having sought this second recognition of

his great and superb accomplishment . His

lighting system was hailed with veritabletransport . Five gold medals and a diplomaof honour were awarded him ; and the telegram announcing thi s award said furtherComplete success . The committee hadnothing more at its disposal to give you .

”

And his success was no less marked at Subsequent expositions ; it was quite as notableat Philadelphia in 1884 as at Munich in 1882and at Vienna in 1883 .

According to his custom , Edison now proceed ed to busy himself with the commercialextension befitting a business opportunity of

such magni tude . And , as a matter of fact, itwas a colossal , world-wide Opportunity .

Electric lighting plants in which Edi sonhad an interest began to multiply first of allin America . Then in all the capitals ofEurope Edison companies were founded inLondon

,in Paris

,and in Berlin , Where the


Allgemeine Electri citat—Gesellschaft becamethe most extensive of any in the world .

By 1891 more than Edison lampsproclaimed his glory and universal sovereignty .

Meanwhile he had continued h is experimentsindefatigably, and had replaced the bamboofilament by other materials , among them bya substance obtained from cellulose .In the sciences and industries there is a

ceaseless evolution . Edison’s creation, transformed and adapted to every need, surpasseditself. He had opened an immense, an infini tefield, into which other gifted inventors mightfollow him

,to their greater glory and profit .

In the case of the incandescent lamp , justas in that of his other inventions, Edison wasobliged to Seatter gold with a free hand , andthe outlay may be estimated at upward of

twenty thousand pounds . Wishing to obtaina peculiar Species of bamboo, which hedeemed essential to the success of his incandescent lamp , he began by sending MrWilliam H . Moore to China and Japan . Thisadroit emissary and able diplomat left NewYork in the summer of 1880, and forwardedto Menlo Park various specimens of bamboo .

Furthermore, he made arrangements with a


Japanese farmer for a continuous supply ofcertain Species . Edison still remained di s

satisfied with the results . In December 1880Mr Brauner set forth in his turn . But thebamboos which he found in the southernregions of Brazil were judged to be no betterthan those of Japan . Accordingly a small ex

ped ition was next organized for the purposeof ransacking Cuba and Jamaica , in quest ofthis same famous and ideal bamboo . Butthis also proved to be in vain .

In 1887 with his extraordinary and indefatigable persistence

,and remembering, per

haps,a description given by Humboldt of a

bamboo growing on the banks of the Am azon ,Edison commissioned Messrs McGowan andHanington to undertake an exploring trip inSouth America .

McGowan made his way up the Am azonRiver, sometimes on foot, sometimes in acanoe, constantly in the face of great danger .His adventures were most dramatic, and hisend was no less so, because after having re

turned home , bringing with him some verycurious specimens of bamboo

,he subse

quently disappeared , without it ever beingknown what became of him .


McGowan’

S narrative is a marvel fit to beclassed wi th the hi storic j ourneyings of thegreatest travellers . But it gains immenselyin interest when we consider that it succeededin its scientific purpose . The mysteriousbamboo was discovered , and large quantitiesof it were procured and brought to theWizard ’s laboratory

,there to suffer another

wondrous change and then to light up our

pleasure haunts and our homes with a gentleradiance .Even after making allowance for the

element of exaggeration which is inherentin all newspaper accounts

,and especially in

American newspapers , it is nevertheless truethat there is something marvellous and epicin all that relates , either from near or far,to Edison .

Mr James Ricalton was still another of hisemissaries . He was principal of a school atMaplewood

, New Jersey , and was known forh is researches in natural history . The accountof his first interview with the famous inventoris qui te characteristic . Edison said to himI want a man to ransack all the tropical

jungles of the East to find a better fibre formy lamp I expect it to be found in the palm


or bamboo family . How would you likethat jobMr Ricalton repliedThat would suit me .

Then ensued the following brief dialogueCan you go to-morrowCertain ly

,but I must arrange , for a

substitute . Can you tell me how long thetrip will takeHow can I tell $ Maybe six months

and maybe five years ; no matter how long,find it .”

This interview is equalled only by thatwhich took

'

place more than a year laterbetween the same two persons . Mr Ricaltonhad returned from India and Ceylon, wherehe had discovered that even the humblestof donkey-drivers were familiar with thename of Edison . He brought back to MenloPark upward of one hundred Species of

bamboo,which he had collected under great

diffi culties ; two of them gave more satisfactory results than any of the others . Atthis period

,however

,Edison was striving to

perfect a filament of artificial carbon whichpromised to prove far superior to bamboo .

Discovering the presence of Mr Ricalton,


he advanced to meet him , shook hands, andasked

Did you find itYes, answered the returned traveller .And the inventor passed on, troubling

himself no further about a great expense anda great effort which had proved futile .

