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Edison^the man and his work
48 00513 1446
DATE DUE
EDISON
Frowi a bronze bas-relief by Julio Kilenyi (1924)
G E O R G E , 5v >B EY A N
EDISON
The Man and His Work
GARDEN CITY, NEW YORK
GARDEN CITY PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC.
MANUFACTURED* IN" THE UNITED STATES Of AMERICA
PREFACE
The ending of the Civil War released American ener-
gies for activities of peace. Then followed the era during
which industries in the United States were transformed
and public utilities were organized and developed. It
was a time when mingled with so much that was conveni-
ent, serviceable, and beneficial went ruthless financial
piracy and the sorriest alliances between politics and %ig
business. 59 In those crowded decades, pure science the
disinterested search after truth for its own sake was even
less emphasized than now in our "practical" land. On
the other hand, an essential part was naturally played by
workers in applied science. Their inventions made pos-
sible the growth of forces destined to have vast effect upon
the country's political, economic, and social life.
Among such men, Edison, by his directed good sense,
patient resourcefulness, repeated conquest of obstacles,
and varied achievements, won in the general mind a place
of especial distinction a place that he continued to hold
after he had left Menlo Park and entered upon a new,
phase of his career. Interest was unfailing, too, in the
human side of the man his beginnings, his early strug-
gles, his capacity for toil, his working methods, his dis-
tinctive personality, his simple ways, his blunt opinions
even his prejudices.
In the course of a half-century, a great quantity of
material relating to Edison has been printed ; but a goodly
part of it is more or less inaccessible to the ordinary
PREFACE
reader, and a surprisingly large amount of it is super-
ficial, inaccurate, misleading. Dyer and Martin's valu-
able "Life 59 is a two-volume work and was issued so far
back as 1910. The fact is that to-day many persons,
though they accept Edison as among eminent Americans,
have but vague and erroneous ideas regarding either the
man or his actual achievement. To a certain extent*
therefore, this present book is its own excuse for being.
It brings the story of Edison down to date and within
moderate compass ; and it endeavors to present afresh the
main features of that story in clear, readable narrative.
It recognizes, and would do full justice to, the human
interest inherent in its subject; but at the same time It
assumes that Edison cannot properly be separated from
his work. Hence it seeks to explain that work not
elaborately nor learnedly but accurately, with sufficient
fulness, and in non-technical language. It further aims
to avoid the irresponsible mythology and the rather in-
discriminate panegyric that have at times done disservice
to Edison's right fame.
It is at least based on independent research that in-
cluded not only a survey of the available literature but
also the privilege of special sources personal inquiry
having met with friendly aid. The Dyer and Martin
"Life" has, of course, been frequently consulted, especially
for Edison's own words; and due credit has been given
passim. Among those to whom the author would ac-
knowledge particular indebtedness are: the late George
Kennan, well-known author and publicist; Maj, William
J. Hammer, one of Edison's trusted associates in the
Menlo Park days and later distinguished as a consulting
electrical engineer; Mr. Arthur Williams, general com-
mercial manager of the New York Edison company ; Mr*
vi
PREFACE
George lies* authority on American Invention ; the libra*
rians of the United Engineering Society (New York) ;
and Dr. Herbert Putnam of the Library of Congress 5
where every facility was most belpf uJly placed at my dis-
posal.
G. S. B.
CONTENTS
I PRELIMINARIES AND BEGINNINGS H
II THE YOUNG EXPERIMENTER B
III A START AT THE KEY fO
IV A "LIGHTNING-SLINGER" IN THE MID-WEST 25
V THE TELEGRAPHER TURNS INVENTOR 47
VI UNDER WAY 53
VII EDISON AND THE TELEGRAPH 61
VIII EDISON AND THE TELEPHONE 71
IX "ORGANIZING THE ECHOES'* 84*
X A NEW LIGHT SHINES 103
XI THE "EDISON SYSTEM** INTRODUCED
XII THE MOTION-PICTURE CAMERA MAGNETIC ORE-
MILLING
XIII MAKING PORTLAND CEMENT; BUILDING A NEW
STORAGE BATTERY 202
XIV LATER INVENTIONS; SERVICES TO THE GOVERNMENT 219
XV MISCELLANEOUS ACHIEVEMENTS 242
XVI WHAT MANNER OF MAN? 265
APPENDIX *K)5
An Edison Chronology 807
The Commercial Value of Edison's Inventions 311
Part of an Edison Questionnaire
Edison Answers a Questionnaire
Familiar Glimpses s;22
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
is
EDISON
THE MAN
AND HIS WORK
I
PRELIMINARIES AND BEGINNINGS
THE earliest Edisons in the United States came directly
from Holland. About 1730 they landed on American
soil at Elizabethport, the part of Elizabeth,, New Jersey*
that lies along Staten Island Sound. Thence they went
inland a few miles, to the small village of Caldwell, where
they settled and prospered. It is as the birthplace of
Grover Cleveland, twice president of the United States,
that Caldwell is perhaps best known*
Great age seems to have been somewhat common among
the Edisons ; and a Thomas Edison reached one hundred
and four years. In the days of the American Revolutions
this Thomas was stoutly for the Continental cause, and
John, Thomas* son, was as stoutly a Loyalist, After the
Revolution, John, like many other Loyalists, emigrated to
Canada; first to Nova Scotia, then in 1811 by ox-team^
pioneer-fashion, to Bayfield in Upper Canada, as Ontario
was at that time called. In order to attract Loyalist
settlers into Upper Canada, the British government was
making liberal grants of land. John Edison received a
tract of six hundred acres and went to occupy it. Later,
he removed again this time to a place named Vienna,
near the northern shore of Lake Erie.
In Vienna, Samuel, son of John, set up for himself as
a hotel-keeper. Prior to this, little is known of Samuel*
save that he was born in 1804 in Digby, a seaport town
of Nova Scotia. He married in 1828 a Miss Nancy
s
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
Elliott, an eighteen-year-old teacher in the Vienna high-
school and daughter of the Rev. John Elliott, a Baptist
clergyman of Scots descent. John Edison remained at
Vienna until he died at the age of a hundred and two.
Samuel sought the United States rather from necessity,
however, than of deliberate choice.
William Lyon Mackenzie, a Canadian politician* was
rightly enough convinced that the government of Upper
Canada was much in need of reforms. He organized an
unsuccessful attempt to obtain these reforms by force.
When he tried to seize the lieutenant-governor and set
up a provisional government, it turned out that his plans
had been so poorly made and his supporters were so few
that the movement was utterly a failure. Samuel Edison*
six feet and of strong physique, was a captain of Macken-
zie's insurgents ; and when Mackenzie fled across the bor-
der to the States, Samuel Edison followed his leader^
example. One story has it that, in his eagerness to escape,
he made a forced journey of more than a hundred and
eighty miles, with little of either food or sleep. If the
story be true, this flight of Samuel Edison suggests a
comparison in some ways with that famous trip of Daniel
Boone, when, having escaped from the Shawnees, he
travelled through one hundred and sixty miles of forest in
four days, during which he ate but one meal. Knowing
that his Canadian property would now be forfeit to the
government against which he had revolted, Samuel Edison
looked for a likely spot in which to establish a new home,
and at last found it, in 1842, in Milan, Ohio.
To-day Milan, trim, shaded, comfortable, is for all the
world like many another hamlet in that part of the state.
It has a public square, a soldiers* monument, and tidy
houses set in ample grounds. It claims no important
industries, and treasures but one mark of distinction.
PRELIMINARIES AND BEGINNINGS
When Samuel Edison made up his mind to settle there,
things were different. Milan was then flourishing* and
had prospects of a large development in trade. Its loca-
tion seemed to promise for it a distinct future. In Ohio
were then no railways to carry eastward the wheat from
productive fields. The Huron river furnished for north-
ern Ohio a natural outlet to Lake Erie ; and Milan was on
the Huron, not far from the lake. True, the river was
not navigable for all of the way to the town ; but that dif-
ficulty was solved by the building of a short canal to con-
nect Milan with the head of navigation at Lockwood
Landing. At the canal-side in Milan rude warehouses were
built. Grain to fill them poured in from the surrounding
country in four-horse and six-horse wagon-loads. The
canal would float sailing-vessels up to two hundred and
fifty tons' burden, and as many as twenty such vessels
were laden in a day at Milan with cargoes of wheat.
Shipbuilding and various other industries were started.
The place was busy. It seemed to Samuel Edison that
he had made a sensible choice. .He set up a workshop
where he made hand-wrought shingles ; and for his stout,
durable product the demand was so large in that region
that in time he employed several men.
In Milan during this its flourishing period, Thomas
Alva fidi^on was born on February llth, 1847; and
th^re he passed his first seven years. It might be well to
explain that the name Alva was bestowed in honor not
of the notorious Duke of Alva, who vainly tried to sub-
due the Dutch, but of a Capt. Alva Bradley* who owned
numerous vessels plying on the Great Lakes and was a
friend of Samuel Edison's. ( The Edison house, a sub-
stantial-looking brick cottage, is yet standing, almost un-
changed, and townsfolk point it out to visitors. 1 ;
lit has more than once been curiously alleged that Edison is of
5
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
The same Thomas Alva who in later years became
'known as one that conld endure, apparently without
f atigue, an uncommon amount of continuous and exacting
application to hard work, looked, when a very small boy,
somewhat frail, and was thought to be hardly strong
enough to attend school. He is presented to us as a
rather grave, old-fashioned child, occupied with little con-
structive tasks or asking questions with a solemn persis-
tence. His was a mind that already was observing and
investigating. Of the many anecdotes of that period,
one says that he had taken notice of a goose sitting on some
eggs, and afterward of the goslings running about. Then
followed a day when he vanished. After lengthy search,
he was discovered in the barn, sitting on a collection of
hen's eggs and goose eggs that he seemed to be hopeful
of hatching.
Yet the escapades and hairbreadth escapes of enter-
prising boyhood were his, too. In one of the Milan ware-
houses he tumbled into a great pile of wheat and was al-
most smothered before he could be got out. Once he held
a skate-strap for another lad, who was trying to shorten
it by means of an axe; the chief result being that Edison
lost the tip of a finger. At another time he came close
to drowning in the canal. But perhaps his most thrilling
experience arose through his inspiration to build a fire
in somebody's barn. The barn was speedily burned, and
he was duly whipped not in the seclusion of the wood-
shed but before the general gaze in the public square.
Such things were all in the day's adventures. Edison
Aztec origin. In the "New York Tribune" of March 13, 1923, ap-
peared an abstract of a fantastic story to that effect that, so it was
stated, was published on. March 12 ia a newspaper of Mexico City.
In connection therewith the "Tribune" added that W. H. Meadowcroft,
Edison's personal representative, had said that "he knew of no founda-
tion in fact."
6
PRELIMINARIES AND BEGINNINGS
had a sister , Tannie (afterward Mrs. Bailey ), and a
brother, William ; but of them we scarcely hear, and they
do not appear to have played any particular part in his
development.
Thus life ran along. Then something happened to
Milan. Railway promoters had endeavored to negotiate
with local capitalists, but the capitalists, relying upon
their canal, preferred that the new-fangled carrier should
not enter the town. It was not long before Milan became
aware that railways were factors to be reckoned with in
Ohio; and next, that its "boom 95 had departed. Grain
shipments were sent from neighboring towns by rail, and
Milan ceased to be a center of the wheat trade. Of the
canal, nothing now remains but a depression in the earth,
so concealed by vegetable-gardens or overgrown with grass
as scarcely to be traceable along the valley. It may be
added that the wholesale throttling of canals by railway
interests was not at all fortunate for the country at large.
A great deal of non-perishable freight could always have
been shipped quite as satisfactorily and much more
cheaply by water routes.
Again Samuel Edison began to seek a location for a
new home. In 1854 he went to Port Huron in Saint
Clair county, Michigan, where he became a dealer in feed
and grain and also engaged in the lumber business. Port
Huron is at the lower end of Lake Huron, at the junction
of the Black and Saint Clair rivers. Three years after
Samuel Edison had arrived there, it received a city char-
ter. It was thriving, and Samuel Edison throve reason-
ably with it.
II
THE YOUNG EXPERIMENTER
AT Port .Huron Edison went to school for three months.
That was all the formal education he ever received. He
afterward described himself as pretty consistently at the
foot of his class. To an inspector his teacher reported
him as "addled. 33 It may be of interest to note that Six-
Isaac Newton, when a lad, was considered rather a dunce ;
that James Watt, the inventor of the modern condensing
steam-engine, stood poorly in his classes ; and that regard-
ing Sir Humphry Davy, the eminent English chemist, one
of his teachers later declared, "While he was .with me I
could not discern the faculties by which he was so much
distinguished." Time proved their quality, as it did
Edison's* \
*
Edison's mother is portrayed as capable, well-informed,
and of not a little culture. Her own experience as a
school-teacher had not given her a very high opinion of the
public schools of her place and day. She sharply re-
sented the notion that "A1 3? as family and friends called
Mm was addled ; in fact, she was inclined (with, perhaps,
a natural touch of prejudice) to believe his mind was be-
yond the ordinary. She undertook, therefore, to teach
him the rudiments in her own way, and to guide his gen-
eral reading. Before he was twelve he had gone through
such solid works as Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the
Roman Empire" and Hume's "History of England."
Fiction does not appear to have had much of a place on
8
THE YOUNG EXPERIMENTER
lie schedule. Samuel Edison paid the boy a small sum
*ach time the contents of a book like these had been grap-
pled with and conquered. Teacher and pupil made a
joint attack on Newton's "Principia 59 ; but, as might have
been expected, this proved to be quite too tough a morsel
for both. Edison was never proficient in mathematics*
In after years, his researches frequently involved elabo-
rate calculations ; and for these he was forced to depend
mainly upon the labors of associates.
Although not a mathematician, he was naturally an ex-
perimenter. In the egg incident had been revealed a turn
of mind that now found further expression. A Dutch
youth, Michael Gates by name, was employed as the family
chore-boy. To test a theory that gases so generated
might enable a person to fly, Edison induced Michael
Gates to swallow a large quantity of Seidlitz powders.
Far from flying, however, Michael developed pains that
compelled general attention. Truth was shortly out ; and
the young experimentalist suffered an application of a
switch kept for emergency purposes behind the clock*
After that, he obtained a copy of Parker's "School Phi-
losophy/ 5 then in considerable use as a text-book in ele-
mentary physics ; and few were the experiments outlined
in it that he did not try. Then and afterward it was
characteristic of him to challenge and test statements that
he encountered in his reading in natural science.
In the cellar of the house he assembled materials for his
first laboratory. Among these were two hundred bottles,
carefully arranged on shelves and all labeled POISON.
"My mother's ideas and mine differed at times," he once
said, "especially when I got experimenting and mussed
up things. 5 * Indeed, Mrs. Edison ordered the removal of
the laboratory two hundred bottles and all; but she
finally compromised the matter by allowing the "mess" to
9
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
continue, ^provided It was kept under lock wlien "Al 55 was
absent. Most of Edlson 5 s pocket-money went to buy such
chemicals as were to be had In the local drug-shops. & An
observer at that time might have anticipated that the lad
would become an analytical chemist rather than a physi-
cist. \ The chemical knowledge that Edison thus early be-
gan to acquire was subsequently of great service to him,
especially in problems connected with his incandescent
lamp and his storage-battery.
It was through the argument that he needed money to
buy more chemicals that he won permission to apply for
the concession to act as a newsboy on trains of the Grand
Trunk railway line between Port Huron and Detroit, a
round distance of one hundred and twenty-six miles.
The concession once gained., he began working on an
accommodation-train that left for Port Huron at seven
in the morning and, on the return trip, reached there at
nine-thirty in the evening. This was not, strictly speak-
ing, his first business experience. With a horse and a
small wagon, he and Michael Gates- had peddled garden-
truck raised on Samuel Edison's acres; and in one year
f 600 had been taken in and turned over to Mrs. Edison;
"After being on the train for several months, 55 W&re
Edison's own words, "I started two stores in Port Huron
-one for periodicals, and the othe* % for vegetables, butter,
and berries in the season. These were attended by two
boys who shared in the profits. The periodical store 1
soon closed, as the boy in charge could not be trusted,
The vegetable store I kept up for nearly a year. 55 Nor
was this all. He obtained the privilege of installing a
newsboy on an express-train leaving Detroit in the morn-
ing and returning at night. After a while, a daily im-
migrant train was run. "This train, 55 Edison said, "gen-
erally had from seven to ten coaches, filled always with,
10
THE YOUNG EXPERIMENTER
Norwegians, all bound for Iowa and Minnesota. On
these trains I employed a boy who sold bread, tobacco, and
stick candy." Such were the mercantile enterprises of
this lad of but a dozen years.
The Civil War lent so great a stimulus to Edison's news-
paper sales that he gave up the vegetable store. Years
afterward, he related an instance of his attempts to meet
the demand for news. One day in 1862 presumably
April 8th, he found crowds gathered in Detroit about
the bulletin-boards of the various local papers. Reports
had been posted that the battle of Shiloh (or Pittsburg
Landing, as it sometimes has been called) had just been
fought in Tennessee, with a total loss on both sides of 60,-
000 killed and wounded. (It was later learned that these
figures were wildly exaggerated, and by historians the ag-
gregate losses have been set at about 20,000.) At sight
of those Detroit crowds, Edison had a sudden inspiration.
He hurried to the Grand Trunk station, and there finally
prevailed upon the telegraph operator to telegraph the
rumor to Port Huron and all the stations along the route.
". . . He sent it," said Edison, "requesting the agents
to display it on the blackboards used for stating the ar-
rival and departure of trains. I decided that instead of
the usual one hundred papers I could sell one thousand ;
but not having sufficient money to purchase that number 5
1 determined in my desperation to see the editor himself
and get credit.' 5 The editorial office to which he went
was that of the "Detroit Free Press," a morning paper
that later became quite widely known for humorous
sketches written by C. B. Lewis and signed "M. Quad. 55
a l was taken into an office where there were two men, and
I stated what I had done about telegraphing, and that
I wanted a thousand papers, but only had money for
three hundred, and I wanted credit. One of the men re-
(11
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
fused it, but the other told the first spokesman to let me
have them. . . * By the aid of another boy I lugged the
papers to the train and started folding them. The first
station, called Utica, was a small one where I generally
sold two papers, I saw a crowd ahead on the platform,
and thought it some excursion, but the moment I landed
there was a rush for me ; then I realized that the telegraph
was a great invention. I sold thirty-five papers there. 59
So it went at all the stations between Detroit and Port
Huron. "It had been my practice at Port Huron/ 3 Edi-
son explained, "to jump from the train at a point about
one-fourth of a mile from the station, where the train gen-
erally slackened speed. I had drawn several loads of
sand to this point to jump on, and had become quite ex-
pert. The little Dutch boy [Michael Gates, once more]
with the horse met me at this point. "When the wagon.
approached the outskirts of the town I was met by a large
crowd. I then yelled: *Twenty-five cents apiece, gen-
tlemen: I haven't enough to go around! 5 I sold all out,
and made what to me then was an immense sum of money/*
Of Edison's daily takings, one dollar went regularly
to his mother, but most of his profits he spent for chemi-
and chemical apparatus. His experiments were now
mainly conducted not in the cellar of the Edison house,
but in his "laboratory on wheels. 55 The baggage-car of
the accommodation-train happened to be divided into three
compartments: one for express-packages and baggage,
one for United States mail, and one originally intended
for smokers. The smokers' compartment remained un-
used ; and Edison accordingly was permitted by the con-
ductor to appropriate it. There he not only kept his
stock of newspapers, magazines, candy, popped-corn balls,
and other things, but also established a new workshop*
An ever-increasing array of jars, batteries, bottles, test-
12
THE YOUNG EXPERIMENTER
tubes* and other paraphernalia, was crowded into this;
and in it was stored a surprising quantity of chemicals,
which he now could obtain in Detroit to a much greater
extent than had been possible in Port Huron, As a basis
for his experiments Edison had a copy of a translation of
a work on qualitative analysis by Karl Fresenius, a Ger-
man professor. This treatise, and the same authors
companion-work on quantitative analysis, had at one time
a wide circulation. In the baggage-car, as it jarred and
rocked, the young newsboy found odd moments for his
studies. In passing, it may be mentioned that some of
Edison's equipment was made for him by George M. Pull-
man, later known in connection with the manufacture of
Pullman railway cars, who at that time had a little shop
in Detroit.
Something else was to be found in that compartment of
a Grand Trunk baggage-car: a diminutive printing-
plant, whence issued "The Weekly Herald." Edison's
observation of the popular demand for news led him to
try newspaper publishing on his own account. Con-
stantly in touch with the railway telegraph, he was often
enabled by this means to chronicle local items that, if they
reached the Detroit journals at all, would reach them" long
after. In Detroit he discovered and bought a small press
that had been used for the printing of hotel menu-cards.
There he also purchased types; and, with his natural
mechanical facility, he soon learned the elements of type-
setting and make-up. The price of "The Weekly Her-
ald" was three cents a copy, or eight cents for a month's
subscription. The circulation exceeded four hundred
copies a month. Edison was the Pooh-Bah of the un-
dertaking: reporter, editor, compositor, make-up man f
pressman, devil, advertising manager, circulation mana-
ger, and news-agent. This unique paper must be con*
13
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WOEK
sldered remarkably well done, especially when regard is
had to the age of the proprietor and editor, and to the
unfavorable conditions under which the mechanical work
was performed.
But Edison's energy and ingenuity sought yet further
exercise. He became interested in electricity. Accord-
ing to his own account, this was "probably from visiting
telegraph offices with a chum who had tastes similar to
mine." This chum and he set up a telegraph-line be-
tween their homes. In those days, amateurs could not
purchase electrical equipment and supplies as they may
now. These lads were compelled to improvise everything
they used. For their wire they had the sort of wire that
was commonly used to support stove-pipes; for their in-
sulators, bottles. The bottles were hung on nails driven
into trees or, when no trees offered, into flimsy poles. Bits
of spring brass served for keys, and rags insulated the
magnet-wire. It is gravely stated that Edison, seeking
|x> -obtain current at the minimum cost, actually experi-
mented with cats as a possible source of static electricity
to be applied to the "line. 95 In these experiments the cfti*
absolutely declined to assist; but the line was made to work
by batteries in the conventional way.
As has been said earlier in this chapter, Edison did not
reach Port Huron on his return-trip until nine-thirty in
the evening. His bedtime was fixed by his father at
eleven-thirty. This arrangement did not leave much
chance for practice in telegraphy, and so Edison's in-
ventiveness was called into play. He had been accus-
tomed to take home each evening his unsold stock of news-
papers ; and each evening Samuel Edison would look over
this handy supply of reading-matter. With some plausi-
ble excuse for so doing, Edison now left the "returnable* 9
with his chum ; but he intimated that he still could get the
14
THE YOUNG EXPERIMENTER
tews for his father over the "private wire. 95 Interested
,o see how this might be done 9 Samuel Edison assented to
the plan. The chum sent messages which Edison re-
seived and wrote out in long-hand ; and so absorbed was
the father in reading them that it was sometimes one
o'clock of the next morning before he and "Al" turned
in. The eleven-thirty rule was officially rescinded; the
unsold stock of papers was again brought home ; and Edi-
son and his cooperator continued their practice until both
were fairly versed in the first principles of electric teleg-
raphy. A roaming cow happened to get entangled in
the line s and sadly damaged it. It seems not to have been
replaced ; but it had been the means by which Edison had
made a beginning in a field of work in which eventually
he had few equals.
The travelling printing-office and the rolling laboratory
had meanwhile flourished; but one day mischance more
serious than a roaming cow befell them. The train was
running at a smart speed over a stretch of badly-laid
track a great deal of track, was badly-laid in that period
of American railroading^ The baggage-car lurched*
In Edison's compartment a phosphorus stick was thrown
from a shelf to the floor. Ignited by the friction, the
phosphorus blazed up with the intense whitish light pe-
culiar to that substance when burning. The car took
fire; and Edison 5 rather frightened, started to fight the
flames. Then in rushed the conductor with some water,
and the car was quickly saved. The conductor had, how-
ever* lost his head and his temper. It had been with his
knowledge and consent that Edison was long permitted to
experiment with chemicals on a moving train. He knew
that the boy had always treated the privilege with respect
and had always been careful He should have realized
that the fire was the result of an accident. Yet now, in
15
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
unreasoning rage, he violently cuffed Edison*s ears; and
at the Mount Clemens station he ejected Edison and Edi-
son's entire outfit laboratory, printing-plant, and all
and left them on the platform : the outfit in ruins, the boy
in tears.
Prom the brutal blows of this "rattled 95 conductor came
the deafness that remained with Edison through life* He
once said that he thought deafness had been of great ad-
vantage to him "in various ways 55 ; and he went on to
specify how it acted to protect him from external distrac-
tions, and to spur him to further effort in the development
of the carbon transmitter for the Bell telephone, and in the
perfecting of the phonograph. While admiring his spirit
of philosophical acceptance, one may at the same time re-
gret that ignorance, carelessness, or force is able to in-
jure or destroy persons of value in the world ; that a great
President is murdered by a wild-brained partisan, a dis-
tinguished scientist killed by a drayman, a youthful Edi-
son permanently afflicted by an inconsequential employee.
After this experience, Edison restored his laboratory
to the home cellar; having first, however, promised that
he would not bring into it anything dangerous. The
printing-plant, also, he transferred to the house. No
further accidents occurred ; and the publication of "The
Weekly Herald" went successfully along until Edison, at
the suggestion of a young friend, enlarged the paper,
which he renamed "Paul Pry," and which, in accordance
with its new title, was mainly devoted to Port Huron gos-
sip and personalities. Mannerisms and peculiarities of
local individuals were dealt with rather freely. One vic-
tim was so annoyed that he pitched the editor and pub-
lisher into the Saint Clair river. Not long afterward, the
paper ceased to be issued. For newspaper work Edison
16
THE YOUNG EXPERIMENTER
liad a pronounced liking, but Ms career was destined to
run in other channels.
When in Detroit between trains, he usually spent con-
siderable time in the public library. His reading was IK*
limited strictly to chemistry. Indeed, when he began he
was so liberal and inclusive that he tackled a complete
section and tried to go through it shelf by shelf in a whole-
hearted onslaught upon knowledge.
Hardly less attractive than the Detroit public library
were the Port Huron machine-shops of the Grand Trunk.
Sometimes a friendly engineer let him ride in the cab, or
even pilot the locomotive for a short distance. Of an ex-
perience as engineer, Edison once gave an amusing de-
scription. The locomotive had, he said, after the custom
of the time, "bright brass bands all over, the woodwork
beautifully painted, and everything highly polished.'*
. . . The train, it seems, was a slow freight ; and the pre-
ceding night, engineer and fireman had attended a dance
given by a railroad men's fraternal organization. "After
running about fifteen miles they became so sleepy that
they couldn't keep their eyes open, and agreed to permit
me to run the engine. , . . I was greatly worried about
the water, and I knew that if it got low the boiler was
likely to explode. I hadn't gone twenty miles before
black, damp mud blew out of the stack and covered every
part of the engine, including myself. . . . Then I ap-
proached a station where the fireman always went out to
the cowcatcher, opened the oil-cup on the steam-chest,
and poured oil in- I started to carry out the procedure,
when, upon opening the oil-cup, the steam rushed out with
a tremendous noise, nearly knocking me off the engine.
I succeeded in closing the oil-cup and got back in the cab,
and made up my mind that she would pull through with-
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WOSK
oat oil. I learned afterward that the engineer always
shut off steam when the fireman went to oil. * My
powers of observation were very much improved after this
occurrence. 5 * Before he had reached his destination* a
second deluge of mud took place. He then discovered
that he had been carrying not too little water, but so much
that it had passed over into the stack and dislodged a
mass of accumulated soot. He did not persist in the
study of steam-engineering practice, but in later years
was a pioneer in the development of the electric loco-
motive.
Now and then some prank enlivened Edlson 9 s busy
hours. One of these had to do with a practical joke
played upon the sentries at Fort GratioL This old army
post, close to the village of Port Huron, had been aban-
doned in 185S ; but after the outbreak of the Civil War,
volunteers were quartered there. Edison and his Man
Friday, Michael Oates, had often at night been hearing a
call passed along the line of sentries, ordering out the cor-
poral of the guard. So, one very dark night, in tones as
nearly stentorian as he was able to manage, Edison imi-
tated this call "The second sentry, thinking it was the
terminal sentry who shouted, repeated it to the third, and
so on. This brought the corporal along the half mile*
only to find that he was fooled. We tried him three
nights; but the third night they were watching, and
caught the little Dutch boy, took him to the lock-up at
the fort, and shut him up. They chased me to the house.
I rushed for the cellar. In one small compartment, where
there were two barrels of potatoes and a third one nearly
empty, I poured these remnants into the other barrels, sat
down, and pulled the empty barrel over my head, bottom
up. The soldiers had awakened my father, and they were
searching for me with candles and lanterns. The cor-
18
THE YOUNG EXPERIMENTER
poral was absolutely certain I came into the cellar, and
couldn't see how I could have gotten out, and wanted to
know from my father if there was no secret hiding-place.'
On assurance of my father, who said that there was not,
he said it was most extraordinary. I was glad when they
left, as 1 was cramped, and the potatoes that had been
in the barrel were rotten and violently offensive. 55 Next
morning Michael Oates was released. After that, Edison
probably interfered no further in military affairs.
It was during Edison's newsboy period that the Prince
of Wales (afterward Edward VII), as "Lord Renfrew, 9 '
visited the United States and Canada. At Sarnia, op-
posite Port Huron on the Ontario side of the Saint Clair
river, elaborate preparations were made for a public re-
ception of the Prince ; and Edison, with most other Port
Huron lads, went over to attend. "Several of us ex-
pressed our belief that a prince wasn't much, after all,
and said that we were thoroughly disappointed. . . *
Soon the Canuck boys attacked the Yankee boys, and we
were all badly licked. I, myself, got a black eye. 5 '
Once (it was about a week before Christmas, and appar-
ently Edison had laid in a special holiday stock) Edison's
train jumped the track. Four ancient cars, with rotted
sills, were quickly smashed into kindling-wood, and over
the right-of-way were spread Edison's raisins, dates, figs,
and candies. To prevent what looked to him like deplor-
able waste, Edison tried eating the scattered supplies-
"Our family doctor, 55 he commented, "had the time of his
life with me* 55
19
Ill
A START AT THE KEY
IT was at the Mount Clemens station that the flustered
conductor threw out Edison, laboratory, and printing-
outfit. Another incident, an incident that was to have
an important bearing upon the newsboy's later career,
also occurred there.
/ One morning of August, 1862, Edison stood on the
Mount Clemens platform, waiting while the "mixed 5 * on
which he worked did a half -hour's switching of freight
cars. A loaded box car, with no brakeman aboard, had
just been shunted from a siding to the main track, along
which it was now rolling at a considerable speed. Sud-
denly Edison noticed a child playing in the gravel bal-
last of the line. In a glance he recognized the little son
of J. U. Mackenzie, the station-agent. Tossing his cap
aside and dropping his bundle of papers, he dashed out
upon the track. Not a second too soon was he, for one
of the car-wheels struck his heel as he swung the child to
safety. \
I Mackeuiie, who already knew and liked Edison, grate-
fully offered to instruct him in train telegraph jf. The
offer was quickly accepted. As we have seen, Edison was
before that pretty familiar with the Morse code. When
he began his study with Mackenzie, he carried to Mount
Clemens a trim set of telegraph instruments that he him-
self had made in a Detroit gun-shop. He at once di-
20
A START AT THE KEY
vided his "run/ 9 assigning to a friend the portion between
Mount Clemens and Detroit.
The instrnctor found that his teaching could be con-
fined in large part to the special signals used by railway
operators in facilitating their work. These signals in-
cluded various symbolic numerals* It may be of interest to
know, for example, that the railway telegrapher's symbol
to indicate a message of accident or death, was a 2S" ; and
that this was the real source of an expression once com-
mon in popular slang, with the general meaning of "bad
luck. 5 * Shortly after Edison had begun this study, came
the forcible termination of his activities as newsboy ; and
then he was able to devote to telegraphy as much as eight-
een hours a day. He had by this time a strong physique
and uncommon powers of endurance, so characteristic of
him in later life. In about four months the pupil had
gained all that the teacher could impart. He now defi-
nitely entered a field in which he was to know a half -dozen
years of toil, but in which he also was to have abundant
chance of observation and experiment ; becoming increas-
ingly skilled in that electrical science wherein he attained
what have been considered his finest achievements. 1
iAs illustrative of the legends that have so profusely collected
around Edison, may be instanced that concerning the telegrapher Ward.
On September 9, 1023, the "New York Times" printed the following
item: "TAUGHT EDISOK MORSE KEY. Joseph C. Ward, Called
Oldest Telegrapher, Dies at 79. Visalia, Cal, Sept. 8, Joseph Clar-
ence Ward, 79, a telegrapher at General Grant's headquarters during
the Civil War, and the man credited with having taught Thomas A.
Edison the Morse code, died here yesterday." To this had been added
in the newspaper office this paragraph: "When the telegraph com*
pany for which he worked closed its Visalia office, Ward retired, after
sixty years at a telegraph key. He was then spoken of as the oldest
operator in the country. He was stationed at Mount Clemens, Mich.,
when Thomas A* Edison was a newsboy on trains passing there.
21
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
He first strung a telegraph line from the Port Huron
station to the vil!age 9 about a mile away ? and there opened
in a drug-shop a little office of his own. The regular of-
fice was, however, amply sufficient to take care of village
business; and his venture soon was ended. Before long s
he became the operator in the regular office* which had
quarters in Walker's jewelry-store. Walker was a kind
of small-town factotum, who not only sold jewelry and
directed the local telegraph-office, but traded^ too, in news-
papers and magazines. Edison slept on the premises, so
that he might be ready for emergency night-calls. He
liked this arrangement because at night, and well along
into the earlier morning hours, newspaper dispatches (or
"press report, 59 as operators called them) were passing
over one of the wires. Edison, always eager to become
more adept, would "cut in" and copy, as well as he might,
these dispatches, which were more difficult to manage than
the routine commercial messages. This he found to be
excellent practice. All the more ambitious operators in
those days hoped to qualify to "take press.**
The office was not a very busy one; but even so, out-
Edison spent his spare hours in Ward's office and learned the code
from him: 5 Previous to this, "Collier's" had had an editorial article
about "J. K Ward," in which it said; "As the world is prone to
judge men, Ward did not climb to the top rung of success in hi*
calling. Yet that kindly, faithful operator had a lot to do with the
success of one of our most beloved Americans, Years ago, when Ward
was stationed at Mount Clemens, Mich., he spent ten or fifteen minutes
every day patiently teaching a tow-haired boy the Morse code. Tn&t
boy, one Thomas A. Edison, has done first-rate since then."
Doubtful of the Ward story, the present writer sent a query to
W. H. Meadowcroft, long Edison's assistant, who kindly obtained
from Edison this authoritative reply: **There is no foundation for
tlte statement, J. U. Mackenzie taught me telegraphy* Ward was a
relative of Mackenzie's wife. He was a military telegrapher in the
CMi War and spent one vacation at Mackenzie's. He newr taught
w&?
22
A START AT THE KEY
going messages might often have been seen hanging nn-
sent upon a hook, while the operator was in Walker ? s cel-
lar., engrossed in a chemical experiment ; or in the drug-
shop, buying a fresh supply of materials. Walker after-
wards described young Edison as quite likely to seize
from the watch-repairer^s table any tool that he thought
might be suited to his immediate purpose. Even then,
Edison labored intensely toward his goal. Once an ex-
periment had been completed, once a statement had been
verified or a theory tested, tangles of wire and groups of
jars might be indiscriminately left and forgotten. The
"Scientific American 5 ' was then in existence, having been
established as far back as 1845; and it formed part of
Edison's favorite reading.
After a while, Edison applied for a job on the Grand
Trunk, and obtained the post of night operator at Strat-
ford Junction, Ontario. He was now a full-fledged oper-
ator. The year was 1863, and his age was sixteen, At
Stratford Junction, Edison made his first invention. His
hours of duty were from 7 P. M. to 7 A. M. ; and a regula-
tion was that from 9 P. M. he was to send each hour the
signal "6" to the office of the train dispatcher. This was
called "sixing," and was taken as circumstantial evidence
that the operator was awake. Hourly each night came
the signal from "Sf," as Stratford Junction was known;
yet it began to be noticed that, strangely enough, a train
message sent to "Sf" almost immediately afterward often
failed utterly to bring a response. Investigation revealed
the cause, Edison, devoting the greater part of his days
to research, felt the need of sleep at night, and had there-
fore devised and put into action an ingenious contrivance.
To both the telegraph line and a clock he attached a wheel
with a notched rim. When the line was quiet, the clock
was started* On each hour the wheel automatibaUy j^~
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
volved and sent the necessary dots. The mechanism of
the familiar district-messenger call-box is somewhat simi-
lar. Whatever may have been private opinion as to his
ingenuity, Edison received an official reprimand.
Within a short time thereafter, Edison left Canada in
a hurry. "One night," was his version of the episode, "I
got an order to hold a freight train, and I replied that
I would. I rushed out to find the signalman, but before
I could find him and get the signal set the train ran past.
I ran to the telegraph office, and reported that I could not
hold her." In the meantime the dispatcher had permit-
ted the train bound in the opposite direction to leave
the next station. "There was a lower station near the
junction, where the day operator slept. I started for it
on foot. The night was dark, and I fell into a culvert
and was knocked senseless." This truly melodramatic
situation was resolved by the fact that the alert engineers
of the respective trains brought them to a halt in time to
avert an accident. All the same, and in spite of the whole
thing having occurred through no fault of his, Edison
was summoned to Toronto to appear before the general
manager. During the course of the inquiry, visitors
temporarily claimed the manager's attention ; and at this
lull in the proceedings, Edison decided to slip from the
room. At the Grand Trunk freight station he found a
conductor with whom he was acquainted and who was
about to take a freight train to Sarnia. He got a ride to
Sarnia on the freight train, and the ferry landed him upon,
Michigan soil. Then he felt somewhat relieved. He did
not return to Canada ; but neither did he relinquish teleg-
raphy.
Vft-^-a
X
IV,
A "LIGHTNING-SLINGER" IN
THE MID-WEST
AFTER a short stay in Port Huron, Edison entered the
employ of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern railway
as night operator in the division superintendent's office
at Adrian, a small city in the south-eastern corner of
Michigan* Thus a new chapter of his life began. For
about five years he was a roving "knight of the key.* 9
On May 24th, 1844 less than twenty years before
the electro-magnetic telegraph system invented by Samuel
"F. B. Morse had first been commercially tried on a large
scale. The extension of the new art of telegraphy opened
to aspiring young fellows a constantly widening field.
The operator's craft was viewed as affording an appren-
ticeship that, attractive in itself, might well lead to larger
things. Such men as Andrew Carnegie, George Kennan,
and Sir William Van Horne were operators in those early
days, as were many others afterward prominent. A
goodly number of telegraphers later became officials of
American railway systems.
When the Civil War broke out, hundreds of operators
were summoned to the military telegraph services of the
respective forces. In the Federal armies alone, it is said*
about 1,500 men were on an average detailed for duty as
military telegraphers at the front. These men were usu-
ally of a very skilful, resourceful, and dependable sort.
At the beginning of the fifty-first chapter of his "Personal
25
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
Memoirs," 1 General Grant explains how the field tele-
graph was set up and communication effected between all
the headquarters. Paying tribute to the telegraph corps*
he says: "Nothing could be more complete than the or-
ganization and discipline of this body of brave and intel-
ligent men. 9?
Other operators enlisted in the ranks on one side or the
other. Hence, as a natural result of war conditions, the
supply of operators for the purposes of civil life, prac-
tically everywhere throughout the North, was unequal to
the demand. At the time when Edison took the position
in Adrian, telegraph offices in important centers were
likely to be understaffed, and in such places an itinerant
operator might pretty safely count on getting a desk. It
Is probable that at the close of the war the majority of
the surviving operators of the military telegraph corps
returned to the peaceful practice of their calling. New
factors, however, for a time promoted a continued de-
mand. Prominent among these were fhe development of
manufacturing, and of industrial enterprises generally,
in the East ; and the new construction of railways in the
West. Both commercial and railway telegraphy thus re-
ceived fresh impetus. This state of affairs existed to a
considerable degree until about 1876, when the newly in-
vented telephone began to hint its possibilities.
The growth of telephone service was far more rapid in
the United States than in any other country of the world.
This growth (which, as will later be seen, owed much to
Edison's aid) acted as a backset to telegraphy, which al-
ready had felt the effects of the decline in commerce and
in railway-building, following the financial crisis of 1873*
JThe telegraphic field now offered fewer inducements to
ambitious or adventurous spirits. Conditions within it
tVol II, pp. 204-208,
A "LIGHTNING-SLINGER"
tended to become more and more stabilized* and operators
were increasingly available for existing vacancies. In the
meantime Edison completed his years of roving and en-
tered upon yet another stage of his career.
During those years he went from Adrian to Fort
Wayne, Indiana, and to Indianapolis; thence successively
to Cincinnati, Memphis, and Louisville; northward to
Detroit, back to Louisville, southward to New Orleans;
again to Louisville and to Cincinnati, where he did not
remain long ; and after a vacation interim at Port Huron,
away to Boston. 2 Therefore, before he came east to what
was to be his final job as an operator, he had travelled
widely over the Central States and had held positions in
five of them. When he went to Indianapolis, he entered
the service of the Western Union Telegraph company,
and after that he was not again in railway employ.
To be sure, by 1864, when Edison began at Adrian, the
telegraph was a firmly-established utility. For the year
ending June 30th, 1868, the Western Union company
alone reported 8,219 offices; 50,188 miles of line; and 97-
594 miles of wire. Telegraphic apparatus mnd equip-
ment had passed beyond the extreme crudity of their earli-
est years. Yet, on Edison's own authority, many of the
wires in use were old and sadly defective. Insulation of
lines was still so imperfect that severe thunderstorms
often caused much trouble in the transmission of mes-
sages. During Edison's first stay in Louisville, the ca-
ble across the Ohio River, establishing connection with the
line to Cincinnati, had a fluctuating leak. This was bad
enough, because of the extreme variations it would pro-
duce in the strength of the current; but when it was com-
bined with high- jinks in the land wires, the general effect
2 This follows the itinerary given by Dyer and Martin. Tfce precise
Is somewhat difficult
27
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
was decidedly confusing*. When Edison was for the sec-
ond time in Louisville, the wires worked so badly that, as
he afterward estimated, he had frequently to supply from
conjecture or by absolute invention as much as one-fifth of
the matter of the "press report 55 that is, the news items
received for the Associated Press.
"I never was caught but once/ 3 he related. 3 "Please
notice that I said 'caught. 5 I made plenty of minor mis-
takes. But once I was caught. I had been working on
the wire three months, I guess, and getting along very
well. Then, as now, I had a good memory, and, in order
to keep in touch with the news matter I was handling, I
used to take an armful of exchanges home with me each
night, pile them on my bed and read them, sometimes un-
til two o'clock in the morning. In this way I kept pretty
good track of what was going on in the country.
"Down in Virginia the Legislature was trying to elect
a United States senator. John M. Botts 4 was the leading
candidate. But he never received quite enough votes to
elect him- Day after day, the sessions dragged along.
One day news came that the opposition to Botts was go-
ing to pieces and that he would undoubtedly be elected the
next day. The next day, just as a despatch from Rich-
mond began to come, the wire 'broke. 5 The wire broke
just as I had received the name 'John M. Botts.' I took
a chance and wrote out a despatch to the effect that Botts
had been elected. The Louisville papers printed it. The
following day, they printed a correction. Botts hadn't
been elected. The Legislature, as usual, had only ad-
journed for the day."
s A. L. Benson, "Wonderful New World Ahead of Us," in the
"Cosmopolitan Magazine," February, 1911.
* John Minor Botts (1802-1869), representative in 1839-1843 and
1847-184$; author of "The Great Rebellion, Its Secret History" (1866),
28
A "LIGHTNING-SLINGER"
Even now, telegraph offices may be described as for the
most part scarcely luxurious in their appointments. In
those days they were positively bleak. The office in which
Edison worked during his first Louisville stay may be
taken as fairly typical of common conditions, not only in
the Middle West but throughout the country. The of-
fice, though on the main business street, was in the sec-
ond story of a dilapidated building. The operators 5 room
was dingy and likewise dirty. It boasted a little stove
with a very long and very sinuous pipe. From fully a
third of the ceiling, the plaster had dropped. The in-
struments were on a dozen diminutive tables set against
the walls. To the small switchboard ran slim copper
wires, ancient and unsound. As for the switchboard it-
self, its brasswork, never cleaned, displayed the accumu-
lated effects of oxidization and of the metallic arcs that
were formed when lightning hit the wires. In the yet
more desolate battery-room, amid heaps of bundled mes-
sages and discarded record-books, was a stand supporting
an old-fashioned battery of one hundred cells of the Grove
type cells, that is to say, in which the negative plate was
immersed in concentrated nitric acid. The acid had
gnawed at stand and floor, and gave out fumes by no
means agreeable.
Of such a sort were the working quarters usually pro-
vided for the operators, whose domicile would quite regt&p
larly be a boarding-house with cheap rates and cheerless
accommodations an establishment of the variety once de^
scribed by Edison when he referred to his hall bedroom
as "a paradise for the entomologist** and the cuisine as
"run on the Banting system of flesh reduction/* In any
larger office, some of the operators were likely to be
happy-go-lucky ; irresponsible to the point of recklessness,
though sometimes possessed of a certain vagabondish phi-
29
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
losophy; and prone to take advantage of the fact that
since, by reason of conditions, their services were at a
premium, their vagaries would be generally tolerated.
Though their wages were for those days relatively high.,
these operators were characteristically out of funds. Of
this ilk was a chap who was working in the Cincinnati of-
fice when Edison was first there, and who suddenly left
for Colorado. Several months after his departure, at
about two o'clock one morning, while the night shift (in-
cluding Edison) was busily working, a tin box descended
with a resounding bang into the midst of the operators 9
room. It was followed by the visitor to Colorado, who
remarked: "Gentlemen, I have just returned from a
pleasure-trip to the land beyond the Mississippi. All
my wealth is contained in my metallic travelling-case, and
jou are welcome to it. 9 * The "travelling-case 59 held a soli-
tary paper collar.
One of the constitutional rovers among telegraphers was
4 <MIlt" (Milton F.) Adams, whom Edison first met at
Cincinnati in 1865, and who, after forty years, was still
one of the unwearied and picturesque "Ishmadites of
earth.' 5 He and Edison became friends, and for Edison
he was long the subject of amusing anecdotes^ Then
there was Hank Bogardus, commonly styled "Bogie." In
914, in conversation with Walter P. Phillips, another
old-time telegrapher, Edison mused: "Good fellow,
Hank- Fine operator, too. ... He came out here [i e. 9
West Orange] about two years ago and wanted five dol-
lars, with which I supplied him. No one could turn the
old boy down. . . . He went away and returned in three
or four day. He looked like a tramp and his breath was
like a whiff from a charnel house. This time he wanted
ten dollars. No, I said, you get only five; that breath,
Bogie, is gang to cost you $5 9 and besides that you must
ao
A "LIGHTNING-SLINGER"
go away from Orange. He wanted $IO S but I was inex-
orable and I said to him sternly, Henry Bogardns ? 1 will
not be party to the encouragement of intemperance. So
he reluctantly accepted the five and was on his way." 5
B0gardus ? gifted though he was 3 ended his days in a
freight car by death from exposure. Such tramp opera-
tors, like their congeners, the tramp compositors of the
printing trade ? are figures of the vanished past.
Representative of the best class of telegraphers was
George Kennan, who was born in 1845 in Norwalk 9 Ohio,
only four miles from Milan, which he often visited ; learned
telegraphy ; and took charge of the railway telegraph of-
fice in Norwalk. Kennan entered the Cincinnati office in
August, 1863, He rose to be its assistant manager, and
in December, 1864, left it in order to go to Siberia, where
he superintended line construction for the Russo- American
Telegraph company. He afterward explored the eastern
Caucasus and for several years was night manager in
Washington, D. C. ? for the Associated Press. In 1885-
1886, under commission from the "Century Magazine," he
was in northern Russia and Siberia, travelling 15,000
miles while investigating the Siberian exile system of the
Czarist government. The results of his studies appeared
in his famous work "Siberia and the Exile System," pub-
lished serially in the "Century" and afterward in book
form (2 vols., 1892). This has been called "the most
comprehensive and fearless exposition ever made." In
subsequent years Kennan's duties as staff-correspondent
of "The Outlook" took him to Cuba during the Spanish-
American War and to Manchuria during the Russo-
s See Phillips' article, "Edison, Bogardus and Carbolic Acid," in the
"Electrical Review and Western Electrician," November 14, 1914,
Phillips (1846-1920) was the inventor of Phillips* Morse automatic
telegraph, and for several years was connected with the Columbia
Graphophone company at Bridgeport, Connecticut.
31
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
Japanese War. Others of his books are "Campaigning
in Cuba" (1899) ; that fascinating collection of stories
and sketches "A Russian Comedy of Errors 55 (1915) ;
and a two-volume biography of E. EL Harriman (1922).
He died suddenly at Medina, New York, on May lOth^
1924. Some two years before Kennan's death, a promi-
nent editor and publicist wrote thus to the author: a l
regard Mr. Kennan as one of the finest types of American
citizen that this country has produced. His clarity and
absolute integrity of thought is really beautiful . . .
And he has had a much greater influence on American
political life than general publicity gives him credit for.
One of the best pieces of journalism in my time was his
investigation and exposure of the corrupting influence of
Addicks 6 in Delaware. These articles appeared in c The
Outlook' and literally drove Addicks from public life. I
never knew anyone more painstaking in getting the facts
or more courageous and unswerving in following the logi-
cal deductions from those facts. 55 7
In one of his delightful letters to the author, Kennan
once said: "Although we [Edison and himself] were
nearly of the same age, lived as boys only four miles apart,
and were both telegraph operators, we never happened to
meet until we had passed the Biblical span of life. * * ,
Then I made his acquaintance, by telegraph, at a dinner
of the Ohio Society, where he was an honored guest and
J. Edward Addicks, promoter and capitalist, commonly known in
Ms day as "Gas" Addicks because he controlled the gas supply of
Wilmington, sought by hook, crook, and main strength to accomplish
his election as a Republican United States senator from Delaware.
For several years (ending in 1906) he was a disturbing an<I baneful
factor in both state and national politics.
7 See the editorial tribute in "The Outlook" of May 21, 1924, pp. 00-92;
also the article by W. W. Ellsworth in the same publication, October
1, 1919, condensed from the same author's "A Golden Age of Authors**
(Boston, 1919).
32
A "LIGHTNING-SLINGER"
sat on the stage. Half a dozen old telegraphers, who hail
a table of their own near the center of the hall, had rigged
up a telegraph line to the stage where Edison had a key
and sounder. In an interval between the speeches, one
of them came over to my table and asked me if I didn't
want to speak to Edison. I replied, 'Certainly ! I have
never met him, but we were born only four miles apart
more than seventy years ago, and it is time that I made his
acquaintance. 5 So I went over to their table, called Edi-
son by telegraph, and introduced myself. I had hardly
touched a key before in fifty years, and Edison, I pre-
sume, was equally out of practice ; but I talked with him
more easily by wire than I afterward did by voice, be-
cause his deafness did not seem to extend to the ticking of
a sounder." 8
It is the privilege of the present writer to quote at
length from autobiographical material prepared by
George Kennan to be deposited among the records of the
Forelands Historical Society of Norwalk, Ohio. These
recollections of the Cincinnati office as it was in 1863
(1864 are of peculiar value, having been written out by
one markedly qualified both as an observer and as an
author. They picture in a lively manner something of
the picturesque side of a bygone phase in the history of
American telegraphy ; and so far as concerns this volume,
they furnish a background that helps us more fully to un-
s On October 19, 1915, while In San Francisco, California, to attend
the Panama-Pacific International Exposition Edison was guest of
honor at a telegraphers' banquet which he said was the first banquet
he had ever attended at which he could not only talk but also hear all
that was said by the speakers on the programme. The speechmaking
was through telegraph sounders. Wires were stretched from one table
to another and each table had a sounder connected to the general cir-
cuit. At Edison's place was a special resonator. In addition t0
listening^ he ticked out a brief Morse message to his fellow-diners*
("Electrical World/' October 30, 1915.)
aa
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
derstand Edison's days as a telegrapher. For KennaB
did not leave Cincinnati until December, 1864, and Edi-
son arrived there in February, 1865, when the general
features of office life must have been largely similar.
Says Kennan: "The Western Union Telegraph office
at Cincinnati, when I went into it as an operator In
August,, 1863, was the most important distributing sta-
tion In the Middle West. There were no quadruples in-
struments in those days; long-distance circuits were not
common; and all press-news, war-despatches, and com-
mercial telegrams going westward from Washington, New
York, Pennsylvania and New England, or eastward from
Kentucky, Indiana, southern Illinois and Missouri, were
written out in the Cincinnati office and re-sent to their des-
tinations. We had, it is true, a couple of 'Hicks 5 repeat-
ers/ by means of which we sometimes put Buffalo or Pitts-
burg in direct communication with Louisville and St.
Louis ; but, as a rule, all business was received In Cincin-
nati by one set of operators and forwarded from there by
another.
"The whole expert force of the office was divided into
two shifts, or watches, which worked days and nights in
alternation. On Monday, for example, shift No 1 was
on duty from 8 A. M. until 6, and shift No 2 from 6 P. M.
until all the hooks had been cleared. On Tuesday, shift
No 2 took the day trick, while shift No 1 worked until 2
o'clock in the morning. This alternation of hours was
extremely trying, of course, to the health, for the reason
that It broke up all regularity of life. One day we spent
most of the forenoon in bed and worked three-fourths of
the night ; the next day we had to get up at 6.30 and were
"off" before dark. Half the time our latest meal was a
six-o'clock dinner, while in the other half we had a mid-
night lunch of doughnuts and greasy pie, which a night-
A "LIGHTNING-SLINGEB"
lunch peddler brought to the office, and which we ate as
we worked. The business that we had to do was out of all
proportion to the strength of the force 3 and after every
battle in Virginia or the Southwest., the 'specials,' Associ-
ated Press despatches 5 and war-telegrams In cipher, were
so numerous and so long that we had to work at them all
night The order of business was ? private messages until
9 p. M.J ^specials* and news until the papers went to press
about 2 ? and then private messages again until morning.
Many a night I went on duty at 6 P. M., and never left my
chair until I was relieved by a man coming from breakfast
at eight o'clock the next morning. Once, I had only ten
hours sleep out of seventy-two.
"The result or one result of this press and rush of
work was the formation of a body of telegraphers who, in
point of skill, swiftness and endurance,, have never been
surpassed In any part of the world to which the great
invention of Morse has spread. 'Dick 9 Duncan in Pitts-
burg; the Bunnells In Buffalo; Everett and L. C. Weir in
Cincinnati,, and many others who might be named, in the
larger city offices of the East and West s were probably the
most expert operators that the art of telegraphy has ever
produced. It was a tradition In the Cincinnati office,
when I reached there, that L. C. Weir, who afterward be-
came the general superintendent of Adams Express Com-
pany, once received two streams of press report, from
two separate instruments, copied one with each hand on
manifold sheets, and at the same time carried on a gen-
"Mr. Weir was successively general superintendent, In charge of
the territory west of Pittsburgh; later elected a member of the board
f managers; then a trustee; then to the presidency, and on Ms re-
tirement from that office was elected chairman of the board of man-
agers and board of trustees. His services covered practically a half-
century."- H. H. Gates, secretary of the Adams Express company, in
a personal letter to the author*
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
eral conversation with the men who were watching him*
This tradition, of course, must be taten with due allow-
ance for fanciful invention and artistic embroidery; but
Mr. Weir was really an operator of extraordinary skill,
and was particularly distinguished for Ms ability to *copy
behind. 9 On one occasion, when General Stager 10 made
a visit to Cincinnati, and happened one morning to be in
the office Mr. Weir, with a boyish pride In his expertness
as a receiver, thought he would 'show off 5 a little for the
benefit of the superintendent. He was working, at that
time, the eastern wire, and when Pittsburg called up,
about nine o'clock, and said he had fifteen or twenty
^through* telegrams, Weir said indifferently, *AH right, go
ahead!' Pittsburg began to send at the rate of about
thirty words a minute. Weir made a show of searching
all his pockets for a pencil, but failed, apparently, to find
one. General Stager, who was himself a good operator,
looked on with Interest and expected, of course, that Weir
would stop Pittsburg and say, *Hold on a minute while
I get a pencil 5 ; but this was not part of Weir's plan. Ris-
ing lazily from his seat, he walked slowly across the big
operating room, where twelve or fifteen other instruments
were noisily banging away, went to the desk of Stevens,
the chief operator, and asked for a pencil. Stevens got
out his keys, unlocked his desk and gave him one. Weir
went back to his table, looked at the pencil for a moment
in a speculative way, and then began to feel In his pockets
for a knife with which to sharpen It. Not finding one
or pretending not to find one , he again crossed the room
loAnson Stager was general superintendent of the Western Union
Telegraph company, and military superintendent of telegraph-lines
throughout the United States during the Civil War. He was com-
missioned brevet brigadier-general for his services. Stager, whose
home was in Cleveland, originated the Federal telegraphic cipher--code,
later developed by himself and others.
36
A "LIGHTNING-SLINGEB"
and borrowed a knife from one of the local-circuit men*
Returning to his table, he sharpened the pencil deliber-
ately 9 put a fine point on the lead, and then, taking a pad
of soft paper in his lap, he put his feet up on the table
and began to copy; making elaborate flourishes and
curlicues, as if he had worlds of time to spare. Pitts-
burg, meanwhile, had been sending steadily at the rate of
thirty words a minute, and was more than three messages
ahead. Weir finally stopped flourishing; settled down
to business ; wrote telegram after telegram with ever in-
creasing swiftness, and soon began to catch up. In five
minutes he was only two messages behind ; in ten minutes
he was within one telegram of the sender ; and in a quar-
ter of an hour, he had recovered all the ground that he had
intentionally lost, and was putting the words down on
paper as fast as they came from the instrument. General
Stager watched the performance in silence, and when Weir
had finally caught up, he said dryly, 'That's all very fine,
Mr. Weir ; it's the most wonderful thing I have ever seen
in the way of telegraphing; but I wouldn't do it again.* ll
"The ability to 'copy behind,' that is, to remember a
constantly changing body of words, while receiving at a
high rate of speed, seems to be a natural gift like the
ability to play a dozen games of chess blindfolded. The
almost incessant practice that I had in Cincinnati even-
tually made me a very expert receiver, or sound-reader;
but if, in copying, I happened to fall behind the sender,
even to the extent of a dozen words, I was lost. I could
11 Weir did that sort of thing more than once; in fact he liked to
"show off" in that way. I am sure that my details are right, because
I saw the whole performance and I remember well General Stager's
comment on it. The latter cautioned Weir against the practice be-
cause he was afraid that Weir would omit something and so lay the
W, U. open to a suit for damages* George Kennan, in a personal
letter to the author.
37,
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
not write down one word while my brain was taking in an-
other, and, at the same time, remember the constantly
changing volume of ten words that Intervened. One
night, about two o'clock, *Bick 5 Duncan, who was send-
ing to me from Pittsburg, said, Tve got about a hundred
"through 59 telegrams left. If you won't break, III send
them to you In an hour. 5
" *AU right/ I replied, glancing at the clock, *fire
away ! Pll do my best. 9
cc He began sending at the rate of about thirty-five words
a minute, and gradually increased his speed, until, with
the help of a few simple abbreviations, such as *hw 5 for
*how, 3 4 hv ? for 'have, 5 c ts 5 for 'this/ &c., he was spelling out
in dots and dashes more than forty words every sixty
seconds. His manipulation of the key was almost perfect
in time and spacing, but I had to strain every faculty of
mind and body to keep up with him. Three or four times
I fell a little behind, as the result of falling, at the first
attempt, to tear a sheet off the clip. The ground that I
thus lost I could not possibly recover, and I had to lay
three or four telegrams aside to be filled in later. I knew
what words should go in, but I could not get time to write
them in, without breaking. There proved to be ninety
telegrams in the lot, and I received them in fifty minutes,
without a break. This, for some time, stood as the high-
j^^d.xecocd of -the office .'.*->-..,..,. ^
u ln the early part of 1864, when gold had risen to a
high premium, and when its value, as measured in green-
backs, fluctuated widely from day to day, in sympathetic
correlation with the favorable or unfavorable nature of
the war news, we began to receive complaints from bank-
ers and brokers on Third Street to the effect that the con-
tents of private telegrams, sent to them by their corre-
spondents in New York, leaked out of the Cincinnati
as
A "LIGHTNING-SLINGER"
office* in some way, and became known to a certain stock-
jobber and speculator on the street before the telegrams
themselves had been delivered. This speculator never re-
ceived any gold quotations of his own from New York,
and yet his information seemed to be better and later than
that of anybody else. As I had, by this time, taken a
leading position in the office, Stevens* our chief 9 asked me
if I had any reason to suspect the trustworthiness of any
of our day men. I replied that I had not, and that it was
practically impossible for our operators to communiea"te
with the street during business hours, because k ,tbey wre
npt allied, ,to leave the operating room. ; lie suggested
that a man might send out notefe^ "after seeing the stock
and gold telegrams from New York, and might get such
notes to the speculator while press copies of the telegrams
themselves were being made in the delivery department
down stairs. I said that I felt sure this could not be done,
regularly and systematically, without attracting my at-
tention; and that, furthermore, the only person who saw
the gold and stock telegrams from New York was the man
who worked the Pittsburg wire; and he could not stop
receiving, every few minutes, to write a note, without elic-
iting a protest or a complaint from Pittsburg. I said,
however, that I would keep my eyes open, and watch the
gold and stock telegrams until they went down stairs in
the 'dummy.* f -^ . . , ">, , %
* "Three or four days later,, g[ discoyered-^Hpir Ahought I
had discovered the leak. Ttte Western Union Com-
pany, at that time, maintained a branch office at the Bur-
net House, for the convenience of the latter's guests.
This local office was connected with the main office by
means of a loop, which ran to our switch-board and could
be thrown into toy one of twenty different circuits.
When the Brirttet House operator had a telegram for
39
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
Cleveland, or Louisville, or Indianapolis, he asked us to
put his loop on the Cleveland, or Louisville or Indianapo-
lis wire. I happened to notice, one forenoon, that he
called for the Pittsburg wire about the time that the
gold and stock telegrams began coming from New York,
and the conviction suddenly flashed upon me that he was
the thief, and that the leak was in the Btirnet House.
Stock-brokers, in those days, did not have special wires,
and all their telegrams went through the delivery depart-
ment of the general office, where there was more or less
delay. By listening at the Pittsburg wire, and sending
a swift messenger to the dishonest speculator, whose office
was only a short distance away, the Burnet House opera-
tor could beat the very telegrams from which he had stolen
his quotations, and give his confederate ten or fifteen
minutes in which to buy or sell, before the state of the
New York market became known on the street.
"When I gave Stevens my reasons for suspecting that
the Burnet House operator was the man for whom we were
looking, he said cheerfully, 'All right! We'll set a trap
for him- If he's innocent, it won't hurt him ; but if he's
guilty, it'll break his back.*
^JJJThat afternoon, he prepared fifteen or twenty ficti-
tious telegrams from well known New York firms to their
correspondents in Cincinnati, purporting to give the lat-
ter notice of bad news from the theater of war in Virginia,
a panicky feeling in Wall Street, and a great jump in. the
price of gold. At the same time, he notified the com-
plaining brokers on Third Street that he thought he had
found the leak ; that he was going to let false information
out through it on the following morning ; and that if the
speculator who always had the earliest news should mani-
fest a desire to buy gold, it, would be well, perhaps, to
facilitate Ms operations and load him up,*
40
A "LIGHTNING-SLINGEB"
4i When the Burnet House operator asked to be put
on the Pittsbnrg' wire, the next forenoon, as we had an-
ticipated that he would, I switched his loop into a little-
used local circuit known as the 6 Camp Dennison wire, r
where Stevens was already sending the fictitious telegrams
with a very skilful imitation of the Pittsburg operator's
key-writing and speed. The trap was set; and in less
than ten minutes, it closed with a snap, 'breaking the
back 5 of an untrustworthy telegraph operator and vir-
tually ruining a dishonest stock-broker. The former was
discharged with a blasted reputation; while the latter,
who had 'plunged* on the false news, went to the wall, and
shortly afterward left the street.
"In the early part of 1864, I was appointed assistant
chief of the Cincinnati office, with a salary of $1600.
This promotion gave me an authority that I had not pre-
viously exercised, and added to my responsibilities ; but it
did not shorten my hours of labor, nor relieve me from
much of the drudgery of the instrument tables. I still
had to do an operator's work in sending and receiving
messages and press report ; and was expected, in addition,
to test wires, locate 'crosses' and 'grounds,' do most of the
switching at the board, and take full ch%rge of the office
in Mr. Stevens' absence. 55 ... f \
"Cincinnati, at that time toward the close of the Civil
War , was a much rougher and more lawless city," adds
Kennan, "than it ever has been since. Fi^ts, street rob-
beries, and murders, were of daily occurrence, and all of
the men in our office who had to do night duty carried
weapons, as a matter of course." Conditions in time im-
proved, but that traces remained of the post-war disor-
ganization is evidenced by the fact that so late as 1884
a mass-meeting of citizens was held in protest against the
prevailing slack enforcement of the law.
41
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
t w Adams, who was then something of a fop, has
described Edison, when he first appeared in the Cincin-
nati office, as "decidedly unprepossessing in dress and
rather uncouth in manner. 95 Edison himself has related
that when he first went to Louisville he was "not much to
look at" ; and that although the weather was bitterly cold,
he was wearing a linen duster. A portrait of him from
a photograph made in 1866 shows, however, conventional
garb and neatly-brushed hair. It also shows a face char-
acterized by a sensitive mouth, a prominent nose, a
high forehead, and eyes with an alert yet concentrated
expression. Then, as afterward, Edison was smooth-
shaven. In those years he was rather thin.
