EDISON HIS LIFE AND INVENTIONS

By Frank Lewis Dyer

General Counsel For The Edison Laboratory And Allied Interests

And

Thomas Commerford Martin

Ex-President Of The American Institute Of Electrical Engineers

CONTENTS

 INTRODUCTION I. THE AGE OF ELECTRICITY II. EDISON'S PEDIGREE III. BOYHOOD AT PORT HURON, MICHIGAN IV. THE YOUNG TELEGRAPH OPERATOR V. ARDUOUS YEARS IN THE CENTRAL WEST VI. WORK AND INVENTION IN BOSTON VII. THE STOCK TICKER VIII. AUTOMATIC, DUPLEX, AND QUADRUPLEX TELEGRAPHY IX. THE TELEPHONE, MOTOGRAPH, AND MICROPHONE X. THE PHONOGRAPH XI. THE INVENTION OF THE INCANDESCENT LAMP XII. MEMORIES OF MENLO PARK XIII. A WORLD-HUNT FOR FILAMENT MATERIAL XIV. INVENTING A COMPLETE SYSTEM OF LIGHTING XV. INTRODUCTION OF THE EDISON ELECTRIC LIGHT XVI. THE FIRST EDISON CENTRAL STATION XVII. OTHER EARLY STATIONS--THE METER XVIII. THE ELECTRIC RAILWAY XIX. MAGNETIC ORE MILLING WORK XX. EDISON PORTLAND CEMENT XXI. MOTION PICTURES XXII. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE EDISON STORAGE BATTERY XXIII. MISCELLANEOUS INVENTIONS XXIV. EDISON'S METHOD IN INVENTING XXV. THE LABORATORY AT ORANGE AND THE STAFF XXVI. EDISON IN COMMERCE AND MANUFACTURE XXVII. THE VALUE OF EDISON'S INVENTIONS TO THE WORLD XXVIII. THE BLACK FLAG XXIX. THE SOCIAL SIDE OF EDISON APPENDIX LIST OF UNITED STATES PATENTS FOREIGN PATENTS INDEX

INTRODUCTION

PRIOR to this, no complete, authentic, and authorized record of the workof Mr. Edison, during an active life, has been given to the world. Thatlife, if there is anything in heredity, is very far from finished; andwhile it continues there will be new achievement. 

An insistently expressed desire on the part of the public for adefinitive biography of Edison was the reason for the following pages. The present authors deem themselves happy in the confidence reposed inthem, and in the constant assistance they have enjoyed from Mr. Edisonwhile preparing these pages, a great many of which are altogetherhis own. This co-operation in no sense relieves the authors ofresponsibility as to any of the views or statements of their own thatthe book contains. They have realized the extreme reluctance of Mr. Edison to be made the subject of any biography at all; while he has feltthat, if it must be written, it were best done by the hands of friendsand associates of long standing, whose judgment and discretion he couldtrust, and whose intimate knowledge of the facts would save him frommisrepresentation. 

The authors of the book are profoundly conscious of the fact that theextraordinary period of electrical development embraced in it has beenprolific of great men. They have named some of them; but there hasbeen no idea of setting forth various achievements or of ascribingdistinctive merits. This treatment is devoted to one man whom hisfellow-citizens have chosen to regard as in many ways representative ofthe American at his finest flowering in the field of invention duringthe nineteenth century. 

It is designed in these pages to bring the reader face to face withEdison; to glance at an interesting childhood and a youthful periodmarked by a capacity for doing things, and by an insatiable thirst forknowledge; then to accompany him into the great creative stretch offorty years, during which he has done so much. This book shows himplunged deeply into work for which he has always had an incrediblecapacity, reveals the exercise of his unsurpassed inventive ability, hiskeen reasoning powers, his tenacious memory, his fertility of resource;follows him through a series of innumerable experiments, conductedmethodically, reaching out like rays of search-light into all theregions of science and nature, and finally exhibits him emergingtriumphantly from countless difficulties bearing with him in new artsthe fruits of victorious struggle. 

These volumes aim to be a biography rather than a history ofelectricity, but they have had to cover so much general ground indefining the relations and contributions of Edison to the electricalarts, that they serve to present a picture of the whole developmenteffected in the last fifty years, the most fruitful that electricity hasknown. The effort has been made to avoid technique and abstruse phrases, but some degree of explanation has been absolutely necessary in regardto each group of inventions. The task of the authors has consistedlargely in summarizing fairly the methods and processes employed byEdison; and some idea of the difficulties encountered by them inso doing may be realized from the fact that one brief chapter, forexample, --that on ore milling--covers nine years of most intenseapplication and activity on the part of the inventor. It is somethinglike exhibiting the geological eras of the earth in an outline lanternslide, to reduce an elaborate series of strenuous experiments and a vastvariety of ingenious apparatus to the space of a few hundred words. 

A great deal of this narrative is given in Mr. Edison's own language, from oral or written statements made in reply to questions addressed tohim with the object of securing accuracy. A further large part is basedupon the personal contributions of many loyal associates; and it isdesired here to make grateful acknowledgment to such collaborators asMessrs. Samuel Insull, E. H. Johnson, F. R. Upton, R. N Dyer, S. B. Eaton, Francis Jehl, W. S. Andrews, W. J. Jenks, W. J. Hammer, F. J. Sprague, W. S. Mallory, and C. L. Clarke, and others, without whoseaid the issuance of this book would indeed have been impossible. Inparticular, it is desired to acknowledge indebtedness to Mr. W. H. Meadowcroft not only for substantial aid in the literary part of thework, but for indefatigable effort to group, classify, and summarize theboundless material embodied in Edison's note-books and memorabilia ofall kinds now kept at the Orange laboratory. Acknowledgment must alsobe made of the courtesy and assistance of Mrs. Edison, and especiallyof the loan of many interesting and rare photographs from her privatecollection. 

EDISON HIS LIFE AND INVENTIONS

CHAPTER I

THE AGE OF ELECTRICITY

THE year 1847 marked a period of great territorial acquisition bythe American people, with incalculable additions to their actual andpotential wealth. By the rational compromise with England in the disputeover the Oregon region, President Polk had secured during 1846, forundisturbed settlement, three hundred thousand square miles of forest, fertile land, and fisheries, including the whole fair Columbia Valley. Our active "policy of the Pacific" dated from that hour. With swift andclinching succession came the melodramatic Mexican War, and February, 1848, saw another vast territory south of Oregon and west of the RockyMountains added by treaty to the United States. Thus in about eighteenmonths there had been pieced into the national domain for quickdevelopment and exploitation a region as large as the entire Unionof Thirteen States at the close of the War of Independence. Moreover, within its boundaries was embraced all the great American gold-field, just on the eve of discovery, for Marshall had detected the shiningparticles in the mill-race at the foot of the Sierra Nevada nine daysbefore Mexico signed away her rights in California and in all the vague, remote hinterland facing Cathayward. 

Equally momentous were the times in Europe, where the attempt to secureopportunities of expansion as well as larger liberty for the individualtook quite different form. The old absolutist system of government wasfast breaking up, and ancient thrones were tottering. The red lava ofdeep revolutionary fires oozed up through many glowing cracks in thepolitical crust, and all the social strata were shaken. That the wildoutbursts of insurrection midway in the fifth decade failed and diedaway was not surprising, for the superincumbent deposits of traditionand convention were thick. But the retrospect indicates that manyreforms and political changes were accomplished, although the processinvolved the exile of not a few ardent spirits to America, to becomeleading statesmen, inventors, journalists, and financiers. In 1847, too, Russia began her tremendous march eastward into Central Asia, justas France was solidifying her first gains on the littoral of northernAfrica. In England the fierce fervor of the Chartist movement, with itsviolent rhetoric as to the rights of man, was sobering down and passingpervasively into numerous practical schemes for social and politicalamelioration, constituting in their entirety a most profound changethroughout every part of the national life. 

Into such times Thomas Alva Edison was born, and his relations tothem and to the events of the past sixty years are the subject ofthis narrative. Aside from the personal interest that attaches to thepicturesque career, so typically American, there is a broader aspect inwhich the work of the "Franklin of the Nineteenth Century" touchesthe welfare and progress of the race. It is difficult at any time todetermine the effect of any single invention, and the investigationbecomes more difficult where inventions of the first class have beencrowded upon each other in rapid and bewildering succession. But it willbe admitted that in Edison one deals with a central figure of the greatage that saw the invention and introduction in practical form of thetelegraph, the submarine cable, the telephone, the electric light, theelectric railway, the electric trolley-car, the storage battery, theelectric motor, the phonograph, the wireless telegraph; and that theinfluence of these on the world's affairs has not been excelled atany time by that of any other corresponding advances in the arts andsciences. These pages deal with Edison's share in the great work of thelast half century in abridging distance, communicating intelligence, lessening toil, improving illumination, recording forever the humanvoice; and on behalf of inventive genius it may be urged that itsbeneficent results and gifts to mankind compare with any to be creditedto statesman, warrior, or creative writer of the same period. 

Viewed from the standpoint of inventive progress, the first half ofthe nineteenth century had passed very profitably when Edisonappeared--every year marked by some notable achievement in the arts andsciences, with promise of its early and abundant fruition in commerceand industry. There had been exactly four decades of steam navigationon American waters. Railways were growing at the rate of nearlyone thousand miles annually. Gas had become familiar as a means ofillumination in large cities. Looms and tools and printing-presses wereeverywhere being liberated from the slow toil of man-power. The firstphotographs had been taken. Chloroform, nitrous oxide gas, and etherhad been placed at the service of the physician in saving life, andthe revolver, guncotton, and nitroglycerine added to the agencies forslaughter. New metals, chemicals, and elements had become available inlarge numbers, gases had been liquefied and solidified, and the rangeof useful heat and cold indefinitely extended. The safety-lamp had beengiven to the miner, the caisson to the bridge-builder, the anti-frictionmetal to the mechanic for bearings. It was already known how tovulcanize rubber, and how to galvanize iron. The application ofmachinery in the harvest-field had begun with the embryonic reaper, while both the bicycle and the automobile were heralded in primitiveprototypes. The gigantic expansion of the iron and steel industry wasforeshadowed in the change from wood to coal in the smelting furnaces. The sewing-machine had brought with it, like the friction match, one ofthe most profound influences in modifying domestic life, and making itdifferent from that of all preceding time. 

Even in 1847 few of these things had lost their novelty, most of themwere in the earlier stages of development. But it is when we turn toelectricity that the rich virgin condition of an illimitable new kingdomof discovery is seen. Perhaps the word "utilization" or "application" isbetter than discovery, for then, as now, an endless wealth of phenomenanoted by experimenters from Gilbert to Franklin and Faraday awaited theinvention that could alone render them useful to mankind. The eighteenthcentury, keenly curious and ceaselessly active in this fascinating fieldof investigation, had not, after all, left much of a legacy in eitherprinciples or appliances. The lodestone and the compass; the frictionalmachine; the Leyden jar; the nature of conductors and insulators;the identity of electricity and the thunder-storm flash; the use oflightning-rods; the physiological effects of an electrical shock--theseconstituted the bulk of the bequest to which philosophers were the onlyheirs. Pregnant with possibilities were many of the observations thathad been recorded. But these few appliances made up the meagre kitof tools with which the nineteenth century entered upon its task ofacquiring the arts and conveniences now such an intimate part of "humannature's daily food" that the average American to-day pays more for hiselectrical service than he does for bread. 

With the first year of the new century came Volta's invention of thechemical battery as a means of producing electricity. A well-knownItalian picture represents Volta exhibiting his apparatus before theyoung conqueror Napoleon, then ravishing from the Peninsula its treasureof ancient art and founding an ephemeral empire. At such a moment thisgift of despoiled Italy to the world was a noble revenge, setting inmotion incalculable beneficent forces and agencies. For the firsttime man had command of a steady supply of electricity without toil oreffort. The useful results obtainable previously from the current of africtional machine were not much greater than those to be derived fromthe flight of a rocket. While the frictional appliance is stillemployed in medicine, it ranks with the flint axe and the tinder-boxin industrial obsolescence. No art or trade could be founded on it; nodiminution of daily work or increase of daily comfort could be securedwith it. But the little battery with its metal plates in a weaksolution proved a perennial reservoir of electrical energy, safe andcontrollable, from which supplies could be drawn at will. That which waswild had become domesticated; regular crops took the place of haphazardgleanings from brake or prairie; the possibility of electricalstarvation was forever left behind. 

Immediately new processes of inestimable value revealed themselves; newmethods were suggested. Almost all the electrical arts now employedmade their beginnings in the next twenty-five years, and while the moreextensive of them depend to-day on the dynamo for electrical energy, some of the most important still remain in loyal allegiance to the oldersource. The battery itself soon underwent modifications, and new typeswere evolved--the storage, the double-fluid, and the dry. Variousanalogies next pointed to the use of heat, and the thermoelectric cellemerged, embodying the application of flame to the junction of twodifferent metals. Davy, of the safety-lamp, threw a volume of currentacross the gap between two sticks of charcoal, and the voltaic arc, forerunner of electric lighting, shed its bright beams upon a dazzledworld. The decomposition of water by electrolytic action was recognizedand made the basis of communicating at a distance even before the daysof the electromagnet. The ties that bind electricity and magnetism intwinship of relation and interaction were detected, and Faraday's workin induction gave the world at once the dynamo and the motor. "Hitchyour wagon to a star, " said Emerson. To all the coal-fields and all thewaterfalls Faraday had directly hitched the wheels of industry. Notonly was it now possible to convert mechanical energy into electricitycheaply and in illimitable quantities, but electricity at once showedits ubiquitous availability as a motive power. Boats were propelled byit, cars were hauled, and even papers printed. Electroplating becamean art, and telegraphy sprang into active being on both sides of theAtlantic. 

At the time Edison was born, in 1847, telegraphy, upon which he was toleave so indelible an imprint, had barely struggled into acceptance bythe public. In England, Wheatstone and Cooke had introduced a ponderousmagnetic needle telegraph. In America, in 1840, Morse had taken out hisfirst patent on an electromagnetic telegraph, the principle of whichis dominating in the art to this day. Four years later the memorablemessage "What hath God wrought!" was sent by young Miss Ellsworth overhis circuits, and incredulous Washington was advised by wire of theaction of the Democratic Convention in Baltimore in nominating Polk. By 1847 circuits had been strung between Washington and New York, underprivate enterprise, the Government having declined to buy the Morsesystem for $100, 000. Everything was crude and primitive. The poles weretwo hundred feet apart and could barely hold up a wash-line. The slim, bare, copper wire snapped on the least provocation, and the circuitwas "down" for thirty-six days in the first six months. The littleglass-knob insulators made seductive targets for ignorant sportsmen. Attempts to insulate the line wire were limited to coating it withtar or smearing it with wax for the benefit of all the bees in theneighborhood. The farthest western reach of the telegraph lines in1847 was Pittsburg, with three-ply iron wire mounted on square glassinsulators with a little wooden pentroof for protection. In that office, where Andrew Carnegie was a messenger boy, the magnets in use to receivethe signals sent with the aid of powerful nitric-acid batteries weighedas much as seventy-five pounds apiece. But the business was fortunatelysmall at the outset, until the new device, patronized chiefly bylottery-men, had proved its utility. Then came the great outburst ofactivity. Within a score of years telegraph wires covered the wholeoccupied country with a network, and the first great electrical industrywas a pronounced success, yielding to its pioneers the first greatharvest of electrical fortunes. It had been a sharp struggle for bareexistence, during which such a man as the founder of Cornell Universityhad been glad to get breakfast in New York with a quarter-dollar pickedup on Broadway. 

CHAPTER II

EDISON'S PEDIGREE

THOMAS ALVA EDISON was born at Milan Ohio, February 11, 1847. The Statethat rivals Virginia as a "Mother of Presidents" has evidently othertitles to distinction of the same nature. For picturesque detail itwould not be easy to find any story excelling that of the Edison familybefore it reached the Western Reserve. The story epitomizes Americanidealism, restlessness, freedom of individual opinion, and readyadjustment to the surrounding conditions of pioneer life. The ancestralEdisons who came over from Holland, as nearly as can be determined, in1730, were descendants of extensive millers on the Zuyder Zee, and tookup patents of land along the Passaic River, New Jersey, close to thehome that Mr. Edison established in the Orange Mountains a hundred andsixty years later. They landed at Elizabethport, New Jersey, and firstsettled near Caldwell in that State, where some graves of the family maystill be found. President Cleveland was born in that quiet hamlet. It isa curious fact that in the Edison family the pronunciation of the namehas always been with the long "e" sound, as it would naturally be inthe Dutch language. The family prospered and must have enjoyed publicconfidence, for we find the name of Thomas Edison, as a bank official onManhattan Island, signed to Continental currency in 1778. Accordingto the family records this Edison, great-grandfather of Thomas Alva, reached the extreme old age of 104 years. But all was not well, and, as has happened so often before, the politics of father and son wereviolently different. The Loyalist movement that took to Nova Scotia somany Americans after the War of Independence carried with it John, theson of this stalwart Continental. Thus it came about that Samuel Edison, son of John, was born at Digby, Nova Scotia, in 1804. Seven years laterJohn Edison who, as a Loyalist or United Empire emigrant, had becomeentitled under the laws of Canada to a grant of six hundred acres ofland, moved westward to take possession of this property. He made hisway through the State of New York in wagons drawn by oxen to the remoteand primitive township of Bayfield, in Upper Canada, on Lake Huron. Although the journey occurred in balmy June, it was necessarily attendedwith difficulty and privation; but the new home was situated in goodfarming country, and once again this interesting nomadic family settleddown. 

John Edison moved from Bayfield to Vienna, Ontario, on the northern bankof Lake Erie. Mr. Edison supplies an interesting reminiscence of the oldman and his environment in those early Canadian days. "When I was fiveyears old I was taken by my father and mother on a visit to Vienna. Wewere driven by carriage from Milan, Ohio, to a railroad, then to aport on Lake Erie, thence by a canal-boat in a tow of several to PortBurwell, in Canada, across the lake, and from there we drove to Vienna, a short distance away. I remember my grandfather perfectly as heappeared, at 102 years of age, when he died. In the middle of the dayhe sat under a large tree in front of the house facing a well-travelledroad. His head was covered completely with a large quantity of verywhite hair, and he chewed tobacco incessantly, nodding to friends asthey passed by. He used a very large cane, and walked from the chair tothe house, resenting any assistance. I viewed him from a distance, andcould never get very close to him. I remember some large pipes, andespecially a molasses jug, a trunk, and several other things that camefrom Holland. "

John Edison was long-lived, like his father, and reached the ripe oldage of 102, leaving his son Samuel charged with the care of the familydestinies, but with no great burden of wealth. Little is known of theearly manhood of this father of T. A. Edison until we find him keeping ahotel at Vienna, marrying a school-teacher there (Miss Nancy Elliott, in1828), and taking a lively share in the troublous politics of the time. He was six feet in height, of great bodily vigor, and of such personaldominance of character that he became a captain of the insurgent forcesrallying under the banners of Papineau and Mackenzie. The openingyears of Queen Victoria's reign witnessed a belated effort in Canadato emphasize the principle that there should not be taxation withoutrepresentation; and this descendant of those who had left the UnitedStates from disapproval of such a doctrine, flung himself headlong intoits support. 

It has been said of Earl Durham, who pacified Canada at this time andestablished the present system of government, that he made a countryand marred a career. But the immediate measures of repression enforcedbefore a liberal policy was adopted were sharp and severe, and SamuelEdison also found his own career marred on Canadian soil as one resultof the Durham administration. Exile to Bermuda with other insurgents wasnot so attractive as the perils of a flight to the United States. A veryhurried departure was effected in secret from the scene of trouble, andthere are romantic traditions of his thrilling journey of one hundredand eighty-two miles toward safety, made almost entirely without foodor sleep, through a wild country infested with Indians of unfriendlydisposition. Thus was the Edison family repatriated by a picturesquepolitical episode, and the great inventor given a birthplace on Americansoil, just as was Benjamin Franklin when his father came from Englandto Boston. Samuel Edison left behind him, however, in Canada, severalbrothers, all of whom lived to the age of ninety or more, and from whomthere are descendants in the region. 

After some desultory wanderings for a year or two along the shores ofLake Erie, among the prosperous towns then springing up, the family, with its Canadian home forfeited, and in quest of another resting-place, came to Milan, Ohio, in 1842. That pretty little village offered at themoment many attractions as a possible Chicago. The railroad system ofOhio was still in the future, but the Western Reserve had already becomea vast wheat-field, and huge quantities of grain from the central andnorthern counties sought shipment to Eastern ports. The Huron River, emptying into Lake Erie, was navigable within a few miles of thevillage, and provided an admirable outlet. Large granaries wereestablished, and proved so successful that local capital was temptedinto the project of making a tow-path canal from Lockwood Landing allthe way to Milan itself. The quaint old Moravian mission and quondamIndian settlement of one hundred inhabitants found itself of a suddenone of the great grain ports of the world, and bidding fair to rivalRussian Odessa. A number of grain warehouses, or primitive elevators, were built along the bank of the canal, and the produce of the regionpoured in immediately, arriving in wagons drawn by four or six horseswith loads of a hundred bushels. No fewer than six hundred wagons cameclattering in, and as many as twenty sail vessels were loaded withthirty-five thousand bushels of grain, during a single day. The canalwas capable of being navigated by craft of from two hundred to twohundred and fifty tons burden, and the demand for such vessels soonled to the development of a brisk ship-building industry, for whichthe abundant forests of the region supplied the necessary lumber. Anevidence of the activity in this direction is furnished by the fact thatsix revenue cutters were launched at this port in these brisk days ofits prime. 

Samuel Edison, versatile, buoyant of temper, and ever optimistic, wouldthus appear to have pitched his tent with shrewd judgment. There wasplenty of occupation ready to his hand, and more than one enterprisereceived his attention; but he devoted his energies chiefly to themaking of shingles, for which there was a large demand locally and alongthe lake. Canadian lumber was used principally in this industry. Thewood was imported in "bolts" or pieces three feet long. A bolt made twoshingles; it was sawn asunder by hand, then split and shaved. None butfirst-class timber was used, and such shingles outlasted far those madeby machinery with their cross-grain cut. A house in Milan, on which someof those shingles were put in 1844, was still in excellent conditionforty-two years later. Samuel Edison did well at this occupation, andemployed several men, but there were other outlets from time to time forhis business activity and speculative disposition. 

Edison's mother was an attractive and highly educated woman, whoseinfluence upon his disposition and intellect has been profound andlasting. She was born in Chenango County, New York, in 1810, and was thedaughter of the Rev. John Elliott, a Baptist minister and descendant ofan old Revolutionary soldier, Capt. Ebenezer Elliott, of Scotch descent. The old captain was a fine and picturesque type. He fought all throughthe long War of Independence--seven years--and then appears to havesettled down at Stonington, Connecticut. There, at any rate, he foundhis wife, "grandmother Elliott, " who was Mercy Peckham, daughter of aScotch Quaker. Then came the residence in New York State, with finalremoval to Vienna, for the old soldier, while drawing his pension atBuffalo, lived in the little Canadian town, and there died, over 100years old. The family was evidently one of considerable culture and deepreligious feeling, for two of Mrs. Edison's uncles and two brothers werealso in the same Baptist ministry. As a young woman she became a teacherin the public high school at Vienna, and thus met her husband, who wasresiding there. The family never consisted of more than three children, two boys and a girl. A trace of the Canadian environment is seen in thefact that Edison's elder brother was named William Pitt, after thegreat English statesman. Both his brother and the sister exhibitedconsiderable ability. William Pitt Edison as a youth was so clever withhis pencil that it was proposed to send him to Paris as an art student. In later life he was manager of the local street railway lines at PortHuron, Michigan, in which he was heavily interested. He also owned agood farm near that town, and during the ill-health at the close ofhis life, when compelled to spend much of the time indoors, he devotedhimself almost entirely to sketching. It has been noted by intimateobservers of Thomas A. Edison that in discussing any project or new ideahis first impulse is to take up any piece of paper available and makedrawings of it. His voluminous note-books are a mass of sketches. Mrs-Tannie Edison Bailey, the sister, had, on the other hand, a greatdeal of literary ability, and spent much of her time in writing. 

The great inventor, whose iron endurance and stern will have enabled himto wear down all his associates by work sustained through arduous daysand sleepless nights, was not at all strong as a child, and was offragile appearance. He had an abnormally large but well-shaped head, andit is said that the local doctors feared he might have brain trouble. In fact, on account of his assumed delicacy, he was not allowed to go toschool for some years, and even when he did attend for a short timethe results were not encouraging--his mother being hotly indignant uponhearing that the teacher had spoken of him to an inspector as "addled. "The youth was, indeed, fortunate far beyond the ordinary in having amother at once loving, well-informed, and ambitious, capable herself, from her experience as a teacher, of undertaking and giving him aneducation better than could be secured in the local schools of the day. Certain it is that under this simple regime studious habits were formedand a taste for literature developed that have lasted to this day. Ifever there was a man who tore the heart out of books it is Edison, andwhat has once been read by him is never forgotten if useful or worthy ofsubmission to the test of experiment. 

But even thus early the stronger love of mechanical processes and ofprobing natural forces manifested itself. Edison has said that henever saw a statement in any book as to such things that he did notinvoluntarily challenge, and wish to demonstrate as either right orwrong. As a mere child the busy scenes of the canal and the grainwarehouses were of consuming interest, but the work in the ship-buildingyards had an irresistible fascination. His questions were so ceaselessand innumerable that the penetrating curiosity of an unusually strongmind was regarded as deficiency in powers of comprehension, and thefather himself, a man of no mean ingenuity and ability, reports thatthe child, although capable of reducing him to exhaustion by endlessinquiries, was often spoken of as rather wanting in ordinary acumen. This apparent dulness is, however, a quite common incident to youthfulgenius. 

The constructive tendencies of this child of whom his father said oncethat he had never had any boyhood days in the ordinary sense, were earlynoted in his fondness for building little plank roads out of the debrisof the yards and mills. His extraordinarily retentive memory was shownin his easy acquisition of all the songs of the lumber gangs and canalmen before he was five years old. One incident tells how he was foundone day in the village square copying laboriously the signs of thestores. A highly characteristic event at the age of six is described byhis sister. He had noted a goose sitting on her eggs and the result. Oneday soon after, he was missing. By-and-by, after an anxious search, hisfather found him sitting in a nest he had made in the barn, filled withgoose-eggs and hens' eggs he had collected, trying to hatch them out. 

One of Mr. Edison's most vivid recollections goes back to 1850, when asa child three of four years old he saw camped in front of his home sixcovered wagons, "prairie schooners, " and witnessed their departure forCalifornia. The great excitement over the gold discoveries was thus feltin Milan, and these wagons, laden with all the worldly possessions oftheir owners, were watched out of sight on their long journey by thisfascinated urchin, whose own discoveries in later years were to temptmany other argonauts into the auriferous realms of electricity. 