As early as 1881 Edi son had exhibited , atthe Paris Electrical Exposition

,a huge steam

dynamo of twenty-seven tons, of whi ch the

armature alone weighed Six . From the outset of his work upon the incandescent lamphe had concerned himself with the problemrelating to currents of great intensity andto machines capable of producing thesestrong currents . His discoveries and inventions pertaining to the utilization of electricalpower were supplemented and perfected bythose of the Hopkinson brothers .It was not long before Edison bui lt a

machine of 140 horse-power, generating asufficient current to supply 1300 lamps , andin which 90 per cent. of the mechanical energywas transformed into electrical energy . Hereagain the great American engineer Showedthe way along which the technicians of theOld and the New World alike must follow


the placement of the dynamos and in themeasurement of the currents . His electrolyticmeter and his various apparatus designedfor measuring the quantity of amperesand volts bear overwhelming testimony tothis .In the same connexion

,and with the same

fertility of resources,he asked himself the

same questions that he had previously askedin relation to telegraphy

,and arrived at

analogous practical solutions .Thus

,with his extraordinary aptitude for

utilizing certain given elements and obligingthem to furni sh a maximum of return

,he

contributed toward the extension of the fieldof action of electric power plants . Thisresult he achieved , not by multiplying thenumber of dynamos or increasing the diameterof the wires , but by a system of division of

currents .This electri c power , which he succeeded in

distributing so widely, was destined to beapplied to an even-increasing extent to our

daily needs . Electricity furni shed a motorpower . The problem of electrical locomotionwas squarely raised .

By way of experiment, Edison hastened to


construct an electric railway at Menlo Park,and after various accidents due to defects inthe methods of construction, he finally suc

ceeded in overcoming all difficulties by meansof his series of resistance-boxes .The Electric Railway Company was founded

in 1883 . There is no need to dwell hereupon the vast development which thi s meansof locomotion has undergone in all parts of

the world . But it is worth while to call tomind the new tour de force accomplishedby Edison

,after the organization of this

company .

It was decided to make a public demonstration of the advantages of the electric railway.

A first-class opportunity occurred for makingsuch a demonstration in a practical anddecisive way . In Spite of all sorts of d iffi

culties, Edison succeeded , in a surprisinglyshort time, in constructing one-third of amile of electric railway and putting it intooperation , at the Chi cago Railway Exposition.

It continued in operation for thirteen days,during which time it carried no less thantwenty-eight thousand passengers .America to-day owes to this same great

inventor her superiority in electrical trans


portation and the construction of all thevarious machinery relating to it .But electricity was capable of other things

besides competing with other methods of

locomotion ; sh e was destined to afford adriving power for the various forms of mechanical work . This , indeed , was one of thevastest of all the problems whi ch hauntedthe brain of thi s modern wizard

,for ever

labouring to revolutionize society throughthe transforming power of science and industry .

In default of natural electric power, steamengines are employed to transform the solarheat stored up in coal into mechanical energy,in the form of electricity . Now,

even underfavourable conditions , 90 per cent . of theenergy contained in the coal is lost . Toavoid this loss would in itself amount to arevolution in our economic and social cond itions .

Edison had pondered a great deal over thisproblem , seeking to develop the electriccurrent directly from the coal , so as to doaway with boilers and everything connectedwith steam-driven machinery . He sought tosolve this problem by constructing a machine


grains,and consequently that the Sand must

contain iron . Immedi ately his inventivem i nd conceived the idea of extracting ironfrom even the lowest grades of ore by meansof magnetic attraction .

Edi son decided to put hi s electric separatorinto operation on a commercial scale . Hebuilt enormous machin es, and , with his usualhabit of doing everything on a huge scale,acquired a tract of land on which buildingafter building was erected until the result wasa veritable little village, which was christenedEdison . The inventor and his associateslost , in the course of this experiment, a greatdeal of time as well as money . He wasforced to abandon the enterprise, and he didso quite serenely, in Spite of his enormouslosses , for, while he regretted that he hadspoiled a good business venture, he washappy in the knowledge of his discovery

,and ,

confident in the future,scarcely gave himself

time to regret it .AS he left this battlefield where he had for

once been beaten, he merely frowned a littleand contented himself with saying : Well,the money is all gone, but we had a hell of a

good time Spending it


Is there not something quite admirable inthis phrase, when we remember that Edisonhad furni shed the company engaged in thisenterprise with almost all the money that hehad derived from hi s previous labours andinventions In this instance, we are nolonger in the presence of a magician , a wizard,an amazing experimenter

,a scientist unique

of his kind, but one of the rarest and noblestof characters produced by humanity, victorious even in his defeats and sublime in hisduel with the forces of irnplacable nature .

CHAPTER VII

RECORDING THE GESTURE— IN FULL FAIRYLAND —A FEW OTHER MARVELS , SMALLAND GREAT

T Menlo Park , one day, a farmer camein and asked if I knew any way tokill potato bugs . He had twenty

acres of potatoes, and the vines were beingdestroyed . I sent men out and culled twoquarts of bugs , and tried every chemical Ihad to destroy them . Bisulphide of carbonwas found to do it instantly . I got a drumand went over to the potato farm andsprinkled it on the vines with a pot . Everybug dropped dead . The next morning thefarmer came in very excited and reportedthat the stuff had killed the vines as well .I had to pay $300 for not experimentingproperly .

” 1

We see from this anecdote, related byEdison himself, that he had good reason tobecome more circumspect toward visitors ,

1From Dyer and Martin

’s Life of E dz'

son


Edi son , and notably his accumulator, wegladly pass on to linger over another of

his greatest wonders , another miracle of thi samazing prestidigitator .The triumph of the phonograph had en

couraged Edi son to do for the eyes what hehad succeeded in doing for the ears . Butit is only within the last fifteen years that hehas slowly perfected, in his Orange workshops ,an apparatus conceived as early as 1887 .