Of his skill at the key, he once remarked, "In fact, I was
a very poor sender, and therefore made the taking of press
report a specialty. 35 But "Milt 55 Adams, a well-qualified
Judge, once said of his friend, "As an operator he had no
superiors and very few equals." When Robert Under-
wood Johnson (poet; successively associate-editor and
editor of the "Century Magazine"; and ambassador to
Italy in 1920 1921) was eleven years of age that was
in. 1864 he was assistant to the station agent of Cen-
terville in Wayne county, Indiana; selling tickets, mak-
ing out way-bills, keeping accounts, and learning "the
not unromantic work at the telegraph key." 12 "I soon
became expert in sending a despatch," he writes, "and
can still do so, but in receiving I was always in the second
class. The most interesting work was at night when I
stayed to report the midnight train, meanwhile chatting
now and then with acquaintances on the line. A memora-
ble experience of this episode, which lasted hardly a year,
was to listen for what might be called the autograph of a
certain operator in the *B 5 office at Indianapolis namtd
M ^Boncmbered Yesterdays" (Boston, 1923), p. 59,
42
A "LIGHTNING-SLINGEB*'
Edison ! The telegraphic style of the great investor that
was to be was unique and was detected by its lightning-
like rapidity. It was the despair even of expert teleg-
raphers, who often had to break into his narrative to ask
him to repeat. 55
Edison was all the while quietly working to become more
expert. Even when in Indianapolis., he would seize every
chance of relieving the regular press operator. In Cin-
cinnati he was at first employed in the commercial de-
partment on a day wire to Portsmouth, Ohio ; but at night
he would still be found in the office, awaiting an opportu-
nity to act as substitute for some operator who might wish
to get away. One day a meeting was held to organize a
local branch of the telegraphers 9 trade-union. Eight op-
erators of the night shift were absent when the time came
for them to go on duty. The few operators who hap-
pened to be in the office cared for the various circuits a$
well as they could. Edison selected the busy Cleveland
press wire and received from it until he was relieved at
three in the morning. His "copy 5 * on this occasion proved
to be so satisfactory that he was at once promoted from
the ranks of the "plugs'* or inferior operators to those of
the first-rate men.
He was an excellent penman, and before his promotion
he had added to his salary by making theatrical scripts.
Later, when he was first working in Louisville, on a wire
whose performances have already been described, he found
it "very difficult to write down what was coming and
imagine what wasn't coming." Therefore, to use his own
words, "it was necessary to become a very rapid writer*
so I started to find the fastest style." He evolved a ver-
tical method by means of which he was able to copy as
many as fifteen columns of press report during his "trick."
This remarkably uniform and legible writing va$ nat-
EDISON; THE MAN AND HIS WORK
tirally pleasing to the newspaper compositors ; and It was
the primary means of bringing Edison to the East. He
wrote to Adams, who then was in Boston, asking whether
there was a job in sight. Adams was working for the
Franklin Telegraph company; but as there was no va-
cancy in that office, he went to the Western Union super-
intendent and submitted Edison's letter as a specimen of
the kind of "copy" the young Westerner could turn out,
When the superintendent inquired whether Edison could
take like that from the line, Adams declared he could,
and that "there was nobody who could stick him 9 *; and
the superintendent thereupon said he was looking for just
that sort of operator.
Like Kennan, Edison soon showed that he was neither
a mere routine worker nor an Idle waster of time. Always
a great reader, he was fond of hunting for bargains
in the second-hand book-shops. Once in a Louisville
auction-room, he got twenty volumes of the "North Amer-
ican Review," unbound, for $2.00. He had them bound
and sent to the Western Union office. Early one morn-
ing, when he had finished work, he shouldered ten volumes
and started for his lodging. Before long, he became
aware of bullets flying about his ears, and then was seized
by an irate policeman who demanded why he had kept on
when ordered to halt. Edison explained his deafness and
the contents of his package ; and the officer, who, of course,
had fancied Edison to be a thief, confessed to poor shoot-
ing.
Of his studies when an operator, Edison said, "I prac-
tised for a long time to become a rapid reader of print,
and got so expert I could sense the meaning of a whole
line at once. 55 This reminds one of what Trevelyan
calls "Macaulay's extraordinary faculty of assimilating
printed matter at first sight." "To the end," says Tre-
A "LIGHTNING-SLINGER**
velyan, "he * ea d books faster than other people skimmed
them* and skimmed them as fast as anyone else could turn
the leaves. *He seemed to read through the skin/ said one
who had often watched the operation. And this speed
was not in his case obtained at the expense of accuracy. 9 * ls
Nor was it, if we may judge, in the case of Edison s who
possessed this power in a less degree. Although the young
operator did not read much fiction, so devoted was he to
Hugo that among his office-mates he is said to have been
known as "Yi^tQr JHugo Edison. 55 He was rather fond of
the drama ; and when in Cincinnati would quite often go
with Adams to the old National Theatre to attend the
performances of John McCullough, Edwin Forrest, and
other distinguished players of the day. When he was
first in Louisville, he was sometimes present at discussions
between Tyler, local superintendent of the Associated
Press, whose office was at the back of the Western Union
operators 9 room, and George D. Prentice, a Yankee edi-
tor who had migrated to Louisville and had won a con-
siderable contemporary reputation as editor of the Louis-
ville "Journal" and as a poet. After the "Journal" had
been "put to bed," Prentice was wont to come around
for an early-morning chat with Tyler. Grood talk might
be heard, and Edison asked permission to drop in to listen
when he had finished taking press report.
He had set out to penetrate the mysteries of electricity,
which then was even more mysterious than it is now.
From the time when he learned train telegraphy from
Mackenzie, he was trying to get so-called "practical 3 *
telegraph men to explain how the telegraph worked.
The best explanation he succeeded in getting was that of
an old Scotchman, a line-repairer for the Montreal Tel-
egraph company, who said that if you had a vastly
is "The Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay" (New York, 1876), I, 01*
45
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
elongated dachshund, long enough to reach from Edin-
burgh to London, he would bark In London if you pulled
Ms tail in Edinburgh. This had a certain plausibility
about it; but Edison admitted that he never understood
what went through the dog. Much of his leisure was
spent, according to Adams, in "monkeying with the bat-
teries and circuits, and devising tilings to make the work
of telegraphy less irksome. 55 He was constantly experi-
menting. An experiment ended his second sojourn in
Louisville. One night, needing sulphuric acid, he had
recourse to the supply in the battery-room. A carboy
of the acid was overturned, and the fluid leaked into the
manager's office below, where it made havoc of the carpet
and the managerial desk. Next day, notice was given
him that the Western Union company desired not exper-
imentalists but operators, and that his services were no
longer required. He went to Cincinnati but soon quit;
and from Port Huron he wrote (as we have noted) to
Adams in Boston, asking whether work was to be had
there. Adams 5 reply urged him to start at once, and
this he did, having succeeded in obtaining a pass over
the Grand Trunk. Characteristic of the innumerable
legends that have collected about Edison, is the grave
statement of one writer that the young operator "made
his way to Boston, tramping the whole distance from his
house in Port Huron to Boston in four days and four
nights" 14 a pedestrian feat that (especially since the
time was winter and the weather uncommonly severe)
would easily have placed Edison among the great walkers
of the world!
i* James Burnley, "Millionaires and Kings of Enterprise" (London,
1901), p. 169.
f
Mw w w w w w I
/<** /"% f*t /*X r"\ /^* (
V
THE TELEGRAPHED TURNS INVENTOR
an adventurous railway journey 5 during which lie
was snowed In bj a Canadian blizzard, Edison reached
Boston. There was a five-minute interview with Su-
perintendent Miiliken, who gave him a job and asked
him when he would be ready to report for work. "Now/*
sdid Edison ; and Mflliken told him to be on hand at 5 :30
that afternoon.
Milliken was wise enough to discern the sort of operator
lie was getting; but the night shift of the Boston office
saw only an uncouth-looking young fellow, clad lightly for
such freezing weather. They thereupon put their heads
together to rag the new arrival from the "woolly West/ 5
A seat at a special table was finally given to him. He
was to take press from New York for the "Boston
Herald 5 ' ; but he did not know that his fellow-operators
had arranged to have the message sent by one of the
speediest men at the New York end. Having begun
slowly 5 the sender increased his pace until he had soon
reached the limit of his ability but Edison continued
to receive with ease. Then the New York man tried
slurring the words and running them together ; but Edi-
son's experience in Cincinnati and Louisville had made
him fully equal to this kind of thing. At last, when
the message was about completed, Edison opened the
key and advised New York, "Young man, change off
and send with your otheor foot" It is not recorded
47
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
that Edison's associates attempted anything further.
In Boston the Western Union office was on the ground
floor; but it was in many ways scarcely an improvement
over the quarters to which Edison had been used in the
West. The premises had previously been occupied by
a restaurant, and swarms of cockroaches had their lair
between the skirting-board and the walL At midnight
an old Irish vendor, known as the "cake man," would
come around with eatables, and the operators would buy
a bit of luncheon. Then the cockroaches sallied forth.
They became such a nuisance to Edison that on the wall
beside his table he fastened two strips of tin-foil. He
connected one strip with the positive pole of the battery
that furnished current to the telegraph wires, and the
other strip with the negative pole. A cockroach would
climb up the wall ; and when he came in contact with both
strips at the same time, there was a flash and the cock-
roach, as Edison said, "went into gas." A reporter for
an evening newspaper wrote a half-column story about
this ingenious device, but the night-manager did not fancy
such publicity and the electrocutions were discontinued
by request. "Milt" Adams told how Edison had once
rigged a similar contrivance in the cellar of the building
in which the Western Union had its Cincinnati office.
The place was infested with rats, and Edison so prepared
two insulated plates connected with the main battery that
a passing rat would readily complete the circuit. He
called this arrangement his "rat paralyzer."
One day the principal of a select Boston school for
young ladies asked that a demonstrator be sent from the
Western Union office to explain the Morse system of te-
legraphy to the "children." Already known as the most
intelligent of the operators, Edison was selected for this
purpose; and being always glad of additional funds for
48
TELEGRAPHER TURNS INVENTOR
his perpetual experiments, he agreed to "do the stunt/ 9
Adams went along. He and Edison ran a telegraph line
across the schoolroom. Edison took up his station on the
platform, while Adams waited at the opposite side of the
room. When the door was opened, in filed the "children 95
about twenty young ladies, none younger than seven-
teen and all in elaborate toilettes. As to exactly what
happened thereafter, Edison and Adams were not agreed.
Each related that the other was so embarrassed he couldn 9 t
utter a word. Each claimed to have saved the day.
Edison, according to his version, when he viewed Adams 5
dumb embarrassment, started in and "talked and ex-
plained better than I ever did before or since. 55
Edison lived in a hall bedroom, which he shared with
Adams when Adams was laid off and financially reduced
to "absolute zero centigrade. 55 ("I generally had hall
bedrooms, 55 was Edison 5 s later comment, "because they
were cheap. 55 . . .) His meals he took at a boarding-
house about a mile distant. He was constantly studying
and experimenting. This, with his work as an operator,
kept him busy from eighteen to twenty hours a day.
Once he bought a complete set of the works of Faraday.
He triumphantly appeared with the volumes at his
lodgings at four o 5 clock in the morning, and read until
breakfast-time. Then he said to Adams, "I have got so
much to do and life is so short, I am going to hustle. 55
With that, he started for the boarding-house on a run.
In those books of Faraday 5 s Edison found a great
stimulus. He liked them because of their clear explana-
tions, free from complicated mathematical formulae, and
he tried almost all of the experiments. He browsed in
the second-hand book-shops along Cornhill; and would
spend his last cent far books, apparatus, and supplies,
though he cared little about clothes. A new suit in which
49
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
on one occasion he invested thirty dollars 9 was promptly
ruined with acid. "That/ 5 observed Edison, "is what I
get for putting so much money in a new suit. 55
He tried not only the Faraday experiments, but many
.others that he ran across. In a scientific journal he
found directions for making nitro-glycerin 5 and he was
attracted by the possibilities of the preparation. He and
an acquaintance manufactured some, but tests that they
conducted with a small quantity were so disconcerting
that early one morning Edison put the remainder in an
empty pop bottle and lowered it into the sewer. Not
always, however, did he escape accident. He had a bor-
rowed induction-coil that he kept for experimenting in
the shop of a man named Hamblet, who was then working
on electrical clocks and who afterward, it is said, devel-
oped the Western Union system of distributing standard
time* One day the young experimenter inadvertently
took hold of both electrodes of the coil, and then he dis-
covered that he couldn 5 t let go. The Grove battery was
on a shelf; and so far as he could see, the only way to
get free was to back away with the coil, so that the wires
to the battery would dislodge the battery-cells. This
would, of course, break the circuit; but the nitric acid,
in which the negative plates of the cells were immersed,
might splash. Edison closed his eyes and backed away.
The acid was spattered over his face and ran down his
back. He rushed to a near-by sink and dashed water
over himself as well as he could; but his face was tem-
porarily so disfigured that for two weeks he did not go
out by daylight.
Walter P. Phillips, a fellow-operator in the Boston
office, in after years wrote of Edison as spending his
salary on helices and coils; eloquent in explaining Ms
diagrams of quadruples telegraphy; but no longer
SO
TELEGRAPHER TURNS INVENTOR
strongly attached to his once favorite work of receiving
press report. According- to Phillips, he wrote out 1 5 500
or SjGOO words of "press 59 in a hand so fine and a space so
limited that the matter had to be copied for use by the
newspaper compositors. Rebuked for this, he next made
"copy** by writing but one word on a sheet, and that in the
very center. After that, lie was relieved of the press
wire, 1
On Court street one Charles Williams, a maker of
electrical apparatus, had a workshop. There Edison was
welcomed ; and there, with the aid of one of Williams* work-
men, he built a working model of Ms first patented inven-
tion. This was a vote-recorder, for which patent 90,846
was issued on June 1st, 1889. A telegraph operator
named Roberts furnished capital to the extent of $100,
and Edison s s attorney was Carroll D. Wright, later
director of the eleventh census and for twenty years
United States commissioner of labor. The machine was
designed to facilitate the taking of votes in legislative
bodies. When a member closed a switch at Ms desk, the
machine would record and count the vote. Edison
thought it ought to be adopted by the Federal House of
Representatives, and so he made the trip to Washington
to demonstrate it before a committee. It worked to per-
fection, but the chairman of the committee informed the
inventor that no invention could be less desirable for the
House of Representatives than a vote-recorder. He
made it plain that one of the means by which a minority
might block ill-considered legislation was "filibustering"
a method of gaining delay and tiring the majority by
long speeches, technical objections, and futile motions.
And with filibustering, a vote-recorder would obviously
interfere. Edison resolved to devote his abilities thence-
i "Sketches Old and New" (New York, 1897).
51
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
forth to Inventions for which there was likely to be a
demand.
In accordance with this resolve, he invented a stock-
ticker and introduced a ticker-service for which he had
about forty subscribers. The appearance in 1867 of the
first ticker the invention of E. A. Callahan had set
many an operator to experimenting in the same direction*
Edison journeyed to New York in an unsuccessful attempt
to dispose of his ticker. He also devised an instrument
with an alphabet-dial, for direct telegraphy between busi-
ness houses. Under his direction, private lines were
strung along the roofs. The instruments were so simple
that the average person could in a few minutes learn to
operate one. He had them made in Hamblet's shop.
Gradually he was finding his true vocation.
After a time, "Milt" Adams went westward on his cycle
of roving. Edison, for his part, decided to have done
with telegraph operating and to devote himself to inven-
tion. Considerably in debt, but bound to improve his
fortunes and to seek broader fields, he left the employ of
the Western Union and quit the Hub.
VI
UNDEB WAY
Edison started for New York, he had only money
enough to pay for the boat trip. His instruments and
books were perforce left in Boston. He not only was
insolvents but even lacked the cash to buy his breakfast
when he went ashore. As he walked along one of the
down-town streets, he passed a warehouse where he saw
a tea-taster inspecting teas. He asked the taster for some
of the tea, which the man kindly gave Mm. Such was
his first meal,
He had an operator acquaintance in New York ; but it
chanced that this operator, when at last found after a
considerable search, was likewise out of a job and had but
a dollar to spare. To the tired, hungry Edison, however,
a dollar was a hundred cents better than nothing. He
proceeded to order apple-dumplings and coffee in Smith
and McNeil's restaurant, just across the way from
Washington Market and long known, even beyond the
limits of New York, for its good food. He once said
that in all his life he never ate anything that looked more
inviting. That same day he applied for work with the
Western Union ; but there was no vacancy, and he was put
on the waiting-list. Somehow he got permission to pass
the night in the battery-room of the Gold Indicator com-
pany, and thus the problem of lodging was temporarily
solved.
The Gold Indicator company, and the "gold-reporting
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WOEK
telegraph. 55 that it controlled, owed their existence to
certain special conditions of the time. Towards the close
of 1861, the banks had suspended specie payments, and
the Federal government had begun to issue large amounts
of paper-money. Throughout the United States, with
the single exception of California, gold ceased to be a
medium of exchange. The national banks redeemed their
notes in government paper. As the government fell more
deeply in debt, its promises to pay came to be considered
much less valuable than gold, and gold consequently went
to a premium. In 1863 the price of gold in paper-money
reached 170; in 13643 it touched the quotation of 285 5
though according to some authorities the actual price
probably never went much above 250. This disparity in
value between gold and government notes continued until
the Federal treasury resumed specie payments on Jan-
uary 1st, 1879.
Under these circumstances, gold naturally became the
chief object of speculation. In Wall street a Gold Ex-
change was introduced, under the direction of its own
board and exclusively devoted to transactions in the
standard metal. The "gold room" was the converging-
point of the activities of "the street." At first the quota-
tions were chalked up on a blackboard, as they are to-day
in brokers' rooms. A small army of crowding, noisy
messenger-boys carried the changing information to pri-
vate offices. After a time, the vice-president of the ex-
change. Dr. S. S. Laws, invented an electrical indicator
to exhibit the quotations, and this was operated with keys
by the registrar of the board. It did not do away with
the scuffling, noise, error, and loss of time involved in the
system of messenger-boy distribution*
Finally Laws hit on the scheme of a central trans-
fcnitting instrument, with indicators controlled therefrom
UNDER WAY
In the offices of subscribing brokers. This gold-reporting
telegraph Laws patented. Having resigned from the
exchange, he formed the Gold Indicator company, to
which distribution privileges were granted. In a com-
paratively short time he had three hundred subscribers
to his service. The transmitting instrument, a compli-
cated and by no means quiet affair, was located in the
company's office and controlled by a keyboard on the floor
of the gold room. The indicators were box-like con-
structions, with a horizontal row of dials travelling past
a slot through which (as in fare-registers on street-cars
at the present day) the figures were shown.
On the third day after his arrival in New York, Edison
was sitting in the company's office. He had not yet found
employment; and apparently the battery-room was still
his shelter by night. During the daytime he had been
studying Doctor Laws 5 telegraph system. All of a sud-
den, on this third day, the transmitter came to a stand-
still. There were two or three minutes of surprised
silence then up the stairway rushed some three hundred
boys, all shouting at once that the indicators were out
of order. The superintendent lost his head, and had not
the slightest idea as to what was the matter. At this
juncture Edison stepped to the instrument, which, as it
proved, he had been examining to good purpose so good,
in fact, that he now surmised where the difficulty might
be, and quickly detected it. A contact-spring had
broken and dropped between the two gear-wheels. Then
in came Doctor Laws, in no very calm frame of mind.
The superintendent was dumb; but on Edison's saying
that he believed he knew what the trouble was, Laws burst
out, "Fix it ! Fix it ! Be quick I" Edison, who thought
Laws the most excited person he had ever seen, thereupon
removed the broken contact-spring and set the machine
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
at zero. A force of men was sent out to adjust the in-
dicators ; and In about two hours, service was renewed.
The upshot was that Laws, after a couple of Interviews,
offered to make Edison manager of the entire plant ; and
that Edison, having accepted,. Improved the Laws system
in numerous ways and held the position until the Gold
Indicator company was consolidated with the Gold and
Stock Telegraph company. This company supplied a
stock-quotation service that employed a type of indicator
different from that of Doctor Laws. In this indicator,
the invention of E. A. Callahan, two type-wheels printed a
douhle line of characters upon a strip of paper tape.
The quotations were sent from the Stock Exchange by the
regular Morse system to a central station at 18 New
street, whence they were transmitted to various brokers,
After the consolidation of the two companies, the Laws
indicator was retired and Callahan's new ticker took its
place*
The most spectacular event of this period of speculation
in gold, was the panic of September 24th, 1869 ever
afterward known as "Black Friday. 55 Jay Gould and his
partner "Jim 35 Fisk had already won an unenviable
notoriety through their purchase of judges, corruption of
legislatures, and alliance with the Tweed Ring. In
August, 1869, they embarked upon a cynical attempt to
corner the gold market. They seem to have believed that
they had influence with Grant's administration; and as
they kept buying gold they drove the price rapidly up-
ward. It Is said they reasoned that as the price of gold
rose, the price of western wheat would also rise to such
a figure that the farmers would hasten to sell ; whereupon
enormous wheat shipments to the East would greatly
increase the freight business of the Erie railroad, which
they controlled. Whatever their motive^ probably no
56
WAY
more thoroughly heartless example of financial buccaneer-
ing has ever been known In this country. At the eleventh
hour their attempt was defeated by George S- Boutwell,
secretary of the treasury 9 who ordered the sale of gold by
the government. The market broke with the 4C Bkck
Friday" panic, when in one trading day the price of gold
dropped from 162 to 185. Much, of this panic Edison
saw ; and part of it he was.
Quotations were at first forced upward so rapidly, that
September day 9 that Doctor Laws 9 gold indicators simply
couldn't keep step with them. It was one o s clock in the
afternoon before Edison, by vigorous efforts, managed to
get the machines abreast of the correct gold-room figures.
This was his chief concern ; and when the right quotation
had been reached, he calmly watched the frenzied throngs
that surged about the exchanges and blocked the streets*
A Western Union operator congratulated him with,
"Shake, Edison, we are O. K. We haven't got a cent/*
Late into the night the crowds continued aimlessly to walk
the streets ; late into the night the lights burned in brokers 9
offices, where clerks toiled amid a snarl of records ancf
accounts; and late into the night Edison was striving to
get the refractory indicators down to the low figure.
There was something almost amusingly characteristic
in the phlegmatic detachment of this young man of
twenty-two. He had already invented a stock-ticker; he
was now the manager of the Gold Indicator company;
and he was afterward interested, as both inventor and
manufacturer, in stock-tickers* Yet he never speculated ;
and to him the scenes of Black Friday were but so many
curious phenomena. A dozen, years later, when the first
central station of his incandescent electric lighting system
was being installed in New York and a method of dis-
tribution worked out, while shares of the Edison Electric
57
EBISON: THE MAN AND HIS WOEK
Light company were advancing in price from $100 to
$3,500 (and gas stocks rapidly f ailing) , he appeared to
his associates equally calm. He was occupied with what
he considered his real business the job of getting the
station properly started.
A week after Black Friday on October 1st, 1869 was
published in the "Telegrapher' 5 what Is believed to be the
first advertisement of electrical engineering service ever
printed in this country. It announced the partnership
of Edison and Franklin L. Pope, a young telegraph
engineer who also had been connected with the Gold
Indicator company, and who subsequently was editor of
the "Electrical Engineer' 5 and a recognized expert. The
style of the new firm was "Pope, Edison & Co./ 9 but J.
N. Ashley, publisher of the "Telegrapher," also became a
partner. The office was at 78 Broadway, but during
most of his working hours Edison might have been found
conducting experiments in a little shop in Jersey City,
He boarded with Pope at Elizabeth, which he usually
reached on a train leaving Jersey City at one in the morn-
ing.
Pope and Edison invented a "gold printer, 55 for record-
ing gold quotations and sterling exchange, and designed
for use principally by exchange brokers and by importers.
They also undertook to build and equip private telegraph
lines* Their business was absorbed by the Gold and
Stock Telegraph company ; and before long that company
was acquired by the Western Union. Marshall Lefferts,
its new president, asked Edison to see what he could do
for the improvement of the stock-ticker, which was still
crude in many respects, Money for Edison's experi-
ments was supplied by Lefferts, and Edison developed a
series of inventions on which he obtained patents. One,
for example, was a device called the "unison stop," where-
UNDEB WAY
by t all the indicators might be brought to zero directly
from the central office, and thus made to record in unison
with the transmitting instrument and with one another.
If an indicator happened to "go wild, 55 it might thus be
set right without the delay and trouble involved in sending
repair-men to the subscriber's office. The final result of
these experiments of Edison ? s was the Edison Universal
printer, which came into very extensive use.
One day Edison was summoned to Lefferts 3 office, and
Lefferts told him that he wished to settle the matter of the
inventions. "How much, 55 he said, "do you think you
should receive? 55 Edison, though feeling that $5,000
would be about right, had decided to accept ; but
now even this seemed to him so large a sum that he replied
by asking Lefferts to make an offer. "How would
$40,000 strike you? 55 demanded Lefferts and Edison
came (to use his own words) "as near fainting as I ever
got. 55 He was able to speak to the effect that he thought
the offer a fair one ; and in three days he called by appoint-
ment to sign a contract and get his money. This was in
the form of a check that is stated to have been the first
he had ever received. For a first check, it was doing
decidedly well.
Edison went to the bank on which it was drawn, and
passed it in at a paying teller's window. The teller
passed it back and said something that Edison in his
deafness failed to catch. With the notion that he must
somehow have received a worthless piece of paper, Edison
sought Lefferts, who explained that the check must be
endorsed and sent a clerk with him to identify him. The
paying teller, who seemed to think the matter highly
amusing and who must have considered himself a very
funny fellow indeed, thereupon paid the entire amount in
bills of small denominations. Edison laboriously stowed
59
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
them in every pocket ; and then 5 fearing that they might
be stolen, sat up all night. In the morning^ bulging, he
again appealed to LefFerts, who helped him to deposit
the money and open his first bank account.
He had arrived in New York without work and without
the means to buy a meal. Within a space of time that
seems almost unbelievably brief, lie had demonstrated his
ability as an inventor, won a place for himself in the
world of affairs, and gained financial independence.
The story resembles one of the narratives of Horatio
Alger*
VII
EDISON AND THE TELEGRAPH
EDISON at once began to evolve new plans. To use Ms
own expression, Ms was "too sanguine a temperament to
keep money in solitary confinement. 5 * He opened a large
shop in Newark, N. J., and there started making stock-
tickers and their parts for Marshall Lefferts. His day
force of fifty men had shortly to be supplemented by a
night sMft; but night or day, Edison was foreman.
Three or four times during the twenty-four hours, he
would take a half -hour's sleep upon a work-bench and
wake refreshed- During all Ms active career. It might
have been said of him, as it was of Buff on, "Work was Ms
necessity. 35 In 1909 he stated that up to 190$ (when he
was fifty-five), Ms average working day had been nine-
teen and one-half hours ; since then, he thought, it would
not exceed eighteen.
During 1870-1871 he opened two more shops. He
was now a busy manufacturer; and a manufacturer he
afterward, except for a brief Interval continued to be.
Men who have been associated with Mm have testified that,
try as he might to escape manufacturing, he kept finding
that what others made for Mm did not satisfy his stand-
ards. In those early Newark days almost all the em-
ployees worked, by the piece. Edison admits that he gave
them "a good training as to working hours and hustling. 9 *
Some of them were, when they came to him, wholly Inex-
perienced and untrained. At one time, in connection with
61
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
certain experiments, a tub had been filled with soapy
water, into which hydrogen had been introduced for the
purpose of forming large bubbles. "One of the boys,
who was washing bottles in the place/* said Edison, "had
read in some book that hydrogen was explosive, so he
proceeded to blow the tub up. There was about four
inches of soap in the bottom of the tub, fourteen inches
high; and he filled it with soap-bubbles up to the brim.
Then he took a bamboo fish-pole, put a piece of paper at
the end, and touched it off. It blew every window out of
the placed
On another occasion one of the men attempted to boil
a quart of ether over an exposed flame. The ether
promptly blazed up, and the Newark fire department had
to be summoned, A hose was put through a window,
containers holding chemicals were smashed, and the fumes
overcame some of the firemen.
From the Newark period onward, Edison's enterprises
provided for many men a kind of experimental school,
especially in electrical engineering. In after years an
organization was formed called the Edison Pioneers, made
up of those who had been in Edison's employ prior to
1885. It was in the early Newark days that Edison
obtained the services of John Kruesi ("Honest John," he
was sometimes called), a Swiss mechanician, thorough,
accurate, and expeditious. This trusted "handy man"
afterward became superintendent of the Edison labora-
tory, and then engineer of the Edison General Electric
works at Schenectady, N. Y. Another who at that time
entered Edison's service, to remain in it for many years,
was John F. Ott. Of Edison at their first interview, Ott
said, "He was an ordinary-looking young fellow, dirty
as any of the other workmen, unkempt, and not much
62
EDISON AND THE TELEGEAPH
better dressed than a tramp, but I immediately felt that
there was a great deal in Mm."
Long hours were the rule in Newark. Once, no fewer
than forty-five of Edison's inventions were being devel-
oped in the shops. When report was made that all seemed
to be going pretty smoothly, a favorite expression of the
inventor's was* "Well, boys, now let's find the bugs. 55 It
is said that, special difficulties having arisen in connec-
tion with a large order of tickers, Edison locked the men
in for sixty hours, until all the "bugs" had been removed
and he was satisfied that every detail was right.
Edison had not been in Newark long, when the Au-
tomatic Telegraph company of New York turned to him
'for assistance. This company had a circuit between New
York and Washington, and the system it used had been
devised by an Englishman named Little. The message
was prepared by perforating a narrow paper ribbon with
groups of holes coisresponding to the Morse dot-and-dash
characters. Then this prepared ribbon was run through a
transmitting instrument. Wherever there was a perfora-
tion, an electrical contact would be made with the cylinder
over which the ribbon ran ; and thereupon a current from
the battery would pass along the line to the receiver at
the other end. There the current acted upon another
travelling paper ribbon, chemically treated in such a way
that electro-chemical action would leave a record upon it.
Edison's improvements covered every phase of the
automatic system, and made that system a commercial
possibility. The perforators by which the message was
prepared, the transmitting and receiving instruments, the
chemical treatment of the receiving-ribbon all these in
turn he greatly bettered. He did away with the trouble-
some sluggishness of the wire on long circuits. In short,
63
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
he made it possible to transmit and record 1,000 words
a minute between New York and Washington; 3,500
words a minute between New York and Philadelphia.
Nor did he stop there, but later perfected a receiving-
instrument by which the message was recorded not in the
dot-and-dash characters of the Morse code, but in Roman
letters. Such a record did not require to be translated
from Morse before it could be sent to the addressee.
With this added improvement, 3,000 words a minute were
transmitted between New York and Philadelphia, and
recorded*
Edison went to England for the Automatic Telegraph
company, which had arranged with the British postal
telegraph officials for a trial of the automatic system as
developed by Edison. This trial had at that time no
result. It would, however, appear to have been com-
pletely successful. The automatic system was ultimately
adopted in Great Britain, and continued to be used there.
Edison asserted that his improvements were appropriated
wholesale, with neither credit nor compensation.
So far as the United States is concerned, sufficient con-
temporary evidence exists to show that in the United
States the automatic system not only was proved to be
wholly practicable, but for at least two years was actually
employed with a high degree of success. Yet, in spite of
this* it was abandoned. Further along in this narrative,
certain suggestions will appear that help to account for
this strange situation.
The next problem to which Edison turned his attention^
was that of duplex and quadruples telegraphy. As a
matter of fact, even before he left Boston, he had worked
on a duplex system. Duplex telegraphy means the send-
ing of two messages over the same wire at the same time,
64
EDISON AND THE TELEGRAPH
but in opposite directions. Several investigators had
been studying this matter of simultaneous transmission
before Edison took it up ; and one Americaiij J. B. Steams^
had attained promising results. 1 Among the many
applications for patents in the field of multiple telegraphy
that Edison filed in 18TS 5 was one covering an invention
by which not only was duplex telegraphy possible^ but two
messages could be sent over the same wire at the same
time in the same direction. This new system was called
the diplesj.
In this invention, duplexing was obtained by variation
in the strength of the current. At each end of the line
was a differential (or neutral) relay that is, an electro-
magnet wound with two wires led from a battery ; one wire
being wound from right to left, the other (with an equal
number of turns and of equal resistance) from, left to
right. When the key at the distant station is open and
current passes through the two windings of the electro-
magnet, two equal opposing actions are set up ? each of
which neutralizes the other. The current divides^ half
going to earth, half to the distant station. The relay
does not, therefore, respond to signals sent from the home
station; but at the distant station the receiving instru-
ment becomes active when the operator there closes
i Stearns remedied a defect that seriously interfered with duplex
telegraphy in its earlier forms. A telegraph-wire naturally has what
Is called electrostatic conductive capacity that is, it acts as a con-
denser and tends to retain, as an electrostatic charge, a portion of
each electric impulse that passes over it. Hence, appreciable periods
of time were required for the wire to be charged by the current and
then to become discharged. This condition limited the speed at which
Morse signals could be sent and was a decided hindrance to effective
duplexing. By introducing condensers into the line, Stearns balanced
the electrostatic charge of the wire and thus helped to make duplex
telegraphy a practical success.
65
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WOEK
the key. Suck a relay being used at each end of the
line, each operator controls the receiving instrument
of the other; and thus duplex transmission is made pos-
sible. 2
Diplezdng was obtained by variation in the direction
of flow of the current. Edison introduced at each end
of the line a second relay, known as a polarized relay.
This relay was composed of an electro-magnet with a
single winding; and between the terminals of the electro-
magnet, a swinging permanent magnet. If the direction
of flow of current were reversed in the winding of the
electro-magnet, the polarity of the magnet would likewise
be reversed that is, the north pole became the south.
The polarity of the permanent magnet was, however, fixed
the end between the terminals of the electro-magnet was
constantly a north pole. Hence, it would be attracted
by the south pole of the electro-magnet, and would swing
to that pole. If then the direction of flow of the current
in the winding of the electro-magnet were reversed, the
poles of the electro-magnet would be changed, and the
permanent magnet would swing to the opposite side. The
direction of flow of the current was reversed by re-
versing the battery; and this was effected by an instru-
ment called a pole-changer. When the differential (or
neutral) relay and the polar relay were combined, two
operators could, with the same current, send two messages
over the same wire at the same time and in the same direc-
tion. One operator varied the strength of the current;
the other simultaneously varied the direction of its flow.
Here were the elements of quadruplex telegraphy, by
2 In Ms "Flame, Electricity and the Camera" (New York, 1900),
George lies quotes (pp. 212-213) from T. C. Mendenhall's "A Century
of Electricity" (Boston, 1887) a passage too long to be given here
in which a detailed analogy Is drawn between this action and an
Imaginary process in hydraulics.
66
EDISON AND THE TELEGRAPH
which at each end of the line were arranged two pairs of
instruments; one pair responding to variation in the
strength of current transmitted from the distant station*,
the other pair responding to variation in the flow of cur-
rent ; and neither pair being influenced by currents from
the home station.
Other inventions of Edison's came to attract a greater
amount of public notice, and to claim a fuller considera-
tion by technical writers. It may, however, be doubted
whether in all his career Edison solved with more original-
ity and ingenuity a specific problem in applied electrical
science. He himself commented that it was a puzzle "of
the most difficult and complicated kind/ 9 whose solution
demanded all his energies. Said he: "It required a
peculiar effort of the mind, such as the imagining of eight
different things moving simultaneously on a mental
plane. 55 . . . The practical hindrances to be overcome in
adapting it to successful commercial use, may well seem
to the layman little short of insurmountable.
In the winter of 1872-1873, Walter P. Phillips was,
so he states, one of eight operators selected for special
experiments with the quadruplex, under Edison's direc-
tion, in the New York office of the Western Union.
Phillips says : 3 "It [the quadruples] was then in a very
crude state, and the signals came over it in a way to
suggest to an imaginative person the famous rocky road
to Dublin. Edison was always present, changing some-
thing here or there, and gradually a result, somewhat
imperfect but constantly improving, rewarded his efforts.
Finally he made us a little speech, saying: TBoys, she is
a go. The principle is all right, and the sharps upstairs
can get the bugs out of it. We can not do it down here,
for the troubles with telegraphic appliances can only be
s "Sketches Old and New."
67
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
gotten out in the same way the Irish pilot found the rocks
IB, the harbor with the bottom of his ship. 5 * 5
A story is told to illustrate Edison's absorption in the
quadniplex. It is to the effect that he received an offi-
cial reminder of back taxes unpaid, with the statement
that if they were not paid at once 9 a surcharge of twelve
and one-half per cent, would be added. He went to the
City Hall and got in line for the proper window; but
when his turn came, he could not remember his own name !
Long afterward, he told F, R. Upton, an associate, that
he did not regard the problem s while he was working at
It, as involving miles of wire stretching across country,
but considered that he was working merely from one room
to another room adjoining. Up to 1910, it was estimated
that by the quadruples possibly as much as $20,000,000
had been saved in America alone in the single item of line
construction ; for one wire thus could do the work of f our*
We next turn from the work-room to the board-room ;
from invention to "high finance. 3 * Edison, wishing to
sell the quadruplex, tried in vain to arrange with the
Western Union company for a trial. At last such a trial
was obtained by an agreement on Edison's part with the
chief electrician of the company that the said electrician
should be known as joint inventor* 4 "At that time, 55
* In its sketch of George Bartlett Prescolt (1830-1894), who became
superintendent of lines of the Western Union,, the "National Cyclo-
paedia of American Biography" says (V, 279): "He patented sev-
eral inventions in connection with the telegraph, and also Invented
and patented an improvement in the quadruples; telegraph. He was
a joint owner with Thomas A. Edison in all the quadniplex patents
in this country and Europe, and they received a royalty from the
British government for the use of the same in the United Kingdom.
He introduced in 1870 the duplex telegraph, in 1874 the quadruplex
telegraph (the most valuable addition ever made to the art of teleg-
raphy), and in 1876 the use of pneumatic tubes in the transmission f
messages."
OS
EDISON AND THE TELEGfiAPH
explained Edison, "I was very short of money, and needed
it more than glory. This electrician appeared to want
glory more than money 3 so It was an easy trade. 35 A
successful test between New York and Albany tool place
in the presence of President Orton and of W. H. Vander-
bilt and the other directors of the company.
The quadruples was introduced on the lines of the com-
pany. Orton paid Edison $5,000 on account and then
vanished "on an extended tour. 53 Thomas T. Eckert, 5
the Western Union's general superintendent, assured
Edison that not another cent would ever be forthcoming.
He said, however, that he thought he knew a man who
would buy Edison's interest in the invention. This man
turned out to be Jay Gould ; and it was likewise disclosed
that Eckert was planning to leave the Western Union
and assume charge of Gould's rival company, the Atlantic
and Pacific. Gould was seeking control of the West-
ern Union and rightly viewed the purchase of Edison's
interest in the quadruples as a significant step in the
process. He paid $30,000 for Edison's share, and Ed-
ison was made chief electrician of the Atlantic and
Pacific.
Then Gould bought the Automatic Telegraph company,
under a contract to pay $4,000,000 in stock for the
patents and wires of the company. After he had finally
gained control of the Western Union, he repudiated this
contract. Eckert, who became president of the Atlantic
and Pacific, not only was personally hostile to Edison but
also was foolishly opposed to automatic telegraphy, which
accordingly was withdrawn. Edison in later years de-
scribed Gould as a dry, unsmiling man with an atrophied
conscience, who had no pride in constructive enterprise
c During the Civil War, Eckert had been cMef of the "War Depart-
ment telegraph staff in Washington, with rank of major.
69
EDISON; THE MAN AND HIS WOEK
or public service but sought money for its own sake.
^^I^Tien Gould got the Western Union,** he said ? "I knew
mo further progress in telegraphy was possible, and I
went into other lines/ 5 6
*. . . He was an undersized chap, and quiet as a mouse. I never
liked Ms face. It was dark, and covered all over with whiskers so
you could hardly see him. . . . And lie wasn't a healthy man, either*
He was as lean as a parson's barn. Never seemed to me that he ate
enough."- Bonck White: "The Book of Daniel Drew" (New York*
2910), pp. 216-217. D. and M, I 163-464.
^j^s*'^'*-^?'^
VIII
EDISON AND THE TELEPHONE
WHILE in Newark, Edison was from time to time busied
with problems other than those of multiplex telegraphy*
For example, he contrived a new system of call-boxes for
district-messenger service and organized a company of his
own to introduce it. Both system and company were suc-
cessful ; but before long the company was sold to the At-
lantic and Pacific Telegraph company.
During this period, Edison also invented an apparatus
for preparing a stencil by means of which copies of hand-
written matter might be produced. The writing was
done with a stylus upon a special paper coated with paraf-
fin and resting on a finely-grooved steel plate. The stylus
pierced the paraffin and traced very minute perforations
in the paper, which then could be used as a stencil. This
apparatus was called the mimeograph. Edison afterward
sold his rights in it to A. B. Dick, by whom it was manu-
factured in Chicago. When typewriting machines came
into use, the mimeograph was adapted to the making of
stencils with them.
In the development of the typewriting machine, too,
Edison had a part. The particular form with which he
had to do, was that on which a patent had been obtained
in 1868 by Carlos Glidden and Christopher L. Sholes.
Sholes finally came from Milwaukee, to get Edison's as-
sistance in rendering the machine commercially available ;
and Edison helped Sholes to make improvements in it.
71
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
In 1873 the Remingtons, the gunsmiths of ffion, New
York, bought it and began to manufacture it under the
name "Remington/ 5 When Edison worked on it, it em-
ployed the now familiar type-bar principle, but each bar
carried only one character and the alphabet was entirely
in capitals (or upper-case letters). Prior to this time,
various crude and rickety machines had been built both
here and abroad; but the Sholes invention,, as developed
by Edison and others, was the first practicable device of
the sort. Edison's connection with this popular acces-
sory of modern life is not generally known. 1
In Newark, Edison had the first place of his own to ex-
periment and work in that he had known since he left be-
hind the cellar at Port Huron, with its two hundred bot-
tles. At one time he had four smaller shops in addition
to the principal one. It-wasualsq while he. was in- Newark
that he married Miss Mary 6. StilwelL Yet he seems
never to have been quite at home there ; and in the spring
of 1876 he gladly forsook Newark for Menlo Park.
Luther Stieringer, a gas engineer who became associ-
ated with Edison in Edison's researches in incandescent
electric lighting, says: 2 ". . . Mr. Edison found that
the combined work of manufacturing and inventing taxed
even his superhuman strength; in fact, the two occupa-
tions proved irreconcilable. If a new idea struck him, it
had at once to be tested in a thousand different ways, with
the help of every man within call ; but this would hardly
iOn September 12, 1923, the fiftieth anniversary of the "Rem-
ington" was celebrated at Ilion under the auspices of the Herkimer
County Historical Society. At that time a memorial to Christopher
L. Sholes (1819-1890) was unveiled. An interesting sketch of Sholes
may be found in George lies' "Leading American Inventors" (New
York, 1912; in the Biographies of Leading Americans series, edited by
W. P. Trent), pp. 315-337.
2 "The Life and Inventions of Thomas A. Edison," (Milwaukee and
New York, 1890).
72
EDISON AND THE TELEPHONE
do in a factory run upon a regular time schedule and ex-
pected to yield an Immediate return for every dollar* In
1876, therefore, Mr. Edison relinquished manufacturing
and withdrew to the world-famous Menlo Park, New Jer-
sey, twenty-four miles from New York City. 35 [Time-
tables of the Pennsylvania railway system give the dis-
tance as 5.2 miles from the station in New York.]
Menlo Park, in spite of its rather fancy name, was just
a little knot of houses near a diminutive railway station.
All about it stretched open country. One may still find
it on the map in Middlesex county. New Jersey ; it being
on the Pennsylvania railroad, between Elizabeth and
Ifetuchen. At Menlo, Edison discovered the retirement
and quiet that he wished ; there he finally possessed a real
laboratory; and there he remained until 1887.
Before he left Newark, he had undertaken certain re-
searches in telephony ; and these were continued at Menlo
upon his arrival. They began, apparently, with his
studies in harmonic telegraphy, which had been success-
fully attempted by Elisha Gray as early as 1874. In
the harmonic system (not at present in use) , a vibrating
reed or a tuning fork was employed to transmit over the
telegraph line a series of electric impulses corresponding
to its own rate of vibration more commonly called pitch.
At the receiving station, another reed or fork, similarly
tuned, would give forth the same tone. By means of a
telegraph key, this continuous tone might be broken up
into the Morse signals; and thus a telegraphic message
could be sent and received. Not only so, but other pairs
of reeds or forks, each pair having its own tone (or note) ,
could be used to send impulses over the same wire at the
same time without interference of any one with any other,
Each receiving reed or fork "selected'* its own tone and
**rejected 5 * every other. By using a set of reeds arranged
73
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
in keyboard fashion before a set of electro-magnets (for
which the reeds acted as armatures), Ellsha Graj not
only was able to send music but actually transmitted nine
separate messages over the same wire at the same Instant.
It would appear that Edison had been investigating
the general principles of this system ; and in 1875 he de-
vised an apparatus intended to serve in analyzing the va-
rious waves produced by different sounds. A caveat filed
in the United States Patent Office on January 14th, 1876,
described this apparatus. One month later, on Febru-
ary 14th, 1876, Elisha Gray filed a caveat for the inven-
tion of a telephone ; and on that same day, Alexander G.
Bell filed an application for his first telephone patent.
Gray 5 s caveat was filed about two hours after Bell's ap-
plication. A caveat, in this special sense, was a descrip-
tion of an invention not yet perfected; and the filing of
such a description in the Patent-Office archives entitled
the person working on such an invention to notice, during
a period of one year, of the filing of an application for a
patent on an interfering invention. The caveat system
was abolished in 1910. In the case of Gray and Bell, a
long litigation followed; and it was not until 1888 that
Bell's priority was established, so far as the law was con-
cerned, by a decision of the United States Supreme Court.
Edison, at the time he filed his caveat, was not aware of
the fact that his device of 1875 was crudely capable of
transmitting speech; nor did he discover this until after
the details of Bell's work had been made public. His ap-
paratus has, however, a certain historical interest, not-
withstanding that he always gave to Bell the credit of
having discovered the transmission of articulate speech
over an electric circuit by means of a vibrating diaphragm
placed in front of an electro-magnet.
The next stage of the story brings us to the significant
74
EDISON AND THE TELEPHONE
contributions made by Edison toward the perfecting of
Bell's original invention; Bell's system had no special
transmitter. One contrivance, similar to the present re-
ceiver, did for both receiver and transmitter. This con-
trivance consisted of a steel diaphragm placed near the
pole of a bar electro-magnet. The diaphragm vibrated
when the tones of the voice struck it; and, acting as an
armature, it induced impulses in the magnetic coil.
These impulses passed over the line to the receiving sta-
tion. In other words. Bell's was strictly a magneto-
telephone: the sound-waves of the human voice did the
work. It is hardly necessary to say that the amount of
power that may thus be produced is comparatively re-
stricted. The electric impulses on Bell's system were,
therefore, decidedly faint, and hence the system could be
used for none but very short lines. Indeed, Edison is
himself recorded as stating that when tests were made
with the Bell apparatus over Western Union wires between
New York and Newark, the impulses were so feeble that
not a word could be distinguished.
Now reappears Orton of the Western Union. Orton
wished Edison to overcome the defects inherent in the
Bell system and make the telephone thoroughly practica-
ble. This Edison did ; and then the Western Union, by
acquiring the Edison patents, obtained a weapon of the
utmost value to it in suits with the company that Bell had
incorporated in Massachusetts.
First of all, Edison took advantage of that property
of carbon by virtue of which variation in the pressure ap-
plied to it causes corresponding variation in its electrical
resistance. He employed for his transmitter a closed cir-
cuit in which were two electrodes, either one or both being
of carbon, and both being kept under an initial pressure,
so that battery current was uninterruptedly flowing over
75
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
the circuit. One of these electrodes was connected with
the vibrating diaphragm of the transmitter. Vibrations
of the diaphragm caused variations in the pressure be-
tween the electrodes. Then Edison introduced an In-
duction coil. The battery current flowed not over the
line but through the primary circuit of the coil. The
secondary circuit of the coil was connected with the line,
over which electric impulses of very much higher potential
could be sent than had been at all possible by Bell's
method. Thus it will be seen that Edison made two radi-
cal changes. With his carbon transmitter (or micro-
phone), the sound-waves of the human voice did not di-
rectly set up the electric impulses in the line,, but simply
varied the resistance between two electrodes, thereby op-
erating a kind of "electric valve. 55 Furthermore, with
the induction coil the effective length of the line was
greatly extended.
Almost at once these improvements of Edison's liberated
the whole early art of telephony and opened up the pos-
sibilities of an instrument that many had been inclined
to regard as only an interesting toy. Then began a com-
mercial warfare between the Bell interests and the West-
ern Union forces. A compromise was finally reached, but
before that came about, the Western Union, through its
subsidiary, the American Speaking Telephone company,
had in operation between eighty and eighty-five telephone
exchanges and was busily making apparatus. Under the
terms of the compromise, the Bell company agreed to keep
out of the telegraphic field and the Western Union with-
drew from competition in the field of the telephone.
The Western Union was in a position to exact certain
concessions, among which was a twenty per cent, royalty
on the earnings of the Bell system until the Bell patents
expired. From this source alone it derived until 1894
,76
EDISON AND THE TELEPHONE
a yearly revenue of several hundred thousand dollars.
This was wholly due to Its ownership of the Edison pat-
ents. Dr. Alexander G. Bell died on August 2nd, 1922 ?
at his country-house at Baddeck ? Nova Scotia; and the
press notices and editorials that followed his death testi-
fied pretty generally to the fact that, so far as the public
mind was concerned, old controversies had passed into
oblivion. Such statements as this were, however, made:
"It was a long step from the first feeble voice transmitter
to the present device. But the essentials are the same
to-day as then, and the truly marvelous development lias
not been so much In the changes in the instrument itself
as in the effect upon the world of its widespread use. 59 *
To this the objection might well be made that the essentials
are not the same to-day as then ; and that experts have de-
clared that without the changes made by Edison, wide-
spread telephony as we know it to-day would probably
have been impossible. 4
Edison also furnished to telephony an appliance known
as the electro-motograph, the principle of which was first
applied to telegraphy, and in the following manner.
The sounder (or relay) was absolutely essential to long-
distance telegraphy, and the operation of the sounder de-
pended on the use of a spring to draw back the armature
from the magnet. Such use of a spring was covered by a
patent that had been issued only after years of delay and
that was then bought by Jay Gould while he was seeking
control of the Western Union. Edison succeeded, by
s Editorial in the "New York Tribune" of August 3, 1922.
4 "Edison's lampblack button did not survive the test of time, but
his use of carbon as the variable resistance proved of permanent
value, and he produced a telephone transmitter of much greater power
than the Bell magneto telephone," X A. Fleming: "Fifty Years of
Electricity: The Memories of an Electrical Engineer" (London, 1921),
p. 83.
77
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
means of the electro-motograph, in entirely obviating the
use of a spring, and, more than that, in finding a substi-
tute for the electro-magnet.
In place of the magnet, with its vibrating armature, he
had a cylindrical piece of chalk moistened with a chem-
ical solution and rotated by a little clockwork motor ; and
resting lightly against the chalk he had a diminutive pad
carried at the upper end of a vibrating metal arm. The
chalk cylinder was connected to one pole of a battery, the
vibrating arm to the other. When no current was pass-
ing through the chalk, the pad adhered to the cylinder
by virtue of f rictional pressure ; but when current passed
through the chalk, the result was electro-chemical de-
composition of the solution with which the chalk was kept
moist. Thereupon the friction between the pad and the
chalk was so reduced that the pad slipped, and an op-
posing spring at once withdrew the vibrator arm. In
practice, the incoming current thus caused movements of
the pad and vibrating arm corresponding to the Morse
dashes and dots sent by the operator at the transmitting
station. This was a wholly new method for the repeti-
tion of transmitted telegraphic signals.
After successful tests, the Western Union bought the
electro-motograph. Gould, who had bought the Page
patent covering a retractile spring for the armature of
an electro-magnetic relay, for no better reason than to
use it as a weapon in his attack on the Western Union,
was suddenly brought to realize that the patent was value-
less and the weapon futile. The spectacle of unscrupu-
lous force confounded by applied science is not displeas-
ing.
The general principle of the electro-motograph was
later employed by Edison in his "loud-speaking tele-
phone/' In this contrivance, a cylinder of chalk, mois-
78
EDISON AND THE TELEPHONE
tened with a chemical solution* was used ; and the cylin-
der was rotated by a crank turned by the person who re-
ceived the message. Resting on the chalk was an aria
faced with palladium and attached at its opposite end to
a diaphragm in a resonator. The variations in the cur-
rent from the transmitting station passed through the
chalk cylinder^ producing electro-chemical decomposition.
This caused variations in the adhesion between the arm
and the cylinder^ and these variations in turn caused vi-
brations of the diaphragm. Both speaking and singing
could thus be repeated with, what has been described as
"startling distinctness." One is inclined to think this
> just description when he learns that the voice of a per-
son talking into the carbon transmitter in New York was
so amplified by the loud-speaking telephone at Menlo
Park as to be heard distinctly in a field at a thousand feet
from the receiver. 5
The loud-speaker was for a time employed in England,
when the telephone was being introduced there and the
Bell and Edison interests were in conflict. Edison's car-
bon transmitter patent was sustained in the British courts
against the Bell transmitter patent. The loud-speaker
provided a means of escaping infringement of Bell's re-
ceiver; but it was afterward commercially discarded in
favor of the Bell apparatus^ which was less complicated
and could be manufactured at less cost. Edison sent rep-
resentatives to establish exchanges in Great Britain and
on the continent. In 1879 Bernard Shaw, then a young
fellow of twenty-three, was employed in the London of-
s "... It might appropriately be called 'The Shouting Telephone,'
for its Voice' is louder than that of any ordinary speaker, and we
Jiave failed to distinguish any difference in clearness of articulation
Jbetween its utterances and those of a person engaged in conversation."
--"Engineering" (London), March 21, 1879.
79
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
fice of the Edison company. Of this experience he dis-
coursed most amusingly in the preface to his novel "The
Irrational Knot. 53 The loud-speaking telephone Shaw
described as "much too ingenious"; it being ? lie said 9
"nothing less than a telephone of such stentorian 7 effi-
ciency that it bellowed your most private communications
all over the house, instead of whispering them with some
sort of discretion. 55
"This/ 5 he continues, "was not what the British stock-
broker wanted; so the company was soon merged in the
National Telephone Company, 6 after making a place for
itself in the history of literature, quite unintentionally,
by providing rne with a job. Whilst the Edison Tele-
phone Company lasted, it crowded the basement of a huge
pile of offices in Queen Victoria Street with American ar-
tificers. These deluded and romantic men gave me a
glimpse of the skilled proletariat of the United States;
and their language was frightful even to an Irishman.
They worked with a ferocious energy which was out of all
proportion to the result achieved. Indomitably resolved
to assert their republican manhood by taking no orders
from a tall-hatted Englishman whose stiff politeness cov-
ered his conviction that they were, relatively to himself 9
e Before the telegraphs were taken over by the British government
In 1870, certain acts were passed in Parliament in 1868 and 1869, by
which it was provided that inter-communication for profit by any
means whatsoever should be a state monopoly. When the question
subsequently arose whether, within the meaning of these acts, the
telephone was a telegraph, the Post Office insisted that it was. The
question having been decided in favor of the Crown, the Post Office
proposed to license commercial companies on a royalty basis, the
royalty to be ten per cent, of the receipts. Eventually, the telephones
all came under the exclusive management of the National company
referred to by Shaw, The government, however, built and owned
the trunk lines. In 1911 the telephones passed into the control of the
state, as the telegraphs did forty years before. See Fleming: "Fifty
Years of Electricity," pp. 84, 88.
80
EDISOX AND THE TELEPHONE
inferior and common persons^ they Insisted on being
slave-driven with genuine American oaths by a genuine
free and equal American foreman. They utterly de-
spised the artfully slow British workman who did as little
for his wages as he possibly could; never hurried himself;
and had a deep reverence for anyone whose pocket could
be tapped by respectful behavior. Need I add that they
were contemptuously wondered at by this same British
workman as a parcel of outlandish adult boys, who
sweated themselves for their employer's benefit instead of
looking after their own interests? They adored Mr.
Edison as the greatest man of all time in every possible
department of science,, art and philosophy, and exe-
crated Mr. Graham Bell, the inventor of the rival tele-
phones as his Satanic adversary; but each of them had
(or pretended to have) on the brink of completion, an
improvement on the telephone, usually a new transmit-
ter. They were free-souled creatures, excellent com-
pany: sensitive, cheerful, and profane; liars, braggarts,
and hustlers; with an air of making slow old England
hum which never left them even when, as often happened,
they were wrestling with difficulties of their own making,
or struggling in no-thoroughfares from which they had
to be retrieved like strayed sheep by Englishmen without
imagination enough to go wrong.
"In this environment I remained for some months. As
I was interested in physics and had read Tyndall and
Helmholtz, beside having learnt something in Ireland
through a fortunate friendship with a cousin of Mr.
Graham Bell who was also a chemist and physicist, I was,
I believe, the only person in the entire establishment who
knew the current scientific explanation of telephony ; and
as I soon struck up a friendship with our official lecturer,
a Colchester man whose strong point was pre-scientific
SI
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
agriculture, I often discharged his duties for him in a
manner which, I am persuaded, laid the foundation o
Mr. Edison's London reputation: my sole reward being
my boyish delight in the half -concealed incredulity of our
visitors (who were convinced by the hoarsely startling
utterances of the telephone that the speaker, alleged by
me to be twenty miles away, was really using a speaking-
trumpet In the next room), and their obvious uncertainty 9
when the demonstration was over, as to whether they ought
to tip me or not: a question they either decided in the
negative or never decided at all; for I never got any-
thing. 55 7
In reporting a public demonstration of the loud-
speaker by Edison at Saratoga Springs, New York, In
August, 18T9 (on which occasion Bell sat on the plat-
form), the "New York Tribune 9 " said that "Mr- Edison's
explanations pleased the people greatly. His quaint and
homely manner, his unpolished but clear language,, his
odd but pithy expressions charmed and attracted them."
Describing the device, the newspaper said: "The ap-
paratus is In a small box with a crank at the side and a
glass front, through which the receiver presses on the
arm extending from the diaphragm to the chalk cylinder.
There is a little round hole at the top of the box. The
Inventor showed that it made no difference In which di-
rection the cylinder was turned, or whether it was turned
fast or slow. But If he stopped turning the crank, the
sound stopped the same Instant.' 9 8 It should be added
that In various tests the electro-motograph successfully
repeated singing at considerable distances. The loud-
7 "The Irrational Knot" first appeared as a serial in a monthly
magazine entitled "Our Corner," edited by Mrs. Annie Besant. The
quotation is from the text of the American edition of 1905 (New-
York), pp. ix-xi
s August 31, 1879.
82
EDISON AND THE TELEPHONE
speaking receiver used in radio-telephony is, of course,
an entirely different affair.
To this same general earlier period at Menlo Park be-
longs Edison 9 s tasimeter, designed to detect minute
changes in temperature. The word literally signifies an
instrument that measures stretching; and this term is
sufficiently descriptive. In the tasimeter Edison again
utilized the fact that the electrical resistance of carbon is
decreased as pressure upon the carbon is increased. The
instrument consisted of a strip of some material known to
be very sensitive to heat such, for example, as vulcanite,
a hard variety of vulcanized india-rubber; and beneath
this strip, in the order given, a platinum plate, a carbon
button, and another platinum plate. The carbon button
and the two platinum plates were included in an electric
circuit that likewise contained a battery and a galvanom-
eter. The minutest degree of heat caused an invisible
expansion in the sensitive strip, the pressure of the strip
upon the carbon button was increased, and at once a
variation in the resistance of the circuit was set up- This
variation the galvanometer promptly indicated. It has
been stated that, with a galvanometer sufficiently delicate,
the tasimeter (or microtasimeter, as it sometimes has been
called) would show the action of heat from the hand of a
person thirty feet distant, Edison did not seek a patent
n the tasimeter, the use of which has been limited to
scientific investigations, such as the study of heat from
remote suns.
IX
"ORGANIZING THE ECHOES' 3
KRITESI had seen Edison accomplish some pretty
amazing things, but John's credulity had its limits. One
day in the autumn of 1877 9 Edison handed to him a sketch
of a model to be made as piece-work; and on the margin
of the sketch was a memorandum of what Edison thought
the right price for the job, $18. Krnesi set to work. He
tried to figure out what such a queer affair was for ; then
he went to Edison and asked. When Edison had told
him 9 he thought the whole scheme ridiculous. His busi-
ness was, however, to complete the model; and so the
model was completed and John stood by to see what would
happen.
There was no denying that the model did look rather
odd. On a wooden base a metal shaft, having a thread
cut in it (like a horizontal screw) and with a handle at
one end, was mounted upon two supports. The shaft ran
through a metal drum, into whose surface had been cut
a spiral groove. On either side of the drum was a little
tube; and over the inner end of each little tube was
stretched a parchment diaphragm. In the center of each
diaphragm was a steel needle.
Kruesi was positive the thing would be a failure. So
was Carman, foreman of the machine-shop, who (accord-
ing to the accepted story) backed his opinion with the
bet of a box of cigars. Edison thereupon proceeded to
"ORGANIZING THE ECHOES' 3
act In a highly absurd manner. He put a thin sheet of
tinfoil around the drum. Then he started to turn the
handle of the shaf t, while at the same time into one of the
little tubes he declaimed in stentorian tones that immortal
lyric, "Mary had a little lambP ? Then he turned the
shaft backward to the starting point> drew away the first
tube, adjusted the other , and once more turned the shaft
forward. Out from the machine, faintly but surely* came
the voice of Edison reciting the classic adventure of
Mary and the lamb.
"Mem Gott im Himmel!" cried out John Kruesi
Carman admitted that the bet was lost. The entire staff
began to collect about this marvelous cylinder whence
somehow had issued the ghost of speech. Edison's own
feelings may be judged by his later words : "I was never
so taken aback in my life. ... I was always afraid of
things that worked the first time. 5 * The machine was the
world's first phonograph. To-day it is carefully pre-
served in the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Ken-
sington, London. 1
All that night, Edison and Kruesi kept trying for bet-
ter results. They learned how to fit the tinfoil more
neatly to the cylinder, and how to turn the cylinder more
steadily when they were making a record. Each time, as
their singing or their recitation was repeated from the
machine s the performance seemed astonishing. Next
morning, Edison started for New York, taking the phono-
graph wrapped in a package. He went to the office of
iThis follows "Mr. Edison's own account" as given in Dyer and
Martin, I, 206-209 (Meadowcroft, 176-1 79). Numerous variants are
encountered in the story as related by Edison to G. P. Lathrop and
published in "Harper's" for February, 1890. See also an article by
the inventor is the "North American Review" for May-June, 1878.
85
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
F. C. Beach of the "Scientific American 55 editorial staff .
Let Beaches own narrative 2 tell what followed.
"I had not been at my desk very long that morning
when Mr, Edison was announced. He came in, and set
Ms parcel, which he appeared to handle somewhat care-
fully, on my desk. As lie was removing the cover I asked
Mm what it was.
" * Just a minute P replied young Edison.
"Presently with a 'here you are,* he pushed the quaint-
looking little instrument towards me. As there was a
long shaft having a heavy wheel at one end and a small
handle at the other, naturally I gave the handle a twist,
and, to my astonishment, the unmistakable words, emitted
from a kind of telephone mouthpiece, broke out, *Good
morning! What do you think of the phonograph? 5
"To say that I was astonished is a poor way of ex-
pressing my first impressions, and Edison appeared to
enjoy his little joke on me immensely. Like a flash the
news went among the staff that Edison had brought in
a machine which could talk, and soon there was an ex-
cited crowd around my desk.
"W6 watched the inventor wrap his little sheet of tin-
foil this was the medium used for recording the sound
waves in the first machine round the cylinder, adjust
the stylus, and intently followed the operation as he
shouted the lines of the nursery rhyme, *Mary had a little
lamb,' into the mouth-piece. We listened just as sur-
prisedly when, instantly this was completed, the machine
was started again and the well-known words were re-
peated. Time after time the machine was handled first
by myself and then by my colleagues, one and all testing
the instrument both in recording and reproducing.
2 As reported by Frederick A. Talbot in the English "World's
j(London) for October, 1911.
86
"ORGANIZING THE ECHOES"
^Information respecting this remarkable demonstra-
tion leaked out, and in a short space of time the office was
inundated with excited reporters despatched in hot haste
from the various newspapers to examine the machine
and witness the tests. Edison was kept going for two
or three hours, but at last the crowd attained such pro-
portions that I feared the floor would give way under
the abnormal weight, and I requested the Inventor to
stop,"
On the following day the New York newspapers carried
long stories about the new mechanism, of whose princi-
ples they had but the vaguest ideas. At the time when
Edison was making public his improvements in the tele-
phone, the papers had begun to call him "The Wizard
of Menlo Park" a title that clung to him even after he
had left Menlo forever. In the common thought, the
phonograph made him far more of a "wizard 55 than ever
before. Probably no other modern invention has aroused
so immediate and so great a furore. An American pe-
riodical 3 referred to it as "an instrument destined to turn
the old groove of every-day routine topsy-turvy"! The
railway ran special trains to Menlo Park, and the labora-
tory was thronged with visitors. Many suspected fraud.
Among them seems to have been the Rev. John H. Vin-
cent, a bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church and an
originator, with Lewis Miller, of the "Chautauqua move-
ment." The bishop talked into the recorder at top speed
a long collection of proper names from the Bible. When
these had been correctly repeated by the machine, he an-
nounced that he was now convinced there was no decep-
tion, since not another man in the country could recite
the selected names with an equal velocity! The bishop
had evidently supposed a ventriloquist was concealed
a "Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper," April 20, 1878.
87
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
somewhere about the premises; and this was a frequent
conjecture.