Another vivid memory of this period concerns his first realizationof the grim mystery of death. He went off one day with the son ofthe wealthiest man in the town to bathe in the creek. Soon after theyentered the water the other boy disappeared. Young Edison waited aroundthe spot for half an hour or more, and then, as it was growing dark, went home puzzled and lonely, but silent as to the occurrence. About twohours afterward, when the missing boy was being searched for, a man cameto the Edison home to make anxious inquiry of the companion with whomhe had last been seen. Edison told all the circumstances with a painfulsense of being in some way implicated. The creek was at once dragged, and then the body was recovered. 

Edison had himself more than one narrow escape. Of course he fell in thecanal and was nearly drowned; few boys in Milan worth their salt omittedthat performance. On another occasion he encountered a more novel perilby falling into the pile of wheat in a grain elevator and being almostsmothered. Holding the end of a skate-strap for another lad to shortenwith an axe, he lost the top of a finger. Fire also had its perils. Hebuilt a fire in a barn, but the flames spread so rapidly that, althoughhe escaped himself, the barn was wholly destroyed, and he was publiclywhipped in the village square as a warning to other youths. Equally wellremembered is a dangerous encounter with a ram that attacked him whilehe was busily engaged digging out a bumblebee's nest near an orchardfence. The animal knocked him against the fence, and was about to butthim again when he managed to drop over on the safe side and escape. Hewas badly hurt and bruised, and no small quantity of arnica was neededfor his wounds. 

Meantime little Milan had reached the zenith of its prosperity, and allof a sudden had been deprived of its flourishing grain trade by the newColumbus, Sandusky & Hocking Railroad; in fact, the short canal was oneof the last efforts of its kind in this country to compete with thenew means of transportation. The bell of the locomotive was everywhereringing the death-knell of effective water haulage, with such direresults that, in 1880, of the 4468 miles of American freight canal, thathad cost $214, 000, 000, no fewer than 1893 miles had been abandoned, and of the remaining 2575 miles quite a large proportion was not payingexpenses. The short Milan canal suffered with the rest, and to-daylies well-nigh obliterated, hidden in part by vegetable gardens, a meregrass-grown depression at the foot of the winding, shallow valley. Otherrailroads also prevented any further competition by the canal, for abranch of the Wheeling & Lake Erie now passes through the village, whilethe Lake Shore & Michigan Southern runs a few miles to the south. 

The owners of the canal soon had occasion to regret that they haddisdained the overtures of enterprising railroad promoters desirousof reaching the village, and the consequences of commercial isolationrapidly made themselves felt. It soon became evident to Samuel Edisonand his wife that the cozy brick home on the bluff must be given upand the struggle with fortune resumed elsewhere. They were well-to-do, however, and removing, in 1854, to Port Huron, Michigan, occupied alarge colonial house standing in the middle of an old Government fortreservation of ten acres overlooking the wide expanse of the St. ClairRiver just after it leaves Lake Huron. It was in many ways an idealhomestead, toward which the family has always felt the strongestattachment, but the association with Milan has never wholly ceased. Theold house in which Edison was born is still occupied (in 1910) by Mr. S. O. Edison, a half-brother of Edison's father, and a man of markedinventive ability. He was once prominent in the iron-furnace industry ofOhio, and was for a time associated in the iron trade with the fatherof the late President McKinley. Among his inventions may be mentioned amachine for making fuel from wheat straw, and a smoke-consuming device. 

This birthplace of Edison remains the plain, substantial little brickhouse it was originally: one-storied, with rooms finished on the atticfloor. Being built on the hillside, its basement opens into the rearyard. It was at first heated by means of open coal grates, which may nothave been altogether adequate in severe winters, owing to the altitudeand the north-eastern exposure, but a large furnace is one of the moremodern changes. Milan itself is not materially unlike the smaller Ohiotowns of its own time or those of later creation, but the venerableappearance of the big elm-trees that fringe the trim lawns tells of itsage. It is, indeed, an extremely neat, snug little place, with well-kepthomes, mostly of frame construction, and flagged streets crossingeach other at right angles. There are no poor--at least, everybody isapparently well-to-do. While a leisurely atmosphere pervades thetown, few idlers are seen. Some of the residents are engaged in localbusiness; some are occupied in farming and grape culture; others areemployed in the iron-works near-by, at Norwalk. The stores and placesof public resort are gathered about the square, where there is plentyof room for hitching when the Saturday trading is done at that point, at which periods the fitful bustle recalls the old wheat days when youngEdison ran with curiosity among the six and eight horse teams that hadbrought in grain. This square is still covered with fine primeval foresttrees, and has at its centre a handsome soldiers' monument of the CivilWar, to which four paved walks converge. It is an altogether pleasantand unpretentious town, which cherishes with no small amount of prideits association with the name of Thomas Alva Edison. 

In view of Edison's Dutch descent, it is rather singular to find himwith the name of Alva, for the Spanish Duke of Alva was notoriously theworst tyrant ever known to the Low Countries, and his evil deeds occupymany stirring pages in Motley's famous history. As a matter of fact, Edison was named after Capt. Alva Bradley, an old friend of his father, and a celebrated ship-owner on the Lakes. Captain Bradley died a fewyears ago in wealth, while his old associate, with equal ability formaking money, was never able long to keep it (differing again from theRevolutionary New York banker from whom his son's other name, "Thomas, "was taken). 

CHAPTER III

BOYHOOD AT PORT HURON, MICHIGAN

THE new home found by the Edison family at Port Huron, where Alva spenthis brief boyhood before he became a telegraph operator and roamed thewhole middle West of that period, was unfortunately destroyed by firejust after the close of the Civil War. A smaller but perhaps morecomfortable home was then built by Edison's father on some property hehad bought at the near-by village of Gratiot, and there his mother spentthe remainder of her life in confirmed invalidism, dying in 1871. Hencethe pictures and postal cards sold largely to souvenir-hunters as thePort Huron home do not actually show that in or around which the eventsnow referred to took place. 

It has been a romance of popular biographers, based upon the fact thatEdison began his career as a newsboy, to assume that these earlier yearswere spent in poverty and privation, as indeed they usually are by the"newsies" who swarm and shout their papers in our large cities. Whileit seems a pity to destroy this erroneous idea, suggestive of a heroicclimb from the depths to the heights, nothing could be further from thetruth. Socially the Edison family stood high in Port Huron at a timewhen there was relatively more wealth and general activity than to-day. The town in its pristine prime was a great lumber centre, and hummedwith the industry of numerous sawmills. An incredible quantity oflumber was made there yearly until the forests near-by vanished and theindustry with them. The wealth of the community, invested largely inthis business and in allied transportation companies, was accumulatedrapidly and as freely spent during those days of prosperity in St. ClairCounty, bringing with it a high standard of domestic comfort. In allthis the Edisons shared on equal terms. 

Thus, contrary to the stories that have been so widely published, theEdisons, while not rich by any means, were in comfortable circumstances, with a well-stocked farm and large orchard to draw upon also forsustenance. Samuel Edison, on moving to Port Huron, became a dealer ingrain and feed, and gave attention to that business for many years. Buthe was also active in the lumber industry in the Saginaw district andseveral other things. It was difficult for a man of such mercurial, restless temperament to stay constant to any one occupation; in fact, had he been less visionary he would have been more prosperous, but mightnot have had a son so gifted with insight and imagination. One instanceof the optimistic vagaries which led him incessantly to spend time andmoney on projects that would not have appealed to a man less sanguinewas the construction on his property of a wooden observation tower overa hundred feet high, the top of which was reached toilsomely by windingstairs, after the payment of twenty-five cents. It is true that thetower commanded a pretty view by land and water, but Colonel Sellershimself might have projected this enterprise as a possible source ofsteady income. At first few visitors panted up the long flights of stepsto the breezy platform. During the first two months Edison's fathertook in three dollars, and felt extremely blue over the prospect, andto young Edison and his relatives were left the lonely pleasures of thelookout and the enjoyment of the telescope with which it was equipped. But one fine day there came an excursion from an inland town to see thelake. They picnicked in the grove, and six hundred of them went upthe tower. After that the railroad company began to advertise theseexcursions, and the receipts each year paid for the observatory. 

It might be thought that, immersed in business and preoccupied withschemes of this character, Mr. Edison was to blame for the neglect ofhis son's education. But that was not the case. The conditions werepeculiar. It was at the Port Huron public school that Edison receivedall the regular scholastic instruction he ever enjoyed--just threemonths. He might have spent the full term there, but, as already noted, his teacher had found him "addled. " He was always, according to his ownrecollection, at the foot of the class, and had come almost to regardhimself as a dunce, while his father entertained vague anxieties as tohis stupidity. The truth of the matter seems to be that Mrs. Edison, ateacher of uncommon ability and force, held no very high opinion ofthe average public-school methods and results, and was both eager toundertake the instruction of her son and ambitious for the future ofa boy whom she knew from pedagogic experience to be receptive andthoughtful to a very unusual degree. With her he found study easy andpleasant. The quality of culture in that simple but refined home, aswell as the intellectual character of this youth without schooling, maybe inferred from the fact that before he had reached the age of twelvehe had read, with his mother's help, Gibbon's Decline and Fall of theRoman Empire, Hume's History of England, Sears' History of the World, Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, and the Dictionary of Sciences; and hadeven attempted to struggle through Newton's Principia, whose mathematicswere decidedly beyond both teacher and student. Besides, Edison, likeFaraday, was never a mathematician, and has had little personal usefor arithmetic beyond that which is called "mental. " He said once to afriend: "I can always hire some mathematicians, but they can't hire me. "His father, by-the-way, always encouraged these literary tastes, andpaid him a small sum for each new book mastered. It will be noted thatfiction makes no showing in the list; but it was not altogetherexcluded from the home library, and Edison has all his life enjoyedit, particularly the works of such writers as Victor Hugo, after whom, because of his enthusiastic admiration--possibly also because of hisimagination--he was nicknamed by his fellow-operators, "Victor HugoEdison. "

Electricity at that moment could have no allure for a youthful mind. Crude telegraphy represented what was known of it practically, and aboutthat the books read by young Edison were not redundantly informational. Even had that not been so, the inclinations of the boy barely ten yearsold were toward chemistry, and fifty years later there is seen no changeof predilection. It sounds like heresy to say that Edison became anelectrician by chance, but it is the sober fact that to this pre-eminentand brilliant leader in electrical achievement escape into the chemicaldomain still has the aspect of a delightful truant holiday. One ofthe earliest stories about his boyhood relates to the incident whenhe induced a lad employed in the family to swallow a large quantity ofSeidlitz powders in the belief that the gases generated would enablehim to fly. The agonies of the victim attracted attention, and Edison'smother marked her displeasure by an application of the switch keptbehind the old Seth Thomas "grandfather clock. " The disastrous resultof this experiment did not discourage Edison at all, as he attributedfailure to the lad rather than to the motive power. In the cellar ofthe Edison homestead young Alva soon accumulated a chemical outfit, constituting the first in a long series of laboratories. The word"laboratory" had always been associated with alchemists in the past, but as with "filament" this untutored stripling applied an iconoclasticpracticability to it long before he realized the significance of thenew departure. Goethe, in his legend of Faust, shows the traditionalor conventional philosopher in his laboratory, an aged, tottering, gray-bearded investigator, who only becomes youthful upon diabolicalintervention, and would stay senile without it. In the Edison laboratoryno such weird transformation has been necessary, for the philosopherhad youth, fiery energy, and a grimly practical determination that wouldsubmit to no denial of the goal of something of real benefit to mankind. Edison and Faust are indeed the extremes of philosophic thought andaccomplishment. 

The home at Port Huron thus saw the first Edison laboratory. The boybegan experimenting when he was about ten or eleven years of age. He gota copy of Parker's School Philosophy, an elementary book on physics, andabout every experiment in it he tried. Young Alva, or "Al, " as he wascalled, thus early displayed his great passion for chemistry, and inthe cellar of the house he collected no fewer than two hundred bottles, gleaned in baskets from all parts of the town. These were arrangedcarefully on shelves and all labelled "Poison, " so that no one elsewould handle or disturb them. They contained the chemicals with whichhe was constantly experimenting. To others this diversion was bothmysterious and meaningless, but he had soon become familiar with allthe chemicals obtainable at the local drug stores, and had tested tohis satisfaction many of the statements encountered in his scientificreading. Edison has said that sometimes he has wondered how it washe did not become an analytical chemist instead of concentrating onelectricity, for which he had at first no great inclination. 

Deprived of the use of a large part of her cellar, tiring of the "mess"always to be found there, and somewhat fearful of results, his motheronce told the boy to clear everything out and restore order. The thoughtof losing all his possessions was the cause of so much ardent distressthat his mother relented, but insisted that he must get a lock and key, and keep the embryonic laboratory closed up all the time except when hewas there. This was done. From such work came an early familiarity withthe nature of electrical batteries and the production of current fromthem. Apparently the greater part of his spare time was spent in thecellar, for he did not share to any extent in the sports of the boys ofthe neighborhood, his chum and chief companion, Michael Oates, being alad of Dutch origin, many years older, who did chores around thehouse, and who could be recruited as a general utility Friday for theexperiments of this young explorer--such as that with the Seidlitzpowders. 

Such pursuits as these consumed the scant pocket-money of the boy veryrapidly. He was not in regular attendance at school, and had read allthe books within reach. It was thus he turned newsboy, overcoming thereluctance of his parents, particularly that of his mother, by pointingout that he could by this means earn all he wanted for his experimentsand get fresh reading in the shape of papers and magazines free ofcharge. Besides, his leisure hours in Detroit he would be able to spendat the public library. He applied (in 1859) for the privilege of sellingnewspapers on the trains of the Grand Trunk Railroad, between Port Huronand Detroit, and obtained the concession after a short delay, duringwhich he made an essay in his task of selling newspapers. 

Edison had, as a fact, already had some commercial experience from theage of eleven. The ten acres of the reservation offered an excellentopportunity for truck-farming, and the versatile head of the familycould not avoid trying his luck in this branch of work. A large "marketgarden" was laid out, in which Edison worked pretty steadily with thehelp of the Dutch boy, Michael Oates--he of the flying experiment. Theseboys had a horse and small wagon intrusted to them, and every morning inthe season they would load up with onions, lettuce, peas, etc. , and gothrough the town. 

As much as $600 was turned over to Mrs. Edison in one year from thissource. The boy was indefatigable but not altogether charmed withagriculture. "After a while I tired of this work, as hoeing corn ina hot sun is unattractive, and I did not wonder that it had built upcities. Soon the Grand Trunk Railroad was extended from Toronto to PortHuron, at the foot of Lake Huron, and thence to Detroit, at about thesame time the War of the Rebellion broke out. By a great amount ofpersistence I got permission from my mother to go on the local trainas a newsboy. The local train from Port Huron to Detroit, a distance ofsixty-three miles, left at 7 A. M. And arrived again at 9. 30 P. M. Afterbeing on the train for several months, I started two stores in PortHuron--one for periodicals, and the other for vegetables, butter, andberries in the season. These were attended by two boys who shared in theprofits. The periodical store I soon closed, as the boy in charge couldnot be trusted. The vegetable store I kept up for nearly a year. Afterthe railroad had been opened a short time, they put on an express whichleft Detroit in the morning and returned in the evening. I receivedpermission to put a newsboy on this train. Connected with this train wasa car, one part for baggage and the other part for U. S. Mail, but fora long time it was not used. Every morning I had two large baskets ofvegetables from the Detroit market loaded in the mail-car and sent toPort Huron, where the boy would take them to the store. They were muchbetter than those grown locally, and sold readily. I never was asked topay freight, and to this day cannot explain why, except that I was sosmall and industrious, and the nerve to appropriate a U. S. Mail-car todo a free freight business was so monumental. However, I kept this upfor a long time, and in addition bought butter from the farmers alongthe line, and an immense amount of blackberries in the season. I boughtwholesale and at a low price, and permitted the wives of the engineersand trainmen to have the benefit of the discount. After a while therewas a daily immigrant train put on. This train generally had from sevento ten coaches filled always with Norwegians, all bound for Iowa andMinnesota. On these trains I employed a boy who sold bread, tobacco, andstick candy. As the war progressed the daily newspaper sales became veryprofitable, and I gave up the vegetable store. "

The hours of this occupation were long, but the work was notparticularly heavy, and Edison soon found opportunity for his favoriteavocation--chemical experimentation. His train left Port Huron at 7A. M. , and made its southward trip to Detroit in about three hours. Thisgave a stay in that city from 10 A. M. Until the late afternoon, when thetrain left, arriving at Port Huron about 9. 30 P. M. The train was made upof three coaches--baggage, smoking, and ordinary passenger or "ladies. "The baggage-car was divided into three compartments--one for trunks andpackages, one for the mail, and one for smoking. In those days no usewas made of the smoking-compartment, as there was no ventilation, and itwas turned over to young Edison, who not only kept papers there and hisstock of goods as a "candy butcher, " but soon had it equipped with anextraordinary variety of apparatus. There was plenty of leisure on thetwo daily runs, even for an industrious boy, and thus he found timeto transfer his laboratory from the cellar and re-establish it on thetrain. 

His earnings were also excellent--so good, in fact, that eight or tendollars a day were often taken in, and one dollar went every day to hismother. Thus supporting himself, he felt entitled to spend any otherprofit left over on chemicals and apparatus. And spent it was, for withaccess to Detroit and its large stores, where he bought his supplies, and to the public library, where he could quench his thirst fortechnical information, Edison gave up all his spare time and money tochemistry. Surely the country could have presented at that moment nomore striking example of the passionate pursuit of knowledge underdifficulties than this newsboy, barely fourteen years of age, with hisjars and test-tubes installed on a railway baggage-car. 

Nor did this amazing equipment stop at batteries and bottles. The samelittle space a few feet square was soon converted by this precociousyouth into a newspaper office. The outbreak of the Civil War gave agreat stimulus to the demand for all newspapers, noticing which hebecame ambitious to publish a local journal of his own, devoted to thenews of that section of the Grand Trunk road. A small printing-pressthat had been used for hotel bills of fare was picked up in Detroit, and type was also bought, some of it being placed on the train so thatcomposition could go on in spells of leisure. To one so mechanical inhis tastes as Edison, it was quite easy to learn the rudiments of theprinting art, and thus the Weekly Herald came into existence, of whichhe was compositor, pressman, editor, publisher, and newsdealer. Only oneor two copies of this journal are now discoverable, but its appearancecan be judged from the reduced facsimile here shown. The thing wasindeed well done as the work of a youth shown by the date to be lessthan fifteen years old. The literary style is good, there are only a fewtrivial slips in spelling, and the appreciation is keen of what would beinteresting news and gossip. The price was three cents a copy, or eightcents a month for regular subscribers, and the circulation ran up toover four hundred copies an issue. This was by no means the result ofmere public curiosity, but attested the value of the sheet as a genuinenewspaper, to which many persons in the railroad service along theline were willing contributors. Indeed, with the aid of the railwaytelegraph, Edison was often able to print late news of importance, oflocal origin, that the distant regular papers like those of Detroit, which he handled as a newsboy, could not get. It is no wonder that thisclever little sheet received the approval and patronage of the Englishengineer Stephenson when inspecting the Grand Trunk system, and wasnoted by no less distinguished a contemporary than the London Times asthe first newspaper in the world to be printed on a train in motion. The youthful proprietor sometimes cleared as much as twenty to thirtydollars a month from this unique journalistic enterprise. 

But all this extra work required attention, and Edison solved thedifficulty of attending also to the newsboy business by the employmentof a young friend, whom he trained and treated liberally as anunderstudy. There was often plenty of work for both in the early daysof the war, when the news of battle caused intense excitement and largesales of papers. Edison, with native shrewdness already so strikinglydisplayed, would telegraph the station agents and get them to bulletinthe event of the day at the front, so that when each station was reachedthere were eager purchasers waiting. He recalls in particular thesensation caused by the great battle of Shiloh, or Pittsburg Landing, in April, 1862, in which both Grant and Sherman were engaged, in whichJohnston died, and in which there was a ghastly total of 25, 000 killedand wounded. 

In describing his enterprising action that day, Edison says that whenhe reached Detroit the bulletin-boards of the newspaper offices weresurrounded with dense crowds, which read awestricken the news that therewere 60, 000 killed and wounded, and that the result was uncertain. "Iknew that if the same excitement was attained at the various small townsalong the road, and especially at Port Huron, the sale of papers wouldbe great. I then conceived the idea of telegraphing the news ahead, wentto the operator in the depot, and by giving him Harper's Weekly andsome other papers for three months, he agreed to telegraph to all thestations the matter on the bulletin-board. I hurriedly copied it, and hesent it, requesting the agents to display it on the blackboards used forstating the arrival and departure of trains. I decided that instead ofthe usual one hundred papers I could sell one thousand; but not havingsufficient money to purchase that number, I determined in my desperationto see the editor himself and get credit. The great paper at that timewas the Detroit Free Press. I walked into the office marked 'Editorial'and told a young man that I wanted to see the editor on importantbusiness--important to me, anyway, I was taken into an office wherethere were two men, and I stated what I had done about telegraphing, andthat I wanted a thousand papers, but only had money for three hundred, and I wanted credit. One of the men refused it, but the other told thefirst spokesman to let me have them. This man, I afterward learned, wasWilbur F. Storey, who subsequently founded the Chicago Times, and becamecelebrated in the newspaper world. By the aid of another boy I luggedthe papers to the train and started folding them. The first station, called Utica, was a small one where I generally sold two papers. I sawa crowd ahead on the platform, and thought it some excursion, butthe moment I landed there was a rush for me; then I realized that thetelegraph was a great invention. I sold thirty-five papers there. Thenext station was Mount Clemens, now a watering-place, but then a town ofabout one thousand. I usually sold six to eight papers there. I decidedthat if I found a corresponding crowd there, the only thing to do tocorrect my lack of judgment in not getting more papers was to raisethe price from five cents to ten. The crowd was there, and I raised theprice. At the various towns there were corresponding crowds. It hadbeen my practice at Port Huron to jump from the train at a pointabout one-fourth of a mile from the station, where the train generallyslackened speed. I had drawn several loads of sand to this point to jumpon, and had become quite expert. The little Dutch boy with the horse metme at this point. When the wagon approached the outskirts of the townI was met by a large crowd. I then yelled: 'Twenty-five cents apiece, gentlemen! I haven't enough to go around!' I sold all out, and made whatto me then was an immense sum of money. "

Such episodes as this added materially to his income, but did notnecessarily increase his savings, for he was then, as now, an utterspendthrift so long as some new apparatus or supplies for experimentcould be had. In fact, the laboratory on wheels soon became crowdedwith such equipment, most costly chemicals were bought on the instalmentplan, and Fresenius' Qualitative Analysis served as a basis forceaseless testing and study. George Pullman, who then had a small shopat Detroit and was working on his sleeping-car, made Edison a lot ofwooden apparatus for his chemicals, to the boy's delight. Unfortunatelya sudden change came, fraught with disaster. The train, running one dayat thirty miles an hour over a piece of poorly laid track, was thrownsuddenly out of the perpendicular with a violent lurch, and, beforeEdison could catch it, a stick of phosphorus was jarred from its shelf, fell to the floor, and burst into flame. The car took fire, and the boy, in dismay, was still trying to quench the blaze when the conductor, aquick-tempered Scotchman, who acted also as baggage-master, hastened tothe scene with water and saved his car. On the arrival at Mount Clemensstation, its next stop, Edison and his entire outfit, laboratory, printing-plant, and all, were promptly ejected by the enraged conductor, and the train then moved off, leaving him on the platform, tearful andindignant in the midst of his beloved but ruined possessions. It waslynch law of a kind; but in view of the responsibility, this action ofthe conductor lay well within his rights and duties. 

It was through this incident that Edison acquired the deafness thathas persisted all through his life, a severe box on the ears from thescorched and angry conductor being the direct cause of the infirmity. Although this deafness would be regarded as a great affliction by mostpeople, and has brought in its train other serious baubles, Mr. Edisonhas always regarded it philosophically, and said about it recently:"This deafness has been of great advantage to me in various ways. Whenin a telegraph office, I could only hear the instrument directly on thetable at which I sat, and unlike the other operators, I was not botheredby the other instruments. Again, in experimenting on the telephone, I had to improve the transmitter so I could hear it. This made thetelephone commercial, as the magneto telephone receiver of Bell was tooweak to be used as a transmitter commercially. It was the same with thephonograph. The great defect of that instrument was the rendering of theovertones in music, and the hissing consonants in speech. I worked overone year, twenty hours a day, Sundays and all, to get the word 'specie'perfectly recorded and reproduced on the phonograph. When this was doneI knew that everything else could be done which was a fact. Again, my nerves have been preserved intact. Broadway is as quiet to me as acountry village is to a person with normal hearing. "

Saddened but not wholly discouraged, Edison soon reconstituted hislaboratory and printing-office at home, although on the part of thefamily there was some fear and objection after this episode, on thescore of fire. But Edison promised not to bring in anything of adangerous nature. He did not cease the publication of the Weekly Herald. On the contrary, he prospered in both his enterprises until persuadedby the "printer's devil" in the office of the Port Huron Commercial tochange the character of his journal, enlarge it, and issue it under thename of Paul Pry, a happy designation for this or kindred venturesin the domain of society journalism. No copies of Paul Pry can now befound, but it is known that its style was distinctly personal, thatgossip was its specialty, and that no small offence was given to thepeople whose peculiarities or peccadilloes were discussed in a frankand breezy style by the two boys. In one instance the resentment of thevictim of such unsought publicity was so intense he laid hands on Edisonand pitched the startled young editor into the St. Clair River. The nameof this violator of the freedom of the press was thereafter excludedstudiously from the columns of Paul Pry, and the incident may have beenone of those which soon caused the abandonment of the paper. Edisonhad great zest in this work, and but for the strong influences in otherdirections would probably have continued in the newspaper field, inwhich he was, beyond question, the youngest publisher and editor of theday. 

Before leaving this period of his career, it is to be noted that it gaveEdison many favorable opportunities. In Detroit he could spend frequenthours in the public library, and it is matter of record that he beganhis liberal acquaintance with its contents by grappling bravely with acertain section and trying to read it through consecutively, shelf byshelf, regardless of subject. In a way this is curiously suggestiveof the earnest, energetic method of "frontal attack" with which theinventor has since addressed himself to so many problems in the arts andsciences. 