Here again the glorious inventor has provedworthy of himself. His science has succeededin achieving the most intense and artisticreproductions

,thanks to a series of extremely

ingenious combinations . From day to daythey adapt themselves better and better tothe lofty conceptions of a physicist who isable to imprison light, just as he previouslyimprisoned sound , and to record and preserve,in a halo of radiance, plastic grace and beauty,as well as all the varying Spectacles borrowedfrom nature, and from the life of individualsand of races .After the discovery of instantaneous

photography, due to the gelatine-bromideplate

,which requi red an exposure of only

a fraction of a second,attempts were

RECORDING THE GESTURE 173

made to obtain a more exact reproductionof reality—that is to say ,

to photographmoving obj ects at intervals of fractions of

a second .

Edison,king of electricity and of speed,

naturally considered as coming within hisprovince this delicate research, this complexproblem which proved to be subdivided intomany problems

,the successive solution of

which was necessary before a satisfactoryresult could be achieved .

He employed an adjustment which enabledhim to expose the sensitized plate forty-Sixtimes to the second . In this way he obtainedforty-Six images to the second , or 2760 to

the minute . He succeeded in proj ectingthem upon a screen at the rate of

separate images to every five minutes .Then came another question : it was

necessary to group and arrange these imagesin their proper sequence in some sort of acarrier . Since the images were very small

,

they were seen at first through a powerfulmagni fying-glass, and then exhibited by theaid of a magic-lantern . Now,

the difficultywhich presented itself was to find some wayof moving the plates fast enough to secure


images that would be instantaneous,successive

and separate .

Edison , with characteristic patience, proceed ed from the glass plate to the sheet of

gelatine, rolled in the form of a long striparound a drum and from that to the celluloidfilm in an endless ribbon . He adjusted hisplay of light so as to be exactly timed withthe unrolling of the film .

Eager, as always , to follow up his investi

gations as far as possible, he built a smalltheatre at Orange, which had black walls andwas capable of revolving on its axis . Thepieces to be taken by the cinematograph areenacted upon the stage, the actors beingilluminated either by the direct rays of thesun or by magnesium lights . Every oneknows that the cinematograph has becomeone of the favourite amusements of the crowd ,which flocks to these exhibits . According tohis habit

,and exactly as in the case of his

phonograph,Edison Simultaneously kept in

mind the entertainment of the Spectacle andthe utility of the invention for scientific andeducational purposes .Thus

,for instance, he employed the cine

m atograph for the clear and precise study


his new invention would have as a sourceof popular entertainment . Henceforward themost sumptuous opera

,choruses

,and ballets

could be offered to the public for a fewpence, placing within reach of the humblestan endless series of new pleasures

,as well as a

liberal education,clear

,precise and diverting,

of harmonious and radiant beauty .

IS not this steadfast and kindly desire toplace his long and persevering efforts at theservice of essentially humane causes one of

Edison’s best claims to fame $ IS it notan enviable role to have strewn the worldand brightened our fragile terrestrial lifewith so many pleasures unknown to our

fathersYet the great magician who gives us so

many treats,who permits us to hear the

voices of the dead,who has found means to

unite the past with the present and thepresent with the future by h is almost m iraculous evocations

,must not make us forget the

erudite man of science wholly absorbed by histask . For it is above all the physicist andchemist

,the great worker in the laboratory ,

whom we must see,first

,last and always , in

Edi son .


At the same time, however, in pursuanceof his principle never to abandon to othersthe commercial development of his processes,but always to seek for new sources of revenueto swell the fund needed for further inventions

,Edison has built up qui te an important

business out of hi s Motion Pictures .Besides the theatre in Orange

,there are

two Edison,

theatres,

or PantomimeStudios

,in New York . The larger of these

is a three-storey bui lding, containing on theone hand ofli ces

,storerooms for costumes

and scenery , and a library, and on the otherhand a theatre . The ceiling and walls areof glass , the floor-Space is sufficiently largeto permit of Six Simultaneous rehearsals , withall the necessary stage-settings for the dramaor comedy in course of enactment .A very large stock company is employed

at these two studios,including painters ,

photographers,actors

,electricians

,costumiers ,

and other Specialists . After having provedsatisfactory to a committee of competentjudges

,the films are placed on sale . In Spite

of the enormous competition,the affairs of

the company appear to be most prosperous,and all the more so because the sale of all the

M


various apparatus needed for exhibiting thefilms goes to swell the receipts .A number of Skilled experimenters are

working with unwearying persistence , onlines laid down by Edison, at various im

provem ents of the cinematograph in all itsvarious forms, which day by day are beingrendered more complete

,whether for the

purpose of study and instruction or asmachines adapted to the entertainment of

the crowd .

Edi son sometimes enjoys attending thesepubli c performances and criticizing them ,

while he dreams of a still greater degree of

reality . But,instead of lingering longer over

these dazzling marvels,we must pass on to

cast a wondering eye at still other inventionsof this unparalleled creator .Nothing could be more striking than his

method of construction which makes itpossible to erect a ten-roomed house in fourdays . And at the same time this littlemiracle seems

,after all

,perfectly natural $

A steel mould is set up , into which the concrete is poured and allowed to harden . Themould is removed

,and an entire dwelling,

foundations , walls, cellars, every detail down


As may easily be imagined,Edison has not

failed to follow with intense interest the pro

gress of aviation . At the request of Jam esGordon Bennett, he experimented with anumber of motors designed to serve for theheavier than air type of machine . He invented one motor, to be run with gun-cotton,but after an explosion he gave up this lineof experiment , deciding to confine himself totasks that made a more direct appeal to hisactivities .At the time of his last visit to France

Edison did not forget to express his admiration for the magnificent daring of the Frenchaviators and for the remarkable success whichhas been made of the aeroplane industry inthat country .