Edison accepted an invitation to Washington and there
put a phonograph through Its paces In the apartment of
Mary Abigail Dodge (better known by her pen-name*
**Gail Hamilton' 3 ^ a journalist, a cousin of Mrs. James
G. Elaine, and author of "Twelve Miles from a Lemon. 3 *
Throughout the day the rooms were thronged with folk
prominent in legislative and other circles. Senator Jtos-
coe Conkling of New York came In and was Introduced
to Edison, who apparently did not recognize him and who,
because of deafness, did not catch the name. Edison re-
cited Into the recorder the nonsense stanza beginning
"There was a little girl who had a little cur? 5 ; and the
phonograph repeated it, At this, there was consider-
able half-suppressed merriment. Over Conkling's brow
hung a prominent lock of hair, much emphasized by the
caricaturists of the period; and Conkling had become
highly sensitive about it. He was a rather touchy indi-
vidual, and the "curl" stanza with the ensuing laughter
did not please him a bit. It is possible that he may have
thought Elaine, to whom he was bitterly hostile, was in-
directly responsible for it. From about 11 o'clock that
evening until 3:30 the next morning, Edison was at the
Executive Mansion, explaining and operating the ma-
chine for the entertainment of President and Mrs. Hayes
and their guests among them Carl Schurz, who, as Edi-
son entered, was playing the piano, as he was so fond of
doing. 4
4". . . Carl went into the library and developed a new accomplish-
ment. He played with great skill and feeling, sitting in the dusk
twilight at the piano until the President [Lincoln] came by and took
him down to tea. Schurz is a wonderful man. An orator, a soldier,
a philosopher, an exiled patriot, a skilled musician!" Thayer: "Life
and Letters of John Hay," I, 103.
88
"ORGANIZING THE ECHOES"
Edison at once began mating a number of improved
phonographs of larger size and better adapted to exhibi-
tion purposes. One diaphragm served for both record-
ing and reproducing; and for reproducing, a horn was
provided. A company was formed to manufacture ma-
chines and promote their use. The phonographs first of-
fered for sale were made by Sigmund Bergmann in a little
shop on Wooster street in New York. Bergmann had
worked at the same bench with Kruesi in Newark,, where
his skill had attracted Edison's attention. Having saved
money, he started in business for himself and was em-
ployed by Edison to manufacture not only phonographs
but also carbon transmitters. Under the direction of
James Redpath's once noted Lyceum Bureau (Boston),
the country was parceled out in territories and the rights
of exhibition within a given territory were leased on a
percentage basis. In Great Britain and continental
countries, manufacturing and sales rights were assigned.
Prof, Fleeming Jenkin (the subject of Stevenson's "Mem-
oir") exhibited the contrivance before the Royal Society
of Edinburgh and also made use of it in scientific re-
searches.
The phonautograph (1857) of Leon Scott has been
called the "precursor 55 of the phonograph ; and this in a
certain sense it undoubtedly was, though nothing appears
to have been authoritatively stated as to Edison's pre-
vious familiarity with Scott's experiments. It must be
pointed out, however, that Scott's device was intended
merely to make on lampblacked paper a graphic record
(or tracing) of sound vibrations. This was all it could
do. On December 24th, 1877, Edison filed an application
for a United States patent, and on February 19th, 1878,
the patent was issued. When Edison's application was
being examined at the United States Patent Office, noth-
89
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
ing could be found to show that anybody had up to that
time attempted what Edison had accomplished. Hence
it was that the patent was issued so promptly and with-
out a reference- The fundamental idea of the phono-
graph was to make phonograms ("records/* they now are
called) of such kind that the original sound vibrations
could be mechanically reproduced. From the authentic
account of how the machine came to be, it would seem
that the working theory of the phonograph had as its
starting point the idea of reproduced sound. In other
words, that first crude apparatus built by John Kruesi
was based on what might now appear like reverse reason-
ing.
"Speaking phonograph" is what the instrument was
called by a staff writer in "Frank Leslie's Illustrated
Newspaper" ; 5 and this would seem to have been an at-
tempt to find a more nearly accurate name for it. The
representative of "Frank LeslieV* visited the laboratory
at Menlo Park, where Edison personally explained the
phonograph and its action. "The instrument," asserts
the article, "is so simple in its construction, and its work-
ings are so easily understood, that one wonders why it
was never before discovered. There is no electricity
about it, it can be carried around under a man's arm, and
its machinery is not a fifteenth part as intricate as that
of a sewing-machine. It records all sounds and noises."
An oft-repeated story is to the effect that the invention
just happened through an accident that Edison chanced
to notice that the sound waves of his voice vibrated the
diaphragm of a telephone transmitter with such force that
a steel point attached to the diaphragm was driven into
his finger. Just how all this took place, or how it could
lead in the direction of reproducing sound, is not clear*
e March 30, I87a
"ORGANIZING THE ECHOES"
Edison himself has explained that the phonograph had
a definite beginning during experiments with the au-
tomatic telegraph. He had a revolving platen with a
volute spiral groove incised in its upper surf ace 3 suggest-
ing the disc records of to-day. On the platen he put
a circular sheet of paper; and then over this sheet he
passed an embossing point that was connected by an arm
to an electro-magnet. When the arm was actuated by
the magnet, the point embossed Morse characters on the
sheet of paper. Then Edison discovered that when
the sheet of paper was placed on a corresponding de-
vice having a contact point, the embossed characters
were repeated and thus could be re-sent automatically
and at any rate of speed.
"This arrangement really dated back to the brief period
(from the autumn of 1864 to February, 1865) when he
was a telegraph operator at Indianapolis. At that time
lie was working a circuit by day, but at night he and
another operator would take "press report** for the sake
of the practice. Both found that they "broke 5 * pretty
often. Edison thereupon arranged two old Morse em-
bossing registers in such a way that one recorded the
characters on a strip of paper as rapidly as they were
transmitted, and the other repeated them at a lower
rate of speed. That is, the "press report' 9 might be
received at the rate of forty words a minute and repeated
at the rate of twenty-five. By this means, Edison and
Parmley, the other operator, relieved of the need for
"breaking,* 5 could leisurely turn out "copy** of surprising
regularity and clearness. At one o'clock in the morning,
they would quit, hide away the "automatic recorder,** and
leave to the regular press reporter (who in the meantime
liad been taking a nap or perhaps attending the theater)
the remainder of the report.
91
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
Under ordinary conditions the system ran smoothly
so smoothly 5 in fact, that the manager of the office was
puzzled and the newspapers complained of inferior "copy 55
furnished after one o'clock Then one night brought an
uncommon pressure of work ; the system fell badly behind
and still the receiving instrument held to top speed.
The newspapers protested^ the manager investigated ; the
"automatic recorder^ 5 was discovered and banned.
It was this general scheme that in 1877 was applied
by Edison to those experiments in automatic telegraphy
to which reference has already been made. He had also
been working on his carbon transmitter for Bell's tel-
ephone and studying the action of diaphragms in trans-
mitting sound vibrations. He now observed that when
the paper on the telegraphic "repeater " moved (and it
could be moved rapidly enough to send several hundred
words a minute) , a humming note arose. Why 5 he
queried* if indentations on paper may be made to repeat
the click of a telegraph sounder, may not the vibrations
of a diaphragm also be recorded and repeated? Here we
have a chain of reasoning that is directly connected
with the sketch Edison handed to Kruesi on that autumn
day in 1877, It remains to be added that in 1879 Edison
filed an application for a United States patent covering
the disc principle substantially as employed to-day.
Owing to certain purely minor objections^ the application
was held up ; and the vast new detail of Edison*s work in
electric lighting apparently caused the matter to be
neglected. 16
The primitive phonograph turned out to be too im-
perfect for general use. To begin with, tinfoil was not
a satisfactory material for records. It was hard to ad-
<* A British patent obtained by him in 1878 also embodied this prin-
ciple.
"ORGANIZING THE ECHOES"
just and remove; the impressions made on it were faint
and easily effaced, Again s the cylinder could not be
turned at a strictly uniform speed, so that satisfactory
records of music could not be made; and speech might
be much altered in pitch, according as it was reproduced
either too rapidly or too slowly. Contemporary ob-
servers also detected a certain softening of the conso-
nants, by which the character of spoken words was ap-
preciably affected. For several months the popular stir
continued. Everywhere the exhibitions aroused great
interest; royalty receipts were large. Then the craze
subsided, the exhibitions ceased, and for nearly a decade
the phonograph was shelved, save for such use as was
made of it for scientific purposes.
Nevertheless, it remained Edison's pet invention; and
in 1887 he took it from the shelf and started to eliminate
its defects. Sure of its possibilities, he set out to realize
them. It is said that in June, 1888, he actually worked
continuously for five days and nights in his effort to
develop a better instrument. This long stretch of un-
interrupted labor was remarkable even for him. Some
testimony to the changes he wrought in the phonograph
may be found in the statement that up to 1893 more
than sixty-five patents had been issued to him in con-
nection with it; and up to 1910, more than a hundred.
For tinfoil strips he substituted hollow cylinders of
specially prepared wax* This improvement was so
decided that the wax-cylinder type of machine was at
once established. The cylinder walls were something less
than a quarter-inch in thickness, and the maximum depth
of the record groove was one one-thousandth of an inch*
To take the place of the needle in making the records, he
designed a cutting-tool of sapphire; and for reproduc-
tion, a blunt sapphire stylus. Sapphire is a variety of
93
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
the mineral corundum and for hardness Is ranked next to
the diamond among precious stones. The sapphire stylus
folowed the record groove with a minimum of wear.
Instead of the unsatisfactory adjustment screws that had
been used to hold the needle in place, he added the very
ingenious "floating weight/' which kept both the cutting-
tool and the stylus in proper engagement with the wax
cylinder and prevented distortion of tone. 7 Then he
altered the process of recording, making the shaft or
mandrel rotate in fixed bearings while the cutting-tool
travelled longitudinally (as, for example, the cutting-tool
of an engine lathe does). Other changes were made
some permanently to be retained, some later to be rejected.
Of decided importance in rendering possible the com-
mercial success of the phonograph on a large scale, was
the method arrived at by Edison for making any number
of copies of an original record. In the case of the tin-
foil machine, attempts would appear to have been made
to take a plaster cast of the original foil and thus to
get impressions on other strips. With the wax-cylinder
type, difficulty in obtaining a mold was at once con-
fronted through the fact that wax is a non-conductor;
hence, of course, the original record in its "first state 55
could not be electroplated. Edison at last got around
this obstacle by the "vacuous deposit" process. The
record was placed in a vacuum ; and suspended on either
side of the record was a piece of gold-leaf. High-tension
electricity was then discharged between these gold-leaf
electrodes while the record was revolved. The electricity
7 The "floating weight" operated automatically on the principle that
whereas it constantly held the stylus in contact with the varying surface
of the record-groove, it was itself unable, by reason of its mass, to
respond to the high-speed vibrations of the stylus but passed them along
to the diaphragm.
"ORGANIZING THE ECHOES"
vaporized the gold-leaf and deposited it on the record
in a film so extremely thin that three hundred such would
have, if superimposed, a total thickness about like that
of tissue-paper; and three hundred thousand so placed
would not altogether be thicker than an inch. 8 A heavier
deposit of other metal could then be electroplated on this
gold film. The result,, after the original record had
been withdrawn, was a strong* durable mold. When this
mold was chilled by means of a jacket of cold water and
dipped in liquefied material of a wax-like nature, a heavy
deposit, forming a duplicate record s would be congealed
on the chilled surface.
A company was organized in Philadelphia to introduce
the "revised" phonograph commercially. This company
believed that the future of the instrument lay chiefly in its
use as a business appliance for all sorts of dictation with-
out the aid of a stenographer. The fact was that the
phonograph had not yet reached the stage of refinement
and simplicity that later made it easily adapted, under
the trade-name "Ediphone," to practical use in offices.
By the first plan, the machines were leased ; but renewals
of the leases rarely followed. Then selling was tried and
proved unsuccessful. The company failed. This time,
however, the phonograph was not permitted to lapse into
"innocuous desuetude." Edison took over the assets of
the old company and formed a new one of his own, of
which the policy was to withdraw from the business field
and enter that of entertainment, especially musical.
Thenceforward he devoted a great deal of energy to this
enterprise, which ultimately passed into his control*
8 When it is considered that the maximum depth of the record-groove
was one one-thousandth of an inch, it will readily be seen that ordinary
coatings (such, for example, as that used in the electrotyping process
for making printing plates) would be fax too coarse.
95
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WOEK
To this general period belonged the nickel-in-ihe-slot
phonograph, a high box-like affair with a glass top
through which, as if looking into a Swiss music-box, one
could see details of the mechanism at work. It had long
rubber listening-tubes, the tips of which were inserted in
one*s ears, giving rather the effect of a stethoscope on a
grand scale. Through these were borne thinly and
squeakily, as compared with later results fragments of
music and scraps of talk.
Up to this time, the motors used to actuate the machines
had been of the electric type. These were relatively
heavy, rather expensive, and available only where electric
current could be had. Furthermore, at that stage of
development, the management and care of even small
electric motors were matters too difficult for the inexpert.
A substitute was found in the spring motor still in use
a mechanism relatively light, everywhere available, and
practically "fool-proof."
In February, 1889, in connection with a lecture on
"Edison and His Inventions 5 ' before the Franklin In-
stitute (Philadelphia), William J. Hammer, one of Edi-
son's ablest and most trusted assistants at Menlo Park,
gave a noteworthy demonstration of how the phonograph
might be combined with those other Edison inventions,
the carbon telephonic transmitter (or microphone) and
the "loud-speaking 33 telephonic receiver (or electro-
motograph). Phonograph records made in New York
were reproduced into a carbon transmitter. The vibra-
tions were sent to Philadelphia over 104* miles of telephone
circuit, of which six were underground and underwater;
received by an electro-motograph at the Philadelphia
telephone headquarters and repeated into a phonograph ;
again reproduced into a carbon transmitter; and deliv-
ered by wire to the lecture-hall, where an electro-
96
"ORGANIZING THE ECHOES"
Eiotograph passed them to the audience. The sound
waves travelled by means of fifteen distinct mediums ; and
their physical characteristics went through a series of
forty-eight changes. This may justly be called an early
example of "broadcasting." 9
A writer 10 ia the " Journal of the Franklin Institute"
for April, 1878, thought it then impossible even to con-
jecture the uses to which "this wonderful instrument"
might be put. Very soon afterward in a signed article
in the "North American Review 55 for May-June, 1878
Edison indicated the various fields in which he be-
Heved the phonograph might reveal its usefulness S6 all
enumerated/ 9 to use Ms own words, "under the head of
probabilities. 9511 These may thus be summarized: (a)
Letter-writing and other forms of dictation ; (b) records
of books as read by elocutionists; (c) educational pur-
poses (as ? for example, oral instruction in languages or
in elocution) ; (d) music; (e) family record; (f) toys s
musical-boxes, etc.; (g) annunciator attachments on
clocks; (h) advertising; (i) preserving the "voices as
well as the words of our Washfngtons, our Lincolns, our
Gladstones. 5 *
"Lastly, and in quite another direction/ 5 he wrote, "the
phonograph will perfect the telephone and revolutionize
See "The Electrical Experimenter" for September, 1917. Hammer,
as noted later, was prominently identified with the development of Edi-
son's system of incandescent lighting. He afterward became a well-
known electrical engineer; and during the World War was a member
of the General Staff, U. S. Army, with rank of major. In a letter to the
author, he stated, with reference to this demonstration, that telephone
men were positive the experiment would not be successful.
10 S. M. Plush: "Edison's Carbon Telephone Transmitter and the
Speaking Phonograph."
11 pp. 527-536. It may be of interest to note that this issue also con-
tained contributions from James A. Garfield, James McCosh, O. B.
FmtMngham, and R. W. Emerson.
97
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
present of telegraphy. That useful invention the
telephone is now restricted In its field of operation by
reason of the fact that it is a means of communication
which leaves no record of its transactions, thus restrict-
ing its use to simple conversational chit-chat, and such
unimportant details of business as are not considered of
sufficient importance to record. Were this different^ and
our telephone-conversation automatically recorded^ we
should find the reverse of the present status of the tel-
ephone. It would be expressly resorted to as a means of
perfect record. 55 From this it is evident that Edison had
even then considered the general idea of his telescribe
device, which was not to be developed until long after-
ward and to which reference will be made later in this
yolume.
Of the varieties of everyday use thus indicated by
Edison in 1878, the phonograph has thus far been applied
with general success to four namely, to (a) the dicta-
tion of letters that are subsequently written out on a
typewriting-machine; (b) the teaching of th$ correct
pronunciations of languages; (c) oral instruction in
general, among which may be included that in calisthenic
exercises; (d) the reproduction of music (with which may
also be grouped spoken selections designed for entertain-
ment). It is for the reproduction of music that most
phonographs^ as well as similar instruments based on the
phonographic idea, are employed ; and hence it is for this
purpose that most of the commercial records are made,
Doubtless with this fact in mind, James F. Cooke, editor
of "The Etude/* a popular musical magazine (Philadel-
phia) 5 once declared Edison to be for our time the greatest
living factor in musical advance. 12
12 "The Etude," October, 192S.
98
"ORGANIZING THE ECHOES"
Yet another use/ s perhaps dimly contemplated In
1873 but not suggested in the "Review 55 article, was
found for the phonograph, as an essential part of the
Mnetophone ? Edisoifs device for the "telling" motion-
picture. The Hnetophone will be treated in the proper
place in a later chapter of this book. Scientists have
employed the phonograph for various purposes, notably;
in analyzing and studying wave-forms, J. IL Hewett,
editor of the "General Electric Review 53 (Schenectady),
wrote : "This discovery is in the realm of science and the
uses of the devices that can be, and have been* made by
virtue of this discovery are of real scientific import as
well as of great popular value. 59 . . 14
In 1888 ? at a private exhibition of the improved
phonograph in England before a distinguished gathering
that included the Earl of Aberdeen, Sir Morell Macken-
zie,* and W. E. Gladstone* the instrument recited a
"Salutation** that had been written by the Rev* Horatio
N. Powers of Piermont, N. t Y., and spoken into it by the
author :
"I seize the palpitating air. I lioard
Music and speech. All lips that speak are mine.
I speak, and the inviolable word
Authenticates its origin and sign.
"I am a tomb, a paradise,, a throne,
An angel, prophet, slave, immortal friend:
My living records in their native tone
Convict the knave and disputations end.
"In me are souls embalmed. I am an ear
Flawless as Truth; and Truth's own tongue am I.
is See Chapter XIV, pp. 219-223.
i* "General Electric Review," April, 1924.
99
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
I am a resErrection, and men fcear
The quick and dead converse as I reply." 1S
Archives for phonographic records have since been
established both In this country (for example., by the
Library of Congress and Harvard University) and
abroad. These are intended to preserve the interpreta-
tions of vocal artists, the speaking voices of eminent per-
sonsj folK-songs ? the peculiarities of local dialects^ and any
other records that may be thought desirable.
The original phonograph patent expired and other
makers manufactured instruments of the phonographic
sort, all depending, though under various trade-names^
on the basic principle defined by Edison. The Edison
machine had ? however, come back to stay. Disc records
were adopted for the cabinet phonographs ; but in these
records Edison adhered to his idea of a line incised to
varying depths by what is known as the "hffl-and-dale"
method 3 instead of a zig-zag line of uniform depth. 1 *
Never completely satisfied with the results obtained in
reproducing music striving for a veritable "re-creation* 5
as Ms ideal, Edison, after another period of research and
experiment, developed for his disc records a new material
designed to be virtually indestructible and to have a
smoothness of surface that would do away with the
hissing sound produced by the friction of the needle.
He also originated a new recorder and a diamond-point
reproducer. It was stated that laboratory tests showed
such a reproducer would be unimpaired after playing
more than four thousand records. Edison was constantly
is See Powers' "Lyrics of the Hudson," p. 9,
16 In the gramophone (patented by Smile Berliner in 1887), the
record-groove took the form of a line varying laterally instead of per-
pendicularly. Berliner's machine is to-day commercially known as
the nrictrola*
100
"ORGANIZING THE ECHOES"
seeking perf ection ? and lie Insisted on the utmost precision
and care in all details of manufacture. " 'Throw it out?
he would say when some slight flaw in the disk records
caught his ears. . . . If the disk was not perfect he
would not let it go out of Ms factory." 17
He also clung stoutly to the opinion that, for the best
results, recording for the phonograph required of vocalists
a special quality of "voice and a particular technique.
What he most valued was a pleasing quality In the record ;
and he did not think this was always best attained by the
much-acclaimed artists of the opera. To Meadowcroft,
his secretary, he said on one occasion that he wished
"voices that will stand the test of the phonograph and
give permanent pleasure to people^ irrespective of stage
environment, or the press agent, or pleasing personality **
A writer in "The Independent" related that, having
ordered some disc records to be destroyed, Edison added:
"People may think some of these folks are great singers*
Lots of little defects don't sound in the concert hall, but
when they come out of that hole they do! They can't
fool my phonograph! I've got them! 5 * 18
One might naturally wonder how Edison, with his
pronounced deafness so pronounced, indeed, that he
could not hear at all a phonograph three feet from Bin*
could successfully experiment with such an apparatus
or could prove to be, as he did, an unsparing critic of
phonographic records. "I hear through my teeth," he
explained to an interviewer, "and through my skull.
Ordinarily I merely place my head against a phonograph.
But if there is some faint sound that I don't quite catch
17 G. E. Walsh: "With Edison in His Laboratory," in "The Inde-
pendent" for Sept. 4, 1913.
isMeadowcroft, 1921 ed., p, 3S9. G. E. Walsh: "With Edison in
His Laboratory," in "The Independent" for Sept 4, 1913.
101
EDISON; THE MAN AND HIS WORK
tihis way, 1 bite into the wood, and then I get It good and
strong. 33 1S He thought his inner ear particularly sensi-
tive because it had been "protected from the millions of
noises that dim the hearing of ears that hear everything/ 5
It was said that he once rejected an orchestra record as
defective^ remarking^ "The keys on that fellow's flute
squeak,' 5 a Do you hear the pedal of that harp ?' 9 he sud-
denly asked an interviewer as a record was being tested.
a l could hear no pedal," the interviewer afterward ad-
mitted, ic but the Wizard's splendidly attuned ear could
detect it as well as other imperfections. 55 20
In 1922 the forty-fifth anniversary of the invention of
the phonograph was made by Edison's associates the
occasion for various informal celebrations in honor of the
inventor, "Now," declared he, "I have set my heart on
reproducing perfectly Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with
seventy-five people in the orchestra. When I have done
that, I'll quit." Forty-five years before, he had begun
with that feeble, halting rendition of "Mary had a little
lamb?'
i A. L. Benson: "Edison's Dream of New Music/* in the "Cosmopoli-
tan** for May, 1913.
20 Bailey Millard: "Pictures That Talk," In the "Technical World
Magazine" for March, 1013.
102
X
A NEW LIGHT SHINES
IN order now to resume the main course of Edison's story,
we must go back to the year 1878, when the invention
and exhibition of the tinfoil phonograph made so much
stir. In July of 1878, Edison, who had had no real
vacation in ten years, found opportunity to take one and
at the same time to make a test of the tasimeter under
field conditions. A total eclipse of the sun occurred on
July 29th; and one of Edison's friends, Prof. George R
Barker, professor of chemistry and physics in the Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania, suggested that Edison accom-
pany a scientific expedition to Rawlins, Wyoming (then
Wyoming Territory), where eclipse and corona were to
be observed.
Though the heat from the corona greatly exceeded
the index capacity of the tasimeter used, so that no real
results were obtained, yet the essential value of the instru-
ment was manifest. After the eclipse, Edison went with
a hunting v party to northwestern Colorado. Having
much enjoyed his glimpses of the frontier northwest, he
was back at work by the end of August and was casting
about for some new enterprise. Professor Barker pro-
posed a problem in which Edison had already been in-
terested the problem of subdividing the electric current
for illximinating purposes. Just what this involved can-
not be made clear until we have briefly examined the
status of electric lighting at that time.
108
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
Electric lighting was no new thing* Away back at
the very beginning of the nineteenth century. Sir Hum-
phry Davy had produced it. With his Royal Institution
battery of ,000 cells, he was able to give a large-scale
display of it. At the end of each of the two battery
wires he had a piece of charcoal. He brought the char-
coal electrodes into contact, then separated them. At
once the intervening space was filled with flame. The
electrodes were horizontal and, lifted by the heated air,
the flame bent upward in the form of a bow or arc.
Davy's only source of current was the battery. For
many years, batteries remained the sole available current-
sources for such lights, since frictional machines gave
but feeble currents and these at such high potentials as
to be unadaptable. It was quite out of the question to
supply current on a really large scale by means of bat-
teries ; the reason being, of course, the prohibitive cost of
the materials necessary to chemical action.
In 1831 Michael Faraday discovered the principle of
the magneto-machine, which converted mechanical energy
into electrical energy. In the magneto-machine (present-
day examples of which are widely familiar through their
use in motor-cars) the modern dynamo had its beginnings.
The dynamo meant relatively cheaper current, and this
relatively cheaper current helped to further the introduc-
tion of the arc-light. What we now call electrical en-
gineering had its earliest form of growth in the instal-
lation of arc-lighting for public service. Before that,
applied electricity had been limited to telegraphy of
various sorts and, in a small way, to electro-plating. 1
By 1878, much had been accomplished in arc-lighting
*The American Institute of Electrical Engineers was not founded
until 1884; and in the same year, at Philadelphia, the first American
electrical exhibition was held.
104
A NEW LIGHT SHINES
both here and abroad. Plants had been installed in light-
houses on the English and French coasts. In London
the light had been tried in the offices of the "Times 95 and
on portions of Holborn Viaduct and of the Thames Em-
bankment. Among the noteworthy sights of the Centen-
nial Exposition at Philadelphia in 1876, were arc-lamps
and the dynamo that supplied them with current. Dy-
namo and lamps were results of the experimental labors
o William Wallace (1826-1904)- Wallace, head of a
large manufactory of brass and copper goods in Ansonia,
Connecticut^ made scientific research his hobby and was
one of the pioneers of electric lighting. He it was that
first built a dynamo in the United States (February 5
1874) ; and among American manufacturers he was the
first to use the dynamo in electro-plating. In his dynamo
work he obtained the aid of Moses G. Farmer 2 as tech-
nical assistant; and in 1875 he began commercial pro-
duction of Wallace-Farmer dynamos. Up to 1880 he
continued to experiment with various types of machine,
including one that is said to have been the first to employ
laminated plates for the core of the armature. He in-
vented and made (early in 1875) the first American arc-
lamp a crude affair consisting of a wooden frame on
which were slotted two movable cross-bars, each holding
a Carbon plate. The arc, once established by a piece of
carbon or wire placed in contact with the plates, followed
the line of least resistance, shifting along a horizontal
path between them. The adjustment device that Wallace
commonly found most convenient, was a small boy who
drove the plates together by hitting the cross-bars with
a hammer.
2 In the primitive days of telegraphy, Farmer had been an operator
at Framinghiam, Massachusetts; and there in 1847-1848 he applied the
principle of the telegraph to the first practicable fire-alarm,
105
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
Subsequent models of his lamp showed constant im-
provement. He was the first American manufacturer of
arc-lamp carbons* and claimed to be the inventor of the
cylindrical carbon pencil that superseded other forms of
carbon electrode. With an installation of his plate lamps
in the Ansonia works, he originated series arc-lighting;
arc-lamps having previously been run on separate cir-
cuits. This series arrangement he never patented and it
was speedily imitated. He was a pathfinder whose serv-
ices are not to-day so well known as they deserve to be. 3
Others who in this country had been devoting their
attention to the development of the arc-lamp and the study
of arc-lighting systems,, were Elihii Thomson, Edward
Weston, and Charles F. Brush. At the Mechanics* Fair
in Boston in I878 5 Brush exhibited a small arc-lighting
dynamo that later was used in illuminating and advertis-
ing a Boston clothing-shop. Brush's lamps were placed
in the public squares of Cleveland 9 Ohio (his native
town), and in Madison and Union squares. New York,
The arc-lamp, when its carbon electrodes and its
automatic adjustment had been gradually improved, was
undoubtedly efficient in converting energy into light.
But it had many defects. Its carbons burned rapidly
away and had constantly to be replaced. As they burned,
they made a hissing sound. Although the lamp's effec-
tiveness did not extend so far as one might reasonably
have supposed, yet immediately beneath the lamp the light
was so intensely bright as to be unpleasant and even
harmful to the eyes- Harsh shadows were cast. The
s See a series of articles, ''William Wallace and His Contributions
to the Electrical Industries," by W. J. Hammer, in "The Electrical En-
gineer" for February 1, 8, 15, and 22, 1893. This series is based on
first-hand knowledge and is abundantly illustrated. The "History of
Hew Haven County" (New York, 1892), edited by J. L. Hockey and
others, has a sketch (vol II, pp. 525-528).
106
A NEW LIGHT SHINES
are flickered. It burned in an open globe ; theref ore 5 like
other exposed flames., it not only consumed and fouled
the air but in many places as, for example, flour-milling
plants, coal mines, and powder-works was too hazardous
to use. It could not be produced on a small scale ; hence
for small rooms it was impossible.
Up to 1878, it was with the arc-lamp in various forms
that all "practical" electric lighting had been done. A
lamp of another sort had, however, long been attempted.
When the electric arc was produced., the carbons became
incandescent at their tips ; that is to say, heat made these
tips luminous and they glowed as coals will in a grate
or like the extremities of an electric fuse. This phenom-
enon, so readily observed, may have led to experiments
with the glow, or incandescent, lamp. At all events,
students of electric lighting were early aware that when
current traversed a conductor possessing a high melting-
point and high resistance, heat would make that conductor
to some extent a source of light ; and as a substance for
the conductor, carbon was repeatedly tried. Kefractory
metals also were favored material.
As early as 1841, Frederick de I!oleyns 3 an English-
man, took the first decisive forward step in the develop-
ment of the incandescent lamp; he inclosed a metallic-
wire conductor in a glass bulb from which he had ex-
hausted most of the air. In 1845 J. W. Starr, an
American, with E. A. King, an English associate, brought
out a lamp in which a rod of plumbago, fastened at either
end to a metallic conductor, was inserted in a barometric
or Torricellian vacuum that is, in the apparent vacuum
above the mercury column in the tube of a barometer.
One encounters the names of many other experimenters
such as W. E. Staite (1848) and J, J. W. Watson
(1853) ; or Joseph W. (later Sir Joseph) Swan, who in
107
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
1860 devised a lamp with a conductor in the form of a
strip of carbonized paper; 4 or Moses G. Farmer, who
used (1859) platinum and iriditim wire in lamps con-
nected to primary batteries; or ? coming down to 1878*
W. E. Sawyer and A. Man, who in that year introduced
the Sawyer-Man lamp. This had various new features*
among them being an inclosing vessel charged with
nitrogen gas. (Nitrogen gas is highly inert; it will not
burn nor will it support combustion as oxygen does. It
would therefore permit of higher temperatures than
would a vacuum, at the same time assuring longer life
to the conductor.) Despite these efforts, however, no
inventor had yet constructed a satisfactory incandescent
lamp.
Such was the general situation in the electric-lighting
ield when Edison, following Professor Barker's sugges-
tion, started out to subdivide the electric current. What
did this "subdividing" mean? It meant that with the
same current used to light a single arc-lamp, Edison
purposed to light a given number of separate or divided
lamps, the sum of which should equal the single arc. It
meant that he was to try to produce electric light in small
units in lamps of about the same candlepower as the
flame of illuminating gas from an ordinary gas- jet. He
saw clearly that the lamp would be the determining factor
in any electric-lighting system. He saw that the arc-
lamp, with its 00 or 800 candlepower 5 was too large and
bright for the purpose he had in view. Therefore he
chose the incandescent type the type that never yet had
been made to work successfully; and he was quite un-
deterred by the fact that experts were ready to pronounce
4 His source of current, a battery of Grove voltaic cells, made the
strip red-hot but was not powerful enough to render it fully incan-
descent.
108
A NEW LIGHT SHINES
subdivision an absurd notion. "The electric light/ 5
Edison in later years/ "has caused me the greatest amount
of study ? and has required the most elaborate experi-
ments^ although I was never myself discouraged^ or in-
clined to be hopeless of success. I cannot say the same
for all my associates. And yet through all those years of
experimenting and research I never once made a discovery.
All my work was deductive, and the results I achieved
were those of invention pure and simple. I would con-
struct a theory and work on its lines until I found it
untenable, then it would be discarded at once and an-
other theory evolved. This way was the only possible
way for me to work out the problem. 55 . . .
In I877 ? the year in which he had been working on his
telephone with the carbon-button transmitter, Edison had
done some experimenting (from September onward until
about the end of the year) in incandescence: first with
carbon strips attached to clamps forming the poles of a
battery; then with refractory metals (such as boron,
chromium, ruthenium) , either placed directly in a circuit
or inserted between carbon points. He also tried "elec-
tric candles, 55 made by sealing into a glass tube a mixture
of powdered silicon and a refractory oxide, such as lime.
Carbon strips heated in open air sufficiently to incan-
desce, at once oxidized and crumbled to pieces. A similar
strip in a vacuum produced by a hand-operated pump,
remained at incandescence "for about eight minutes. 5 *
Neither refractory metals nor electric candles appeared
to Edison to promise anything practical. From the be-
ginning of 1878 until the time of the eclipse expedition
in July of that year, the introduction of the phonograph
had claimed all his attention; but in the late summer he
* Arthur Churchill, "Edison and His Early Work," in the "Scientific
American Supplement" for April 1, 1905.
109
EDISON: THE AND HIS WORK
determined at Professor Barker's suggestion to return
to the lighting experiments that had been laid aside but
never wholly forgotten. Thus began the long campaign
for an incandescent lamp that should make subdivision
of the electric current a reality.
Early in September he went to Ansonia for a personal
view of what William Wallace was doing. With him
went Professor Barter (who, like many other scientific
men of the day* was a friend of Wallace), Charles
Batchelor, Prof. Charles F. Chandler/ and Dr. Henry
Draper. From Wallace he obtained a Wallace-Farmer
dynamo and a set of Wallace arc-lamps to light the
laboratory at Menlo Park. He and the other members
of the party inscribed their names with a diamond-point
on goblets used at that time. Edison wrote in minute
script upon his goblet, long and carefully treasured by
Wallace: "Thomas A. Edison, Sept. 8 9 1878, made
under the electric light." After a full survey of Wal-
lace's devices and methods, Edison frankly declared;
"Wallace, I believe I can beat you making electric light,
1 do not think you are working in the right direction/*
(Wallace not only was firm in allegiance to the arc-lamp,
but was even experimenting with multi-carbon lamps, one
such lamp of his having forty-eight pencils.) Each of
these men had, however, a high regard for the other.
Hammer says that Wallace often spoke in praise of
Edison; and to a question of Hammer's Edison once
replied that Wallace had "done a great deal of good work
for which others have received the credit" and which
"others have benefited largely by," 7
Chandler was at that time professor of chemistry In Columbia Uni-
versity. Draper was a scientist whose chief work was in the field of
celestial photography.
T "The Electrical Engineer," February I, 1893, p. 105. . , . Al
number of "very important patents taken out by inventors in this country^
110
A NEW LIGHT SHINES
When Edison got back home, the first thing lie did was
to delve Into the subject of gas lighting. He rounded
up and read the back files of technical periodicals and the
"Transactions" of societies o gas engineers. His lab-
oratory notes (which, during the period of his electric-
lighting researches, filled more than two hundred note-
books containing a total of over 40^000 pages) Included
such jottings as these: u Edison 5 s great effort not to
make a large light or a blinding light, but a small light
having the mildness of gas/ 5 "Object, Edison to effect
exact imitation of all done by gas 5 so as to replace light-
ing by gas by lighting by electricity." . . . "So un-
pleasant is the effect of the products of gas that in the
new Madison Square Theatre every gas jet is ventilated
by special tubes to carry away the products of combus-
tion*" There were figures giving the world's estimated
investment in illuminating gas; a chart of the relative
consumption of gas during the various months of the
year ; a prediction that gas would be used less for light-
ing, more for heating. Few, probably 3 were the gas en-
gineers that knew the broader phases of gas illumination
more thoroughly than did Edison when he had finished
this preliminary survey. 8
The facts qf this method of approach have an especial
interest as helping to refute popular errors regarding
which have led to expensive litigation and claims of priority by various
inventors, have been given their quietus through the discovery that these
inventions were anticipated by the work of William Wallace and his
assistants. A notable instance is the arc lamp clutch mechanism
claimed by Mr. Chas. F. Brush, found to have been first used in the
Wallace lamp at the suggestion of Mr. Leroy White of Waterbury;
and the claim of Mr, Edicon covering the controlling of the output of
a dynamo by the putting-in and cutting-out of coils in the field circuit
was found to have been applied to an early Wallace dynamo used, I
believe, for plating purposes." 15., February 22, 1893, p. 182.
D. and ML, I. 264-266; II, 604.
Ill
EDISOX: THE MAN AND HIS
Edison. He lias represented as
results by lucky chance; or as a sort of necromancer,
eye "in a fine frenzy rolling." Authentic evidence
fails to support either view.
To provide the sinews of war, a syndicate^ the Edison
Electric Light company, capitalized at was
formed. Its guiding spirit was Grosvenor P. Lowrey^
for many years Edison's legal adviser; J. P. Morgan,
Henry Villard, and other financiers participated. Menlo
Park, tiny settlement in the midst of gently-undulating
farmland* was now to be for many months the scene of a
driving activity that was destined to make it famous.
It lay a bit west of the railway and above the level of
the line a half-dozen or so of dwelling-houses and s
beyond these, the inclosure containing Edison^s establish-
ment. In the northeast corner of the inclosure was a
small brick structure housing the business office on the
lower floor and Edison's technical library on the upper.
At the rear and southwest of this building, stood the long,
two-story* frame main building. Its first floor was
devoted to various purposes. Here were chemical lab-
oratories ; and here, equipped with wire connections, was
a specially constructed table carrying testing instru-
ments, portable forms of such instruments being then
unknown* On the second floor was the principal lab-
oratory one big rodm in which were conducted all major
experiments in connection with the incandescent electric
lamp. Along the side walls of the laboratory, from floor
to ceiling, ran shelves packed with containers holding a
motley assemblage of chemicals and other supplies.
Scattered about were batteries of cells and long tables
covered with many sorts of instruments and apparatus.
At the rear (ot western) end was an organ that had
been obtained from Hilborne Roosevelt. On this organ
112
A NEW LIGHT SHINES
would sometimes "play tunes in a primitive
Back of the main building came a carpenter-shop and
the gasoline-gas outfit ; and beyond was a spacious brict
machine-shop^ under wliose roof were also engine-room
and boiler. Behind the machine-shop, where Kruesi was
in charge, a stretch of woods began,
It does not appear that the set of Wallace arc-lamps
was ever used. The Wallace-Farmer dynamo was pre-
sumably needed for service in experiments. At any rate 5
while Edison was working away at his incandescent elec-
tric lamp ? gasoline gas was used for artificial illumination
when, as was the rule through many months, the end o
day brought no respite from intensive toil.
During those early years of electric-lighting develop-
ment, young men of parts and promise gathered to
Edison's staff. Francis R. Upton 5 the chief mathemati-
cian* had studied at Princeton and later been a pupil of
Hermann von Helmlioltz. An associate said that "any
wrangler at Oxford 5 ' would have delighted in watching
Upton " juggle with integral and differential equations* 5 '
The chief technician, Charles Batchelor sometimes called
a Edison 5 s hands/* had originally come from England to
install thread-winding machinery in Clark's thread man-
ufactory in Newark. Upton described Batchelor as "a
wonderful mechanic 5 * and as possessed of good judgment
9 Hilborne L. Roosevelt (1849-188$), a cousin of Theodore, was an
organ-builder well known in his day. Among the large organs he built,
were that in the main building of the Centennial Exposition (Philadel-
phia) and those in Grace Church (New York) and the Garden City
(Long Island) cathedral. "He was widely known among electricians,
invented several important details of the telephone, enjoyed a royalty
for many years in the telephone-switch, and was largely interested in the
Bell telephone company." ("Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American Biog-
raphy/* YoL V, p. 319.)
113
EDISON: MAN AND HIS WORK
and untiring patience. Edison's most intimate personal
friend and most valued consultant was Edward H. John-
son, who, having left the employ of the Denver and Rio
railroad, had already assisted Edison in long-
demonstrations (1878) of automatic telegraphy
and had in England to represent Edison's electro-
motograph interests. Johnson's duties kept him away
from Menlo for much of the time. Ludwig K. Boehm,
Force, Francis Jelil, and John W. Lawson were
also associates.
Others who joined the Menlo group prior to 1881, were :
William S. Andrews (like Batchelor, an Englishman),
who for nearly a quarter-century held posts in various
Edison companies and later became a consulting en-
gineer of the General Electric company; William J*
Hammer, who had been assistant to Edward Weston in
Weston 5 s malleable-nickel works in Newark and who after-
ward, besides rendering Edison important and confidential
services both at home and abroad, was allied with Frank
J. Sprague in instaEing at Richmond* Virginia* the
world ? s first large-scale electric-traction line (1887);
John W. Lieb ? in after years vice-president of the New
York Edison company, who began at Menlo as a draughts-
man; Charles L. Clarke, who subsequently was appointed
chief engineer of the Edison Electric Light company in
New York and in time became, like Andrews, one of the
General Electric company 9 engineers; and Edward G.
AcJieson s who in 1891 invented the abrasive carborundum
(silicon carbide) and the carborundum furnace. 10 Dr.
iAcheson Iras using the electric furnace in experiments to make
artificial diamonds and accidentally hit on carborundum. Carborundum
is used in place of corundum or emery for polishing or sharpening. It
is the result of the action of carbon on silicon at high temperature ,
coke powder supplying the carbon, and sand the silicon, while sawdust
ordinary salt (sodium chloride) are used to facilitate the process*
A NEW LIGHT SHINES
JL Nichols, after study at the universities of
Leipzig, Berlin, and Gottlngen and a fellowship at Johns
Hopkins^ was at llealo doing special scientific research
for Edison during the winter of 1880-1381. He was
professor of pliysics in Cornell University from 1SST to
1919 and published several test-books.
Batclielor* Uptoz^ and Edison had houses of their own.
Edison's place was distinguished by a windmill that
pumped water for the household reservoir. Close at
hand was Mrs. Jordan 5 s boarding-house for Edison em-
ployees. In the experimental wort, according to Edison's
account^ "we had all the way from forty to fifty mem/ 5 X1
"They worked,* 5 he continues, "all the time. Each man
was allowed from four to sis hours' sleep. We had a
man who kept tally, and when the time came for one to
sleep, lie was notified- 55 Said Francis JeH: "It often
happened that when Edison had been working up to three
or four o'clock in the morning, he would lie down on one of
the laboratory tables, and with nothing but a couple of
books for a pillow, would fall into a sound sleep. . . .
Some of the laboratory assistants could be seen now and
then sleeping on a table in the early morning hours.**
Small wonder that R. U. Johnson, who several times
visited Menlo during this period, has written: 12 "It
was a time of great intensity, every one being keyed up
to concert pitch. 55 Upton once commented: ". . . I
have often felt that Mr. Edison could never comprehend
the limitations of the strength of other men, as his own
physical and mental strength have always seemed to
be without limit. He could work continuously as long
The crystallized carborundum is nearly as hard as a diamond; sulphuric
acid and other extremely powerful acids do not affect it
11 IX and WU II, 634.
i- "Remembered Yesterdays," p. 115.
115
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
as lie wished* and he had sleep at Ms command. 55 ia
Not only was Edison possessed of great physical
stamina 3 but lie was also Inured to night-work through
his experience as a telegraph operator, A favorite
dogma of Ms was that we sleep too much. He was per-
haps too ready to suppose that al other men had similar
physiques or could adapt themselves to his methods.
There Is record of his enthusiastic praise of a man whom
he chose to run one of his Newark shops. "When In need
of rest/" said Edison, "he would lie down on a work-bench,
sleep twenty or thirty minutes, and wake up fresh. As
this was just what I cowld do, 14 I naturally conceived
a great pride In having such a man in charge of my
work." It has been written of him that he "never hes-
itated to use men up as freely as a Napoleon or Grant;
seeing only the goal of a complete invention or perfected
device." 15 . . . Yet Francis JeH declared 16 that Edi-
son's ^winning ways and manners" made the laboratory-
workers at Menlo "ever ready with a boundless devotion
to execute any request or desire 55 ; that Edison "was
respected with a respect which only great men can ob-
tain?* This probably reflects the sentiments of the
majority. Most of the assistants were young men, en-
thusiastic and at the beginning of their careers. They
believed In themselves; they believed in their chief; and,
though sometimes discouraged, they believed in the future
of the art they were helping to evolve.
When the staff was working late, a midnight meal was
brought in, supplying excuse for a pause In the night's
occupation. Now and then some of the men from the
is D. and M., I, 281.
i*I&., I, 140. The italics are ours,
is 16., I, 134-135,
I, 297,
A NEW LIGHT SHINES
office were present on these occasions; sometimes old
acquaintances of Edison's joined the circle; often the
meal would be followed by music noisy choruses, an
organ "selection/ 5 a vocal solo by Boehm (who played
his own accompaniment on a zither) or somebody else.
Save for these intervals, we hear of but one officially-
recognised form of relaxation, "During the summer-
time/ 9 said Edison, "after we had made something which
was successful,, I used to engage a brick-sloop at Perth
Amboy and take the whole crowd down to the fishing-
banks on the Atlantic for two days. 53 17 Edison had the
patience necessary to the complete angler. Once, inside
Sandy Hook, he fished without a bite for two days and two
nights and then quit only because the other members
of the party compelled him to by raising anchor and
sailing away.
For the long train of experiments now undertaken to
achieve a satisfactory lamp as the prime requisite of sub-
division of the electric current, Edison naturally returned
to his earlier researches as a starting-point. To be satis-
factory, the lamp would have to meet successfully both
scientific and commercial tests. Scientifically, it must
have an incandescing substance with high resistance and
small radiating surface, and capable of sustaining for
a thousand or more hours a temperature in excess of two
thousand degrees. Commercially, it must be proof
against the ordinary impacts of daily use; simple to
manage ; cheaply produced ; and permitting the maximum
economy in the outlay for copper wires to bring current
to it. Furthermore, as part of a system intended even-
tually to supplant gas for illuminating purposes, it must
be independent of every other lamp on the circuit that
is, it must be so arranged that it could be lit or extin-
. and M II, 634.
117
EDISON: THE MAX AND HIS WORK
guished without reference to any other lamp* just as gas
could be at the individual jet. And the lamps must be
units of a system that could be operated at charges
reasonable enough to make it a real competitor of gas.
In order that the lamps should be independent of each
other, it was necessary to run them in "multiple circuit. 5 *
They could not be run in "series." "Multiple circuit'*
and "series* 5 are the terms used for the leading two sys-
tems of distributing electric current for general use. To
gain a rough idea of the series system, one may regard it
as a big loop or ellipse-like arrangement on which all
the lamps are directly carried. The current acts, there-
fore, along the path of the loop, and to reach the suc-
cessive lamps it must pass through the preceding lamp or
lamps; that is, to reach s say, the fourth lamp it must
pass through the first, second, and third; and to reach
the last lamp of the circuit it must pass through all the
others. Hence, if one lamp were out of order, the path
would be broken and the current interrupted ; for, in order
that an electric current may flow, the circuit must be
"closed** or "made" throughout, either wholly along the
route of a wire conductor or with the earth as a "return."
In the series system, the lamps are, to borrow an apt com-
parison, "like beads on a string, and therefore not in-
dependent of one another, but all dependent on the
integrity and continuity of the circuit or string." 1S
Now, the multiple-circuit system may be rudely repre-
sented as a ladder. The sides of the ladder are two
parallel conductors, one positive and the other negative.
The rungs of the ladder are the circuits of the individual
lamps, each lamp having its own rung. Thus each lamp
is connected by one electrode (or pole) to the positive
is Address of J. W. Lieb before the Edison Pioneers, February II*
1920 (Edison's seventy-third birthday).
US
A N"EW LIGHT SHINES
conductor^ by the other to the negative* If one Is
broken that is, If one lamp is out of order, the
the other rungs remain intact that is 5 the parallel con-
ductors continue to function and so do the other lamp-
circuits and lamps. This will make it sufficiently clear
that for a distribution such as Edison had in mind^ in
which electric light was to be provided in small independ-
ent units as gas light was 5 the multiple-circuit system was
inevitable.
The individual lamp to be used with such a system must 5
as has already been said,, have an incandescing substance
of small cross-section (or radiating surface) and high re-
sistance. The reason for this is readily grasped. In-
candescence was,, of course, to be obtained from heat pro-
duced by the action of the current in passing through the
incandescing substance. The resistance of a conductor
is inversely proportional to its cross-sectional area.
Therefore the resistance offered by the incandescing sub-
stance (or burner) must be greater than that offered by
the wires bringing the current from the source of supply;
for, if the reverse were true, heat needed in the burner
would be wasted in the wires. Yet Edison's predecessors
had worked in the opposite direction that of burners
with large cross-section (or radiating surface) and low
resistance. With relation to the resistance of the burner,
it was necessary to consider the voltage (or electromotive
force) of the current voltage being comparable to pres-
sure or "head" in hydraulics. The electromotive force
must be relatively high, the current-flow relatively small
The higher the voltage, 19 the greater would have to be
the resistance of the burner. The lower the voltage, the
is The volt is the working unit-of-meastire of electromotive force;
being such an electromotive force as will convey a current of one
ampere against a resistance of one ohm.
JI9
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
greater would have to be the size of the wires supplying
the current.
On the ascending scale, a point would be reached where
it would be virtually impossible to provide a burner with
adequate resistance. On the descending scale, a point
would be reached where the amount of copper for wires
would be so large as to make prohibitive the cost of com-
mercial manufacture. In other words, the current must
be of a voltage high enough to render commercial instal-
lation feasible* but not so high as to make light by In-
candescence a vastly difficult thing to attain; and the
burner must be of a cross-section small enough to offer
adequate resistance, yet not so small that the material
used would be unstable and short-lived.
Facing such difficulties at the outset, Edison renewed
his attempts with carbon strips, of which he made "a
very large number of trials." 20 The strips were of car-
bonized paper, and this was also tried in a great variety
of other forms* Wood carbons and hard carbon (as in
the arc-lamp) were put to the test. So were sticks (or
wires) of paper tissue that had been coated with lamp-
black and tar, then rolled out thin and carbonized. These
burners, in such vacuum as Edison was able to create with
an ordinary air-pump, lasted only ten or fifteen minutes.
Edison had been inclined to select carbon as the most
promising substance for incandescence, but there was no
denying that, even under the best conditions he could
then furnish, it was not practicable ; so, for the time be-
ing and reluctantly, he abandoned it. Then he again
took up refractory metals.
The resistances of platinum and of iridium, a silver-
vhitish metal of the platinum group, were known to be
relatively high. Edison therefore made wire burners of
*> IX and M., I, 249.
120
A NEW LIGHT SHINES
indium, of platinum, and of refractory alloys s and
lie experimented with both in the open air and in the best
vacua lie could get with the same common type of air-
pump that he had used in the case of the carbon burners*
When incandescent, the metal wires showed, it is true, a
longer life than had the carbon burners ; but the current
required to bring them to incandescence was so powerful
as to melt them in a short time. To control the tempera-
ture of the wires and thus to keep them from being melted*
Edison introduced regulating devices into the circuit; but
these devices proved to be unreliable* 21 He next coiled
platinum around a bobbin of refractory oxide still with-
out the results he sought. In connection with these in-
vestigations, he made, on the evidence of one of Ms note-
books* some 1,600 different tests of earths, minerals, and
ores. 22
In the spring of 1879, metallic-wire lamps were pri-
vately exhibited at Menlo to members of the syndicate.
Several lamps with platinum burners were <c hooked up"
in series in the machine-shop; current being furnished,
according to Francis Jehl, by a dynamo "of the Gramme
type. 5523 The exhibition was not enheartening. Cur-
rent was turned on. "A little more juice, 5 * said Edison
to Kruesi; and a second time, "A little more." For^a
fleeting moment one lamp gave forth "a light like a star in
the distance." Then followed an explosion a puff
darkness! Batchelor removed the wrecked lamp; ia-
21 In one type, the current was led through a metal bar that, when
the current became too strong, acted as a shunt or short-circuit. In
another, expansion of gas or air inclosed in a tube operated a dia-
phragm that worked in similar fashion.
22 D. and M., II, 605-606.
2.8 D. and M., I, 289. This was presumably the Wallace dynamo,
"Wallace built dynamos of various types. His first machine and the cm
used at the Centennial Exposition had Gramme-ring armatures. See
{Hammer's article in "The Electrical Engineer" for February 8, 1803,
121
EDISON: THE MAX AND HIS WORK
a fresh one. The same thing happened. One or
two more trials were made, with like finale. "After that
exhibition/ 5 commented Jehl, "we had a house-cleaning
at the laboratory. 55 * , .
was making progress. First, he
had that the Incandescing substance must be her-
metically inclosed In a container (now known as a "bulb*')
formed entirely of glass and exhausted of air as thor-
oughly as possible. Thus inclosed 9 his platinum wire
would yield, without melting* a light of twenty-five can-
dles, in the open air It would melt while yielding
but four candles. Second,* he had learned that when the
air was pumped out, a current must fee sent through
the Incandescing substance. He noticed that, even with
high vacua, oxygen appeared to be present to a perplex-
ing extent, hastening the destruction of his platinum wire.
This oxygen* he reasoned, must be held in the material of
the wire when the wire was sealed into the glass ; perhaps,
if the wire were kept aglow while pumping was under
way, the oxygen might be driven from the wire, where-
upon it would be pumped out as the free air was. Tests
showed his reasoning was correct.
He now returned to carbon* and returned to stay, tak-
ing with him his invaluable new knowledge. In the case
of carbon, it was realized that the importance of passing
a current through the burner while a vacuum was being
produced was even greater than in the case of the metal
wires; for carbon in its more porous states has a marked
property of absorbing (or occluding) gases a common
example being afforded by charcoal, which by virtue of
this property is of help in preserving foods. Through
his experiments with platinum, Edison had learned some-
thing else: though platinum had a melting-point rela-
tively too low for his purpose, and though it was inferior
122
A LIGHT SHINES
In light-giving quality * yet It was long to play an
tial part in the construction of incandescent lamps. For
it was found to have the same coefficient of expansion as
glass had ; hence it was used as the material of the "leads/ 5
the wires that respectively brought current to the lamp
and conveyed It from the lamp. Consequently no gaps
developed to cause leakage at the points where the wires
were sealed into the glass. Leads were made of platinum
for many years, but platinum "was costly and search was
therefore begun for a substitute, which lucidly was dis-
covered through the use in combination o two
whose joint coefficient of expansion \ras of proper value.
From the date of the invention of the phonograph, Edi-
son had been regarded by the gentlemen of the press as a
likely source of "copy. 55 It was not long before the ob-
jective of his new labors became known. He believed, so
It transpired, that the electric current could be subdi-
vided; more than that, he was proposing to subdivide it.
If outside of the Menlo Park organization and a few of
Edison's friends, like Professor Barker, there were ex-
perts either at home or abroad who agreed with Mm in
belief or who anticipated a successful outcome for Ms ex-
periments, they neglected to say so. On the contrary,
William H. (later Sir William) Preece, a distinguished
English electrician, somewhat contemptuously declared,,
". . . The subdivision of the light is an absolute igms
fatum"; thus supplying a catch-phrase that was to re-
turn boomerang-like upon its inventor, A committee of
the House of Commons met, with Dr. Lyon Playfair
(later Baron Playfair of St. Andrews) as chairman, to
take counsel upon the matter of electric lighting; but its
report dismissed Edison with short shrift indeed. 24 More
24 gee B. and M., I, 242; T. C. Martin, "Forty Years of Edison
Service" (New York, 1922), pp. S-4.
123
EDISON: THE MAX AND HIS WOBK
graciously* more judicially* but hardly more hopefully,
the famed John TyndaH said in a lecture before the
Royal Institution : "Edison has the penetration to seize
the relationship of facts and principles and the art to
reduce them to novel and concrete combinations. Hence 5
though he has thus far accomplished nothing new in re-
lation to the electric light, an adverse opinion as to his
ability to solve the complicated problem on which he is
engaged would be unwarranted. . . . Knowing some-
thing of the intricacy of the practical problem s I should
certainly prefer seeing it In Mr. Edison's hands to hav-
ing it in mine. 53 25 Others were much less courteous and
reserved, 4C< Dreamer/ 4 fooV 'boaster 5 were among the
appellations bestowed upon him by unbelieving critics.
Kidicule was heaped upon him in the public prints, and
mathematics were [sic] called into service by learned men
to settle the point forever that he was attempting the ut-
terly impossible. 55 m
Meanwhile, Edison was cultivating his garden. Of
aJl substances, carbon has the maximum fusing-point
(7000 degrees F-, equivalent to about 3900 degrees C.) ;
but this advantage alone was not enough. Carbon must,
for Edison's purpose, be formed into a homogeneous,
stable burner of properly tenuous cross-section. More
than a quarter-century later, Edison, speaking in a gen-
eral way of the obstructions encountered, had this to say :
a Just consider this; we have an almost infinitesimal fila-
ss p. M. White, "Edison and the Incandescent Lamp," In "The Out-
look 1 * for February 26, 1910. Also, "Forty Years of Edison Service,"
pp. 3-4; D. and M., I, 243. In the "Fortnightly Review" (February*
1879) Tyndal! remarked, <f Though we have possessed the electric lig'at
[i v the arc light] for seventy years, it has been too costly to come
general use." He added his belief that electricity would in time **
lumine our streets, halls, quays, squares, warehouses, and $>er]iap&
no distant day, our homes." (The italics are ours.)
*J IX and M-, II, 719-714
A NEW LIGHT SHINES
ment heated to a degree which It is difficult for us to com-
prehend, and it Is in a vacuum* under conditions of which
we are wholly Ignorant* You cannot use your eyes to
help you In the investigation, and you really know noth-
ing of what is going on in that tiny bulb. I speak with-
out exaggeration when I say that I have constructed three
thousand different theories in connection with the electric
light, each one of them reasonable and apparently likely
to be true. Yet in two cases only did my experiments
prove the truth of my theory. My chief difficulty was in
constructing the carbon filament, the incandescence of
which is the source of the light? 5 27
Edison persistently studied not only carbon as 1mm-
nous material but also high vacua and the means for ob-
taining them in an increasingly suitable degree. By
about October 1st, 1879* he had a pump that was capable
of creating a vacuum as high as one one-millionth part
of an atmosphere. "If he [Edison] wanted material,**
wrote Francis Upton, fi< he always made it a principle
to have it at once, and never hesitated to use special
messengers to get it. I remember in the early days o
the electric light he wanted a mercury pump for exhaust-
ing the lamps. He sent me to Princeton to get it.
I got back to Metuchen late in the day, and had to
carry the pump over to the laboratory on my back that
evening, set it up, and work all night and the next day
getting results. 55 28 Finally it occurred to Edison, stiU
vainly pondering a carbon conductor that should be small
enough and durable enough, to see what might be done
with cotton sewing-thread. Of a compacted, fibrous
structure and certainly with a small cross-section, this
might when carbonized turn out to be the very thing.
21 Arthur Churchill, "Edison and His Early Work,* 9 In the "Scientific
'American Supplement** for AprE l s 1905.
28 D. and M., I, 299.
125
EDISOX: THE MAN AND WORK
For a short piece of the thread,
placed in a nickel mold, then the
to remain for five hours la a muffle-
furnace, the mold was removed from the furnace
and coo! 5 it was opened; and then the carbon
of Bad to be withdrawn from the
aad into a bulb. It was a task of fortitude and
delicacy. All Bight, the next day, and another Bight,
Edison* and Batchelor tept at it. From a whole spool
of thread, they finally succeeded In getting a carbonized
piece that did not break while being taken from the
moid. . . . "It was necessary/ 5 Edison related, "to take
It to the glass-blowers house. 29 With the utmost pre-
caution Batchelor took up the precious carbon, and I
marched after him* as if guarding a mighty treasure.
To our consternation., just as we reached the glass-
blower's bench the wretched carbon broke. We turned
back to the main laboratory and set to work again. It
was late in the afternoon before we had produced another
carbon* which was again broken by a jeweller's screw-
driver falling against it. But we turned back again, and
before night the carbon was completed and inserted in the
lamp. The bulb was exhausted of air and sealed, the
current turned on 5 and the sight we had so long desired to
see met our eyes. 55 The date was October 81st
That lamp continued at incandescence for more than
forty hours* while Batchelor 5 Edison, and others watched
it and bets were laid as to how long it was going to burn.
H. A. Jones, Thomas Alva Edison,* p. 106. The glass-blowing
was at that time done by the aid of gasoline gas in a "small building
on one side of the laboratory 9 * (D. and M., I, 272). Manufacture of
incandescent lamps was later carried on in an old wooden building on
the other side of the railway tracks. The little structure in which was
blown the first glass for Edison bulbs is preserved at the lamp works
of the General Electric company at Harrison* New Jersey.
126
A LIGHT SHINES
the light failed. But the sewing-thread had
rendered its reasonable service and won a place in the
story of modern invention. It had shown that carbon
would sustain temperatures before which platinum would
quickly melt; that subdivision of the electric current was
truly possible. Some thirteen months had passed in ex-
periments and more than had been spent; but
Edison and Batchelor now doubtless felt that the ex-
penditure of time and money had been justified. As for
Batchelor 9 it may be doubted whether anybody else at
Menlo even Edison himself could have accomplished
what he accomplished with that brittle filament.
Nevertheless, those forty hours, although they estab-
lished a principle, did not answer to the commercial
requirements for a stable burner. Forthwith Edison in-
augurated the most whole-hearted carbonizing-bee on
record. Among the things he carbonized were ;
bagging maple shavings
baywood P a P er saturated with tar
boxwood plumbago (graphite)
cardboards of many kinds punk
cedar shavings red hairs from the beard of
celluloid J- U. Mackenzie (who
cocoanut hair ^as staying at Menlo)
cocoanut shell threads, cotton and linen,
cor t of all sorts
cotton soaked in boiling tar threads of fine size, plaited
drawing-paper in great va- threads treated with tarred
r jety lampblack
fish-line tissue-paper
flax twine
hickory vulcanized fiber
lampwick wood-splints
127
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
One of the very early types of Incandescent lamp was that
having a spiral filament of tar and lampblack kneaded
and rolled into a kind of paste or putty-like mixture.
Edison once directed a member of the laboratory staff to
make up a quantity of this paste and bend it into fila-
ments. By and by the assistant carried the stuff to Edi-
son.
"There's something wrong about this/* he complained,
a for it crumbles. 5 ' . . .
"How long, 5 ' asked Edison, "did you knead it? 59
a Oh, ?> said the assistant, "more than an hour."
<c Wel! 5 95 replied Edison, "just keep on for a few hours
more and it will come out all right."
Which, sure enough, it did. It is stated that filaments
with a cross-section of but 7/1,000 of an inch were rolled
from material of this kind. 80
Of all the substances tested during this period, paper,
however, appeared the most likely so likely, indeed, from
the more strictly commercial viewpoint, that Edison
started the regular manufacture of lamps with looped
filaments of carbonized paper. Scores of these were put
into service, not merely within the laboratory but also in
dwellings at Menlo and along the neighborhood roads.
Doubters might cavil and wiseacres argue : folk travelled
to the spot and went away to report that a new light was
actually burning there.
On the morning of December 21st, 1879, Albert E. Orr,
city editor of the "New York Herald," was at his desk in
SOD. and M. 3 II, 610-611. Acheson made for Edison 16,000 filaments
cut from sheets of graphite that Lad been subjected to hydraulic pres-
sure of one hundred tons. He contracted to make 30,000 but quit be-
cause they turned out to be inefficient. They "produced a magnificent
light, but they did not last long in use, disintegrating rapidly' 1 (Acbe-
son's "My Pays with Edison," in the "Scientific American" for February
11, 1911; p. i43).
128
A NEW LIGHT SHINES
the <tf Heral(P (then at the corner of Ann and
Broadway). Of a sudden^ In rushed Thomas B. Con-
nerjj the paper's managing editor^ and spread accusingly
upon the desk a copy of that day's sheet. Orr looked
up in natural surprise, for Connery did not usually ap-
pear at the office until two or three hours later.
"How/' demanded Connery, a dld that stuff get into the
paper, Mr. Orr? Lights strung on wires, indeed!
You've made a laughing-stock of the *HeralcF ! Oh, what
E?i2 Mr. Bennett say!**
"Hell probably say/ 5 Orr answered calmly, "that it is
the biggest newspaper beat in a long time. 9 '
Connery was pointing at a fill-page story about Edi-
son*s incandescent lighting.
"But don't yon know/' he continued in a plaintive tone
"don't you know that it has been absolutely demon-
strated that that kind of light is against the laws of na-
ture? Who wrote the article? 5 '
"Marshall Fox."
]?ox was classed among the "star" reporters of New
.York's newspaperdom. He had represented the "Her-
ald 95 on the eclipse expedition to Wyoming in the pre-
vious year.
"How could he," protested the managing editor, <c have
allowed himself and the paper to be imposed upon so?
Where is he? Send for him. We must do something to
save ourselves from ridicule. . . . No don't try to ex-
plain just find Fox and send him to me,"
With that, Connery flung out of Orr's office and into
his own, determined to know how it befell that one of
his most trustworthy men had been so grossly eredu-
lous, 81
si See P. M. White, "Edison and tlie Incandescent Lamp," in "The
Oiittook 9 * for February 26, 1910.
129
EBISOX: THE MAX AND HIS VOSX
Far ridicule the "Herald,"
such interest that It was decided to
a public exhibition. This was held at llenlo oa
Year's Eve, 1879* The railway ran special trains,
and than visitors, including many persons of
prominence, the trip to view the strange* brilliant
hanging on wires stretched from one
to another? 2
By January 10th, Edison's had evidently
fully accepted in editorial offices, for we
Leslie's 75 of that date enthusiastically explaining
to its readers : 33
4C , . . Edison's electric light, incredible as it may ap-
pear, is produced from a little piece of paper a tiny
strip of paper that a breath would blow away. Through
this little strip of paper is passed an electric current, and
the result is a bright, beautiful light, like the mellow sun-
set of an Italian Autumn. He has made this little piece
of paper more infusible than platinum 3 more durable than
granite [!]. And this by no complicated process. The
paper is merely baked in an oven until all the elements
have passed away except its carbon framework. The lat-
ter is then placed in a glass globe connected with, the wires
j$2 ''Possibly events might have happened differently had Edison been
able to present the announcement of Ms electric-light Inventions until
he was entirely prepared to bring out the system as a whole, ready for
commercial exploitation, but the news of Ms production of a practical
and successful incandescent lamp became known and spread like wild-
fire to ail corners of the globe. It took more than a year after the
evolution of the lamp for Edison to get Into position to do actual busi-
ness, and during that time Ms laboratory was the natural Mecca of
every inquiring person. SmaH wonder, then* that when he was pre-
pared to market his invention he should find others entering that
market, at home and abroad, at the same time, with substantially
similar mercliandise. w ~D. and M., II, 714-715.
sa pp. 353-354,
A
to the electricity-producing the air
from the Then the is
to give out a light that no deleterious no
no offensive -a light without without
requiring no matclies to ignite, giving out but
little heat, vitiating no ah% free from all flickering.
this light, the Inventor claims, be produced
than that from the cheapest oil."