The Grand Trunk Railroad machine-shops at Port Huron were a greatattraction to the boy, who appears to have spent a good deal of his timethere. He who was to have much to do with the evolution of the modernelectric locomotive was fascinated by the mechanism of the steamlocomotive; and whenever he could get the chance Edison rode in the cabwith the engineer of his train. He became thoroughly familiar with theintricacies of fire-box, boiler, valves, levers, and gears, and likednothing better than to handle the locomotive himself during the run. On one trip, when the engineer lay asleep while his eager substitutepiloted the train, the boiler "primed, " and a deluge overwhelmed theyoung driver, who stuck to his post till the run and the ordeal wereended. Possibly this helped to spoil a locomotive engineer, but wentto make a great master of the new motive power. "Steam is half anEnglishman, " said Emerson. The temptation is strong to say that workadayelectricity is half an American. Edison's own account of the incidentis very laughable: "The engine was one of a number leased to the GrandTrunk by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy. It had bright brass bands allover, the woodwork beautifully painted, and everything highly polished, which was the custom up to the time old Commodore Vanderbilt stoppedit on his roads. After running about fifteen miles the fireman couldn'tkeep his eyes open (this event followed an all-night dance of thetrainmen's fraternal organization), and he agreed to permit me to runthe engine. I took charge, reducing the speed to about twelve milesan hour, and brought the train of seven cars to her destination at theGrand Trunk junction safely. But something occurred which was very muchout of the ordinary. I was very much worried about the water, and Iknew that if it got low the boiler was likely to explode. I hadn't gonetwenty miles before black damp mud blew out of the stack and coveredevery part of the engine, including myself. I was about to awaken thefireman to find out the cause of this when it stopped. Then I approacheda station where the fireman always went out to the cowcatcher, openedthe oil-cup on the steam-chest, and poured oil in. I started to carryout the procedure when, upon opening the oil-cup, the steam rushed outwith a tremendous noise, nearly knocking me off the engine. I succeededin closing the oil-cup and got back in the cab, and made up my mindthat she would pull through without oil. I learned afterward that theengineer always shut off steam when the fireman went out to oil. Thispoint I failed to notice. My powers of observation were very muchimproved after this occurrence. Just before I reached the junctionanother outpour of black mud occurred, and the whole engine was asight--so much so that when I pulled into the yard everybody turned tosee it, laughing immoderately. I found the reason of the mud was that Icarried so much water it passed over into the stack, and this washed outall the accumulated soot. "

One afternoon about a week before Christmas Edison's train jumped thetrack near Utica, a station on the line. Four old Michigan Centralcars with rotten sills collapsed in the ditch and went all to pieces, distributing figs, raisins, dates, and candies all over the track andthe vicinity. Hating to see so much waste, Edison tried to save all hecould by eating it on the spot, but as a result "our family doctor hadthe time of his life with me in this connection. "

An absurd incident described by Edison throws a vivid light on thefree-and-easy condition of early railroad travel and on the Southernextravagance of the time. "In 1860, just before the war broke out therecame to the train one afternoon, in Detroit, two fine-looking young menaccompanied by a colored servant. They bought tickets for Port Huron, the terminal point for the train. After leaving the junction justoutside of Detroit, I brought in the evening papers. When I cameopposite the two young men, one of them said: 'Boy, what have you got?'I said: 'Papers. ' 'All right. ' He took them and threw them out of thewindow, and, turning to the colored man, said: 'Nicodemus, pay thisboy. ' I told Nicodemus the amount, and he opened a satchel and paid me. The passengers didn't know what to make of the transaction. I returnedwith the illustrated papers and magazines. These were seized and thrownout of the window, and I was told to get my money of Nicodemus. I thenreturned with all the old magazines and novels I had not been able tosell, thinking perhaps this would be too much for them. I was small andthin, and the layer reached above my head, and was all I could possiblycarry. I had prepared a list, and knew the amount in case they bitagain. When I opened the door, all the passengers roared with laughter. I walked right up to the young men. One asked me what I had. I said'Magazines and novels. ' He promptly threw them out of the window, and Nicodemus settled. Then I came in with cracked hickory nuts, thenpop-corn balls, and, finally, molasses candy. All went out of thewindow. I felt like Alexander the Great!--I had no more chance! I hadsold all I had. Finally I put a rope to my trunk, which was aboutthe size of a carpenter's chest, and started to pull this from thebaggage-car to the passenger-car. It was almost too much for mystrength, but at last I got it in front of those men. I pulled off mycoat, shoes, and hat, and laid them on the chest. Then he asked: 'Whathave you got, boy?' I said: 'Everything, sir, that I can spare that isfor sale. ' The passengers fairly jumped with laughter. Nicodemus paid me$27 for this last sale, and threw the whole out of the door in the rearof the car. These men were from the South, and I have always retained asoft spot in my heart for a Southern gentleman. "

While Edison was a newsboy on the train a request came to him one dayto go to the office of E. B. Ward & Company, at that time the largestowners of steamboats on the Great Lakes. The captain of their largestboat had died suddenly, and they wanted a message taken to anothercaptain who lived about fourteen miles from Ridgeway station on therailroad. This captain had retired, taken up some lumber land, and hadcleared part of it. Edison was offered $15 by Mr. Ward to go and fetchhim, but as it was a wild country and would be dark, Edison stood outfor $25, so that he could get the companionship of another lad. Theterms were agreed to. Edison arrived at Ridgeway at 8. 30 P. M. , when itwas raining and as dark as ink. Getting another boy with difficulty tovolunteer, he launched out on his errand in the pitch-black night. Thetwo boys carried lanterns, but the road was a rough path through denseforest. The country was wild, and it was a usual occurrence to see deer, bear, and coon skins nailed up on the sides of houses to dry. Edison hadread about bears, but couldn't remember whether they were day or nightprowlers. The farther they went the more apprehensive they became, andevery stump in the ravished forest looked like a bear. The other ladproposed seeking safety up a tree, but Edison demurred on the plea thatbears could climb, and that the message must be delivered that night toenable the captain to catch the morning train. First one lantern wentout, then the other. "We leaned up against a tree and cried. I thoughtif I ever got out of that scrape alive I would know more about thehabits of animals and everything else, and be prepared for all kinds ofmischance when I undertook an enterprise. However, the intense darknessdilated the pupils of our eyes so as to make them very sensitive, andwe could just see at times the outlines of the road. Finally, just asa faint gleam of daylight arrived, we entered the captain's yard anddelivered the message. In my whole life I never spent such a night ofhorror as this, but I got a good lesson. "

An amusing incident of this period is told by Edison. "When I was aboy, " he says, "the Prince of Wales, the late King Edward, came toCanada (1860). Great preparations were made at Sarnia, the Canadian townopposite Port Huron. About every boy, including myself, went over tosee the affair. The town was draped in flags most profusely, and carpetswere laid on the cross-walks for the prince to walk on. There werearches, etc. A stand was built raised above the general level, where theprince was to be received by the mayor. Seeing all these preparations, my idea of a prince was very high; but when he did arrive I mistook theDuke of Newcastle for him, the duke being a fine-looking man. I soon sawthat I was mistaken: that the prince was a young stripling, and didnot meet expectations. Several of us expressed our belief that a princewasn't much, after all, and said that we were thoroughly disappointed. For this one boy was whipped. Soon the Canuck boys attacked the Yankeeboys, and we were all badly licked. I, myself, got a black eye. That hasalways prejudiced me against that kind of ceremonial and folly. " It iscertainly interesting to note that in later years the prince for whomEdison endured the ignominy of a black eye made generous compensationin a graceful letter accompanying the gold Albert Medal awarded by theRoyal Society of Arts. 

Another incident of the period is as follows: "After selling papers inPort Huron, which was often not reached until about 9. 30 at night, Iseldom got home before 11. 00 or 11. 30. About half-way home from thestation and the town, and within twenty-five feet of the road in adense wood, was a soldiers' graveyard where three hundred soldiers wereburied, due to a cholera epidemic which took place at Fort Gratiot, nearby, many years previously. At first we used to shut our eyes and run thehorse past this graveyard, and if the horse stepped on a twig my heartwould give a violent movement, and it is a wonder that I haven't somevalvular disease of that organ. But soon this running of the horsebecame monotonous, and after a while all fears of graveyards absolutelydisappeared from my system. I was in the condition of Sam Houston, thepioneer and founder of Texas, who, it was said, knew no fear. Houstonlived some distance from the town and generally went home late at night, having to pass through a dark cypress swamp over a corduroy road. Onenight, to test his alleged fearlessness, a man stationed himself behinda tree and enveloped himself in a sheet. He confronted Houston suddenly, and Sam stopped and said: 'If you are a man, you can't hurt me. If youare a ghost, you don't want to hurt me. And if you are the devil, comehome with me; I married your sister!'"

It is not to be inferred, however, from some of the preceding statementsthat the boy was of an exclusively studious bent of mind. He had then, as now, the keen enjoyment of a joke, and no particular aversion to thepractical form. An incident of the time is in point. "After the breakingout of the war there was a regiment of volunteer soldiers quarteredat Fort Gratiot, the reservation extending to the boundary line of ourhouse. Nearly every night we would hear a call, such as 'Corporal ofthe Guard, No. 1. ' This would be repeated from sentry to sentry until itreached the barracks, when Corporal of the Guard, No. 1, would come andsee what was wanted. I and the little Dutch boy, after returning fromthe town after selling our papers, thought we would take a hand atmilitary affairs. So one night, when it was very dark, I shouted forCorporal of the Guard, No. 1. The second sentry, thinking it was theterminal sentry who shouted, repeated it to the third, and so on. Thisbrought the corporal along the half mile, only to find that he wasfooled. We tried him three nights; but the third night they werewatching, and caught the little Dutch boy, took him to the lock-up atthe fort, and shut him up. They chased me to the house. I rushed for thecellar. In one small apartment there were two barrels of potatoes and athird one nearly empty. I poured these remnants into the other barrels, sat down, and pulled the barrel over my head, bottom up. The soldiershad awakened my father, and they were searching for me with candles andlanterns. The corporal was absolutely certain I came into the cellar, and couldn't see how I could have gotten out, and wanted to know from myfather 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 wasglad when they left, as I was cramped, and the potatoes were rotten thathad been in the barrel and violently offensive. The next morning I wasfound in bed, and received a good switching on the legs from my father, the first and only one I ever received from him, although my mother kepta switch behind the old Seth Thomas clock that had the bark worn off. My mother's ideas and mine differed at times, especially when I gotexperimenting and mussed up things. The Dutch boy was released nextmorning. "

CHAPTER IV

THE YOUNG TELEGRAPH OPERATOR

"WHILE a newsboy on the railroad, " says Edison, "I got very muchinterested in electricity, probably from visiting telegraph offices witha chum who had tastes similar to mine. " It will also have been notedthat he used the telegraph to get items for his little journal, and tobulletin his special news of the Civil War along the line. The next stepwas natural, and having with his knowledge of chemistry no trouble about"setting up" his batteries, the difficulties of securing apparatus werechiefly those connected with the circuits and the instruments. Americanyouths to-day are given, if of a mechanical turn of mind, to amateurtelegraphy or telephony, but seldom, if ever, have to make any part ofthe system constructed. In Edison's boyish days it was quite different, and telegraphic supplies were hard to obtain. But he and his "chum"had a line between their homes, built of common stove-pipe wire. Theinsulators were bottles set on nails driven into trees and short poles. The magnet wire was wound with rags for insulation, and pieces of springbrass were used for keys. With an idea of securing current cheaply, Edison applied the little that he knew about static electricity, and actually experimented with cats, which he treated vigorously asfrictional machines until the animals fled in dismay, and Edison hadlearned his first great lesson in the relative value of sources ofelectrical energy. The line was made to work, however, and additional tothe messages that the boys interchanged, Edison secured practice in aningenious manner. His father insisted on 11. 30 as proper bedtime, whichleft but a short interval after the long day on the train. But eachevening, when the boy went home with a bundle of papers that hadnot been sold in the town, his father would sit up reading the"returnables. " Edison, therefore, on some excuse, left the paperswith his friend, but suggested that he could get the news from him bytelegraph, bit by bit. The scheme interested his father, and wasput into effect, the messages being written down and handed over forperusal. This yielded good practice nightly, lasting until 12 and1 o'clock, and was maintained for some time until Mr. Edison becamewilling that his son should stay up for a reasonable time. The paperswere then brought home again, and the boys amused themselves to theirhearts' content until the line was pulled down by a stray cow wanderingthrough the orchard. Meantime better instruments had been secured, andthe rudiments of telegraphy had been fairly mastered. 

The mixed train on which Edison was employed as newsboy did theway-freight work and shunting at the Mount Clemens station, about halfan hour being usually spent in the work. One August morning, in 1862, while the shunting was in progress, and a laden box-car had been pushedout of a siding, Edison, who was loitering about the platform, saw thelittle son of the station agent, Mr. J. U. Mackenzie, playing with thegravel on the main track along which the car without a brakeman wasrapidly approaching. Edison dropped his papers and his glazed cap, and made a dash for the child, whom he picked up and lifted to safetywithout a second to spare, as the wheel of the car struck his heel; andboth were cut about the face and hands by the gravel ballast on whichthey fell. The two boys were picked up by the train-hands and carriedto the platform, and the grateful father at once offered to teach therescuer, whom he knew and liked, the art of train telegraphy and to makean operator of him. It is needless to say that the proposal was eagerlyaccepted. 

Edison found time for his new studies by letting one of his friends lookafter the newsboy work on the train for part of the trip, reservingto himself the run between Port Huron and Mount Clemens. That he wasalready well qualified as a beginner is evident from the fact that hehad mastered the Morse code of the telegraphic alphabet, and was ableto take to the station a neat little set of instruments he had justfinished with his own hands at a gun-shop in Detroit. This was probablya unique achievement in itself among railway operators of that day or oflater times. The drill of the student involved chiefly the acquisitionof the special signals employed in railway work, including the numeralsand abbreviations applied to save time. Some of these have passedinto the slang of the day, "73" being well known as a telegrapher'sexpression of compliments or good wishes, while "23" is an accidentor death message, and has been given broader popular significance asa general synonym for "hoodoo. " All of this came easily to Edison, whohad, moreover, as his Herald showed, an unusual familiarity with trainmovement along that portion of the Grand Trunk road. 

Three or four months were spent pleasantly and profitably by the youthin this course of study, and Edison took to it enthusiastically, givingit no less than eighteen hours a day. He then put up a little telegraphline from the station to the village, a distance of about a mile, andopened an office in a drug store; but the business was naturally verysmall. The telegraph operator at Port Huron knowing of his proficiency, and wanting to get into the United States Military Telegraph Corps, where the pay in those days of the Civil War was high, succeeded inconvincing his brother-in-law, Mr. M. Walker, that young Edison couldfill the position. Edison was, of course, well acquainted with theoperators along the road and at the southern terminal, and took up hisnew duties very easily. The office was located in a jewelry store, wherenewspapers and periodicals were also sold. Edison was to be found at theoffice both day and night, sleeping there. "I became quite valuable toMr. Walker. After working all day I worked at the office nights as well, for the reason that 'press report' came over one of the wires until 3A. M. , and I would cut in and copy it as well as I could, to become morerapidly proficient. The goal of the rural telegraph operator was to beable to take press. Mr. Walker tried to get my father to apprentice meat $20 per month, but they could not agree. I then applied for a job onthe Grand Trunk Railroad as a railway operator, and was given a place, nights, at Stratford Junction, Canada. " Apparently his friend Mackenziehelped him in the matter. The position carried a salary of $25 permonth. No serious objections were raised by his family, for the distancefrom Port Huron was not great, and Stratford was near Bayfield, theold home from which the Edisons had come, so that there were doubtlessfriends or even relatives in the vicinity. This was in 1863. 

Mr. Walker was an observant man, who has since that time installed anumber of waterworks systems and obtained several patents of his own. Hedescribes the boy of sixteen as engrossed intensely in his experimentsand scientific reading, and somewhat indifferent, for this reason, tohis duties as operator. This office was not particularly busy, takingfrom $50 to $75 a month, but even the messages taken in would remainunsent on the hook while Edison was in the cellar below trying to solvesome chemical problem. The manager would see him studying sometimesan article in such a paper as the Scientific American, and thendisappearing to buy a few sundries for experiments. Returning from thedrug store with his chemicals, he would not be seen again until requiredby his duties, or until he had found out for himself, if possible, inthis offhand manner, whether what he had read was correct or not. Whenhe had completed his experiment all interest in it was lost, and thejars and wires would be left to any fate that might befall them. In likemanner Edison would make free use of the watchmaker's tools that layon the little table in the front window, and would take the wire pliersthere without much thought as to their value as distinguished from alineman's tools. The one idea was to do quickly what he wanted to do;and the same swift, almost headlong trial of anything that comes tohand, while the fervor of a new experiment is felt, has been notedat all stages of the inventor's career. One is reminded of Palissy'srecklessness, when in his efforts to make the enamel melt on his potteryhe used the very furniture of his home for firewood. 

Mr. Edison remarks the fact that there was very little differencebetween the telegraph of that time and of to-day, except the general useof the old Morse register with the dots and dashes recorded by indentingpaper strips that could be read and checked later at leisure ifnecessary. He says: "The telegraph men couldn't explain how it worked, and I was always trying to get them to do so. I think they couldn't. Iremember the best explanation I got was from an old Scotch line repaireremployed by the Montreal Telegraph Company, which operated the railroadwires. He said that if you had a dog like a dachshund, long enough toreach from Edinburgh to London, if you pulled his tail in Edinburgh hewould bark in London. I could understand that, but I never could getit through me what went through the dog or over the wire. " To-dayMr. Edison is just as unable to solve the inner mystery of electricaltransmission. Nor is he alone. At the banquet given to celebrate hisjubilee in 1896 as professor at Glasgow University, Lord Kelvin, thegreatest physicist of our time, admitted with tears in his eyes and thenote of tragedy in his voice, that when it came to explaining thenature of electricity, he knew just as little as when he had begun asa student, and felt almost as though his life had been wasted while hetried to grapple with the great mystery of physics. 

Another episode of this period is curious in its revelation of thetenacity with which Edison has always held to some of his oldestpossessions with a sense of personal attachment. "While workingat Stratford Junction, " he says, "I was told by one of the freightconductors that in the freight-house at Goodrich there were severalboxes of old broken-up batteries. I went there and found over eightycells of the well-known Grove nitric-acid battery. The operator there, who was also agent, when asked by me if I could have the electrodes ofeach cell, made of sheet platinum, gave his permission readily, thinkingthey were of tin. I removed them all, amounting to several ounces. Platinum even in those days was very expensive, costing several dollarsan ounce, and I owned only three small strips. I was overjoyed at thisacquisition, and those very strips and the reworked scrap are used tothis day in my laboratory over forty years later. "

It was at Stratford that Edison's inventiveness was first displayed. Thehours of work of a night operator are usually from 7 P. M. To 7 A. M. , andto insure attention while on duty it is often provided that the operatorevery hour, from 9 P. M. Until relieved by the day operator, shall sendin the signal "6" to the train dispatcher's office. Edison revelled inthe opportunity for study and experiment given him by his long hoursof freedom in the daytime, but needed sleep, just as any healthy youthdoes. Confronted by the necessity of sending in this watchman's signalas evidence that he was awake and on duty, he constructed a small wheelwith notches on the rim, and attached it to the clock in such a mannerthat the night-watchman could start it when the line was quiet, and ateach hour the wheel revolved and sent in accurately the dots requiredfor "sixing. " The invention was a success, the device being, indeed, similar to that of the modern district messenger box; but it was soonnoticed that, in spite of the regularity of the report, "Sf" could notbe raised even if a train message were sent immediately after. Detectionand a reprimand came in due course, but were not taken very seriously. 

A serious occurrence that might have resulted in accident drove him soonafter from Canada, although the youth could hardly be held to blame forit. Edison says: "This night job just suited me, as I could have thewhole day to myself. I had the faculty of sleeping in a chair any timefor a few minutes at a time. I taught the night-yardman my call, so Icould get half an hour's sleep now and then between trains, and in casethe station was called the watchman would awaken me. One night I got anorder to hold a freight train, and I replied that I would. I rushed outto find the signalman, but before I could find him and get the signalset, the train ran past. I ran to the telegraph office, and reportedthat I could not hold her. The reply was: 'Hell!' The train dispatcher, on the strength of my message that I would hold the train, had permittedanother to leave the last station in the opposite direction. There was alower station near the junction where the day operator slept. I startedfor it on foot. The night was dark, and I fell into a culvert and wasknocked senseless. " Owing to the vigilance of the two engineers onthe locomotives, who saw each other approaching on the straight singletrack, nothing more dreadful happened than a summons to the thoughtlessoperator to appear before the general manager at Toronto. On reachingthe manager's office, his trial for neglect of duty was fortunatelyinterrupted by the call of two Englishmen; and while their conversationproceeded, Edison slipped quietly out of the room, hurried to the GrandTrunk freight depot, found a conductor he knew taking out a freighttrain for Sarnia, and was not happy until the ferry-boat from Sarnia hadlanded him once more on the Michigan shore. The Grand Trunk still owesMr. Edison the wages due him at the time he thus withdrew from itsservice, but the claim has never been pressed. 

The same winter of 1863-64, while at Port Huron, Edison had a furtheropportunity of displaying his ingenuity. An ice-jam had broken the lighttelegraph cable laid in the bed of the river across to Sarnia, and thuscommunication was interrupted. The river is three-quarters of a milewide, and could not be crossed on foot; nor could the cable be repaired. Edison at once suggested using the steam whistle of the locomotive, and by manipulating the valve conversed the short and long outbursts ofshrill sound into the Morse code. An operator on the Sarnia shore wasquick enough to catch the significance of the strange whistling, andmessages were thus sent in wireless fashion across the ice-floes in theriver. It is said that such signals were also interchanged by militarytelegraphers during the war, and possibly Edison may have heard ofthe practice; but be that as it may, he certainly showed ingenuityand resource in applying such a method to meet the necessity. It isinteresting to note that at this point the Grand Trunk now has its St. Clair tunnel, through which the trains are hauled under the river-bed byelectric locomotives. 

Edison had now begun unconsciously the roaming and drifting that tookhim during the next five years all over the Middle States, and thatmight well have wrecked the career of any one less persistentand industrious. It was a period of his life corresponding to theWanderjahre of the German artisan, and was an easy way of gratifying ataste for travel without the risk of privation. To-day there is littletemptation to the telegrapher to go to distant parts of the country onthe chance that he may secure a livelihood at the key. The ranks arewell filled everywhere, and of late years the telegraph as an art orindustry has shown relatively slight expansion, owing chiefly to thedevelopment of telephony. Hence, if vacancies occur, there are plenty ofoperators available, and salaries have remained so low as to lead to oneor two formidable and costly strikes that unfortunately took no accountof the economic conditions of demand and supply. But in the days of theCivil War there was a great dearth of skilful manipulators of the key. About fifteen hundred of the best operators in the country were at thefront on the Federal side alone, and several hundred more had enlisted. This created a serious scarcity, and a nomadic operator going to anytelegraphic centre would be sure to find a place open waiting for him. At the close of the war a majority of those who had been with the twoopposed armies remained at the key under more peaceful surroundings, butthe rapid development of the commercial and railroad systems fostered anew demand, and then for a time it seemed almost impossible to trainnew operators fast enough. In a few years, however, the telephone spranginto vigorous existence, dating from 1876, drawing off some of themost adventurous spirits from the telegraph field; and the deterrentinfluence of the telephone on the telegraph had made itself felt by1890. The expiration of the leading Bell telephone patents, five yearslater, accentuated even more sharply the check that had been puton telegraphy, as hundreds and thousands of "independent" telephonecompanies were then organized, throwing a vast network of toll linesover Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and other States, and affordingcheap, instantaneous means of communication without any necessity forthe intervention of an operator. 

It will be seen that the times have changed radically since Edisonbecame a telegrapher, and that in this respect a chapter of electricalhistory has been definitely closed. There was a day when the art offereda distinct career to all of its practitioners, and young men of ambitionand good family were eager to begin even as messenger boys, and wereready to undergo a severe ordeal of apprenticeship with the belief thatthey could ultimately attain positions of responsibility and profit. At the same time operators have always been shrewd enough to regard thetelegraph as a stepping-stone to other careers in life. A bright fellowentering the telegraph service to-day finds the experience he maygain therein valuable, but he soon realizes that there are not enoughgood-paying official positions to "go around, " so as to give each worthyman a chance after he has mastered the essentials of the art. He feels, therefore, that to remain at the key involves either stagnation ordeterioration, and that after, say, twenty-five years of practice hewill have lost ground as compared with friends who started out in otheroccupations. The craft of an operator, learned without much difficulty, is very attractive to a youth, but a position at the key is no placefor a man of mature years. His services, with rare exceptions, grow lessvaluable as he advances in age and nervous strain breaks him down. Onthe contrary, men engaged in other professions find, as a rule, thatthey improve and advance with experience, and that age brings largerrewards and opportunities. 

The list of well-known Americans who have been graduates of the key isindeed an extraordinary one, and there is no department of our nationallife in which they have not distinguished themselves. The contrast, in this respect, between them and their European colleagues is highlysignificant. In Europe the telegraph systems are all under governmentmanagement, the operators have strictly limited spheres of promotion, and at the best the transition from one kind of employment to another isnot made so easily as in the New World. But in the United States we haveseen Rufus Bullock become Governor of Georgia, and Ezra Cornell Governorof New York. Marshall Jewell was Postmaster-General of PresidentGrant's Cabinet, and Daniel Lamont was Secretary of State in PresidentCleveland's. Gen. T. T. Eckert, past-President of the Western UnionTelegraph Company, was Assistant Secretary of War under PresidentLincoln; and Robert J. Wynne, afterward a consul-general, served asAssistant Postmaster General. A very large proportion of thepresidents and leading officials of the great railroad systems are oldtelegraphers, including Messrs. W. C. Brown, President of the New YorkCentral Railroad, and Marvin Hughitt, President of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad. In industrial and financial life there have beenTheodore N. Vail, President of the Bell telephone system; L. C. Weir, late President of the Adams Express; A. B. Chandler, President of thePostal Telegraph and Cable Company; Sir W. Van Home, identified withCanadian development; Robert C. Clowry, President of the WesternUnion Telegraph Company; D. H. Bates, Manager of the Baltimore &Ohio telegraph for Robert Garrett; and Andrew Carnegie, the greatestironmaster the world has ever known, as well as its greatestphilanthropist. In journalism there have been leaders like EdwardRosewater, founder of the Omaha Bee; W. J. Elverson, of the PhiladelphiaPress; and Frank A. Munsey, publisher of half a dozen big magazines. George Kennan has achieved fame in literature, and Guy Carleton andHarry de Souchet have been successful as dramatists. These are buttypical of hundreds of men who could be named who have risen fromwork at the key to become recognized leaders in differing spheres ofactivity. 

But roving has never been favorable to the formation of steady habits. The young men who thus floated about the country from one telegraphoffice to another were often brilliant operators, noted for speed insending and receiving, but they were undisciplined, were without therestraining influences of home life, and were so highly paid for theirwork that they could indulge freely in dissipation if inclined that way. Subjected to nervous tension for hours together at the key, many of themunfortunately took to drink, and having ended one engagement in a cityby a debauch that closed the doors of the office to them, would driftaway to the nearest town, and there securing work, would repeat theperformance. At one time, indeed, these men were so numerous and somuch in evidence as to constitute a type that the public was disposedto accept as representative of the telegraphic fraternity; but as theconditions creating him ceased to exist, the "tramp operator" alsopassed into history. It was, however, among such characters that Edisonwas very largely thrown in these early days of aimless drifting, tolearn something perhaps of their nonchalant philosophy of life, sharingbed and board with them under all kinds of adverse conditions, butalways maintaining a stoic abstemiousness, and never feeling other thana keen regret at the waste of so much genuine ability and kindliness onthe part of those knights errant of the key whose inevitable fate mightso easily have been his own. 