As the inventor of a storage battery whichfacilitates economical electric locomotion,under conditions hitherto regarded as impossible

,Edison plays a leading rdle in the

essentiallymodern and already extraordinarilydeveloped industry of tramways and automobiles . What is not so generally known isthat

,although far from interested in engines

of death , because he is Opposed to war andits atrocities

,he nevertheless conceived an


electric submarine torpedo , in collaborationwith Mr W . S . Sims . Several models of thishave been constructed . He also gave someuseful advice dur ing the Spani sh-AmericanWar of 1898.

But that is not his province . He has givenhimself up entirely to those industries of

peace which promote the well-being of civi lizednations . And if we realize the peaceful revolution in our manners and customs whi chelectricity has wrought in less than half acentury

,just as the steam-engine and the

printing-press did at earli er epochs,we shall

continue to place Edison in the foremost rankof those who are working for the establishment of a new social order based upon therevelations of modern science .When the readers of The New YorkHerald

were called upon to express their opinions,

it was also in th e foremost rank that theyplaced Edi son, among the most distinguishedpersonalities in America . And althoughinventors and business men have only toooften found it to their interest to quarrelwith him and to appropriate rights whichthe laws of the United States have not

always adequately protected, no one is


under any misapprehension as to the qualityof his genius .

And what if the world could know all hisSecrets $ But he reveals them only one by oneand at his own good pleasure . How manyincomplete inventions , half realized in somecorner of his laboratory at Orange

,are destined

to live only in the recesses of his brainEdi son pursues his work without useless

worry . He consoles himself for the brevity of

existence by rendering his own as intense aspossible . In many cases we may well regretthat his industrial interests oblige him to fixhis attention outside of his researches . But ,besides the fact that his prodigious activityenables him to pass easily from one task toanother as though he found the change restful

,

his chief strength lies in his ability to utilize thepower of the dollar simultaneously with thatof his daring thought and prolonged effort .

In order really to understand Edison , wemust picture him in his coarse, chemicalSpotted mechanic ’s garb

,throwing a friendly,

humorous word to the humblest man on thestaff

,rather than in an austere frock-coat

more befitting a gentleman of professorialmanner . There is no doubt about it . But


at the same time we must never forget toSee hi m from the standpoint of his practicalAmericanism

,full of inexhaustible ini tiative .

Th e king of electricity maintains his sovereignty only because he is also a monarch of

commerce and industry .

It is impossible to calculate m ath em ati

cally the commercial value of Edi son’s work .

Nevertheless we may cite a few figures forthe Uni ted States alone .Central stations for the distribution of

electricity : The capitalization is a billiondollars

,the annual earnings two hundred and

twenty-five million ,the number of employees

fifty thousand,the expenses forty million

dollars . For the incandescent lamp thefigures are : Capital , twenty—five milliondollars earnings

,twenty million dollars

number of employees , fourteen thousand ;expenses

,eight million dollars

In Short , more than half a million workmenare employed for the exploitation of thesegreat inventions of Edison’s , which havetransformed the world and have created one

of the most formidable currents of social andindustrial life that the history of civilizationhas had to record .

CHAPTER VIII

MR EDISON DOES NOT RECEIVE— BUT HE

W ILL RECEIVE US— LLEWELYN PARK AT

ORANGE , NEW $ ERSEY— THE RECIPE FOR

GENIUS AND SUCCESS

N his Eve Future, Villiers de l’

ISle Adam,

a poet of noble and picturesque verse,and of adventurous and at times bizarre

imagination, Shows us , in a fantastic tale,not Mr Edison the engineer, but themagician of the century

,the Wizard of Menlo

Park,the father of the phonograph .

”

He compares the countenance of this man,who has made echo a prisoner, to that of

Archimedes on a Syracusan medal . Here isthe portrait which he has traced with no littleart of that symbolic Edison of dreamlandHe seemed lost in intense meditation .

On his right , a high window,wide open to the

west , let in the day upon the vast pandem onium , letting a haze of reddi sh-gold invadeand overspread all obj ects . Here and there,encumbering the tables , appeared the faint

184


interest and the considerable truth whi ch itcontains in a general sense . The newspaperaccounts which have appeared from time totime in both hemispheres , especially whenCopy was scarce, are hardly more exact .

Edison, the most widely known man in theuniverse

,is , as a matter of fact, for the most

part greatly misunderstood . Let us add atonce that it is a decided advantage to get asomewhat magnified view of him ,

if we wi shto see him clearly . Accordingly, we Shoulddo wrong if we failed to recall the impression made by the most famous of modern eu

chanters upon the most celebrated enchantressof our own day .

His marvellous blue eyes,writesMadame

Sarah Bernhardt in her M$m oi res,$ more

luminous than his own incandescent lamps,permitted me to read his every thoughtI followed him rapidly, clim bing up stairs asstraight and narrow as ladders, and crossingbridges suspended above veritable furnaces ;and he explained everything to me as wewent .I understood it all ; and I admired him

more and more,for he was both Simple and

charming ,this King of the Realm of Light .