The article thus describes how the lamps were
**The paper carbons are prepared quite simply. With
a punch there Is cut from a piece of ^Bristol*
cardboard a strip of the same In the form of a miniature
torseslioe ? about two Inches in length and one-eighth of an
inch in width. A number of the strips are laid flatwise
In a wrought-iron mold about the size of the hand?
separated from each other bj tissue-paper. The mold Is
then covered and placed in an oven 5 where It Is gradualy
raised to a temperature of about six hundred degrees
Fahrenheit. The mold is then placed In a furnace and
heated almost to a white heat, and then removed and al-
lowed to cool gradually. On opening the mold the
charred remains of the little horseshoe cardboard are
found. After being removed from the mold It is placed ia
a little globe and attached to the wires leading to the
generating machine. The globe Is then connected with
an air pump 9 and the latter is at once set to work ex-
tracting the air. After the air has been extracted the
globe is sealed^ and the lamp is readj for use. 55
"Scribner's Monthly 35 for February, 1880, contained
an article by Upton entitled "Edison's Electric Light 5 *
and indorsed by Edison as "the first correct and author-
itative account. * ?34 Upton's scientifically trained mind
is evidenced not merely In the treatment of detail but in.
131
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
the following generalized remark; "Besides the enor-
mous practical value of the electric light, as domestic
illuminant and motor, it furnishes a most striking and
beautiful illustration of the convertibility of force. Mr.
Edison's system of lighting gives a completed cycle of
change. The sunlight poured upon the rank vegetation
of the carboniferous forests, was gathered and stored up 5
and has been waiting through the ages to be converted
again into light. The latent force accumulated during
the primeval days, and garnered up in the coal beds, is
converted, after passing in the steam-engine through the
phases of chemical, molecular and mechanical force, into
electricity, which only waits the touch of the inventor's
genius to flash out into a million domestic suns to illu-
minate a myriad homes."
But if the cotton-thread lamp had not satisfied its in-
ventor, neither, in spite of its comparative success, did the
paper lamp. Although he was in a limited way manu-
facturing lamps of that sort, yet he was unceasingly
prospecting for something better exploring with a mi-
croscope this specimen and that. When he started in
to carbonize pretty nearly everything that lay around
loose, he not only experimented with the materials listed
above but also studied and tried certain grasses, canes,
and similar vegetable growths. In the laboratory one
<J a y it was "in the early part of 1880" he picked up a
palm-leaf fan and examined it. Palm-leaf fans were ob-
jects common enough, but never before had he looked at
one so carefully. He saw that the edge of the fan was
bound with a long, thin, flexible strip of bamboo. This
strip he tore from its moorings and gave to an assistant,
with directions to divide it into the largest possible num-
ber of pieces suitable for carbonizing into filaments.
When tried, these filaments proved markedly successful
132
A NEW LIGHT SHINES
much superior to anything else employed up to that
time; so superior that here,, he judged, was the very stuff
for a practicable lamp. Yet not exactly that char-
acteristically, he was sure that the world must hold a
bamboo still more fit; possibly (who could tell?) the per-
fect bamboo for his use ; or else a palm or other plant that
would surpass any bamboo.
Then foEowed the adventurous episodes of the fiber-
hunt. From time to time, for the greater part of a
decade* men were sent out to comb various tropical re-
gions in the quest for the elusive material. They were
instructed in the minutiae of drawing and carbonizing fi-
bers, and took with them a set of Implements by means of
which tests could be made in the field. As they travelled,
they shipped to Menlo bale after bale of the more worth-
while specimens they had collected. Each specimen was
put through most thoroughgoing laboratory tests. It
has been reckoned that, from first to last, Edison carbon-
ized and tried as filaments in lamps the fibers of as many
as 6,000 distinct species of plants chiefly bamboos.
(For bamboo filaments, sections running "with the grain"
were taken from the rim of the stem, immediately beneath
the epidermis.) In his pursuit of "the things that are
more excellent," he spent approximately $100,000.
Inasmuch as China and Japan were known to possess
an extensive assortment of bamboos, it was to those coun-
tries that the first representative went. He was William
H. Moore, and he started for the Orient in the summer of
J880. He made his way into the far interior of both
Japan and China, encountering many obstacles and some-
times being at first received in a not wholly friendly man-
ner by the natives. From the quantity of specimens he
obtained, a certain kind of Japanese bamboo was chosen
as the best material yet tried for filaments, A contract
183
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
was forthwith made with a Japanese farmer to supply
this ; and so skilful was he in the growing of it that he
steadily improved it in quality. For years, Edison lamp
filaments were manufactured from these particularly
homogeneous fibers.
On the far side of the world, bamboo had long been the
chief natural resource. To a degree that most Occi-
dentals probably do not appreciate, this grass of the field
for it is a grass had conditioned human existence*
A. B. Freeman-Mitford (Baron Redesdale) has eloquently
detailed the supreme value of bamboo to a Japanese or a
Chinaman. 35 ". . . It furnishes the framework of his
house and thatches the roof over his head, while it sup-
plies paper for his windows, awnings for his sheds, and
blinds for his verandah. His beds, his tables, his chairs,
his cupboards, his thousand and one small articles of fur-
niture are made of it. Shavings and shreds of bamboo
are used to stuff his pillows and his mattresses. The re-
tail dealer's measures, the carpenter's rule, the farmer's
water-wheel and irrigating pipes, cages for birds, crickets,
and other pets, vessels of all kinds, from the richly lac-
quered flower-stands of the well-to-do gentleman down to
the humblest utensils, the wretchedest duds of the very
poor, all come from the same source. The boatman's
raft, and the pole with which he punts it along ; his ropes,
his mat-sails, and the ribs to which they are fastened ; the
palanquin in which the stately mandarin is borne to his
office, the bride to her wedding, the coffin to the grave;
the cruel instruments of the executioner, the lazy painted
beauty's fan and parasol, the soldier's spear, quiver, and
arrows, the scribe's pen, the student's book, the artist's
brush and the favourite study for his sketch ; the musi-
cian's flute, mouth-organ, plectrum, and a dozen various
as In "Tfoe Bamboo Garden* (London, 1896), pp.
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
instruments of strange shapes and still stranger sounds
in the making of all these the Bamboo is a first necessity.
Plaiting and wicker-work of all kinds, from the coarsest
baskets and matting down to the delicate filigree with
which porcelain cups are encased so cunningly that it
would seem as if no fingers less deft than those of fairies
could have woven the dainty web are a common and ob-
vious use of the fibre. The same material made into great
hats like inverted baskets protects the coolie from the
sun, while the labourers in the rice fields go about looking
like animated haycocks in waterproof coats made of the
dried leaves of Bamboo sewn together. See at the corner
of the street a fortune-teller attracting a crowd around
him as he tells the future by the aid of slips of Bamboo
graven with mysterious characters and shaken up in a
Bamboo cup, and every man around him smoking a Bam-
boo pipe. See in yonder cook-shop the son of Han regal-
ing himself with a mess of Bamboo shoots, which have
been cooked In a vessel of the same material coated with
clay, and are eaten with chopsticks which may have grown
an the same parent stem. Such shoots, either in the
shape of pickles or preserved in sugar, are an article of
export from south to north where they are esteemed a
delicacy."
For this marvelous vegetable, Edison had disclosed a
new function. Modifying it by heat, he discovered in it
new properties. Servant of man from primitive ages, it
now became an adjunct to modern science.
In December of 1880, John C. Brauner, a man already
considerably familiar with the South American flora,
sailed for Para, Brazil. On foot and by canoe he trav-
elled some two thousand miles through the swamps and
forests of lower Brazil and along its rivers, in a region
then practically unknown to white men. He collected a
135
A NEW LIGHT SHINES
great number of specimens of grasses and palms, but
found nothing that was to be preferred to Moore's Japa-
nese bamboo.
To Cuba went Segredor* one of the laboratory workers.
Segredor had once caused rather a flurry at Menlo.
Some of the others thought it amusing to tease him. At
last he said to the force, "The next man that does it, I
will kill Mm" ; but they did not take this seriously. Next
day, a taunt was cast at him and he hurried from the
laboratory. In a few moments he was seen coming up
the slope from his boarding-house, carrying a gun. Then
the laboratory folk ran to cover of the woods all but
one* who finally succeeded in pacifying him. Quiet was
restored* but nobody deemed it wise to badger Segredor
after that. Now he was sent to Cuba to look for fiber.
He landed at Havana only to die of yellow fever before
the week was out, "On the receipt of the news of his
death/ 5 said Edison, "half a dozen of the men wanted
Ms job. 9? . . . No one else was sent, however, as it was
believed that the chances of finding superior bamboo in
Cuba were not particularly favorable. Search was also
made in Florida for palmettos, in Jamaica for bamboos ;
but none of the palmetto fibers was up to test; and of
the bamboo fibers, none equalled the Japanese kind
that already was exclusively used for Edison's commer-
cial production of lamps. C. P. Hanington journeyed
through Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay, and the ex-
treme southern portion of Brazil.
Most colorful of all these tours for Edison, was that
of Frank McGowan in the wilds of Peru, Ecuador, and
Colombia. At one period, McGowan did not remove his
clothes for ninety-eight days. His path was through
country made dangerous by wild beasts, venomous snakes,
and hostile tribesmen, with swarms of insects a constant
186
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
annoyance. He encountered floods, was deserted by Ms
native guides, and twice was stricken with fever. For
about fifteen months he was in the wilderness. An
editorial in the "Evening Snn ? * (New York) declared:
a As a sample story of adventure, Mr. McGowan's
narrative ^ is a marvel fit to be classed with the his-
toric journeyings of the greatest travellers/' Strangely
enough, having survived the hardships and perils of the
jungle and returned to the United States, he vanished so
completely as to leave not the slightest trace. He dined
with friends at a New York restaurant, entertained them
with anecdotes of his wanderings, bade them good-night
at the door and from that moment nothing further was
ever seen or heard of him.
Yet another who joined in the fiber-hunt was James
Bicalton, a school-principal of Maplewood, New Jersey,
and an experienced traveller. He went by way of Eng-
land and the Suez Canal to Ceylon; thence to India,
where he ransacked river-bottoms and tablelands; on t
Burma and other parts of the Malay Peninsula; home-
ward through China and Japan. In exactly one year
from the time when he had said farewell to his pupils
on the platform of the railway station at Maplewood^ he
yas greeted by them there, having "put a girdle round
the earth. 5 ' Ricalton did, indeed, discover a fiber that
(so he states) tested "one to two hundred per cent, better
than that in use at the lamp factory ." This was from
the so-called giant bamboo, which he found growing in
both Ceylon and Burma, with a height of as much as a
hundred and fifty feet and frequently a diameter of a
foot. 87 In the meantime, however, Edison had been
se As given in an interview in the same issue, that of May 2, 188.
37 Ricalton's own narrative may be found in the Dicksons' 'The Life
and Inventions of Thomas Alva Edison" (New York, 1894), pp. 212k
137
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
developing an artificial filament a "squirted* 5 filament,
as it was termed. A soluble cellulose was prepared and
then forced through a die s the result being a long thread
hardened looked somewhat like catgut. The
thread was cut into lengths and these could be formed
into desired shapes. After this material was carbonized
at a high temperature (the higher the better), the carbon
residue was found to be both extremely dense and highly
elastic. Gradually the new process was adopted for the
commercial production of lamps.
With the bamboo filament, however, Edison 5 s incandes-
cent lamp was established and won its early triumphs;
with the bamboo-filament lamp, Edison's electric-lighting
system was introduced. During about nine years the
Japanese farmer's bamboo fiber, constantly bettered,
went to the making of a really serviceable new light-
giver, for whose burner nothing else was used. Indeed,
well into the 'nineties bamboo was employed for many
lamps ; and so late as 1908 for certain particular designs.
Upon Edison's fundamental work on the incandescent
lamp, the lamp's further development by others was
largely based. The cellulose filament was improved by
the research laboratory of the General Electric company
in what was known as the Gem (General Electric Metal-
lized) lamp. The carbonizing of the Gem filament was
done at temperatures higher than ever previously used;
so-called metallized filament, of decidedly increased re-
266; and repeated In D, and M,, I, 307-315. In a letter to the present
writer, Ricalton said, "While I made a trip around the world in search
for fibre for him [Edison], I had only occasionally any personal associa-
tion with him." ... In welcoming Ricalton, Edison "extended Ms hand
and said: *Did you get it?"* Ricalton was at one time employed by
Underwood and Underwood (New York) in making, in various parts
of the world, scenic photographic views that many readers of these lines
doubtless gazed upon as adapted to the once-popular stereoscope*
138
A NEW LIGHT SHINES
stance ? was thus obtained. Hence the lamp could be
run at a temperature not possible up to that time. The
term "metallized 95 was applied because this filament be-
haved more nearly like a filament of refractory metal and,
less like an ordinary carbon one 5 which at points of high
resistance and high temperature tended to volatilize (L e. 9
the carbon tended to scatter ) 3 with the combined results
that the filament speedily broke down and on the inside
of the bulb a carbon deposit was formed that blackened
the glass and reduced the lighting efficiency of the lamp.
Next, a return was made to refractory metals. Tan-
talum, drawn into fine wire, was used, but with only
moderate success. Its melting-point was high but its re-
sistance relatively so low that quite an amount of filament
was needed for a tantalum lamp, and therefore the man-
ufacture of the lamp involved extra difficulties. A tan-
talum lamp could be recognized by the zigzag pattern of
the filament, which was stretched from metal supports
held by a glass frame*
Tantalum was supplanted by tungsten, from which
filaments were made by the "squirted" process. At first*
the brittleness of the tungsten filament made it exceed-
ingly fragile ; but by persistent experimenting this draw-
back was overcome, and it was learned that after suitable
preliminary treatment tungsten could be drawn into wire
of extreme fineness and great tensile strength. 38 Tung-
sten-filament lamps in all sizes then came into practically
38 "William D. Coolidge, of Schenectady, has tlras far mlsged the
praise he deserves. When he began experiments, tungsten was so brit-
tle as to be almost worthless for lamp-filaments. He succeeded In giv-
ing the metal perfect ductility, and that moment he trebled the ef-
ficiency of electric lighting." Letter of George lies to the author.
Coolidge, a member of the research staff of the General Electric com-
pany, in 1914 received the Kumford medal for his services in COBEO
Mon with tungsten.
139
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
universal use. For some of these lamps (e* g. y those used
in street lighting) , the Idea originally advanced by
Sawyer and Man was again taken up and the bulb was
filled with argon, nitrogen, or other inert gas. 89
Then there were the Nernst lamp, employing a filament
of magnesia, which when heated by means of radiation
from a coil of platinum placed near it, became incandes-
cent; and the helion-filament lamp, in which a carbon
filament was covered with silicon. The Nemst lamp had
a higher luminous efficiency than carbon-filament lamps
had* but was more complicated and could not be produced
in units of small candle power. Its burner did not re-
quire a bulb exhausted of air but was inclosed in an opal
globe.
William J. Hammer, an authority on the history of
incandescent electric lamp-making, assembled a collection
of lamps representing the development of the art from
its earliest days to 1913. This unique and instructive
collection, for which Hammer received the Elliott Cresson
gold medal from the Franklin Institute, is a permanent
exhibit at the headquarters of the American Institute of
Electrical Engineers, in the United Engineering Society's
building, New York. By 1924, incandescent-lamp tech-
nique had produced at one end of the scale a bulb no
bigger than a rice-grain, at the other a bulb with a max-
imum diameter of fifteen inches and a candlepower of
il50 5 000. 40
Nearly thirty-six full years after that cotton-thread
filament shone at Menlo, Edison, stressing the need and
importance of constant experimenting, said :
a No invention is perfect, and the incandescent lamp
^According to census figures, 154,971,000 tungsten lamps were made
m the United States in 1921.
the "New York Times" for January 25,
140
A NEW LIGHT SHINES
of today is not an exception. Light without heat is the
ideal, and that is still far off. The electric incandescent
lamp of today is the cheapest form of filament that has
ever been produced, but some day it will be cheaper and
colder than it is. There is a good deal of truth in the
saying that the firefly is the ideal It is, so far as cold-
ness goes. But its color is against it. You couldn't
use a thousand-candle firefly to match colors, and you
wouldn't want the insect to light up a street, because his
light would be a hideous greenish-yellow. But some day
we will get reasonably near the firefly for efficiency with-
out copying his disagreeable color. The task needs much
investigation, much research of the kind we did in
J879." 41
41 "Electrical Review and Western Eledtridan," October % 1916;
. 678.
141
XI
THE "EDISON SYSTEM" INTRODUCED
A SUITABLE lamp was, indeed, tiie determining factor in
Edison^s electric-lighting system, as it was in any. Be-
fore the system could be realized, however, much else was
required. Generators of the right sort had to be designed
and built; a scheme had to be worked out whereby current
could be satisfactorily distributed to customers ; measur-
ing instruments must be contrived that would keep trust-
worthy records of the current each customer used; and
along the various stages of the path from current-source
to filament important details of equipment must be pro-
vided. Outside of the boilers and steam-engines for driv-
ing the generators, Edison had literally to originate every
component part. "A still popular misconception of his
real work, 5 * wrote T. C. Martin, "stops at the lamp, which
is about as near the truth, as would be an assertion that
the Welsbach burner is the whole of gas lighting. Edison
really invented a new art." . . x
As for dynamo-electric machines, only those used for
arc-lighting were in existence ; and for Edison's purpose
they would not do at all. Far too little of their motive
power was actually utilized in effecting light. Not more
than forty-one per cent, of the work done by the Gramme
machine was available in the arc; and the Gramme
machine was pronounced the most economical of the lot.
In other words, more than half of the electrical energy
i "Forty Years of Edison Service," p. 5.
142
"EDISON SYSTEM 9 '
produced never managed to get outside the generator that
produced It and the conductor that conveyed it. Edison
couldn't believe that this was right. A goodly number of
the experts of those days thought that in order to get the
best results from a dynamo, the internal resistance (or
that of the machine) should be as great as the external
resistance (or that of the circuit). Edison was con-
vinced that although this might serve for a primary
battery, it wasn 5 t the grade of efficiency that might
rightly be expected of a dynamo properly built. Fur-
ther, there was the more strictly commercial side:
"He said he wanted to sell the energy outside of the
station and not waste it in the dynamo and conductors,
where it brought no profits.* 5 2
When it became known that Edison really was figuring
on a dynamo that in economy and efficiency should over-
top the standards of the time, he was scoffed at, stormed
at, and lectured very much as he had been for his temer-
ity in fancying he could subdivide the electric current.
To-day this seems not a little curious. One must, how-
ever, bear in mind that Edison's critics and opponents
were so positive mainly because they were so ignorant.
No thoroughgoing study, either mathematical or empir-
ical, had then been devoted to dynamo problems. Edi-
son, partly through the knowledge that as a telegrapher
he had gained of magnetism and the action of currents,
partly through underived reasoning, set the whole scheme
of dynamo-building on a new track. Dr. John Hopkin-
son and others were later to put the subject through
mathematical analysis and unfold its theory ; but in those
days at Menlo, Upton, compiling tables, plotting curves,
and making drawings, had not the benefit of such guid-
ance. The few textbooks were hazy and incomplete.
2 JeH a* quoted in D. and M., p. 292.
14.3
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
Even a terminology was lacking. Upton testifies: "I
remember distinctly when Mr. Edison gave me the problem
of placing a motor in circuit in multiple arc with a fixed
resistance; and 1 had to work out the problem entirely,
as I could find no prior solution. There was nothing I
could find bearing upon the counter electromotive force
of the armature on the work given out by the armature. 9 ' 3
Edison set about improving the contemporary dynamo,
and he did improve it. From the summer of 1879, some
of this work was going on simultaneously with that upon
the incandescent lamp. One of the first things he did was
to study armature-cores. Armature-cores were at that
time solid. Foucault (or "eddy") currents were devel-
oped in them. These currents produced heating that
resulted in marked losses. Edison tried sheet-iron cyl-
inders with concentric windings of iron wire; also rolls
of insulated iron wire, no cylinder being used. Then he
divided the solid iron core into thin layers, with paper
between them. This laminated structure very largely did
away with eddy currents and the consequent losses from
heating. Edison likewise split up the commutator into
sections and insulated these with mica, which it is said
he was the first to use for this purpose. 4 The amount
of iron in the magnets, he greatly increased ; and in that
respect one of the most conspicuous differences between
the Edison machine and its predecessors was to be noted*
The yoke of the Edison magnets was in those days con-
sidered quite tremendous.
Other matters specially entered into were a comparison
of the magnetic features of various sorts of iron ; study to
determine the approximate saturation-point of the field
that is, the maximum intensity of magnetization of which
SB. and M., I, 296.
* Jehl as quoted in D. and M* I, 295.
144
"EDISON SYSTEM"
the magnets were capable (an important item to know,
that current might not be wasted) ; and the winding
of armature-cores, Jehl and others experimented with
dummy armatures of wood, on which they wound twine
instead of wire the process being expedited by wagers
as to who first would get the job done. On the basis of
what was determined with the dummies, Upton calculated
the windings of the sure-enough armatures. It does not
appear that this work of Upton's was ever published;
but the practical effect of it was far-reaching. After
Kruesi had completed the first practical Edison machine
in the Menlo shop, and the machine had been tested, it
looked as if the gain in economy and efficiency were rather
startling. So Upton repeatedly checked over the ap-
parent results. There was no mistake; this dynamo was
nothing less than 90 per cent, efficient,
If this was surprising to Upton and gratifying to Edi-
son, to many it was ridiculous. They said so. Upton
had the effrontery to make a public statement of the
Edison claims. 5 Dynamo manufacturers and other crit-
ics, amateur and professional, leaped into print. From
that time onward, a new duty fell to the lot of the busy
Upton that of replying and instructing.
Then there was the question of how to drive this re-
markable new generator. Dynamos had commonly been
driven with belts. In 1880 Edison installed at Menlo a
demonstration outfit of ten eight-horsepower dynamos^
each driven by a slow-speed steam engine through an
intricate arrangement of countershafts. Considerable
waste was involved, and waste always bothered Edison*
He made plans to replace the ten small dynamos by one
large machine, the low-speed engine by an engine of high-
speed type, and the countershafts by direct coupling.
5 "Scientific American," October 18, 1879.
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
This outfit was completed early In 1881, but It was soon
discovered that the engine speed was higher than either
economy or safety would warrant. The genera! idea
that of large, direct-connected units was right* as was
not long afterward established*
Out of a series of varied experiments, the Edison elec-
trolytic (or chemical) meter was evolved. 6 The principle
of tills meter was simple. In a glass ceE two zinc plates
were held in a solution of zinc sulphate. A certain
definite proportion of current was turned aside to flow
through this cell from the anode to the cathode plate,
and by electrolytic action, within a given time, a precise
amount of zinc would be taken from the one and deposited
on the other. Thus the one would lose in weight exactly
what the other gained, and the difference would be a
pretty accurate index of the current used for any given
period on the circuit in which the meter was placed. The
ceE was removed (another being left in its stead) to a
meter-room, where the two plates were washed^ dried, and
weighed in a chemical balance, and on the basis of the
ascertained weight the service-charge was reckoned. The
Edison meter worked well and was widely adopted in this
country and abroad. Owing, however, to the fact that
the zinc-sulphate solution would freeze, the meter had to
include an incandescent lamp and a thermostat by means
of which as the temperature fell or rose the lamp could
be cut into the circuit or out. When the temperature
dropped to 40 degrees F. or below, the office-telephone
bell would incessantly prelude such messages as "Our
meter's red-hot* Is that al right?" or "Our meter's on
*M0ntliIy charges for arc lighting had been arrived at on a loose
and crude flat-rate basis a lamp was supposed to burn a specified
number of light-hours for a certain number of nights. Deduction was
made for time during which a lamp was out of service.
146
"EDISON SYSTEM"
ire inside and we poured water on it. Did that hurt
it?" Of even more consequence from the customer's view-
point was the fact that readings of the meter could be
taken by the service-company only ? without possibility of
check. In time ? therefore, the electrolytic type was
replaced by the mechanical type 5 developed by Elihu
Thomson and other workers and generally familiar in
the watt-hour meter of to-day. 7
There was 9 too, the matter of fixtures. At Menlo were
simply the lamps "strung on wires" that Connery pooh-
poohed, 8 or (as in Edison 9 s own house) a pair of flexible
conductors wound with tape and dangling from a fasten-
ing on the ceiling. When first the incandescent lamp
was introduced beyond Menlo's borders,, the common
method was to wind the wires round the gas chandeliers
and attach the lamp-sockets to small brackets hitched to
the jet. Until Stieringer devised the insulating joint
for keeping the gas and electric systems apart, thunder-
storms would cause a lively exhibition of sparks between
wires and chandelier. It was likewise Stieringer who
brought into use the canopy-block (or ceiling-block) 9 to
which the outlet-box was attached when special electric-
lighting fixtures (or "electroliers") were later made.
Before such fixtures came into vogue, the "combination 5 *
fixture, for both electric and gas service, was the pre-
vailing thing; it being thought expedient to have gas
available in case of an interruption in the supply of
current. 9
All along the line, it was the same: conduits, switches,
fuses, connections, service-boxes, lamp-sockets these and
p. 68 of "Forty Years of Edison Service 5 * is an excellent half-
tone picture from a photograph of one of these obsolete meters.
* Chap. X, p. 129,
s See **Forty Yeats," pp. 68-69; D. and M., I, 438,
147
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
devices a too numerous to mention/ 9 as auction-bills
phrase it, had all to be designed, constructed, and made
to function as parts of the new system. This system, as
broadly outlined in Edison's application for a patent, was
for "multiple distribution from a number of generators
through a metallic circuit/ 5 The application was signed
on January 8th, 1880, but it was not until more than
seven years later on August SGth, 1887 that the basic
patent (369,280) was issued by the United States Patent
Office. Meanwhile, no end of water had passed under the
bridge.
By about the beginning of 188G, the laboratory staff
at Menlo comprised "at least one hundred earnest men." 10
That year is described as "extraordinarily busy 9 * for Edi-
son and for "his whole force, which from time to time was
increased in number.' 5 u During the year, Edison ap-
plied for sixty patents five relating to auxiliary parts*
six to dynamos, thirty-two to incandescent lamps, seven
to distributing systems one of these last being the
basic patent already referred to s another being for his
6i feeder-and-main ? * method of preventing, in the words
of the application, "what is ordinarily known as a *drop ?
in those portions of the incandescent-lighting system the
more remote from the central station." ... It had been
found that whereas the two lamps or groups of lamps
nearest the current-source burned at their indicated
candle power, yet beyond that point a progressive loss
in candle power was to be noted so much so that the
last lamp or group of lamps burned at only approxi-
mately two-thirds the candle power of the first two lamps
or groups. This was because of the resistance inherent
10 1>. and JVL, I, 324.
d., I, 340.
"EDISON SYSTEM"
in the copper conductors* The resistance transformed
part of the initial voltage (or electrical pressure) into
heat; and heat, although of use in the lamp,, in the con-
ductors was absolute waste. By the feeder-and-main
method, the main conductors (or "mains") had no con-
nection with the current-source. Other conductors,, the
"feeders," were connected with the current-source. They
were called "feeders" because through them the current
was fed into the mains, to which they were connected at
central points. A drop occurred? to be sure, but it was
limited to the feeders and did not affect the lamps; the
feeders being so arranged as to deliver current to the
mains at a potential (or electromotive force) correspond-
ing to the average voltage of the individual lamps, and
the extreme loss of voltage in the mains being so small as
to make no appreciable difference.
When extensive distribution in a large town is con-
sidered, it will readily be seen that by the feeder~and~
main method the saving in copper for wires was very
decided, for the mains did not have to be run to the central
station but only along a given block ; and the feeders were
of relatively small size. In order to avoid a drop, a con-
ductor eight times as large would otherwise have been
required. Any large economy in copper was important
if incandescent lighting was to compete with gas. Lord
Kelvin (Sir William Thomson) , the distinguished phys-
icist, asked why the feeder-and-main method, essentially
so simple, had not previously been hit upon by somebody
else, replied, "The only answer I can think of is that no
one else was Edison. 55 Though in another field, it was
something like the case of Edison's process for making
duplicates of an original phonograph record. A judge
of a Federal court proclaimed this process to be "obvious
149
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WOEK
to any one" hence devoid of true invention and therefore
not patentable !
Gradually during 1880 Edison's plans for central-
station lighting a commonplace now but then without
precedent had been crystallizing. While the means
was being patiently developed at Menlo, the end that
of installing a commercial system and testing It out under
actual everyday conditions o demand and supply was
steadily held in view. Edison had always fancied New
York as the locale of this initial enterprise in public
utility. In 1880 the Edison Electric Illuminating com-
pany of New York was incorporated. This company
was a licensee of the Edison Electric Light company
(the original syndicate) and paid for the license partly
in cash, partly in shares of capital stock. Such was the
regular business arrangement with all the local distribut-
ing companies operating under the Edison system. The
Edison Electric Light company on its part granted to the
licensee exclusive use of the system In a given territory
this being held to include any isolated plants installed
within the area specified.
The first president of the New York company was*
Norvin Green, afterward president of the Western Union
Telegraph company. The New York company filed an
application for a franchise. Their Honors the Board of
Aldermen were not at first persuaded. As Pope's "Odys-
sey" observes, 12 "How prone to doubt, how cautious are
the wise!" Thereupon a special train was provided for
them and they were taken out to Menlo. At Menlo and
nowhere else in the world a real multiple-arc distributing
system was to be seen in operation not only for incandes-
cent lighting but also for power. Edison realized that
distributed current was likely to have extensive use in
375.
150
"EDISON SYSTEM"
k >-
driving motors^ and so motors were on circuit in this first
system. 1S
The system carried about 425 incandescent lamps.
The underground conductors were in tubes, with asphal-
turn around the tubes to insulate them and with a wood
sheathing around the asphaltum. On the occasion of
the aldermen's visit 5 everything went well. The lights
were brilliant, for the voltage had been raised a bit ; and
Edison in person explained the more important features.
An informal banquet followed in the laboratory and Edi-
son, rarely a public speaker, signalized the affair by mak-
ing an after-dinner address.
Other visitors there were, not less distinguished than
the aldermen. For example, to Menlo came Lieut. George
W. DeLong, leader of the "Jeannette 55 expedition, of
which Bennett of the "Herald" was financial backer.
DeLong, then outfitting the " Jeannette," told Edison of
the plans for the trip; and Edison promised him a
specially-built dynamo the first for marine use with a
lighting equipment consisting of an arc lamp and a few
incandescent lamps- Since the ship did not have a steam-
engine available for driving the dynamo, Edison made the
is "The motors which to-day furnish power from currents on a large
commercial scale are little else than dynamos reversed, yet the reversal,
obvious as it seems now, was not adopted until 1373, although it was
known to Jaeobi in 1850, and probably to Lenz twelve years before. In
1873 several Gramme dynamos were to be shown at the Vienna Exposi-
tion. A workman, seeing a pair of loose wires near one of the machines,
connected them with it; the other ends of the wires proved to be bound
to a dynamo in full rotation, its source of power being a steam-engine
near by. The second and newly attached machine at once began to
revolve in a reverse direction as a motor. Thus, in all likelihood by
sheer accident, it was discovered that one dynamo may yield in mechan-
ical power the electric energy sent to it from another dynamo at a dis-
tance. In the whole realm of industrial art there is no more striking
example than this of a rule that works both ways/* lies, "Flame,
Electricity and the Camera," p. 106.
151
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
little machine so that It could be operated by hand and,
as lie said, "keep the boys warm. 59 14 On the paper in-
sulation put between the iron layers of the armature-
core, the members of the Menlo laboratory staff wrote
their names. Ship and a boys" were lost in the Arctic^
and with them the first incandescent-lighting outfit that
ever entered the polar regions.
Sarah Bernhardt came. "One evening" this is
Edison's version "Robert L. Cutting, of New York [a
director of the New York company] , brought her out to
see the light. She was a terrific 'rubberneck/ She
jumped all over the machinery 5 and I had one man
especially to guard her dress. She wanted to know every-,
thing. She would speak in French, and Cutting would
translate into English. She stayed there about an hour
and a half. Bernhardt gave me two pictures, painted
by herself,, which she sent me from Paris. 59 15
From Bernhardt's account 16 we learn that she went
to Menlo by special train, arriving at two in the morning
of December 5th, 1880, and leaving at four to return to
New York. As she was being driven from the station
to the laboratory, the outdoor lamps "strung on wires' 5
glittered suddenly in the winter darkness, and great
were her astonishment and delight. She found Edi-
son "simple 55 and "charming, 5 ' with a manner of "timid
graciousness and perfect courtesy' 5 and a "profound love
of Shakespeare. 55 "I looked, 55 declares Sarah, "at this
i* For an importer in the China trade he later made a similar one to
be sent to China, where steam-power was more costly than man-power.
is D. and M., II, 743. Bernhardt made her first New York appear-
ance on November 8, 1880, and visited Menlo before she left for Boston.
She was said to be Edison's choice as <e the greatest of women" (see the
editorial "Edison at Seventy-Five" in "The World" of February 13,
1922).
is "Memories of My Life? (New York, 1907), pp. 392-396.
152
"EDISON SYSTEM"
man of medium size, with rather a large head, and I
thought of Napoleon I. There is certainly a great phys-
ical resemblance between these two men, and I am sure
that one compartment of their brain would be found to
be identical Of course I do not compare their genius.
The one was 'destructive 5 and the other 'creative. 5 " . * ,
The preparative year of 1880 went by, with aU-and-
sundry "on their toes," improving and re-improving
endless items. Edison alone found time for avocations.
In looking over the list of patent-applications executed
during the twelvemonth, one runs across the entry:
"Preserving Fruit, Dec. IF 5 1 Early in 1881, offices of
the Edison Electric Light company were opened in the
fine old David W. Bishop mansion at 65 Fifth avenue
on the east side of the avenue, just below 14th street.
These headquarters were always referred to by Edison,
associates as "Sixty-five.' 5 Here were an isolated gener-
ating plant; offices for Edison and for Major Eaton, who
had succeeded Norvin Green as president of the company;
a reception-room ; in the top story, a library. The house
had been selected primarily because at this stage of pro-
ceedings it was necessary to demonstrate the quality of
incandescent lighting for interiors, and "Sixty-five," with
its spaciousness and dignity, conveyed the desired effect.
For many months, throngs filled the public rooms by
night, the place remaining open until eleven or twelve
o'clock. During four years or more, indeed, this con-
tinued to be a much-frequented spot. 17 Edison, though
for a while compelled to spend considerable time here,
seems hardly to have felt at home. He much preferred
the comparative seclusion of the laboratory at Menlo.
He did not like the general air of being on parade. But
at this juncture he was needed to direct the educational
17 See Meadowcroft, p. 218.
153
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
campaign that was heralding the new light. One has
glimpses of him an absorbed figure* grown a trifle
stouter; draped (as a slight concession to the heavy
convention of the period) in a well-worn frock-coat, the
gravity of which was somewhat impaired by a silk hand-
kerchief knotted about Ms neck in place of a collar; an
unruly lock of thick hair drooped across his brow; his
headgear a broad-brimmed covering of soft felt. He was
only thirty-four; and, smooth-shaven amid the luxu-
riantly bewhiskered faces that were then the mode, looked
scarcely that.
Hours were long, but there were compensations; for
after the last sightseer had gone, friends would drop in
for a chat in the library and one of them, Eduard
Remenyi, the distinguished Hungarian violinist, would
play Ms violin sometimes "$2,000 worth 53 as Edison cal-
culated, with a slant at the American bent for applying
to everything the appraisals of trade. Nor was humor
lacking. "... I was telling a gentleman one day," Edi-
son alleged, "that I could not keep a cigar. Even if 1
locked them up in my desk they [his associates at fi Sixty~
five 5 ] would break it open. He suggested to me that he
had a friend over on Eighth Avenue who made a superior
grade of cigars, and who would show them a trick. He
said he would have some of them made up with hair and
old paper t and I could put them in without a word and
see the result. I thought no more about the matter. He
came in two or three months after, and said : 'How did
that cigar business work? 9 I didn't remember anything
about it. On coming to investigate, it appeared that the
box of cigars had been delivered and had been put in my
desk, and I had smoked them all!" . * .
The Edison Electric Illuminating company of New
York was capitalized at $1,000,000 and small enough
"EDISON SYSTEM"
the amount is likely to appear to those familiar * itii the
grandiose "promotions'* of these later days. 'None of
this capital could be used for manufacturing. The
Edison Electric Light company, so far as it was con-
cerned, was not inclined to go in for any manufacture;
hence Edison "clipped deeply into Ms own resources."
a *If there are no f actoiies, 3 he said 5 6 to make my inven-
tions, I will build the factories myself. Since capital is
timid, I will raise and supply it. 55 1S . . . In addition to
what he could get from other quarters, he finally, when
it became necessary to finance the works he had estab-
lished, raised further cash by the sale of his holdings in
the Edison Electric Light company. The upshot was
but another variation of an old story. After Edison had
by personal effort and sacrifice brought his manufactur-
ing interests to the point where they were of high com-
mercial value, financiers, no longer "timid, ?? thought it
quite worth their while to engineer the merging of them
into the Edison General Electric company, with a capital
of $1^,000,000 on the basis of an eight per cent, dividend.
Pressed for funds to manage an ever-increasing volume
of business, Edison thought it best to sell out. That was
in 1889.
On March 2nd, 1881, he took over from the veteran
shipbuilder John Roach the idle xEtna Iron works plant
on Goerck street in an "East Side' 5 region of decayed
tenements and other tumble-down buildings. For several
years he ran this plant as the Edison Machine works, his
first manufactory of dynamos. Gradually, however, it
became totally inadequate, and the works were removed
to a new plant at Schenectady. Meters, chandeliers,
switches, sockets, "and such small deer" were made by
is From a statement by Major Eaton (quoted in. D* aad M. 9 II, 719),
155
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
Signrand Bergmann first at a shop in Wooster street*
afterward In a large manufactory on east Seventeenth
street at Avenue B. Berginann, who had been a bench-
worker for Edison in Newark and had later built pho-
nographs in the Wooster-street shop, became a partner
in this manufacturing enterprise and eventually chief
owner of electrical works in Berlin. When the Edison
Bluminating company had obtained its franchise and per-
mit to open the streets, the underground-tube conductors
and junction-boxes were made by the Electric Tube com-
pany at 65 Washington street, where John Kruesi (the
Menlo machine-shop having been closed) was in charge.
The lamp-factory was taken from Menlo to Harrison,
New Jersey, near Newark, and there housed in a big
structure originally used in the making of oiled-cloth.
The stock of the Harrison works was divided into a hun-
dred shares at par $100, some of which were distributed
among Edison's assistants. "One of the boys was hard
up after a time," said Edison, "and sold two shares to
Bob Cutting. Up to that time we had never paid any-
thing; but we got around to the point where the board
declared a dividend every Saturday night. We had
never declared a dividend when Cutting bought his shares,
and, after getting his dividends for three weeks in succes-
sion, he called up on the telephone and wanted to know
what kind of a concern this was that paid a weekly
dividend. 5919 There were also the short-lived Thomas
A. Edison Construction Department (known to Edi-
son men as the "Destruction Department"), formed to
"boom" and install central-station plants at a time when
the central-station idea seemed to be hanging fire for lack
of financial support; and the Edison company for Iso-
lated Lighting, which installed independent-generating
is Meadowcroft, pp. 215-216; IX and M., I, 35S-359.
156
"EDISON SYSTEM"
sets at points remote from central-station supply. 'At
S4 Sixty-five" a night school was maintained for the in-
struction of artisans in the practice 9 both electrical and
mechanical, of the incandescent-lighting art.
During that year of 1881, while the Edison system was
being explained and ushered in. Captain Burnaby by
crossing the English Channel in a balloon amazed folk
quite as much as did the "air Magellans" of 1924 who,
in a hundred and seventy-five days, first sailed around the
world in heavier-than-air flying-ships. In that year of
grace, Gladstone introduced his Irish land bill; a Tom"
Platt and Conkling he of the "little curl" resigned in
a huff their seats in the Senate (who now remembers
why?) ; the "Jeannette" was crushed in northern ice; the
slaves in Egypt were set free; the "Great Eastern" was
sold for $150,000; all summer long, the wounded Gar-
field fought with death. In that year, those benevolent
and disinterested spirits Fernando Wood and "Honest
John" Kelly passed from the scene of their earthly labors.
Cody's c *Wild West" had not yet been launched, nor the
Brooklyn Bridge opened. An international electrical
exposition, first display of its kind, was held in Paris,
greatly to the benefit of the whole electrical industry.
Thither Edison sent an exhibit of his lighting inventions,
for which he received a diploma and was made an officer
of the Legion of Honor.
The center of this exhibit was a direct-connected
dynamo, the largest he or any one else had yet built*
This dynamo, colossal for the year 1881, weighed twenty-
seven tons (including the engine and a six-ton armature)
and would serve to light from 1,000 to 1,200 standard
lamps. It was started for a test run at the Goerck street
works on June 25th and ran until five o'clock the next
morning, when the engine crank-shaft snapped, flying
157
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
a clear across the shop." A new shaft was attached and
a second test was satisfactorily run. Only about four
hours remained In which to get the dynamo to the
"French Line 53 pier. A of sixty men 5 each with
his particular Instructions, took down the machine and
loaded it on waiting trucks. Then through specially-
policed streets dashed the horses^ preceded by a clanging
bell ; and with but an hour to spare, the dynamo was got
aboard. When set up and running at the exposition^ it
was admiringly studied by foreign electricians, and was
a factor In the introduction of the Edison system on the
Continent. It was the first example of what was styled
the a Jumbo 5 * type so called from Barnum and Bailey's
big elephant, which P. T. Barnura's publicity methods
made so well known that its name passed into English
speech and found place in the dictionaries.
With the exception of the little experimental station
at Menlo Park, the world's first central station for incan-
descent lighting was that Installed In London by the
English Edison Electric Light company, of which E. H.
Johnson was general manager and W. J. Hammer chief
engineer. On January 12th, 1882 9 Hammer closed the
switch by which the plant was put into service. The sta-
tion was on Crown land on Holborn Viaduct and its three
thirty-ton "Jumbos'* supplied 8,000 lamps in that neigh-
borhood 20 including four hundred In the telegraph
operating-room of the General Post Office at St. Martin V
le-Grand. 21 Hammer says that Johnson "was kept busy
20 Information kindly supplied by W. J. Hammer.
21 As already stated in a foot-note to Chapter VIII (p, SO), the
British telegrapfis were taken over by the government in 1870. Tele-
graph service was put under the direction: of the postal authorities.
These lamps in the General Post Office were placed at the instance of
W. H. (Sir William) Preece, who had ceased to regard the light as
158
"EDISON SYSTEM"
not only with the cares and responsibilities of this pioneer
English plantj but by negotiations as to company f orma-
tlons 5 hearings before Parliamentary committees 5 and
particularly by distinguished visitors, Including all the
foremost scientific men In England ? and a great many
well-known members of the peerage." 22
From MS. notes by Johnson,, T. C. Martin quotes as
follows :
"At this time tall masts surmounted by a group of
high candle power arc lamps were much in vogue In Lon-
don ? and I desired to enter into competition with them by
substituting an electric lamp of 82 candle power for the
ordinary gas jet on each gas post throughout the length
of the Holborn Viaduct. For this permission was granted
me by the city, and the work was carried out eliciting an
extremely favorable criticism from the press and public
generally- This was unquestionably the beginning of the
end of group arc lighting, and I think may now be taken
as the beginning of the end of the arc light itself." 2S
Had it not been for the British electric-lighting act
that provided that at the end of a twenty-year interval
electric-light plants were to be taken over by the govern-
ment, the Holborn Viaduct station would, one may sup-
pose, have become the basis of a great metropolitan sys-
tem and the prototype of other such stations throughout
the British Isles. The act was later repealed. But just
as the early development of the horseless vehicle In Eng-
land had been Impeded by legislation affecting the use of
steam carriages on highways, so now the Incandescent-
an ignis fatuus and was now among its most outspoken supporters
in England,
22 D. and M., I, 337-388.
23 "Forty Years," p. 29.
159
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
lighting industry received a set-back. The station was
dismantled* the service given up ; but not until Hammer
and Johnson had accomplished much of interest and
learned much that was later useful.
The next central station, the first in the United States,,
was the Pearl street station in New York. To the work
connected with planning and installing the entire plant te
Edison devoted a large amount of direct personal atten-
tion. The station was in a double building at 255-25?
Pearl street, four stories high, on a lot measuring 50 X
I00. 24 Of the two parts, 257 was converted into the
generating plant, 255 was used for storage, repair-shops^
and a factory in which were made the tubes for the under-
ground distribution system. Over fifteen miles more
than 80,000 linear feet of these tubing conductors were
needed for the district that Edison had selected and
mapped. This First district had an area of about a
square mile in a region sometimes called "The Swamp. 5 *
It was bounded on the north by Spruce and Ferry streets
and Peck Slip ; on the east by the East river ; on the south
by Wall street ; on the west by Nassau street.
Edison had originally planned a district of mucK
greater area, reaching from Wall street on the south to
Canal street on the north, and from the East river to
Broadway. Before long, however, he decided that this
was altogether too much ground to cover. In the mean-
time he had conducted a preliminary survey of the whole
tract with a view to learning the number of gas jets in
each building, how much gas on the average was daily
used throughout the district and by each customer ; how
24 D. and M I, 394. Cf. "... I could only get two buildings each
25 feet front, one 100 feet deep and the other 85 feet deep." (From
Edison's notes furnished to T. C. Martin and quoted by Martin in
"Forty Years/' p. 84.)
160
"EDISON SYSTEM"
much power was demanded and by whom; where hoist-
ways and elevator-shafts were In which electric power
could be made available. After the invention of the
feeder-and-main method, 25 large-scale maps were pre-
pared showing every last detail necessary for installing
the system.
Pearl street (the name of which harks back, it is said,
to the wampum currency employed in trading with the
Indians) is a thoroughfare marked by notable beginnings.
Some have said it was the first street to be occupied when
white men settled on Manhattan island. On it ? at any
rate, the first stadt-huys (or city hall) of New Amster-
dam was built ; on it was the structure in which William
Bradford set up the colony's first printing-press. When
the nineteenth century was younger, here were abodes of
the wealthy, the fashionable, the socially ambitious.
What says Halleck in "Fanny? 35
"Her father kept, some fifteen years ago,
A retail dry-goods shop in Chatham street,
And nursed his little earnings, sure though slow,
Till, having mustered wherewithal to meet
The gaze of the great world, he hreathed the air
Of Pearl street, and set up in Hanover Square."
But by 1881, Time and Change had so wrought that
Edison picked out Pearl as "the worst dilapidated street
there was." "I thought/ 5 he afterward wrote, "that by
going down on a slum street near the waterfront I would
get some pretty cheap property? 5 2e About $0 5 000 ? he
figured, would take the two buildings. He learned some-
thing about New York's highly artificial real-estate prices
even on "the worst dilapidated street. 55 "... I found
as gee a previous reference in this chapter, pp. 148-149.
* Notes furnished to Martin. See "Forty Years," p. 84 9
161
EDISON": THE MAN AND HIS WORK
that they wanted $75,000 for one and for the
other." A tentative plan of Ms had been for a station
200 X 209. Such spaciousness lie was compelled to
forego. The old flooring of 257 was cleared out and
an Inner structure of Ironwork stout columns carrying
substantial girders running about three-quarters of the
building's depth, was snugly fitted within the walls. Sis
* Jumbo" dynamos with their direct-coupled Porter en-
gines were located on the second floor* 27
Laying of mains was begun late In the autumn of 1881,
interrupted by frost, and renewed in the spring of 1883.
Day and night the wort was carried forward ; and by day
and by night Edison might be found with the ditch-
ing gang. A contemporary illustration in a Harper ? s
Weekly" shows him testing tubes for insulation. ". . . I
saw every box poured/ 9 were his own words, "and every
connection made on the whole job." 2S On the third floor
of the station a bedroom had been provided for him, but
he found another more convenient. In the cellar at Pearl
street a stock of tubes was kept. "As I was on all the
time, I would take a nap of an hour or so in the daytime
any time and I used to sleep on those tubes in the
cellar." 2Q Two men who were employed in testing in that
damp, chill cellar, died of diphtheria. "It never affected
me' 5 was Edison's comment ; his high vital resistance stood
him in good stead and then, as Martin observes, he
wasn ? t in the cellar long enough at any one time. He
was his own superintendent of construction and more im-
mune to fatigue than was any of his assistants around the
27 A detailed account of the chief features of this installation may
|>e found in Martin's "Forty Tears," pp. 43-51.
ss Statement for the "Electrical Review," quoted by Jones, pp.
110.
29 "Forty Years," p. 43$ D. and M., I, 400.
162
"EDISON SYSTEM"
station, for whom "a shave and a clean shirt were rare
enjoyments. 55
It lias been inferred that no precedent existed for the
underground disposal of conductors. This is not quite
correct. In 1889 Cooke and Wheatstone 9 when they ran
their thirteen miles of telegraph-line from the Paddington
station (London) of the Great Western railway to West
Drayton, put inside wrought-iron tubing six copper wires.
The tubing was laid by the side of the railway and about
six inches from the ground. Morse tried for his Wash-
ington-Baltimore telegraph-line (18431844) some ten
miles of cable drawn through lead pipe. The wires of
Cooke and Wheatstone were covered with hemp ; Morse's
with cotton and shellac. Cooke in 1842 introduced the
method of stringing wires from insulating supports placed
on poles with excellent results. Only when his under-
ground cable had completely failed, did Morse, in his
struggle to establish his invention commercially in the face
of apathy and doubt, resort to Cooke's second scheme.
His success led to a long abandonment of underground
conductors. It was inevitable that the business heads of
public-utility corporations, solicitous for themselves and
their stockholders, should consider little else but the lower
initial cost of overhead-wire installation. They went
ahead with little or no check. THey said underground
conductors were silly; and practically no more experi-
menting was done in that field. A brief study of pho-
tographs dating from the late 'seventies and early
'eighties, will show that in larger American cities the
leading streets had become much disfigured by unsightly
poles carrying a medley of interlacing wires. Smaller
towns suffered in proportion and the countryside was in-
vaded. Marring every vista into which they were thrust,
the wires sagged from rickety cross-arms ; or they rotted
163
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
apart* and were left dangling. The imperfectly insu-
lated arc-lighting wires did more : they conveyed danger-
ous Mgh-tension currents. OK'd by the insurance
companies and hence known to "the trade" as "under-
writers/* they were often styled "undertakers" which, if
not supreme wit, at least bears a grim hint of their
quality. Chance contacts with adjacent metalwork or
with low-tension lines that crossed them, made them
a menace. Casualties were altogether too frequent.
Hence in many places public sentiment compelled the
law to step in and require that wires go underground.
From the very first, Edison had no other intention than
to put his mains in the earth. "Why," he would say 5
"you don't lift water pipes and gas pipes up on stilts." 30
He saw that the underground way not only was the more
suitable for conductors so large and weighty as he would
use, but also was destined to be the one approved way
within the limits of big cities. ". . . When New York
State legislation created the underground system for
Manhattan Island," Martin points out, "the engineer
chosen for the Board of Electrical Control was S. S.
Wheeler, who had learned how 5 working side by side with
Edison on the mains for the First District fed from old
Pearl Street." 31 Yet such is human prejudice that
years after Edison had demonstrated the success of his
conduits, the question of "underground" vs. "overhead"
came near to splitting the National Electric Light Asso-
ciation.
Edison not only learned about New York's fantastic
prices for real-estate but also had a glimpse of the modus
operand* of New York's municipal government as it theft
was. ". . . The office received notice," so he told, "from
so Martin, "Forty Years," p. 38.
si 16.
164
"EDISON SYSTEM"
the Commissioner of Public Works to appear at his office
at a certain hour. I went up there with a gentleman
to see the commissioner, H. 0. Thompson. On arrival he
said to me: Ton are putting down these tubes. The
Department of Public Works requires that you should
have five inspectors to look after this work, and that their
salary shall be $5 per day s payable at the end of each
week. Good-morning. 5 , . . We watched patiently for
those inspectors to appear. The only appearance they
made was to draw their pay. 5 ' . . . 32
The laying of the mains at last was done; and while
customers were being "hooked up 55 to the system and their
meters were being installed, there followed a period of
rigorous testing at the station. A pair of "Jumbos' 5
proved startlingly fractious. Let Edison tell the story. 33
"Finally we got our feeders all down and started to put
on an engine and turn over one of the machines to see
how things were. . . . Then we started another engine
and threw them in parallel. Of all the circuses since
Adam was born we had the worst then. One engine would
stop and the other would run up to about a thousand
revolutions, and then they would see-saw. 34
"What was the matter? Why, it was these Porter gov-
ernors! When the circus commenced the men who were
standing around ran out precipitately, and some of them
kept running for a block or two. I grabbed the throttle
of one engine and E. H. Johnson, who was the only one
. and M., I, 393.
*s Statement for the "Electrical Review** see Jones, pp. 116-117;
"Forty Years," 56-57.
difficulty with the engines in multiple was termed hunting"
C. L. Clarke, chief engineer of the Edison Electric Light company,
thought it due in this case to vertical vibration rendered possible by
the fact that the bedplates were not on a solid foundation, but on the
iron girders already mentioned (p. 162).
165
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
present to keep his wits, caught hold of the other and we
shut them off. Of course I discovered then that what
had happened was that one set was running the other one
as a motor. I then put up a long shaft connecting all the
governors together, and thought this would certainly cure
the trouble, but It dldn 5 t. The torsion of the shaft was
so great that one governor still managed to get ahead of
the others. Then I went to Goerck Street \_L e. 9 to the
machine works] and got a piece of shafting and a tube in
which It fitted. I twisted the shaft one way and the tube
the other as far as I could and pinned them together. In
this way ? by straining the whole outfit up to Its elastic
limit In opposite directions, the torsion was practically
eliminated, and after that the governors ran together all
right. 5 '
Apparently he did not, however^ trust this makeshift.
". . . I got hold of Gardiner C. Sims, and he undertook
to build an engine to run at 350 revolutions and give
175 horse-power. He went back to Providence and set
to work and brought the engine back with him. It
worked, but only a few minutes, when it busted. That
man sat around that shop and slept in it for three weeks
until he got his engine right and made it work the way
we wanted it to. When he reached this period I gave
orders for the works to run night and day until we got
enough engines," 35
On September 4th, I88, the current was turned on for
the regular distribution of light. The hour was three
of the afternoon. One can but echo the comment of
35 For long thereafter an Annington-Sims engine was invariably an
integral part of an Edison dynamo installation. Sims said: "The deep
interest, financial and moral, and friendly backing I received from
Mr. Edison, together with valuable suggestions, enabled me to bring
out the engine. . . . Mr. Edison was a leader far ahead of the time."
. . . (D. and M., I, 422.)
166
"EDISON SYSTEM"
"The World 5 * (New York) just forty years later: "The
skyscraper had not ascended and It Is a bit of a question
just why the lights were flashed on at 8 o'clock in the
afternoon since the effect then could not have been so
good as it would be to-day with towering structures aid-
ing the lights by shutting out the sunlight/ 5 Many of
those identified with the Edison interests were on hand*
as were a representative of the Board of Fire Under-
writers; Joseph Wetzler of the "Electrical World 55 and
"Scientific American" ; and reporters for the local news-
paper press. Next day the "World 95 said: "Most of
the principal stores in Fulton Street from Nassau Street
to the East River were last evening for the first time
lighted by electric light. 55 It Is claimed for Edison that
he was at first garbed en regie for the occasion, with
"Prince Albert," collar, and cravat; but apparently at
least a portion of this apparel had been cast aside, for
the "Sun's 55 account noted his "white, high-crowned derby
and collarless shirt."
Said the "New York Times 95 of September 5th:
a . . . It was not until about 7 o 5 elock, when it began to
grow dark, that the electric light really made itself known
and showed how bright and steady it Is. Then the 27
electric lamps in the editorial rooms and the 5 lamps in
the counting-rooms made those departments as bright as
day, but without any unpleasant glare. It was a light
that a man could sit down under and write for hours
without the consciousness of having any artificial light
about him. There was a very slight amount of heat from
each lamp, but not nearly as much as from a gas-burner
one-fifteenth as much as from gas, the inventor says.
The light was soft, mellow, and grateful to the eye, and it
seemed almost like writing by daylight to have a light
without a particle of flicker and with scarcely any heat
167
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
to mate the head ache. The electric lamps . * . were as
thoroughly tested last evening as any light could be tested
in a single evening, and tested by men who have battered
their eyes sufficiently by years of night work to know the
good and bad points of a lamp, and the decision was unan-
imously in favor of the Edison electric lamp as against
The plant, supplying about four hundred Iamps 5 was a
demonstrated success, but for about three months no
charge was made for service. The lighting of the Drexel
building "was considered a real achievement because of its
great size. It was equipped with 106 lights. 55 3r A let-
ter from President S, B. Eaton, printed in the "Sun" of
December 3rd, stated: "We are now lighting one hun-
dred and ninety-three buildings, wired for forty-four
hundred lamps, of which about two-thirds are in constant
use." . * . By the spring of 1884, more than 11,000
lamps were in circuit and the number of "Jumbos'* had
been increased from six to eleven. Gradually criticism
from the die-hards ceased in the face of actual perform-
ance. The station continued in use until 1895. From
beginning to end, it knew no pause except for a few days
in January, 1890, when all but one of the dynamos were
wrecked by fire caused by a heavy short-circuit on one
of the feeders. The four Babcock and Wilcox boilers
were uninjured and afterward did their bit in the Fifty-
third street station until 190Q.
It was for years invariably asserted that the first com-
mercial Edison station in the United States was that at
Appleton, Wisconsin, which* so it was said, was started
on August 15th, 1882; and some writers, eager for the
glory of Pearl street, hastened to add that Appleton had
only one small water-driven dynamo and therefore didn*t
World," September 4 1022.
16S
"EDISON SYSTEM"
count. When preparations were under way for eele-
feating (1922) forty years of service in New York,
search in newspaper files revealed the fact that contem-
porary accounts fixed September 30th as the date of
Appleton's beginning. 37 It remains true, however^ that
the Appleton station was the first water-power station of
the Edison system.
On October 18th ? 1917, exercises were held at the elec-
trical exposition in the Grand Central Palace, New York*
to dedicate a bronze tablet that later was placed on the
building at 257 Pearl street. The tablet was set up nn-
3er the joint auspices of the American Scenic and His-
toric Preservation Society and of the New York Edison
company, successor to the Edison lUiiminating company
f New York* The upper third of the tablet is occupied
fey a bas-relief (taken directly from an illustration in the
^Scientific American* 5 ) showing the dynamo-room of the
station; below, is this inscription:
1882 1917
IN A BUILDING ON THIS SITE AN ELECTRIC
PLANT SUPPLYING THE FIRST EDISON
UNDERGROUND CENTRAL STATION SYSTEM
IN THIS COUNTRY AND FORMING THE ORIGIN
OF NEW YORK'S PRESENT ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
BEGAN OPERATION ON SEPT. 4, 1882
ACCORDING TO PLANS CONCEIVED AND
EXECUTED BY
THOMAS ALVA EDISON
TO COMMEMORATE AN EPOCH-MAKING EVERT
THIS TABLET IS ERECTED BY
THE AMERICAN SCENIC AND HISTORIC
PRESERVATION SOCIETY
THE NEW YORK EDISON COMPANY
Years," p. 30.
169
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
Other very early stations were that at Sunbury, Penn-
sylvania, started on July 4th, 1883; that at Brockton,
Massachusetts, started on October 1st, 1883; and those
at Lawrence, Massachusetts, and at Fall River in the same
state, started, respectively. In November and December,
1888. The Brockton plant had underground conduc-
tors, for the reason that those who were backing it had
wise thought for the town's beautiful shade-trees and were
determined to preserve them from the ruthless trimming
accompanying overhead wires. It would have been weE
if more towns had been thus guarded. For some time
this plant was considered a "show" installation of the
Edison system; and both the first fire-engine house and
the first theater to be lit from an incandescent-lighting
central station, were in Brockton. The Sunbury plant
had pole-line construction, and here was first used the
a three-wire system, 5 ' invented independently and at al-
most the same time by Edison and Dr. John Hopkinson
of England. 38 For direct-current installations of any
size, this system is to-day in practically universal use.
This is the general idea of it : There are two generators,
ach of them turning out current at 110 volts ; and when
these generators are connected in series, the main circuit
has a potential of 220 volts. Now, with this arrange-
ment, two standard 110-volt lamps may be used on each
individual lamp circuit; the two together requiring no
more current than would be taken by one lamp on the
original multiple-arc system. In order, however, that in
any series of two lamps the turning out of one may not
involve the other (as it would do in a two-wire system),
a compensating conductor, known as the "neutral wire," is
ss Fleming, "Fifty Years of Electricity/* p. 226. The Sunbury in-
stallation has quite mistakenly been called "the world's first electric
light plant" (See the "Herald Tribune** of August 22,
170
"EBISOS SYSTEM' 1
employed. This in effect produces a system with two sides
(positive and negative) or two main circuits combined
in one, the "neutraP serving at once as the outgoing
conductor of one circuit and the return conductor of the
other. When all lamps are burning on all lamp-circuits*
perfect balance exists between the two sides and the third
(or central) conductor is truly neutral* But if a lamp
on one side or the other be turned out, balance is forth-
with destroyed; that is 5 although no other lamp is af-
fected, there is an excess of current, and that excess flows
back via the "neutral" to the generator. If the extin-
guished lamp is on the positive side of the system, the
a neutraP becomes the negative of that side; if the lamp
is on the negative side of the system, the "neutral" be-
comes the positive of that side. Three-wire distribution
represents a marked economy over any preceding method.
The saving in copper is very large, as will be easily ap-
preciated when it is pointed out that the doubling of
potential, rendered possible by three-wire mains, permits
the two outside wires to be of one-fourth the cross-section
demanded by a two-wire system.
Other "firsts' 9 of Edison incandescent-lighting history
may have sufficient interest to be noted here :
The first church to be illuminated was the City Tem-
ple, London, of which Dr. Joseph Parker was pastor.
This was lit from the Holborn Viaduct station. William
J. Hammer, chief engineer, has commented on the pleased
surprise expressed by Doctor Parker and others con-
nected with the church as to the improvement in tem-
perature when incandescent lamps took the place of gas-
jets (1882).
The first commercial house to use the new light, was
that of Hinds and Ketcham, New York lithographers, for
whom an isolated plant was installed in January, 3,881.
171
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
The firm was thus enabled to do color-printing at night.
The first electric sign was designed and built by W.
J. Hammer for the Crystal Palace Electrical Exposition*
London, in 1882. This ssign spelled EDISON in elec-
tric lights above the organ in the concert-hall. Hammer
also built the first automatic motor-driven electric sign 5
which flashed EDISON letter by letter and as a whole on
the Edison pavilion at the Health Exhibition in Berlin in
1888.
The first electrolier was one placed in F. B. Upton's
house at Menlo in 1880.
The first hotel plant was that started in the Blue
Mountain House on Blue Mountain Lake in the Adiroa-
dacks in October, 1881. At that time the hotel was about
forty miles from the railway. It has also been stated that
the first electric lamp used in an elevator was placed in
a car at the Blue Mountain House on July 13th ? 1882.
The first newspaper office to employ the light was
that of the "Herald/ 5 in which had appeared Marshall
Fox's article.
The first theater to abandon gas was the Bijou in
Boston. An isolated plant was ready for the opening of
this house on December 12th, 1882, when the attraction
was the Gilbert and Sullivan opera "lolanthe."
The first steam yacht to be equipped (early in 1882)
was James Gordon Bennett's "Namouna."
The first United States Government steamer to carry
a plant was the Fish Commission's "Albatross" (1883)*
The first permanent station on the continent of Eu-
rope was that opened at Milan, Italy, on March 3rd*
1883.
The first South American station was that put in
operation at Santiago, Chile, in the summer of 1883.
The first bill collected by the Edison Electric &-
172
"EDISON SYSTEM"
laminating company of New York was for $50.40 from
the Ansonia Brass and Copper company of 17-19 Cliff
street, on January 18th, 1883. That lighting compa-
nies 5 bills were by later custom somewhat more promptly
rendered, is indicated by this paragraph from the "New
York TribuneV 5 editorial page of February ilnd, 1924:
a On January 81 Edison's birthplace was lighted for the
first time with electricity, and undoubtedly in the Feb-
ruary 1 mail was the first electric light bill. 55
The first quarterly dividend of that company was of
1 per cent, and was paid on August 1st, 1885.
It would be an error to suppose that the introduction of
incandescent lighting was a whirlwind affair. Far from
it. There was an immense public curiosity about the
light, as there had been about the phonograph. Its su-
periorities for interior use s at any rate to arc lighting
and to gas were reasonably apparent and in due time gen-
erally admitted. But it had to contend against several
things. First, of course, was mass inertia. In a news-
paper interview in 1923, 39 Edison smilingly said (refer-
ring not to his lighting system but to his advocacy of
turning coal into power at the mines instead of transport-
ing it), ". . . You know it takes from seven to forty
years to put an idea over on the public. Even a self-
evident proposition requires about ten years. 55 Then
there was the natural opposition of the gas and arc light-
ing industries. ". . . Forty years ago," wrote Martin
in 1922, 40 "electric lighting 'systems/ spawning in reck-
less profusion, were usually based on some minor changes
in the arc lamp or the dynamo. . . . The new arc light-
ing companies cluttered up the stock exchanges with their
securities, and the work shops with casual jobs making
sa "The World," October 18.
40 "Forty Years,*' p. 7.
'173
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
and repairing their machinery. It was a 6 halcyon time*
while the boom lasted. At one period^ the Electrical
World carried the advertising of nearly fifty arc lighting
^systems, 3 ^ More than that, a large number of local
companies had been organized; and in only too many
cases where contracts and franchises were sought and
given, had arisen those anti-social alliances between self-
ish business-men and venal politicians that long were
viewed with complacence by the majority of American
citizens and made American municipal government an in-
ternational byword.