Such a class or group of men can always be presented by an individualtype, and this is assuredly best embodied in Milton F. Adams, one ofEdison's earliest and closest friends, to whom reference will be made inlater chapters, and whose life has been so full of adventurous episodesthat he might well be regarded as the modern Gil Blas. That career iscertainly well worth the telling as "another story, " to use the Kiplingphrase. Of him Edison says: "Adams was one of a class of operators neversatisfied to work at any place for any great length of time. He had the'wanderlust. ' After enjoying hospitality in Boston in 1868-69, on thefloor of my hall-bedroom, which was a paradise for the entomologist, while the boarding-house itself was run on the banting system of fleshreduction, he came to me one day and said: 'Good-bye, Edison; I havegot sixty cents, and I am going to San Francisco. ' And he did go. How, Inever knew personally. I learned afterward that he got a job there, andthen within a week they had a telegraphers' strike. He got a bigtorch and sold patent medicine on the streets at night to support thestrikers. Then he went to Peru as partner of a man who had a grizzlybear which they proposed entering against a bull in the bull-ring inthat city. The grizzly was killed in five minutes, and so the schemedied. Then Adams crossed the Andes, and started a market-reportbureau in Buenos Ayres. This didn't pay, so he started a restaurant inPernambuco, Brazil. There he did very well, but something went wrong(as it always does to a nomad), so he went to the Transvaal, and ran apanorama called 'Paradise Lost' in the Kaffir kraals. This didn't pay, and he became the editor of a newspaper; then went to England to raisemoney for a railroad in Cape Colony. Next I heard of him in New York, having just arrived from Bogota, United States of Colombia, with a powerof attorney and $2000 from a native of that republic, who had appliedfor a patent for tightening a belt to prevent it from slipping on apulley--a device which he thought a new and great invention, but whichwas in use ever since machinery was invented. I gave Adams, then, aposition as salesman for electrical apparatus. This he soon got tiredof, and I lost sight of him. " Adams, in speaking of this episode, saysthat when he asked for transportation expenses to St. Louis, Edisonpulled out of his pocket a ferry ticket to Hoboken, and said to hisassociates: "I'll give him that, and he'll get there all right. " Thiswas in the early days of electric lighting; but down to the presentmoment the peregrinations of this versatile genius of the key have neverceased in one hemisphere or the other, so that as Mr. Adams himselfremarked to the authors in April, 1908: "The life has been somewhatvariegated, but never dull. "

The fact remains also that throughout this period Edison, while himselfa very Ishmael, never ceased to study, explore, experiment. Referringto this beginning of his career, he mentions a curious fact thatthrows light on his ceaseless application. "After I became a telegraphoperator, " he says, "I practiced for a long time to become a rapidreader of print, and got so expert I could sense the meaning of a wholeline at once. This faculty, I believe, should be taught in schools, asit appears to be easily acquired. Then one can read two or three booksin a day, whereas if each word at a time only is sensed, reading islaborious. "

CHAPTER V

ARDUOUS YEARS IN THE CENTRAL WEST

IN 1903, when accepting the position of honorary electrician to theInternational Exposition held in St. Louis in 1904, to commemorate thecentenary of the Louisiana Purchase, Mr. Edison spoke in his letterof the Central West as a "region where as a young telegraph operator Ispent many arduous years before moving East. " The term of probationthus referred to did not end until 1868, and while it lasted Edison'swanderings carried him from Detroit to New Orleans, and took him, amongother cities, to Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Louisville, and Memphis, someof which he visited twice in his peregrinations to secure work. FromCanada, after the episodes noted in the last chapter, he went to Adrian, Michigan, and of what happened there Edison tells a story typical ofhis wanderings for several years to come. "After leaving my first jobat Stratford Junction, I got a position as operator on the Lake Shore &Michigan Southern at Adrian, Michigan, in the division superintendent'soffice. As usual, I took the 'night trick, ' which most operatorsdisliked, but which I preferred, as it gave me more leisure toexperiment. I had obtained from the station agent a small room, and hadestablished a little shop of my own. One day the day operator wanted toget off, and I was on duty. About 9 o'clock the superintendent handed mea despatch which he said was very important, and which I must get off atonce. The wire at the time was very busy, and I asked if I shouldbreak in. I got orders to do so, and acting under those orders of thesuperintendent, I broke in and tried to send the despatch; but theother operator would not permit it, and the struggle continued for tenminutes. Finally I got possession of the wire and sent the message. Thesuperintendent of telegraph, who then lived in Adrian and went to hisoffice in Toledo every day, happened that day to be in the Western Unionoffice up-town--and it was the superintendent I was really strugglingwith! In about twenty minutes he arrived livid with rage, and I wasdischarged on the spot. I informed him that the general superintendenthad told me to break in and send the despatch, but the generalsuperintendent then and there repudiated the whole thing. Their familieswere socially close, so I was sacrificed. My faith in human nature got aslight jar. "

Edison then went to Toledo and secured a position at Fort Wayne, on thePittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad, now leased to the Pennsylvaniasystem. This was a "day job, " and he did not like it. He drifted twomonths later to Indianapolis, arriving there in the fall of 1864, whenhe was at first assigned to duty at the Union Station at a salary of $75a month for the Western Union Telegraph Company, whose service henow entered, and with which he has been destined to maintain highlyimportant and close relationships throughout a large part of his life. Superintendent Wallick appears to have treated him generously and tohave loaned him instruments, a kindness that was greatly appreciated, for twenty years later the inventor called on his old employer, andtogether they visited the scene where the borrowed apparatus had beenmounted on a rough board in the depot. Edison did not stay long inIndianapolis, however, resigning in February, 1865, and proceeding toCincinnati. The transfer was possibly due to trouble caused by one ofhis early inventions embodying what has been characterized by an expertas "probably the most simple and ingenious arrangement of connectionsfor a repeater. " His ambition was to take "press report, " but finding, even after considerable practice, that he "broke" frequently, headjusted two embossing Morse registers--one to receive the pressmatter, and the other to repeat the dots and dashes at a lower speed, sothat the message could be copied leisurely. Hence he could not be rushedor "broken" in receiving, while he could turn out "copy" that was amarvel of neatness and clearness. All was well so long as ordinaryconditions prevailed, but when an unusual pressure occurred the littlesystem fell behind, and the newspapers complained of the slowness withwhich reports were delivered to them. It is easy to understand that withmatter received at a rate of forty words per minute and worked off attwenty-five words per minute a serious congestion or delay would result, and the newspapers were more anxious for the news than they were forfine penmanship. 

Of this device Mr. Edison remarks: "Together we took press for severalnights, my companion keeping the apparatus in adjustment and I copying. The regular press operator would go to the theatre or take a nap, onlyfinishing the report after 1 A. M. One of the newspapers complained ofbad copy toward the end of the report--that, is from 1 to 3 A. M. , andrequested that the operator taking the report up to 1 A. M. --which wasourselves--take it all, as the copy then was perfectly unobjectionable. This led to an investigation by the manager, and the scheme wasforbidden. 

"This instrument, many years afterward, was applied by me fortransferring messages from one wire to any other wire simultaneously, or after any interval of time. It consisted of a disk of paper, theindentations being formed in a volute spiral, exactly as in the diskphonograph to-day. It was this instrument which gave me the idea of thephonograph while working on the telephone. "

Arrived in Cincinnati, where he got employment in the Western Unioncommercial telegraph department at a wage of $60 per month, Edisonmade the acquaintance of Milton F. Adams, already referred to as facileprinceps the typical telegrapher in all his more sociable and brilliantaspects. Speaking of that time, Mr. Adams says: "I can well recall whenEdison drifted in to take a job. He was a youth of about eighteen years, decidedly unprepossessing in dress and rather uncouth in manner. I wastwenty-one, and very dudish. He was quite thin in those days, and hisnose was very prominent, giving a Napoleonic look to his face, althoughthe curious resemblance did not strike me at the time. The boys did nottake to him cheerfully, and he was lonesome. I sympathized with him, andwe became close companions. As an operator he had no superiors and veryfew equals. Most of the time he was monkeying with the batteries andcircuits, and devising things to make the work of telegraphy lessirksome. He also relieved the monotony of office-work by fitting up thebattery circuits to play jokes on his fellow-operators, and to deal withthe vermin that infested the premises. He arranged in the cellar what hecalled his 'rat paralyzer, ' a very simple contrivance consisting of twoplates insulated from each other and connected with the main battery. They were so placed that when a rat passed over them the fore feet onthe one plate and the hind feet on the other completed the circuit andthe rat departed this life, electrocuted. "

Shortly after Edison's arrival at Cincinnati came the close of the CivilWar and the assassination of President Lincoln. It was natural thattelegraphers should take an intense interest in the general struggle, for not only did they handle all the news relating to it, but many ofthem were at one time or another personal participants. For example, oneof the operators in the Cincinnati office was George Ellsworth, who wastelegrapher for Morgan, the famous Southern Guerrilla, and was with himwhen he made his raid into Ohio and was captured near the Pennsylvanialine. Ellsworth himself made a narrow escape by swimming the OhioRiver with the aid of an army mule. Yet we can well appreciate theunimpressionable way in which some of the men did their work, from ananecdote that Mr. Edison tells of that awful night of Friday, April 14, 1865: "I noticed, " he says, "an immense crowd gathering in the streetoutside a newspaper office. I called the attention of the otheroperators to the crowd, and we sent a messenger boy to find the causeof the excitement. He returned in a few minutes and shouted 'Lincoln'sshot. ' Instinctively the operators looked from one face to another tosee which man had received the news. All the faces were blank, and everyman said he had not taken a word about the shooting. 'Look over yourfiles, ' said the boss to the man handling the press stuff. For a fewmoments we waited in suspense, and then the man held up a sheet ofpaper containing a short account of the shooting of the President. Theoperator had worked so mechanically that he had handled the news withoutthe slightest knowledge of its significance. " Mr. Adams says that at thetime the city was en fete on account of the close of the war, the nameof the assassin was received by telegraph, and it was noted with athrill of horror that it was that of a brother of Edwin Booth and ofJunius Brutus Booth--the latter of whom was then playing at the oldNational Theatre. Booth was hurried away into seclusion, and the nextmorning the city that had been so gay over night with bunting was drapedwith mourning. 

Edison's diversions in Cincinnati were chiefly those already observed. He read a great deal, but spent most of his leisure in experiment. Mr. Adams remarks: "Edison and I were very fond of tragedy. Forrest and JohnMcCullough were playing at the National Theatre, and when our capitalwas sufficient we would go to see those eminent tragedians alternate inOthello and Iago. Edison always enjoyed Othello greatly. Aside from anoccasional visit to the Loewen Garden 'over the Rhine, ' with a glass ofbeer and a few pretzels, consumed while listening to the excellent musicof a German band, the theatre was the sum and substance of our innocentdissipation. "

The Cincinnati office, as a central point, appears to have beenattractive to many of the clever young operators who graduated from itto positions of larger responsibility. Some of them were conspicuous fortheir skill and versatility. Mr. Adams tells this interesting story asan illustration: "L. C. Weir, or Charlie, as he was known, at thattime agent for the Adams Express Company, had the remarkable ability oftaking messages and copying them twenty-five words behind the sender. One day he came into the operating-room, and passing a table he heardLouisville calling Cincinnati. He reached over to the key and answeredthe call. My attention was arrested by the fact that he walked off afterresponding, and the sender happened to be a good one. Weir coolly askedfor a pen, and when he sat down the sender was just one message aheadof him with date, address, and signature. Charlie started in, and in abeautiful, large, round hand copied that message. The sender went rightalong, and when he finished with six messages closed his key. When Weirhad done with the last one the sender began to think that after allthere had been no receiver, as Weir did not 'break, ' but simply gavehis O. K. He afterward became president of the Adams Express, and wascertainly a wonderful operator. " The operating-room referred to was onthe fifth floor of the building with no elevators. 

Those were the early days of trade unionism in telegraphy, and themovement will probably never quite die out in the craft which has alwaysshown so much solidarity. While Edison was in Cincinnati a delegationof five union operators went over from Cleveland to form a local branch, and the occasion was one of great conviviality. Night came, but theunionists were conspicuous by their absence, although more circuits thanone were intolerant of delay and clamorous for attention---eight localunionists being away. The Cleveland report wire was in special need, andEdison, almost alone in the office, devoted himself to it all throughthe night and until 3 o'clock the next morning, when he was relieved. 

He had previously been getting $80 a month, and had eked this outby copying plays for the theatre. His rating was that of a "plug" orinferior operator; but he was determined to lift himself into the classof first-class operators, and had kept up the practice of going to theoffice at night to "copy press, " acting willingly as a substitute forany operator who wanted to get off for a few hours--which often meantall night. Speaking of this special ordeal, for which he had thus beenunconsciously preparing, Edison says: "My copy looked fine if viewedas a whole, as I could write a perfectly straight line across the widesheet, which was not ruled. There were no flourishes, but the individualletters would not bear close inspection. When I missed understanding aword, there was no time to think what it was, so I made an illegible oneto fill in, trusting to the printers to sense it. I knew they could readanything, although Mr. Bloss, an editor of the Inquirer, made such badcopy that one of his editorials was pasted up on the notice-board in thetelegraph office with an offer of one dollar to any man who could 'readtwenty consecutive words. ' Nobody ever did it. When I got through Iwas too nervous to go home, so waited the rest of the night for the daymanager, Mr. Stevens, to see what was to be the outcome of this Unionformation and of my efforts. He was an austere man, and I was afraid ofhim. I got the morning papers, which came out at 4 A. M. , and the pressreport read perfectly, which surprised me greatly. I went to work onmy regular day wire to Portsmouth, Ohio, and there was considerableexcitement, but nothing was said to me, neither did Mr. Stevens examinethe copy on the office hook, which I was watching with great interest. However, about 3 P. M. He went to the hook, grabbed the bunch andlooked at it as a whole without examining it in detail, for which Iwas thankful. Then he jabbed it back on the hook, and I knew I was allright. He walked over to me, and said: 'Young man, I want you to workthe Louisville wire nights; your salary will be $125. ' Thus I got fromthe plug classification to that of a 'first-class man. '"

But no sooner was this promotion secured than he started again on hiswanderings southward, while his friend Adams went North, neitherhaving any difficulty in making the trip. "The boys in those dayshad extraordinary facilities for travel. As a usual thing it was onlynecessary for them to board a train and tell the conductor they wereoperators. Then they would go as far as they liked. The number ofoperators was small, and they were in demand everywhere. " It was in thisway Edison made his way south as far as Memphis, Tennessee, where thetelegraph service at that time was under military law, although theoperators received $125 a month. Here again Edison began to invent andimprove on existing apparatus, with the result of having once more to"move on. " The story may be told in his own terse language: "I was notthe inventor of the auto repeater, but while in Memphis I worked onone. Learning that the chief operator, who was a protege of thesuperintendent, was trying in some way to put New York and New Orleanstogether for the first time since the close of the war, I redoubled myefforts, and at 2 o'clock one morning I had them speaking to each other. The office of the Memphis Avalanche was in the same building. The papergot wind of it and sent messages. A column came out in the morning aboutit; but when I went to the office in the afternoon to report for duty Iwas discharged with out explanation. The superintendent would not evengive me a pass to Nashville, so I had to pay my fare. I had so littlemoney left that I nearly starved at Decatur, Alabama, and had to staythree days before going on north to Nashville. Arrived in that city, I went to the telegraph office, got money enough to buy a little solidfood, and secured a pass to Louisville. I had a companion with me whowas also out of a job. I arrived at Louisville on a bitterly cold day, with ice in the gutters. I was wearing a linen duster and was not muchto look at, but got a position at once, working on a press wire. Mytravelling companion was less successful on account of his 'record. 'They had a limit even in those days when the telegraph service was sodemoralized. "

Some reminiscences of Mr. Edison are of interest as bearing not onlyupon the "demoralized" telegraph service, but the conditions fromwhich the New South had to emerge while working out its salvation. "Thetelegraph was still under military control, not having been turned overto the original owners, the Southern Telegraph Company. In addition tothe regular force, there was an extra force of two or three operators, and some stranded ones, who were a burden to us, for board was high. One of these derelicts was a great source of worry to me, personally. Hewould come in at all hours and either throw ink around or make a lotof noise. One night he built a fire in the grate and started to throwpistol cartridges into the flames. These would explode, and I was twicehit by the bullets, which left a black-and-blue mark. Another night hecame in and got from some part of the building a lot of stationery with'Confederate States' printed at the head. He was a fine operator, andwrote a beautiful hand. He would take a sheet of this paper, writecapital 'A', and then take another sheet and make the 'A' differently;and so on through the alphabet; each time crumpling the paper up in hishand and throwing it on the floor. He would keep this up until the roomwas filled nearly flush with the table. Then he would quit. 

"Everything at that time was 'wide open. ' Disorganization reignedsupreme. There was no head to anything. At night myself and a companionwould go over to a gorgeously furnished faro-bank and get our midnightlunch. Everything was free. There were over twenty keno-rooms running. One of them that I visited was in a Baptist church, the man with thewheel being in the pulpit, and the gamblers in the pews. 

"While there the manager of the telegraph office was arrested forsomething I never understood, and incarcerated in a military prisonabout half a mile from the office. The building was in plain sight fromthe office, and four stories high. He was kept strictly incommunicado. One day, thinking he might be confined in a room facing the office, Iput my arm out of the window and kept signalling dots and dashes by themovement of the arm. I tried this several times for two days. Finallyhe noticed it, and putting his arm through the bars of the window heestablished communication with me. He thus sent several messages to hisfriends, and was afterward set free. "

Another curious story told by Edison concerns a fellow-operator on nightduty at Chattanooga Junction, at the time he was at Memphis: "When itwas reported that Hood was marching on Nashville, one night a Jew cameinto the office about 11 o'clock in great excitement, having heard theHood rumor. He, being a large sutler, wanted to send a message to savehis goods. The operator said it was impossible--that orders had beengiven to send no private messages. Then the Jew wanted to bribe myfriend, who steadfastly refused for the reason, as he told the Jew, thathe might be court-martialled and shot. Finally the Jew got up to $800. The operator swore him to secrecy and sent the message. Now there wasno such order about private messages, and the Jew, finding it out, complained to Captain Van Duzer, chief of telegraphs, who investigatedthe matter, and while he would not discharge the operator, laid himoff indefinitely. Van Duzer was so lenient that if an operator weredischarged, all the operator had to do was to wait three days and thengo and sit on the stoop of Van Duzer's office all day, and he would betaken back. But Van Duzer swore he would never give in in this case. He said that if the operator had taken $800 and sent the message at theregular rate, which was twenty-five cents, it would have been all right, as the Jew would be punished for trying to bribe a military operator;but when the operator took the $800 and then sent the message deadhead, he couldn't stand it, and he would never relent. "

A third typical story of this period deals with a cipher message forThomas. Mr. Edison narrates it as follows: "When I was an operator inCincinnati working the Louisville wire nights for a time, one night aman over on the Pittsburg wire yelled out: 'D. I. Cipher, ' which meantthat there was a cipher message from the War Department at Washingtonand that it was coming--and he yelled out 'Louisville. ' I startedimmediately to call up that place. It was just at the change of shift inthe office. I could not get Louisville, and the cipher message began tocome. It was taken by the operator on the other table direct from theWar Department. It was for General Thomas, at Nashville. I called forabout twenty minutes and notified them that I could not get Louisville. I kept at it for about fifteen minutes longer, and notified them thatthere was still no answer from Louisville. They then notified the WarDepartment that they could not get Louisville. Then we tried to get itby all kinds of roundabout ways, but in no case could anybody get themat that office. Soon a message came from the War Department to sendimmediately for the manager of the Cincinnati office. He was brought tothe office and several messages were exchanged, the contents of which, of course, I did not know, but the matter appeared to be very serious, as they were afraid of General Hood, of the Confederate Army, who wasthen attempting to march on Nashville; and it was very important thatthis cipher of about twelve hundred words or so should be got throughimmediately to General Thomas. I kept on calling up to 12 or 1 o'clock, but no Louisville. About 1 o'clock the operator at the Indianapolisoffice got hold of an operator on a wire which ran from Indianapolis toLouisville along the railroad, who happened to come into his office. Hearranged with this operator to get a relay of horses, and the messagewas sent through Indianapolis to this operator who had engaged horses tocarry the despatches to Louisville and find out the trouble, and get thedespatches through without delay to General Thomas. In those days thetelegraph fraternity was rather demoralized, and the discipline was verylax. It was found out a couple of days afterward that there werethree night operators at Louisville. One of them had gone over toJeffersonville and had fallen off a horse and broken his leg, and wasin a hospital. By a remarkable coincidence another of the men hadbeen stabbed in a keno-room, and was also in hospital while the thirdoperator had gone to Cynthiana to see a man hanged and had got left bythe train. "

 I think the most important line of investigation is the production of Electricity direct from carbon. Edison

Young Edison remained in Louisville for about two years, quite a longstay for one with such nomadic instincts. It was there that he perfectedthe peculiar vertical style of writing which, beginning with him intelegraphy, later became so much of a fad with teachers of penmanshipand in the schools. He says of this form of writing, a current exampleof which is given above: "I developed this style in Louisville whiletaking press reports. My wire was connected to the 'blind' side of arepeater at Cincinnati, so that if I missed a word or sentence, or ifthe wire worked badly, I could not break in and get the last words, because the Cincinnati man had no instrument by which he could hear me. I had to take what came. When I got the job, the cable across theOhio River at Covington, connecting with the line to Louisville, had avariable leak in it, which caused the strength of the signalling currentto make violent fluctuations. I obviated this by using several relays, each with a different adjustment, working several sounders all connectedwith one sounding-plate. The clatter was bad, but I could read it withfair ease. When, in addition to this infernal leak, the wires north toCleveland worked badly, it required a large amount of imagination to getthe sense of what was being sent. An imagination requires an appreciabletime for its exercise, and as the stuff was coming at the rate ofthirty-five to forty words a minute, it was very difficult to write downwhat was coming and imagine what wasn't coming. Hence it was necessaryto become a very rapid writer, so I started to find the fastest style. Ifound that the vertical style, with each letter separate and withoutany flourishes, was the most rapid, and that the smaller the letterthe greater the rapidity. As I took on an average from eight to fifteencolumns of news report every day, it did not take long to perfectthis method. " Mr. Edison has adhered to this characteristic style ofpenmanship down to the present time. 

As a matter of fact, the conditions at Louisville at that time were notmuch better than they had been at Memphis. The telegraph operating-roomwas in a deplorable condition. It was on the second story of adilapidated building on the principal street of the city, with thebattery-room in the rear; behind which was the office of the agent ofthe Associated Press. The plastering was about one-third gone from theceiling. A small stove, used occasionally in the winter, was connectedto the chimney by a tortuous pipe. The office was never cleaned. Theswitchboard for manipulating the wires was about thirty-four inchessquare. The brass connections on it were black with age and with thearcing effects of lightning, which, to young Edison, seemed particularlypartial to Louisville. "It would strike on the wires, " he says, "withan explosion like a cannon-shot, making that office no place for anoperator with heart-disease. " Around the dingy walls were a dozentables, the ends next to the wall. They were about the size of thoseseen in old-fashioned country hotels for holding the wash-bowl andpitcher. The copper wires connecting the instruments to the switchboardwere small, crystallized, and rotten. The battery-room was filledwith old record-books and message bundles, and one hundred cells ofnitric-acid battery, arranged on a stand in the centre of the room. Thisstand, as well as the floor, was almost eaten through by the destructiveaction of the powerful acid. Grim and uncompromising as the descriptionreads, it was typical of the equipment in those remote days of thetelegraph at the close of the war. 

Illustrative of the length to which telegraphers could go at a time whenthey were so much in demand, Edison tells the following story: "When Itook the position there was a great shortage of operators. One night at2 A. M. Another operator and I were on duty. I was taking press report, and the other man was working the New York wire. We heard a heavy tramp, tramp, tramp on the rickety stairs. Suddenly the door was thrownopen with great violence, dislodging it from one of the hinges. Thereappeared in the doorway one of the best operators we had, whoworked daytime, and who was of a very quiet disposition except whenintoxicated. He was a great friend of the manager of the office. Hiseyes were bloodshot and wild, and one sleeve had been torn away from hiscoat. Without noticing either of us he went up to the stove and kickedit over. The stove-pipe fell, dislocated at every joint. It was halffull of exceedingly fine soot, which floated out and filled the roomcompletely. This produced a momentary respite to his labors. When theatmosphere had cleared sufficiently to see, he went around and pulledevery table away from the wall, piling them on top of the stove in themiddle of the room. Then he proceeded to pull the switchboard away fromthe wall. It was held tightly by screws. He succeeded, finally, and whenit gave way he fell with the board, and striking on a table cuthimself so that he soon became covered with blood. He then went to thebattery-room and knocked all the batteries off on the floor. The nitricacid soon began to combine with the plaster in the room below, whichwas the public receiving-room for messengers and bookkeepers. The excessacid poured through and ate up the account-books. After having finishedeverything to his satisfaction, he left. I told the other operator todo nothing. We would leave things just as they were, and wait until themanager came. In the mean time, as I knew all the wires coming throughto the switchboard, I rigged up a temporary set of instruments so thatthe New York business could be cleared up, and we also got the remainderof the press matter. At 7 o'clock the day men began to appear. They weretold to go down-stairs and wait the coming of the manager. At 8 o'clockhe appeared, walked around, went into the battery-room, and then came tome, saying: 'Edison, who did this?' I told him that Billy L. Had come infull of soda-water and invented the ruin before him. He walked backwardand forward, about a minute, then coming up to my table put his fistdown, and said: 'If Billy L. Ever does that again, I will dischargehim. ' It was needless to say that there were other operators who tookadvantage of that kind of discipline, and I had many calls at nightafter that, but none with such destructive effects. "

This was one aspect of life as it presented itself to the sensitiveand observant young operator in Louisville. But there was another, more intellectual side, in the contact afforded with journalism and itsleaders, and the information taken in almost unconsciously as to thepolitical and social movements of the time. Mr. Edison looks back onthis with great satisfaction. "I remember, " he says, "the discussionsbetween the celebrated poet and journalist George D. Prentice, theneditor of the Courier-Journal, and Mr. Tyler, of the Associated Press. I believe Prentice was the father of the humorous paragraph of theAmerican newspaper. He was poetic, highly educated, and a brillianttalker. He was very thin and small. I do not think he weighed over onehundred and twenty five pounds. Tyler was a graduate of Harvard, and hada very clear enunciation, and, in sharp contrast to Prentice, he was alarge man. After the paper had gone to press, Prentice would generallycome over to Tyler's office and start talking. Having while in Tyler'soffice heard them arguing on the immortality of the soul, etc. , I askedpermission of Mr. Tyler if, after finishing the press matter, I mightcome in and listen to the conversation, which I did many times after. One thing I never could comprehend was that Tyler had a sideboard withliquors and generally crackers. Prentice would pour out half a glass ofwhat they call corn whiskey, and would dip the crackers in it and eatthem. Tyler took it sans food. One teaspoonful of that stuff would putme to sleep. "

Mr. Edison throws also a curious side-light on the origin of the comiccolumn in the modern American newspaper, the telegraph giving to a newjoke or a good story the ubiquity and instantaneity of an importanthistorical event. "It was the practice of the press operators all overthe country at that time, when a lull occurred, to start in and sendjokes or stories the day men had collected; and these were copied andpasted up on the bulletin-board. Cleveland was the originatingoffice for 'press, ' which it received from New York, and sent it outsimultaneously to Milwaukee, Chicago, Toledo, Detroit, Pittsburg, Columbus, Dayton, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Vincennes, Terre Haute, St. Louis, and Louisville. Cleveland would call first on Milwaukee, if hehad anything. If so, he would send it, and Cleveland would repeat it toall of us. Thus any joke or story originating anywhere in that areawas known the next day all over. The press men would come in and copyanything which could be published, which was about three per cent. Icollected, too, quite a large scrap-book of it, but unfortunately havelost it. "

Edison tells an amusing story of his own pursuits at this time. Alwaysan omnivorous reader, he had some difficulty in getting a sufficientquantity of literature for home consumption, and was in the habitof buying books at auctions and second-hand stores. One day at anauction-room he secured a stack of twenty unbound volumes of the NorthAmerican Review for two dollars. These he had bound and delivered at thetelegraph office. One morning, when he was free as usual at 3 o'clock, he started off at a rapid pace with ten volumes on his shoulder. Hefound himself very soon the subject of a fusillade. When he stopped, abreathless policeman grabbed him by the throat and ordered him to drophis parcel and explain matters, as a suspicious character. He opened thepackage showing the books, somewhat to the disgust of the officer, whoimagined he had caught a burglar sneaking away in the dark alley withhis booty. Edison explained that being deaf he had heard no challenge, and therefore had kept moving; and the policeman remarked apologeticallythat it was fortunate for Edison he was not a better shot. 