LLEWELYN PARK 187

Whi le we leaned side by side over thefragile bridge that trembled above thefrightful abyss in whi ch immense wheels

,

carrying large driving belts,whirled and spun

and roared, he gave various commands in aclear voice

,and light burst forth on all sides,

sometimes in crackling, greenish j ets , sometimes in rapid flashes

,and then again in

serpentine trails like rivulets of fire .

I looked at this man of mediumheight, with a head slightly too large anda profile full of nobility, and I thought of

Napoleon I . There certainly is a strongphysical resemblance between these two men

,

and I am sure that it is a case where the twobrains would be found to be identical .

The bewildering noise of themachinery

,the blinding rapidity of the

changing light, set my head to whirling ; and,forgetting where I was , I leaned over thefragile railing which alone protected me fromthe depths below, with such complete unconsciousness of the danger that even before Ihad recovered from my surprise Edi son haddrawn me into an adjoini ng room and placedme in an easy-chair, without my having theslightest memory of his doing so . He told


me presently that I had had a slight touch of

vertigo .

I was carried away by my admiration forthis man’ s inventions . I was also charmedby h is modest manner and gracious courtesy,as well as by his profound love for ShakeSpeare .

”

Following the example of Madame SarahBernhardt , let us also visit Edison—that is tosay ,

let us vi sit Simultaneously the inventor,

the engineer and the Faust of modern times,

who, in Spite of h is name and his fortune ,is in reality a Simple man

,sincere and

cordi al, although terribly, even formidably,busy .

But who would not wi llingly pardon himfor wishing to guard himself from importunate visitors $ It is no more than right thathi s laboratory Should be protected from in

qui sitive glances behind the Shelter of highwalls

,and that the main entrance should bear

the following notice : On account of hiswork

,Mr Edison finds it absolutely impossible

to grant any personal interviews . N0 visitorswill receive permission to enter here .

”

A general prohibition of this sort canalways be excused in the case of an inventor,


country district, in the midst of charminghomes and wooded hi ll-Sides .It was in the year 1886 that Edison re

moved from his far-famed habitation atMenlo Park . He had need for vaster Space

,

both for his own personal work and for theextensive manufactories of whi ch he was toremain the head . He felt the need of a morescientific organization and system of management . After ten years of occupation andprogress

,Menlo Park had become obviously

inadequate .

His ambition was to make thi s picturesqueOrange valley the Site of his manufactori esand of a laboratory— the famous laboratoryof his life-long dreams— that would be worthyto meet their requirements and augment theirpower . Consequently, Orange is not merelythe home of the great inventor

’s laboratory ,over which we are about to cast a glance itit also a manufacturing centre, representingan invested capital of four million dollars andconsisting of a whole group of enterprises ,including : the Edison Manufacturing Company

,the Bates Manufacturing Company , the

Edison Storage Battery Company, the EdisonPhonograph Works , the National Phono

LLEWELYN PARK 191

graph Company , and the Edison PhonographCompany .

But it is the Scientist and the unsur

passed wizard whom we wish primarily tovisit .The laboratory , which has become,

$yearby year, more spacious , more practical , moremagni ficently comfortable in the Am ericansense, comprises one principal bui ldi ng— nosky

-scraper , but a four—story structure , twohundred and fifty feet in length— and fourone—story buildings , each one hundred andtwenty—five feet long . We find ourselvesfirst of all in the library, an almost Squarehall

,whose dimensions are roughly a hundred

feet by forty in height . Two galleries extendaround the Sides , and cabinets of varioussizes contain superb collections of mineraland precious stones . The library itself comprises more than sixty thousand volumesranged upon the shelves, not to speak of

the scientific reviews , and all the technicalpublications in connexion with every art,science, and craft .In this agreeably and harmoniously pro

portioned room we observe four electricchandeliers and a number of chairs and


tables . The boards of directors frequentlyhold their meetings around one of thesetables. Edison presides over them with hisclear, ardent, compelling, electric personality,communi cating faith and energy to all hi sassistants .Near to Edison’ s Office where he arrives

punctually every morning,a sort of alcove

has been contrived,which is furnished with

a table and a chair . Here Edison takes hismeals on the days when he cannot Spare thetime to return home .

Facing the principal entrance is a groupacquired at the Exposition of 1889 , a workby Bordiga , representing the triumph of electri city and electric light . On an adjacenttable we perceive a pretty model in miniatureof the poured-cement house invented byEdi son . Portraits of scientists and celebrated men adorn the galleries . A bust ofHumboldt and a statuette of Sandow eSpeci

ally attract our attention .

Adjoining the library is Situated the celebrated stock-room , with its accumulation of

the greatest vari ety of substances which theinventor may need to have immediately athand . Sovereign experimenter that he is,


Orange, a rose of Jericho,for instance, i t

would be sent to him within a few moments .If he should next requi re some ginseng , aprecious plant which grows in Chi na

,and has

the virtue of prolonging human life, it wouldbe forthcoming .

You See,” concluded Mr Ebd ell, that I

have everything that could be asked for .”

Really, you have everything $

Yes, everything . You can ask me forthe rarest herb

,the scarcest metal

,and you

Shall have it in a momenVery well, give me some paprika .

I beg your pardonPaprika .

”

$ You write it pa-pri -cah $Not at all The word is neither Japanese

nor Chinese.M . Durer found himself obliged to give

a detailed explanation regarding Hungarianred pepper, alias paprika , and even to furnishan address from which it could be procured .