Now ? the incandescent system was to find its true and
logical beginnings in central-station distribution in the
more thickly populated communities. To this end ? local
ordinances had to be passed, franchises had to be obtained^
and capital had to be interested in the system's possibili-
ties, Thus was aroused a whole brood of animosities, the
vigor of which may be indicated by the assertion of Dyer
and Martin 41 that when in 1885 the National Electric
Light Association was formed, "its organizers were the
captains of arc lighting, and not a single Edison com-
pany or licensee could be found in its ranks, or dared to
solicit membership."
The gas industry was equally resentful more so, per-
haps, if resentment were to be gauged by the amount of
capital invested. 42 The arc-lamp had cut into the gas-
man's open-air service. It had even in some instances
supplanted gas for the lighting of indoor areas of un-
common size. This was bad but not so very bad, because
it left to the gas-man the entire domain of ordinary in-
terior lighting. Into this domain came the upstart pear-
and M., I, 351.
42 in 1879 the world's gas investment was estimated at 9 1,500,000,000.
(See "Forty Years," p. 11.)
174
"EDISON SYSTEM"
shaped bulb with Its frail-looking filament and its irri-
tating friends witli their way of pointing out that it didn 5 i
produce flicker or flare and didn't require a match. That
was too much for the gas-man. Fortunately, it seems
never to have occurred to the gas-man to try to get con-
trol of incandescent electric lighting; fortunately, be-
cause, had this industry been his, one may be almost cer-
tain that he would have done his best to side-track or
stifle it and thus have delayed yet longer the benefits it
offered.
As time passed, a prediction was verified that Edison
had jotted down in one of his series of laboratory note-
books. In places where gas plants existed, the use of
gas was greatly extended. Gas found domestic employ-
ment not in lighting (gas lighting became obsolescent
and new installations of it were not made) but for cooking
and heating. New devices were developed for it. To-
tal gas consumption was not diminished but increased.
In city after city (as in New York, in the case of the
Consolidated Gas company) gas and electric interests were
united, and the applications of both electricity and gas
were set before the public by well-managed methods of
educational publicity. Furthermore, such gas lighting
as continued to be used was greatly improved as to bril-
liance and steadiness by the Welsbach burner, the inven-
tion of Dr. Auer von Welsbach of Vienna. This burner,
which incidentally effected an economy in gas, allowed
the gas flame to play upon a mantle of rare earths.
As for arc-lighting in any industrial sense, it "folded
its tents like the Arabs." Save for occasional small-
town installations, high-power incandescent lamps more
and more crowded arc lamps from even the outdoor field*
The arc came to have its uses chiefly in apparatus for
projecting motion-pictures, and for searchlights in mill-
175
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
%axy field-units, in coast defenses, and on naval vessels.
The ban of the National Electric Light Association was
long since lifted and forgotten. Of all these "nearly
fifty* 5 arc "systems 95 of yesteryear ? not one remains. The
incandescent-lighting companies supply current for arc-
lamps. 43 Rivalry has ceased because one of the rivals
has as utterly vanished from the scene as the dinosaur
and the dodo.** Moreover, the arc-lamp has itself been
much modified and thoroughly improved.
On September 4th, 1882, the Edison Electric Illumi-
nating company of New York was lighting about four
hundred lamps for a handful of customers. On June
SOth, 1922 5 the New York Edison company (successor)
was lighting 9 3 387 5 114< incandescent lamps for 813,521
customers to say nothing of current supplied for arc
lamps, motors^ heating appliances s storage-battery charg-
ing, and so forth. 44 In 1922 no less than 14 ? 000 com-
munities in the United States were being served by cen-
tral stations and municipal plants having 11 3 500 S 000
customers with an average of 32.65 incandescent lamps a
customer making a total of 375 5 475 5 000 lamps. These
plants also furnished energy for prime movers having a
combined horsepower of 23 5 000 ? 000. 45 (It is perhaps
worth adding that the coal consumed to produce electric
energy for domestic lighting amounted to but approxi-
mately one-third of one per cent, of the country's total
annual coal production.) The investment in plant and
equipment was valued at $5,100,000,000.
The " Jumbos 55 of Pearl street, driven by high-speed
engines, would each take care of 1,200 Edison standard
43 On June 30, 1922, the New York Edison company had om circuit
12,882 arc-lamps.
^Company's figures, "Forty Years," p. 175,
-45 Figures of the Society for Electrical Development.
176
"EDISON SYSTEM"
16-candlepower lamps in an emergency, 1 5 750. TMs
would give, at the maximunij 168,000 candlepower for the
six original machines. On May 12th, 1924, the Brook-
lyn Edison company put Into service the first of four 50,-
000-MIowatt 4>Q turbo-generators with which Its Hudsom
avenue station (on the East river between Hudson ave-
nue and the Navy Yard) was to be equipped. It was es-
timated that each of the units, when operated at full ca-
pacity 5 would light 2,000,000 25-watt lamps or 500,000
100-watt lamps. This would give a total of 50,000,000
watts ; and since a tungsten lamp yields from 0.80 to 1.00
candles per watt, would mean from 40,000,000 to 50,000 S -
000 eandlepower. 4 ^ The complete installation contem-
plated an eventual total of eight generators.
All these later figures patently testify to a triumphant
growth and will readily enough impress the average
American, always likely to be impressed by the mere idea
of super-bigness. What the average American perhaps
needs to have stressed with respect to these figures and
this growth. Is the rock out of which they were hewn, the
pit out of which they were digged. Referring to the
pioneer days of the Edison system. Major Eaton remi-
niscently declared ; "In looking back on those days and
scrutinizing them through the years, I am impressed by
the greatness, the solitary greatness I may say, of Mr*
Edison. We all felt then that we were of importance,
find that our contributions of effort and zeal were vital*
1 can see now, however, that the best of us was nothing
46 A kilowatt equals 1,000 watts; 50,000 kilowatts would be the
equivalent of 67,000 horsepower.
47 "Year Book, 1923" of the Brooklyn Edison company, pp. 21-22;
The New York Times," May 13, 1924,; "The World," same date. The
units of this generating plant, like those of other waterside stations*
are driven by low-speed steam turbines*
m
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WOBK
But the fly on the wheel." 48 It was Edison who enunci-
ated the general principles In accordance with which the
whole electric central-station industry was to grow. On
the art made possible by a very [ood of Edison inven-
tions, that industry was soundly based. That the art has
undergone numerous modifications, the industry seen
many changes of practice, are matters of course when one
considers the swift march of electrical science, the aggre-
gate talent continuously devoted to improvement and
progress. But the elements remain as Edison left them,
both in his lamp and in his scheme of distribution ; and
those early dynamos, though they have become things of
curiosity, exhibits for museums, nevertheless for the first
time established certain fundamentals that but live more
fully in the great machines of to-day.
On May 6th, 1915, the Civic Forum, New York, pre-
sented to Edison its medal for public service. In an ad-
dress delivered on that occasion, 49 Richard C. Maclaurin
of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said:
". . You recognize that he laid the foundations for the
design of central power stations and that his Pearl Street
Station was a landmark in the history of science. . . .
The three-wire distribution, the system of feeders enter-
ing the network of mains at different points, the under-
ground conductor system, the bus system in stations, 50 the
innumerable accessories of switches, fuses, meters, etc.,
that he provided are each achievements that would make
the fame of any individual."
The years 1879 1883 inclusive constituted the great
and M., II, 719-720.
*s The address, "Mr. Edison's Service for Science," may* b found in
"Science" for June 4, 1915, pp. 813-815.
so Bus-bars ("bus" from "omnibus") are devices by which current is
led from the generators to the switchboards*
178
"EDISON SYSTEM"
productive period of Edison*s career as an inventor 9 with
1832 the peak year. 51 This lustrum included that whole
prodigious group of labors on the incandescent electric
lamp and In distributing, regulating, and measuring elec-
tric current. Within its limits also fell Edison 9 s experi-
ments (treated of elsewhere in this volume) as a pioneer of
electric traction, and his inYention of the magnetic ore
separator upon which he was in time to base (as we shall
see) a notable adventure in engineering. So filled were
these years with laboratory work, so active with the solv-
ing of manufacturing problems, so busied with the intro-
duction of the new system, that it was thought necessary
to take the chance of letting patent-rights go undefended.
Defense, when finally taken up, involved a series of long-
contested and costly suits.
Roughly speaking, from 1885 to 1901 the Edison Elec-
tric Lighting company, owner of the Edison patents,
spent upward of two million dollars in prosecuting more
than two hundred lawsuits brought against persons who
were infringing upon many of the patent-rights of Edi-
son on the incandescent electric lamp and component
parts of his system. 52 "I fought for the lamp for four-
teen years, 59 declared Edison, "and when I finally won my
rights there were but three years of the allotted seventeen
left for my patent to live. Now it has become the prop-
erty of anybody and everybody/* The lamp patent was
issued to Edison on January 37th, 1880. Not until
October 4th, 189$, or slightly more than twelve years and
eight months after the issuance of the patent, did a United
si In D. and M^ T 140-141, it is stated that 141 patents were applied
for in that year. The list on pp. 952-956 records the execution of 10f
applications. Several other inventions were kept as "trade secrets," TO
patents being sought for them.
52 IX and M* II, 720-721; Joaes, p. 122.
179
EDISON; THE MAN AND HIS
Circuit Court of Appeals, in a suit against the
United Electric Lighting company* file a decision
in which the patent was sustained. Nor did this deci-
sion and the subsequent injunctions put an end to the
pirates* for infringing companies thereupon asserted the
priority, with respect to the lamp, of Henry Goebel, a
New York watchmaker who, it was absurdly ckimed* had
a practical incandescent lamp previous to 1854! **
In New York a Federal judge sustained the Edison pat-
oat, stating in his opinion that on the basis f the evi-
dence a whatever Goebel did must be considered as an
abandoned experiment 59 In St. Louis, howeYer* a Fed-
eral judge faled to sustain it 'That adverse decision at
St. Louis," once commented Major Eaton, "would never
have been made if the court could have seen the men who
swore for GoebeL* 54 Edison is himself authority for the
statement 6S that he "never enjoyed any benefits* ? from
Ms lamp patents.
The year 1889, in which Edison and Ms associates sold
out their manufacturing interests to the Edison. General
Electric company, a syndicate headed by Henry ViUardj
marked virtually the end of what may be called the in-
ventor's incandescmt-lighting phase. Villard* in Ms
"Memoirs," m thus tells the story of how the Edk Gen-
eral Electric company was formed:
"Mr. ViHard took a strong interest in electric lighting
In much the same way, Daniel Drawbaugh of Eberly's Mffis (near
Hanislrarg), Penmyiwnia, claimed that he liad anticipate the tel-
epigone.
**D. and M, 9 II, m
wlk, 716.
M Chapter ytii of this work (2 vols. Boston, 1904) wm written fcj
Vsra in the tMrd person, and it is from that chapter that liese wwis
are qzQitd (pp. 325-32S),
im
"EDISON SYSTEM"
from Its earliest stages. He was one of the first stock-
holders and a director of the original Edison Light Com-
pany/ 7 which had acquired the patents for the incandes-
cent lamp. His faith in the incalculable value of the in-
vention was s like that of most of his fellow-stockholders,
so great that he did not dispose of his holdings even when
the sharesj on the par value of one hundred dollars of
which only thirty per cent, had been paid in 5 rose to four
thousand. In Berlin he had become acquainted with
Werner Siemens, the eminent German discoverer and in-
ventor in the electrical field 5 and head of the great firm
of Siemens & Halske, and also with the parties managing
and controlling the General Electricity Company of Ber-
lin, which has since grown into the principal electrical
manufacturing and contracting company in Germany.
He proposed to them and to his syndicate, before his re-
turn to New York, that they should join with him and
enter the electrical business in the United States by an
alliance with existing American interests. . . . He ma-
tured a scheme for the absorption of all the Edison Light
and Manufacturing Companies into a new corporation,
with sufficient fresh capital for manufacturing electrical
apparatus on a large scale. Out of this grew the Edison
General Electric Company, organized in April 9 1889,
with a capital of $12,000,000, of which he and the Ger-
man parties named held over one half. He became presi-
dent of it and remained such until the summer of
In 1884 Edison's first wife had died, and in 1886 he
7 1. e. s the Edison Electric Light company.
s&The company was consolidated with tbe Brush aaicl Thomsoji-
Hottston interests, and Villard, disapproving of this step, retrod f rom
the presidency.
181
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS
had married Miss Mina Miller, daughter of the Lewis
Miller already mentioned (Chapter IX) as one of the
originators of the "Cliautauqua movement. 33 In 1887
he left Menlo Park and established at West Orange,, New
Jersey^ a model laboratory around which, as a center s
grew up various manufacturing enterprises of his.
Close at hand, in the residential section known as Llewel-
lyn Park, he purchased the three-story mansion "Glen-
mont," set in beautiful grounds and of that much be-
gabled and rather ornate style that Americans with no
good reason term "Queen Anne. ?>
When, in the spring of 1924, the writer visited Menlo,
lie found a farmer with a tractor plowing neighboring
fields; near the station, a factory of keramic tiles; traf-
fic passing on the Lincoln Highway. A dwelling or two
lingered from Edison's day. Part of the west wall of the
old brick machine-shop stood windowless and forlorn. A
rotting car-truck with rusted wheels was settling into
the earth; and amidst the bushes one might detect the
low embankment where Edison's electric-traction line
had run. Fire, the wrecker, and the tooth of Time
had left little else to remind one of the Park's decade of
fame.
On May 16th, 19S5, a memorial was dedicated at
Menlo under the auspices of the Edison Pioneers and
the Association of Edison Illuminating companies. The
dedication exercises included speeches by George S. Sil-
zer, governor of New Jersey, and Dr. John G. Hibben,
president of Princeton University. Mrs. Edison unveiled
the memorial., which faces the Lincoln Highway 59 and is
in the form of a bronze tablet inset in a boulder of native
B9 It stands near the site of the house Edison occupied, and on prop-
erty held by the Edison Pioneers*
182
"EDISON SYSTEM"
granite. The tablet carries a medallion portrait of Edi-
son and an inscription that reads thus:
ON THIS SITE
1876-1882
THOMAS ALVA EDISON
BEGAN HIS WORK
OF SERVICE FOR THE WORLD
TO ILLUMINE THE PATH OF PROGRESS
AND
LIGHTEN LABOR FOR MANKIND
THIS TABLET IS PLACED BY THE
EDISON PIONEERS TO ATTEST THE
GRATITUDE OF THE INDUSTRIES
HE DID SO MUCH TO CREATE
DEDICATED MENLO PARK, N. J.
MAY 16, 1925
XII
THE MOTION-PICTURE CAMERA;
MAGNETIC OEE-MILLING
Edison first purchased land in West Orange in
a region then half rural, with open stretches of meadow
he was but forty, though already for ten years and more
he had been known to familiars .as "The Old Man. 55 His
cellar laboratory in the Port Huron house had two hun-
dred bottles labeled POISON. The Menlo Park labora-
tory had been well enough equipped for its purposes and
needs. A new mark was set not alone for Edison but for
the world by the West Orange laboratory, with its com-
prehensive special research library and its marvellous
stock-room, wherein might be found quantities of almost
every sort of material that could possibly be needed in
experimenting. To J. Hood Wright of the Drexel-
Morgan firm, Edison, when the laboratory was almost
completed, wrote of an ^ambition to build up a great in-
dustrial works in the Orange Valley, starting in a small
way and ^gradually working up."
The first important work in this new environment was
the revival and development of the phonograph (previ-
ously referred to, in Chapter IX). Up to 1890, the
^Improved" or wax-cylinder type was being evolved
and, with its blank cylinders, commercially introduced.
.Thenceforward for many years, other affairs were not so
engrossing but that Edison would return to the phono-
graph and its associated problems and occasionally de-
184
MOTION-PICTURE CAMERA
vote to them periods of intensive effort akin In spirit to
the incandescent-lighting era at Menlo.
In the year In which he went to West Orange 1887
Edison, according to his own statement^ 1 first began
to consider the possibility of an instrument that, as he
put it, "should do for the eye what the phonograph does
for the ear." By the summer of 1889 he had made such
an instrument* His application for a United States pat-
ent on it was filed on August 24th, 1891. The patent
was not issued until a trifle over six years later on Au-
gust 31st, 1897. 2 He called this instrument the "kineto-
graphic camera 95 or "kinetograph" that is s a mechani-
cal device that made a graphic record of movement.
The Mnetograph depended on a phenomenon with
which students had long been acquainted: visual persis-
tence or persistence of vision. In other words, scientists
had made intelligent note of the fact that an object con-
tinues to be seen by the human eye for an appreciable
time after the object has been withdrawn, when the rays
of light from it no longer strike the retina. Common
examples of this fact were constantly being presented to
unphilosophic minds in the so-called flash of lightning., the
bright trail of a meteorite, or the fiery line described
by the glowing end of a friction match swung rapidly
in a dark room. Another example was furnished bj
the varied forms three, at least of an apparatus in
which the unphilosophic mind, after the fashion of Peter
Bell and the primrose, saw an amusing toy and nothing
more.
These three forms, often confused, were the thauma-
trope, the phenakistoscope, and the zoetrope. In the
1 D. and M. II, 587.
2 It was later reissued in two parts, dated respectively September 3%
1902, and January 12, 1&04.
185
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WOEK
tiaaumatrope of X A. F. Plateau, Belgian physicist, two
plcturesj either of different objects or of different por-
tions of the same object, were placed at opposite points
on the circumference of a disc ; and when the disc was re-
volved* by the unwinding of a string or otherwise, the
optical images of the two pictures would be blended, so
that the effect was as if both pictures were being seen at
once. In the phenakistoscope, two discs were attached
at their centers to a common axis one disc having at
fixed intervals on its inner surface a series of pictures il-
lustrating successive phases of motion, the other (and
larger) disc being pierced with a corresponding series of
narrow radial openings* When the apparatus was held
before a suitable mirror and the two discs were swiftly re-
volved on their axis, each picture would be seen reflected
for but an instant and the pictures would all blend into a
semblance of continuous movement. In the zoetrope,, a
cylinder about seven inches in height, from eight to ten
inches in diameter, had around the lower part of its in-
ner surface a series of pictures like that on the smaller
disc of the phenakistoscope, and the upper part of its cir-
cumference pierced with slits. When the cylinder was
swiftly twirled, each visual impression in turn persisted,
with the result that the impressions so overlapped as to
give the observer an illusion of motion. This form was
sometimes called "the wheel of life."
These things were indeed toys, like the kite and the
spinning top; but like top and kite, they offered a
starting-point for many interesting speculations. The
pictures were rather crude line-cuts, poorly printed.
4 The method of observing them was faulty. Nevertheless,
possibilities were there suggested. They set Edison
thinking.
He has also specifically mentioned his indebtedness to
,136
MOTION-PICTURE CAMERA
two experimenters who, in the face of difficult conditions^
accomplished much of fundamental value. 3 The first was
E. J. Marey of Prance, who devised the photochrono-
graph and with it made graphic analyses of running,
swimming, and walking; showed just how a falling cat
manages to land on its feet; conducted, in fact, a whole
train of scientific inquiries** some of the results of which
he published in a volume that appeared in English under
the title "Movement' 5 (International Scientific series).
The second was Eadweard Muybridge, pioneer in the
United States in the rapid photography of animal mo-
tion. Muybridge originally took up this study because
of a wager with Leland Stanford of California. Stan-
ford said that a trotting horse at one brief stage in its
progress completely left the ground. In order to arrest
and examine the phases of movement of a trotter in ac-
tion, Muybridge hit on the idea of placing alongside a
track a row of cameras so arranged that the horse, as it
passed, would release the shutters by breaking strings
attached to them and stretched across its pathway. Muy-
bridge later photographed the gallop of dogs, the flight
of birds, the performances of athletes. 4 It is stated that
some of the exposures were for but 1/5,000 of a second.
From his negatives Muybridge made positives that could
be exhibited by means of what was styled a "zoogyro-
scope." He mounted them on a cylinder so as to form
a kind of zoetrope, which he spun rapidly inside a magic
lantern. The pictures, as projected on a screen, gave the
appearance of motion.
For the line-cuts of the zoetrope, both Marey and Muy-
bridge had substituted photographs of actual motion;
but both photographed only a single cycle of movement
3D. and M., II, 537.
4 lies, "Flame* Electricity and the Camera," p. 812*
187
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
because for both the number of exposures was necessarily
limited. Furthermore, the object photographed was al-
ways in the center of the plate and hence appeared in the
center of the image thrown on a screen. The effect of
this would be that a moving horse, for example^ would
be shown in various attitudes but mating no headway ?
while the background sped past much as in melodramas
horses have been run on treadmills while the scenery was
briskly unrolled. It is possible that either Marey or
Muybridge might have developed a camera that would
make a very large number of exposures at a very high
rate of operating speed if only they had not been
obliged to use plates! However that may be ? the fact
remains that after the instantaneous camera and the cel-
luloid film had both arrived 5 Edison was the first to see
how they could be applied to the problem of recording
movement. Here we have an example of what many have
regarded as Edison's preeminent gift the ability so to
adapt or combine ideas or materials already existing as
to effect results at once distinctively new and thoroughly
practical.
Marey had been working in the right direction. He
used one camera and one lens, thus making exposures from
a single viewpoint. But the sensitized surface lie em-
ployed, though rapidj was presented in the form of bulky s
heavy plates; and as each of these plates had ? in its en-
tirety ? to be started and stopped., the operating speed was
relatively slow and the number of exposures per second
was relatively limited. Experimenters who in one way
or another multiplied the number of lenses, were fol-
lowing the line of greater resistance. This is sufficiently
evident now. It was not so 'evident in 1889.
Edison stuck to one lens and employed a movable sensi-
tized surface. He tried at first a sensitized cylinder in-
188
MOTION-PICTURE CAMERA
termlttently revolved* and held at rest for the period of
each exposure. The negatives^ reduced to microscopic
size^ were distributed spirally on the cylinder. The posi-
tives made from them were examined with the aid of a
magnifying glass* Exposures were made at a rate as
high as forty-eight a second. 5 The emulsions then avail-
able proved too coarse to permit of sharp definition in
negatives so diminutive v XFor this and other reasons^
Edison turned from the cylinder to another medium.
This was the transparent celluloid roll film, placed on the
market in 1889 by the Eastman company^ The use of
roll film was not a new idea. As early as 1854 a patent
was granted in England "f or the use of sensitized paper
in a roll holder" ; and success would in all likelihood have
been attained if a proper material had been available for
the sensitized surface. "Once the reliability of the gela-
tine emulsion plate was proven, however, sensitized film
coated upon thin paper as a support came into use*
About the same time, John Carbutt, the pioneer dry-
plate maker in America, introduced cut celluloid films as
a substitute for glass plates. The Eastman Company
in 1885 brought out a roll holder that could be loaded
with a band of paper sufficient for one hundred expo-
sures. 3 *
Edison now had in transparent celluloid film a medium
at once strong, light, flexible permitting of rapid-fire
exposures and of sharp negatives that were not micro-
scopic but relatively large. The next thing was to pro-
vide a mechanism by means of which a tape of film coulcf
be so moved across the focal plane of a camera, and ex--
posures could be so rapidly made, that an impression of
5D. and M., II, 589.
W. S. Davis, "Practical Amateur Photography 5 ' (Boston, 1923; in
the Useful Knowledge Books series, edited by G. S. Bryan), p* 17.
189
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
continuous movement would be produced by exhibition
films (positives) impeled at the same speed ratio. Ama-
teurs that have used the portable film-camera, with its
daylight-loading film-cartridge (the invention of the Rev.
Hannibal Goodwin, an American experimenter ) 5 will
readily apprehend the difficulties in the case. They
know with what slow care ? after an exposure, they have
to turn the film-roll ahead, winding it from one spool to
the other, before another negative can be obtained,
In the camera mechanism that Edison provided, a long
roll ("reeP) of film was unwound, drawn through sets of
rollers downward across the focal plane and automati-
cally rewound. The strip of film had perforations on its
edges. A main-shaft was revolved ; this drove a sprocket ;
the sprocket engaged the perforations ; and thus the strip
was fed along. The movement of the film was intermit-
tent that is, periods of movement would alternate with
periods of rest. When the film was at rest, a revolving
shutter, geared to the main-shaft, was rotated ; an aper-
ture in the shutter was brought into the proper rela-
tive position ; and an exposure was made. Then the film
went on its way, while the shutter remained closed. These
alternating periods could be repeated indefinitely. The
result was a series of "still" photographs all from one
viewpoint, all of uniform size, and all spaced at regular
intervals. The only limit to the series was the arbitrary
limit set by the length of the film. From twenty to forty
exposures could be made.
In experimenting with the kinetograph, Edison was
particularly aided by William K. L. Dickson of the lab-
oratory staff. 7 During the summer of 1889 were taken
the first examples of motion-pictures as they are known
T In 1894 Dickson, assisted by Mrs. Dickson, published 'The Life and
Inventions of Tfcomas Alya Edison."
MOTION-PICTURE CAMERA
to-3ay. (It was not until 1890 that Marey adapted film
to Ms uses of scientific study.)
In the laboratory grounds a "studio 5 * was built a box-
like wooden affair so pivoted that it could be turned to
catch the sunlight, to admit which a movable portion of
the roof was opened. Inside ? it was painted black; out-
side, it was covered with black roofing-paper. Quite nat-
urally it was known as the "Black Maria.** Against the
somber background of its interior, "La Loie ?? Fuller
danced* "Gentleman Jim 55 Corbett boxed, fenctrs con-
tended, bears performed. Mere sequences of movement*
these ; the day of the "screen drama 55 was not yet.
Edison also devised an apparatus in which the positive
prints made from kinetograph negatives could be ex-
hibited. This he called a "kinetoscope. 95 It was a ma-
chine in which the pictures were viewed directly, through
an eye-piece. There were a mechanism to move the film-
strip, a light to illuminate the strip, and a rotating screen*
The screen had a series of apertures in it; these apertures
came in line with the eye-piece in such a way that the ob-
server saw only one picture at a time; and persistence of
vision did the rest.
When commercial expansion began in the motion-
picture field in this country, the work of filming had to
be done largely by processes and apparatus on which
Kdison had obtained patents. His kinetoscope was re-
placed from 1895 onward by the projection-lantern,
i, modified and specialized form of the once widely fa-
ftiiliar magic lantern. The general arrangement of a
projection-lantern was that a powerful illuminating con-
trivance sent a beam of light through a condensing lens f
while the exhibition film (positive) was moved across the
path of this beam and at the back of a projection lens*
The film was moved intermittently, just as the negative
191
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
film tad been ; and each photograph while at rest was ex
posed in turn by a rapid shutter. The photographs,
when thrown in a much enlarged form upon a screen^ so
blended as to give an impression of continuous action.
That is to say 5 they were supposed to do so ; but, through
one defect or another 3 they would often jump and glint
most distressingly. There was pretty steady improve-
ment in this respect, as in other purely mechanical fea-
tures of motion-picture taking and projecting but to
enter into a history of the "movie" industry is hardly
within the province of this volume.
Rear-Adm. Bradley A. Fiske, U. S. Navy, has writ-
ten 8 that in the Mnetograph and kinetoscope "we see an
invention of the highest order in each of the three essen-
tials conception, development and production. "No in-
vention exists of a higher order. 5 ' As to the modern
motion-picture, he says: "Whether it is for the public
good to produce so many shows for idly disposed men
and women to spend their time in looking at, is perhaps
a possible subject for enlightening discussion. But the
moving picture is used for many purposes, especially for
purposes of education and research, besides that of mere
amusement, and will unquestionably be so used, more and
more as time goes on. 55
From the very beginning, Edison evidently thought
highly of the educational possibilities of motion-pictures,
both for popular audiences and in the class-room. Most
educators would probably agree that motion-pictures
might be made a valuable accessory to the test-book and
the living teacher. Few, however, cared to follow Edison
in his reported statements (1923) that "in twenty years
children will be taught with pictures and not with books 59
and that "Motion pictures are 100 per cent perfect for
Ms "Invention" (New York, 1921).
192
MOTION-PICTUfiE CAMERA
disseminating knowledge. 95 9 Oral Instruction^
maps ? pictures other than motion-pictures tiiese ? It was
generally believed^ would hold their place if education was
to have a properly broad meaning; and nothing could
diminish the importance of constructive thinking and
real study. 10
More generally approved, doubtless^ were these other
words of Edison 5 written to be read at a dinner given to
Mm in New York by members of the motion-picture in-
dustry on February 15th, 1924^ to honor his seventy-
seventh birthday:
". . . Whatever part I have played in Its [i. 0. 5 the
motion picture's] development was mainly along mechan-
ical lines.
"The far more important development of the motion
picture as a medium for artistic effort and as an educa-
tional factor Is in your hands. Because I was working
before most of you were born 9 1 am going to bore you with
a little advice.
"New York Tribune," May 16, 1923. Possibly Edison's views were
somewhat exaggerated. See William Inglis* "Edison and the New
Education/* in ''Harper's Weekly" for November 4, 1911 (p. 8).
* A factor to be considered has thus been pointed out:
". . . You seem to imply that the manufacturers have produced sub-
jects and the educators are backward in using them. Quite the reverse
is the case. The educator during the last fifteen or twenty years, to
my knowledge, has been appealing to the manufacturers to produce sub-
jects suitable for class-room work 9 and the manufacturers have failed
to respond to the call, chiefly owing to the mistaken idea that they
cannot make millions in educational subjects.
"According to a recent report of the Commissioner of Education,
there are thousands of schools equipped with projecting machines 9 but
they can get nothing suitable to project, consequently many of them
are lying idle and a majority of these machines are consigned to the
basement of the schools to rust owing to the paucity of suitable sub-
jects for the classes." From a letter of Alfred H. Saunders, lecturer
and writer on educational cinematography, in the "New York Tribune,**
May 22, 1923.
193
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
a Remember that you are the servants of the public and
never let a desire for money or power prevent you from
giving the public the best work of which you are capa-
ble." ll
Back in 1880 the year in which he was making ready
to introduce his system of distributing electric current
Edison had obtained a patent on a magnetic ore separa-
tor. Several other inventors, especially during the lat-
ter half of the nineteenth century, had attempted to con-
centrate the iron in low-grade iron ores by magnetically
separating the iron portion from the gangue "gangue 95
being the mining term for the veinstone or rock occurring
with the ore. Edison took up the idea because he was
aware that the iron-mills and steel-mills of the East were
being affected by the scarcity of high-grade iron ore and
the increasing prices.
In 1881 he established a small concentrating plant at
Quogue 5 on the south shore of Long Island, where, upon
the beach, he had found a huge deposit "hundreds of
thousands of tons/* he judged of so-called black sand,
particles of extremely pure magnetic Iron. Hardly had
the plant been started when, said Edison, "a tremendous
storm came up, and every bit of that black sand went out
to sea. 55 W. H. Meadowcroft in that year, under Edi-
son's direction, set up on the Rhode Island coast a plant
of similar kind. In this case over 1,000 tons of excel-
lent iron concentrate were separated and sold; but the
concentrate^ as was later discovered, was too finely di-
vided and hence it could not be used with success. 12 Edi-
son subsequently invented a method for dealing with such
finely divided ore.
11 "The World," February 16,
12 Meadowcroft, p. 242.
MAGNETIC OBE-MILLING
From 1881 until 1891, ore-concentrating was in abey-
ance; from 1891 to 1900 It claimed most of Edison*s time
and effort. 13 With the aid of a specially constructed
magnetic needle, he located a vast ore deposit in the moun-
tain region of northern New Jersey, in Sussex county,
^ere he built a concentrating works representing a no-
table achievement in industrial engineering. In its out-
lines and general scope this was one of Edison's largest
enterprises^ yet it was one with which the public is little
acquainted- In it over $2 3 000,000 were invested, of
which Edison himself furnished the greater part the
bulk of his private fortune. Around the works, in the
midst of a wild and wooded country, grew up a village
called Edison, to which the Central Railroad of New Jer-
sey built a branch line from Lake Hopatcong. The
workers' houses, of a type designed by Edison himself,
had running water and were lit by incandescent lamps.
In this unusual mining town Edison for about five years
spent the working days of each week, going to "Glen-
mont" for Sundays only. The dwelling in which he
lived was locally known as the "White House. 5 ' In 8,000
acres lying immediately around the works were so he
reckoned some 200,000,000 tons of low-grade ore ; and
to this tract he added 16,000 acres containing ore, he
thought, in the same proportion,
The core or center of the whole undertaking was the
magnetic separator, employed on a bold scale. Around
this he developed a series of inventions designed to make
it possible to concentrate about 6,000 tons of ore a day.
Blasting dislodged 30,000 tons or so of rock at a time.
Great steam-shovels loaded the rock upon skips, and the
skips were hauled over a narrow-gauge railway to the
is This is witnessed by tbe list of patents applied for during tSiese
years. See also J>. and M* II, SOI.
195
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
fi giant rolls.** Each of these two solid cast-iron rolls
was five feet long and sis feet In diameter, and their com-
bined weight was 167,000 pounds. They were set about
fourteen inches apart and belt-driven in opposite direc-
tions, the power being applied through friction-clutches
by means of which it could quickly be connected or dis-
connected. Engineers didn't think the scheme would
work* but it did.
A rock the size of an upright piano and weighing,
maybe, five to eight tons, was raised from a skip and
swung over a hopper above the rolls. The rolls were
speeded up to something like a mile a minute then the
power was disconnected. Down dropped the rock into
the maw of the rolls. There was no strain on the engine ;
the rolls were running under their own momentum. With
the shock of a gigantic pile-driver and a deafening crash,
the rock passed between the rolls, coming out at the bot-
tom in pieces small enough to get through the fourteen-
inch gap.
These pieces were broken by a progressive series of
^^intermediate rolls' 3 into bits about the size of an ordi-
nary marble. Then the bits were pulverized in a grind-
ing machine known, from its peculiar construction, as the
"three-high rolls.'* This machine, which exerted a pres-
sure of 125,000 pounds with an amazingly small amount
of friction, had three cylinders, each about three feet in
diameter, set vertically in a frame. The shaft of the bot-
tom cylinder ran in fixed bearings, but the shafts of the
middle and top cylinders ran in loose bearings and could
move up or down. The bits of rock passed first between
the top and middle rolls, then between the middle and bot-
tom rolls. At either end, outside the frame, the shafts
of the top and bottom rolls carried a seven-grooved
sheave* An endless wire rope went around these sheaves
MAGNETIC GRE-MILLIXG
and was carried up over a single-grooved sheave that was
controlled by the piston of an air-cylinder. As the piston
was either raised or lowered, a varying pressure could be
exerted on the top and bottom rolls, the bearings of which
revolved Inside the turns of wire rope. In this way an-
other set of bearings was In effect supplied by the rope ;
and thus friction was reduced to such an extent that the
"three-high rolls" showed a working efficiency of 84 per
cent, (with a loss of only 16 per cent.) . Up to that time
the best available grinding machines had shown a work-
ing efficiency of but 18 per cent, (with a loss of 82 per
cent.) practically the reverse of what Edison proved
might be accomplished. 14
Drying and screening also entered Into the process;
and the pulverized material journeyed past four hundred
and eighty magnets so grouped In series that the suc-
cessive magnetic fields were Increasingly powerful. Non-
magnetic particles fell in a straight line. Magnetic par-
ticles were drawn toward not to the magnet. Their
path was altered because they were acted on by both grav-
ity and magnetic force. The non-magnetic particles
were acted on by gravity only. Thus the two kinds of
particles were separated; and they proceeded by their
respective routes to the opposite sides of a divided bin*
The non-magnetic particles, constituting the tailings
(i. e* 9 the debris of the process), were sold for various in-
dustrial purposes especially for use In mortar, to which
they were well adapted. The magnetic particles were
mixed with a binder and compressed into briquettes one
and one-half inches thick and three inches in diameter at
the rate of sixty a minute. These briquettes were hard
enough to stand shipment; waterproof enough to shed
the weather when, for the sake of lower freight rates, they
i* IX and M* II, 9IS-918.
197
EDISON: THE MAX AND HIS WORK
were shipped in open cars. At the same time they were
porous enough, when used at the smelting-works, to allow
of proper action by furnace gases. They ran 2300 to
a ton ; and in 1897 the plant was daily averaging seventy-
five car-loads of twenty tons each. 15
In Edison's ore-milling process* approximately 100,-
000 cubic feet of material a day were put through, travel-
ling about a mile. This was made possible by means of
skilfully designed conveyors. Edison's plans were based
on low costs through automatic transfer. The propor-
tion of tailings to high concentrate ran about three to
one that is, three tons of the first to one ton of the sec-
ond. In the concentrate, the final percentage of iron
oxide averaged from 90 to 93 per cent.
All the links of the chain were strong. Vast deposits
of low-grade ore were close at hand. The milling process
was remarkably efficient and economical The product
showed high quality on test. John Fritz of the Bethle-
hem Steel company had ordered 10,000 tons of it. Then
something unforeseen and unpreventable happened. In
the Mesaba hills of north-eastern Minnesota, enormous
and easily accessible deposits of uncommonly rich Bes-
semer ore were discovered. What with the richness of
this ore and the low cost at which it could be mined, the
price of crude ore of that quality dropped to around
$3.50 a ton. At from $6.00 to $6.50 a ton, Edison would
have been able to sell his briquettes profitably. At $3.50
a ton, it was out of the question for him to seek to com-
pete. Engineering problems had been solved. Prece-
dents had been successfully flouted. The miE was non-
chalantly turning out cakes of magnetite. With the goal
of some nine years* work practically in view, it seemed
is See Theodore Waters, "Edison's Revolution in Iron Mining," in
*McCIure*s Magazine" for November, 1897; pp. 75-03.
108
MAGNETIC QBE-MILLING
best for prudential reasons to abandon the enterprise.
The company was in debt to the extent of several hun-
dred thousands of dollars., but In about three years all
debts were paid. The mill was closed; its workmen,
drifted away; their cottages tumbled in ruin or were
torn down for the lumber they contained; the plant was
gradually dismantled. Before many years had gone by,
a wanderer in those parts, chancing upon that remote
cluster of weatherbeaten and decayed buildings, might
have wondered of what ambitious labors it had been the
scene.
Hardly had the works been closed when Edison was
planning to take up the manufacture of Portland cement,
as he was convinced that in the cement industry much of
what had been learned In the venture of ore-milling could
be successfully applied. Practically all the mechanical
equipment of the ore-milling works, with the exception of
the separators and the devices for mixing and briquet-
ting, was later adapted to cement-making* For example,
the "three-high rolls/* which originally had smooth faces,
were altered for the cement process (in which the feed
was more rapid) by being meshed together in the style
of gears. Edison also set out to develop a wholly new
type of storage battery. To B,. H. Beach of the Gen-
eral Electric company, he said, "Beach, I don't think
Nature would be so unkind as to withhold the secret of a
good storage battery, if a real earnest hunt for It is
made." . .
W. S. Mallory, a business associate of Edison In the
ore-milling project and afterward in the cement com-
pany, related that in 1902, in which year the stock of the
Edison General Electric company 17 touched its high
is ix and M., II, 554; Meadowcroft, 275.
^7 See Chapter XI, p. 181.
199
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
figure^ Edison aslced him, "If I hadn't sold any of mlne ?
what -would It be worth to-day ? w Mallory did some
reckoning on the basis of the day ? s quotation and an-
swered, "Over $4,000 5 000.' 9 After a few seconds 9 pause s
Edison cheerily remarked, 4 We!I ? it's all gone, but we had
a hell of a good time spending it. 5 ' 1S One summer day in
1910 lie visited the ruinous separating-plant. Seated on
the "White House 55 porch, he said only: "I never felt
better in my life than during the five years I worked here.
Hard work, nothing to divert my thought, clear air and
simple food made my life very pleasant. We learned a
great deal It will be of benefit to some one some time. 55 19
In 1889 Edison and Mrs* Edison visited the Paris Ex-
positlon 3 at which the Edison exhibit, comprising seven-
teen departments, covered over 9 ? 000 square feet of floor
space. This exhibit, made at the inventor's personal ex-
pense and costing upwards of $100,000, was installed un-
der the supervision of W. J. Hammer, Edison's repre-
sentative, with the aid of forty-five assistants, 20 Edison
had a chat with Pasteur and inspected the newly com-
pleted Eiffel Tower in the Champ de Mars as the guest
of Alexandre Eiffel, the French engineer who designed
and constructed it. In Eiffel's private office at the top
of the tower, Gounod, then seventy-one, played and sang
for the Edison party. Many honors were shown to Edi-
son, including dinners given by the French engineers and
by the municipality of Paris. He also attended a gala
performance at the Opera, where, as he entered his box,
the orchestra played "The Star-Spangled Banner" and
the house rose "whereupon,** said he, "I was very much
18 D. and M^ II, 504-505.
19 16., II, 77S.
20 On February 10, 1925, Major Hammer was decorated chevalier of
tibe Legion of Honor, in belated recognition of Ms services to France
In 1880.
200
MAGNETIC ORE-MILLING
embarrassed." At the close of the exposition^ Edison
made a commander of the Legion of Honor. ". . . They
tried to put a sash on me/ ? he is quoted as relating^ "
I could not stand for that. ?? 21
21 D. and M. s II, m
201
XIII
MAKING PORTLAND CEMENT;
BUILDING A NEW STORAGE BATTERY
IN establishing his Portland cement mill at New Village*
New Jersey, Edison was entering no new industry but
one that had been in existence for three-quarters of a cen-
tury. It was in 1825 that Joseph Aspdin, brickmaker
of Leeds, England, invented Portland cement the name
coming from its supposed resemblance to Portland stone,
a limestone much used in England and obtained from the
Isle of Portland (Dorset). Natural cements that is,
cements made through the burning and pulverizing of
limestones naturally containing clay were found to be
inferior to Aspdin's, which in masonry permitted a freer
use of sand, set more gradually, and developed greater
strength. The Portland cement was made by burning a
specially prepared mixture of limestone and clay, in which
the proportions of each could be absolutely controlled.
Judged by later standards, the earliest cement of this
kind was of a crude sort.
In 1872, nearly a half-century after Aspdin had in-
vented it, Portland cement was for the first time produced
in the United States the pioneers being David O. Say-
lor of Coplay, Pennsylvania, and his associates, Adam
Woolever, Esaias Rehrig, and Willoughby Focht. It
was not long before the natural cements, which had been
in favor ever since the engineer Canvass White had used
such material in the building of the Erie canal, encount-
ered a rival in the new product By the beginning of the
202
MAKING PORTLAND CEMENT
twentieth century, Portland cement was much, preferred
how muchj may be indicated by the fact that in 1902
the Portland cement production in the United States
was 17,230,644 barrels, valued at $30,864,078, whereas
natural-rock cement production for that year was 8,044 5 -
805 barrels, valued at $4>076 ? 630. 1 The machinery used
in the making of Portland cement had become increas-
ingly efficient, and the quality of the output had steadily
risen.
In this field, then ? Edison appeared as a newcomer.
He had seen the marked growth of the industry and had
noted how widely the use of concrete was being extended
for structural purposes. His ore-milling venture, now
come to an unavoidable end, had given him valuable ex-
perience in matters connected with the crushing and
grinding of raw rock. For it he had developed special
machinery that might be adapted to the process of cement
manufacture. Nature had compelled a retreat on his
part, but even in retreat he displayed the strategy of a
good general.
It is said that after Edison had "with the greatest pos-
sible reluctance 5 * 2 concluded to shut down the separating
plant, he took the next train home ; and during this rail-
way journey decided that while he was experimenting
with a new storage battery, cement-making as a a side-
line' 5 would help to pay old debts even though it might
not recoup him for old losses. Talking to Mallory, Edi-
son "most positively" stated that "no company with
which he had personally been actively connected had ever
failed to pay its debts, and that he did not propose to have
iH. H. Saylor, "Tinkering with Tools" (Boston, 1924; in the Useful
Knowledge Books series, edited by G. S. Bryan), pp. 190-191; A. A.
Hopkins and A. R. Bond, ed. f "The Scientific American Eeference
Book 9 ' (New York, 2nd ed., 1906).
2 Mallory as quoted In D. and M. s II, 502.
203
EDISON: THE MAX AND HIS WORK
the Concentrating Company any exception." 3 He did
not think that at that the phonograph works would
yield profits sufficient to carry the burden.
His method of approach to cement-manufacture was
characteristic. He read extensively on the subject and
collected from many sources. Then he plunged Into
the of construction. It seems that, working aU day
and far into the night in a draughting-room of the West
Orange laboratory, he drew at one sitting a plan for the
New Village plant drew it so well from end to end that
after ten years of use "no vital change^ 59 so we are as-
suredj needed. 4 This was no mean feat, but it was
perhaps equalled by one connected with the time when the
plant built entirely of steel and concrete was about
ready. Edison spent the greater part of a Saturday in
a thoroughgoing inspection. That evening at "Glen-
mont, w without notes to refer to, he began to write out
a list of each and every detail that he had examined at
the plant, with specifications of changes to be made in
certain machinery. He worked straight through to Sun-
day afternoon, when he finished the list in all, close to
six hundred entries. A copy of this was sent to the gen-
eral superintendent and used by him in making the
changes Edison required. 5
In the manufacture of Portland cement, the ground
mixture of raw material is fed into revolving kilns in
which an intense heat is maintained through powdered
coal kept burning inside them. When acted upon by
the heat 9 the mixture softens and forms "clinker" not
the clinker of the householder's furnace or stove-grate
but spheroids that roll out at the other end of the kiln,
I>. and M., II, 03.
*/6., II, 509,
k, II,
MAKING PORTLAND CEMENT
Cooled, finely ground, and screened, these spheroids yield
cement powdery which is then packed in barrels or bags.
Such, briefly? is the general process.
Edison devised a weighing arrangement by which^ when
the beam was tipped^ an electric connection was broken
and the hopper was automatically closed. This was used
in keeping the relative quantities of raw materials pre-
cisely uniform. He also provided for finer grinding and
planned an oil-circulating system that took care of no less
than 10 3 000 bearings. His chief novelty was the "long
kiln.** For the regular kiln, with a length of some sixty
feet and an inside diameter of five or so 3 he substituted
one having a length of a hundred and fifty feet and an
increased diameter. He claimed that with this larger
kiln he could economically treat a greater amount of raw
materials and turn out a better grade of cement. The
average sixty-foot kiln would yield approximately two
hundred barrels of clinker for every twenty-four hour
day. The "long kiln 55 raised production to a maximum
of more than 1,100 barrels in every twenty-four hours, al-
though a rate somewhat below full capacity was fixed
upon for the sake of economy.
Lesley, in his "History of the Portland Cement In-
dustry/' 6 says : "In 1909 Thomas A. Edison was
granted a patent for the use of kilns 150 feet and longer,
every one predicting that it would be impossible to turn
kilns of this length without warping. The proof of the
pudding, however, was in the eatings and it was not long
after Edison 5 s invention that kilns of 125 feet became al-
most standard as substitutes for the old 60-foot Mln.
Mr. Edison not only designed the long kiln described, but
was the first to use steam shovels for loading rock in the
quarries. He also introduced the well-drill in quarry op-
epp, 123-124.
205
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
eration. Later on the length of the Edison kiln was far
exceeded* Some kilns now in use are 280 feet Iong 5 with
capacities of a thousand or more barrels of cement per
day."
Edison^s excursion into cement-making is of interest
less for what he contributed to standard practice than
for glimpses it affords of the man of his energy, his
mental grasp 5 the individuality that would question ac-
cepted ways and study ways of its own. If he did not
revolutionize the cement industry ? he placed his impress
upon it. His associate Mallory is authority for the state-
ment that within about ten years over half of the total
amount of Portland cement made in the United States
was burned in long kilns. 7 Though it may be true that
by 1910 the directors of the older companies were no
longer so concerned as they once had been over Edison
competition, it is also stated that by that time the Edison
Portland Cement company had gained fifth rank among
American producing companies. In 1905 the capacity 8
of the works was S 3 000 barrels daily; in 1924 it was
7,500 barrels daily.
During these earlier years of the cement plant's de-
velopment, Edison was working upon cylindrical phono-
graphic records ; upon an improved form of the business
phonograph^ the new feature of which was that dictated
matter could be repeated and corrections might thus be
made; upon an electric motor for operating the busi-
ness phonograph (or dictating machine) on commercial
electric-lighting circuits- His chief interest at this pe-
riod was ? however, centered in his long and arduous cam-
paign to realize his idea of an alkaline storage battery.
and 3C, II, 514.
SIX and M^ II, 698; R. W. ^Lesley: "History of the Portland Cement
Industry** (Chicago, 1924).
206
MAKING PORTLAND CEMENT
This storage battery was probably the hardest nut he
ever tried to crack.
Like all other electric batteries whatsoever, the so-
called storage battery derives, of course, from the primary
battery better known as the voltaic battery, since the
principle of its action was discovered by Alessandro
Volta. A primary battery Is composed of a group of
primary cells. Broadly speaMng, a primary cell has for
its component parts two different metals (known as the
elements) associated with a chemical compound (termed
the electrolyte). In the simple form of its modern de-
velopment, the primary cell has a piece of zinc and a
piece of copper dipped into a solution of dilute sulphuric
acid. A chemical action Is set up ; the zinc piece Is grad-
ually dissolved away ; electric energy is produced. More
complex in structure is the "dry" cell, generally familiar
through its use for electric bells, for flashlights, in motor-
boats and motor-cars, and in radio receiving-sets. "Dry"
it is not, except in a relative sense. Its cylindrical zinc
container is the negative element; through the center of
this runs the positive element, a carbon (non-metallic) rod
that takes the place of the second metal. Inside the con-
tainer and around the rod is tightly packed a mixture of
graphite, granulated carbon, and other materials; and
this mixture the electrolyte, corresponding to the acid
solution of the zinc-copper cell is moist, and must be.
In both of these forms, a metal dissolves away and this
chemical action yields an electric current.
The chemical action of the primary cell is irreversible.
What is meant by an "irreversible" chemical process?
". * . Let us fry an egg over a gas-jet; no cold, how-
ever intense, can unfry it, and no electric current, how-
ever strong, can restore it to its first estate." 9 A
lies, "Flame, Electricity and the Camera," p. 144.
207
EBISOH: THE MAX AND HIS WORK
reversible chemical change is one like the decomposition
of water into two elements, hydrogen and oxygen. After
this kas been accomplished-, the two elements will again
unite to form water. The action of the so-called storage
battery (or group of storage cells) is reversible; and
"reversible battery 55 is a better though less popular term.
"Storage battery** suggests that electric energy is stored
in the apparatus ; and such is not at all the case. ^Sec-
ondary battery" is satisfactory; it indicates the impor-
tant fact that in its original form this type of battery
will not, like the primary battery, yield electric current.
Only after current from some outside source has charged
it, is the so-called storage battery prepared to function.
When Edison in 1900 began his hunt for the secret
of a "good" storage battery, it was the battery of lead-
sulphuric acid type that held the field. This battery*
greatly improved since that time, is familiar in its three-
cell form to drivers of motor-cars with internal-combustion
motors. The general principle of the storage-battery
was known at least as far back as the early years of the
nineteenth century, but the first important forward step
was not taken until 1861, when Gaston Plante arranged
plates of sheet lead in a solution of dilute sulphuric acid.
Another advance was recorded in 1879, when Emile Faure
brought out his "pasted-plate" type. In 1881 Charles
F. Brush (to whose arc-lighting system reference has
already been made) 10 introduced certain improvements,
and with this stimulus the lead-sulphuric acid battery
really entered its commercial stage in the United States.
The Plante type as first assembled has plates of sheet
l ea d pure metallic lead and the solution (electrolyte)
of dilute sulphuric acid. The plates have to be "formed 9 *
- that is, an electric current has to be passed through
10 See Chapter X, p. 106.
208
MAKING PORTLAND CEMENT
them repeatedly In alternate directions. This results in
producing lead monoxide at the surface of the plates.
At the same time, through the action of the acid ? the
surface of the plates Is covered with lead sulphate; and
this, since It Is practically Insoluble^ furnishes to the metal
a protective covering that very largely prevents losses
from local action. Now let the cells be charged say 5
from a dynamo. It will then be found that whereas two
plates were previously of the same material, they now
have suffered a "sea-change 95 ; at the surface of the posi-
tive (cathode) plate Is lead peroxide, hard and of a red-
dish color ; at the surface of the negative (anode) plate is
metallic lead, spongy and gray. The Faure type elim-
inates the long and costly process of "forming. 5 * In this
type, oxide of lead either lead monoxide or red lead
in the fashion of paste Is at the outset applied to the
plates. Then when the battery Is charged, the current
transforms the surface of the positive plate into lead
peroxide, the surface of the negative plate into metallic
lead.
Briefly put, then, a charging current produces different
effects in the positive and negative plates. If now the
charging current is withdrawn and the battery is con-
nected in circuit, the two plates act as two different metals
do in the primary (or voltaic) cell: they set up a cur-
rent. This current Is reverse in direction to the charg-
ing current. Hence the term "reversible battery." It
is chemical energy that Is accumulated In such a battery
(hence the term "accumulator/ 5 used In Great Britain) ;
but this chemical energy can be delivered in altered guise
as electric energy.
This preliminary survey will perhaps help to make
clear what Edison was trying to do and how radical were
his departures in battery construction. It is said that
209
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
back in the early 'eighties at Menlo lie made many experi-
ments looking toward the Improvement of the lead-
sulphuric acid type, which even then he was inclined to
regard as "intrinsically wrong. 95 11 This attitude kept
Mm from seriously considering that type as an adjunct
to his Incandescent-lighting system. For incandescent
lighting, a ton of coal, he said, was the best storage
battery he knew, 12 When he started to hunt for a "good"
battery, he was sure of two tilings : it was not to use lead,
and It was to have an alkaline solution instead of an acid
one. Otherwise, he could be certain of nothing.
Among the defects of which he was aware In the lead-
sulphuric acid type were the narrow restriction as to
materials for containers; the tendency of the plates to
buckle If In use when the electrolyte happened to be low;
the dropping of fine particles to the bottom of a cell ; the
great weight, relative to electric capacity; likelihood of
injury through overcharge, through extreme or complete
discharge, or through remaining uncharged. The sul-
phuric acid, too, gave out corrosive fumes, and it had
the defect of its quality of attacking and decomposing
practically everything with which it came in contact.
The battery he purposed to develop was to be used to
supply motive power chiefly for road vehicles, to some
extent for street-railway cars. The job took about ten
years of work by himself and a selected staff. Over
10,000 experiments were made before any definitely
encouraging results were won. Then Iron and nickel
promised the electric action that he sought. But this
was only the beginning. He had a clue, indeed, but the
11 D. and M., II, 927.
12 D. and M, II, 553. Storage batteries came to be used widely in
connection with the larger lighting-systems and traction-lines. Cur-
rent turned into batteries at slack times could be released during busy
periods, to lighten the load on the generating plant.
210
A NEW STORAGE BATTERY
way was long through the labyrinth. Once It seemed
that he had arrived, but this was a mistake; the journey
had to be resumed. All told, about 50 5 000 experiments
(the record of them filling over a hundred and fifty of
the laboratory note-books) were demanded before the
goal was achieved.
The complexities of this battery problem were tremen-
dous. To J. W. Aylesworth, his chief chemist, Edison
remarked, "In phonographic work we can use our ears
and our eyes, aided with powerful microscopes; but in
the battery our difficulties cannot be seen or heard, but
must be observed by our mind's eye P 13 There was need.
of all the old patience, all the old tireless persistence. At
midnight Edison's carriage would be waiting to take him
to "Glenmont" ; but often it continued waiting until two
or three in the morning, and at times it went back with-
out him. From those earlier years of battery work
marked, like the incandescent-lamp period at Menlo, by
long wakefulness, short sleep, and suppers at midnight
emerges the figure of Edison ensconced for a nap in a
roll-top desk. His head reposes on two or three volumes
of Watts 5 "Dictionary of Chemistry*" (Around the
laboratory, a standing joke is that he is thus directly
assimilating their contents.) He turns over, but without
danger he never tumbles. When he wakes, he wakes at
once, evidently holding, with Secretary Chase, that the
way to resumption is to resume*
One day, when work on the storage battery had been
under way for over five months and more than 9,000
experiments had been made, Mallory found Edison sit-
ting at a laboratory bench covered with test^cells. Noth-
ing of promise had yet been reached. Mallory expressed
condolence: "Isn't it a shame that with the tremendous
is D. and M,, II, 563.
211
EDISON: THE MAX AND HIS WORK
amount of work you have done, you haven't been able to
get any results?*' "Results!" Edison smilingly flashed
back "Why , man, 1 have gotten a lot of results. I
know several thousand things that won't work." 14 It
was not long before he hit upon something that did work*
The nickel and iron that he used were In chemical
forms nickel hydrate and Iron oxide. At Silver Lake,
about three miles from the West Orange establishment,
he built works for the manufacture of these materials.
At last he felt that commercial production of battery
cells might be started. The original battery was known
as "Type E. ?? Though higher in first cost than a lead-
sulphuric acid battery of corresponding output. It was
well received and extensively purchased not only because
of Edison prestige and the newspaper announcements
but also because results showed that it was cleaner,
lighter, cheaper to maintain, and marked by the property
quite lacking in the lead-sulphuric acid battery and
of decided value from the user's viewpoint of remaining
uninjured when either overcharged or left uncharged.
The cells were made according to Edison's rigorous
standards of quality, with high-grade materials and
uniform care.
After a while, however, evidence showed that for some
reason or other the cells would now and again be of
defective capacity. Assured of this, Edison saw that the
logic of the situation was simply that as more cells were
manufactured, more batteries would prove Inferior.
Though he knew that if production were suspended a
large financial loss would be Involved and the common
impression would be that the battery was commercially a
failure, he at once ordered that the factory shut down.
and announced that he would attempt to improve the old
w D. and M., II, 615-616.
212
A NEW STORAGE BATTERY
cell so as to give it increased capacity and a longer life.
Re-orders from satisfied purchasers were not accepted.
It made no difference that "considerable pressure was at
times brought to bear 5 * 15 presumably by leading stock-
holders. As a contrast to the all-too-frequent spectacle
of imperfect products forced upon the market by the
dodges of advertising, this attitude on Edison's part is,
to say the Ieast 3 refreshing.
A second course of experimenting was straightway in
full blast. This resulted in the "Type A 55 battery, de-
scribed by one of Edison's laboratory assistants as "a
finer battery than we ever expected.' 5 ". , Secrets/ 5
declared this man, "have to be long-winded and roost
high if they want to get away when the fi 01d Man* goes
hunting for them. 55 Manufacture of the new type 5 begun
in the summer of 1909, was being extended within a year.
For this vehicle battery three sizes of cell were made.
These were known as A-4, A-6, and A-8 the numerals
indicating the number of positive plates that each con-
tained. Both of the outside plates were negative, so that
the cells had respectively five, seven, or nine negative
plates. The dimensions of the plates were identical for
all cells ; hence the one variation was in the thickness of the
container or can, which was less or greater according to
the number of plates. The cells were assembled in a
wooden tray of light weight and strongly built. In the
standard assembled battery, the pounds per cell were:
A-4, 14.21; A-6, 20.09; A-8, 20.15. It was claimed
that a vehicle battery when assembled weighed but little
more than half as much as a lead-sulphuric acid battery
of corresponding output.
A cell might be divided into four component parts:
(a) The electrolyte, a Sl-per cent, solution of caustic
is D. and M* II, 537*
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
potash (pure potassium hydrate) In distilled water ; 18
(6) a group of positive plates connected in multiple with
the positive terminal; (c) a group of negative plates^
similarly connected with the negative terminal and inter-
meshed with the group of positive plates; (d) a con-
tainer (or can) of nickel-plated sheet steel.
During the cycle of charge and discharge, the elec-
trolyte remained unchanged with respect to specific grav-
ity, conductivity 3 and the proportion of potash to water.
Also, because the plates were Immersed in a solution that
was stable and non-Injurious to metals, the cell might be
left unused^ either partially or wholly discharged, for a
considerable time.
A positive plate was composed of a nickel-plated steel
grid holding thirty tubes 5 each four and one-eighth Inches
long and with a diameter of a quarter-inch (or about that
of the ordinary lead-pencil), arranged in two tiers of
fifteen and packed with the positive active material, nickel
hydrate. It was lack of adequate electrical contact In
these positive pockets that had caused Edison to be dis-
satisfied with "Type E, 5? and that led to experiments last-
ing about five years and costing more than a million
dollars. The tubes of "Type A" were of very thin sheet
steel and perforated with minute holes, through which the
electrolyte could seep. Into these tubes were packed,
under a pressure of about four tons to the square inch,
layers of nickel hydrate and of the material that finally
solved the contact problem nickel-flake. The thinness
of these layers may be judged from the fact that it
required about seven hundred of them about three
hundred and fifty of each material to fill a tube.
is A small amount of lithium hydrate was also used. In Novem-
ber, 1923, the newspapers stated that Edison had purchased a spodu-
mene mining lode in the Black Hills, Nebraska. Spodumene (or
triphame) Is a lithium-bearing mineral,
214
A NEW STOEAGE BATTERY
Nickel flake was made of pure nickel by an electroplating
process 1T in which a hundred layers of copper and a
hundred layers of nickel were deposited alternately upon
a metal cylinder, then removed in sheet form and placed
in a bath that dissolved away the copper. A handful of
discs of tliis nickel flake would be as light as feathers.
A bushel of them weighs only four and one-half pounds.
When inserted in a tube, the discs made excellent contact
with it and were conductors of current to and from the
nickel hydrate. In order to prevent any expansion that
might interfere with this contact, the tubes were made
with a double-lapped spiral seam and over them were
slipped metal rings.
A negative plate was composed of a grid holding
twenty-four flat, rectangular pockets, perforated like the
positive tubes and arranged eight in a row. The nega-
tive active material was an iron oxide quite like ordinary
iron rust. Sheets of perforated hard rubber insulated
the two end (negative) plates from the walls of the
container. Rods of it separated adjacent plates, and
cross-pieces of it held the plates above the bottom of the
can only slightly, however, as the loss of active material
was never more than trifling. The container had its
walls corrugated to some extent in- order to provide the
utmost rigidity with the least possible weight.
In a certain few respects this nickel-iron battery
required somewhat particular care. The amount of
electrolyte was relatively small. Hence the cells showed
a greater tendency than did lead cells to heat suddenly
17 Under date of 1924 the monograph "The Edison Alkaline Storage
Battery" (National Education Association Joint Committee series,
Monograph III) stated that according to the practice at that time,
tubes were four and one-half inches long and about six hundred and
thirty layers were packed under a pressure of 2,000 pounds to the
square inch. In the electro-plating, one hundred and twenty-five films
of each metal were deposited.
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
through excessive current; and the electrolyte tended to
evaporate. Also, the small amount of electrolyte and the
metal cans combined to make the cell more susceptible to
cold than was the lead cell. These matters were, how-
ever, regarded as of slight Importance In comparison with
the many advantages offered by the battery for electric-
vehicle work such as longer life, markedly lighter
weight, lower maintenance cost, and more than double
mileage per charge in road performance. In other
words, the a good 5 * storage battery that Edison sought
seemed to have been found* 18
The story of the Edison battery Is one of insistent
plodding quite devoid of spectacular features such as
were not lacking, for example, in the work on the incan-
descent lamp. As illustrative of Edison's traits and
methods, it has, however, much Interest. A co-worker
during those ten years asserted, "If Edison's experiments,
Investigations, and work on the storage battery were all
that he had ever done, I should say that he was not only a
notable Inventor, but also a great man." 19
The nickel-iron battery turned out to be peculiarly
well adapted to a field not taken into account in Its in-
ventor's original plans the field of submarine service.
Whatever might be thought of the possibilities of the
submarine as an element in warfare (for great argument
prevailed regarding this), it was generally agreed and
especially by those with experience that for human so-
journ a submarine's interior left much to be desired,
and particularly when the vessel was submerged. When
at the surface of the water, the submarine was driven by
internal-combustion engines. The air inside it could then
is j. B. Baker, "Thomas A. Edison's Latest Invention," in the "Scien-
tific American 5 * for January 14, 191L
and M., II, 555.
216
A XEW STORAGE BATTERY
be kept pure. When submerged, the vessel was driven uy
electric motors. Access of outside air was then, of course,
impossible. A supply of chemically pure compressed air
was carried in steel tanks, and a system complicated at
best was tried for withdrawing the air from the vessel's
interior j to which it was later returned filtered, cooled* and
with the oxygen restored to it. These means did not,
however, eliminate the poisonous fumes of the lead-
sulphuric acid storage batteries.
The batteries supplied current for the motors that
drove the propellers when the boat was submerged, and
also for auxiliary motors used in managing torpedoes, in
steering, in pumping. When minute bubbles of gas
oxygen from the positive plates and hydrogen from the
negative rose to the surface of the electrolyte* passed
through the open gas-vent of a cell, and floated away,
each carried its tiny load of sulphuric acid, to be released
in fumes when the bubble broke or was evaporated.
After a while often without odor sufficient to attract
attention the air within the boat would become so tainted
as to cause coughing and sore-throat among the crew.
This was bound in time to affect the lungs and general
health. More serious yet, if salt water in any way came
into contact with a battery, chlorine gas would be formed,
offensive to smell and extremely harmful to those who
breathed it. Lead-sulphuric acid batteries had also to
be installed with elaborate provision and consequent
expense, lead-lined rooms and lead-lined ventilating pipes
being part of the specified equipment.
The Edison nickel-iron cell had a check-valve instead
of an open vent ; and in order for the bubbles to escape,
pressure enough to lift the valve had to be developed
within the cell. Even if the bubbles did escape, no harm
could be done, because caustic potash was what the
217
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
electrolyte of this battery held in solution s and potash
is (as is well known) an excellent disinfectant. Never-
theless, for submarine use Edison provided the battery
with a special device that completely removed potash from
the gases. The Edison battery required no lead-lined
rooms or other protective equipment. Uncommonly
severe tests proclaimed its sturdiness. Edison vouched
for its long life. "Keep it clean/' he said to officials of
the United States Navy, "and give it water and at the
end of four years it will give its full capacity." And
when they queried with surprise, "Four years? 5 * he an-
swered, "Yes. Four years, eight years ; it will outwear
the submarine itself." 20
'Hie Edison storage cell was also adapted to battery use
with radio broadcast receiving-sets. For this purpose,
the assemblies were of a special type. It was claimed that
these batteries would outlast three to six radio storage
batteries of any other make.
20 C. W. Williams, "Edison Solves Submarine's Problem," in tlie
World Magazine" for February, 1915.