The incident is curiously revelatory of the character of the man, forit must be admitted that while literary telegraphers are by no meansscarce, there are very few who would spend scant savings on back numbersof a ponderous review at an age when tragedy, beer, and pretzels are farmore enticing. Through all his travels Edison has preserved those books, and has them now in his library at Llewellyn Park, on Orange Mountain, New Jersey. 

Drifting after a time from Louisville, Edison made his way as far northas Detroit, but, like the famous Duke of York, soon made his way backagain. Possibly the severer discipline after the happy-go-lucky regimein the Southern city had something to do with this restlessness, whichagain manifested itself, however, on his return thither. The end of thewar had left the South a scene of destruction and desolation, andmany men who had fought bravely and well found it hard to reconcilethemselves to the grim task of reconstruction. To them it seemed betterto "let ill alone" and seek some other clime where conditions wouldbe less onerous. At this moment a great deal of exaggerated talk wascurrent as to the sunny life and easy wealth of Latin America, and underits influences many "unreconstructed" Southerners made their wayto Mexico, Brazil, Peru, or the Argentine. Telegraph operators werenaturally in touch with this movement, and Edison's fertileimagination was readily inflamed by the glowing idea of all these vaguepossibilities. Again he threw up his steady work and, with a couple ofsanguine young friends, made his way to New Orleans. They had thenotion of taking positions in the Brazilian Government telegraphs, asan advertisement had been inserted in some paper stating that operatorswere wanted. They had timed their departure from Louisville so as tocatch a specially chartered steamer, which was to leave New Orleans forBrazil on a certain day, to convey a large number of Confederates andtheir families, who were disgusted with the United States and weregoing to settle in Brazil, where slavery still prevailed. Edison and hisfriends arrived in New Orleans just at the time of the great riot, whenseveral hundred negroes were killed, and the city was in the hands ofa mob. The Government had seized the steamer chartered for Brazil, inorder to bring troops from the Yazoo River to New Orleans to stop therioting. The young operators therefore visited another shipping-officeto make inquiries as to vessels for Brazil, and encountered an oldSpaniard who sat in a chair near the steamer agent's desk, and towhom they explained their intentions. He had lived and worked in SouthAmerica, and was very emphatic in his assertion, as he shook his yellow, bony finger at them, that the worst mistake they could possibly makewould be to leave the United States. He would not leave on any account, and they as young Americans would always regret it if they forsook theirnative land, whose freedom, climate, and opportunities could not beequalled anywhere on the face of the globe. Such sincere advice as thiscould not be disdained, and Edison made his way North again. One cannotresist speculation as to what might have happened to Edison himself andto the development of electricity had he made this proposed plunge intothe enervating tropics. It will be remembered that at a somewhat similarcrisis in life young Robert Burns entertained seriously the idea offorsaking Scotland for the West Indies. That he did not go was certainlybetter for Scottish verse, to which he contributed later so manyimmortal lines; and it was probably better for himself, even if he dieda gauger. It is simply impossible to imagine Edison working out thephonograph, telephone, and incandescent lamp under the tropical climeshe sought. Some years later he was informed that both his companions hadgone to Vera Cruz, Mexico, and had died there of yellow fever. 

Work was soon resumed at Louisville, where the dilapidated old officeoccupied at the close of the war had been exchanged for one much morecomfortable and luxurious in its equipment. As before, Edison wasallotted to press report, and remembers very distinctly taking thePresidential message and veto of the District of Columbia billby President Johnson. As the matter was received over the wire heparagraphed it so that each printer had exactly three lines, thusenabling the matter to be set up very expeditiously in the newspaperoffices. This earned him the gratitude of the editors, a dinner, and allthe newspaper "exchanges" he wanted. Edison's accounts of the sprees anddebauches of other night operators in the loosely managed offices enableone to understand how even a little steady application to the work inhand would be appreciated. On one occasion Edison acted as treasurer forhis bibulous companions, holding the stakes, so to speak, in order thatthe supply of liquor might last longer. One of the mildest mannered ofthe party took umbrage at the parsimony of the treasurer and knockedhim down, whereupon the others in the party set upon the assailant andmauled him so badly that he had to spend three weeks in hospital. Atanother time two of his companions sharing the temporary hospitality ofhis room smashed most of the furniture, and went to bed with their bootson. Then his kindly good-nature rebelled. "I felt that this was runninghospitality into the ground, so I pulled them out and left them on thefloor to cool off from their alcoholic trance. "

Edison seems on the whole to have been fairly comfortable and happy inLouisville, surrounding himself with books and experimental apparatus, and even inditing a treatise on electricity. But his very thirst forknowledge and new facts again proved his undoing. The instruments in thehandsome new offices were fastened in their proper places, and operatorswere strictly forbidden to remove them, or to use the batteries excepton regular work. This prohibition meant little to Edison, who had accessto no other instruments except those of the company. "I went one night, "he says, "into the battery-room to obtain some sulphuric acid forexperimenting. The carboy tipped over, the acid ran out, went throughto the manager's room below, and ate up his desk and all the carpet. Thenext morning I was summoned before him, and told that what the companywanted was operators, not experimenters. I was at liberty to take my payand get out. "

The fact that Edison is a very studious man, an insatiate lover andreader of books, is well known to his associates; but surprise is oftenexpressed at his fund of miscellaneous information. This, it will beseen, is partly explained by his work for years as a "press" reporter. He says of this: "The second time I was in Louisville, they had movedinto a new office, and the discipline was now good. I took the pressjob. In fact, I was a very poor sender, and therefore made the takingof press report a specialty. The newspaper men allowed me to come overafter going to press at 3 A. M. And get all the exchanges I wanted. TheseI would take home and lay at the foot of my bed. I never slept more thanfour or five hours' so that I would awake at nine or ten and readthese papers until dinner-time. I thus kept posted, and knew from theiractivity every member of Congress, and what committees they were on; andall about the topical doings, as well as the prices of breadstuffsin all the primary markets. I was in a much better position thanmost operators to call on my imagination to supply missing words orsentences, which were frequent in those days of old, rotten wires, badlyinsulated, especially on stormy nights. Upon such occasions I had tosupply in some cases one-fifth of the whole matter--pure guessing--butI got caught only once. There had been some kind of convention inVirginia, in which John Minor Botts was the leading figure. Therewas great excitement about it, and two votes had been taken in theconvention on the two days. There was no doubt that the vote the nextday would go a certain way. A very bad storm came up about 10 o'clock, and my wire worked very badly. Then there was a cessation of allsignals; then I made out the words 'Minor Botts. ' The next was a NewYork item. I filled in a paragraph about the convention and how the votehad gone, as I was sure it would. But next day I learned that instead ofthere being a vote the convention had adjourned without action until theday after. " In like manner, it was at Louisville that Mr. Edison gotan insight into the manner in which great political speeches are morefrequently reported than the public suspects. "The Associated Presshad a shorthand man travelling with President Johnson when he made hiscelebrated swing around the circle in a private train delivering hotspeeches in defence of his conduct. The man engaged me to write outthe notes from his reading. He came in loaded and on the verge ofincoherence. We started in, but about every two minutes I would have toscratch out whole paragraphs and insert the same things said inanother and better way. He would frequently change words, always to thebetterment of the speech. I couldn't understand this, and when he gotthrough, and I had copied about three columns, I asked him why thosechanges, if he read from notes. 'Sonny, ' he said, 'if these politicianshad their speeches published as they deliver them, a great manyshorthand writers would be out of a job. The best shorthanders and theholders of good positions are those who can take a lot of rambling, incoherent stuff and make a rattling good speech out of it. '"

Going back to Cincinnati and beginning his second term there as anoperator, Edison found the office in new quarters and with greatlyimproved management. He was again put on night duty, much to hissatisfaction. He rented a room in the top floor of an office building, bought a cot and an oil-stove, a foot lathe, and some tools. Hecultivated the acquaintance of Mr. Sommers, superintendent of telegraphof the Cincinnati & Indianapolis Railroad, who gave him permission totake such scrap apparatus as he might desire, that was of no use to thecompany. With Sommers on one occasion he had an opportunity to indulgehis always strong sense of humor. "Sommers was a very witty man, "he says, "and fond of experimenting. We worked on a self-adjustingtelegraph relay, which would have been very valuable if we could havegot it. I soon became the possessor of a second-hand Ruhmkorff inductioncoil, which, although it would only give a small spark, would twist thearms and clutch the hands of a man so that he could not let go of theapparatus. One day we went down to the round-house of the Cincinnati &Indianapolis Railroad and connected up the long wash-tank in the roomwith the coil, one electrode being connected to earth. Above thiswash-room was a flat roof. We bored a hole through the roof, and couldsee the men as they came in. The first man as he entered dipped hishands in the water. The floor being wet he formed a circuit, and up wenthis hands. He tried it the second time, with the same result. He thenstood against the wall with a puzzled expression. We surmised thathe was waiting for somebody else to come in, which occurred shortlyafter--with the same result. Then they went out, and the place was sooncrowded, and there was considerable excitement. Various theorieswere broached to explain the curious phenomenon. We enjoyed the sportimmensely. " It must be remembered that this was over forty years ago, when there was no popular instruction in electricity, and when itspossibilities for practical joking were known to very few. To-day such acrowd of working-men would be sure to include at least one student ofa night school or correspondence course who would explain the mysteryoffhand. 

Note has been made of the presence of Ellsworth in the Cincinnatioffice, and his service with the Confederate guerrilla Morgan, for whomhe tapped Federal wires, read military messages, sent false ones, anddid serious mischief generally. It is well known that one operator canrecognize another by the way in which he makes his signals--it is hisstyle of handwriting. Ellsworth possessed in a remarkable degree theskill of imitating these peculiarities, and thus he deceived the Unionoperators easily. Edison says that while apparently a quiet man inbearing, Ellsworth, after the excitement of fighting, found the tamenessof a telegraph office obnoxious, and that he became a bad "gun man"in the Panhandle of Texas, where he was killed. "We soon becameacquainted, " says Edison of this period in Cincinnati, "and he wanted meto invent a secret method of sending despatches so that an intermediateoperator could not tap the wire and understand it. He said that if itcould be accomplished, he could sell it to the Government for a largesum of money. This suited me, and I started in and succeeded in makingsuch an instrument, which had in it the germ of my quadruplex now usedthroughout the world, permitting the despatch of four messages overone wire simultaneously. By the time I had succeeded in getting theapparatus to work, Ellsworth suddenly disappeared. Many years afterwardI used this little device again for the same purpose. At Menlo Park, NewJersey, I had my laboratory. There were several Western Union wires cutinto the laboratory, and used by me in experimenting at night. One dayI sat near an instrument which I had left connected during the night. Isoon found it was a private wire between New York and Philadelphia, andI heard among a lot of stuff a message that surprised me. A week afterthat I had occasion to go to New York, and, visiting the office ofthe lessee of the wire, I asked him if he hadn't sent such and such amessage. The expression that came over his face was a sight. He asked mehow I knew of any message. I told him the circumstances, and suggestedthat he had better cipher such communications, or put on a secretsounder. The result of the interview was that I installed for him my oldCincinnati apparatus, which was used thereafter for many years. "

Edison did not make a very long stay in Cincinnati this time, but wenthome after a while to Port Huron. Soon tiring of idleness and isolationhe sent "a cry from Macedonia" to his old friend "Milt" Adams, who wasin Boston, and whom he wished to rejoin if he could get work promptly inthe East. 

Edison himself gives the details of this eventful move, when he wentEast to grow up with the new art of electricity. "I had left Louisvillethe second time, and went home to see my parents. After stopping at homefor some time, I got restless, and thought I would like to work in theEast. Knowing that a former operator named Adams, who had worked with mein the Cincinnati office, was in Boston, I wrote him that I wanted a jobthere. He wrote back that if I came on immediately he could get me inthe Western Union office. I had helped out the Grand Trunk Railroadtelegraph people by a new device when they lost one of the two submarinecables they had across the river, making the remaining cable act just aswell for their purpose, as if they had two. I thought I was entitledto a pass, which they conceded; and I started for Boston. After leavingToronto a terrific blizzard came up and the train got snowed under in acut. After staying there twenty-four hours, the trainmen made snowshoesof fence-rail splints and started out to find food, which they did abouta half mile away. They found a roadside inn, and by means of snowshoesall the passengers were taken to the inn. The train reached Montrealfour days late. A number of the passengers and myself went to themilitary headquarters to testify in favor of a soldier who was onfurlough, and was two days late, which was a serious matter withmilitary people, I learned. We willingly did this, for this soldierwas a great story-teller, and made the time pass quickly. I met here atelegraph operator named Stanton, who took me to his boarding-house, the most cheerless I have ever been in. Nobody got enough to eat; thebedclothes were too short and too thin; it was 28 degrees below zero, and the wash-water was frozen solid. The board was cheap, being only$1. 50 per week. 

"Stanton said that the usual live-stock accompaniment of operators'boarding-houses was absent; he thought the intense cold had causedthem to hibernate. Stanton, when I was working in Cincinnati, left hisposition and went out on the Union Pacific to work at Julesburg, whichwas a cattle town at that time and very tough. I remember seeing him offon the train, never expecting to see him again. Six months afterward, while working press wire in Cincinnati, about 2 A. M. , there was flunginto the middle of the operating-room a large tin box. It made areport like a pistol, and we all jumped up startled. In walked Stanton. 'Gentlemen, ' he said 'I have just returned from a pleasure trip to theland beyond the Mississippi. All my wealth is contained in my metallictravelling case and you are welcome to it. ' The case contained onepaper collar. He sat down, and I noticed that he had a woollen comforteraround his neck with his coat buttoned closely. The night was intenselywarm. He then opened his coat and revealed the fact that he had nothingbut the bare skin. 'Gentlemen, ' said he, 'you see before you an operatorwho has reached the limit of impecuniosity. '" Not far from the limit ofimpecuniosity was Edison himself, as he landed in Boston in 1868 afterthis wintry ordeal. 

This chapter has run to undue length, but it must not close without onecitation from high authority as to the service of the military telegraphcorps so often referred to in it. General Grant in his Memoirs, describing the movements of the Army of the Potomac, lays stress on theservice of his telegraph operators, and says: "Nothing could be morecomplete than the organization and discipline of this body of brave andintelligent men. Insulated wires were wound upon reels, two men and amule detailed to each reel. The pack-saddle was provided with a racklike a sawbuck, placed crosswise, so that the wheel would revolvefreely; there was a wagon provided with a telegraph operator, battery, and instruments for each division corps and army, and for myheadquarters. Wagons were also loaded with light poles supplied with aniron spike at each end to hold the wires up. The moment troops were inposition to go into camp, the men would put up their wires. Thus in afew minutes' longer time than it took a mule to walk the length ofits coil, telegraphic communication would be effected between all theheadquarters of the army. No orders ever had to be given to establishthe telegraph. "

CHAPTER VI

WORK AND INVENTION IN BOSTON

MILTON ADAMS was working in the office of the Franklin Telegraph Companyin Boston when he received Edison's appeal from Port Huron, and withcharacteristic impetuosity at once made it his business to secure aposition for his friend. There was no opening in the Franklin office, soAdams went over to the Western Union office, and asked the manager, Mr. George F. Milliken, if he did not want an operator who, like youngLochinvar, came out of the West. "What kind of copy does he make?" wasthe cautious response. "I passed Edison's letter through the window forhis inspection. Milliken read it, and a look of surprise came over hiscountenance as he asked me if he could take it off the line like that. Isaid he certainly could, and that there was nobody who could stick him. Milliken said that if he was that kind of an operator I could send forhim, and I wrote to Edison to come on, as I had a job for him in themain office of the Western Union. " Meantime Edison had secured his passover the Grand Trunk Railroad, and spent four days and nights on thejourney, suffering extremes of cold and hunger. Franklin's arrival inPhiladelphia finds its parallel in the very modest debut of Adams'sfriend in Boston. 

It took only five minutes for Edison to get the "job, " forSuperintendent Milliken, a fine type of telegraph official, saw quicklythrough the superficialities, and realized that it was no ordinaryyoung operator he was engaging. Edison himself tells the story of whathappened. "The manager asked me when I was ready to go to work. 'Now, 'I replied I was then told to return at 5. 30 P. M. , and punctually at thathour I entered the main operating-room and was introduced to the nightmanager. The weather being cold, and being clothed poorly, my peculiarappearance caused much mirth, and, as I afterward learned, the nightoperators had consulted together how they might 'put up a job on the jayfrom the woolly West. ' I was given a pen and assigned to the New YorkNo. 1 wire. After waiting an hour, I was told to come over to a specialtable and take a special report for the Boston Herald, the conspiratorshaving arranged to have one of the fastest senders in New York send thedespatch and 'salt' the new man. I sat down unsuspiciously at the table, and the New York man started slowly. Soon he increased his speed, towhich I easily adapted my pace. This put my rival on his mettle, and heput on his best powers, which, however, were soon reached. At thispoint I happened to look up, and saw the operators all looking over myshoulder, with their faces shining with fun and excitement. I knew thenthat they were trying to put up a job on me, but kept my own counsel. The New York man then commenced to slur over his words, running themtogether and sticking the signals; but I had been used to this styleof telegraphy in taking report, and was not in the least discomfited. Finally, when I thought the fun had gone far enough, and havingabout completed the special, I quietly opened the key and remarked, telegraphically, to my New York friend: 'Say, young man, change off andsend with your other foot. ' This broke the New York man all up, and heturned the job over to another man to finish. "

Edison had a distaste for taking press report, due to the fact thatit was steady, continuous work, and interfered with the studies andinvestigations that could be carried on in the intervals of ordinarycommercial telegraphy. He was not lazy in any sense. While he had novery lively interest in the mere routine work of a telegraph office, he had the profoundest curiosity as to the underlying principles ofelectricity that made telegraphy possible, and he had an unflaggingdesire and belief in his own ability to improve the apparatus he handleddaily. The whole intellectual atmosphere of Boston was favorable to thedevelopment of the brooding genius in this shy, awkward, studious youth, utterly indifferent to clothes and personal appearance, but ready tospend his last dollar on books and scientific paraphernalia. It ismatter of record that he did once buy a new suit for thirty dollars inBoston, but the following Sunday, while experimenting with acids in hislittle workshop, the suit was spoiled. "That is what I get for puttingso much money in a new suit, " was the laconic remark of the youth, whowas more than delighted to pick up a complete set of Faraday's worksabout the same time. Adams says that when Edison brought home thesebooks at 4 A. M. He read steadily until breakfast-time, and then heremarked, enthusiastically: "Adams, I have got so much to do and life isso short, I am going to hustle. " And thereupon he started on a run forbreakfast. Edison himself says: "It was in Boston I bought Faraday'sworks. I think I must have tried about everything in those books. Hisexplanations were simple. He used no mathematics. He was the MasterExperimenter. I don't think there were many copies of Faraday's workssold in those days. The only people who did anything in electricity werethe telegraphers and the opticians making simple school apparatus todemonstrate the principles. " One of these firms was Palmer & Hall, whosecatalogue of 1850 showed a miniature electric locomotive made by Mr. Thomas Hall, and exhibited in operation the following year at theCharitable Mechanics' Fair in Boston. In 1852 Mr. Hall made for a Dr. A. L. Henderson, of Buffalo, New York, a model line of railroad withelectric-motor engine, telegraph line, and electric railroad signals, together with a figure operating the signals at each end of the lineautomatically. This was in reality the first example of railroad trainsmoved by telegraph signals, a practice now so common and universal asto attract no comment. To show how little some fundamental methods canchange in fifty years, it may be noted that Hall conveyed the currentto his tiny car through forty feet of rail, using the rail as conductor, just as Edison did more than thirty years later in his historicexperiments for Villard at Menlo Park; and just as a large proportion ofAmerican trolley systems do at this present moment. 

It was among such practical, investigating folk as these that Edison wasvery much at home. Another notable man of this stamp, with whom Edisonwas thrown in contact, was the late Mr. Charles Williams, who, beginninghis career in the electrical field in the forties, was at the height ofactivity as a maker of apparatus when Edison arrived in the city; andwho afterward, as an associate of Alexander Graham Bell, enjoyed thedistinction of being the first manufacturer in the world of telephones. At his Court Street workshop Edison was a frequent visitor. Telegraphrepairs and experiments were going on constantly, especially on theearly fire-alarm telegraphs [1] of Farmer and Gamewell, and with the aidof one of the men there--probably George Anders--Edison worked outinto an operative model his first invention, a vote-recorder, the firstEdison patent, for which papers were executed on October 11, 1868, and which was taken out June 1, 1869, No. 90, 646. The purpose ofthis particular device was to permit a vote in the National House ofRepresentatives to be taken in a minute or so, complete lists beingfurnished of all members voting on the two sides of any question Mr. Edison, in recalling the circumstances, says: "Roberts was the telegraphoperator who was the financial backer to the extent of $100. Theinvention when completed was taken to Washington. I think it wasexhibited before a committee that had something to do with the Capitol. The chairman of the committee, after seeing how quickly and perfectlyit worked, said: 'Young man, if there is any invention on earth thatwe don't want down here, it is this. One of the greatest weapons inthe hands of a minority to prevent bad legislation is filibustering onvotes, and this instrument would prevent it. ' I saw the truth ofthis, because as press operator I had taken miles of Congressionalproceedings, and to this day an enormous amount of time is wasted duringeach session of the House in foolishly calling the members' names andrecording and then adding their votes, when the whole operation could bedone in almost a moment by merely pressing a particular button at eachdesk. For filibustering purposes, however, the present methods aremost admirable. " Edison determined from that time forth to devote hisinventive faculties only to things for which there was a real, genuinedemand, something that subserved the actual necessities of humanity. This first patent was taken out for him by the late Hon. CarrollD. Wright, afterward U. S. Commissioner of Labor, and a well-knownpublicist, then practicing patent law in Boston. He describes Edison asuncouth in manner, a chewer rather than a smoker of tobacco, but full ofintelligence and ideas. 

 [Footnote 1: The general scheme of a fire-alarm telegraph system embodies a central office to which notice can be sent from any number of signal boxes of the outbreak of a fire in the district covered by the box, the central office in turn calling out the nearest fire engines, and warning the fire department in general of the occurrence. Such fire alarms can be exchanged automatically, or by operators, and are sometimes associated with a large fire-alarm bell or whistle. Some boxes can be operated by the passing public; others need special keys. The box mechanism is usually of the ratchet, step-by-step movement, familiar in district messenger call-boxes. ]

Edison's curiously practical, though imaginative, mind demandedrealities to work upon, things that belong to "human nature's dailyfood, " and he soon harked back to telegraphy, a domain in which hewas destined to succeed, and over which he was to reign supreme asan inventor. He did not, however, neglect chemistry, but indulged histastes in that direction freely, although we have no record thatthis work was anything more, at that time, than the carrying out ofexperiments outlined in the books. The foundations were being laid forthe remarkable chemical knowledge that later on grappled successfullywith so many knotty problems in the realm of chemistry; notably withthe incandescent lamp and the storage battery. Of one incident in hischemical experiments he tells the following story: "I had read in ascientific paper the method of making nitroglycerine, and was so firedby the wonderful properties it was said to possess, that I determinedto make some of the compound. We tested what we considered a very smallquantity, but this produced such terrible and unexpected results that webecame alarmed, the fact dawning upon us that we had a very largewhite elephant in our possession. At 6 A. M. I put the explosive intoa sarsaparilla bottle, tied a string to it, wrapped it in a paper, and gently let it down into the sewer, corner of State and WashingtonStreets. " The associate in this was a man whom he had found endeavoringto make electrical apparatus for sleight-of-hand performances. 

In the Boston telegraph office at that time, as perhaps at others, therewere operators studying to enter college; possibly some were already inattendance at Harvard University. This condition was not unusual at onetime; the first electrical engineer graduated from Columbia University, New York, followed up his studies while a night operator, and came outbrilliantly at the head of his class. Edison says of these scholars thatthey paraded their knowledge rather freely, and that it was his delightto go to the second-hand book stores on Cornhill and study up questionswhich he could spring upon them when he got an occasion. With thoseengaged on night duty he got midnight lunch from an old Irishman called"the Cake Man, " who appeared regularly with his wares at 12 midnight. "The office was on the ground floor, and had been a restaurant previousto its occupation by the Western Union Telegraph Company. It wasliterally loaded with cockroaches, which lived between the wall and theboard running around the room at the floor, and which came after thelunch. These were such a bother on my table that I pasted two stripsof tinfoil on the wall at my desk, connecting one piece to the positivepole of the big battery supplying current to the wires and the negativepole to the other strip. The cockroaches moving up on the wall wouldpass over the strips. The moment they got their legs across both stripsthere was a flash of light and the cockroaches went into gas. Thisautomatic electrocuting device attracted so much attention, and got halfa column in an evening paper, that the manager made me stop it. " Thereader will remember that a similar plan of campaign against rats wascarried out by Edison while in the West. 

About this time Edison had a narrow escape from injury that might easilyhave shortened his career, and he seems to have provoked the troublemore or less innocently by using a little elementary chemistry. "Afterbeing in Boston several months, " he says, "working New York wire No. 1, I was requested to work the press wire, called the 'milk route, ' asthere were so many towns on it taking press simultaneously. NewYork office had reported great delays on the wire, due to operatorsconstantly interrupting, or 'breaking, ' as it was called, to have wordsrepeated which they had failed to get; and New York claimed that Bostonwas one of the worst offenders. It was a rather hard position for me, for if I took the report without breaking, it would prove the previousBoston operator incompetent. The results made the operator have somehard feelings against me. He was put back on the wire, and did muchbetter after that. It seems that the office boy was down on this man. One night he asked me if I could tell him how to fix a key so that itwould not 'break, ' even if the circuit-breaker was open, and also sothat it could not be easily detected. I told him to jab a penful ofink on the platinum points, as there was sugar enough to make itsufficiently thick to hold up when the operator tried to break--thecurrent still going through the ink so that he could not break. 