And Mr Ebdell acknowledged that he di d notpossess quite everything, since this particularkind of pepper was lacking .

It would be possible to make quite alengthy list of pleasantries of this kind , and

LLEWELYN PARK 195

it is quite likely that there are still some gapsin the stock-room catalogue . But it is nonethe less true that Edison is able, in responseto the inspiration

,the happy hazard of the

moment, to obtain any material whateverthat he may need for his investigations . Hecan do this at any hour of the day or night

,

without appreciable delay .

We come next to the rooms devoted tomachinery and mechanical experimentsthey contain the models of various kinds ofapparatus and of improvements connectedwith them . They occupy one half of thewhole vast structure .On the second story we come to the rooms

set aside for experimenting . Let us stop inthe X-ray room

,and take a look, as we pass ,

at the machine which was forwarded toBuffalo at the time when Edison learned of

the assassination of President McKinley .

Room No . 12 is of still more Special interest, for it is Edison

’s own room . It containsevery variety of apparatus that might be required successively by a physicist, a chemist,or a machinist, according to the needs of theday and the hour . Let us contemplatealmost devoutly this place of retirement

,


in which a human intellect of almostuniversal capacity wrestles with inorganicmatter.But at this point Mr Edison rejoins us in

person , and we find ourselves in doubt as towhich is the greater, our liking for him or our

admiration . He smiles upon us with thatcharming good humour which at times expands into hearty merriment at the recitalof some particularly amusing anecdote, someone of those occurrences which he delights inamong his boys ,

’ the devoted farm ly circleof his assistants .In physique Edison is tall

,strong

,and

at the same time energetic and gentle . Helooks exactly as he has been described, witha high forehead , frank blue eyes, a swift,clear glance

,and a straight nose . His hair

is quite grey . Yet he gives an impression of

youth and health and strength . He leanstoward us in order to hear u S better

,and

because of his deafness holds h is hand behindhis car . This deafness he has accepted withremarkable philosophy, and he freely declaresthat it has been a great advantage to him,

particularly in connexion with his prolongedlabours upon the telephone and phonograph,


magnetic influence, iron and steel were bothdiscarded in its construction . But after allthese wise precautions had been taken anelectric trolley line was installed directlybeneath its windows $ Consequently, all theinstruments had to be relegated to a uselessinactivity on walls , tables and shelves .Without pausing at a small outhouse used

by the inventor for his experiments in con

crete houses , we enter the second of the foursingle -story structures . We soon perceivethat it is an admirably equipped chemicallaboratory . A large corps of experim entersare employed there, and Edison often j oinsthem when some question arises which hewishes to solve by manipulations of Specialdelicacy .

The third structure contains more apparatus and utensils

,as well as models, while

the fourth is a supplementary stock-room ,

besides containing photographic and cinem atograph ic apparatus .At Orange

,just as formerly at Menlo Park

,

Edison is constantly besieged with more orless legitimate demands upon his time, andnotwithstanding his courtesy

,which turns to

affability when he has to do with brother

LLEWELYN PARK 199

scientists or artists or any one earnestlystriving to make the most of h is talent, heis often obliged to deny himself to visitors .It sometimes happens also that he forgets

them,just as he one day forgot a gentleman

who had been delegated to present him witha medal that was a mark of very high distinction from some society, the name of

which escapes our memory, and who waitedfor hours in the laboratory

,and all in vain .

Edison i s so busy and so absorbed thathe may easily be pardoned such momentsof absent-mindedness , from which the wholehuman race reaps a benefit .

At Orange Edison remains the mastermind of the whole immense organizationalthough he is still obliged, just as at MenloPark and throughout his life, to invite the cooperation of the most distinguished Specialists .For example

,he has entrusted all questions

of litigation to Mr F . L . Dyer, an eminentlawyer

,learned and far-sighted

,whom we

have had frequent occasion to quote in thesepages . Mr Dyer has no sinecure , for it ishe who takes out the patents for Edison’sinventions

,and their number is known to

mount up into the hundreds,both in the


Uni ted States and in foreign countries . Theyrange from the quadruplex telegraph to themanufacture of window-glass

,from electric

locomotion to a method of preserving fruit ,from compressed air apparatus to a machinefor writing addresses

,etc . Not to mention

that Mr Dyer ’s duties involve the continualdefence of the inventions

,for the infringe

ments of them are innumerable,and conse

quently so also are the lawsuits . Lastly ,some of Edison ’s engineers

,and even some of

the assistant workmen,eager to prove their

ability and personal ingenuity,make occa

sioual discoveries , which Edison himself is thefirst to applaud . And patents for these arealso taken out by Mr Dyer .By this time we are moving away from the

laboratory, and as we walk along Mr Edi sonSpeaks of a recent visit to France, where hewas received

,just as in 1889 , with the utmost

enthusiasm . He bestows spe cial praise uponthe French automobile roads, French aviationand French cookery .

Before long we arrive at Mr Edison’sbeautiful residence at Glenmont . In 1886

he was remarried,this time to a Miss Mina

Miller, daughter of Loui s Miller, a rich manu

LLEWELYN PARK 201

facturer and an inventor of agriculturalmachines ; by this devoted wife , bravehearted , simple in tastes and extremelyattached to her home, he has had threechildren : Charles, Madeleine, and Theodore .This home

,situated in the attractive setting

of the Orange Mountains,i s a delightful one .