SIS
xxxxcxxxxxx
XIV
LATER INVENTIONS;
SERVICES TO THE GOVERNMENT
FROM the appearance of Ms "Type A 55 nickel-iron stor-
age battery until the outbreak of the World War, Edison
was concerned chiefly with the development either of Ms
existing inventions or of new inventions derived from
these. For example,, he was perfecting his disc pho-
nograph seeking, with excellent results, to get rid of
certain mechanical flaws and to approach more closely
to an artistic re-creation of instrumental and vocal tones*
In 1912 he introduced the kinetophone, which had its
origins in two prior inventions of his, the phonograph and
the motion-picture camera. He had now, wrote I. F.
Marcosson, "finally realized a dream of many years by
Hnking two marvels of Ms genius." . . . The kinetophone
became popularly known as the talking motion-picture.
"The kinetophone," said Edison, "or rather the syn-
chronization of sight and sound, is an old idea of mine
that has finally been realized. In one way or another it
had been in mind for more than thirty years. Back in
the late seventies, when I invented the phonograph, it
was stirring, and in 1887, when I was able to perfect the
motion-picture camera, that idea of a combination of sight
and sound persisted. Some of my earliest experiments in
sound included an attempt to work it out.
"The problem of actual synchronization was the least
difficult of my tasks. The hardest job was to make a
219
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
phonographic recorder which would be sensitive to sound
a considerable distance away, and which would not show
within range of the lens. You get some Idea of the dif-
ficulty when I make tills comparison If you estimate the
volume of sound at a distance of one foot from the recorder
at one hundred you find that at a distance of two feet
It diminishes to twenty-five* The difficulty has now been
overcome, although I expect to make my recorder much
more effective than it is at present. 55 1
In order more fully to appreciate the difficulty to which
Edison thus referred, one may consider separately the
two respective procedures of filming a motion-picture
scene and of making a phonographic record. In the first
case, the chief requirement with respect to the camera Is
that the scene should be within focus. Then the crank
is turned and the "footage 95 is taken. Characters may
speak their lines but the action 9 when projected, is pan-
tomime; sound has no part in it. What the characters
may say must be followed, if at all, by lip-reading only.
In the second case s the chief requirement with respect to
the recording apparatus is to get a satisfactory record
of sound. It was long found impossible to obtain such a
record if the sound were produced at more than a com-
paratively slight distance from the horn.
In the kinetophone, the motion-picture camera and the
phonographic recording apparatus had to be combined.
Action and sound were both essential. Characters must
move about, speaking or singing ; yet a satisfactory record
must be made of what they said or sang. Hence, a
special recorder had to be devised a recorder sensitive
enough to catch and register any sound-wave at a distance
of forty feet, yet not visible In the picture. Edison
1 1. F. Marcosson, "The Coming of the Talking Picture," in "Munsey's
Magazine" for March, 1913; pp. 959-960.
220
LATER INVENTIONS
evolved a recorder that made practicable the kinetophone.
Something further was, of course, needed a syn-
chronizing device; that is, a device by means of which
action and sound could be simultaneously recorded and
simultaneously reproduced. Neither could be allowed to
run away from the other. Edison contrived an ingenious
arrangement by which this synchronizing could be
effected.
For the making of a talking motion-picture, the pho-
nographic record set the pace; action was subordinate to
sound. Beside the camera, and connected with it, was
placed the sensitive recorder, to which was attached a
receiving horn. When the camera-man started to turn
the crank, the record and the film began together. It
might happen that there would be no sound-wave to be
registered until several feet of film had been ground out.
This would be cared for by means of an automatic adjust-
ment. The record was made on wax cylinders of the same
general style as the record-blanks used with the regular
cylinder type of phonograph. The picture negative was
taken on standard celluloid film. From the wax originals
were made the "indestructible 59 commercial records ; from
the film negatives were printed the positives employed
in the projection-lantern.
When the talking motion-picture was produced, the
projection-lantern at the rear of the auditorium was con-
nected by wires with a phonograph placed out of sight
behind the screen at the front of the auditorium. The
operator of the projection-lantern could start or halt the
phonograph without leaving his place; but the record
while it was running really controlled him. That is, as
has been said, it set the pace for the film. The state-
ment was made that the operator could even turn his
back while the picture was appearing on the screen.
221
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
In November,, 1913, Edison remarked of the kineto-
phone: "It isn't exactly what I want it to be yet, but
it will soon come as close to perfection as these inventions
generally come 5 from my point of view, for I am never
satisfied. 39 2 The introductory exhibitions of it were
regarded by qualified observers as markedly successful.
The material used included instrumental and vocal
selections; "sketches" and tabloid comedies; dramatic
fragments such as the scene between Brutus and Cassius
in Act IV of "Julius Csesar 55 ; operatic bits such as ex-
tracts from "II Trovatore" ; part of the Planquette
operetta "The Chimes of Normandy 95 ("Les Cloches de
Corneville 5 *). Kinetograph features were added for a
time to the programmes of many better-class vaudeville
houses. That a good talking picture would be superior
to much of the usual vaudeville, there was no doubt.
Edison mentioned the possibility of a synchronizing
attachment that might be placed on the ordinary pro-
jection apparatus of motion-picture theaters. He said,
however : "The talking motion picture will not supplant
the regular silent motion picture. Each has its distinct
use." He also appreciated the difficulties involved in
preparing for the kinetophone more sustained material in
full length.
The novelty soon passed of the use of the talking pic-
ture for popular amusement. Edison turned to other
things. When peaceful development was resumed after
the World War effort, radio-telephony quickly advanced
as an engrossing new interest. In 1926, in a newspaper
interview, Edison was reported to have given it as his
opinion that the talking motion-picture would not be a
commercial success in the United States because the
2 Bailey Millard, "Pictures That Talk," in the "Technical World
Magazine'* for March, 1913,
222
LATER INVENTIONS
American public preferred the "silent 55 film. The larger
possibilities inherent in the talking picture when used for
purposes of historical and scientific record, may, however,
be said to be as yet untried.
In, 1914 Edison announced the telescribe, on which he
had been working since 1909, and the transophone, on
which he had been working since 1912. The first
was an extension of the use of the phonograph; the
second a development of the office phonograph (dictating
machine or "Ediphone").
As has earlier been pointed out, 3 a statement made by
Edison in 1878 showed that he had even then considered
the general notion of the telescribe. The general notion
was to provide for making automatic records of telephone
conversations. A phonograph had somehow to be con-
nected with receiver and transmitter of an ordinary tel-
ephone outfit. Edison, setting out to accomplish this, en-
countered many technical hindrances.
The idea was finally realized in such a manner that the
phonograph by which telephone talk was recorded could
at other times be used as a regular dictating machine,
and that no change was needed in the telephone equip-
ment already installed. Separate from both the pho-
nograph and the telephone was a metal box containing a
highly sensitive transmitter; a dry battery to provide
current for the extra circuit; and a pneumatic switch
for controlling the phonograph. A person wishing to
have a record made of a telephone conversation, removed
from its hook the regular telephone receiver and inserted
it, outer end down, in a spring-socket where it was held
firmly in place upon a leather pad. The sensitive
auxiliary transmitter in the metal box was thus au-
tomatically connected* The place of the regular tel-
s See Chapter IX, p. 98.
223
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
ephone receiver was taken by a handy substitute attached
to the extra circuit. The phonograph had a special
receiver that could be swung into position above the
phonographic recorder but was not connected with it.
When once connection had been obtained on the tel-
ephone line and the record-cylinder had been released by
means of the switch, a record could be made not only
of what was heard at the substitute receiver but also of
what was spoken into the regular transmitter. The
auxiliary transmitter in the metal box vibrated in unison
with the diaphragm of the telephone receiver in the spring-
socket, and the vibration was passed along to the special
receiver adjusted over the phonographic recorder. The
diaphragm of the recorder vibrated in its turn; and as
the phonograph cylinder revolved, the cutting-tool incised
a record-groove in the wax. A cylinder bearing such a
record was called a "telescript, 5 * and could be filed away
for reference, repetition, or transcript. By means of the
switch, the record-cylinder could be halted and started
again as desired. Thus certain portions of a conversa-
tion might be selected for record, and others omitted.
The office phonograph used was of the current Edison
type, but previous types could be adapted. It was evi-
dent that such a device might serve numerous useful pur-
poses in many fields. Edison's study of electro-magnetic
recorders in connection with his telescribe experiments was
later to prove of service in the sound-ranging apparatus
developed by him at the time of the World War.
The transophone was a mechanical improvement that
Edison made in the control of the office phonograph,
When the original office phonograph (dictating machine
or "Ediphone") was subjected to everyday use, a lack
was discovered. Typists might wish a small part of
their material repeated as, for example, when they had
224,
LATER INVENTIONS
failed to catcli certain words. They found that such a
partial repetition was impossible the record would have
to be started all over again. To remedy this defect 3 a
lever arrangement was added. By means of the lever,
the reproducing stylus could be set back to a desired
point on the record. But to throw the lever, the typist
had to turn from the typewriting-machine. Hence
occurred a certain break in the typist's attention and a
certain suspension of the immediate work. The con-
sequent loss of time was objected to in a business world
wherein "motion study" was a topic of the hour and
the "efficiency" of clerical assistants was coming to be
minutely examined. Furthermore,, many typists, cling-
ing to the shorthand note-book, were quite ready on
general principles to find fault with dictating machines.
Edison therefore developed the transophone. As in the
case of the telescribe, many obstacles had to be overcome.
Close to the keyboard of the typewriting-machine was
placed an electric switch having a button similar to a
key of the machine. The typist depressed this sup-
plementary key by a touch like that used for depressing
one of the regular keys. On the phonograph was a mag-
net. When depressed, the button (or supplementary
key) affected a quick-acting make-and-break (or in-
terrupter) on the magnet circuit. The circuit was closed,
the magnet was energized, and the armature of the magnet
was attracted. Thus a cam attachment was moved and
the travelling carriage was raised from the feed-screw
and "back-spaced 55 that is, moved back to a given point.
It was claimed that through the transophone the
"efficiency" of a typist was increased by as much as
twenty-five per cent. At the same time, the typist's own
comfort and convenience were decidedly enhanced. The
regular progress of the record was started or halted by
225
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
a foot-pedal. The transophone device was so made that
with but little trouble it might be connected to any stand-
ard dictating machine.
In making records for his disc phonograph, Edison
used a certain chemical. It was said that he used more
of it than did any other manufacturer in the United
States. The chemical was phenol. Phenol is carbolic
acid (C 6 H 5 OH) ? and Edison used it in crystallized form*
"It works beautifully/' he said to a friend/ "and really
it is indispensable. 55
The main commercial source of phenol was coal-tar
that portion of coal-tar that distils at between 150 and
200 degrees Centigrade. It had never been commercially
profitable to extract phenol from American coal, so small
was the fraction of phenol that American coal yielded.
English and German coal was found satisfactory for the
purpose ; and for this reason the phenol used in the United
States came from England and Germany. When the
World War began, the supply of phenol from England
and Germany was interrupted. It was interrupted
because phenol was required for making picric acid
(trinitrophenol) ; and picric acid was in demand in both
England and Germany because it entered into the for-
mulae of high-power explosives.
Edison sounded American manufacturers of chemicals
as to whether they would undertake the manufacture of
synthetic phenol that is ? phenol prepared by uniting
various elements into a compound. They reported that
months would be needed somewhere from six to nine
before they could furnish any. Edison didn't intend, if
lie could help it, to shut down his disc-record works. He
4W. P. Phillips, "Edison, Bogardus and, Carbolic Acid," in the Elec-
trical Review and Western Electrician" for November 14, 1914.
226
LATEE INVENTIONS
decided to make synthetic phenoL He studied the various
known processes, selected the process he believed most
suitable, and established a formula.
Three shifts of men were set at work to build a factory.
On the eighteenth day after ground was broken, the fac-
tory was running and was turning out a thousand pounds
of synthetic phenol a day. This output was sufficient to
keep the disc works going, and a shut-down was averted.
The phenol was purer than that derived from coal-tar;
better, in fact, than was called for by the "United States
Pharmacopoeia." Within a month after it was started,
the plant was capable of turning out a ton daily; and
Edison disposed of surplus product to be converted into
aspirin, salicylate of soda, salicylic acid, and salol.
"Phenol is hard to make, 59 he admitted, "but that's why I
like to do it." . . . 5
When Edison closed his ore-milling plant, 6 with its
frame buildings, the insurance on it was cancelled by the
insurance companies. According to Edison, they said,
when he asked the reason: "Oh, this thing is a failure.
<The moral risk is too great. 3 * To which he replied that
he was glad to hear it, and that he would thereafter build
plants that had no such thing as a moral risk. Accord-
ingly his cement mill at New Village was built of steel
and concrete, with "not a wagon-load of timber" (as he
said). 7 The later buildings at West Orange were con-
structed in the same way. At that time it was generally
believed that structures of these combined materials were
practically indestructible by fire. This belief had not,
however, really been conclusively tested.
s "Edison's Gift to Humanity," in "'The Literary Digest" for October
2, 1915.
6 See Chapter XII, pp. 194r-200.
7 D. and M., II, 520.
227
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
On the night of December 9th, 1914, the West Orange
establishment was partly destroyed by a fire that started
in a film-inspection booth in a one-story frame building.
Six buildings of wood or brick were burned, as were the
contents of seven structures of reinforced concrete.
Equipment was wrecked and quantities of supplies were
consumed. Early on the morning of the 10th a force of
men was at work clearing away the ruins, and during the
day this force was greatly increased. The work was car-
ried forward by night and day. Inside of thirty-six
hours after the fire, Edison had Issued orders for a full
reconstruction of the plant. From a study of the fire's
results, he felt that he had learned much about methods by
which reinforced concrete might be made more truly fire-
resisting. These effects were also studied by a committee
of the American Concrete Institute s and the committee's
detailed and illustrated report was undoubtedly of great
value to architects, plant engineers, and others. 8
From the midst of this fire a framed photograph of
Edison was recovered. The heat had cracked the glass,
the blaze had charred the frame s but the portrait had
escaped. On the mount of the photograph, Edisom
lettered : NEVER TOUCHED ME !
On July 7th, 1915, Josephus Daniels, Secretary of the
Navy, addressed to Edison a letter in which it was pro-
posed that the inventor undertake "a very great service"
to "the Navy and the country at large." The Secretary
said that in his judgment an imperative need of the Navy
was "machinery and facilities for utilizing the natural
inventive genius of Americans," in order to "meet the new
conditions of warfare as shown abroad-" (It was evident
s This was printed originally in the "Journal" of the Institute, and
was reprinted in pamphlet form (104 pp.; JPhHadelpMa, 1915),
228
LATER INVENTIONS
that he had especially In mind the submarine and the part
it was playing in the World War, then in progress.) He
therefore intended to establish a a department of invention
and development/ 3 to which might be referred "all ideas
and suggestions, either from the service or from civilian
inventors. 55 9
At the time of writing, he explained, inventions received
from the public had to be turned over to various Navy
bureaus "already overcrowded with routine work."
Hence attention could not always be given to ideas and
suggestions that might be worthy but were undeveloped.
Naval officers on sea duty were in a position to note where
certain improvements might be made, but had neither the
time nor the special training "nor, in many cases, the
natural inventive turn of mind'* to put into definite shape
such ideas as they might have. Then, too, the Navy
Department lacked facilities for experimenting. Thus
it was that the Secretary came to consider the idea of a
board of specially selected men, to whom might be referred
ideas and suggestions submitted to the Navy Department.
Though means were at hand to make a start, yet even-
tually such a board would require Congressional appro-
priations, and therefore "Congress must be made to feel
that the idea is supported by the people."
"... I feel," continued the Secretary, "that our
chances of getting the public interested and back of this
project will be enormously increased if we can have, at
the start, some man whose inventive genius is recognized
by the whole world to assist us in consultation from time
to time on matters of sufficient importance to bring to
his attention. You are recognized by all of us as the man
above all others who can turn dreams into realities and
L. N, Scott, "Naval Consulting Board of the United States'*
(Washington, 1920)* This is the official history of the Board.
229
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
who has at his command, in addition to his own wonderful
mind, the finest facilities in the world for such work.
"What I want to ask is if you would be willing, as a
service to your country, to act as an adviser to this board 9
to take such things as seem to you to be of value, but
which we are not at present equipped to investigate 9 and
to use your own magnificent facilities in such investiga-
tion if you feel it worth while. For our part we will en-
deavor not to bother you with trivial matters, as we will
probably have sufficient facilities to handle such small
matters as they come up. This is a great deal to ask ? and
I unfortunately have nothing but the thanks of the Navy,
and I think of the country at large, together with the
feeling of service to your country that you will have, to
offer you by way of recompense."
The Secretary added that he relied chiefly upon Edi-
son's aid, and hesitated, if that aid were not forthcoming,
to undertake the matter at all. On July 18th, 1915, Dr.
M. R. Hutchison, Edison's chief engineer and personal
representative, called upon Secretary Daniels in Wash-
ington and informed him that Edison had consented to
head a board such as the Secretary had proposed. The
Secretary and Edison later had a conference at "Glen-
monL' 5 Then the Secretary wrote to the presidents of
eleven technical societies, 10 asking that each society choose
two of its members to serve on the projected board. Dr.
M, R. Hutchison was added by Secretary Daniels to the
personnel. The organization meeting of the board was
10 They v,cre: American Aeronautical Society; American Chemical
Society; Ane.ican Electrochemical Society; American Institute of
Electr.cal Engineers; American Institute of Mining Engineers; Amer-
ican Malhem :'Jeal Society; American Society of Aeronautic Engineers;
American Socirty of Civil Engineers; American Society of Mechanical
Engineers ; American Society of Mining Engineers ; Inventors' Guild,
230
LATER INVENTIONS
held on October 7th, 1915, at the Navy Department i&
Washington, and the official title "Naval Consulting
Board of the United States" was adopted. Edison was
elected the Board's first chairman, but subsequently
William L. Saunders became chairman and Edison's
official title was changed to "president. 55 It was at the
outset understood between Edison and Secretary Daniels
that Edison was to act as adviser to the Board, not to give
his time to executive and administrative duties. The
Naval Consulting Board had at first no fixed status but
was simply attached in an advisory capacity to the office
of the Secretary of the Navy. On August 26th, 1916,
it was legalized by Congress.
One of the first constructive tasks undertaken by the
Board was an industrial inventory of the United States
for the purpose of collecting data on the basis of which the
manufacturing resources of the country might, in case
of emergency, be organized to produce materials needed
for use in war. In connection with this inventory, an
"industrial preparedness campaign" was inaugurated to
arouse the interest of the public in the subject of "pre-
paredness." The inventory was accomplished in about
five months.
On May 13th, 1916, a "citizens* preparedness parade 95
took place in New York City. Announcement had been
made that Edison intended to march, and he had received
letters threatening his life. Nevertheless, he appeared in
line, and, with two secret-service men on each side of him,
covered the entire route. With him walked the Naval
Consulting Board, leading the engineers 5 section of the
parade. All along the way, he was recognized and
greeted with applause. (It was officially recorded that
he "seemed to receive more applause than any other
231
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
marcher. ?? ) The newspapers carried pictures of him
marching and referred to the influence exerted by Ms
presence.
The Naval Consulting Board tendered its services to
the Council of National Defense. This offer was accepted
and the Board became one of the subordinate agencies of
the Council, with the title of Board of Inventions. 11 The
National Research Council acted as the science and
research agency of the Council of National Defense. 12
The Naval Consulting Board thus came to serve as
a board of inventions for both the Navy Department
and the United States Government. From inventors
throughout the United States, it received hundreds of
suggestions and ideas a week chiefly having to do with
naval matters. Several members of the Board developed
inventions of their own.
In January, 1917, Edison, at the request of Secretary
Daniels, undertook the study of such plans and the devel-
opment of such inventions as he deemed might be of use
if the United States became involved in the war. He
turned over his business affairs, to others and abandoned
the research and experiment in which he was then engaged.
For two years he gave his attention entirely to this
special work. In his laboratory workshops some fifty
skilled mechanics were available for constructing experi-
mental apparatus. On his staff were several young
engineers who acted as technical assistants ; and to these
were added other technical men detailed from industrial
establishments and volunteers from the universities and
11 This arrangement dated from February 15, 1917. The Council of
National Defense consisted of the secretaries of Agriculture, Commerce,
the Interior, Labor, the Navy, and War.
12 This connection dated from February 28, 1917. The National Ee-
search Council had been organized in April, 1916, at the request of the
President of the United States, by the National Academy of Sciences*
232
LATEE INVENTIONS
colleges. Secretary Daniels afterward wrote 13 that Edi-
son "practically became a naval officer, spending long
months in the Navy Department and extended periods of
deep-sea cruising that he might be in the closest touch with
the problems to be solved. 95 Edison's inventions were
experimentally developed to a point where a definite report
could be submitted to Army or Navy officials, to whom
they were designed to furnish new ideas, provocative of
further experiment.
It has sometimes been supposed that Edison had never
previously been interested in inventions connected with
warfare. This is a mistake. At the time of the Spanish-
American War (1898) , he suggested to the Navy Depart-
ment the use of a shell containing a compound of calcium
carbide and calcium phosphite, for making enemy ships
visible at night. Such a shell w r ould explode on striking
the water, and the compound would take fire. The result-
Ing flare could not be extinguished and would burn for
several minutes, with an effective range of from four to
five miles. Edison also aided W. Scott Sims in produc-
ing the Sims-Edison torpedo. This torpedo was hung
from a float in such a way as to be held a few feet below
the surface of the water. It contained, in addition to the
explosive charge, a small electric motor that furnished
driving and steering power. When fired, it trailed behind
it an electric cable through which it could be controlled.
The torpedo was found to be lacking in speed to such an
extent that its practical value was seriously impaired,
and before long it became obsolete.
Official acknowledgment has been made of thirty-nine
inventions and plans communicated by Edison to the
Washington authorities as a result of the work taken tip
at Secretary Daniels' request. These are:
13 la Ms Preface to Scott's book.
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
Listening device for detecting submarines
Method for quick turning of ships
Strategic plans (with maps) for saving cargo boats
from submarines
Collision mats
Plan for taking merchant ships out of mined harbors
Scheme for camouflaging cargo boats and burning
anthracite coal
Plan for coast patrol by submarine buoys
Cartridge (or small depth bomb) for taking sound-
ings
Sailing light for convoys
Plan for smudging sky-line
Plan for obstructing torpedoes by nets
Underwater searchlight
Oleum "clouds-shell
High-speed signalling shutter for use with searchlight
Water-penetrating projectile
Method of observing periscopes in silhouette
Steamship decoy
Study of zigzagging by merchant ships in the danger
zone
Device for reducing rolling of warships
Method of obtaining nitrogen from the air
Method of stabilizing submerged submarines
Hydrogen detector for submarines
Induction balance for submarine detection
Device for protecting observers from smokestack gas
Turbine head for projectiles
Scheme for mining Zeebrugge harbor
Mirror-reflection signal system
Device for lookout men
Oleum shell for blinding submarines
Method of extinguishing fires in coal-bunkers
284
LATER INVENTIONS
Device for "finding 9 * enemy airplanes
Apparatus for sound-ranging
Telephone system for ships
Extension ladder for "spotting-top"
Reacting shell
Night glass
Oil for smudging periscopes
Attachment for keeping range-finders free of spray
Means for preserving submarine and other guns from
rust
It will be noted that these items have very largely to
do with naval equipment and affairs. Only a few of them
can here be described, and they in but the briefest fashion.
The twelve selected have been chosen on BO particular
basis, but may perhaps be regarded as representative in
that they serve to indicate how extensively Edison was
occupied with the question of defence against sub-
marines. 14
Listening Device for Detecting Submarines. This took
the form of an outrigger to be suspended from the bow
of a merchant ship. The listening device^ proper was
about twenty feet long and sixteen inches wide, with a
brass body containing tubes of brass and a phonograph
diaphragm at the end that hung in the water. By means
of a worm worked by an electric motor, bowsprit and arm
could be swung toward the ship and the listening device
could thus be landed on deck, so that necessary repairs
could conveniently be made. A compensating arrange-
ment "cancelled out" the noise of the ship's engines ; and
by aid of an adjustment, confusing noises made by other
boats could likewise be excluded.
Even in the roughest seas, with a ship going full speed
(in that case, fourteen knots), this device resisted injury.
i* Scott's volume has here been used as chief authority*
285
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
While the ship was proceeding at full speed ahead 5 other
boats could be heard at a distance of 1,700 yards and a
submarine bell could be heard at a distance of five
and one-half miles In the midst of a heavy storm. It
was stated that with this contrivance,, a torpedo "the
noisiest craft that sails the sea 55 could readily be heard
at a distance of over 4,000 yards.
Method for Quick Turning of Ships. This was to be
used In connection with the listening device. By this
means. If the noise of a torpedo had been heard, a merchant
ship could quickly change to a course at a right angle to
its previous course and thus avoid the torpedo. Four sea-
anchors were used. A sea-anchor is a stout canvas bag
of conical shape, with a small rope attached to the little
end and a heavy rope fastened to the mouth end.
This heavy rope is made fast to the ship. Such an
anchor is ordinarily used for arresting the speed of
a vessel. It is thrown into the sea and, filling with water s
acts as a drag. Tension on the small rope opens the
little end of the bag by means of a slip-noose.
The four sea-anchors used by Edison were each nine
feet in diameter at the mouth end and hitched to a four-
inch rope. The ropes were firmly attached to the bow
and the anchors were placed amidships. If the listening
device detected a torpedo^ the anchors were to be cast
overboard and the helm at the same time thrown hard
over. This method was tried successfully with small
boats and also with the 5,000-ton U. S. S. "Clio/ 3 loaded
with 4,200 tons of coal. The "Clio 59 in two minutes and
ten seconds was turned ninety degrees from her original
course, with an advance of only 200 feet.
Collision Mats. These were Intended to reduce losses
of shipping from damage by torpedoes. One of the mats
was to be launched In such a way as to cover the opening
236
LATER INVENTIONS
made by a torpedo explosion. Each mat was forty feet
long and thirty-five feet wide, and was rolled on a six-
inch pipe. The time required for launching was only
ifteen seconds.
Cartridge (or Small Depth Bomb) for Taking Sound-
ings. This was a bomb about the size of the ordinary
shotgun cartridge (shell) and could be produced at com-
paratively low cost. It was designed for use by vessels
equipped with the listening device already mentioned*
and was for "safety signalling 95 in fogs and for finding
out whether or not a safe depth of water was under a boat.
Two types were devised one to explode on touching
bottom, the other to explode at a given depth for which
it had been set. In the first instance, the elapsed time be-
tween the firing of the bomb and its explosion would in-
dicate (with the aid of a carefully prepared time-table)
the depth of water.
Sailing Light for Convoys. This was evolved to meet
the demand for a light that should not be visible from
the deck of an enemy submarine at the surface of the
water. It consisted of several discs painted dead black
and each approximately eighteen inches in diameter*
The discs were about a thirty-second of an inch apart, and
a six-candlepower incandescent electric lamp was so placed
as to shine between them. A gyroscope run by a small
electric motor kept the whole device constantly horizontal
and thus independent of the motion of the vessel at a
given time. In this manner the light-rays remained par-
allel ; and hence, though invisible from the periscope or
deck of an enemy submarine, they were visible to an ob-
server in the crow's-nest of another vessel of the convoy.
Underwater Searchlight. A long series of experiments
, was conducted in the attempt to provide a searchlight
for underwater use by submarines. Arc lamps were em-
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
ployed in connection with tubes filled with water. Car-
bons bearing various elementary substances were tried
for the arcs, and the green lines in the spectrum of barium
were found more effective in penetrating salt water than
was any other sort of ray noted in the tests. With these
lines, sufficient light was transmitted through a sixty-
foot tube filled with sea water to permit print to be read*
Oleum "Clouds-shells. Experiments were made with a
shell that, on bursting, would yield a dense cloud of suf-
focating white vapor that could be particularly used to
interfere with the view from enemy ships. This shell was
in a general way constructed similarly to shrapnel shells
except that the shrapnel was replaced by a can of smoke-
producing compound.
High-speed Signalling Shutter for Use with Search-
light. This consisted of a Venetian-blind arrangement
set in a frame ; and, connected to this shutter, an electro-
magnet in circuit with a telegraph key. The key con-
trolled the electro-magnet, and the electro-magnet caused
the shutter either to open or to close. In this way*
signals could be flashed with the Morse alphabet. A
speed of forty words a minute was attained.
Steamship Decoy. This was another device intended
to aid in protecting merchant vessels against submarines.
It was a water-tight drum of thin sheet-iron, divided into
compartments for holding a smoke-producing material
and provided with a funnel. When the material had
been ignited and the drum set adrift, the smoke would
appear like that from a distant steamer and thus mis-
lead the commander of a submarine.
Hydrogen Detector for Submarines. A reliable instru-
ment was needed for detecting the presence of an excess of
hydrogen gas and thus preventing explosions. Edison,
made one that was accurate, simple, and so sensitive as
LATER INVENTIONS
to be capable of Indicating the presence of three one-
hundredths of one per cent, of hydrogen gas In a sub-
marine's atmosphere.
Telephone System for Ships. This was a distinct im-
provement over systems in use at the time. Edison dis-
carded microphone transmitters and used the receiving
apparatus as a transmitter. By means of an audion, he
greatly increased the strength of signals. An improved
earpiece was also developed.
Method of Extinguishing Fires in Coal-Bunkers. In
seeking means for extinguishing fires in the coal-bunkers
of naval vessels, Edison found sodium silicate (commonly
known as "soluble glass 59 or "water glass 59 ) to be markedly
effective. If a stream of the sodium silicate were played
upon a fire, the relatively small quantity of water in the
silicate was evaporated and the incandescent material was
blanketed with a glassy coating. This coating excluded
oxygen and the fire was thus extinguished. The sodium
silicate could be cheaply manufactured.
In certain of this war work, Edison was able to turn
earlier researches to account. For example, long study
of the phonograph was of aid in his experiments with a
listening device; experience in telegraphy and in tel-
ephony was utilized in connection, respectively, with the
high-speed signaling shutter and with the telephone sys-
tem for ships; and knowledge gained in developing the
telescribe assisted in the perfecting of the apparatus for
sound-ranging, which employed phonographic records
made with electro-magnetic recorders. Edison, having
heard it was said that the Germans were manufacturing
nitric acid from ammonia, set up apparatus that he had
used when he was engaged with the problem of the nickel-
iron storage battery. At that time, while experimenting
with the reducing of iron by hydrogen, he had passed
239
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
hydrogen and nitrogen over the reduced (*. e. 9 finely
divided) iron in order to render it non-pyrophorous, 14
and ammonia had been produced to a considerable extent.
He now discovered that the reduced iron, if lampblack
were mixed with it, would yield large quantities of am-
monia, The ammonia could then be absorbed in acid.
Here and there in Scott 5 s history one encounters hints
of difficulties in the course of these experiments for the
Government experiments whose full results could be
attained only through the medium of existing depart-
mental bureaus, with their more or less strictly defined
duties and inflexible routine. For instance, when Edi-
son was working on a sailing light for convoys, an elec-
trician from a United States submarine was detailed to
assist him ; but before a perfected model had been com-
pleted, this electrician was permanently withdrawn. 15
When details of Edison's hydrogen detector had been
submitted, service experts declared the instrument "too
fragile. 5 * Yet Edison later had one of the detectors
placed on a submarine constantly used in maneuver prac-
tice, and at the end of nine months (at which time it was
removed) it was found to be "all right. ?? When Edison
was making trials of his schemes for a listening device,
various small steamers were placed at his disposal. "Un-
fortunately/ 5 comments Scott, "the respective vessels were
not in the best of condition and were laid up for repairs
at frequent intervals." . . . 16 Finally, before the experi-
ments had been finished, the latest ship detailed was with-
drawn "which, of course, put an end to the work."
14 Some metals, of which iron is one, will, when finely divided and
exposed to the air, combine so rapidly with oxygen that light and heat
result. Such metals are said to he "pyrophorous" or "pyrophoric."
is Preliminary tests in Chesapeake Bay had already shown the prin-
ciple to be a correct one.
is p. 163.
240
LATER INVENTIONS
Edison submitted ideas about a turbine head for pro-
jectiles (so that eroded and smooth-bore guns might be
used) 5 and ordnance experts said the turbine-head pro-
jectile would tumble (i. e. y turn end over end) when fired
from a smooth-bore gun. Tests later made by Edison
with an old smooth-bore one-pounder showed that the
turbine-head projectile did not tumble but regular
projectiles tumbled badly. While preparing strategic
maps to suggest graphically how, in case enemy sub-
marines appeared near the eastern coast of the United
States, trans-Atlantic and coastwise shipping might best
be managed, Edison discovered that no bureau had any
statistics of the sailings of coastwise ships to and from
the various harbors.
In 1028 9 on the occasion of his usual birthday con-
ference with newspaper men, Edison was quoted as say-
Ing; "I made about forty-five inventions during the war,
all perfectly good ones, and they pigeon-holed every one
of them. The naval officer resents any interference by
civilians. Those fellows are a close corporation. 5 * . . . 1T
No official statement, either of a general sort or directly
bearing on these remarks, was forthcoming from the
Navy Department, but news dispatches from Washing-
ton reported that individual naval officers mildly dis-
allowed any unfriendly attitude on their part toward
civilian inventors. 18
IT See "The World" (New York) for February 13; the "New York
Tribune" of the same date. The interview was on February 12, tfce
llth having fallen on a Sunday.
XV
MISCELLANEOUS ACHIEVEMENTS
OSTE "day when he was not far past sixty, Edison, in talking
with a friend, fell to reviewing earlier inventions. After
a time, with an air of having but just made an amusing
discovery, he smiled expansively and observed, "Say, I
have been mixed up in a whole lot of things, haven't I?" x
This may be regarded as a fair and modest inference
if one considers that from June 1st, 1869, when a patent
was granted on his automatic vote-recorder, to about the
middle of 1910, he applied for 1,328 distinct patents
roughly one for every eleven days of the entire period.
It had with reason been said of him that he kept the path
to the Patent Office hot with his footsteps. Moreover-,
his inventive work is not fully represented by the number
of patents applied for, since certain inventions were kept
as "trade secrets," no attempt being made to patent them,
and others were left unpatented and given to the public.
Then, too, from one cause or another, many ideas had
been left undeveloped, many researches had been aban-
doned.
One of the things Edison had been "mixed up in 3 * was
the electric railway. Americans had already made in-
genious pioneer experiments in electric traction. Thomas
Davenport, a Yankee blacksmith and mechanic of Bran-
don, Vermont, was the earliest. Moses Gk Farmer (Wil-
liam Wallace's technical assistant in arc-lighting) ex-
iD. and M., II, 705.
MISCELLANEOUS ACHIEVEMENTS
hibited through New England a model of an electric loco-
motive. Prof. C. G. Page built an electric motor that
on April 29th, 1851, made a trip over the Baltimore and
Ohio from Washington to Bladensburg, Maryland, and
reached a maximum speed of nineteen miles an hour.
Only about twenty years before that In 1830 had
Peter Cooper's steam locomotive run from Baltimore to
Ellicott's Mills and back over a railway that later became
part of the Baltimore and Ohio system. ^Page's motor
carried a hundred Grove cells to supply current. All
these primitive ventures depended on chemical batteries.
That is why their possibilities were limited. Only with
the appearance of the dynamo was a basis found for true
progress.
In the spring of 1880, busied though he was in. perfect-
ing the details of his central-station electric system, Edi-
son managed to discover some spare time, and he utilized
it by taking a fling at the electric railway. At the rear
of the laboratory inclosure at Menlo Park, he had a
track laid an ungraded track, put together with old
street-car rails and makeshift insulating material. It
made a loop of about a third of a mile, swinging around
a little hill and affording some risky curves. The gauge
was approximately three feet and six inches.
Current was furnished by two Edison lighting dynamos
of what was known as the Z type colloquially styled
a long-walsted Mary Anns." These were rated at not far
from twelve horsepower each. Like other Edison dyna-
mos, they had low internal resistance and a high-resistance
field. The current was conveyed underground, Edison
being no friend of overhead wires. The locomotive was a
compeer of the track. On an ordinary little four-wheeled
dump-car was mounted a third "Mary Ann," kU on its
side and with its armature end at the forward end of the
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
car. The current received from one rail by the wheels
ca that side, was carried to the dynamo, which was used
as a motor. In like manner the circuit was completed
through the opposite wheels to the other rail. The mo-
tor was therefore said to be a in parallel 55 or "in multiple
arc. 5 * Power was at first transmitted to the driving-
axle through a troublesome arrangement of friction pul-
leys. Should the motorman wish to reverse the locomo-
tive, he worked a switch and shifted the flow of current
through the armature-coils. 2
This machine had its initial trial on May 13th, 1880*
Everybody around the laboratory tried to crowd on board
for a ride. The friction-pulley system promptly broke
down and was immediately discarded. Then belts were
tried one from the armature to a countershaf t, another
from the countershaft to the axle. After the motor had
feeen started, the belt from countershaft to axle was drawn
taut by means of an idler pulley, and thus the locomotive
got under way. This method wasn't much better than
the friction pulleys had been. If the axle-belt were too
abruptly tightened,, the armature was burned. a The
@dor of burnt armature/* wrote T. C. Martlm y "was
grimly familiar during the tests.** The belts would
char if they slipped much and they slipped continu-
ally.
Then Edison put resistance-boxes in the armature
circuit. All over that crude locomotive he fastened
resistance-boxes. The resistances were successively "cut
out 5 ' as the locomotive was gradually brought up to maxi-
mum speed. Believing that he could very well do without
the extra load of those numerous boxes, Edisoa wound
copper resistance-wire around a leg of the field-magnet of
2T. C. Martin, "Edison's Pioneer Electric BnHway Wurk/' In tl>e
"Scientific American** for November 18, 1911.
244
MISCELLANEOUS ACHIEVEMENTS
the motor. In series with the armature 3 this coil could
be put into circuit by a plug-key and cut out of circuit
by the same means. Thus gradually was solved the par-
ticular problem of how to apply the motive power. This
instance of development indicates how much in this field
had then to be learned by experience.
New rolling-stock was added an open flat car ; a sim-
ilar car with an awning over it and two benches for seats ;
and an inclosed affair referred to as "the Pullman." The
track was extended to about a mile. The Menlo Park
line was "written up"; celebrities,, near-celebrities^ and
non-celebrities came to behold and ride. Surely no
"Puffing Billy" or "Tom Thumb" of early steam-railway
days, drawing its little coach-wagons, could have made a
more fantastic picture than did Edison's first electric
train jolting through the back-lots at Menlo! The loco-
motive would do as high as forty miles an hour, and some-
times the train would jump the track, but no casualties
were recorded.
Railway officials and engineers were indifferent or in-
credulous. They were not quite so rude as "Commodore"
Vanderbilt was when he dismissed George Westinghouse
and Westinghouse's air-brake with the remark that he had
no time to waste oa fools. They were not quite so
amused as Gardiner Hubbard was when he met Bell's ut-
terances about the telephone with "Now you are talking
nonsense." But in their general attitude they resem-
bled one or the other or both. President Frank Thom-
son of the Pennsylvania was one day a passenger. Edi-
son wished to have him install an experimental line cover-
ing the seven miles between Rahway and Perth Amboy;
tried to interest him in plans for an electric locomotive
having six-foot drivers and capable of developing three
hundred horsepower. Thomson was more than sceptical*
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
He argued that the thing was not feasible. Also, he
knew that nothing ever could or would replace steam.
Edison has since admitted, " . . I thought he might
perhaps be mistaken." . . . 3
One "practical" man who was big enough to appreciate
the possibilities in Edison's ideas, was the journalist and
financier Henry Villard, who, as a director of the Edison
Electric Light company, had such strong confidence in
the value of Edison's incandescent system. Villard, in his
"Memoirs," wrote : 4 ". . . Mr. Villard was a firm be-
liever from the outset in the availability of electricity as
a motive power for transportation. . . , He was also con-
vinced that the certain progress in the art of using the
electric current for power and traction purposes would,
sooner or later, lead to its substitution for steam even in
factories and on standard railroads. 9 ' ... In September*
1881, Edison and Villard entered into an agreement by
which Villard undertook to finance experiments and Edi-
son was to build two electric locomotives one for freight,
capacity to be ten tons; the other for passenger service,
speed developed to be sixty miles an hour. It was un-
derstood that if the trials proved successful, Villard would
seek to enlist the aid of the Edison Electric Light com-
pany for the building of not less than fifty miles of elec-
tric railway in the wheat country of the West. Villard
was at that time president of the Northern Pacific, and
Ms plan was to inaugurate in this way a series of "feed-
ers," over which wheat could be hauled to points on his
road*
The original Menlo track was extended to about three
miles; construction was improved, and the line rejoiced
in a car-barn, two turn-tables, and three sidings. Duly
B. and M., I, 459,
4 See Voi II, chapter viii, pp. 325-32T.
MISCELLANEOUS ACHIEVEMENTS
built, the two new locomotives were conventionally
equipped with pilot, headlight, and cab. The passenger
locomotive hauled as many as ninety passengers at one
time. The trials were successful but had no direct re-
sults, for the Northern Pacific fell into difficulties and
passed for the time being from Villard 9 s control. Moth-
ing could persuade the Edison Electric Light company
to manifest concern as to the "feeder 95 project. Villard
had furnished something over $35,000 for expenses, and
this sum Edison personally repaid.
Later, when Villard was again connected with the
Northern Pacific and Edison was at West Orange, Villard
thought the "mountain division" might be electrified.
He consulted Edison on the matter and Edison devised the
"third-rail" system. Villard's engineers assured him that
anything of the sort was quite impossible. Evidently he
was no more thoroughly convinced than was Edison. He
said in his "Memoirs 55 : ". . * As early as January*
: 1892* he [i. e. 9 Villard] convened a conference of electrical
and railroad experts in New York to consider the prob-
lem of operating the Northern Pacific terminal lines in
Chicago, as well as some of the branches of the main line,
by electricity. The practicability of this at that time
was negatived, but the growth of electric traction in the
meantime has certainly rather confirmed than gainsaid
his theory of the ulterior [ultimate?] prevalence of cur-
rent over steam.' 5 . . .
In 1888 the Electric Railway company of America was
formed in order to consolidate the interests of Edison and
of Stephen D. Field. Edison was appointed consulting
electrician, but active technical work was left to Field.
A good start was made, but the business affairs of the
company were poorly managed, internal differences
cropped up, and in 1890 all rights to Edison patents were
247
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
Assigned to the Edison General Electric company,, organ-
ized by Villard in 1889- In 1896 the railway company
was turned over to a receiver. The receiver sold Field's
patents back to Field, who sold them to the Westing-
iiouse company* Thus, through no apparent fault of
either Field or Edison, their labors missed direct fulfil-
ment. The art to whose beginnings they had lent such!
Impetus, was carried forward by C. J. Van de Poele, Leo
Daft, Frank J. Sprague, and others.
How fallible "practical" infallibility may be is indi-
cated by certain later developments. Frank Thomsons
road electrified its terminal in New York ; so did the New
York Central system. The Manhattan Elevated, which
had once rejected the electric method Edison specially
planned for it, subsequently adopted electricity, as did
other elevated roads. Electricity was used from the first
in the New York subways. Electric zones were intro-
duced on the New York Central and New Haven lines.
Or if one wished to go further afield from Henlo Park and
West Orange, he might mention that in time the Illinois
Central electrified its lines in and about Chicago, or that
both the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul and the Great
Northern electrified their "mountain divisions.** It is
iiardly necessary to adduce further instances to show that,
after all, Edison and Villard were right. Rescued from
oblivion at Menlo, Edison's first electric locomotive was
placed in safe-keeping at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn,
JfeirYork.
Flying was another thing that Edison was "mixed up
In." He didn't fly. He built a helicopter. The heli-
copter didn't fly, either. The present airplane was de-
Yeloped from the glider. A helicopter is a flying-machine
Hesigned not to take the air by gliding but to rise verti-
248
MISCELLANEOUS ACHIEVEMENTS
caHy from the ground* IB 19&3 in Bis re
Interview^ Edison said; 5
a l see the helicopter is coming on. I always did believe
in that. Thirty-eight years ago James Gordon Bennett
gave me $1 5 000 to make experiments in the direction of
flying. I constructed a helicopter, but I couldn't get if
light enough. I used stock ticker paper made into gon
cotton and fed the paper into the cylinder of the engine
and exploded it with a spark.
"I got good results, but I burned one of my men prettf
badly and burned some of my own hair off and didn't get
much further. But I knew then it was only a matter o
experimenting, and I reported to Mr. Bennett that when
an engine could be made that would only weigh three or
four pounds to the horse-power the helicopter would be
a success. I believed it to be the best method and the
most likely to be successful. I haven't changed my ntincl*
but I have had to wait a long while.'*
It is a mistake to suppose that radio is the onl
sort of wireless electrical signalling. Radio is, as a
matter of fact, but one variety of "wireless 55 the sort
that uses electro-magnetic waves. More than a half-*
century before Marconi started radio on its career as ait
&rt, S. F. B. Morse was sending "wireless" messages
across a canal in Washington by means of electric con,*
duction through the water. After that* others experi-
mented more or less successfully with either conduction
or induction. Edison (with the aid of Ezra T, Gilliland)
worked out a very satisfactory "wireless" system of train
telegraphy, based on what has been called electrostatic
induction.
This system was tried experimentally on the Statea
World" (New York), February 13, 1923.
249
EDISON; THE MAN AND HIS WORK
Island rallroad 5 and in 1887 was put Into use on the
Lehigh Valley. It was commonly styled the "grasshopper
telegraph. 5 * A special telegraph wire,, on poles shorter
than the usual kind ? was strung along the railway line.
One end of the system was in signalling-stations at various
points on the route, the other in passing railway cars.
Metal strips were laid on the roofs of cars so used, and
these strips were connected with a telegraph outfit in
which the standard apparatus had been modified by the
addition of a "buzzer" and a telephone receiver. A"
signalling-station had a similar outfit. In sending, the
**buzzer" was kept vibrating, and the operator by means
of his key broke the vibration into the "shorts" and
"longs** of the Morse code. These were transmitted by
induction from the telegraph wire to the car or from car
to wire a distance of not to exceed fifty feet. The tele-
phone receiver made the received signals distinctly au-
dible. The system continued in use on the Lehigh Valley^
for some little time. Edison is authority for the state-
ment that the patents were sold to a capitalist who de-
clined to answer letters and refused to sell any rights.
But Edison took another step in the general direction
of radio. He found that telegraph signalling by induc-
tion could be made effective at a much greater distance
than that which sufficed for train telegraphy. His idea
was to employ metal plates or other suitable "condensing
surfaces'* placed high above land or water. Such a sur-
face was grounded through the secondary circuit of a
high-voltage induction coil. The sending contrivance
consisted of a circuit-breaker that was revolved by a
motor and was kept short-circuited by a key except when
signals were sent. For sending, the key was depressed;
impulses were set up in the primary circuit of the coil;
Some accounts say that the regular telegraph wires were employed*
250
MISCELLANEOUS ACHIEVEMENTS
and the secondary circuit in turn produced correspond-*
ing variations in electric stress at the "condensing sur-
face. 9 * These variations would be intense enough to pro-
duce electromotive force that would reach to the
'complemental plate at the receiving station. For re-
ceiving ? the electro-motograph, Edison 5 "loud-speaking
telephone/ 5 was employed. The induced currents would
cause the signals to be declaimed by the telephone. Edi-
son thought this arrangement especially well adapted t0
use between vessels on the high seas, or between coast
stations and vessels in-shore. Though he did not de-
velop it, it has historical interest.
Curiously enough, he had chanced, several years be-
fore, upon the real key to radio. But he and his asso-
ciates, after about a month of experiment, passed on to
other things without having recognized the true signif-
icance of what they had observed; and afterward, when
he was studying the matter of telegraphy without wires,
he did not think of applying the "etheric force' 9 that he
had noted. "Etheric force" or "etheric current 5 * was
what he styled the cause of the phenomena witnessed at
Newark in 1875*
It seems that while experimenting with a steel bar sus-
pended near one of its ends and made to vibrate through
the action of a magnet, he was forcibly impressed by the
sight of sparks issuing from the cores of the magnet.
The better to watch these sparks, he had a "dark box 59
made. Inside the box were two carbon points that could
be adjusted by micrometer screws. When the "dark
box" was placed in circuit with the vibrating device, the
sparks between the carbon points could be watched
through an eye-piece. Many experiments were tried, im~
eluding some with that "good familiar creature 55 the
frog, which, from the days of Galvani has been so f reely
251
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WOEK
called upon to perform for man 5 s benefit. Great was the
surprise at the fact that when a frog was placed In cir-
cuit with the sounder (or vibrating device) and the "dark
box/ 9 although sparks at the carbon points were de-
cidedly brightj no muscular movement occurred in the
frog. Charles Batchelor took the "dark bos 55 to the in-
ternational electrical exposition at Paris in 1881 S 7 and
the phenomena were there shown in connection with the
Edison exhibit.
It was Heinrich Hertz who explained the puzzle by
producing and detecting electro-magnetic waves, some-
limes called "Hertzian waves. 5 * He likewise pointed out
the similarity of these to the waves of heat and light,
That Hertz had derived anything from Edison's work is
not at all likely. As a matter of fact, Clerk Maxwell had,
as far back as 1867, "outlined theoretically the exact type
of electro-magnetic wave that is used in radio to-day."
The correctness of MaxwelPs theory was established by
Hertz. 5
Had Edison continued his studies either in his "etheric
'force" or in space telegraphy 5 it is possible that he might
liave crossed the gap that lay between him and radio-
telegraphy. As to this, one may merely speculate. In
11889 Lord Kelvin said: 9 * c . . . Edison seems to have
noticed something of the kind [i e., "Hertz sparks"] in
what he called the etheric force. His name 'etheric* may,
thirteen years ago, have seemed to many people absurd.
But now we are all beginning to call these inductive phe-
nomena 'etheric.* " It does not appear that Edison's
Chapter XI, pp. 157-158.
See J. V, L. Hogan, "The Outline of Radio" (Boston* 1923; in the
Useful Knowledge Books series, edited by G. S. Bryan), p. 10.
remarks before a meeting of the Institution of Electrical 3Sm-
In London on May 16.
252
MISCELLANEOUS ACHIEVEMENTS
plan for elevated plates was ever practically developed*
He has not claimed that he used the aerial wire (antenna)^
spark-gap, or high-frequency electro-magnetic waves on
which Marconi founded radio. It has been stated 10 that
in 1903 5 at a time when another company was bidding for
them, he disposed of the patent-rights in his idea to Mar-
coni's company because he thought that in the hands of
rival interests they might possibly be used to make trou-
ble for Marconi, of whose work he held a high opinion.
It should be added that when constructing and studying
incandescent lamps he noted a phenomenon associated
with the fact that incandescent bodies give out electrons.
Scientists termed this phenomenon the "Edison effect,"
It helped to make radio history. Prof. J. A. Fleming of
England in 1904 used a modified form of incandescent
lamp as a radio detector; and thence was evolved the
vacuum tube or audion that, for detecting? amplifying,
and transmitting, came to be so extensively a part of
radio apparatus. 11
Edison was also "mixed up in n house-building. It was
a peculiar sort of house-building^ because it proceeded
downward from above instead of upward from below. It
produced a new sort of house a house in one piece in-
stead of many parts a poured house.
The general idea of it seems to have occurred to Edi-
son after he had entered on the manufacture of Portland
cement. Portland cement was mixed with sand and coarse
"aggregate" to make concrete. Various things were
molded of concrete. Why not a house? "A decent house
of six rooms, as far as the shell would go," he once said,
**might cost only three hundred dollars or so. It would be
10 D. and M., 11,380.
11 See Hogan, "The Outline of Badio,'* pp.
253
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
stereotypy over again and the expense for the models
[molds?] would disappear in the duplications repeated
all over the country." 12
Later, he started to experiment. He found that his
nations as to costs would have to be revised ; also that such
a house could not, as he had presupposed, a be poured in
three hours, and be dry enough for occupancy in three
days, 35 1S The process was, however, gradually reduced
to a practical basis.
It was proposed to build the houses in large numbers in
some particular locality say, in an industrial suburb or
ihe like. This was because only by group construction
could costs so be kept down as to make the scheme of ad-
vantage to those whom he specially wished to benefit.
The mold or form was to consist of a double set of sec-
tional cast-iron plates, each smooth on the inside nickel-
plating or brass facing being employed for any relatively
elaborate detail. Monolithic cellar walls, known as "foot-
ing/ 5 were to be prepared to receive the mold, which was
to be set up by electric derricks. The mold-plates hun-
^ireds of them, all told were pinned and bolted together.
Heimforcing rods were specified for roof, floors, or other
spots where they might be needed. In the form, before
the concrete was poured, were set the plumbing ; pipes for
gas, water, and heat; and conduits for electric wires. 14
The mixture was 1:8: 5 that is, one barrel of packed
Portland cement to three barrels of loose sand and five
of gravel or broken stone. These materials were sup-
plemented by a colloid substance that is, a jelly-like or
12 George lies, "Inventors at Work" (New York, 1906), p. 483.
i*E. S. learned, "The Edison Concrete House," in the "Scientific
American Supplement" (1685; April 18, 1908). This originally ap~
Beared in the "Cement Age." It was reprinted by the "Scientiiks
American" as a pamphlet, now out of print.
254
MISCELLANEOUS ACHIEVEMENTS
glue-like substance intended to render the flow uniform
when the concrete was poured and to help keep the heav-
ier parts of the mixture suspended. Gravel was to be
obtained^ if possible, on the site. From mechanical mix-
ers the mixture was dumped into a storage hopper, and
from this it was taken by a bucket elevator to a distrib-
uting hopper at the top of the house. Pipes conveyed it
thence to the molds. A three-story house could be poured
in about six hours 3 and the concrete would harden in as
many days.
When the concrete had hardened and the mold-plates
had been removed, a house was disclosed of which not only
stairways and interior walls but bath-tubs, laundry tubs,
mantels* even picture-moldings, were integral parts.
Then a heating apparatus could be put in; heating and
plumbing connections made ; doors, windows, and lighting
fixtures added. The outside walls could be specially
painted or tinted; the interior walls also could be tinted.
In order to obtain variety, six different molds would
be used in an outfit and the molds would be so made that
parts might be interchanged to form yet other arrange-
ments. It was claimed that two houses a month could be
turned out with one mold, or twelve with the set of six.
Civil engineers and experts in concrete had a host of
objections to raise when Edison's tentative plans were
first announced. They said that no mixture could be
made to flow freely; that a mixture might flow freely
through the vertical members of the mold but not in the
horizontal members; that the surface would be imperfect;
that the heavier parts of the mixture would sink and hence
the mixture would not be uniformly deposited; that a
colloid would retard the hardening of the concrete. AH
this they said, and a good deal more. By 1910, how-
ever, Edison was ready for a statement that difficulties had
255
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
been overcome and that the poured house had been defi-
nitely realized. He did not purpose to utilize the inven-
tion in projects of his own, but, subject to certain reason-
able restrictions,, with no return to him save for expense
involved, it could be put into practice by others. 15
One of the items often encountered in a list of Edison's
inventions, is the electric pen. This was used to make
stencils for manifolding manuscripts and was superseded
by the mimeograph. 16 It obtained current from a small
battery to which it was attached. Inside the pen-barrel
were solenoid coils coils of conducting wire wound in the
form of cylinders. Inside the coils was a steel shaft 01;
plunger at whose lower end was a stylus. When the bat-
tery current was on, the coils became solenoidal magnets;
and the alternate attraction and repulsion set up between
them and the plunger resulted in the motion of the stylus.
As the pen was pushed along, the stylus made fine per-
forations in a sheet of special paper and thus a stencil
was formed*
Among other inventions of Edison's in the electrical
field is his "dead-beat" galvanometer. The common type
of galvanometer used for measuring the strength of elec-
tric current, has both a coil and a magnetic needle. A
current flowing in the coil around the needle, causes the
is In October, 1923, it was stated in newspaper dispatches that on a
5,000-acre tract south of the Dearborn plant of the Ford Motor com-
pany, Henry Ford would erect (if that is the word) 30,000 poured
houses with molds that would permit of twelve different types! The
houses would be sold, it was said, at a price close to the cost. Early
in 1925 the writer learned from an authoritative source in Dearborn (
that this scheme had "not developed into a definite plan," and that it
was doubtful whether it would be developed "for some time to come.""
The dispatches, it was added, "contained more imaginary statements
than facts."
ieSe Chapter VIII, p. 71.
MISCELLANEOUS ACHIEVEMENTS
needle to be deflected. The amount of deflection is meas-
ured on a scale. A "dead-beat 35 or aperiodic galva-
nometer is one in which the moving needle comes quickly
to rest, without swinging to and fro. Edison's galva-
nometer had neither coils nor needle. Instead, it de-
pended on a bit of platinum-iridinm wire shut in a glass
tube. The current made the wire expand, and this ex-
pansion permitted a coiled spring to move a pivoted shaft.
On the shaft was mounted a small mirror; and as the
shaft moved, the mirror threw a shifting beam of light
along a scale.
Passing mention may also be made of the Edison-
Lalande primary battery, the manufacture of which be-
came one of the Edison enterprises. This battery was
found to be particularly reliable for use in connection,
with railway signals. The claim was made for it that it
would function without polarizing 4. e. 9 that hydrogen
gas would not collect on the surface of the negative ele-
ment and thus decrease the current-flow by increasing the
resistance.
Then, too, Edison was "mixed up in" the Roentgen rays
the "X-rays, 59 as their discoverer, Prof. W. K. Roent-
gen, styled them because he was uncertain of their nature
and hence applied to them the symbol of the "unknown
quantity." Roentgen's discovery was made in 1895.
Not long after the announcement, Edison set assistants
at producing crystals of various chemical combinations*
They thus assembled something like 8,000 different crys-
tals. Edison was looking for substances that would
fluoresce i. e. 9 become luminous under the action of
the X-rays. This canvass yielded about 1,800 substances
that would do so. From these he chose tungstate of cal-
cium as the best.
He first made a fluorescent lamp a glass bulb coated
257
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
on the inside with the tungstate. If an adequate vacuum
were provided, the tungstate would, under the action of
the X-rays, become luminous and the bulb serve as a lamp.
He also invented a fluoroscope an apparatus through
which the effect of X-rays could be observed. This was
a box flaring toward its outer end, where a fluorescent
screen, coated on the inside with tungstate of calcium,
might be attached. At the other end was an eye-piece
similar to the eye-piece of a stereoscope; and the whole
contrivance was held, when in use, by a handle like that
of a stereoscope. If an object were interposed between
the screen and the source of the X-rays, a "shadow"
would be thrown on the screen. A very early public dis-
play perhaps the first in the United States of X-ray
action, was that afforded when an Edison fluoroscope was
shown at an electrical exhibition in New York City in
J896- The fluoroscope principle was applied with much
success to surgical purposes.
That other purposes for it were entertained in artful
but uninformed quarters, is indicated by the printed text
of a letter said actually to have been received at the West,
Orange laboratory : "Dear Sir, I write you to know if
you can make me an X-ray apparatus for playing against
faro bank? I would like to have it so I can wear it on
my body, and have it attached to spectacles or goggles so
I can tell the second card of a deck of playing cards
turned face up. If you will make it for me let me know
what it will cost. If I make a success out of it I will pay
you five thousand dollars extra in one year. Please keep
this to yourself. If you cannot make it will you be kind
enough to give me Professor Roentgen's address? Please
let me hear from you.**
The odoroscope (or odorscope) was an ingenious af-
258
MISCELLANEOUS ACHIEVEMENTS
fair that, like the tasimeter (or microtaslmeter) 5 17 made
use of the fact that as pressure on carbon is increased* the
electrical resistance of the carbon is decreased. It was
constructed similarly to the tasimeter. The tasimeter
had a strip of vulcanite, a platinum plate 9 a carbon but-
ton, and another platinum plate. The odorscope had a
strip of gelatine in place of the vulcanite* It not only
was influenced by heat but also was so readily affected by
moisture that a few drops of perfume or of water thrown
on the floor of the room in which it was would be at once
detected by the instrument. In circuit with the carbon
button and the two platinum plates were a battery and a
galvanometer ; and the galvanometer forthwith responded.
This invention could be used for testing gases. It could
also be adapted to hygrometers or barometers.
Far more familiar is the megaphone, though not in its
original form. As Edison first planned it, a megaphone
had two funnel-shaped wooden or metal horns set on a
tripod at a fixed angle to each other. Between these was
a speaking-trumpet. From the small ends of the horns
ran flexible ear-tubes. With the aid of this device, a per-
son could hear and be heard over a distance of more than
two miles. What is generally known to-day as a mega-
phone, is a funnel of papier-mache, shaped like one of
the receivers of the original megaphone but used as a
transmitter. It finds employment in many ways by
yachtsmen, cheer-leaders, coxswains, motion-picture di-
rectors, announcers, guides. It even wings from the back
porch the summons to meals.
To Edison are to be credited two unusual motors. The
ir For the tasimeter, see Chapter VIII, p. 83. "Odorscope" is the
form preferred by the dictionaries; but even this is, like "cablegram/'
irregular,
259
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
first was based on something long known to experimenters^
namely, the effect of temperature on magnetism. Com-
mon magnetic iron undergoes many changes as it is heated.
At a dull red heat it becomes non-magnetic. Edison's
pyro-magnetic motor accordingly consisted in its essen-
tials of an electro-magnet and a pivoted iron bar that
could be first heated s then cooled. When hot, the bar
was not attracted to the magnet; when cold, it was at-
tracted. Thus motion resulted. The Edison pyro-
magnetic generator utilized the same principle the en-
ergy of heat being converted into electrical energy.
The other motor was the phononiotor (or voice-engine),
a curious "philosophical toy." A person talked against
a diaphragm; the diaphragm moved a pawl; the pawl
turned a ratchet-wheel .that revolved a pulley. From the
pulley a cord ran to a cardboard figure that would execute
a mechanical movement, such as wood-sawing. The
phonomotor had its place in Edison's study of dia-
phragms, by which he was aided in reasoning out the
phonograph. It opens up rather startling possibilities
as to the power that might be derived from miscellaneous
speech now cast so wastefully upon the air.
Such are some of the further accomplishments that
could more conveniently be grouped here than introduced
into the main narrative of Edison's story. Though but a
few out of many, they indicate the man's versatility, the
reach of his interest, the sweep of his ideas. Inventions,
projects, notions, hints were his common fare, and even
the crumbs had elements of worth. It would seem that
he could conduct widely differing researches at the same
time, or turn from one field to another and back again,
without confusion or sacrifice. Sometimes a subject took
a place in a larger course of study and experiment ; some-*
MISCELLANEOUS ACHIEVEMENTS
times It was dropped because Edison did not think it
could be profitably utilized just then or because he had
hit upon something he considered better. Sometimes it
was crowded out. Again, it might be forfeited because of
the failure of Edison ? s business or professional associates
to grasp an opportunity as in the case of his electric-
railway work. Or it might be turned over to the public*
for others, if they would, to develop and improve. But
whatever might happen, always there was something else
to do, and every hour was "a bringer of new things."
One scarcely knows where he may next encounter a trace
of Edison, a touch of his influence. The derived use of
the word "filament" as an electrical term, is attributed
to him. He introduced paraffin paper, now so commonly
used for sanitary wrappings.
Perhaps the most serviceable miner's electric safety-
lamp is the one invented by Edison. The current for it
is obtained from a special type of Edison cell strapped
to the miner's belt.
It is stated that "Hello I" as a preliminary call-word in
telephone talk, was first heard in the Menlo Park labora-
tory when Edison was developing a transmitter for Bell's
invention, and from Menlo was carried over the world.
Bell's original call-word was "Ahoy !" In 1876, in test-
ing his line between Boston and Cambridge, Bell called
out "Ahoy! Ahoy!" to Thomas Watson, his apparatus-
maker, who was stationed at the other end. "Ahoy!'*
Watson sent back. "There is nothing the matter with
the instruments."
Of "Hello!" the "Century Dictionary" tells us: "As
a greeting its use is confined to easy colloquial or vulgar
speech." "It is to be regretted," the "New York Eve-
ning Post" once said, 18 "that Dr. Bell did not perpetuate
is August $ 9 1922.
201!
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
the practice of <ahoylng ? along with Ms Invention itself,
and that for such a lusty shout, such a round, ringing
call, should have been substituted the present 'Hello/ a
vapid, flat, meaningless term in comparison. How ef-
ficacious c Ahoy! ? would have been in smoothing over dif-
ficult telephone interludes, and in making the crustiest
Interlocutor affable with its jovial sound; in waking the
sleepiest office boy to alertness with its heartiness; la
pleasantly agitating the imagination with Its nautical as-
sociations. 55 Nevertheless, "Hello !" for telephone use
spread at once, not only in the United States but else-
where; though Englishmen clung to the more dignified
and euphonious "Are you there?"
After his period of active service as president of the
Naval Consulting Board, 19 Edison devoted himself to that
never-completed task of improving his existing Inventions,
to executive duties, to chemical experimenting. Chemi-
cal experimenting, by the way, was always a favored di-
version with him. Even at his Florida residence (about
a mile from Fort Myers, on the Caloosahatchee river and
near the west coast), where he was accustomed to pass a
few weeks of winter, he had a chemical laboratory and a
small machine-shop. In August, 1924, when, with Henry
Ford and Harvey Firestone, he stopped at Plymouth,
Vermont, to call upon President Coolidge, who was taking
a brief vacation there, Edison was asked by reporters,
"What about your inventions ?" He quizzically an-
swered, "I have several irons in the fire. Now and then
I pull out a little one."
If to Edison's bona-fide inventions were added the fic-
titious devices ascribed to him, especially during the years
at Menlo Park, the list would be yet more f ormidable.
w See Chapter XIV.
262
MISCELLANEOUS ACHIEVEMENTS
One would include the yarn, related with solemn plausi-
bility and bearing indisputable ear-marks of "Sunday-
newspaper science/ 9 about the Edisonian plan for melt-
ing snow as it fell. Huge mirrors, it was gravely
explained, were to reflect rays obtained from the sun or
from powerful electric lamps. This method was to solve
forever the problem of snow removal in cities, but to be
particularly valuable in keeping railway tracks con-
stantly clear.