"The next night about 1 A. M. This operator, on the press wire, whileI was standing near a House printer studying it, pulled out a glassinsulator, then used upside down as a substitute for an ink-bottle, and threw it with great violence at me, just missing my head. It wouldcertainly have killed me if it had not missed. The cause of the troublewas that this operator was doing the best he could not to break, butbeing compelled to, opened his key and found he couldn't. The pressmatter came right along, and he could not stop it. The office boy hadput the ink in a few minutes before, when the operator had turned hishead during a lull. He blamed me instinctively as the cause of thetrouble. Later on we became good friends. He took his meals at the sameemaciator that I did. His main object in life seemed to be acquiringthe art of throwing up wash-pitchers and catching them without breakingthem. About one-third of his salary was used up in paying for pitchers. "

One day a request reached the Western Union Telegraph office in Boston, from the principal of a select school for young ladies, to the effectthat she would like some one to be sent up to the school to exhibit anddescribe the Morse telegraph to her "children. " There has always beena warm interest in Boston in the life and work of Morse, who was bornthere, at Charlestown, barely a mile from the birthplace of Franklin, and this request for a little lecture on Morse's telegraph was quitenatural. Edison, who was always ready to earn some extra money for hisexperiments, and was already known as the best-informed operator in theoffice, accepted the invitation. What happened is described by Adamsas follows: "We gathered up a couple of sounders, a battery, and sonicwire, and at the appointed time called on her to do the stunt. Herschool-room was about twenty by twenty feet, not including a smallplatform. We rigged up the line between the two ends of the room, Edisontaking the stage while I was at the other end of the room. All beingin readiness, the principal was told to bring in her children. The dooropened and in came about twenty young ladies elegantly gowned, not oneof whom was under seventeen. When Edison saw them I thought he wouldfaint. He called me on the line and asked me to come to the stage andexplain the mysteries of the Morse system. I replied that I thought hewas in the right place, and told him to get busy with his talk on dotsand dashes. Always modest, Edison was so overcome he could hardly speak, but he managed to say, finally, that as his friend Mr. Adams was betterequipped with cheek than he was, we would change places, and he woulddo the demonstrating while I explained the whole thing. This caused thebevy to turn to see where the lecturer was. I went on the stage, saidsomething, and we did some telegraphing over the line. I guess it wassatisfactory; we got the money, which was the main point to us. " Edisontells the story in a similar manner, but insists that it was he whosaved the situation. "I managed to say that I would work the apparatus, and Mr. Adams would make the explanations. Adams was so embarrassedthat he fell over an ottoman. The girls tittered, and this increasedhis embarrassment until he couldn't say a word. The situation was sodesperate that for a reason I never could explain I started in myselfand talked and explained better than I ever did before or since. I cantalk to two or three persons; but when there are more they radiate someunknown form of influence which paralyzes my vocal cords. However, I gotout of this scrape, and many times afterward when I chanced with otheroperators to meet some of the young ladies on their way home fromschool, they would smile and nod, much to the mystification of theoperators, who were ignorant of this episode. "

Another amusing story of this period of impecuniosity and financialstrain is told thus by Edison: "My friend Adams was working in theFranklin Telegraph Company, which competed with the Western Union. Adamswas laid off, and as his financial resources had reached absolute zerocentigrade, I undertook to let him sleep in my hall bedroom. I generallyhad hall bedrooms, because they were cheap and I needed money tobuy apparatus. I also had the pleasure of his genial company at theboarding-house about a mile distant, but at the sacrifice of someapparatus. One morning, as we were hastening to breakfast, we cameinto Tremont Row, and saw a large crowd in front of two small 'gents'furnishing goods stores. We stopped to ascertain the cause of theexcitement. One store put up a paper sign in the display window whichsaid: 'Three-hundred pairs of stockings received this day, five cents apair--no connection with the store next door. ' Presently the other storeput up a sign stating they had received three hundred pairs, price threecents per pair, and stated that they had no connection with the storenext door. Nobody went in. The crowd kept increasing. Finally, when theprice had reached three pairs for one cent, Adams said to me: 'I can'tstand this any longer; give me a cent. ' I gave him a nickel, and heelbowed his way in; and throwing the money on the counter, the storebeing filled with women clerks, he said: 'Give me three pairs. ' Thecrowd was breathless, and the girl took down a box and drew out threepairs of baby socks. 'Oh!' said Adams, 'I want men's size. ' 'Well, sir, we do not permit one to pick sizes for that amount of money. ' And thecrowd roared; and this broke up the sales. "

It has generally been supposed that Edison did not take up work on thestock ticker until after his arrival a little later in New York; but hesays: "After the vote-recorder I invented a stock ticker, and started aticker service in Boston; had thirty or forty subscribers, and operatedfrom a room over the Gold Exchange. This was about a year after Callahanstarted in New York. " To say the least, this evidenced great abilityand enterprise on the part of the youth. The dealings in gold during theCivil War and after its close had brought gold indicators into use, andthese had soon been followed by "stock tickers, " the first of whichwas introduced in New York in 1867. The success of this new but stillprimitively crude class of apparatus was immediate. Four manufacturerswere soon busy trying to keep pace with the demands for it from brokers;and the Gold & Stock Telegraph Company formed to exploit the system soonincreased its capital from $200, 000 to $300, 000, paying 12 per cent. Dividends on the latter amount. Within its first year the capital wasagain increased to $1, 000, 000, and dividends of 10 per cent. Were paideasily on that sum also. It is needless to say that such facts becamequickly known among the operators, from whose ranks, of course, the newemployees were enlisted; and it was a common ambition among the moreingenious to produce a new ticker. From the beginning, each phaseof electrical development--indeed, each step in mechanics--has beenaccompanied by the well-known phenomenon of invention; namely, theattempt of the many to perfect and refine and even re-invent where oneor two daring spirits have led the way. The figures of capitalizationand profit just mentioned were relatively much larger in the sixtiesthan they are to-day; and to impressionable young operators they spelledillimitable wealth. Edison was, how ever, about the only one in Bostonof whom history makes record as achieving any tangible result in thisnew art; and he soon longed for the larger telegraphic opportunity ofNew York. His friend, Milt Adams, went West with quenchless zest forthat kind of roving life and aimless adventure of which the seriousminded Edison had already had more than enough. Realizing that to NewYork he must look for further support in his efforts, Edison, deep indebt for his embryonic inventions, but with high hope and courage, now made the next momentous step in his career. He was far riper inexperience and practice of his art than any other telegrapher of hisage, and had acquired, moreover, no little knowledge of the practicalbusiness of life. Note has been made above of his invention of a stockticker in Boston, and of his establishing a stock-quotation circuit. This was by no means all, and as a fitting close to this chapter he maybe quoted as to some other work and its perils in experimentation:"I also engaged in putting up private lines, upon which I usedan alphabetical dial instrument for telegraphing between businessestablishments, a forerunner of modern telephony. This instrumentwas very simple and practical, and any one could work it after a fewminutes' explanation. I had these instruments made at Mr. Hamblet's, whohad a little shop where he was engaged in experimenting with electricclocks. Mr. Hamblet was the father and introducer in after years of theWestern Union Telegraph system of time distribution. My laboratory wasthe headquarters for the men, and also of tools and supplies for thoseprivate lines. They were put up cheaply, as I used the roofs of houses, just as the Western Union did. It never occurred to me to ask permissionfrom the owners; all we did was to go to the store, etc. , say wewere telegraph men, and wanted to go up to the wires on the roof; andpermission was always granted. 

"In this laboratory I had a large induction coil which I had borrowed tomake some experiments with. One day I got hold of both electrodes ofthe coil, and it clinched my hand on them so that I couldn't let go. Thebattery was on a shelf. The only way I could get free was to back offand pull the coil, so that the battery wires would pull the cells offthe shelf and thus break the circuit. I shut my eyes and pulled, but thenitric acid splashed all over my face and ran down my back. I rushed toa sink, which was only half big enough, and got in as well as I couldand wiggled around for several minutes to permit the water to dilute theacid and stop the pain. My face and back were streaked with yellow; theskin was thoroughly oxidized. I did not go on the street by daylight fortwo weeks, as the appearance of my face was dreadful. The skin, however, peeled off, and new skin replaced it without any damage. "

CHAPTER VII

THE STOCK TICKER

"THE letters and figures used in the language of the tape, " said awell-known Boston stock speculator, "are very few, but they spell ruinin ninety-nine million ways. " It is not to be inferred, however, thatthe modern stock ticker has anything to do with the making or losingof fortunes. There were regular daily stock-market reports in Londonnewspapers in 1825, and New York soon followed the example. As far backas 1692, Houghton issued in London a weekly review of financial andcommercial transactions, upon which Macaulay based the lively narrativeof stock speculation in the seventeenth century, given in his famoushistory. That which the ubiquitous stock ticker has done is to giveinstantaneity to the news of what the stock market is doing, so that atevery minute, thousands of miles apart, brokers, investors, and gamblersmay learn the exact conditions. The existence of such facilities is tobe admired rather than deplored. News is vital to Wall Street, and thereis no living man on whom the doings in Wall Street are without effect. The financial history of the United States and of the world, as shownby the prices of government bonds and general securities, has been tolddaily for forty years on these narrow strips of paper tape, of whichthousands of miles are run yearly through the "tickers" of New Yorkalone. It is true that the record of the chattering little machine, madein cabalistic abbreviations on the tape, can drive a man suddenly to thevery verge of insanity with joy or despair; but if there be blame forthat, it attaches to the American spirit of speculation and not tothe ingenious mechanism which reads and registers the beating of thefinancial pulse. 

Edison came first to New York in 1868, with his early stock printer, which he tried unsuccessfully to sell. He went back to Boston, and quiteundismayed got up a duplex telegraph. "Toward the end of my stay inBoston, " he says, "I obtained a loan of money, amounting to $800, tobuild a peculiar kind of duplex telegraph for sending two messages overa single wire simultaneously. The apparatus was built, and I leftthe Western Union employ and went to Rochester, New York, to test theapparatus on the lines of the Atlantic & Pacific Telegraph between thatcity and New York. But the assistant at the other end could not be madeto understand anything, notwithstanding I had written out a very minutedescription of just what to do. After trying for a week I gave it up andreturned to New York with but a few cents in my pocket. " Thus he whohas never speculated in a stock in his life was destined to make thebeginnings of his own fortune by providing for others the apparatusthat should bring to the eye, all over a great city, the momentaryfluctuations of stocks and bonds. No one could have been in direrpoverty than he when the steamboat landed him in New York in 1869. Hewas in debt, and his few belongings in books and instruments had tobe left behind. He was not far from starving. Mr. W. S. Mallory, anassociate of many years, quotes directly from him on this point: "Someyears ago we had a business negotiation in New York which made itnecessary for Mr. Edison and me to visit the city five or six timeswithin a comparatively short period. It was our custom to leave Orangeabout 11 A. M. , and on arrival in New York to get our lunch beforekeeping the appointments, which were usually made for two o'clock. Several of these lunches were had at Delmonico's, Sherry's, and otherplaces of similar character, but one day, while en route, Mr. Edisonsaid: 'I have been to lunch with you several times; now to-day I amgoing to take you to lunch with me, and give you the finest lunch youever had. ' When we arrived in Hoboken, we took the downtown ferry acrossthe Hudson, and when we arrived on the Manhattan side Mr. Edison led theway to Smith & McNell's, opposite Washington Market, and well known toold New Yorkers. We went inside and as soon as the waiter appearedMr. Edison ordered apple dumplings and a cup of coffee for himself. Heconsumed his share of the lunch with the greatest possible pleasure. Then, as soon as he had finished, he went to the cigar counter andpurchased cigars. As we walked to keep the appointment he gave me thefollowing reminiscence: When he left Boston and decided to come to NewYork he had only money enough for the trip. After leaving the boat hisfirst thought was of breakfast; but he was without money to obtain it. However, in passing a wholesale tea-house he saw a man tasting tea, sohe went in and asked the 'taster' if he might have some of the tea. Thisthe man gave him, and thus he obtained his first breakfast in New York. He knew a telegraph operator here, and on him he depended for a loan totide him over until such time as he should secure a position. During theday he succeeded in locating this operator, but found that he also wasout of a job, and that the best he could do was to loan him one dollar, which he did. This small sum of money represented both food and lodginguntil such time as work could be obtained. Edison said that as theresult of the time consumed and the exercise in walking while he foundhis friend, he was extremely hungry, and that he gave most seriousconsideration as to what he should buy in the way of food, and whatparticular kind of food would be most satisfying and filling. The resultwas that at Smith & McNell's he decided on apple dumplings and a cupof coffee, than which he never ate anything more appetizing. It was notlong before he was at work and was able to live in a normal manner. "

During the Civil War, with its enormous increase in the national debtand the volume of paper money, gold had gone to a high premium; and, asever, by its fluctuations in price the value of all other commoditieswas determined. This led to the creation of a "Gold Room" in WallStreet, where the precious metal could be dealt in; while for dealingsin stocks there also existed the "Regular Board, " the "Open Board, " andthe "Long Room. " Devoted to one, but the leading object of speculation, the "Gold Room" was the very focus of all the financial and gamblingactivity of the time, and its quotations governed trade and commerce. At first notations in chalk on a blackboard sufficed, but seeing theirinadequacy, Dr. S. S. Laws, vice-president and actual presiding officerof the Gold Exchange, devised and introduced what was popularly knownas the "gold indicator. " This exhibited merely the prevailing price ofgold; but as its quotations changed from instant to instant, it was ina most literal sense "the cynosure of neighboring eyes. " One indicatorlooked upon the Gold Room; the other opened toward the street. Withinthe exchange the face could easily be seen high up on the west wall ofthe room, and the machine was operated by Mr. Mersereau, the officialregistrar of the Gold Board. 

Doctor Laws, who afterward became President of the State University ofMissouri, was an inventor of unusual ability and attainments. Inhis early youth he had earned his livelihood in a tool factory; and, apparently with his savings, he went to Princeton, where he studiedelectricity under no less a teacher than the famous Joseph Henry. At theoutbreak of the war in 1861 he was president of one of the Presbyteriansynodical colleges in the South, whose buildings passed into the handsof the Government. Going to Europe, he returned to New York in 1863, and, becoming interested with a relative in financial matters, hisconnection with the Gold Exchange soon followed, when it was organized. The indicating mechanism he now devised was electrical, controlled atcentral by two circuit-closing keys, and was a prototype of all thelater and modern step-by-step printing telegraphs, upon which thedistribution of financial news depends. The "fraction" drum of theindicator could be driven in either direction, known as the advance andretrograde movements, and was divided and marked in eighths. It gearedinto a "unit" drum, just as do speed-indicators and cyclometers. Fourelectrical pulsations were required to move the drum the distancebetween the fractions. The general operation was simple, and innormally active times the mechanism and the registrar were equal to allemergencies. But it is obvious that the record had to be carried awayto the brokers' offices and other places by messengers; and the delay, confusion, and mistakes soon suggested to Doctor Laws the desirabilityof having a number of indicators at such scattered points, operated by amaster transmitter, and dispensing with the regiments of noisy boys. He secured this privilege of distribution, and, resigning from theexchange, devoted his exclusive attention to the "Gold ReportingTelegraph, " which he patented, and for which, at the end of 1866, he hadsecured fifty subscribers. His indicators were small oblong boxes, inthe front of which was a long slot, allowing the dials as they travelledpast, inside, to show the numerals constituting the quotation; the dialsor wheels being arranged in a row horizontally, overlapping each other, as in modern fare registers which are now seen on most trolley cars. Itwas not long before there were three hundred subscribers; but the verysuccess of this device brought competition and improvement. Mr. E. A. Callahan, an ingenious printing-telegraph operator, saw that therewere unexhausted possibilities in the idea, and his foresight andinventiveness made him the father of the "ticker, " in connection withwhich he was thus, like Laws, one of the first to grasp and exploit theunderlying principle of the "central station" as a universal sourceof supply. The genesis of his invention Mr. Callahan has told in aninteresting way: "In 1867, on the site of the present Mills Building onBroad Street, opposite the Stock Exchange of today, was an old buildingwhich had been cut up to subserve the necessities of its occupants, allengaged in dealing in gold and stocks. It had one main entrance from thestreet to a hallway, from which entrance to the offices of two prominentbroker firms was obtained. Each firm had its own army of boys, numberingfrom twelve to fifteen, whose duties were to ascertain the latestquotations from the different exchanges. Each boy devoted his attentionto some particularly active stock. Pushing each other to get into thesenarrow quarters, yelling out the prices at the door, and pushing backfor later ones, the hustle made this doorway to me a most undesirablerefuge from an April shower. I was simply whirled into the street. I naturally thought that much of this noise and confusion might bedispensed with, and that the prices might be furnished through somesystem of telegraphy which would not require the employment of skilledoperators. The conception of the stock ticker dates from this incident. "

Mr. Callahan's first idea was to distribute gold quotations, and tothis end he devised an "indicator. " It consisted of two dials mountedseparately, each revolved by an electromagnet, so that the desiredfigures were brought to an aperture in the case enclosing the apparatus, as in the Laws system. Each shaft with its dial was provided with tworatchet wheels, one the reverse of the other. One was used in connectionwith the propelling lever, which was provided with a pawl to fit intothe teeth of the reversed ratchet wheel on its forward movement. It wasthus made impossible for either dial to go by momentum beyond its limit. Learning that Doctor Laws, with the skilful aid of F. L. Pope, wasalready active in the same direction, Mr. Callahan, with ready wit, transformed his indicator into a "ticker" that would make a printedrecord. The name of the "ticker" came through the casual remark ofan observer to whom the noise was the most striking feature of themechanism. Mr. Callahan removed the two dials, and, substituting typewheels, turned the movements face to face, so that each type wheelcould imprint its characters upon a paper tape in two lines. Three wiresstranded together ran from the central office to each instrument. Ofthese one furnished the current for the alphabet wheel, one for thefigure wheel, and one for the mechanism that took care of the inking andprinting on the tape. Callahan made the further innovation of insulatinghis circuit wires, although the cost was then forty times as great asthat of bare wire. It will be understood that electromagnets were theticker's actuating agency. The ticker apparatus was placed under aneat glass shade and mounted on a shelf. Twenty-five instruments wereenergized from one circuit, and the quotations were supplied from a"central" at 18 New Street. The Gold & Stock Telegraph Company waspromptly organized to supply to brokers the system, which was veryrapidly adopted throughout the financial district of New York, at thesouthern tip of Manhattan Island. Quotations were transmitted by theMorse telegraph from the floor of the Stock Exchange to the "central, "and thence distributed to the subscribers. Success with the "stock" newssystem was instantaneous. 

It was at this juncture that Edison reached New York, and according tohis own statement found shelter at night in the battery-room of the GoldIndicator Company, having meantime applied for a position as operatorwith the Western Union. He had to wait a few days, and during this timehe seized the opportunity to study the indicators and the complicatedgeneral transmitter in the office, controlled from the keyboard of theoperator on the floor of the Gold Exchange. What happened next has beenthe basis of many inaccurate stories, but is dramatic enough as toldin Mr. Edison's own version: "On the third day of my arrival and whilesitting in the office, the complicated general instrument for sendingon all the lines, and which made a very great noise, suddenly came toa stop with a crash. Within two minutes over three hundred boys--a boyfrom every broker in the street--rushed up-stairs and crowded the longaisle and office, that hardly had room for one hundred, all yelling thatsuch and such a broker's wire was out of order and to fix it at once. It was pandemonium, and the man in charge became so excited that he lostcontrol of all the knowledge he ever had. I went to the indicator, and, having studied it thoroughly, knew where the trouble ought to be, andfound it. One of the innumerable contact springs had broken off and hadfallen down between the two gear wheels and stopped the instrument; butit was not very noticeable. As I went out to tell the man in chargewhat the matter was, Doctor Laws appeared on the scene, the most excitedperson I had seen. He demanded of the man the cause of the trouble, butthe man was speechless. I ventured to say that I knew what the troublewas, and he said, 'Fix it! Fix it! Be quick!' I removed the spring andset the contact wheels at zero; and the line, battery, and inspectingmen all scattered through the financial district to set the instruments. In about two hours things were working again. Doctor Laws came in to askmy name and what I was doing. I told him, and he asked me to come to hisprivate office the following day. His office was filled with stacks ofbooks all relating to metaphysics and kindred matters. He asked me agreat many questions about the instruments and his system, and I showedhim how he could simplify things generally. He then requested that Ishould call next day. On arrival, he stated at once that he had decidedto put me in charge of the whole plant, and that my salary would be $300per month! This was such a violent jump from anything I had ever seenbefore, that it rather paralyzed me for a while, I thought it was toomuch to be lasting, but I determined to try and live up to that salaryif twenty hours a day of hard work would do it. I kept this position, made many improvements, devised several stock tickers, until the Gold &Stock Telegraph Company consolidated with the Gold Indicator Company. "Certainly few changes in fortune have been more sudden and dramatic inany notable career than this which thus placed an ill-clad, unkempt, half-starved, eager lad in a position of such responsibility in dayswhen the fluctuations in the price of gold at every instant meantfortune or ruin to thousands. 

Edison, barely twenty-one years old, was a keen observer of the stirringevents around him. "Wall Street" is at any time an interesting study, but it was never at a more agitated and sensational period of itshistory than at this time. Edison's arrival in New York coincidedwith an active speculation in gold which may, indeed, be said to haveprovided him with occupation; and was soon followed by the attemptof Mr. Jay Gould and his associates to corner the gold market, precipitating the panic of Black Friday, September 24, 1869. Securingits import duties in the precious metal and thus assisting to create anartificial stringency in the gold market, the Government had made ita practice to relieve the situation by selling a million of gold eachmonth. The metal was thus restored to circulation. In some manner, President Grant was persuaded that general conditions and the movementof the crops would be helped if the sale of gold were suspended fora time; and, this put into effect, he went to visit an old friend inPennsylvania remote from railroads and telegraphs. The Gould pool hadacquired control of $10, 000, 000 in gold, and drove the price upwardrapidly from 144 toward their goal of 200. On Black Friday theypurchased another $28, 000, 000 at 160, and still the price went up. Thefinancial and commercial interests of the country were in panic; butthe pool persevered in its effort to corner gold, with a profit of manymillions contingent on success. Yielding to frantic requests, PresidentGrant, who returned to Washington, caused Secretary Boutwell, of theTreasury, to throw $4, 000, 000 of gold into the market. Relief wasinstantaneous, the corner was broken, but the harm had been done. Edison's remarks shed a vivid side-light on this extraordinary episode:"On Black Friday, " he says, "we had a very exciting time with theindicators. The Gould and Fisk crowd had cornered gold, and had run thequotations up faster than the indicator could follow. The indicator wascomposed of several wheels; on the circumference of each wheel were thenumerals; and one wheel had fractions. It worked in the same way as anordinary counter; one wheel made ten revolutions, and at the tenthit advanced the adjacent wheel; and this in its turn having gone tenrevolutions, advanced the next wheel, and so on. On the morning ofBlack Friday the indicator was quoting 150 premium, whereas the bids byGould's agents in the Gold Room were 165 for five millions or any part. We had a paper-weight at the transmitter (to speed it up), and by oneo'clock reached the right quotation. The excitement was prodigious. NewStreet, as well as Broad Street, was jammed with excited people. I saton the top of the Western Union telegraph booth to watch the surging, crazy crowd. One man came to the booth, grabbed a pencil, and attemptedto write a message to Boston. The first stroke went clear off the blank;he was so excited that he had the operator write the message for him. Amid great excitement Speyer, the banker, went crazy and it took fivemen to hold him; and everybody lost their head. The Western Unionoperator came to me and said: 'Shake, Edison, we are O. K. We haven'tgot a cent. ' I felt very happy because we were poor. These occasions arevery enjoyable to a poor man; but they occur rarely. "

There is a calm sense of detachment about this description that hasbeen possessed by the narrator even in the most anxious moments of hiscareer. He was determined to see all that could be seen, and, quittinghis perch on the telegraph booth, sought the more secluded headquartersof the pool forces. "A friend of mine was an operator who worked in theoffice of Belden & Company, 60 Broadway, which were headquarters forFisk. Mr. Gould was up-town in the Erie offices in the Grand OperaHouse. The firm on Broad Street, Smith, Gould & Martin, was the otherbranch. All were connected with wires. Gould seemed to be in charge, Fisk being the executive down-town. Fisk wore a velvet corduroy coatand a very peculiar vest. He was very chipper, and seemed to belight-hearted and happy. Sitting around the room were about a dozenfine-looking men. All had the complexion of cadavers. There was a basketof champagne. Hundreds of boys were rushing in paying checks, all checksbeing payable to Belden & Company. When James Brown, of Brown Brothers& Company, broke the corner by selling five million gold, all paymentswere repudiated by Smith, Gould & Martin; but they continued to receivechecks at Belden & Company's for some time, until the Street got wind ofthe game. There was some kind of conspiracy with the Government peoplewhich I could not make out, but I heard messages that opened my eyes asto the ramifications of Wall Street. Gold fell to 132, and it took usall night to get the indicator back to that quotation. All night longthe streets were full of people. Every broker's office was brilliantlylighted all night, and all hands were at work. The clearing-house forgold had been swamped, and all was mixed up. No one knew if he wasbankrupt or not. "

Edison in those days rather liked the modest coffee-shops, and mentionsvisiting one. "When on the New York No. 1 wire, that I worked in Boston, there was an operator named Jerry Borst at the other end. He was afirst-class receiver and rapid sender. We made up a scheme to hold thiswire, so he changed one letter of the alphabet and I soon got usedto it; and finally we changed three letters. If any operator tried toreceive from Borst, he couldn't do it, so Borst and I always workedtogether. Borst did less talking than any operator I ever knew. Neverhaving seen him, I went while in New York to call upon him. I did allthe talking. He would listen, stroke his beard, and say nothing. In theevening I went over to an all-night lunch-house in Printing House Squarein a basement--Oliver's. Night editors, including Horace Greeley, andHenry Raymond, of the New York Times, took their midnight lunch there. When I went with Borst and another operator, they pointed out two orthree men who were then celebrated in the newspaper world. The night wasintensely hot and close. After getting our lunch and upon reaching thesidewalk, Borst opened his mouth, and said: 'That's a great place; aplate of cakes, a cup of coffee, and a Russian bath, for ten cents. 'This was about fifty per cent. Of his conversation for two days. "