It is built in English style, of stone and brick ,and ornamented with balconies

,terraces , and

verandahs . It is all very pleasing and incharming taste .The ground floor comprises a number of

parlours and reception-rooms,a dining-room

and a large lounging-room,known familiarly

as the den .

’ It is here that Edison ’s variousmedals and decorations may be seen . In1889 , after his magnificent contribution tothe Paris Exposition

,costing him personally

more than one hundred thousand dollars,Edison was appointed Commander of theLegion of Honour . Other souvenirs of thesame period are also preserved in the den,

’

among them a letter from Mme Sadi-Carnotplacing the presidential box at the serviceof Mr and Mrs Edison

,the original designs

for the invitations issued by the Figaro inEdison’s honour

,etc . There is also quite


a collection of photographs, ornaments , andpresents offered to the noted scientist

,con

Spicuous among them being the marblestatues sent by the Tsar

,vases given by the

Japanese Society of Engineers, and a deskset of steel made expressly for Mr Edisonat the Krupp Works . And we must not failto mention the fact that, in addition to allthese other obj ects , the den also contains

a phonographEdison retires by preference to the second

story. In addition to the bedrooms and abilliard -room, it contains a Splendid library,comprising technical works and standardliterature

,scientific periodicals and popular

magazines . Here, when not detained in h islaboratory

,Edison Spends his eveni ngs in the

company of his family and intimate friends .He surprises every one by his easy manners,his unaffected humour, his thousand and one

inventions and ideas , large and small, alwaysnovel

,often diverting, yet with a hidden

depth of serious import . These evenings areprolonged to a late hour . It no more occursto Mr Edison that he is in need of rest thanit did in the days when he was working athis first telegraph instrument at Port Huron .


armed with college degrees,excepting for

those who come from the technical schools .”

He prefers those who rise from the ranks tothose who have been crammed with Latin,philosophy and a mass of other absurdities .And , although his view does not meet theapproval of everybody, even in America, hehazards the assertion that $ in three or fourcenturies we Shall have reached the epoch of

men of letters . At present what we need isengineers, and men of practical ability inmanufacturing, commerce , railroading, etc .

”

All of which , as a matter of fact , does notprevent Edison from having a profound ad

m iration for the arts and artists,especially

for musicians . How could a genius such ashis fail to sympathize with a Beethoven,whose gigantic art is also made up of constantand manifold combinations and inventions,in pursuit of dreams and ideals $ And thisis why Edison is passionately fond of theSym phonies.

Among the most agreeable memories of hissojourn in Paris in 1889 , Edison recalls notonly his interviews with scientists such asPasteur and Jansen, his visits to the galleriesof the Louvre and the Luxembourg, the

LLEWELYN PARK 205

latter of which he preferred , bu t also amusical s$ance which Gounod offered to givefor him and Mrs Edi son alone at the top of

the Eiffel Tower .Do not let us exaggerate the importance

of details which , without amounting to aprofession of faith , bear witness to the needfelt by this remarkable self-made manfor a certain element of the empirical andutilitarian .

In any case if rightfully or wrongfully weare partisans of the Old classic training andresent Edison’s partiality for the hard discipline of life and experience, we cannot helpsurrendering ourselves more and more to thecharm of the man himself in private life .This famous wi zard wears qui te the sameclothes as any one else, wi thout a touch of

dandyi sm , and with a secret preference forhi s everyday, much-worn working clothes .He is fond of good living and a varied menu,but decidedly prefers fruit to meat . Farfrom disdaining a variety of courses , he isthe exponent of an original theory that thegreat nations are the nations which partakeof the greatest variety of di shes . In supportof this assertion, he delights in making a


comparative examination of the differentraces . The nations which eat rice,

” hesays , never make any progress . Theynever make anything excepting rice, rice,always rice We may observe in this connexion that China seems to be awakeningfrom her lethargy of centuri es . Does thismean that , after discardi ng their queues , theChinese will cease to be eaters of rice $ Weshould note also that Mr Edison ’s opin ionregarding French cookery is an extremelyflattering tribute to the intelligence of therace .

Mr Edison, however,’ is far from being an

over-indulgent eater, or even a gourmandsuch as Balzac or the elder Dumas . Heavoids alcohol

,but he does not recoil from a

cup of coffee or a good cigar . He has notime to waste upon sports nor even uponexercise . Yet his hea lth suffers in no wayfrom this lack . In short , he lives a mostsecluded and peaceful life at Glenmont, inSpite of the occasional inevitable visitorswho must be received . This eminentlyfamily life is enlivened by the coming andgoing of Mr Edison ’s children and by theannual winter trip to Fort Myers , Florida,


question without stopping to differentiatethem .

$ A discovery, says he, is not an invention . For my own part , I hate this confusionof meaning . A dis

’

covery is something whichhappens more or less accidentally. A manis following a certain road . He is going,for instance, from his home to the railwaystation , intending to take a train . All of asudden his foot strikes against some obj ect .He stops , bends down and searches . Hefinds a gold bracelet , buried in the dust .Well, he has made a discovery, but he certainly has not made an invention . He hasgone to no trouble to find this bracelet andyet its value to him is precisely as thoughafter long years of study he had inventeda machine for the manufacture of goldbracelets .”