Wilder still, but none the less believed, was the diverting
announcement of the Stratified Shirt. This was con-
cocted by a reporter who, sent to get an "Edison story"
and failing to run down an authentic one, more than made
good the lack. Edison, so went the account, considered
his patent shirt his greatest achievement. It had a
bosom or front composed of three hundred and sixty-five
layers of a thin fabric whose exact nature was a "trade
secret." Each morning, -on dressing for the day, all that
an owner of one of these remarkable garments needed to
do was to remove the top layer and presto ! he had a new
shirt, without spot or blemish at least so far as con-
cerned the bosom. Reprinted from China to Peru, the
item evoked a flood of letters from persons wishing to
inquire about these shirts ; to order them (check or draft
being sometimes inclosed) ; to take an agency for them.
They seemed truly to fill a long-felt want. Said Edi-
son: ". . . If I could have got hold of the young
man, ... I guess he wouldn't have wanted a shirt or any-
thing else on his back for a few weeks." 20
It is to be added that Edison, during early incan-
descent-lighting days, prepared a manual of instruc-
tion on the isolated electric plant ; and that he contributed
a few articles to general magazines and the technical press*
20 Jones, p. 190.
263
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
yague allusions have been made to a "treatise on elec~
tricity" that lie wrote when he was for the second time in
Louisville as a telegraph operator. At one time he un-
dertook to collaborate with George Parsons Lathrop on a
fiction "thriller" in which it would appear that amazing
inventions, previously unheard of 9 were in some way to
be introduced possibly after the manner of Jules Verne
or of H. G. Wells, with a wealth of convincing scientific
detail* After a while he withdrew from this literary
partnership ; and the book, if it now exists at al! 9 exists as
an unpublished fragment.
XVI
WHAT MANNER OF MAN?
So far as now is known, the camera 9 s first likeness of a
human being was the daguerreotype portrait Dr. John
W. Draper of New York University made of his sister
Dorothy in 1840. In 184*7 Edison was born. He grew
up with the art of photography ; and that art, to which he
personally contributed the motion-picture camera* gave
us more records of him than of any other American pri-
vate citizen of his time. Examining these photographs^
one is struck by the fact that, in spite of the years, Edi-
son's face kept unmarred and unblurred to a remarkable
degree the indomitable cast of youth. Similar evidence^
to a less extent but with an even greater authority, is
given in the works of painter and sculptor.
Five feet, nine and one-half inches in height, Edison
as a telegraph operator was decidedly thin. As a young
inventor, in the Newark and earlier Menlo days, he was
spare. Nearing forty, he became somewhat fuller of
figure ; at the same time his face grew less oval of outline.
It was a distinctive face large, calm, candid, friendly*
strong. From it looked uncommonly liquid and brilliant
gray eyes. The chin was firm; the mouth large, finely-
moulded, and sensitive; the nose prominent. Above the
generous but closely-set ears the head rose dome-like.
Dark hair, already grizzled, was parted at the right, and
usually a lock or two of it hung loosely over the left side
of the high forehead. It was a face in which what is
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WOEK
conventionally called the dreamer was blended with the
man of action.
{In an article in a Scribner 9 s Monthly 55 (the present
"Century 55 ) for November, 1878, 1 William H. Bishop,
journalist and author ? told of an evening spent in the
Menlo laboratory, where he discovered Edison "bending
intently above some detail of work. 55 "The hands are
stained with acid, and the clothing is of an ordinary
^ready-made' order. . , . He has the air of a mechanic,
or more definitely, with his peculiar pallor, 2 of a night-
printer. His features are large; the brow well shaped,
without unusual developments; the eyes light gray; the
nose irregular, and the mouth displaying teeth which are,
also, not altogether regular. When he looks up his at-
tention comes back slowly, as if it had been a long way
off. But it comes back fully and cordially, and the ex-
pression of the face, now that it can be seen, is frank and
prepossessing. A cheerful smile chases away the grave
and somewhat weary look that belongs to it in its moments
of rest. He seems no longer old. He has almost the air
of a big, careless school-boy released from his tasks. 95
Broad-shouldered, deep-chested, Edison was built for
endurance and labor. His weight at about his fortieth
year reached one hundred and seventy-five; and for
twenty-five years it remained so constant that all his new
suits, it is said, were made by a New York tailor that
never saw him, an old suit having been taken as guide to
the measurements. This weight is, to be sure, some ten
pounds above the average that insurance and other ta-
bles have generally fixed for men of his height. Edison
iPp. 95-96.
2 This pallor has been referred to by others. In 1928 a newspaper
article ("The World," February 9) said: **He Is pale, as always, but
there is a, healthy tint in the pallor" Dyer tnd Martin, however,
mention his "good color" (II, 773).
266
WHAT MANNEE OF MAN?
is ? however, no average man; and though his girth may
have slightly Increased after he was sixty-five, he has never
given the impression of superfluous bulk. Even to-day
he could not well be called portly.
In 1911 William Inglis thus vividly sketched him:
". . . The hair, white now, lies sprawled about in wisps
that reveal the scalp here and there. In curious contrast
are the inky-black, thick eyebrows that jut out from the
base of his big forehead. The eyes are by electric light,
at least a deep, gray-greenish blue, like very dark 5 un-
polished jade. They do not gleam or glisten; yet, when
he speaks, they have a curious glow that seems to pene-
trate one's inmost mind. The longish nose and deep chin
were familiar from thousands of portraits ; but there was
one characteristic I had never seen in any portrait the
broad, often-smiling mouth. . . . There is something
careless,, winning, and yet dynamic about that
smile. 59 . . .*
"Edison's hands are/ 5 he adds 9 "worth a great deal of
watching. They are not muscular hands at all, but long
and hollow-backed, the hands of the dreamer, the idealist,
the man of imagination. The fingers are ten slim anten*
n^ ? full of speculation ; the backs of the hands, from wrist
to knuckles, are actually a little concave. . . . Looking at
the hands alone, one would classify Edison as one who lives
entirely in the world of delicate but vast imaginations.
It is the squareness of the jaws [*&?], the width and depth
of the back head and the fulness of the torso that indi-
cate his limitless combativeness and robust energy in fol-
lowing his glorious imaginings to the uttermost end, re-
gardless of obstacles,"
Four years later, when he had become president of the
Naval Consulting Board of the United States^ he was
"Harper's Weekly" for November 4, 1911 5 p. 8,
267
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WOEK
thus referred to in the Washington correspondence of the
"Nation": 4 "A casual glance at the man would give
you but a slight suggestion of a genius. , . . When you
meet him, however, and he takes your hand and looks into
your eyes, you begin to compass him mentally. The
large, somewhat heavy face acquires a cheerful life you
had not seen in its set lines before, and the stocky frame
beneath seems to relax as he talks to you. Conversation,
by the way, has been more a duty than a pleasure to him
of late years, as his deafness has been steadily on the in-
crease."
At first considered a somewhat delicate child, Edison
soon outgrew that phase, and the ingratiating daguerreo-
type of him in his train-boy days shows him sturdy and
good-humored. Illness he has hardly known. He inher-
ited a hardiness that withstood constant sustained work,
a nervous system of rare balance. T. C. Martin is au-
thority for the story that "in the early days" one of Edi-
son*s laboratory staff a "very famous inventor" went
to Edison one morning and "begged to be told the real
secret of such uncanny powers of endurance, so impera-
tively necessary in a place which knew neither night nor
day* 3 * With no thought that the remark might be taken
seriously, Edison carelessly replied that he ate a Welsh
rabbit for breakfast every morning. Each morning for
six weeks the "ingenious interlocutor" followed the pre-
scription "then, well-nigh perishing, placed himself in
the hands of an incredulous doctor !"
If Welsh rabbit was not the secret and manifestly it
was not what was? Not some hobby, for Edison had no
hobby save more work. Not recreation, for about all the
recreation he had in those days was an infrequent fishing
excursion along the New Jersey coast. Later, he now
4 October 28, 1915; "Notes from the Capital"
268
WHAT MANNER OF MAN?
and then played a game of billiards, and his Llewelyn
Part house contained a billiard-room; but the only in-
door sport he ever showed much interest in was the ancient
East Indian game of pachisi known to Occidentals as
parcheesi. Outdoor games he did not play. A vacation
was a rare event. What, then, was the answer?
Fundamentally we are not, of course, likely to learn
what it was. Such men do not easily surrender their se-
cre ts are not glibly explained. Browning says.,
"Outside sliould suffice for evidence." . .
[At all events, we can only note things more or less on the
surface. There was a constitution of marked stamina
and resistance. There was much common-sense in the
matters of diet and dress, 5 There was such nervous sta-
bility that sleep, even when brief, was instant, unbroken,
and wholly restful. There was relief through change of
work. There was a temperament expressed in the words,
"Spilt milk doesn't interest me." Also, there was a cer-
tain well-considered pace in his way of living and working.
The present writer was once shown through a brass-
rolling mill, and he commented on the deliberate manner
of a particular group of workmen. He was informed
that these men were constantly employed in handling
heavy masses of metal, and that the deliberateness was the
result of experience. At this leisurely tempo the work
was best accomplished and the strength of the workers
best conserved* It was thus that Edison went about his
tasks. Nobody, it seems, ever saw Edison lazy ; nobody,
by the same token, ever saw him in a hurry. 6 He worked
with a concentrated steadiness and an interminable pa-
s "Much liquor," he is quoted as saying, "is a bad thing for any one
who wawts to go through life and work In earnest." (Jones, p . 295.)
e IX ajadM., I 263.
269
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
tience. In other words, Ms style was not that of the
"Standardized American Citizen" "the fellow with Zip
and Bang 59 booster of "the tenets of one-hundred-per-
cent pep 9 * so glowingly celebrated In George F. Bab-
bitt's immortal speech at the dinner of the Zenith Real
Estate Board.
When the motor-vehicle came in, Edison found time for
occasional tours. With advancing years$ a fortnight's
motor-car jaunt In the company of friends became an an-
nual event. Then, too, the winter sojourn in Florida
was lengthened, and there Edison and his pal Henry
Ford would take fishing trips up the Orange river. Oc-
casional holidays were had. Daily working hours were
cut down (by 1923 they were only about sixteen!) and
so was the daily ration of black cigars and black coffee.
Food was more carefully and more frugally selected, the
menus including little meat but plenty of fruit. At the
regular birthday luncheon tendered by the Edison Pio-
neers, the "Old Man 55 would have dishes specially cooked
for him or would bring his meal from home in a tin box.
For those that care to know, it may be recorded that at
the 1924$ luncheon he had grapefruit cocktail, sardines,
spinach, stewed tomatoes, and a glass of milk. "Then,"
said the press account, "he lighted a cigar and mouthed it
thoughtfully, talking with no one. . * Only at rare in-
tervals did he so much as smile." T
In 1921, at his regular birthday interview, he told the
reporters assembled that he wasn't at all bothered by any
question as to how a man over seventy might pass his days.
"If," he assured them, "a man encounters that difficulty,
the trouble is that he didn't take interest in a great num-
ber of things when he was mentally active in his early
years. If he was mentally active enough he would find
World,'* February 12, 1924,
270
From "(rfnnpses of Old
New York," by Henri/
Collins Brown
Copyright, 19 1, by II. C. Brown.
AT THE CX)KNBR OP BROADWAY AND JOHN STREET,
IN 1800 AND 1913
Copyright by Underwood c& Underwood,
THE CONCRETE (POURED) HOUSE
Showing the Forms and the Completed Building
WHAT MANNER OF MAN?
plenty to occupy his time in reading^ observing and watch-
ing people/ 9 . , , A man that "retired" at seventy might,
he thought, expect to die within three years. He added:
M I don't want to retire- When the doctor brings in the
oxygen cylinder I'll know it's time for me to give up." 8
On his seventy-fifth birthday he responded to the stated
query about how he felt: "How do I feel? Like a two-
shift man always feels well. 95 He thought that on his
seventy-sixth birthday he was just in his prime. On his
seventy-seventh, asked: "What is your philosophy of
life? 59 he answered in writing :
"Work. Bringing out the secrets of nature and ap-
plying them for the happiness of man. Looking on the
bright side of everything." 9
On May 18th, 1924 three months after his seventy-
seventh birthday he unveiled a bust of Joseph Henry in
the Hall of Fame, New York University. "On that oc-
casion, 59 wrote William H. Bishop (himself about the
same age), "he sat with his hat off for hours on the plat-
form, in a wintry breeze that would have almost killed
anybody else. 59 10 That evening he attended a motion-
picture showing in New York; and when his motor-car
started for Llewellyn Park, he was riding with the chauf-
feur on the open front seat overcoatless, though light
overcoats were being worn by the majority of men afoot*
He uses glasses for reading and close work but not for
general purposes this in spite of the fact that for sixty
years his eyes have been unsparingly active, much of the
time by artificial light. W. S. Mallory, one of Edison's
associates, has stated that he was once present when Edi-
son's eyes were examined by an oculist unaware who the
"New York Tribune," February 12, 1921.
"The World," editorial, February 13, 1922; "New York Tribune,"
February 11, 1924; !6 V February 12.
3.0 In a personal letter to the author, February 18, 1925.
271
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
Inventor was. Said the oculist to Mallory: a l . . t
have never seen an optic nerve like that of this gentle-
man. An ordinary optic nerve is about the thickness of
a thread, but his is like a cord. He must be a remark-
able man in some walk of life." . * . n
Edison the telegrapher is described as uncouth in man-
ner and rough in dress. 12 His carelessness as to dress
and general appearance has in later days been somewhat
exaggerated. His tastes in apparel have, it is true, been
always of the simplest. He prefers subdued colors,
quiet patterns. Furthermore he believes that all clothing
should be worn loose. His waistbands are liberal. So
are his shoes "as big as his feet and then some." Uni-
formly his choice of collars has been one of the "rolling 9 *
variety, exceedingly low, or one of the sort that gapes
broadly in front, permitting a free AdamVapple a sort
akin to that which another Grand Old Man, Gladstone,
made famous in Victorian times. With the collar went
either a bow-tie or a string-tie, white or black.
The tradition of Edison's extreme carelessness in
clothes dates, probably, from the Menlo Park period, es-
pecially those years of it when he was introducing and de-
veloping his incandescent-lighting system. Visitors to
the laboratory were likely to find him in nondescript
clothing discolored with chemicals and decidedly well worn
such clothing as in the circumstances, under the existing
conditions of work, was suitable enough. A group taken
in 1878 by Isaacs, the staff photographer, on the piazza
at the front (eastern) end of the laboratory building,
shows Edison no more rough-and-ready than most of his
associates. But rough-and-ready he undoubtedly was,
judged by the ultra-conventional standards of the aver-
11 D. and M, II, 763.
6., i, 68, ioa
272
WHAT MANNER OF MAN?
age business or professional man of that starched and
frock-coated period. When mains were being laid for
the Pearl-street station in New York, Edison, laboring
four evenings a week in street and trench, sleeping casu-
ally in a cellar upon a pile of tubes, was beyond question
not arrayed like a member of the board of directors of
the Edison Electric Illuminating company. Then, too,
carelessness in attire was taken to be one of the stock at-
tributes of genius, and newspapers played it up as a help-
ful ingredient of Edison's picturesqueness. They did
much the same kind of thing in the case of the late Charles
P. Steinmetz.
It cannot, indeed, be said of Edison, as Carlyle said of
the Dandy, that every faculty "is heroically consecrated
to this one object, the wearing of Clothes wisely and
well.** . . . The whole subject of clothes "rather bores
him." He does not "scorn the shocking hat." For a
while a disreputable duster a kind of "masculine 'Mother
Hubbard* " and a battered straw "cady" formed part of
his laboratory costume. He has been heard to chaff at
spats and swallow-tailed coats. "At seventy-five," he
once threatened, "I expect to wear loud waistcoats with
fancy buttons" but he did not execute the threat. He
doesn't sport a top-hat and he isn't fond of carrying
gloves. Yet visitors at the West Orange works have
marked the neatness of his linen, have even fancied they
discerned a certain Quakerish finicalness of garb. He
has been photographed in a dinner-jacket (looking quite
modish and thoroughly at ease, too!) ; and when he un-
veiled the bust of Joseph Henry in the Hall of Fame, he
appeared in an afternoon coat of unexceptionable cut and
trousers smartly creased. They do say that the second
Mrs. Edison has been a modifying influence but be that
as it may.
273
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
Edison was constitutionally able to get along with rela-
tively little sleep. This capacity enabled him to serve
as a night telegraph operator and then study and do
extra work during a good share of the day. In Boston
he devoted from eighteen to twenty hours to his job, his
reading* and his special experimenting. In Newark "half
an hour of sleep three or four times in the twenty-four
hours was all he needed. 9 * 13 At Menlo he knew no such
thing as a regular quitting-time. At West Orange in
,18889 while developing the wax-cylinder type of phono-
graph, he put in five days and nights of continuous work ;
and this remained his record performance.
In 1920 T. C. Martin wrote: 14
"Edison sleeps well at seventy-three. When he sleeps
lie does nothing else. He never dreams,, nor is he rest-
less. He seems to have the faculty of getting more rest
out of two hours than most men get out of six or eight.
A short time ago he was working all around the twenty-
four-hour clock, went to bed at half -past five one mom*
ing and was up at seven, having had about one and a half
hours of real sleep. When he went to breakfast he was
asked, 'How do you feel this morning?' and he replied,
C I would feel better if I had not overslept myself half an
tour.' "
A cot was placed for him in an alcove of the library in
the West Orange laboratory, and there, after long exer-
tion, he would slumber peacefully^ his right cheek resting
on his hand. Waking him was no easy matter.
It is hardly to be wondered at that such a man believes
folk as a rule sleep too much. When, touring with Ford
and Firestone, he stopped in August, 19&4, at Plymouth*
is D. and M., I, 134-.
i* IB Ms pamphlet "Edison at Seventy-three."
274
WHAT MANNER OF MAN?
Vermont, to call upon President Coolidge, he asked Mrs*
Coolidge, "How much does the President sleep? 95
"Too much, I think/ 3 said she. "He takes a nap after
dinner and sleeps until four, and then goes to bed early
at night/ 3
To which Edison with finality responded, "Lack of.
sleep never hurt anybody/ 9 15
He used to have a story of a man who applied to him
for a position. This man was, by his own statement, a
martyr to insomnia, so Edison thought him a first-rate
find. "I put him to work on a mercury pump 5 and kept
Mm at it night and day. At the end of sixty hours I left
him for half an hour, and when I returned, there he was,
the pump all broken to pieces and the man fast asleep on
the ruins/ 5 . , 16
Edison gives an impression of simplicity, freedom from
a side," an essential humility. Years ago, in applying
for membership in the Engineers 5 Club of Philadelphia,
lie thus stated his professional achievements : "I have de-
signed a concentrating plant and built a machine-shop,
etc., etc.* When the "Independent," in 1913 5 took a
referendum of its readers as to the ten Americans whom
they considered most useful and most nearly indispensa-
ble, Edison led, his name appearing on eighty-seven per
cent, of the lists. Declining the editor's request for an
article, he replied in part thus :
"Modesty forbids any comments on my part concern-
ing the result of the poll of your readers. The only
thing that troubles me Is the fear (in which my wife
shares) that if these things keep up I may get a swelled
head. When I look over the list of names of those for
iff "Herald Tribune," August 20, 1924.
10 Jones, p, 224.
275
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
whom your readers have voted, I am at a loss to express
nay feelings concerning the honor they have done me." 17
He has told about going to Philadelphia to attend a
'dinner given by George W. Childs for Joseph Chamber-
lain. The trip was made in the private car of Roberts,
then president of the Pennsylvania railroad. When Edi-
son returned to the Philadelphia station, Roberts was on
hand and insisted upon carrying Edison's valise for him.
"I never," protested Edison, "could understand that. 55 1S
When Waldo Warren asked him whether he had "max-
ims or conclusions 95 "things you have found out, funda-
mental laws" that he could give to other inventors, Edi-
son rejoined:
"Ah, these men know more about their own work than
I could tell them. I haven't any conclusions to give; I
am just learning about things myself. 55 . . , 19
During the same interview he mused :
"I have tried so many things I thought were true, and
found I was mistaken, that I have quit being too sure
about anything. All I can do is to try out what seems
to be the right thing, and be ready to give it up as soon
as I am convinced that there is nothing in it. 55 20
His unpretentiousness has at times had its rather pro-
vincial and amusing side. In 1889, during the Universal
Exposition, he visited France and was made a commander
of the Legion of Honor, of which he was already a chev-
alier. "My wife, 55 he has said, "had me wear the little
red button, but when I saw Americans coming I would
slip It out of my lapel, as I thought they would jolly me
ir "The Independent," September 4, 1918.
is D. and M., II, 745.
10 W. P. Warren, "Edison on Invention and Inventors," in the "Cen-
tury Magazine" for July, 1911; p. 419.
20/6., 417-418.
276
WHAT MANNER OF MAN?
for wearing it.*' 21 Possibly Edison himself is jollying!
If he is* in the words of one observer, "a simple s demo-
cratic old man/ 3 22 it is likely that his sense of humor is
in part responsible. He has enjoyed telling jokes at his
own expense: how, for example, having rented the ma-
chinery in one of his Newark shops when he removed to
Menlo Park, he heard no more of it and three years later
visited Newark to find a hotel where the shop had been ;
how at Goerck street he tried to terrify Sitting Bull and
other Sioux with a violent electric arc and failed ut-
terly; how at Menlo, when the potato-bug was a novel
pest, he sprinkled bisulphide of carbon on the potato-
vines of a farmer who had sought his aid, with the result
that he destroyed not only bugs but vines as well and
had to pay $800 damages.
To mark the f orty-fif th anniversary of the phonograph^
first appearance in a working model, phonograph distrib-
utors presented to him a crayon portrait of himself.
After close inspection of it, his only comment was: "I
look like a United States Senator there. 55 Which may or
may not reveal his opinion of the portrait as a work of art.
Near his desk in the West Orange laboratory hangs or
did hang a cartoon showing him toiling away while two
scientists, vainly endeavoring to see him, are intercepted
by a negro porter. The porter impressively warns:
a Sh ! De Wizard am embossed in thought, gemmen, and
he cain't be introrupted. He hain't et er slep' fo 5 fo*
days. 55
An English writer found it remarkable that Edison
should be able "at any moment to lift himself out of his
scientific surroundings and enter glibly into the lightest
21 D, and M., II, 748.
22 G. E. Walsh, "With Edison in His Laboratory," in "The Independ-
ent" for September 4, 1918.
277
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORE
of light conversation, with all the abandon of irresponsi-
ble youth." True it is that he has always had the Amer-
ican fondness for swapping stories ; that having seen the
funny sido of things as he went along ? he has been filled
with amusing reminiscences. He seems to have regarded
humorless men even a friend like Henry Villard in a
Mud of puzzlement. The "lean and hungry look 59 of the
unsmiling Jay Gould repelled him. He has chuckled over
the remembered spectacle of Werner von Siemens endeav-
oring to interpret American jokes to Hermann von Helm-
holtz. Or of Bergmann "little Bergmann," who made
electroliers,, meters, and such things for the Edison light-
ing system issuing orders that the factory whistle was
not to be blown after Edison had shown him three or four
foolscap sheets of figures and solemnly assured him they
were calculations proving great loss of power through the
"blowing of the whistle.
Probably the best known of Edison's bons mots is his
analysis of genius : "Genius is 1 per cent, inspiration and
99 per cent, perspiration." This is a kind of restatement
of Carlyle's "transcendent capacity of taking trouble,
first of all. 5523 Needless to say, this analysis, though
flattering to mediocrity, is, like all other epigrams about
genius, unsatisfactory. One likes better his reply when
asked why a certain man no longer was in his employ:
"Oh, he was so slow that it would take him half an hour
to get out of the field of a microscope." Or his counsel to
the member of the building committee of a Philadelphia
church who consulted him about the advisability of plac-
ing lightning-rods on the new edifice: "By all means.
as "Frederick the Great," IV, iiL The "first of all" Is Invariably
omitted and the remainder almost invariably misquoted* See the "En-
cyclopaedia Britannica," llth ed., art. "Genius."
278
WHAT MANNER OF MAN?
You lnow, Providence is sometimes absent-minded, 5 * 24
Or his suggestion as to Iiow electricity might best be ap-
plied for executions : "Hire the criminals out to some of
the New York electric light [L #., arc-lighting] com-
panies. 59 When, on Broadway, he avoided a meeting
with his chief legal adviser, a friend sought the reason.
a Why, 3> explained Edison, "I was afraid to shake hands
with him again until I found out whether I could afford
to pay his fee for it. s?
Not always is he good-natured. "Those in closest
touch with Edison/' wrote the late T. C. Martin, "are
constantly impressed with his moderation and patience in
personal relationships; and, truly, he has reaped his re-
ward in general good-will. Yet even now [in 1920] he
occasionally uses language somewhat removed from bene-
diction; and what a glorious hater he can be on occa-
sion!" 25
". . . Of ten 55 -so says Bailey Millard 2e "he is in the
highest spirits, whistling and joking then depressed,
sullen, and angry. His patience applies only to his la-
bor. With the men about him, particularly those who
are not very keen, he has no patience whatever. When
he is in bad humor, word passes quickly about among the
five thousand employes in his big shops that *the old man
is on the rampage today, 5 and everybody who can possi-
bly do so keeps away from him. Once, when he was in
such a humor, I saw him turn upon an employe who had
24 Was this a belated echo of the curious protest that arose when
another Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin, devised the lightning-rod?
FrankMn was accused of interfering with divine action, and churches
were especially slow in adopting the supposedly impious protection!
25 "Edison at Seventy-three."
26 "Our Twelve Great Scientists, VI. Thomas Alva Edison," in the
"Technical World Magazine" for October, 1914
279
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
forgotten to wind up a phonographs and vent upon him
such wrath as made the delinquent wince visibly. His ar-
guments are fulminations. He pounds the table and
shouts angrily. As he is extremely deaf, his opponent
as he insists upon regarding anyone who does not agree
with him must raise his voice to a high pitch, so that
what Edison apparently considers a mild debate often re-
sembles the hottest kind of row. 59 A man that visited the
West Orange laboratory in answer to an advertisement
for a production engineer, described Edison as pacing
back and forth, "irritably demanding why certain results
were not being obtained in his factory and denouncing
what he termed bone-headed moves on the part of his ex-
ecutives, while the latter shouted their excuses into his
deaf ears." 27
It was quite in the nature of things that Edison's pe-
culiarly individual way of working and his insistence upon
it, his more or less blunt disregard of aught save the goal
he had in view, would not be wholly congenial to all his
more immediate co-workers, especially on the research
staff. His essential fairness and justice have, however,
always been insisted on by those who may be supposed to
know him best. W. S. Mallory once went so far as to
say, "I doubt if there is another man living for whom his
men would do as much." That he can show forbearance
is indicated by an anecdote related in connection with
the theft of seventy-eight of his electric-lighting inven-
tions. A dishonest patent-solicitor did not file the appli-
cations he was supposed to file, but sold them to other
persons. These persons then signed new applications
and thus fraudulently took out patents on Edison's work,
Edison confessed that this incident "has left a sore spot
in me that has never healed." Yet he would not mratioa
27 "The New York Times/' May II, 1921.
280
WHAT MANNER OF MAN?
that patent-solicitor's name, merely observing, "It is of no
practical use. . . . I believe he is dead, but he may have
left a family/ 9 28
At Menlo Park, on the upper floor of the office-
building, Edison had a reference-library for the use of
himself and the staff, and at West Orange was assembled
one much more comprehensive a fine collection as part
of the equipment of his laboratory. In connection with
Ms work he has leaned heavily upon a book learning. 59
The assumption sometimes encountered that Edison is a
sort of improvisator, purely original and underived,
scorning classified knowledge, impatient of all precedent,
is but one of many errors regarding him. He is himself,
authority for the statement that, aside from special re-
search, for which he has collected and studied vast quan-
tities of printed matter, he has also constantly read in
such favorite subjects as astronomy, biology, mechanics^
metaphysics, music, physics (including, of course, elec-
tricity), and political economy. In addition to this, he
has kept fully in touch, through scientific journals and
proceedings of scientific bodies, with new developments in
science.
The closeness with which he can read when exploring
a subject may be judged by an experience of one of his
assistants. In this case the subject happened to be a
portion of the mechanism of typewriting-machines. Edi-
son ordered that arrangements be made with the manu-
facturers of every available form of machine to have a
specimen at the Edison works on a certain date and with
each machine a representative to explain it; also that all
the books treating of this particular mechanism be as-
sembled from the library. The evening before the day
appointed, these books were sent up to the house* fThe
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
experts, when they appeared, were amased to find Edi-
son so familiar with the subject that he was able to correct
certain of their statements. Curious to see how long it
would take him, the assistant set out to read the refer-
ences that Edison had evidently absorbed at a sitting.
They required all his spare time for eleven days, 29
Ever since he was a train-boy, when, between trains, he
essayed to read his way, alcove by alcove, through the
Detroit public library of the time ever since he was a
telegraph operator, when he browsed in the second-hand
book-shops and was sometimes called "Victor Hugo 95 Edi-
son because of his fondness for the Frenchman's works, he
has done, too, some reading in miscellaneous belles-lettres.
Reported among his later preferences in fiction are the
romances of Dumas and Jules Verne and the "thrillers"
of Gaboriau. As for poetry, he has said : "... I can't
stand jingle. Where the thought is twisted out of shape
just to make it rime I can't stand that. But I like
*Evangeline,' 'Enoch Arden, 5 and things like that. These
I call true poetry.
"But, ah, Shakspere! That's where you get the
ideas! My, but that man did have ideas! He would
have been an inventor, a wonderful inventor, if he had
turned his mind to it. He seemed to see the inside of
everything." . . . so
Of his literary predilections, little else is known.
What, if anything, he thinks about contemporary liter-
ature, has not been divulged. It is said that he some-
what depends on the judgment of Mrs. Edison and is in-
clined to accept her recommendations.
2 French Strother, * 4 The Modem Profession of Inventing/' in "The
World's Work" for June, 1905,
ao "w. P. Warren, "Edison on Invention and Inventors/* in the "Cen-
tury Magazine" for July, 1911; p. 418.
282
WHAT MANNER OF MAN?
Misconceptions have been common as to how Edison ar-
rived at his results. These misconceptions may be clas-
sified as largely of two varieties: those that held he was
guided by sudden bursts of supreme insight, and those
that held he tried everything, hit or miss, until by main
strength he succeeded. Now, as a matter of fact, Edi-
son's method in developing an idea may be called a
method by elimination. He starts out in absolute indif-
ference to whatever difficulties may theoretically exist.
He thoroughly studies what previously has been learned
and done that may in any way bear on the subject
searching everything available in print. Then his as-
sistants try things ; and in laboratory note-books is kept a
detailed record of the processes. For example, he wished
at one time a chemical mixture having "two properties
that are rarely found together in the same compound.' 1
He might, proceeding from the known to the unknown,
have had his chemists first determine what chemicals were
most likely to fill the bill and then try those few. What
he actually did was to turn to Watts' "Dictionary of
Chemistry" and from the formulae there given have every
sort of mixture prepared that could be imagined even re-
motely to be of use. Edison's summary was: "Out of
the lot, I found about seven compounds that worked, but
when I finished the experiment I knew beyond a doubt
that those seven were the only ones that could be made
for that purpose," 31
The late Dr. R. C. Maclaurin warned us, however, that
it is a mistake to set up Edison "as a ^practical man 5 in
the narrow sense." "It is true," said Doctor Maclaurin,
"that he has described himself as *pure practice' in dis-
tinction from Mr. Steinmetz, whom he has called 'pure
at French Strother, "The Modern Profession of Inventing," m "The
World's "Work" for June, WQB.
288
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
theory/ but this, of course, was a joke* Newspaper men
have expanded it so as to make it appear that Edi-
son knows nothing about science,, cares nothing for the
achievements of the great experimenters and thinkers
who have preceded him, and merely tries everything he
can think of until he happens upon what he is seeking.
Few things more absurd could be suggested. He is no
slave to theory; he is ready, as every scientific man is
ready, to try anything that seems reasonable, but prac-
tically always he has what seems to him a good reason for
everything that he tries. In the rare cases where he has
tried blindly,, it has been because there was absolutely no
light. 55 S2
"Not only," declared Doctor Maclaurin, "has he shown
his faith in science by great achievements, but he has
proved himself a great force in education by giving so
brilliant an exhibition of the method of science, the
method of experimentation. 59 And he finds it interest-
ing to reflect what Edison's acquaintance with Fara-
day's works, purchased second-hand in Boston while Edi-
sou was still a telegraph operator, has meant for the
world. One thinks of the 1,600 tests of earths, minerals,
and ores in making metallic-wire filaments for the Edison
incandescent lamp ; of the 6 5 000 distinct species of plants
(chiefly bamboos) that Edison tried as material to be
carbonized into filaments ; of the 50,000 separate experi-
ments made in developing the nickel-iron storage battery ;
of the patient improvement of the telephone, the phono-
graph and its ancillary devices, or the motion-picture
camera. The laboratory note-book record is said to show
that one of his assistants alone once conducted a series
of about 15,000 experiments in connection with a problem
In an address before the Civic Forum, New York, on May 6, 1915,
when a medal for public service was presented to Edison* See p. ITS.
2S4*
WHAT MANNEE OF MAN?
f,o which Edison was then devoting particular attention.
In brief 9 Edison's way has been the way of knowledges
close research, and persevering hard work. But in addi-
tion to all this 5 men who have long been associated with
him are wont to refer to his direct apprehension his
"guesswork/ 9 as he styles it. Said P. R. Upton : "One
of the main impressions left upon me after knowing Mr.
Edison for many years is the marvellous accuracy of his
guesses." 33 ". . . Very many times, 35 said W. S. Mai-
lory, "I have heard Mr. Edison make predictions as to
what a certain mechanical device ought to do in the way
of output and costs, when his statements did not seem to
be even among the possibilities. Subsequently, after more
or less experience, the predictions have been verified." 34
* . . One of Edison's engineers has added that Edison
"seems to carry in his head determining factors of all
kinds, and has the ability to apply them instantly in con-
sidering any mechanical problem. 55 35 At a time when lit-
tle was really known about dynamos, he contrived, against
such precedent as there then was, to build a dynamo with
small internal resistance and thus delivered ninety per
cent, of the energy produced. It is said that when asked
how his earlier dynamos came to be so much superior to
anything that had preceded them, he would answer,
"Well, I happened to be a pretty good guesser. 9 * 36
Again, his own words were :
"One question concerning this early system has often
been asked, namely : 'Why did I fix 110 volts as a stand*
ard pressure for the carbon filament lamp? 5 The an-
swer to this is that I based my judgment on the best I
. and M,, I, 297*
8*16,, IT, 512.
asJ5 v II, 621.
a<5 Jones, p. 024.
285
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
thought we could do In the matter of reducing the cost of
copper and the difficulties we had in making filaments
stable at high voltages. I thought that 110 volts would
be sufficient to insure the commercial introduction of the
system, and 110 volts Is still the standard. 55 37
This inherent grasp of things may be regarded as a
mark of Inventive imagination. "Imagination/ 5 Edi-
son has affirmed, "supplies the ideas, and technical knowl-
edge carries them out. 5538
His laboratory note-books are filled with sketches by
him. Whether in the laboratory, discussing a new idea,
or in the home, during an evening of talk, he has always
had a way of seizing on pieces of paper and covering them
with rude drawings to illustrate what he was saying.
This was likely to be accompanied by tricks of tapping
with the pencil or of tugging at his bushy eyebrows, which
retained their dark color after his hair had turned white.
As his deafness increased, his voice took on the somewhat
flat, colorless tone so common among persons of defective
hearing.
Speeches by him have been extremely rare. When an
after-dinner speech has been expected of him, or a re-
sponse to an address, he has almost invariably contrived
to provide a substitute. No doubt a small club might be
formed of those who have served in this fashion and re-
gard their service as a distinction. He has declared that
lie can't understand how any man makes a speech or writes
a book. His first radio talk was given from Atlantic
City, New Jersey, on May 19th, 1926, during the con-
vention there of the National Electric Light Association.
ST Quoted in T. CX Martin, "Forty Years of Edison Service" (New
York, 1922) ; p. 15.
38 w. P, Warren, "Edison on Invention and Inventors," In the "Cen-
tury Magazine" for July, 1911; p. 4*16.
286
WHAT MANNER OF MAN?
It consisted of the following twenty-two words: "Why*
I don't know what to say. This Is the first time I ever
spoke into one of these things. Good-night. 59
But to his laboratory or wherever else he might be
waylaid, newspaper men and magazine men have flocked
to get him to talk ; and they have spread abroad not only
his accounts of his inventions, his comments on scien-
tific affairs, or his predictions as to Industrial develop-
ments of the future, but also his opinions on a wide range
of topics, his personal views about almost every conceiv-
able thing of which he would admit any personal view
whatever. He has always been "good copy. 55
Even before the invention of the phonograph, the
"Wizard myth" was taking form. With the appearance
of the phonograph, and thenceforward for many years, it
received large accretions. The dear public was ready to
expect the marvelous from Edison; and the young lions
of the press sometimes helped to supply the marvels.
Nor was it merely that they added fantastic embroidery
to the facts. ". . . The worst of it is," Edison once com-
plained, "that these fellows who come out here [West
Orange] go back without ever having seen me or heard
me speak a word and write out alleged interviews that
make me seem foolish to people who don't know me." 89
Mingled with these "fairy tales of science" were un-
authentic and confused yarns about Edison's career and
more strictly personal history. Fictions of both these
classes found place in magazine articles and in books. It
is an interesting example of how legend may collect even
In modern days and during the lifetime of the hero. By
way of apology it has sometimes been hinted that Edison
rather encouraged this sort of thing. It is possible that
he has not been wholly unaware of the sweet uses of ad-
39 "Electrical Review" for January 12 ft 1901; p. 63.
287
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
vertisement ; It is not improbable that some of his quiet
"joshing" has been reported more gravely than he in-
tended; it is certain that he could not keep a corrective
or advisory eye on all the immense amount of material
relating to him that has appeared in print. The fact
remains that misstateinents of all sorts have been widely
circulated and some of them have reached an extreme
that moved him to sharp protest.
In later years his judgments have constantly been
sought by reporters and special writers and featured by
editors. On his seventy-seventh birthday, for example,
the allied interviewers submitted a long list of questions
for him to answer in writing. When coal and oil are
gone, whence shall we get power? Whom would he
choose for President? What about Fundamentalists and
Modernists? Has the modern young woman been too
severely criticised? Shall we ever communicate with
Mars? Even that ancient battle-horse of amateur debat-
ing societies. Is the world growing better or worse? And
so forth. Readily and in a firm hand he wrote his terse
answers, then turned straight back to his work,
It is the accepted thing for many American newspa-
pers and for American magazines of a certain type to air
the opinions of men who chance to be conspicuous figures
in the world of commerce, industry, or finance; for on
all sides it is taken as axiomatic that whatever such folk
have to say about anything at all must be profoundly
knowing. Not for this reason is Edison quizzed, but be-
cause Americans are interested in his flavorsome person-
ality; respect his uncommon and stimulating mind; read
what he says ; highly esteem his opinions in fields in which
they believe him experienced and informed ; and are prone
to find entertainment, even while they discount them, in
what they may consider Ms prejudices, foibks, or errors.
283
WHAT MANNER OF MAN?
In 1915 9 when the Franklin medal of the Franklin Insti-
tute was awarded to Edison 3 Dr. Harry F. Keller, in sur-
veying Edison's achievements* declared: "I may say
without fear of contradiction that no other inventor's
name ? either in this or any other country, has become so
universally popular as his/ 5 40
In the earlier days of the electrical art in this country*
a dispute long since settled and largely forgotten
arose between the exponents of the alternating current on
the one side and of the direct current on the other. To
the former group belonged George Westinghouse. In his
biography of Westinghouse 5 Francis E. Leupp says : 4t
"Interviewers pursued Westinghouse wherever he went,
trying to lure him into some explosive utterance against
Thomas A. Edison, the chief exponent of the continuous
current, which might produce a personal collision between
the two inventors, and thus set free a fund of spicy
*copy. ? " It has been stated on behalf of Edison that his
electric-lighting system, as at first introduced, was
planned for thickly-settled areas, wherein distribution by
low-pressure, direct current was, he believed, the only
really safe method; and that for transmission he con-
sidered alternating current, under proper safeguards,
perfectly suitable. He had no inclination toward becom-
ing a controversialist in his special field of work, but he
did have definite convictions ; and in the case of a public
service like that of supplying electric current, and es-
pecially in view of the fact that in those pioneer days so
little was known about electric systems anyway, he
40 At a stated meeting of the Institute, held on the evening of
Wednesday, May 19, 1915. See the "Journal" of the Institute for July*
1915.
, "George Westinghouse: His Life and Achievements." See pp. I4r8-*
Wl.
289
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
thought that in its own interest the public should be kept
Informed.
Some of his offhand utterances about matters not within
his particular province have had the effect of stimulating
answer and rebuttal nor is it unlikely that he was aware
of the possibility of such result. When in 1923 he pre-
dicted that motion-pictures would eventually oust books
from schools,, a chorus of dissent arose. When in 1910 he
discussed the survival of human personality, the late Dr.
William H. Thomson, whose volume "Brain and Person-
ality" he had recommended, took issue with him, saying
that some of Edison's remarks were very superficial and
that Edison's view was "unscientific. 53 "If Mr. Edison's
objections are based on scientific facts exclusively," said
Doctor Thomson, "he shows a great ignorance of brain
discoveries." Others arose to label the inventor's state-
ments dogmatic and contradictory. 42
If one traces such records as exist, one will discover,
however, that the bugbear of consistency has never se-
riously bothered Edison. At one time he has berated the
colleges, at another has granted "College forces a young
man to learn at least something when he doesn't want
to.' 9 4 * The student will have a hard job in entirely rec-
onciling Edison's assertions in 1910 regarding the sur-
vival of human personality, with his views as reported in
the press in 1923, at the time when he attended the funeral
of his friend and camping companion President Hard-
ing. 44 But who shall say that we may not here trace the
scientific spirit? Of the scientist it has been said, "A
theory is merely a tool, and he drops one theory and picks
42 See "Current Literature" for November and December, 1910,
48 "New York Tribune" for February 12, 1924.
4* See the "New York Evening Post" for August 11, 1928; "The
World" of the same date. Of. the "Scientific American" for October 30,
1920; pp. 446 et aeq.
290
WHAT MANNER OF MAN?
up another without a thought of inconsistency, just as
a carpenter drops his saw and picks up his chisel. 3 * 45
With respect to Edison's religious position, it may be
noted that men that well knew him have described him as
of a "reverential attitude of mind 55 ; and that he himself
has said: "Science cannot reach any other conclusion
than that there is a great intelligence manifested every-
where. 55 4e His theological position, if he has one, has
not been made clear ; but of the struggle between Funda-
mentalists and Modernists he has said that it marks "the
transition from myth to facts. 55 47
It may not, all things considered, be wholly surprising
to find Edison speaking slightingly of the so-called dead
languages as instruments of intellectual discipline, or
somewhat disparaging the cultural side of American
life. 48 It may not be surprising to find him inexorable
toward the cigarette, though he has been a steadfast
chewer of tobacco and at one time smoked twenty strong
cigars a day. It is, however, a surprise to discover him
pooh-poohing mathematics beyond simple arithmetic.
Though himself lacking mathematical faculty, tastes, or
training, he has of course been able to obtain the services
of mathematicians when he needed them including those
of such men as F. R. Upton and Arthur E. Kennelly, the
second of whom later became professor of electrical en-
gineering in Harvard University and the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology.
In 1921 and later, Edison aroused a good deal of at-
tention and comment through his "questionnaires 55 lists
4 E. E. Slosson, "Easy Lessons in Einstein" (New York, 1920) ; p.
100.
* W. P. Warren, "Edison on Invention and Inventors," in the "Cen-
tury Magazine" for July, 1911; p. 417.
47 "The World" for February 12, 1924.
48 See D. and M., II, 768.
291
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
of questions to be answered by applicants for work as in-
spectors in the Edison plant. It was proposed that the
men that passed the test should* if they made satisfactory
progress, be promoted to executive and administrative
posts. In the old days at Menlo Park, Edison had a
different form of examination, judging from the story
of J. EL Vail, who wished at that time to have charge of
the dynamo-room. According to Vail, Edison pointed
out a pile of junk and said, u Put that together and let
me know when it's running." The junk turned out to be
a dynamo; and after Vail had put it together and got it
going, he was considered to have passed. 49
For society in any formal sense, Edison has cared but
little for "society'* in its pettiest sense, nothing what-
ever. In her volume called "The Social Ladder 95 (the
general drift of which appears to be that there is no such
thing as real "society" in America), Mrs. J. K. Van
Rensselaer concludes that "Artists, scientists, educators,
inventors, are far too busy in their own spheres to take on
additional burdens for the sake of numbering themselves
among the socially elect." 50 Certainly this is true of
Edison.
He is fond of his home, over which the second Mrs.
Edison has so well presided. Mrs, Edison is a cultured*
gracious, accomplished woman, a director of the Play-
ground and Recreation Association of America, and in*
terested in other public movements. It was she who was
selected to unveil the fine statue of Joan of Arc by Aima
Vaughn Hyatt (Mrs. Archer M. Huntington) on River*
side Drive, New York, The other members of the family
are Madeline (now Mrs. John E. Sloan), Charles (who is
being trained to succeed to the general direction of the
as R and M* II, 618-614,
cop. 135*
292
WHAT MANNER OF MAN?
Edison companies) , and Theodore. The first Mrs. Edi-
son left three children Thomas Alva, jr, ? William Les-
lie* and Marion, who married an officer in the German
army.
In addition to the decorations and medals that Edison
has received, he has also had conferred upon him three
academic degrees: Hon. Ph.D. by Union College (1878) ;
D.Sc. by Princeton University (1915) ; and LL.D. by the
University of the State of New York (1916). It is per-
haps worthy of note that the last-named degree was ac-
tually conferred by the telephone, toward whose perfect-
ing Edison years ago contributed so much. President
J. H. Finley, speaking from Albany to West Orange, ad-
dressed the candidate as "not in absentia but merely m
loco remote." 51
Edison has been criticised for not being something he
never professed to be a "pure scientist," or, as the old-
fashioned style had it, "natural philosopher. 55 He has
repeatedly made it as clear as he possibly could that with
him the commercial availability of an invention has been
the first point to consider. On this theme he enlarged
as follows:
"The point in which I am different from most inven-
tors is that I have, besides the usual inventor's make-up,
a bump of practicality as a sort of appendix, the sense
of the business, money value of an invention. Oh, no, I
didn't have it naturally. It was pounded into me by
some pretty hard knocks." 52
"... I always keep within a few feet of the earth's
surface all the time," he told an interviewer. "At least
See "Academic Honors for a Wizard/* in "The Outlook" for
November 1 9 1916; pp. 481-482.
ss French Strother, "The Modern Profession of Inventing," in "The?
World's Work" for June, 1905.
298
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
I never let my thought run up higher than the Hima-
layas. 5 * . . * 53 He defined a "successful invention" as
"something that is so practical that a Polish Jew will buy
it." Surely all this is explicit enough.
When Edison took up invention as a career, the Civil
War was past. The energies of the country had been re-
leased for a burst of business enterprise, of speculation,
of material progress generally. Edison had a faculty of
making things work, of bringing things to pass, of over-
coming obstacles thought to be insurmountable. His in-
genuity and boldness of attack were exactly what capi-
talists and public were looking for capitalists because
lie showed the way to profitable investment; public be-
cause he did "stunts** with things near to Its everyday
life. He gave Bell's telephone a real transmitter and thus
made it
" . . speak out loud and bold."
His name for years was placed on all Bell telephone sets.
With his electro-motograph he furnished to Morse's tele-
graph a new sounder requiring neither a retractile spring
to withdraw an armature from an electro-magnet nor any
electro-magnet at all. He thereby delivered the tele-
graph from the menace of Jay Gould, who controlled the
Page patent on a retractile spring. Using the principle
of this same electro-motograph, he provided a loud-
speaking receiver for the telephone. He thus established
the fact that BelPs receiver was not indispensable In te-
lephony any more than Page's retractile spring was in
telegraphy. Such a man naturally convinced financiers
that he was a handy person to have around when they
wished to escape suits for Infringement or to stake their
. P. Warren, in the "Century" for July, 1911; p. 416*
WHAT MANNER OF MAN?
investments on schemes that were likely to be "practical"
from the dividend-paying viewpoint. The public began
to regard him as a marvel and to call him a the Wizard"
- a title bestowed on him by the newspapers.
Then he invented the phonograph, by which he was the
first mechanically to reproduce human speech and song.
The phonograph aroused prodigious general interest.
Edison was now looked upon as a "wizard" indeed. To
be applied to several "practical" uses 5 the phonograph
had only to be developed. That development was post-
poned to make way for Edison 9 s advance against a fresh
impossibility the subdivision of the electric current.
From the invention-factory at Menlo Park issued the in-
candescent electric lamp, dynamos to supply it with cur-
rentj and a long series of auxiliary devices through which
the central-station system of incandescent electric light-
ing was organized and rendered commercially possible.
On this spacious accomplishment was based a vast new
industry. This industry in turn lent the first real im-
petus to the new profession of electrical engineering ; and
from it grew manufactures of great variety and wide ex-
tent. Green pastures opened in every direction for capi-
tal stock. So impressed was the public that many per-
sons became persuaded that Edison had invented elec-
tricity !
The record is not in doubt. Edison was working, as
he frankly professed, in applied science. A tendency has
grown up to criticise him because he was not a disinter-
ested seeker after truth, was not concerned with pure
scientific research, was not content to a scorn delights and
live laborious days" for the sake, primarily, of adding to
the sum-total of scientific knowledge. Such criticism is
rather beside the mark, but it may help to define Edison's
position more clearly.
295
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
In 19&2 Edison visited the General Electric works in
Scheneetady, New York. It was no wonder, editorially
commented "The New York Times/ 5 that he received a
"clamorous and enthusiastic welcome." 54
"Mr. Edison, 9 ' continued the "Times/ 5 "is a great in-
ventor and exploiter of inventions, and but little more
than incidentally a *man of science. 5 His efforts always
have been aimed directly at the doing of things that needed
to be done things the doing of which would be immedi-
ately and largely profitable. That was his natural bent,
and properly he followed it, to his own and the world 5 s
great advantage. If what is called 'pure science 5 the
search for new truth and new knowledge for their own
sakes ever has interested him, it has not been for long
or deeply.
"As he put it himself, men like Langmuir, Whitney and
Steinmetz have traveled far in fields he only entered be-
cause they had more time. But they didn ? t; he, like
everybody else, had all the time there was. He chose to
use it for other purposes, and he has his reward, just as
they have theirs. 55 . . .
It should be added that just as Edison is not lacking
in appreciation of "pure science, 55 so he has enjoyed the
admiration and respect of such men as John Tyndall 5
Sir Oliver Lodge, Hermann von Helmholtz, Louis Pas-
teur, Lord Kelvin, C. P. Steinmetz men, that is, pre-
eminently qualified to understand and value his achieve-
ments and services. Kelvin, one of the greatest physi-
cists of his own or any time, was outspoken in his praise
of Edison's work, with which he kept closely in touch.
Edison, on the eve of his sixty-ninth birthday, was guest
of honor at a banquet tendered, by the Illuminating En-
gineering Society (New York) ; and in a speech deliv-
w October 20, 1922.
296
WHAT MANNER OF MAN?
red on that occasion, Steinmetz said: a He lias done
more than any other man to promote the art and science
of electrical engineering. 55
The suggestion has occasionally cropped up that Edi-
son owed much to the ideas of his assistants and that the
r f act has never been properly acknowledged. As to this,
we have the testimony of men closely associated with him
at various times. In their work on Edison, Dyer and
Martin say : 55 ". . . Edison always stood shoulder to
shoulder with his associates, but no one ever questioned
the leadership, nor was it ever in doubt where the inspira-
tion originated. The real truth is that Edison has always
been so ceaselessly fertile of ideas himself, he has had
more than his whole staff could ever do to try them all
out ; he has sought co-operation, but no exterior sugges-
tion. 55
Referring to the autumn of 1880, when he was a new
man at Menlo, E. G. Acheson wrote : 58
"Mr. Edison was at this time working upon an electric
meter to be used in connection with central station dis-
tribution. I became acquainted with the requirements of
the case and the urgent need of such an instrument.
What appeared to be a happy thought occurred to me
for the method and design of a meter. I made a draw-
ing of my proposed instrument, and the next time Edi-
son came into the room I showed it to him. He seated
himself on a high stool at the drawing table, put his arms
on the board, and his head, face down, on them, and
seemed lost for some time in thought. After some minutes
he raised his head and addressing me said, I do not pay
you to make suggestions to me. How do you know but
W T, pp. 824-825.
e<r "My Days with Edison," In the "Scientific American" for
ruary 11,1911; p. 142.
297
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
that I already had that idea s and now If I use it you will
think I took it from you. 9 I assured him that I consid-
ered anything I could produce while in his employ and
pertaining to his interests s belonged to him; that my
thinking on those lines was due to my being in his lab-
oratory and cognizant of his needs and lines of work. He
made a test of my meter scheme, and notwithstanding It
looked so feasible, it proved a failure." . . .
W. S. Mallory, at the time he was connected with Edi-
son's ore-milling venture, emphatically stated: "I want
to say, and I know whereof I speak 9 for I have been with
him night and day for several years, that ninety-nine per
cent, of the credit of all the invention and new work of
this establishment is due personally to Mr. Edison, I
have heard it stated that Mr. Edison is an organizer who
uses the brains of other men. Nothing could be further
from the truth than this." 5T
After selling his electro-motograph rights to Orton of
the Western Union for $100,000, Edison specified that
the amount should be paid to him at the rate of $6,000 a
year. His reason for this arrangement was that It would
safeguard him against staking the lump sum on a new
invention. Your business man would probably exclaim,
4 *Why, he was only getting interest for the use of his
money!" But if business men have criticised Edison's
business ways, no less has Edison from his viewpoint criti-
cised the ways of business.
Here and there, in tracing Edison's story, one has il-
luminating side-lights on a certain type of American "big
business" ethics. For example there Is the episode of Jay
Gould and the Automatic Telegraph company. Briefly,
Gould contracted to purchase the Automatic interests for
57 Theodore Waters, "Edison's Revolution in Iron Mining," in "Me*
Clure's Magazine" for November, 1897; p. 92.
298
WHAT MANNER OF MAN?
$4,000,000. He appropriated the patents and properties
of the Automatic company the patents including those
connected not only with the automatic but also with the
duplex and quadruples. Then he repudiated his con-
tract. "I lost," said Edison 5 "three years of very hard
labor. 59 5S For about thirty years the matter dragged
through the courts ; and at the end the plaintiffs won but
a hollow victory.
"Wall Street 59 and its methods have had faint praise
from Edison. When he engaged Charles E. Chinnock to
put the Pearl-street central station on a commercial ba-
sis, he personally guaranteed Chinnock $10,000 in the
event of success. Chinnock made good, and Edison duly
paid over the $10,000. Afterward, the Edison Electric
Light company, when Edison suggested that it reimburse
him for this amount, said it was "sorry" but declined to
pay this in spite of the fact that the money had been
expended in behalf of the company, contributing toward
the establishment of the Edison system, which the com-
pany controlled. "Wall Street sorry** was how Edison
characterized this attitude. 59 He has also related that
"one of the wealthiest men in New York 95 tried to induce
him to "sell out 59 his associates in electric lighting a
bribe of $100,000 being vainly dangled. 60 For such du-
plicities of business he has had a hearty contempt.
Of the treatment of inventors by capitalists, he once
said:
". . . The working out or commercializing an inven-
tion costs money, but that is usually done by the company
that makes money out of it. What they need is to do
something so the inventor can make money out of his in-
Sce D* and M. I, I6&-I67.
!&., I, 436.
OJ6., II, 664.
299
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
rention and not have It all go to the company that buys
up his rights. If an inventor could make $50,000 out of
his first invention he would turn right around and put
that money into making other inventions some that
might be worth millions to the public. That is a char-
acteristic of a true inventor. Inventors have insufficient
means to fight a patent case with the present methods of
procedure in the courts, and it amounts to a nullification
of the patent as far as the inventor is concerned. There
are many corporations that know this and make a busi-
ness of appropriating every patent of value. Sometimes
a competing company will give the inventor enough to
pay a little on his debts and fight the pirating company,
but the inventor gains nothing if they are successful. I
think courts ought to protect the inventor against busi-
ness men." . . , 61
For business routine Edison has never had a liking.
In Newark, according to him, when first he was manu-
facturing stock-tickers, he jabbed bills receivable on one
hook, bills payable on another, and allowed all notes to
go to protest. This delightfully simple method func-
tioned* he says, to everybody's satisfaction. But in a
fatal moment he acquired a book-keeper. At the end of
three months the book-keeper reported a profit of $$,000.
Edison celebrated this with a supper to some of the men.
Two days later the book-keeper rendered a revised state-
ment showing a loss of $500. This made the supper ap-
pear a bit premature but only temporarily, for a re-
revised statement proclaimed a profit of more than $7,000.
Small wonder if Edison looked fondly back to his little
system of two hooks and protested notes ! 62
ei W. P. Warren, "Edison on Invention and Inventors," Si* the "Cen-
tury Magazine" for July, 1911; p. 419.
62 D, and M., I, 135.
&00
WHAT MANNER OF MAN?
At Henlo he would neglect his correspondence for days
at a stretch. Sometimes he would be asleep when the busi-
ness office most urgently wished to confer with him. But
when he was accessible, he would quickly fasten upon the
substance of the details presented to him and give his di-
rections as to what should be done.
For business in the broader sense he has, of course*
shown great capacity. He saw a future for electric trac-
tion though few business men could see it. As a manu-
facturer of essential parts for his electric-lighting system,
he developed an undertaking of high commercial value.
After he removed to West Orange, he built up a series of
Edison enterprises under his personal supervision and
carried them on with administrative skill. The collapse
of his big ore-milling scheme was due to natural causes
that could not have been foreseen and the effect of which
could not be avoided. His energy in tackling new prob-
lems as, for example, the making of synthetic phenol
has been striking.
He has gained wealth, but doubtless he might have
gained far more had it not been that wealth for its own
sake does not appeal to him. Back in 1879 3 a reporter
said to him, "If you can make the electric light supply the
place of gas, you can easily make a fortune." Edison
answered, "I don't care so much for a fortune" es and he
meant it. Prof. F. W. Taussig, the well-known econo-
mist, has written that although "the love of distinction
and the more material self -regarding motives" have also
clearly moved Edison to some extent, yet the man is
chiefly possessed by "an instinct of workmanship or
continuance." "We are so immersed," adds Taussig, "in
the present individualist system that we can hardly con-
ea See H. C. Brown, "The Book of Old New-York" (New York,
1913) ; p. 247.
aoi
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WOEK
celve how we should act under conditions totally differ-
ent. Prediction might be expected to be easier as re-
gards those rare persons, like Mr. Edison, in whom some
particular bent appears with extraordinary strength.
[Yet even here we cannot be sure. What sort of things
would he have worked at in a collectivlst society, and
would his services have been greater or less? To these
questions we can give no convincing answers. 95 64
Edison's gospel o wort and his disrelish of mere money-
making for its own sake have held valuable lessons for his
countrymen and still hold. The same is true of his
firm insistence upon high standards in design, materials*
workmanship, and marketing. He has never knowingly
sacrificed quality. It has been his pride to see that his
signature trade-marked upon a product was a guarantee
of excellence. He has not sponsored contraptions. The
improvement of a thing is to him as attractive as the
original invention of It. When he has felt that an Edi-
son device was defective under conditions of actual use, he
has withdrawn or retired it. It Is rather an open secret
that even within the Edison sales organizations murmurs
have been heard that the "Old Man" was too much con-
cerned with making things good. In a civilization whose
modern factory system has turned out so much of the
sham, the shoddy, and the inferior, Edison's example has
been salutary.
Yet another service Edison has rendered, if we may ac-
cept the expert testimony of Doctor Maclaurin :
"All the world is indebted to Mr* Edison, but the
portion of it that Is tinder special obligation is the
educational world s particularly the schools of technol-
ogy. It is not merely that he has helped them by
* 64 See the "Quarterly Journal of Economics" for August, 1912; pp
776-781.
302
WHAT MANNEE OF MAN?
criticism and constructive suggestion; it is not merely
that by financial assistance he has enabled them to carry
on scientific investigations in fields that he has cultivated
with such remarkable success; but it is mainly because
he has himself been for a generation an educational in-
stitution of the first rank. As much as any other school
he has had a profound influence throughout the country
in arousing in the minds of young men some sense of the
limitless possibilities of science when devoted to the serv-
ice of man. ... It has been a great thing for America to
Jiave such a central figure in this age of applied science -
a man with such a hold on the popular imagination as to
force men to watch what he is doing. 39
In the "Independent 55 referendum^ when Edison was
chosen as the most useful American, various reasons for
selecting him were given on the lists submitted ; and these
were interesting as indicating the more intelligent pop-
ular view of Edison. From them may be quoted:
"Perhaps the one name which no one could possibly
omit Jro4uch a list. An incomparable combination of
diligence and inventive ingenuity. A per~
of the 'good-old-times' doctrine. 55
"Leader in the development and application of inven-
tions that have revolutionized civilization in the last cen-
tury."
"The world would surely be a dull place, if it had not
been for Ms genius. 55
"There is no one like him. He is the one-man~to~the~
century inventor. Millions of people all over the world
are Ms debtors. 55 . , .
"Because he has demonstrated that inventive genius
may be turned to a nobler and better purpose than the
mere making of money. 55
"$VTi0 has added more to the material elements of cm~
808
EDISON: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
Hzation, by his own Inventions and by what they have sug-
gested to others^ than any other one man in the history of
the world. 55
"Occupying probably the first place among strictly
utilitarian men. Without his aid few of our modern en-
terprises could be carried on as effectively as they are. 5 * 65
To these may be added the words of one enthusiastic
citizen, who, when the present writer referred to the sin-
gular esteem in which Edison is held, exclaimed, a And why;
not? Sure, didn't he set the whole world a-goin 9 ? 99
This "hold on the popular imagination, 95 Edison has
never lost. When he makes pilgrimage to open the Elec^
trical and Industrial Exposition, the old marvels are re-
hearsed. Nor would most men be surprised to learn
that a new marvel was forthcoming. Though Edison has
repeatedly announced his withdrawal from active inven-
tion, yet he has not wholly quit and who knows? . .
On the day after he unveiled the bust of Joseph Henry
in the Hall of Fame, the "Times 95 of New York said edi-
torially : eQ "Many who saw the procession of those gath-
ered to honor the ^immortals 9 will have wondered who of
that living company would come to take their places in
bronze beside those whose faces were unveiled yesterday.
To one at least that honor is likely to come. He who
came to pay homage by his presence to Joseph Henry
will live on with Joseph Henry. 99
es See "The Independent" for May I, 1913; pp. 9S6-95&*
APPENDIX
AN EDISON CHRONOLOGY
Born at Milan, Erie county 5 Ohio, Feb-
ruary 11 1847
In the cellar of the house at Port Huron,
Michigan, its up the first Edison lab-
oratory Abt. 185t
Becomes a newsboy on the GrUnd Trunk
railway J.859
Issues "The Weekly Herald 55 from a
railway car L 186$
Learns telegraphy from J. 11 Mac-
kenzie at Mount Clemens, Michigan 1862
Works in a local telegraph office at Port
Huron 1862-186^
Is a railway telegraph operator on the
Grand Tnmk at Stratford Junction,
Ontario, Canada t 1868
Is a roving telegrapher in the central
West 1863-1868
Goes to Bostirn as an operator 1868
Invents his vote-recorder, his first pat-
ented invention J868
Arrives in New York and becomes su-
perintendent of the Gold and Stock
Telegraph company 1869
Becomes a partner in the firm of Pope,
Edison & Co., electrical engineers,
New York 18G4
Invents the unison device and other im*
307
APPENDIX
provements in stock-tickers; also the
^Universal 5 * stock-printer 1869
Opens in Newark, New Jersey, a shop of
Ms own, where he builds stock-tickers 1870
Aids Christopher L. Sholes, inventor of
the first practical typewriting-ma-
chine, in making an improved work-
Ing model 1871
Works on the automatic telegraph; de-
velops duplex and quadruples tele-
graph systems; invents the mimeo-
graph and electric pen; begins re-
searches in telephony 18721875
Removes from Newark to Menlo Park,
N. J. 1876
Opens up the possibilities of Bell's tele-
phone by inventing the carbon trans-
mitter, applying it to a closed circuit,
and introducing an induction coil ; in-
vents the electro-motograph, the prin-
ciple of which was later applied to his
loud-speaking telephone J876
Invents the phonograph J.877
Improves the phonograph; begins his
study of electric lighting 1878
Works on incandescent electric lamps,
putting into circuit on October 21 one
that establishes the general principle
on which success is based 3.879
Develops new type of dynamo having
greatly increased efficiency ; plans and
works out his system of incandescent
electric lighting, including means for
distributing, controlling, and measur-
308
APPENDIX
ing the current, as well as appliances
for the lamps; publicly exhibits the
system at work at Menlo Park (De-
cember 31, 1879) 187&-188Q
Invents the magnetic ore separator 1880
Builds his pioneer electric railway line
and makes experiments in electric
traction 1880-1882
Opens offices in New York for the
purpose of introducing his electric-
lighting system; establishes the first
commercial manufactory of incandes-
cent lamps, also shops for turning out
dynamos, underground-tube conduc-
tors, junction-boxes, meters, chande-
liers, switches, sockets; devises his
"three-wire system" of distribution,
first installed at Sunbury, Pennsyl-
vania ,1881
Opens the first commercial electric-light-
ing central station in the United
States at 255-257 Pearl street, New
York, September 4 1882
Removes his laboratory and headquar-
ters to West Orange, New Jersey 1887
Develops the improved wax-cylinder pho-
nograph 1887-1890
Invents the motion-picture camera (ki-
netograph) 1891
Develops and manages his ore-milling
enterprise, solving its engineering dif-
ficulties and providing necessary in-
ventions 1891-1900
Enters the Portland-cement industry;
309
APPENDIX
invents the "long kiln 53 *; introduces
the "pourecP house ; invents and per-
fects the alkaline storage battery;
produces a new form of business pho-
nograph and introduces his "Univer-
sal" electric motor to be used with this
machine ,1900-1910
Develops a phonograph of greatly im-
proved type ? using disc records ,19101914*
Introduces the "talking motion-picture"
(kinetophone)
Introduces the telescribe and the transo-
phone
Unable to obtain phenol (carbolic acid)
from abroad, devises a process for
making synthetic phenol and opens
a plant that within a month produces
a ton a day L 19l4s
Becomes president of the Naval Consult-
ing Board of the United States ,1915,
Evolves plans and develops inventions
for the United States Government 1917-1918
Improves his existing inventions; con-
ducts chemical experiments; manages
his business undertakings 1919-
THE COMMERCIAL VALUE OF
EDISON'S INVENTIONS
(From an article in "The New York Times 1 ' of June 24, 1023)
There is one human brain that has a hard cash market
value today , In the business and industrial world, of $15,-
0005000,000, Billions is correct, not millions. That is
within 20 per cent, of equaling the value of all the gold
dug from the mines of the earth since America was dis-
covered.