The work of Edison on the gold-indicator had thrown him into closerelationship with Mr. Franklin L. Pope, the young telegraph engineerthen associated with Doctor Laws, and afterward a distinguished expertand technical writer, who became President of the American Institute ofElectrical Engineers in 1886. Each recognized the special ability ofthe other, and barely a week after the famous events of Black Friday theannouncement of their partnership appeared in the Telegrapher ofOctober 1, 1869. This was the first "professional card, " if it may be sodescribed, ever issued in America by a firm of electrical engineers, andis here reproduced. It is probable that the advertisement, one of thelargest in the Telegrapher, and appearing frequently, was not paid forat full rates, as the publisher, Mr. J. N. Ashley, became a partner inthe firm, and not altogether a "sleeping one" when it came to a divisionof profits, which at times were considerable. In order to be nearer hisnew friend Edison boarded with Pope at Elizabeth, New Jersey, for sometime, living "the strenuous life" in the performance of his duties. Associated with Pope and Ashley, he followed up his work on telegraphprinters with marked success. "While with them I devised a printerto print gold quotations instead of indicating them. The lines werestarted, and the whole was sold out to the Gold & Stock TelegraphCompany. My experimenting was all done in the small shop of a DoctorBradley, located near the station of the Pennsylvania Railroad in JerseyCity. Every night I left for Elizabeth on the 1 A. M. Train, then walkedhalf a mile to Mr. Pope's house and up at 6 A. M. For breakfast to catchthe 7 A. M. Train. This continued all winter, and many were the occasionswhen I was nearly frozen in the Elizabeth walk. " This Doctor Bradleyappears to have been the first in this country to make electricalmeasurements of precision with the galvanometer, but was an old-schoolexperimenter who would work for years on an instrument withoutcommercial value. He was also extremely irascible, and when on oneoccasion the connecting wire would not come out of one of the bindingposts of a new and costly galvanometer, he jerked the instrument tothe floor and then jumped on it. He must have been, however, a man oforiginality, as evidenced by his attempt to age whiskey by electricity, an attempt that has often since been made. "The hobby he had at thetime I was there, " says Edison, "was the aging of raw whiskey by passingstrong electric currents through it. He had arranged twenty jars withplatinum electrodes held in place by hard rubber. When all was ready, hefilled the cells with whiskey, connected the battery, locked the door ofthe small room in which they were placed, and gave positive orders thatno one should enter. He then disappeared for three days. On the secondday we noticed a terrible smell in the shop, as if from some deadanimal. The next day the doctor arrived and, noticing the smell, askedwhat was dead. We all thought something had got into his whiskey-roomand died. He opened it and was nearly overcome. The hard rubber he usedwas, of course, full of sulphur, and this being attacked by the nascenthydrogen, had produced sulphuretted hydrogen gas in torrents, displacingall of the air in the room. Sulphuretted hydrogen is, as is well known, the gas given off by rotten eggs. "

Another glimpse of this period of development is afforded by aninteresting article on the stock-reporting telegraph in the ElectricalWorld of March 4, 1899, by Mr. Ralph W. Pope, the well-known Secretaryof the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, who had as a youth anactive and intimate connection with that branch of electrical industry. In the course of his article he mentions the curious fact that DoctorLaws at first, in receiving quotations from the Exchanges, was sodistrustful of the Morse system that he installed long lines ofspeaking-tube as a more satisfactory and safe device than a telegraphwire. As to the relations of that time Mr. Pope remarks: "The rivalrybetween the two concerns resulted in consolidation, Doctor Laws'senterprise being absorbed by the Gold & Stock Telegraph Company, whilethe Laws stock printer was relegated to the scrap-heap and the museum. Competition in the field did not, however, cease. Messrs. Pope andEdison invented a one-wire printer, and started a system of 'goldprinters' devoted to the recording of gold quotations and sterlingexchange only. It was intended more especially for importers andexchange brokers, and was furnished at a lower price than the indicatorservice. . . . The building and equipment of private telegraph lines wasalso entered upon. This business was also subsequently absorbed by theGold & Stock Telegraph Company, which was probably at this time at theheight of its prosperity. The financial organization of the company waspeculiar and worthy of attention. Each subscriber for a machine paidin $100 for the privilege of securing an instrument. For the servicehe paid $25 weekly. In case he retired or failed, he could transferhis 'right, ' and employees were constantly on the alert for purchasablerights, which could be disposed of at a profit. It was occasionallyworth the profit to convince a man that he did not actually own themachine which had been placed in his office. . . . The Western UnionTelegraph Company secured a majority of its stock, and Gen. MarshallLefferts was elected president. A private-line department wasestablished, and the business taken over from Pope, Edison, and Ashleywas rapidly enlarged. "

At this juncture General Lefferts, as President of the Gold & StockTelegraph Company, requested Edison to go to work on improving the stockticker, furnishing the money; and the well-known "Universal" ticker, inwide-spread use in its day, was one result. Mr. Edison gives a graphicpicture of the startling effect on his fortunes: "I made a great manyinventions; one was the special ticker used for many years outside ofNew York in the large cities. This was made exceedingly simple, asthey did not have the experts we had in New York to handle anythingcomplicated. The same ticker was used on the London Stock Exchange. After I had made a great number of inventions and obtained patents, theGeneral seemed anxious that the matter should be closed up. One day Iexhibited and worked a successful device whereby if a ticker should getout of unison in a broker's office and commence to print wild figures, it could be brought to unison from the central station, which saved thelabor of many men and much trouble to the broker. He called me into hisoffice, and said: 'Now, young man, I want to close up the matter of yourinventions. How much do you think you should receive?' I had made upmy mind that, taking into consideration the time and killing pace Iwas working at, I should be entitled to $5000, but could get along with$3000. When the psychological moment arrived, I hadn't the nerve toname such a large sum, so I said: 'Well, General, suppose you make me anoffer. ' Then he said: 'How would $40, 000 strike you?' This caused me tocome as near fainting as I ever got. I was afraid he would hear my heartbeat. I managed to say that I thought it was fair. 'All right, I willhave a contract drawn; come around in three days and sign it, and Iwill give you the money. ' I arrived on time, but had been doing someconsiderable thinking on the subject. The sum seemed to be very largefor the amount of work, for at that time I determined the value by thetime and trouble, and not by what the invention was worth to others. Ithought there was something unreal about it. However, the contract washanded to me. I signed without reading it. " Edison was then handed thefirst check he had ever received, one for $40, 000 drawn on the Bank ofNew York, at the corner of William and Wall Streets. On going to thebank and passing in the check at the wicket of the paying teller, some brief remarks were made to him, which in his deafness he did notunderstand. The check was handed back to him, and Edison, fancying for amoment that in some way he had been cheated, went outside "to thelarge steps to let the cold sweat evaporate. " He then went back to theGeneral, who, with his secretary, had a good laugh over the matter, told him the check must be endorsed, and sent with him a young man toidentify him. The ceremony of identification performed with the payingteller, who was quite merry over the incident, Edison was given theamount in bundles of small bills "until there certainly seemed to be onecubic foot. " Unaware that he was the victim of a practical joke, Edisonproceeded gravely to stow away the money in his overcoat pockets and allhis other pockets. He then went to Newark and sat up all night withthe money for fear it might be stolen. Once more he sought help nextmorning, when the General laughed heartily, and, telling the clerk thatthe joke must not be carried any further, enabled him to deposit thecurrency in the bank and open an account. 

Thus in an inconceivably brief time had Edison passed from poverty toindependence; made a deep impression as to his originality and abilityon important people, and brought out valuable inventions; liftinghimself at one bound out of the ruck of mediocrity, and away from thedeadening drudgery of the key. Best of all he was enterprising, one ofthe leaders and pioneers for whom the world is always looking; and, touse his own criticism of himself, he had "too sanguine a temperamentto keep money in solitary confinement. " With quiet self-possession heseized his opportunity, began to buy machinery, rented a shop and gotwork for it. Moving quickly into a larger shop, Nos. 10 and 12 WardStreet, Newark, New Jersey, he secured large orders from GeneralLefferts to build stock tickers, and employed fifty men. As businessincreased he put on a night force, and was his own foreman on bothshifts. Half an hour of sleep three or four times in the twenty-fourhours was all he needed in those days, when one invention succeededanother with dazzling rapidity, and when he worked with the fierce, eruptive energy of a great volcano, throwing out new ideas incessantlywith spectacular effect on the arts to which they related. It has alwaysbeen a theory with Edison that we sleep altogether too much; but onthe other hand he never, until long past fifty, knew or practiced theslightest moderation in work or in the use of strong coffee and blackcigars. He has, moreover, while of tender and kindly disposition, neverhesitated to use men up as freely as a Napoleon or Grant; seeing onlythe goal of a complete invention or perfected device, to attain whichall else must become subsidiary. He gives a graphic picture of his firstmethods as a manufacturer: "Nearly all my men were on piece work, andI allowed them to make good wages, and never cut until the pay becameabsurdly high as they got more expert. I kept no books. I had two hooks. All the bills and accounts I owed I jabbed on one hook; and memoranda ofall owed to myself I put on the other. When some of the bills fell due, and I couldn't deliver tickers to get a supply of money, I gave a note. When the notes were due, a messenger came around from the bank with thenote and a protest pinned to it for $1. 25. Then I would go to New Yorkand get an advance, or pay the note if I had the money. This method ofgiving notes for my accounts and having all notes protested I kept upover two years, yet my credit was fine. Every store I traded with wasalways glad to furnish goods, perhaps in amazed admiration of my systemof doing business, which was certainly new. " After a while Edison gota bookkeeper, whose vagaries made him look back with regret on theearlier, primitive method. "The first three months I had him go overthe books to find out how much we had made. He reported $3000. I gavea supper to some of my men to celebrate this, only to be told two daysafterward that he had made a mistake, and that we had lost $500; andthen a few days after that he came to me again and said he was allmixed up, and now found that we had made over $7000. " Edison changedbookkeepers, but never thereafter counted anything real profit until hehad paid all his debts and had the profits in the bank. 

The factory work at this time related chiefly to stock tickers, principally the "Universal, " of which at one time twelve hundred werein use. Edison's connection with this particular device was very closewhile it lasted. In a review of the ticker art, Mr. Callahan stated, with rather grudging praise, that "a ticker at the present time (1901)would be considered as impracticable and unsalable if it were notprovided with a unison device, " and he goes on to remark: "The firstunison on stock tickers was one used on the Laws printer. [2] It was acrude and unsatisfactory piece of mechanism and necessitated doublingof the battery in order to bring it into action. It was short-lived. TheEdison unison comprised a lever with a free end travelling in a spiralor worm on the type-wheel shaft until it met a pin at the end of theworm, thus obstructing the shaft and leaving the type-wheels at thezero-point until released by the printing lever. This device is toowell known to require a further description. It is not applicable to anyinstrument using two independently moving type-wheels; but on nearly ifnot all other instruments will be found in use. " The stock ticker hasenjoyed the devotion of many brilliant inventors--G. M. Phelps, H. VanHoevenbergh, A. A. Knudson, G. B. Scott, S. D. Field, John Burry--andremains in extensive use as an appliance for which no substitute orcompetitor has been found. In New York the two great stock exchangeshave deemed it necessary to own and operate a stock-ticker service forthe sole benefit of their members; and down to the present moment theprocess of improvement has gone on, impelled by the increasing volume ofbusiness to be reported. It is significant of Edison's work, now dimmedand overlaid by later advances, that at the very outset he recognizedthe vital importance of interchangeability in the construction of thisdelicate and sensitive apparatus. But the difficulties of these earlydays were almost insurmountable. Mr. R. W. Pope says of the "Universal"machines that they were simple and substantial and generallysatisfactory, but adds: "These instruments were supposed to have beenmade with interchangeable parts; but as a matter of fact the instancesin which these parts would fit were very few. The instruction-bookprepared for the use of inspectors stated that 'The parts should not betinkered nor bent, as they are accurately made and interchangeable. ' Thedifficulties encountered in fitting them properly doubtless gave riseto a story that Mr. Edison had stated that there were three degrees ofinterchangeability. This was interpreted to mean: First, the parts willfit; second, they will almost fit; third, they do not fit, and can't bemade to fit. "

 [Footnote 2: This I invented as well. --T. A. E. ]

This early shop affords an illustration of the manner in which Edisonhas made a deep impression on the personnel of the electrical arts. Ata single bench there worked three men since rich or prominent. Onewas Sigmund Bergmann, for a time partner with Edison in his lightingdevelopments in the United States, and now head and principal ownerof electrical works in Berlin employing ten thousand men. The nextman adjacent was John Kruesi, afterward engineer of the great GeneralElectric Works at Schenectady. A third was Schuckert, who left the benchto settle up his father's little estate at Nuremberg, stayed there andfounded electrical factories, which became the third largest in Germany, their proprietor dying very wealthy. "I gave them a good training asto working hours and hustling, " says their quondam master; and this isequally true as applied to many scores of others working in companiesbearing the Edison name or organized under Edison patents. It iscuriously significant in this connection that of the twenty-onepresidents of the national society, the American Institute of ElectricalEngineers, founded in 1884, eight have been intimately associated withEdison--namely, Norvin Green and F. L. Pope, as business colleagues ofthe days of which we now write; while Messrs. Frank J. Sprague, T. C. Martin, A. E. Kennelly, S. S. Wheeler, John W. Lieb, Jr. , and Louis A. Ferguson have all been at one time or another in the Edison employ. Theremark was once made that if a famous American teacher sat at one endof a log and a student at the other end, the elements of a successfuluniversity were present. It is equally true that in Edison and the manymen who have graduated from his stern school of endeavor, America hashad its foremost seat of electrical engineering. 

CHAPTER VIII

AUTOMATIC, DUPLEX, AND QUADRUPLEX TELEGRAPHY

WORK of various kinds poured in upon the young manufacturer, busy alsowith his own schemes and inventions, which soon began to follow so manydistinct lines of inquiry that it ceases to be easy or necessary for thehistorian to treat them all in chronological sequence. Some notion ofhis ceaseless activity may be formed from the fact that he started nofewer than three shops in Newark during 1870-71, and while directingthese was also engaged by the men who controlled the Automatic TelegraphCompany of New York, which had a circuit to Washington, to help it outof its difficulties. "Soon after starting the large shop (10 and 12 WardStreet, Newark), I rented shop-room to the inventor of a new rifle. I think it was the Berdan. In any event, it was a rifle which wassubsequently adopted by the British Army. The inventor employed atool-maker who was the finest and best tool-maker I had ever seen. Inoticed that he worked pretty near the whole of the twenty-four hours. This kind of application I was looking for. He was getting $21. 50 perweek, and was also paid for overtime. I asked him if he could run theshop. 'I don't know; try me!' he said. 'All right, I will give you $60per week to run both shifts. ' He went at it. His executive abilitywas greater than that of any other man I have yet seen. His memory wasprodigious, conversation laconic, and movements rapid. He doubledthe production inside three months, without materially increasing thepay-roll, by increasing the cutting speeds of tools, and by the use ofvarious devices. When in need of rest he would lie down on a work-bench, sleep twenty or thirty minutes, and wake up fresh. As this was just whatI could do, I naturally conceived a great pride in having such a man incharge of my work. But almost everything has trouble connected with it. He disappeared one day, and although I sent men everywhere that it waslikely he could be found, he was not discovered. After two weeks he cameinto the factory in a terrible condition as to clothes and face. He satdown and, turning to me, said: 'Edison, it's no use, this is the thirdtime; I can't stand prosperity. Put my salary back and give me a job. ' Iwas very sorry to learn that it was whiskey that spoiled such a career. I gave him an inferior job and kept him for a long time. "

Edison had now entered definitely upon that career as an inventor whichhas left so deep an imprint on the records of the United States PatentOffice, where from his first patent in 1869 up to the summer of 1910no fewer than 1328 separate patents have been applied for in his name, averaging thirty-two every year, and one about every eleven days; with asubstantially corresponding number issued. The height of this inventiveactivity was attained about 1882, in which year no fewer than 141patents were applied for, and seventy-five granted to him, or nearlynine times as many as in 1876, when invention as a profession maybe said to have been adopted by this prolific genius. It will beunderstood, of course, that even these figures do not represent the fullmeasure of actual invention, as in every process and at every step therewere many discoveries that were not brought to patent registration, butremained "trade secrets. " And furthermore, that in practically everycase the actual patented invention followed from one to a dozen or moregradually developing forms of the same idea. 

An Englishman named George Little had brought over a system of automatictelegraphy which worked well on a short line, but was a failure when putupon the longer circuits for which automatic methods are best adapted. The general principle involved in automatic or rapid telegraphs, exceptthe photographic ones, is that of preparing the message in advance, fordispatch, by perforating narrow strips of paper with holes--work whichcan be done either by hand-punches or by typewriter apparatus. A certaingroup of perforations corresponds to a Morse group of dots and dashesfor a letter of the alphabet. When the tape thus made ready is runrapidly through a transmitting machine, electrical contact occurswherever there is a perforation, permitting the current from the batteryto flow into the line and thus transmit signals correspondingly. Atthe distant end these signals are received sometimes on an ink-writingrecorder as dots and dashes, or even as typewriting letters; but inmany of the earlier systems, like that of Bain, the record at the higherrates of speed was effected by chemical means, a tell-tale stainbeing made on the travelling strip of paper by every spurt of incomingcurrent. Solutions of potassium iodide were frequently used for thispurpose, giving a sharp, blue record, but fading away too rapidly. 

The Little system had perforating apparatus operated by electromagnets;its transmitting machine was driven by a small electromagnetic motor;and the record was made by electrochemical decomposition, the writingmember being a minute platinum roller instead of the more familiar ironstylus. Moreover, a special type of wire had been put up for the singlecircuit of two hundred and eighty miles between New York and Washington. This is believed to have been the first "compound" wire made fortelegraphic or other signalling purposes, the object being to securegreater lightness with textile strength and high conductivity. It had asteel core, with a copper ribbon wound spirally around it, and tinnedto the core wire. But the results obtained were poor, and in theirnecessity the parties in interest turned to Edison. 

Mr. E. H. Johnson tells of the conditions: "Gen. W. J. Palmer and someNew York associates had taken up the Little automatic system and hadexpended quite a sum in its development, when, thinking they had reducedit to practice, they got Tom Scott, of the Pennsylvania Railroad to sendhis superintendent of telegraph over to look into and report upon it. Ofcourse he turned it down. The syndicate was appalled at this report, andin this extremity General Palmer thought of the man who had impressedhim as knowing it all by the telling of telegraphic tales as a means ofwhiling away lonesome hours on the plains of Colorado, where they wereassociated in railroad-building. So this man--it was I--was sent for tocome to New York and assuage their grief if possible. My report was thatthe system was sound fundamentally, that it contained the germ of a goodthing, but needed working out. Associated with General Palmer was oneCol. Josiah C. Reiff, then Eastern bond agent for the Kansas PacificRailroad. The Colonel was always resourceful, and didn't fail inthis case. He knew of a young fellow who was doing some good work forMarshall Lefferts, and who it was said was a genius at invention, anda very fiend for work. His name was Edison, and he had a shop out atNewark, New Jersey. He came and was put in my care for the purpose of amutual exchange of ideas and for a report by me as to his competency inthe matter. This was my introduction to Edison. He confirmed my viewsof the automatic system. He saw its possibilities, as well as the chiefobstacles to be overcome--viz. , the sluggishness of the wire, togetherwith the need of mechanical betterment of the apparatus; and he agreedto take the job on one condition--namely, that Johnson would stay andhelp, as 'he was a man with ideas. ' Mr. Johnson was accordingly giventhree months' leave from Colorado railroad-building, and has never seenColorado since. "

Applying himself to the difficulties with wonted energy, Edison devisednew apparatus, and solved the problem to such an extent that he and hisassistants succeeded in transmitting and recording one thousand wordsper minute between New York and Washington, and thirty-five hundredwords per minute to Philadelphia. Ordinary manual transmission by keyis not in excess of forty to fifty words a minute. Stated very briefly, Edison's principal contribution to the commercial development of theautomatic was based on the observation that in a line of considerablelength electrical impulses become enormously extended, or sluggish, dueto a phenomenon known as self-induction, which with ordinary Morse workis in a measure corrected by condensers. But in the automatic the aimwas to deal with impulses following each other from twenty-five to onehundred times as rapidly as in Morse lines, and to attempt to receiveand record intelligibly such a lightning-like succession of signalswould have seemed impossible. But Edison discovered that by utilizinga shunt around the receiving instrument, with a soft iron core, theself-induction would produce a momentary and instantaneous reversal ofthe current at the end of each impulse, and thereby give an absolutelysharp definition to each signal. This discovery did away entirely withsluggishness, and made it possible to secure high speeds over lines ofcomparatively great lengths. But Edison's work on the automatic didnot stop with this basic suggestion, for he took up and perfected themechanical construction of the instruments, as well as the perforators, and also suggested numerous electrosensitive chemicals for thereceivers, so that the automatic telegraph, almost entirely by reason ofhis individual work, was placed on a plane of commercial practicability. The long line of patents secured by him in this art is an interestingexhibit of the development of a germ to a completed system, not, asis usually the case, by numerous inventors working over considerableperiods of time, but by one man evolving the successive steps at a whiteheat of activity. 

This system was put in commercial operation, but the company, nowencouraged, was quite willing to allow Edison to work out his idea of anautomatic that would print the message in bold Roman letters insteadof in dots and dashes; with consequent gain in speed in delivery ofthe message after its receipt in the operating-room, it being obviouslynecessary in the case of any message received in Morse characters tocopy it in script before delivery to the recipient. A large shop wasrented in Newark, equipped with $25, 000 worth of machinery, and Edisonwas given full charge. Here he built their original type of apparatus, as improved, and also pushed his experiments on the letter system so farthat at a test, between New York and Philadelphia, three thousand wordswere sent in one minute and recorded in Roman type. Mr. D. N. Craig, oneof the early organizers of the Associated Press, became interestedin this company, whose president was Mr. George Harrington, formerlyAssistant Secretary of the United States Treasury. 

Mr. Craig brought with him at this time--the early seventies--fromMilwaukee a Mr. Sholes, who had a wooden model of a machine to which hadbeen given the then new and unfamiliar name of "typewriter. " Craigwas interested in the machine, and put the model in Edison's hands toperfect. "This typewriter proved a difficult thing, " says Edison, "tomake commercial. The alignment of the letters was awful. One letterwould be one-sixteenth of an inch above the others; and all the letterswanted to wander out of line. I worked on it till the machine gavefair results. [3] Some were made and used in the office of the Automaticcompany. Craig was very sanguine that some day all business letterswould be written on a typewriter. He died before that took place; butit gradually made its way. The typewriter I got into commercial shape isnow known as the Remington. About this time I got an idea I could devisean apparatus by which four messages could simultaneously be sent over asingle wire without interfering with each other. I now had five shops, and with experimenting on this new scheme I was pretty busy; at least Idid not have ennui. "

 [Footnote 3: See illustration on opposite page, showing reproduction of the work done with this machine. ]

A very interesting picture of Mr. Edison at this time is furnished byMr. Patrick B. Delany, a well-known inventor in the field of automaticand multiplex telegraphy, who at that time was a chief operator of theFranklin Telegraph Company at Philadelphia. His remark about Edison that"his ingenuity inspired confidence, and wavering financiers stiffenedup when it became known that he was to develop the automatic" is anoteworthy evidence of the manner in which the young inventor hadalready gained a firm footing. He continues: "Edward H. Johnson wasbrought on from the Denver & Rio Grande Railway to assist in thepractical introduction of automatic telegraphy on a commercial basis, and about this time, in 1872, I joined the enterprise. Fairly goodresults were obtained between New York and Washington, and Edison, indifferent to theoretical difficulties, set out to prove high speedsbetween New York and Charleston, South Carolina, the compound wire beinghitched up to one of the Southern & Atlantic wires from Washington toCharleston for the purpose of experimentation. Johnson and I went to theCharleston end to carry out Edison's plans, which were rapidly unfoldedby telegraph every night from a loft on lower Broadway, New York. Wecould only get the wire after all business was cleared, usually aboutmidnight, and for months, in the quiet hours, that wire was subjectedto more electrical acrobatics than any other wire ever experienced. Whenthe experiments ended, Edison's system was put into regular commercialoperation between New York and Washington; and did fine work. If thesingle wire had not broken about every other day, the venture would havebeen a financial success; but moisture got in between the copper ribbonand the steel core, setting up galvanic action which made short work ofthe steel. The demonstration was, however, sufficiently successful toimpel Jay Gould to contract to pay about $4, 000, 000 in stock for thepatents. The contract was never completed so far as the $4, 000, 000were concerned, but Gould made good use of it in getting control of theWestern Union. "

One of the most important persons connected with the automaticenterprise was Mr. George Harrington, to whom we have above referred, and with whom Mr. Edison entered into close confidential relations, sothat the inventions made were held jointly, under a partnership deedcovering "any inventions or improvements that may be useful or desiredin automatic telegraphy. " Mr. Harrington was assured at the outset byEdison that while the Little perforator would give on the average onlyseven or eight words per minute, which was not enough for commercialpurposes, he could devise one giving fifty or sixty words, and thatwhile the Little solution for the receiving tape cost $15 to $17 pergallon, he could furnish a ferric solution costing only five or sixcents per gallon. In every respect Edison "made good, " and in a shorttime the system was a success, "Mr. Little having withdrawn his obsoleteperforator, his ineffective resistance, his costly chemical solution, togive place to Edison's perforator, Edison's resistance and devices, andEdison's solution costing a few cents per gallon. But, " continues Mr. Harrington, in a memorable affidavit, "the inventive efforts of Mr. Edison were not confined to automatic telegraphy, nor did they ceasewith the opening of that line to Washington. " They all led up to thequadruplex. 