Edison ’s favourite definition of a discoveryas a nail-scratch belongs to precisely thesame order of ideas and metaphors . Aninvention

, on the contrary, is the fruit of

assiduous care, of long and methodical effort,and God knows that it is never a frui t easy togather and that it frequently remains green,or else, at last , ripens in Spite of its inclement

LLEWELYN PARK 209

surroundings , thanks to the knowledge andunwearied vigilance of the attentive gardener .What is the secret of h is genius $ That

is the question which we still ask ourselvesafter leaving Mr Edi son after havingstudied his life and hi s w ,orks to the end ofdetermining those principal features of hisphysiognomy which belong to humanity asa whole .Yes , what is the why and the wherefore ofhis glory, of his colossal success , the mark of

which ‘ is borne to some extent by the wholeuni verse $ We have not failed to insist , inpassing, upon the dominant character o f thispowerful and intense personality, which incarnates the Am m ican Spirit in its greatestfreedom and fertility

,its most positive and

audacious aspect .In order to guard against any mistake , in

attempting to solve thi s problem , and toarrive at a reasonable conclusion, it is wisestto appeal to those fellow countrymen of

Edi son’ S who have enjoyed a prolonged andclose intimacy wi th him throughout the chiefperiods of s truggle and of victory— namely,Mr Frank Lewis Dyer and Mr ThomasCommerford Martin—whose close observation

0


nothing pertaining to Mr Edison seem s tohave escaped— excepting, no doubt, Suchdetails as escaped Mr Edison himself andsuch as no one on earth could have beenexpected to catch .

Edison, they say, combines with a physically robust constitution a mind capable of

clear and logical ’ thinking and an imagination of unusual activity . But this wouldby no means offer a complete explanation .

There are many m en of equal bodi ly andmental vigour who have not achieved a titheof his accomplishment . What other factorsare there to be taken into consideration toexplain this phenomenonFirst a stolid, almost phlegmatic nervous

system , which takes absolutely no notice ofennui a system like that of a Chineseivory carver who works day after day andmonth after month on a piece of material nolarger than your hand .

” Here is one exampleout of a thousand . In order to completeone of h is batteries , he Spent five years inexperimenting with nickel tubes , and theseexperiments , always apparently the same ,cost him more than a million dollars . Toany one else this research would have become


Absolutely, came the Sirnple and unanimous reply .

This happened on a Saturday . The following Monday, when Edison came to the offi ce,he handed his assistants

,without comment ,

forty-eight plans for machines based uponanalogous principles . What was the use of

comments $ He relied upon results , alwaysresults, nothing but results .Here , parenthetically, we may lay our

finger, in a measure , upon the essence ofgenius . It is all in vain that Edison modestlydisputes it and talks of a great aptitudefor toil and research . It is quite uselessfor him to compute invention as composedof 1 per cent . inspiration and 99 per cent .perspiration, to quote his humorous and

yet significant definition . The exceptionalelement does not consist in mere labour,even compulsory labour, prolonged to thelimit of human endurance, but in inventivelabour

,if one may be permitted to use this

new term .

Edison makes discoveries where others ,endowed with keen intelligence and a raremeasure of energy, discover nothing . Furthermore , let us note that this faculty is employed

LLEWELYN PARK 213

quite as Often for trifling matters as it is forthose that are of far greater importance .

He is convinced that in the whole realm of

invention insignificant details are frequentlyof infinite importance . This is the reason of

his innumerable laboratory notes , in whichhe follows , day by day, the progress of anexperiment conducted , with the aid of thegreatest variety of elements— and it mustnot be forgotten that Edi son Spends reckless sums of money in order to succeed in

producm g a maximum result through theSimplest and most economical means .Let us pass on to the second factor : a

positive,complete

,and invincible optimism ,

fortified by forty or fifty years of experience,an Optimism which has never been shakenby any set-backs , independent of his scienceand his will . Far from fearing toil and d ifficulties, he delights in them . Fighting a feebleenemy

,conquered in advance

,is not fighting

at allLet us take still another characteristic

trait . Edison consecrated more than fiveyears of superhuman activity to the exploitation of h is electro-magnetic separator for ironore

,and the commercial enterprise ended in


disaster. At the age of fifty he had lost afortune . Nevertheless he left the scene ofhis defeat calm and light of heart, satisfied inhaving proved the success of an invention ,even though he had made a business failure .And later

,when be revisited the Site of his

lengthy struggles, he declared serenely : Inever felt better in my life than during thefive years I worked here . Hard work, nothing to divert my thoughts

,clear air and

Simple food made my life very pleasant . Welearned a great deal . It will be of benefitto some one some time .

We realize, upon reflection, how disinterested and stoical his conduct has been, howit has placed all h is business relations upona higher plane, and how it is the naturaloutcome of an uncommon strength of wi ll ,coupled with the inborn forces of his tem

peram ent and his race .From childhood up it seems as though

Edison had flung a glance of defiance at all

obstacles which barred his path or that of

others,including the whole human race .

Consequently he acted without vain declamation or idle posing, but with the implacableresolve to triumph , thanks to a higher


master of creative thought,who has

of subjugating the most m ysterio

of nature$ and placing them at ou

remains for us , as for posterity,foremost a great conqueror.

FOURTEEN DAY USERETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED

Thi s book 18 due on the last d ate stamped be low, oron th e date to wh ich renewed .

Renewed books are subject to immed iate recal l .

forgotten books · thomas a. edison chapter i the american way—the childhood of a ‘self-made...

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