The brain is that of Thomas Alva Edison 5 who many
a time has said to his cronies, "Well, if worse comes to
worst, IVe got a good trade. I can always make $75 a
month as an expert telegraph operator and I can live
comfortably on that. ??
The $15,000,000,000 represents the present Investment
in America alone In industries which are entirely based
on the inventions of Edison or which have been materially
stimulated by his inventions. Several of the country's
largest Industries are Included.
Here Is the list, and it touches only the high spots. It
shows either the capital or the total Investment, accord-
ing to the latest dependable estimates:
Moving pictures , $1,250,000,000
Telephones 1,000,000,000
Electric railways , 6,500,000,000
Electric lighting and power 5,000,000,000
Electrical supplies , 857,000,000
Fixtures 37,000,000
an
APPENDIX
Phonographs . ., , 105,000,000
Electric car shops ,. . 109,000,000
Dynamos and motors I 00,000,000
Edison storage batteries ,. . , . 5 ,000,000
Cement , 271,000,000
Telegraph . . ., 350,000,000
Wireless telegraph 15,000,000
The total Is $15,599,000,000,
It will at once bq objected that Edison did not invent
the telephone^ for Instance. True. But lie did Invent
the carbon transmitter he Is said to have sold It for
$100^000 without which the telephone would not have
been commercially practicable on a large scale.
If there are Items In the table which In fairness should
not be entirely placed to Edison's credit^ there are still
others not mentioned at all which would In the aggregate
nm his brain value up to more than the total as given,
PART OF AN EDISON QUESTIONNAIRE
Here Is a list of some of the questions on one Edison
questionnaire, as furnished by Charles Hanson to **The
New York Times 95 and published in that newspaper on
May 11, 1921. Mr. Hansen had been a candidate.
"No person/ 9 commented the "Times,** "is allowed to
write down the questions or make notes of them, so Mr.
Hansen 9 s list is from memory and he makes no pretense
of giving more than the substance and purport of the
queries. 9 *
What countries bound France?
Wliere Is the River Volga?
What counfcry and city produce the finest china?
Where does the finest cotton grow?
812
APPENDIX
What country consumed the most tea before the war?
What city in the United States is noted for its laundry-
maeliine making?
What city is the fur centre in the United States?
Can yon play any musical instrument?
What country is the greatest textile producer?
Is Australia larger than Greenland in area?
Where is Copenhagen?
Where is Spitzbergen?
In what country other than Australia are kangaroos found?
What telescope is the largest in the world?
Who was Bessemer and what d^d he do?
Where do we get prunes from?
How many States in the Union?
Who was Paul Revere?
Who was [John?] Hancock?
Who was Plutarch ?
Who was Hannibal?
Who was Daiiton?
Who was Solon?
Who was Francis Marion?
Who was Leonidas?
Where did we get Louisiana from?
Who was Pizarro?
Who was Bolivar?
What war material did Chile export to the Allies during the
war?
Where does the most coffee come from?
Where is Korea?
Where Is Manchuria?
Where was Napoleon born?
What is the highest rise of tide on the North Atlantic coast?
Who invented logarithms?
Who was Emperor of Mexico when Cortex landed?
Where is the Imperial Valley and what is it noted for?,
In what cities are hats and shoes made?
Where is the Sargasso Sea?
SIB
APPENDIX
What is the greatest depth ever reached in the ocean"?
What is the name of a large inland body of water that has no
outlet?
What is the capital of Pennsylvania ?
What State is the largest? The next?
Rhode Island is the smallest State. What is the next and the
next?
How far is it from New York to Buffalo by way of the New
York Central Eailroad?
How far is it from New York to San Francisco?
Of what State is Helena the capital?
What State has the largest copper mines ?
What State has the largest amethyst mines?
What is the name of a famous violin maker?
Who invented the modern paper-making machine?
Who invented the typesetting machine?
Who invented the printing press?
On what principle is the telephone based?
Of what is brass made?
Where do we get tin from?
What ingredients are in the best white paint?
How is leather tanned?
How is artificial silk made?
What is a caisson?
What is coke?
How is celluloid made?
Where do we get shellac from?
What causes the tides?
To what is the change of seasons due?
What is the population of the following countries : Germany,
Japan, England, Australia, Bussia ?
From what part of the North Atlantic do we get codfish?
Who discovered the south pole ?
What is a monsoon?
Where is Magdalena Bay?
From where do we import figs?
From where do we import dates?
BU
APPENDIX
From where do we get; domestic sardines?
What railroad is the longest in the world?
Where is Tallahassee?
Where is Kenosha?
How fast does sound travel per foot per second ?
How fast does light travel per foot per second?
What planet is it that has been recently measured and found
to be of enormous size?
What large river in the United States is it that flows from
south to north?
Where are the Straits of Messina?
In what country are earthquakes frequent?
What mountain is the highest in the world?
Where do we import cork from?
Name six big business men in the United States.
Who is called the father of railways?
Where was Lincoln born?
Who stated the following: "Fourscore and seven years
ago/' &c.?
What business do you like best ?
Are you experienced in any of the following: Salesmanship,
clerk,, stenography j bookkeeping?
Name a few kinds of wood used in making furniture, and the
highest priced.
What kind of wood is the lightest?
What kind of wood is the heaviest?
Of what kind of wood are axe handles made?
Of what kind of wood are kerosene barrels made?
What part of Germany do we get toys from?
What Slates bound West Virginia?
Where do we get peanuts from?
What is the capital of Alabama?
Who wrote the "Star-Spangled Banner"?
Who wrote "Home, Sweet Home*'?
Who composed "II Trovatore"?
Who was Cleopatra?
t Where are condors to be found?
315
APPENDIX
What voltage is used on street cars?
Who discovered the law of gravitation?
What cereal is used all over the world?
Where is the Asstian Dam?
What country produces the most nickel?
What is the distance between the earth and the sun?
Who invented photography?
Where do we get wool from?
What is felt?
What States produce phosphates?
Why is cast iron called pig iron?
Name three principal acids.
Name three principal alkalis.
Name three powerful poisons.
Who discovered radium?
Who discovered the X-ray?
What is the weight of air in a room 20x30x10?
Where is platinum found?
With what metal is platinum associated when found?
How is sulphuric acid made?
Who discovered how to vulcanise robber?
Where do we get sulphur from?
Where do we import rubber from ?
Who invented the cotton gin?
What is the price of 12 grs. of gold?
What is vulcanite and how made?
What is glucose and how made ?
What is the difference between anthracite and bituminous coal ?
Where do we get benzol from ?
Of what is glass made?
How is window glass made?
What is porcelain ?
What kind of a machine is used in cutting the facets on
diamonds ?
What country makes the best optical lenses and what city?
Where do we get borax from?
.What is a foot pound?
316
APPENDIX
EDISON HIMSELF ANSWERS A
QUESTIONNAIEE
This questionnaire was prepared by Byron R. New-
ton and published in "Collier's" for July 14, 1928.
"I never give another man a dose of medicine I wouldn't take
myself."
Thomas A. Edison was speaking. It was some years ago. I
was a reporter then and had journeyed to his laboratory to talk
with him about his storage battery. The interview was finished,
and Edison was talking about certain rules and principles that
governed his life. His medicine proverb so quaintly expressed
the Golden Rule that it made a lasting impression on me. I won-
dered if he really meant it and practiced it. Now I have put
him to the test and he rings true.
Everybody will remember that not long ago Mr. Edison set
the world talking by propounding a questionnaire to the college
men of the country. Therefore I have propounded a question-
naire to Mr. Edison, which he has answered frankly and appar-
ently with less difficulty than the college men found in disposing
of the questions submitted to them. Twenty questions were pre-
sented to Mr. Edison^ and out of the twenty he answered nine-
teen and a half.
Q. I. Do you ezpect to see a successful third party in 1924;?
A. I hope not. Two are probably necessary* and that's
enough,
Q. 2. A straw vote of the country, which Is now being taken
by Collier's, shows Henry Ford to be leading all other candi-
dates for president Do you think this indicates a definite,
permanent preference of the people for Mr. Ford^ and if so, what
are the reasons for that preference?
A. The common people lilce Mr. Ford for the same reason
that John Burroughs UJeed him? a* lie fe a lover of nature p a*
81*
APPENDIX
practical humanitarian who practices 'what he preaches* and one
who JKU not been so owercivilised as to become an artificial person.
Q, 3. It has been suggested that a national convention of all
presidential aspirants be held a year or six months prior to the
nominating conventions, in order that the country may know
where each candidate stands with reference to the great problems
of the country. Do you favor that plan?
A. Don*t think it practicable.
Q. 4. The American people have lost confidence in their
political leaders. Why?
A. I can't remember that they ever had very much.
Q. 5. The head of an American university recently declared
that the great multitude of brain workersthe so-called middle
class in the United States were being pressed between organ-
ized labor and organized capital to a point where they must
soon find deliverance through a strong leader or be driven to
choosing between the white feather and the red flag. Do you
share that view, and do you think the middle class of the coun-
try may be turning to Henry Ford as their leader?
A. I do not believe this. Too many persons want brain work
and have no natural or acquired capacity for such work. They
want easy jobs; hence the supply exceeds the demand for this
type, with the usual result.
Q. 6. American mothers Inspire their sons with the thought
that they must be president of the United States or president of
a bank. The result is that a great multitude of these white-
collar boys are looking for $25-a-week jobs. Mentally they are
unfitted for presidential responsibilities, but they have the mus-
cles for good mechanics. Do you think the high wages being
paid for skilled labor will attract them to the extent of develop-
ing a new class of American workers ?
818
APPENDIX
A. "My experience is that they do not want to learn a trade}
it is too slow. They want executive positions of some kind; even
&t low wages.
Q. 7. The entry of American women into business, politics,
and other hitherto masculine activities has changed the character
of our family life, giving us the homeless house. Do you think
this situation is permanent and that civilization can adjust itself
to it, or is it a temporary thing that will pass ?
A I think it is only temporary,
Q. 8. Being civilized and enlightened, why do women bare
their breasts in winter and cover them with furs in summer?
A. Ask me nothing about women. I do not understand them*
and don't try to,
Q. 9. The rapid increase of motor vehicles has congested the
thoroughfares of every American city to a point where the author-
ities confess that they are powerless to deal with the problem.
What general solution do you suggest?
A. Some years ago I suggested that the city of New Torts
should pass an ordinance providing thai after a certain year ,
no more new manufacturing establishments should be permitted
below the Harlem River.
Q. 10. The transportation machinery of the United States
to-day is unable to handle the country's increasing traffic. What
is the basic trouble and the remedy?
A, Too much Government interference. Too much politics*
Q, 11.- The skilled workers in the building trades are now
averaging more than $10 a day and are demanding increases. As
a result contractors are shutting down building 1 operations. Do
you blame them?
Allowing for Sundays, holidays, and normal interruptions, the
319
APPENDIX
American mechanic averages less than 250 working days in the
year* At $10 a day lie would earn $2,500 a year, or less. Con-
sidering the excessive cost of food; rent, fuel, clothing, that
amount does not give him and his family the common comforts of
modern life. He wants to live like a progressive American citi-
zen. That is why he is asking for more. Do you blame him?
If both are right, then who is wrong and what is necessary to
adjust the situation?
Mr. Edison answered only the first paragraph of this question,
as follows:
A. This is perfectly natural* It is due to the regular work-
ing of the law of supply and demand. Skilled workers in the
building trades are less in number than the demand. Society ha$
taken little, if any, measures to train more skilled men "in tho$e\
traded Every natural person tries to get the most for his serv^
ices 9 "for the goods which he sells.
Q. 12. Do yon believe that the domain of electricity has
practically been explored and charted, or is it still an unexplored
realm, destined still further to contribute to the happiness and
wonderment of mankind?
A. The Electrical Age is just starting.
Q. 13. Do you believe that through its far-reaching agencies
we shall yet communicate with the dead or gain some knowledge
of the future existence of the human soul ?
A. My views on this subject liwve already been set forth wj
mtermews published in the newspapers and magazines. See
^Cosmopolitan^ May, 1920; ** American Magazine October &$
[}], W20; "Scientific American," November [October?] 80,
1920.
Q. I4f. Should we go forward with our attempt to enforce
prohibition in the United States, or give it up as a. bad job and
unworkable?
A. We should go forward. N& law can b& fully
820
APPENDIX
but in this case it will be easier as time goes on and as the netsft
generation (wlucJi hasn't acquired the drink habit) comes into
control.
Q. 15. Do yon believe that tlie Government's present re-
strictive policy with reference to immigration will work ad-
vantageously for the future of the United States?
A. I believe in the present restrictive policy f but perfected
in its workings.
Q. 16. Looking to the future, would the United States be
benefited by membership in the League of Nations?
A. Yes, if joined under specified conditions.
Q. 17. In view of the future possibilities for wholesale de-
struction of human life and property through scientific discover-
ies since the armistice^ do you believe that another world war
Is probable? Will not the certainty of the appalling destruction
of another great war act as a restraining force upon all nations
of the earth?
A. I think it will oppose any large wars and restrain them,,
Q. 18. Do you believe that civilization is retrograding, of
that the present moral laxity and unrest are indicative of a new
phase of human life and a great change for the better?
A. I believe civilization is advancing , but the great war and
the rapid advance in scientific method makes it seem qneev^
It is the rapid transition that make it so.
,Q, 19. If the population of the world continues to increase
at the rate of the past half century^ what wiE be the result in
two hundred years ?
A* Fiwr,
FAMILIAR GLIMPSES
IK a certain biography of Edison the following story
about the inventor is attributed to Chauncey M. Depew.
"During the exhibition at Chicago [the World's Co-
lumbian Exposition, 1893], Edison visited the Fair, and
saw everything in the electrical line. One day, while
down town, he happened to see the Shingle' of an electric-
belt concern a belt you put around you, and which is
supposed to cure any ailment you happen to be troubled
with. Well, thinking that perhaps there was something
in the application of electricity that was new to him, he
went up to the office. A very pert young lady immedi-
ately inquired what she could do for him.
" 'Well,' began Edison, *I wanted to know how those
belts worked, and I thought I might learn by coming up
here.'
" 'Certainly, 5 said the young lady, taking up a belt.
*You see the current of electricity goes from the copper
to the zinc plate, and then 9
" * Just a moment,' suid Edison politely, 'I don't hear
very well at times. Did you say the current went from
"the copper to the zinc plate?'
" *I certainly did. Then, as I was saying *
" * Just one moment,' interrupted Edison again. 'Let
me understand this* You say it goes from the copper to
the zinc?'
** 'Yes, sir, it goes from the copper to the zinc, 5
a 'But do you know, I always thought it went from the
gsinc to the copper,'
322
APPENDIX
'Well, it don't. 5
a *But are you sure? 5 Edison asked, smiling.
a *Well, maybe you know more about electricity than I
'do/ snapped the girl, as she threw the belt down and
glared at the Wizard. 9
" 'Perhaps I do/ Edison admitted, and he turned and
left the place."
Amusing though it be, the anecdote is not, however,
Senator Depew's. The present writer submitted a copy
of it to the Senator, who kindly read it and returned it
with this annotation:
"The above is not my story. I never heard of it or saw it,
Chauncey M. Depew."
Earnest E. Calkins, a New York advertising man, re-
fused, as did Edison, to let deafness become an affliction.
Calkins once asked Edison, as one deaf man to another,
why he, of all men, had not tried some electrical device
for making hearing easier. According to Calkins, Edi-
son replied : "Too busy. A lot of time is wasted in lis-
tening. If I had one of those things, my wife would want
to talk to me all the time."
Electrocution, so-called, was first adopted by the state
of New York. A law making this method of capital pun-
ishment obligatory became effective on January 1st, 1889*
The first person sentenced to suffer death under the new
law was a certain William Kemmler. The law was at-
tacked as providing a "cruel and unusual" form of pun-
ishment and as being therefore unconstitutional Bourke
Cockran, a lawyer well-known in New York, an ex-
Congressman, and an orator with a large local reputation
for florid eloquence, took tip the case (as he explained) "in
32S
APPENDIX
the interests of love of humanity and a desire to prevent
an inhuman execution."
Edison was called as a witness. Cockran was aware
that Edison was on principle opposed to capital punish-
ment in any form ; but he was disappointed in his hope of
gaining assistance from Edison's testimony, which wan
to the general effect that electricity might be made to ac-
complish instant and painless death. Examined by Cock-
ran, Edison stated that he regarded it as safe to "double
up" dynamos in order to increase the current used for
executions.
"That is your belief not from knowledge?" queried
Cockran,
Patiently the witness responded: "From belief. I
never killed anybody."
The law was eventually sustained in both state and
Federal courts, and Kemmler was duly executed at Au-
burn. Invited to be present at the execution, Edison de-
clined.
It was said that at one of Edison's regular birthday
interviews a reporter took occasion to congratulate the in-
ventor on his vigorous health.
Edison, continues the story, answered: "Yes, I am
well enough, thank you, considering my age. This is my
*998th birthday. You didn't know I was so old as that,
did you? Man, that's nothing just nothing. I expect
to be at least 1,500 before the 4th of July. It's the
newspapers, bless 'em. It's all right; I haven't gone
crazy or anything, I just made the remark because a
clipping bureau has sent me an entirely new Edison story,
and it raises the date. You see, we've been amusing our-
selves at home, among ourselves, by collecting these yarns
and calculating how old I should have to be to live througK
APPENDIX
all the adventures they have set me down for. When we
quit last night I was only 970, but the bureau boosted
me twenty-eight years this morning. 95
In August, 1924, Edison, Henry Ford, and Harvey
Firestone called at the Coolidge homestead in Plymouth,
Vermont, to pay their respects to President Coolidge, who
was taking a vacation there. A group of interviewers
cornered and catechised the inventor. One of the ques-
tions asked was : "What do you think about the radio
being used for political campaigns this year? 5 *
. "Not much in it/' declared Edison, "People like mu-
tilated music ; they like to hear about contests such as the
Democratic convention [this was the convention that met
on June 24th and did not adjourn until July 10th 9 after
twenty-nine sessions and one hundred and three ballots
thus setting a record] ; but to sit and hear a political
speech well, I'll tell you a story.
"A reformer went to Sing Sing to deliver a talk to the
prisoners. He started in with that reform talk, you
know, and kept up talking and talking until he had 'em all
bored to death. He talked for an hour when a colored
man let out a yell A guard hit him over the head and
knocked him senseless. When he came to in about an
hour, the reformer was still talking. The man called the
guard and said : *Hit me again, boss. I can still hear
it' >*
Edison told of dn assistant who once helped him to con-
struct a miniature electric-lighting plant. So delighted
was this man with the part he had played in the work that,
smirking proudly, he said to Edison :
4< Mr. Edison, after working with you like this, I be-
lieve I could put up an electric-lighting plant myself."
325
APPENDIX
"Could you? 9 * returned Edison calmly.
**Yes, I believe I could/ 5 the fellow answered*
only one thing that beats me.**
"And what is that? w asked Edison.
"I don*t quite see how you get the oil along the wires, 95
In his "Remembered Yesterdays 9 * R. U. Johnson ob-
serves, "Alas! I made a great mistake in not availing
myself of the opportunity to buy stock in the company
that exploited the electric light." "Edison," he con-
tinues, "has a naive and delightful humor, of which I
have heard this example. After his return from his first
trip ,to England, some one asked him his impressions.
*Well, 5 he said, 'the English are not an inventive people;
they don't eat enough pie/ (Probably he overlooked the
gooseberry tart of Olde England.) 59
When Edison was for the second time at Louisville as
a telegraph operator, an Associated Press representative
came seeking his aid. This man had accompanied the
presidential party of Andrew Johnson in Johnson's once-
famous "swinging round the circle," a speech-making trip
in which the President sought to explain to the country
his side of the case in his difficulties with Congress, The
Associated Press man had taken shorthand notes of the
speeches. From these he dictated, and Edison wrote out
the dictation in longhand. As they went along, the A, P.
man would constantly alter words, and frequently he
would compel Edison to strike out an entire paragraph
and do it over again. When Edison asked the reason for
30 many and such drastic changes, the A. P, man released
this wisdom :
"Sonny, if these politicians had their speeches ptib-
326
APPENDIX
listed as they deliver them, a great many shorthand writ-
ers would be out of a job."
As is commonly known, Abraham Lincoln was shot on
April 14th, 1865, and lingered unconscious until the
next morning. Edison was at that time a telegraph
operator in Cincinnati, and Junius Brutus Booth, brother
of J. Wilkes Booth and Edwin Booth, was playing an en-
gagement at the National Theater in that city. That
night, happening to look through a window of the
Western Union operating-room, Edison noticed a dense
crowd gathered about a newspaper office. A messenger
Tboy was sent to find out what the matter was. In a few
moments the boy rushed back, crying out, "Lincoln ? s
shotP Each operator looked at his fellows and his fel-
lows looked at him. Through that office the message
must surely have come but who had received it? To the
man in charge of "press report" the manager said, "Look
over your files."
The man ran over the sheets while the others expec-
tantly waited. Soon he came to the message. There it
was a duplicate of what had gone out to the newspaper.
An operator had received it. Never before had he re-
ceived, never again would he receive, though for years he
might listen to the tappings of a sounder, any other news
so moving as the dispatch he had taken on that April
night. But so mechanically had he worked that although
he had recorded letters and words, his mind had abso-
lutely failed to take in their meaning.
Jtmius Brutus Booth was kept in hiding by his friends,
mob violence being feared. Lincoln breathed his last at
7: %>& o'clock on* April 15th. That day Cincinnati began
Jianging out its draperies of black.
327
APPENDIX
In the large room in which worked Glacomo Puccini,
the Italian composer, two letters hung side by side. One
was dated 1861 and was signed by Richard Wagner.
was the other :
Edison Laboratories
Orange^ N. J.
Giacomo Puccini:
Men die and Governments change, but the songs of "La
Boheme" will live forever.
Thomas A. Edison
Sept, 1920
Early in 1924, when it was announced that Giovanni
Papini, an Italian author who became known in the
United States through a widely advertised translation of
his "Life of Christ," would lecture at Columbia Univer-
sity during the following summer, Dr. C. C. Faraa of
New York wrote in protest to Dr. N. M. Butler, presi-
dent of the University. In this letter he cited passages
from Papini's writings, asserting that they were deroga-
tory to the United States, its founders, its men-of-letters,
and others of its prominent folk. Dr. Fama also wrote
to Edison, calling his attention to the fact that PapinI
had styled him "the undesirable Edison." Edison
answered thus:
a l have your letter of January 12 with the newspaper
clippings attached. If you will please pardon me for
being rather brusque, I will ask you why you pay atten-
tion to Papini. The more he talks, the worse it will be
for him. n
'Among Edison's stock of anecdotes about the old Pearl
Street station in New York (the first commercial electric
central station to be established in the United States) was
28
APPENDIX
one that had to do with Chinnock. The station's first
superintendent turned out to be incompetent, and Ms
place was taken by Chinnock, who in a short time put the
station on a paying basis. Many complaints from sub-
scribers had to be listened to and many adjustments made*
Edison said that somebody asked Chinnock, "Did Mr,
Blank have charge of this station?"
"Yes. 93
"Did he know anything about running a station like
this?"
"Does he Jcnow anything about running a station like
this? 59 echoed Chinnock. "No, sir. He doesn't even
suspect anything."
Long before Flagler, Plant, and others had successfully
"boomed" Florida as a "resort" state, Edison had a winter
residence near Fort Myers. There he would spend a
month or six weeks ; not, however, idling. He maintained
a chemical laboratory and a machine-shop, and in his
more strenuous days would keep constantly in touch with
the progress of experiments his assistants were carrying
on up North. In later years Henry Ford became a
neighbor.
On Washington's Birthday, 1925, this news item, was
sent to northern papers :
"Henry Ford and his wife left here yesterday for De-
trdit, after a month in their winter home on Caloosa-
hatchee Bay. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas A. Edison were at
the station to bid them Godspeed. The Fords rode to the
station in their big machine, while Mr. Edison and his
wife rattled up in one of the ancient small automobiles
that made Mr. Ford famous. Mr. Edison rode in the
front seat with the driver. The automobile was one of
the first cars manufactured by Mr, Ford."
329
APPENDIX
During the visit of the Crown Prince and Crown Prin-
cess of Sweden to the United States in 1926, a meeting
with Edison was arranged for them at the suggestion of
the Crown Prince. The meeting took place on June 3rd
at the West Orange worts. According to the colorful
account (by Hugh O'Connor) in "The World" (New
York) , "The conversation was so public that it was pos-
sible to set down, perhaps for the first time in history,
what actually is said when a Prince meets an inventor/*
The Crown Prince shouted at Edison and Edison shouted
back at the Crown Prince; and with the assistance of
Meadowcroft they seemed to get along pretty well. The
royal party was entertained at luncheon at Glenmont,
the Crown Prince being a passenger in Edison's Ford
car from the works to the house. During the ride, "Edi-
son was seen to grin at the Crown Prince and the Prince
grinned back at Edison." It was said that Edison after-
ward named the car "Gustaf Adolf" in the Prince's honor.
880
BIBLIOGRAPHY
In preparing this volume, tlie author drew upon many and
varied printed sources. These have 1>een freely cited through-
out, in immediate connection with the text. The list below is
of books, pamphlets, and articles in periodicals. From the ex-
tensive material of these sorts that has been consulted, the aim
lias been to select that which bears directly on Edison and which
lias been found particularly useful. The list does not include
files of contemporary newspapers, the author's collection of press
clippings, works of general reference, or the large amount of
other published matter that has been indirectly of great service.
I! BOOKS AN0 PAMPHLETS
American Concrete Institute; Beport of the Committee on
Edison Fire. Philadelphia, 1915.
Pamph. An authorized reprint from the "JournaF of the American
Concrete Institute.
Bernhardt, Sarah: Memories of My Life. New York, 1907.
Brown, H. C. (ed.): The Book of Old New-York. Ne^
York, 1913.
Brown, H. C. (ed.) : Glimpses of Old New-York. New York,
,1917.
Burnley, James: Millionaires and Xings of Enterprise. Lon-
don, 1901.
Pp. 161-174: "Edison 'The Wizard.'
Clements, H. B.: Gramophones and Phonographs: Their Con-
struction, Management and Bepair. London, 1913.
Cooper, F. T. (?) : Thomas A. Edison. New York, 1914.
"" In a series, "Great Men." Little more than an abridgment of the
Mography by Dyer and Martin.
Davis, A. C.: A Hundred Years of Portland Cement, 1 824-*
. London, 1924.
Dicks on, W. K. L., and Dickson, Antonia: The Life and In-
of Thomas Alva Edissoe. New York, 1892.
33 1 1
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Dyer, F. L., and Martin,, T. C,: Edison: His Life and In-
tentions. 2 vols. New York, 1910.
This has been regarded as the "official" biography. Edison furnished
oral and written statements for it; W. H. Meadowcroft, Edison's secre-
tary, lent aid. It is an extensive collection of material, valuable for ref-
erence, and presents the authentic Edison. An ^Appendix'* (Vol. II,
pp. 785-970) is devoted to detailed explanations of Edison's principal
inventions and to a list of Edison's patents as applied for to September
13, 1909.
Fiske, Rear-Adm. B.A., UJS.N.: Invention. New York, 1921.
'Fleming, J. A.: Fifty Years of Electricity. London, 1921.
Ford, Henry: My Life and Work. Garden City,, N. Y., 1924.
[(Samuel Crowther was co-author of this volume.)
Forman^ S. E.: Stories of Useful Inventions. New York., 1911:
GarMt, F. J.: The Phonograph and Its Inventor, Thomas
,Alvah [sicl Edison. Boston, 1878.
Greusel, J. H. : Thomas A. Edison! The Man, His Work and
His Mind. Los Angeles, 1913.
In a series, "Hours with Famous Americans."
Hammond^ J. W.: Charles Proteus Steinmetz: A Biography.
New York, 1924.
Holland, R. S,: Historic Inventions. Philadelphia, 1911.
Hutchison, M. E.: A Series of Twelve Non-teclmical Letters
on the Edison Storage Battery. Orange, N. J., 1912.
Pamph, A reprint from the "Journal of Commerce" (New York).
Hes, George : Flame, Electricity and the Camera. New York,
E190CL
Hes 3 George: Inventors at Work. New York, 1906.
lies, George: Leading American Inventors. New York, 1912;
In a series, '"Biographies of Leading Americans," edited by W. P.
Trent.
Isolani, Eugen: Thomas A. Edison, der amerikanische Bl-
inder. Stuttgart, 1906.
Volume I In a series, ^*MSnner des Erfolgs.**
'Johnson, E. U.: Remembered Yesterdays. Boston, 1923.
"Jones, F. A.: Thomas Alva Edison: Sixty Years of an Iirvesn-
tor's Life, New York, 1907.
This has appeared (New York, 1924) In a revised form, with the tle
"Thomas Alva Edison: An Intimate Record." Except wlien otherwise
noted, it is to the original work that the references in the present vol-
9nue are made.
332
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Kaempffertj Waldemar: A Popular History o American In-
vention. 2 vols. New York, 1924.
Keim, Albert: Edison. Paris, 1913.
Lesley, R. W. (with J. B. Lober and G. S. Bartlett) : History
of the Portland Cement Industry. Chicago^ 1924.
Leupp, F. E.: George Westinghouse : His Life and Achieve-
ments. Boston,, 1918.
Macfarlane, Lloyd (psend. of I. L. Cochrane): The Phono-
graph Book. New York, 1917.
Martin, T. C.: Edison at Seventy-three. New York, 1920.
Pamph. First printed (February, 1920) as a "press service" article
in various newspapers.
Martin, T. C.: Forty Years of Edison Service, 1882-1922.
New York, 1922.
Chapters I-V deal with the invention of the Edison lamp, the devel-
opment of the Edison lighting system, and the introduction of the sys-
tem into New York City.
Maynard, G. S.: Storage Batteries: A List of References,
1900-1915. New York, 1915.
Pamph. Issued by the New York Public Library.
McClure, J. B.: Edison and His Inventions. Chicago, 1898.
Meadowcroft, W. H.: The Boy's Life of Edison, New York,
1911.
This has appeared (New York, 1921) in an enlarged edition. It is to
be distinguished from the ordinary run of "juvenile** volumes about Ed-
ison, in that it was written by Edison's secretary and with Edison's aid,
and was published with the inventor's express approval. Quoted state-
ments by Edison are in effect identical with the versions in the biog-
raphy by Dyer and Martin.
Phillips, W. P. {"John Oakum") : Sketches Old and New.
New York, 1897.
Eedesdale, Baron (A. B. Bussell-Mitford) : The Bamboo Gar-
den. London^ 1896.
Scott, L. N.: Naval Consulting Board of the United States.
Washington, 1920.
This is the official story of the organization and work of the Board
and carries a preface by Josephus Baniels. Chapter XI (pp, 16&-M2)
is entirely devoted to Edison's inventive accomplishments*
Sh&w, (J. B.: The Irrational Knot. New York^ 1918.
Sub-title: "Being the Second Novel of His Nonage." A new lssii of
the original American edition (1905) with the author's preface.
333
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Stieringer, Luther: The Life and Inventions of Thomas A,
Edison. New York, 1890.
Story of Menlo Park, The. New York, 1925.
Pamph. It is interesting chiefly for its illustrations and its map of
Menlo Park in 1876-18&2. The title-page states: "Compiled and printed;
but not published by Edison Pioneers."
Technical Staff of the Edison Storage Battery Company: The
Alkaline Storage Battery. Orange, N. J., 1924,
Pamph. Monograph III in the National Education Association Joint
Committee series.
Tewksbury, G. E.: A Complete Manual of the Edison Phono-
graph, Newark, 1897.
Twenty-third Annual Beport of the American Scenic and His-
toric Preservation Society, 1918. Albany, 1918.
Pp. 157-158.
Useful Knowledge Books, The (edited by G. S. Bryan) :
I Hogan, J. V. L.: The Outline of Radio. Boston, 1923;
revised ed., 1925.
II Davis, W, S.: Practical Amateur Photography. Bos-
ton, 1923,
Hi Wade, H. T.: Everyday Electricity. Boston, 1924.
IV Saylor, H. H,: Tinkering with Tools. Boston, 1924.
Villard, Henry: Memoirs. 2 vols, Boston, 1904.
Wildman, Edwin: Famous Leaders of Industry. Boston, 1920.
First series. Pp, 115-117: "Thomas Alva Edison."
II : ARTICLES IN PERIODICALS
Acheson, E. G.: My Days with Edison. "Scientific Ameri-
can," Feb. 11, 1911.
Baker, J. B.: Edison's Latest Invention. A Storage Battery
Designed and Constructed from the Automobile User's Point of
View. "Scientific American/* Jan. I4f, 1911.
Banning, Kendall: Thomas A. Edison, Manufacturer of Car-
bolic Acid. "System," Nov. 1914,
Benson, A. L.: Edison's Dream of New Music. "Cosmopoli-
tan/* May 1913.
Benson, A. L, : Edison on How to Live Long. "Hearst's Mag-
azine/* Feb. 1913.
834
BIBLIOGEAPHY
Benson, A. L.: Wonderful New World Ahead of Us. "Cos-
mopolitan/ 7 Feb. 1911.
Bishop, W. H.: A Night with Edison. "Scribner's Monthly/*
Nov. 1878.
Bulletin of the National Electric Light Association: The First
Central Station and Its History. Sept. 1922.
Churchill, Arthur: Edison and His Early Work. "Scientific
American Supplement" 1526, Apr. 1, 1905.
Claudy, C. N.: Romance of Invention. "Scientific American/*
Mar. 19, 1921.
Current Literature: Are We in Danger from Materialism?
Nov. 1910.
Current Literature: Edison's Views on Immortality Criticized.
Dec. 1910.
Edison, T. A.: The Phonograph and Its Future. "North
American Review/' May-June 1878.
Edison Monthly, The, pomm*
Electrical Review,, Jan. 12, 1909; pp. 60-63.
On "old Pearl Street"
Electrical Review and Western Electrician: Edison and the
Invention of the Electric Incandescent Lamp. Oct. 9, 1915.
Electrical World: Celebration of Edison Day at Panama-
Pacific International Exposition and at Laboratories at West
Orange, N. J. Oct. 30, 1915.
Fox, E. M.: Edison's Inventions. "Scribner's Monthly/' June,
July, Oct. 1879.
Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, 1878-1880, passim.
Grau, Robert: Actors by Proxy. "The Independent/' July
17, 1913.
Hammer, W. J.: Transmitting Sound by Phonograph and Tel*
ephone 104- Miles, through 48 Physical Changes. 'The Electri-
cal Experimenter/ 1 Sept. 1917.
Hammer, W. J.: William Wallace and His Contributions to
the Electrical Industries. "The Electrical Engineer/' Feb. 1, 8,
15, 22, 189$.
lies, George: Thomas Alva Edison. "The Chautauquan/' Feb.
1908. (Sixth article in a series, "Some Great American Scien-
tists/* by various authors.)
BIBLIOGEAPHY
Independent* The: The Most Useful Americans. May I, 1913.
Inglis, William: Edison and the New Education. "Harper's
Weekly/* Nov. 4, 1911.
Journal of the Franklin Institute: Award of the Franklin
Medal, July 1915.
Larned, E. S.: The Edison Concrete House. "Scientific Amer-
ican/' Apr. 18, 1908.
Lescarboura, A. (X: Edison's Views on Life and Death. "Sci-
entific American/' Oct. 30, 1920.
Maclaurin, E. C.: Edison's Service for Science. "Science/*
June 4, 1915.
Marcosson, I, F.: The Coming of the Talking Picture. "Mun-
sey's Magazine/' Mar. 1918.
Martin, T. C.: Edison's Pioneer Electric Railway Work. "Sci-
entific American," Nov. 18, 1911.
Millard, Bailey: Pictures That Talk. "Technical World/'
Mar. 1913.
Millard, Bailey: Thomas Alva Edison. "Technical World/ 1
Oct. 1914. (Sixth article in a series, "Our Twelve Great Scien-
tists/')
Nation, The: Notes from the Capital. Oct. 28, 1915.
Outlook, The: Academic Honors for a Wizard. Nov. 1, I91&
Outlook, The: Edison's Laboratory Tests for Human Nature.
Mar. 9, 1918.
Phillips, W. P.: Edison, Bogardus and Carbolic Acid. "Elec-
trical Review and Western Electrician," Nov. 14, 1914.
Plush, S. M. : Edison's Carbon Telephone Transmitter and
the Speaking Phonograph. "Journal of the Franklin Institute,"
Apr. 1878.
Price, C. W.: Thomas Alva Edison. "Cosmopolitan," May
1902. (In a series, "Captains of Industry/')
Scribner's Monthly: Edison's Electro-motograph. May 1879.
Strother, French: The Modern Profession of Inventing. "The
World's Work/' June 1905,
Talbot, F. A.: The Work of Thomas Alva Edison. "The
World's Work" (London), Oct. 1911.
Taussig, F. W.: Dyer and Martin's Life of Edison. "The
Quarterly Journal of Economics," Aug. 1912.
Upton, F. R,: Edison's Electric Light. "'Scribner's Monthly/'
Feb. 1880.
336
BIBLIOGRAPHY
T. H.: Tie Future of Electricity. "Collier's/' Dec. 2,
1916.
Based on an interview -with Edison.
Wade, H. T.: The Transophone and the Telescribe. "Scien-
tific American/* Sept. 12, 1914.
Walsh, G. E.: With Edison in His Laboratory. "The Inde-
pendent/' Sept. 4, 1913.
Warren, W. P.: Edison on Invention and Inventors. "Cen-
tury," July 1 911.
Waters, Theodore: Edison's Revolution in Iron Mining. "He-
ctare's/' Nov - 18 7-
White, F. M.: Edison and the Incandescent Light. "The Out-
look/' Feb. 26, 1910.
Williams, C. W.: Edison Solves Submarine's Problem. "Tech-
nical World/' Feb. 1915.
INDEX
INDEX
Acheson, E. G., 114 and noU, 128
note
Adams, M. F. ("Milt")* Edison's
telegrapher friend, 30, 42, 44,
46, 48-49, 52
Addicks, J. B., 32 and ?io<?
Alkaline (nickel-iron) storage cell,
Edison's first campaign for,
206-211; for radio sets, 218;
genera* construction of, 213
215 ; in submarine service, 216-
218; second campaign for,
212-213
Andrews, W. S., 114
(Appendix, 305-330
Appleton (Wis.)s station at, 169
Arc-lamp, defects of, 106-107
Aspdin, Joseph, invents Portland
cement, 202
Association of Edison Illuminat-
ing companies, 182?
'Automatic telegraphy, abandoned
in the United States, 64; Edi-
son's improvements in, 63-64;
Edison visits England for
trial of, 64,
Bamboo, Baron Redesdale on uses
of, in the Orient, 134-135;
first carbonizing of, 132-133;
furnishes successful filament,
188
Barker, G. F., 103
Batchelor, Charles, 110, 113-114;
aids Edison in carbonizing
sewing-thread, 125-127; takes
"dark box" to Paris exposi-
tion of 1881, 252
iBell, A. G., contest of, with
JSlisha Gray, 74; telephone of,
improved by Edison, 74-77;
uses "AhoyP as telephone
call-word, 261-262
Bell telephone interests, warfare
of, with Western Union com-
pany, 75-77
Bennett, J. G. 5 129, 151* 172; fur-
nishes money for Edison's ex~
perlments in flying, 249
iBergmann, Sigmund, manufac-
tares Edison equipment, 156,
278
Bernhardt, Sarah, visits Menlo.,
152-153
Bibliography, 331-337
Bishop, W. H., 266, 271
"Black Friday," cause of, 56-57 j
scenes during, 57-58
"Black Maria," the, 191
Boehm, L. K., 114
Bogardus, "Hank," 30-31
Botts, J. M., 28
Boutwell, G. S., 57
Brauner, J. C., visits South Amer-
ica for fiber, 135-136
British electric-lighting act, 159-
160
Brockton (Mass.) station at^
170
Brush, C. F., 106, 208
"Bugs," finding the, 63
Bunnells, the, 35
CaUahan, E. A., 52, 56
Carbon, Edison experiments with,
for incandescent lamp, 109,
120, 122
Carbonizing, materials used for,
127, 132
Carbon transmitter (microphone),
75-77
Carbutt, John, 189
Carnegie, Andrew, 2&
Centennial Exposition (1876),
Wallace's dynamo and arc-
lamps at, 105
INDEX
Central-station lighting, Edison
originates, 150-151
Chamberlain, Joseph, 276
Chandler, C. F., 110
Chemical experimenting, an avoca-
tion of Edison, 262
Childs, G. W., 276
Chinnock, C. K, puts Pearl-street
station on commercial basis,
299
Cincinnati, Edison first appears
at, 42; Western Union office
in, in 1863-1864 (as described
by George Kennan), 34-41
Civic Forum (New York) presents
to Edison its medal for public
service, 178
Clarke, C. L., 114
Commercial value of Edison's in-
ventions, 311-312
Concentrating plants, Edison's
early, 194
Concrete house, the Edison, 253-
256 and note
Conkling, Roscoe, and the phono-
graph recital, 88
Connery, T. B., and A. E. Orr,
anecdote regarding, 128-129
Cooke and Wheatstone, under-
ground telegraph-line used by,
163
Coolidge, W. D., develops duc-
tility of tungsten, 139 note
Cutting, R. L. ("Bob"), 152, 156
Baft, Leo, 248
Daniels, Josephus, invites Edison
to head "a department of
invention and development,**
229-230
"Dark box," Edison makes, for ob-
serving electro-magnetic waves,
251-252; taken by Batchelor
to Paris exposition of 1881,
252
Davenport, Thomas, experiments
with electric traction, 242
Davy, Sir Humphry, produces
electric light, 104
"Dead-beat" galvanometer, Edi-
son, 256-257
DeLong 9 G. W., visits Menlo, 151
Dick, A, B., buys rights in mimeo-
graph, 71
Dickson, W. K. L., aids Edison in
work on kinetograph (mo-
tion-picture camera), 190
Dodge, M. A. ("Gail Hamilton"),
88
Draper, Henry, 110
Draper, J. W., 265
Duncan, "Dick," 35, 38
Duplexing and diplexing, as in-
vented by Edison, 65-67
Dynamo-electric machines for arc-
lighting, 142-143
Eaton, S. B., 153, 168, 177-178
Eckert, T. T., 69 and note
"Ediphone," business phonograph,
95
Edison chronology, an, 307-810
Edison dynamo, 142-145; direct
coupling for, 145-146
"Edison effect," the, 253
Edison Electric Illuminating com-
pany of New York, growth
of service of (New York
Edison company, successor),
in forty years (1882-1922),
176; incorporated, 150.
Edison Electric Light company
formed, 112
Edison General Electric company,
formed, 155, 180-181; stock of,
reaches high figure, 19&-200.
See Villard, Henry.
Edison, Mina (MUler), 181-182,
292-293
Edison, Nancy (Elliott), 3-4, S~
10, 12, 16
Edison (N. J.), concentrating
works at, 195-199
Edison Pioneers, 62, 182, 270
Edison, Samuel, becomes a captain
of Mackenzie's insurgents, 4;
fees to the United States, 4;
marries Nancy Elliott, 3-4;
342
INDEX
removes to Port Huron;
(Mich.) , 7; settles in Milan
(Ohio), 4
"Edison system," the, account of s
142 et seq.; defense of Edi-
son's patent-rights in, 179-180
Edison, T. A.:
accident of, with induction-coil,
50; accompanies scientific ex-
pedition to "Wyoming, 103;
aids W. S. Sims in producing
Sims-Edison torpedo, 233; and
business, 298-302; and "Paul
Pry," 16-17; appointed plant
manager of Gold Indicator
company, 56; approaches radio-
telegraphy, 249-253; arrives
in Boston, 47 ; as a small child,
6; a school in himself, 303; at-
tempts to meet demand for
news, 11-12; attends Prince
of Wales' reception at Sarnia,
19; attends school at Port
Huron, 8; becomes chairman,
later president, Naval Con-
sulting Board, 231, 262; be-
comes interested in electricity,
14; becomes newsboy on Grand
Trunk, 10; becomes operator
in Port Huron telegraph of-
fice, 22; begins studies in
chemistry, 9-10; born, 5; builds
helicopter, 248-249; builds new-
dynamo, 142-145; builds work-
ing model of first patented
invention, 51; builds works at
Silver Lake (N. J.), 212; buys
Faraday's works, 49; "caught"
in inventing press report, 28;
conducts experiments on al-
kaline storage battery, 211;
conducts first experiments in
incandescence, 109; constructs
electric railway line and builds
locomotive, 243-247 ; constructs
roach destroyer, 48; deafness
of, how caused, 16; described
as rapid sender, 42-43; de-
tects difficulty in Laws trans-
mitter, 55-56; devises rat
paralyzer, 48; dress of, 272
273; dubbed <e the Wizard," 87 5
during scenes of "Black Fri-
day," 57-58; ejected from
railway car, 16; employed as
railway night operator at
Adrian (Mich.), 25; ends,
through an experiment, his
second stay in Louisville, 46;
establishes "laboratory on
wheels," 12-13; establishes
shops in Newark (N. J.)> 61,
72; exhibits "loud-speaking
telephone," 82; experience of,
as locomotive engineer, 17-18;
experience of, with Lefferts'
check, 59-60; experiments of,
with nitro-glycerin, 50; ex-
plains origin of phonograph,
91-92; finds avocation in
chemical experiments, 262;
first invention of, 23-24; first
laboratory of, 9, 16; first
patented invention of, 51-52;
first use of term "filament"
for incandescent burner, at-
tributed to, 261; forms phono-
graph company of his own, 95 ;
Franklin medal of Franklin
Institute awarded to, 289;
general reading of, 8, 282;
gives exhibition of tin-foil
phonograph in Washington
(D. C.) 88; gives first radio
talk, 286-287; gives two years
to special work on inventions
and plans for use in warfare,
232-241; good "copy," 287-
289; gospel of work, 302;
great reader, 44; haunts
second-hand book-shops, 49 ;
helps C. L. Sholes with type-
writing-macMne, 71-72; hunts
second-hand book bargains,
44; improves Little's auto-
matic telegraph system, 63-64;
indebtedness to others, 297-
298; in the Grand Trunk
048
INDEX
machine-shops, 17 ; insistence
on. high standards, 302 ; known
as "Victor Hugo Edison," 45;
learns train telegraphy, 20-21 ;
leaves Boston, 52; leaves Can-
ada in a hurry, 24; made
commander of Legion of
Honor, 201, 276-277; made
officer of Legion of Honor,
157; manners, 279-280; manu-
factures phenol, 226-227;
marches in ''preparedness
parade," 231-232; marries
Mary G. Stilwell, 72; marries
Mina Miller, 181-182; methods
of work, 268-271, 279-282, 283-
286; modesty, 275-277; not a
"pure scientist," 283-284, 293-
297; notes "Edison effect,"
253; not interested in mere
money-making for its own
sake, 302; obtains post of
night operator at Stratford
Junction (Qnt.) 23; opens
first bank account, 60; opens
telegraph office in Port Huron,
22; overcomes handicap of
deafness in work with phono-
graph, 101-102; penmanship
of, 43-44; personal characteris-
tics of, 265-304; physical ap-
pearance of, 265-268; plans
New Village plant, 204; plays
practical joke on sentries at
Fort Gratiot, 18-19; popular
opinions of, 303-304; prepares
manual on isolated electric
plant, 263; produces the in-
candescent lamp, 103-141 ; pro-
moted from the "plugs," 43;
provides component parts of
"Edison system," 142 et seq.;
publishes "The Weekly Her-
ald,** 13-14; purchases resi-
dence in Llewellyn Park (N.
J.), 182; rapid reader of
print, 44; receives academic
degrees, 293; receives medal of
Civic Forum (New York) for
public service, 178; relieved
of press wire in Boston, 51;
religious views of, 290-291 ; re-
moves from Menlo Park to
West Orange (N. J.), 182; re-
moves from Newark to Menlo
Park (N. J.), 72-73; requires
little sleep, 116; saves Mac-
kenzie child, 20; sells holdings
in Edison Electric Light com-
pany, 155; sense of humor,
277-279; sets out to subdivide
electric current, 108; sets tip
telegraph line, 14; shows tin-
foil phonograph in "Scienti-
fic American" office, 85-87;
sketches first phonograph for
Kruesi, 84; starts two stores
in Port Huron, 10; studies
gas lighting, 111; studies of,
in harmonic telegraphy, 73-*
74; suggests shell for making
enemy ships visible, 233; tel-
egrapher days of, 2552; turns
tables on practical jokers, 47-
48; undertakes to collaborate
with G. P. Lathrop on story,
264; visits England for Auto-
matic Telegraph company, 64;
visits Paris Exposition of 1889,
200; visits Schenectady works
of General Electric company,
296; visits William Wallace at
Ansonia, 110; wanderings of,
as telegrapher, 27; wholesale
reading of, in Detroit public
library, 17; works on du-
plex and quadruples teleg-
raphy, 64-68; works to be-
come expert telegrapher, 43;
writes theatrical scripts, 43.
See also Inventions of Edi-
son.
lEiffel, Alexandre, 200
Electrical exposition, first inter-
national, at Paris, 157
Electric pen, the Edison, 25$
Electric railway line built by
3Edison at Menlo, 248-247
INDEX
Electric traction, later develop-
ments in, 248
Electrolytic meter, 146-147
Electro-magnetic waves, Edison
observes, in 1875, 251-253;
produced and detected by
Hertz, 252
Electro-motograph, 77-78
"Etherlc force," Edison's name for
electro-magnetic waves, 251-
253
Fall River (Mass.), station at, 170
Familiar glimpses, 322-330
Faraday, Michael, Edison buys
works of, 49; principle of
magneto-machine discovered
by, 104
Farmer, M. G, exhibits model of
electric locomotive, 243; tech-
nical assistant to William
Wallace, 105; uses platinum
and iridium in lamps, 108
"Feeder-and-main" method, 148-
150
Fiber, hunt for, for lamp filaments,
133-138
Fictitious inventions attributed to
Edison, 262-263
Field, S. D., interests of, consoli-
dated with Edison's, 247; sells
patents to Westinghouse com-
pany, 248
Finley, J. H., 293
First invention, Edison's, 23-24
Fisk, "Jim," helps to bring on
"Black Friday,'* 56~>57
Fixtures, primitive, for electric
lighting, 147
"Floating weight'* for phonograph,
94
Fluorescent lamp, Edison con-
structs, 257-258
Fluoroscope of Edison, 258
Focht, Willoughby, 2055
Force, Martin, 114
Ford, Henry, 270
Fort Myers (Ma.), winter resi-
dence of Edison, at, 262, 270
Fox, Marshall, writes story for
"New York Herald'" about
Edison's Incandescent lighting,
129
Fritz, John, 198
Gem lamp, the, 13S-139
Gilliland, E. T., works with Edison
on "wireless" system of train
telegraphy, 249
Goebel, Henry, claims of, ISO
Goerck street (New York), Edi-
son Machine works on, 155
Goodwin, Hannibal, 190
Gould, Jay, 278, 294; buys Edi-
son's interest in the quadra-
plex, 69; described by Edison,
69-70; helps to bring on
"Black Friday," 56-57; re-
pudiates contract with Auto-
matic Telegraph company, 69,
298
Gounod, C. F., 200
Gray, Elisha, develops harmonic
system of telegraphy, 73-74;
legal contest of, with A. G.
Bell, 74
Green, Norvin, 150, 153
Hammer, W. J"., chief engineer
of Holburn Viaduct (London)
station, 158-160; collection of
lamps assembled by, 140; dem-
onstrates phonograph com-
bined with microphone and
electro-motograph, 9G-97 and
note; joins Menlo group, 114;
represents Edison at Paris
Exposition of 1889, 200 and
note
Hanington, C. F., hunts for fiber
in South America, 136
Harding, W. G., 290
Harrison (N". J.), lamp-factory
removed from Menlo to, 156
Helicopter, Edison builds a, 248-
249
Helmholtz;, Hermann von, 278 t 296
Henry, Joseph, Edison unveils
bust of, 271, 273, S04
INDEX
Hertz, Heinrich, produces and de-
tects electro-magnetic waves,
252
High vacua, Edison's study of,
125
**Hill-and-daIe" phonograph rec-
ord, 100
Holburn Viaduct (London) cen-
tral station, 158-160
IHopkinson, John, 143; invents
'*three-wire system" indepen-
dently of Edison, 170
Hutchison, M. R., 230
Incandescent lamp, defense of
Edison's patent-rights in, 179-
180; difficulties faced hy Edi-
son in producing, 119-120;
early experiments with, 107-
108; formal public exhibition
of, at Menlo Park, 130
Incandescent lighting, extension
of, in United States, 176-177;
opposition to, by arc-lighting
and gas companies, 173-176;
some facts about early intro-
duction of, 168-173
Inventions of Edison:
alkaline storage battery, 206-
218; apparatus for analyzing
sound waves, 74?; automatic
"sixing" device, 23-24; car-
bon transmitter (microphone),
with induction-coil, for Bell
telephone, 75-77; concrete
(poured) house, 253-256 and
note; devices communicated
to United States authorities
for use in warfare, 233-240;
direct-telegraphy instrument,
52; duplex and quadruplex
telegraphy, 64*-68; "Edison
system," with component
parts, 142-150; Edison Uni-
versal printer, 59; electric
locomotive, 248; electric pen,
256; electro-motograph* 77-
78 j "floating weight," 94;
tfluoroscope, 258; "gold print-
er" (with F. L. Pope), 58;
improvements in Little's auto-
matic telegraph system, 63-64;
incandescent electric lamp,
103 et seq.; kinetograph
(motion-picture camera), 185-
191 ; kinetophone (talking
motion-picture), 219-223; ki-
netoscope, 191; "long kiln,"
205-206; "loud-speaking tele-
phone," 78-79; magnetic ore
(separator, 194; megaphone,
259; method of copying orig-
inal phonograph record, 94-
95; mimeograph, 71; miner's
electric safety-lamp, 261 ; odor-
scope, 258-259; oil-circulating
system, 205; phonograph and
improvements therein, 84 et
seq.; phonomotor (voice-en-
gine), 260; pyro-magnetic mo-
tor, 259-260; system of call-
boxes for district-messenger
service, 71; system of teleg-
raphy between "condensing
surfaces," 250-251; tasimeter,
83; telescribe, 223-224; "third-
rail system," 247; "three-wire
system," 170-171; transo-
phone, 224-226; "unison stop,"
158-59 ; vote-recorder (first
patented invention), 51-52;
weighing device for raw ma-
terials of Portland cement,
205; "wireless" system of
train telegraphy (with E. T.
Gilliland), 249-250
Isolated electric lighting, 150-157$
Edison prepares manual of,
263
"Jeannette" expedition, Edison
prepares dynamo for, 15 1-*
152
Jehl, Francis, 114, 145
Jenkin, Fleeming, exhibits tin-
foil phonograph before Royal
Society, 89
Johnson, E, H* 114; general
346
INDEX
manager of Holbu.ru Viaduct
(London) central station, 158-
160, 165-166
Johnson, R. U. 42-43
"Jumbo" type of Edison dynamo,
157-158, 165-166, 176-177
Kerasan, George, makes Edison's
acquaintance by telegraph, 32-
33; pictures Western Union
office in Cincinnati in 1863-
1864, 34-41; receives ninety
telegrams in fifty minutes, 37-
38; sketch of life and work of,
31-32
Kennelly, A. E., 291
Kinetograph (motion-picture cam-
era), invention of, 185, 188-
191
Kanetophone (talking motion-
picture), Edison introduces,
219-223
Kinetoscope, 191
Kruesi, John, at Edison Tube
company's plant, 156; builds
first practical Edison dy-
namo, 145; constructs model
of first phonograph, 84-85;
enters Edison's service, 62
"Laboratory on wheels," Edison
establishes, 12-13; is ejected
from, 16
Lawrence (Mass.)? station at,
170
Lawson, J. W., 114
Laws, S, S*, gold-reporting tele-
graph of, 54-55
"Leads," Edison uses platinum
for, 123
Lefferts, Marshall, and Edison,
58-60
Lchigh Valley railroad, "wire-
less" system of Bdison and
GHliland used on, 250
Lieb, J. W., 114
Light without heat, Edison on,
141
{Little's automatic telegraph sys-
tem improved by Edison, 63-
64
Lodge, Sir Oliver, 296
"Long kiln," 205-206
Lowrey, G. P., 112
Mackenzie, J. U., instructs Edison
in train telegraphy, 20-21
Maclaurin, R. C. 5 178, 283-284r
Magnetic ore-milling process, 195-
198
Mains, laying of, for Pearl-street
station, 162-164
Mallory, W. S., 199-200, 203, 206,
271-272
Marey, E. J., devises photochron-
ograph, 187-188
Maxwell, J. C., outlines type of
electro-magnetic wave used
in radio, 252
McGowan, Frank, South Ameri-
can adventures of, in fiber-
hunt, 136-137; strange dis-
appearance of, 137
Meadowcroft, W. HL, 6 note, 22
note, 194
Megaphone, 259
Menlo Park (N. J.), 73, 112-113,
130, 148, 274, 281, 292, 801;
Edison's electric railway line
at, 243-24<7; Edison's quitting
of, 182; "Hello!" as telephone
call-word, said to have been
first used at, 261-262; memo-
rial dedicated at, 182-183; re-
moval to, 72-73
Mesaba ore discovered, 198
Milan, (Ohio), commercial decline
of, 7; Edison born in, 5; in
its flourishing period, 5;
Samuel Edison establishes a
shingle factory in, 5
Mimeograph, 71
Moore, W. H., seeks fiber in
China and Japan, 133-134
Morgan, J. P., 112
Morse, S. F. B., underground
telegraph line of, 163; "wire-
less" messages sent by, 240
347
INDEX
Motion-picture camera. See Ki-
netograptu
Motion-pictures, educational pos-
sibilities of, 192-193 and note
Multiple-circuit system explained,
118-119
Muybridge, Eadweard, pioneer
work of, in rapid photography,
187-188
Kational Electric Light Associa-
tion, 164, 174, 176
Naval Consulting Board of the
United States, organization
and services of, 231-232
Nernst lamp, 140
Kew Village (N. J.), Edison es-
tablishes Portland cement
works at, 202, 227
Nichols, E. L-, 115
0ates Michael, and the Seidlitas
powders, 9; caught by sen-
tries and released, 1&-19;
helps Edison peddle garden-
truck, 10
Odorscope, 258-259
Ore-milling, magnetic, at Edison
(N. J.), 195-199, 227
Ore separator, magnetic, 195-196
Ott a J, F. 9 enters Edison's ser-
vice, 62-63
Page, C. G., builds electric motor,
243
Page patent for retractile spring,
77-78, 294
Paraffin paper introduced by Edi-
son, 261
Paris Exposition of 1889, Edison
exhibit at, 200; visited by
Edison and Mrs. Edison, 200
Pasteur, Louis, 200, 296
"Paul Pry," Edison's second
newspaper, 16
Ptearl-street central station, 160-
163; current turned on from,
166, 168; tablet marking,
169,
JPhcnaHstoscope, 186
Phenol (carbolic acid)* Edison
manufactures, for disc rec-
ords, 226-227
Phillips, W. P., 30, 31 note, 50~51 S
67-68
Phonograph, applications of, to
everyday use, 97-98; disc
records for cabinet, 100; Edi-
son's method for copying orig-
inal records of, 94-95; "float-
ing weight" for, 94; forty-
fifth anniversary (1922) of
invention of, 102; imperfec-
tions of primitive, 92-93; im-
provement of disc type of,
219; later revival and develop-
ment of, 184-185; nickel-in-
the-slot type of, 96; origin
of, 90-92; patent on, is-
sued without a reference, 89-
90; spring motor for, 96; story
of first model of, 8-1-85; tin*
foil, shown in "Scientific Amei?*
ican" office, 85-87
Phonograph records, "vacuous de*
posit 9 ' process for copying^
94-95
Pioneers, Edison. See Edison Pi*
oneers.
Playfair, Lyon (Baron Playfair) f
123
Portland cement, general method
of manufacturing, 204-205 ;
invented by Aspdin, 202;
manufacture of, undertaken
by Edison, 199
Poured bouse, the. See Concrete
house, the Edison.
Preece, W. H. (Sir Wffliam), and
subdivision, 123
Prentice, G. D., 45
Prescott, G. B,, 68 note
Primary battery, Bdison-Lalaiwle*,
257
Primary cell, construction and ac-
tion of, 207-208
Prince of Wales (Albert Edward);
Sarnia (Ont.) reception of,
attended by Edisony 10
INDEX
Pullman, G. M., makes equipment
for Edison, 13
Quadruples telegraphy, principles
of, 65-67; saving in line con-
struction effected by (in the
United States to 1910), 68
Questionnaire, part of an Edison,
312-316
Radio-telegraphy, Edison ap-
proaches, 24,9-253
Bedpath's Lyceum Bureau, early
phonograph displayed through,
89
Befractory metals, Edison exper-
iments with, for incandescent
lamp, 109-110, 120-122; later
successfully used, 139-140
Behrig, Esaias, 202
Bemenyi, Eduard, 154
Bicalton, James, sent to Far East
in fiber-hunt, 137 and noie-138
Boach, John, Edison takes over
2Etna works from, 155
Boentgen rays, Edison's experi-
ments with, 257-258
Boentgen, W. 1C, discovers Boent-
gen rays, 257
Boosevelt, Hilborne, 112-11S note
Sawyer-Man lamp, 108, 140
Saylor, D. O., 202
Schenectady (N. Y.), Edison
Machine works removed to, 155
Schurz, Carl, 88 and note
Scott, Leora, phonautograph of,
89
Segredor goes to Cuba for fiber,
136
Series system explained, 118
Sewing-thread, carbonizing of, by
Edison and Batchelor, 125-
127
Shaw, Bernard, account by, of
service with Edison Telephone
company, 80-82 ; describes
*%ud-speakmg telephone,** 80
Siemens, Werner von, 278
Silver Lake (N. J.) s Edison builds
works at, 212
Sims, G. C, builds engines for
Edison, 166 and note
Sims, W. S-, and Edison produce
Sims-Edison torpedo, 233
"Sixty-nve," headquarters at, 153;
school at, 157
Sprague, F. J., 114, 248
"Squirted*' process for tantalum
filaments, 139
Stager, Anson, 36 and note^ 37
Staite, W. E., 107
Starr, J. W., and E. A. King, in-
candescent lamp of, 107
Stearns, J. B. 5 work of, in duplex
telegraphy, 65 and note
Steinmetz, C. P., 283-284, 296-297
Storage battery, action of, 208-
209; defects of lead-sulphuric
acid, 210; Edison's alkaline
(nickel-iron), 210-218; Faure
type of, 209; Plants type of,
208-209
Stratford Junction (Ont), Edison
becomes night -operator at, 23
Subdivision of electric current,
meaning of, 108
Snnbury (Penna.), station at, 170
Swan, J. W. (Sir Joseph), 107-108
Talking motion-picture. S&e Ki-
netophone.
Tantalum lamp, 139
Telegraph offices in the 'sixties, 29
Telegraph operators, old-time rov-
ing, 29-31
Telegraph, the, in Edison's oper-
ator days, 27-28
Telegraphy between "condensing
surfaces," Edison experiments
with, 250-251
Telephone, loud-speaking, 78-79
Telescribe (for automatic record
of telephone talk), 223-224*
Thaumatrope, 186
"Third-rail" system, Edison de-
vises, 247
Thomson, Elihu, 106; meter of, 14$
349
INDEX
Thomson, Frank, 245-246
Thomson, Sir William (Lord
Kelvin), 149, 252, 296
Thomson, W. H., 290
"Three-high rolls," 196-197
"Three-wire system," principle of,
explained, 170-171
Train telegraphy, "wireless," de-
vised by Edison and Gilliland,
249-250
Transophone (attachment for office
phonograph), 224-226
Tungsten lamp, 139-140
Tyndall, John, 296; opinion of
incandescent-lighting problem,
124
Universal printer, the, 59
Upton, F. R., Edison's associate,
68, 113, 143-144, 145, 291;
writes first authoritative ac-
-count of Edison's electric
light, 131-132
"Vacuous deposit" process for
copying original phonograph
records, 94-95
Vail, J. H., 292
Van de Poele, C. J"., 248
Van Home, Sir William, 25
Villard, Henry, 112, 278; consults
Edison on electrifying moun-
tain division of Northern Pa-
cific, 247; finances Edison's
experiments in electric trac-
tion, 246; forms Edison Gen-
eral Electric company, 180-
181 and note
Vote-recorder (Edison's first pat-
ented invention), 51-52
Wallace, William, claims invention
of carbon pencil for arc-lamp,
106; frst American maker of
arc-lamp carbons, 106; first
American manufacturer to use
dynamo in electro-plating, 105 1
invents first American arc-
lamp, 105; originates series
arc-lighting, 106; priority of,
instances, 110 note
"Wall Street" methods, Edison's
opinion of, 299-300
Ward, J. C., legend regarding,
21 note
Watson, J. J. W,, 107
"Weekly Herald, The," published
by Edison, 13-14
Weir, L. C., as an expert operator,
35-37
Western Union company, warfare
of, with Bell interests, 75-77
Westinghouse, George, exponent of
alternating current, 289
Weston, Edward, 106
West Orange (1ST. J.)> laboratory
at, 182, 184; plant at, partly
destroyed by fire, 228 ; removal
of Edison to, 182; works at,
182, 184, 227-228, 801
Wheeler, S. S., 164
White, Canvass, 202-203
Williams, Charles, Edison works
in shop of (Boston), 51
Wires, overhead, nuisance of, 16&-
164
"Wizard, the," title given to
Edison, 87, 287, 295
Woolever, Adam, 202
Works at West Orange (N. J.)
burned, 228
Wright, C. D., attorney for
Edison's first patent, 51
Wyoming, Edison accompanies
scientific expedition to, 103
"X-rays." Bee Roentgen
Eoentgen, W. 1C
rays;
Zoetrope, 186
Zodgyroscope of Muybridge, 187
850
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