Flattered by their success, Messrs. Harrington and Reiff, who owned withEdison the foreign patents for the new automatic system, entered into anarrangement with the British postal telegraph authorities for a trialof the system in England, involving its probable adoption if successful. Edison was sent to England to make the demonstration, in 1873, reportingthere to Col. George E. Gouraud, who had been an associate in the UnitedStates Treasury with Mr. Harrington, and was now connected with thenew enterprise. With one small satchel of clothes, three large boxes ofinstruments, and a bright fellow-telegrapher named Jack Wright, he tookvoyage on the Jumping Java, as she was humorously known, of the Cunardline. The voyage was rough and the little Java justified her reputationby jumping all over the ocean. "At the table, " says Edison, "there werenever more than ten or twelve people. I wondered at the time how itcould pay to run an ocean steamer with so few people; but when we gotinto calm water and could see the green fields, I was astounded to seethe number of people who appeared. There were certainly two or threehundred. I learned afterward that they were mostly going to the ViennaExposition. Only two days could I get on deck, and on one of these agentleman had a bad scalp wound from being thrown against the iron wallof a small smoking-room erected over a freight hatch. "

Arrived in London, Edison set up his apparatus at the Telegraph Streetheadquarters, and sent his companion to Liverpool with the instrumentsfor that end. The condition of the test was that he was to send fromLiverpool and receive in London, and to record at the rate of onethousand words per minute, five hundred words to be sent every half hourfor six hours. Edison was given a wire and batteries to operate with, but a preliminary test soon showed that he was going to fail. Both wireand batteries were poor, and one of the men detailed by the authoritiesto watch the test remarked quietly, in a friendly way: "You are notgoing to have much show. They are going to give you an old BridgewaterCanal wire that is so poor we don't work it, and a lot of 'sandbatteries' at Liverpool. " [4] The situation was rather depressing tothe young American thus encountering, for the first time, the stolidconservatism and opposition to change that characterizes so much ofofficial life and methods in Europe. "I thanked him, " says Edison, "andhoped to reciprocate somehow. I knew I was in a hole. I had been stayingat a little hotel in Covent Garden called the Hummums! and got nothingbut roast beef and flounders, and my imagination was getting into acoma. What I needed was pastry. That night I found a French pastry shopin High Holborn Street and filled up. My imagination got all right. Early in the morning I saw Gouraud, stated my case, and asked if hewould stand for the purchase of a powerful battery to send to Liverpool. He said 'Yes. ' I went immediately to Apps on the Strand and asked ifhe had a powerful battery. He said he hadn't; that all that he had wasTyndall's Royal Institution battery, which he supposed would notserve. I saw it--one hundred cells--and getting the price--one hundredguineas--hurried to Gouraud. He said 'Go ahead. ' I telegraphed to theman in Liverpool. He came on, got the battery to Liverpool, set up andready, just two hours before the test commenced. One of the principalthings that made the system a success was that the line was put to earthat the sending end through a magnet, and the extra current from this, passed to the line, served to sharpen the recording waves. This newbattery was strong enough to pass a powerful current through the magnetwithout materially diminishing the strength of the line current. "

 [Footnote 4: The sand battery is now obsolete. In this type, the cell containing the elements was filled with sand, which was kept moist with an electrolyte. ]

The test under these more favorable circumstances was a success. "Therecord was as perfect as copper plate, and not a single remark was madein the 'time lost' column. " Edison was now asked if he thought he couldget a greater speed through submarine cables with this system than withthe regular methods, and replied that he would like a chance to tryit. For this purpose, twenty-two hundred miles of Brazilian cable thenstored under water in tanks at the Greenwich works of the TelegraphConstruction & Maintenance Company, near London, was placed at hisdisposal from 8 P. M. Until 6 A. M. "This just suited me, as I preferrednight-work. I got my apparatus down and set up, and then to get apreliminary idea of what the distortion of the signal would be, I sent asingle dot, which should have been recorded upon my automatic paper bya mark about one-thirty-second of an inch long. Instead of that it wastwenty-seven feet long! If I ever had any conceit, it vanished from myboots up. I worked on this cable more than two weeks, and the best Icould do was two words per minute, which was only one-seventh of whatthe guaranteed speed of the cable should be when laid. What I didnot know at the time was that a coiled cable, owing to induction, wasinfinitely worse than when laid out straight, and that my speed was asgood as, if not better than, with the regular system; but no one told methis. " While he was engaged on these tests Colonel Gouraud came downone night to visit him at the lonely works, spent a vigil with him, andtoward morning wanted coffee. There was only one little inn nearby, frequented by longshoremen and employees from the soap-works andcement-factories--a rough lot--and there at daybreak they went as soonas the other customers had left for work. "The place had a bar and sixbare tables, and was simply infested with roaches. The only thingsthat I ever could get were coffee made from burnt bread, with brownmolasses-cake. I ordered these for Gouraud. The taste of the coffee, theinsects, etc. , were too much. He fainted. I gave him a big dose of gin, and this revived him. He went back to the works and waited until sixwhen the day men came, and telegraphed for a carriage. He lost allinterest in the experiments after that, and I was ordered back toAmerica. " Edison states, however, that the automatic was finally adoptedin England and used for many years; indeed, is still in use there. Butthey took whatever was needed from his system, and he "has never had acent from them. "

Arduous work was at once resumed at home on duplex and quadruplextelegraphy, just as though there had been no intermission ordiscouragement over dots twenty-seven feet long. A clue to his activityis furnished in the fact that in 1872 he had applied for thirty-eightpatents in the class of telegraphy, and twenty-five in 1873; severalof these being for duplex methods, on which he had experimented. Theearlier apparatus had been built several years prior to this, as shownby a curious little item of news that appeared in the Telegrapherof January 30, 1869: "T. A. Edison has resigned his situation in theWestern Union office, Boston, and will devote his time to bringing outhis inventions. " Oh, the supreme, splendid confidence of youth! Sixmonths later, as we have seen, he had already made his mark, and thesame journal, in October, 1869, could say: "Mr. Edison is a young manof the highest order of mechanical talent, combined with good scientificelectrical knowledge and experience. He has already invented andpatented a number of valuable and useful inventions, among which may bementioned the best instrument for double transmission yet brought out. "Not bad for a novice of twenty-two. It is natural, therefore, after hisintervening work on indicators, stock tickers, automatic telegraphs, andtypewriters, to find him harking back to duplex telegraphy, if, indeed, he can be said to have dropped it in the interval. It has always beenone of the characteristic features of Edison's method of inventing thatwork in several lines has gone forward at the same time. No one line ofinvestigation has ever been enough to occupy his thoughts fully; or toexpress it otherwise, he has found rest in turning from one field ofwork to another, having absolutely no recreations or hobbies, and notneeding them. It may also be said that, once entering it, Mr. Edison hasnever abandoned any field of work. He may change the line of attack; hemay drop the subject for a time; but sooner or later the note-books orthe Patent Office will bear testimony to the reminiscent outcropping oflatent thought on the matter. His attention has shifted chronologically, and by process of evolution, from one problem to another, and someresults are found to be final; but the interest of the man in the thingnever dies out. No one sees more vividly than he the fact that in theinterplay of the arts one industry shapes and helps another, and that noinvention lives to itself alone. 

The path to the quadruplex lay through work on the duplex, which, suggested first by Moses G. Farmer in 1852, had been elaborated by manyingenious inventors, notably in this country by Stearns, before Edisononce again applied his mind to it. The different methods of suchmultiple transmission--namely, the simultaneous dispatch of the twocommunications in opposite directions over the same wire, or thedispatch of both at once in the same direction--gave plenty of play toingenuity. Prescott's Elements of the Electric Telegraph, a standardwork in its day, described "a method of simultaneous transmissioninvented by T. A. Edison, of New Jersey, in 1873, " and says of it: "Itspeculiarity consists in the fact that the signals are transmitted in onedirection by reversing the polarity of a constant current, and in theopposite direction by increasing or decreasing the strength of the samecurrent. " Herein lay the germ of the Edison quadruplex. It is also notedthat "In 1874 Edison invented a method of simultaneous transmissionby induced currents, which has given very satisfactory results inexperimental trials. " Interest in the duplex as a field of inventiondwindled, however, as the quadruplex loomed up, for while the onedoubled the capacity of a circuit, the latter created three "phantomwires, " and thus quadruplexed the working capacity of any line to whichit was applied. As will have been gathered from the above, the principleembodied in the quadruplex is that of working over the line with twocurrents from each end that differ from each other in strength ornature, so that they will affect only instruments adapted to respondto just such currents and no others; and by so arranging the receivingapparatus as not to be affected by the currents transmitted from itsown end of the line. Thus by combining instruments that respond onlyto variation in the strength of current from the distant station, withinstruments that respond only to the change in the direction of currentfrom the distant station, and by grouping a pair of these at each end ofthe line, the quadruplex is the result. Four sending and four receivingoperators are kept busy at each end, or eight in all. Aside from othermaterial advantages, it is estimated that at least from $15, 000, 000 to$20, 000, 000 has been saved by the Edison quadruplex merely in the costof line construction in America. 

The quadruplex has not as a rule the same working efficiency thatfour separate wires have. This is due to the fact that when one of thereceiving operators is compelled to "break" the sending operator forany reason, the "break" causes the interruption of the work of eightoperators, instead of two, as would be the case on a single wire. Theworking efficiency of the quadruplex, therefore, with the apparatus ingood working condition, depends entirely upon the skill of the operatorsemployed to operate it. But this does not reflect upon or diminish theingenuity required for its invention. Speaking of the problem involved, Edison said some years later to Mr. Upton, his mathematical assistant, that "he always considered he was only working from one room to another. Thus he was not confused by the amount of wire and the thought ofdistance. "

The immense difficulties of reducing such a system to practice may bereadily conceived, especially when it is remembered that the "line"itself, running across hundreds of miles of country, is subject to allmanner of atmospheric conditions, and varies from moment to moment inits ability to carry current, and also when it is borne in mind thatthe quadruplex requires at each end of the line a so-called "artificialline, " which must have the exact resistance of the working line and mustbe varied with the variations in resistance of the working line. At thisjuncture other schemes were fermenting in his brain; but the quadruplexengrossed him. "This problem was of most difficult and complicated kind, and I bent all my energies toward its solution. It required a peculiareffort of the mind, such as the imagining of eight different thingsmoving simultaneously on a mental plane, without anything to demonstratetheir efficiency. " It is perhaps hardly to be wondered at that whennotified he would have to pay 12 1/2 per cent. Extra if his taxes inNewark were not at once paid, he actually forgot his own name when askedfor it suddenly at the City Hall, lost his place in the line, and, thefatal hour striking, had to pay the surcharge after all!

So important an invention as the quadruplex could not long go begging, but there were many difficulties connected with its introduction, someof which are best described in Mr. Edison's own words: "Around 1873 theowners of the Automatic Telegraph Company commenced negotiations withJay Gould for the purchase of the wires between New York and Washington, and the patents for the system, then in successful operation. Jay Gouldat that time controlled the Atlantic & Pacific Telegraph Company, andwas competing with the Western Union and endeavoring to depress WesternUnion stock on the Exchange. About this time I invented the quadruplex. I wanted to interest the Western Union Telegraph Company in it, witha view of selling it, but was unsuccessful until I made an arrangementwith the chief electrician of the company, so that he could be known asa joint inventor and receive a portion of the money. At that time I wasvery short of money, and needed it more than glory. This electricianappeared to want glory more than money, so it was an easy trade. I brought my apparatus over and was given a separate room with amarble-tiled floor, which, by-the-way, was a very hard kind of floor tosleep on, and started in putting on the finishing touches. 

"After two months of very hard work, I got a detail at regular times ofeight operators, and we got it working nicely from one room to anotherover a wire which ran to Albany and back. Under certain conditions ofweather, one side of the quadruplex would work very shakily, and I hadnot succeeded in ascertaining the cause of the trouble. On a certainday, when there was a board meeting of the company, I was to make anexhibition test. The day arrived. I had picked the best operators in NewYork, and they were familiar with the apparatus. I arranged that if astorm occurred, and the bad side got shaky, they should do the bestthey could and draw freely on their imaginations. They were sending oldmessages. About 1, o'clock everything went wrong, as there was a stormsomewhere near Albany, and the bad side got shaky. Mr. Orton, thepresident, and Wm. H. Vanderbilt and the other directors came in. I hadmy heart trying to climb up around my oesophagus. I was paying a sherifffive dollars a day to withhold judgment which had been entered againstme in a case which I had paid no attention to; and if the quadruplex hadnot worked before the president, I knew I was to have trouble and mightlose my machinery. The New York Times came out next day with a fullaccount. I was given $5000 as part payment for the invention, whichmade me easy, and I expected the whole thing would be closed up. But Mr. Orton went on an extended tour just about that time. I had paid for allthe experiments on the quadruplex and exhausted the money, and I wasagain in straits. In the mean time I had introduced the apparatus on thelines of the company, where it was very successful. 

"At that time the general superintendent of the Western Union was Gen. T. T. Eckert (who had been Assistant Secretary of War with Stanton). Eckert was secretly negotiating with Gould to leave the Western Unionand take charge of the Atlantic & Pacific--Gould's company. One dayEckert called me into his office and made inquiries about money matters. I told him Mr. Orton had gone off and left me without means, and I wasin straits. He told me I would never get another cent, but that heknew a man who would buy it. I told him of my arrangement with theelectrician, and said I could not sell it as a whole to anybody; but ifI got enough for it, I would sell all my interest in any SHARE I mighthave. He seemed to think his party would agree to this. I had a setof quadruplex over in my shop, 10 and 12 Ward Street, Newark, and hearranged to bring him over next evening to see the apparatus. So thenext morning Eckert came over with Jay Gould and introduced him to me. This was the first time I had ever seen him. I exhibited and explainedthe apparatus, and they departed. The next day Eckert sent for me, andI was taken up to Gould's house, which was near the Windsor Hotel, FifthAvenue. In the basement he had an office. It was in the evening, and wewent in by the servants' entrance, as Eckert probably feared that hewas watched. Gould started in at once and asked me how much I wanted. I said: 'Make me an offer. ' Then he said: 'I will give you $30, 000. ' Isaid: 'I will sell any interest I may have for that money, ' which wassomething more than I thought I could get. The next morning I went withGould to the office of his lawyers, Sherman & Sterling, and received acheck for $30, 000, with a remark by Gould that I had got the steamboatPlymouth Rock, as he had sold her for $30, 000 and had just received thecheck. There was a big fight on between Gould's company and the WesternUnion, and this caused more litigation. The electrician, on accountof the testimony involved, lost his glory. The judge never decidedthe case, but went crazy a few months afterward. " It was obviously acharacteristically shrewd move on the part of Mr. Gould to secure aninterest in the quadruplex, as a factor in his campaign against theWestern Union, and as a decisive step toward his control of that system, by the subsequent merger that included not only the Atlantic & PacificTelegraph Company, but the American Union Telegraph Company. 

Nor was Mr. Gould less appreciative of the value of Edison's automaticsystem. Referring to matters that will be taken up later in thenarrative, Edison says: "After this Gould wanted me to help install theautomatic system in the Atlantic & Pacific company, of which GeneralEckert had been elected president, the company having bought theAutomatic Telegraph Company. I did a lot of work for this company makingautomatic apparatus in my shop at Newark. About this time I invented adistrict messenger call-box system, and organized a company called theDomestic Telegraph Company, and started in to install the system inNew York. I had great difficulty in getting subscribers, having triedseveral canvassers, who, one after the other, failed to get subscribers. When I was about to give it up, a test operator named Brown, who wason the Automatic Telegraph wire between New York and Washington, whichpassed through my Newark shop, asked permission to let him try and seeif he couldn't get subscribers. I had very little faith in his abilityto get any, but I thought I would give him a chance, as he feltcertain of his ability to succeed. He started in, and the results weresurprising. Within a month he had procured two hundred subscribers, andthe company was a success. I have never quite understood why six menshould fail absolutely, while the seventh man should succeed. Perhapshypnotism would account for it. This company was sold out to theAtlantic & Pacific company. " As far back as 1872, Edison had applied fora patent on district messenger signal boxes, but it was not issued untilJanuary, 1874, another patent being granted in September of the sameyear. In this field of telegraph application, as in others, Edison wasa very early comer, his only predecessor being the fertile and ingeniousCallahan, of stock-ticker fame. The first president of the Gold & StockTelegraph Company, Elisha W. Andrews, had resigned in 1870 in orderto go to England to introduce the stock ticker in London. He lived inEnglewood, New Jersey, and the very night he had packed his trunk thehouse was burglarized. Calling on his nearest friend the next morningfor even a pair of suspenders, Mr. Andrews was met with regrets ofinability, because the burglars had also been there. A third and fourthfriend in the vicinity was appealed to with the same disheartening replyof a story of wholesale spoliation. Mr. Callahan began immediately todevise a system of protection for Englewood; but at that juncture aservant-girl who had been for many years with a family on the Heightsin Brooklyn went mad suddenly and held an aged widow and her daughteras helpless prisoners for twenty-four hours without food or water. Thisincident led to an extension of the protective idea, and very soon asystem was installed in Brooklyn with one hundred subscribers. Out ofthis grew in turn the district messenger system, for it was just aseasy to call a messenger as to sound a fire-alarm or summon the police. To-day no large city in America is without a service of this character, but its function was sharply limited by the introduction of thetelephone. 

Returning to the automatic telegraph it is interesting to note that solong as Edison was associated with it as a supervising providence it didsplendid work, which renders the later neglect of automatic or "rapidtelegraphy" the more remarkable. Reid's standard Telegraph in Americabears astonishing testimony on this point in 1880, as follows: "TheAtlantic & Pacific Telegraph Company had twenty-two automatic stations. These included the chief cities on the seaboard, Buffalo, Chicago, and Omaha. The through business during nearly two years was largelytransmitted in this way. Between New York and Boston two thousand wordsa minute have been sent. The perforated paper was prepared at the rateof twenty words per minute. Whatever its demerits this system enabledthe Atlantic & Pacific company to handle a much larger business during1875 and 1876 than it could otherwise have done with its limitednumber of wires in their then condition. " Mr. Reid also notes as avery thorough test of the perfect practicability of the system, that ithandled the President's message, December 3, 1876, of 12, 600 words withcomplete success. This long message was filed at Washington at 1. 05 anddelivered in New York at 2. 07. The first 9000 words were transmittedin forty-five minutes. The perforated strips were prepared in thirtyminutes by ten persons, and duplicated by nine copyists. But to-day, nearly thirty-five years later, telegraphy in America is stillpractically on a basis of hand transmission!

Of this period and his association with Jay Gould, some very interestingglimpses are given by Edison. "While engaged in putting in the automaticsystem, I saw a great deal of Gould, and frequently went uptown to hisoffice to give information. Gould had no sense of humor. I tried severaltimes to get off what seemed to me a funny story, but he failed to seeany humor in them. I was very fond of stories, and had a choicelot, always kept fresh, with which I could usually throw a man intoconvulsions. One afternoon Gould started in to explain the great futureof the Union Pacific Railroad, which he then controlled. He got a map, and had an immense amount of statistics. He kept at it for over fourhours, and got very enthusiastic. Why he should explain to me, a mereinventor, with no capital or standing, I couldn't make out. He had apeculiar eye, and I made up my mind that there was a strain of insanitysomewhere. This idea was strengthened shortly afterward when the WesternUnion raised the monthly rental of the stock tickers. Gould had one inhis house office, which he watched constantly. This he had removed, to his great inconvenience, because the price had been advanced a fewdollars! He railed over it. This struck me as abnormal. I think Gould'ssuccess was due to abnormal development. He certainly had one traitthat all men must have who want to succeed. He collected every kind ofinformation and statistics about his schemes, and had all the data. Hisconnection with men prominent in official life, of which I was aware, was surprising to me. His conscience seemed to be atrophied, but thatmay be due to the fact that he was contending with men who never had anyto be atrophied. He worked incessantly until 12 or 1 o'clock at night. He took no pride in building up an enterprise. He was after money, andmoney only. Whether the company was a success or a failure mattered notto him. After he had hammered the Western Union through his oppositioncompany and had tired out Mr. Vanderbilt, the latter retired fromcontrol, and Gould went in and consolidated his company and controlledthe Western Union. He then repudiated the contract with the AutomaticTelegraph people, and they never received a cent for their wires orpatents, and I lost three years of very hard labor. But I never had anygrudge against him, because he was so able in his line, and as long asmy part was successful the money with me was a secondary consideration. When Gould got the Western Union I knew no further progress intelegraphy was possible, and I went into other lines. " The truth isthat General Eckert was a conservative--even a reactionary--and beingprejudiced like many other American telegraph managers against "machinetelegraphy, " threw out all such improvements. 

The course of electrical history has been variegated by some veryremarkable litigation; but none was ever more extraordinary than thatreferred to here as arising from the transfer of the Automatic TelegraphCompany to Mr. Jay Gould and the Atlantic & Pacific Telegraph Company. The terms accepted by Colonel Reiff from Mr. Gould, on December 30, 1874, provided that the purchasing telegraph company should increase itscapital to $15, 000, 000, of which the Automatic interests were to receive$4, 000, 000 for their patents, contracts, etc. The stock was then sellingat about 25, and in the later consolidation with the Western Union"went in" at about 60; so that the real purchase price was not less than$1, 000, 000 in cash. There was a private arrangement in writing with Mr. Gould that he was to receive one-tenth of the "result" to the Automaticgroup, and a tenth of the further results secured at home and abroad. Mr. Gould personally bought up and gave money and bonds for one or twoindividual interests on the above basis, including that of Harrington, who in his representative capacity executed assignments to Mr. Gould. But payments were then stopped, and the other owners were left withoutany compensation, although all that belonged to them in the shape ofproperty and patents was taken over bodily into Atlantic & Pacifichands, and never again left them. Attempts at settlement were made intheir behalf, and dragged wearily, due apparently to the fact thatthe plans were blocked by General Eckert, who had in some manner takenoffence at a transaction effected without his active participation inall the details. Edison, who became under the agreement the electricianof the Atlantic & Pacific Telegraph Company, has testified to theunfriendly attitude assumed toward him by General Eckert, as president. In a graphic letter from Menlo Park to Mr. Gould, dated February 2, 1877, Edison makes a most vigorous and impassioned complaint ofhis treatment, "which, acting cumulatively, was a long, unbrokendisappointment to me"; and he reminds Mr. Gould of promises made tohim the day the transfer had been effected of Edison's interest in thequadruplex. The situation was galling to the busy, high-spirited younginventor, who, moreover, "had to live"; and it led to his resumption ofwork for the Western Union Telegraph Company, which was only too glad toget him back. Meantime, the saddened and perplexed Automatic group wasleft unpaid, and it was not until 1906, on a bill filed nearly thirtyyears before, that Judge Hazel, in the United States Circuit Courtfor the Southern District of New York, found strongly in favor of theclaimants and ordered an accounting. The court held that there had beena most wrongful appropriation of the patents, including alike thoserelating to the automatic, the duplex, and the quadruplex, all beingincluded in the general arrangement under which Mr. Gould had held puthis tempting bait of $4, 000, 000. In the end, however, the complainanthad nothing to show for all his struggle, as the master who made theaccounting set the damages at one dollar!

Aside from the great value of the quadruplex, saving millions ofdollars, for a share in which Edison received $30, 000, the automaticitself is described as of considerable utility by Sir William Thomson inhis juror report at the Centennial Exposition of 1876, recommending itfor award. This leading physicist of his age, afterward Lord Kelvin, wasan adept in telegraphy, having made the ocean cable talk, and he saw inEdison's "American Automatic, " as exhibited by the Atlantic & Pacificcompany, a most meritorious and useful system. With the aid of Mr. E. H. Johnson he made exhaustive tests, carrying away with him to GlasgowUniversity the surprising records that he obtained. His official reportcloses thus: "The electromagnetic shunt with soft iron core, inventedby Mr. Edison, utilizing Professor Henry's discovery of electromagneticinduction in a single circuit to produce a momentary reversal of theline current at the instant when the battery is thrown off and so cutoff the chemical marks sharply at the proper instant, is the electricalsecret of the great speed he has achieved. The main peculiarities of Mr. Edison's automatic telegraph shortly stated in conclusion are: (1) theperforator; (2) the contact-maker; (3) the electromagnetic shunt; and(4) the ferric cyanide of iron solution. It deserves award as a veryimportant step in land telegraphy. " The attitude thus disclosed towardMr. Edison's work was never changed, except that admiration grew asfresh inventions were brought forward. To the day of his death LordKelvin remained on terms of warmest friendship with his Americanco-laborer, with whose genius he thus first became acquainted atPhiladelphia in the environment of Franklin. 

It is difficult to give any complete idea of the activity maintained atthe Newark shops during these anxious, harassed years, but the statementthat at one time no fewer than forty-five different inventions werebeing worked upon, will furnish some notion of the incandescent activityof the inventor and his assistants. The hours were literally endless;and upon one occasion, when the order was in hand for a large quantityof stock tickers, Edison locked his men in until the job had beenfinished of making the machine perfect, and "all the bugs taken out, "which meant sixty hours of unintermitted struggle with the difficulties. Nor were the problems and inventions all connected with telegraphy. On the contrary, Edison's mind welcomed almost any new suggestion as arelief from the regular work in hand. Thus: "Toward the latter part of1875, in the Newark shop, I invented a device for multiplying copies ofletters, which I sold to Mr. A. B. Dick, of Chicago, and in the yearssince it has been universally introduced throughout the world. It iscalled the 'Mimeograph. ' I also invented devices for and introducedparaffin paper, now used universally for wrapping up candy, etc. "The mimeograph employs a pointed stylus, used as in writing with alead-pencil, which is moved over a kind of tough prepared paper placedon a finely grooved steel plate. The writing is thus traced by means ofa series of minute perforations in the sheet, from which, as a stencil, hundreds of copies can be made. Such stencils can be prepared ontypewriters. Edison elaborated this principle in two other forms--onepneumatic and one electric--the latter being in essence a reciprocatingmotor. Inside the barrel of the electric pen a little plunger, carryingthe stylus, travels to and fro at a very high rate of speed, due to theattraction and repulsion of the solenoid coils of wire surrounding it;and as the hand of the writer guides it the pen thus makes its recordin a series of very minute perforations in the paper. The current froma small battery suffices to energize the pen, and with the stencil thusmade hundreds of copies of the document can be furnished. As a matterof fact, as many as three thousand copies have been made from a singlemimeographic stencil of this character. 

CHAPTER IX

THE TELEPHONE, MOTOGRAPH, AND MICROPHONE

A VERY great invention has its own dramatic history. Episodes full ofhuman interest attend its development. The periods of weary struggle, the daring adventure along unknown paths, the clash of rival claimants, are closely similar to those which mark the revelation and subjugationof a new continent. At the close of the epoch of discovery it is seenthat mankind as a whole has made one more great advance; but in theearlier stages one watched chiefly the confused vicissitudes of fortuneof the individual pioneers. The great modern art of telephony has hadthus in its beginnings, its evolution, and its present status as auniversal medium of intercourse, all the elements of surprise, mystery, swift creation of wealth, tragic interludes, and colossal battle thatcan appeal to the imagination and hold public attention. And in thisnew electrical industry, in laying its essential foundations, Edison hasagain been one of the dominant figures. 

As far back as 1837, the American, Page, discovered the curious factthat an iron bar, when magnetized and demagnetized at short intervalsof time, emitted sounds due to the molecular disturbances in the mass. Philipp Reis, a simple professor in Germany, utilized this principle inthe construction of apparatus for the transmission of sound; but in thegrasp of the idea he was preceded by Charles Bourseul, a young Frenchsoldier in Algeria, who in 1854, under the title of "ElectricalTelephony, " in a Parisian illustrated paper, gave a brief and luciddescription as follows:

"We know that sounds are made by vibrations, and are made sensible tothe ear by the same vibrations, which are reproduced by the interveningmedium. But the intensity of the vibrations diminishes very rapidly withthe distance; so that even with the aid of speaking-tubes and trumpetsit is impossible to exceed somewhat narrow limits. Suppose a man speaksnear a movable disk sufficiently flexible to lose none of the vibrationsof the voice; that this disk alternately makes and breaks the connectionwith a battery; you may have at a distance another disk which willsimultaneously execute the same vibrations. . . . Any one who is not deafand dumb may use this mode of transmission, which would require noapparatus except an electric battery, two vibrating disks, and a wire. "

This would serve admirably for a portrayal of the Bell telephone, exceptthat it mentions distinctly the use of the make-and-break method (i. E. , where the circuit is necessarily opened and closed as in telegraphy, although, of course, at an enormously higher rate), which has neverproved practical. 

So far as is known Bourseul was not practical enough to try his ownsuggestion, and never made a telephone. About 1860, Reis built severalforms of electrical telephonic apparatus, all imitating in some degreethe human ear, with its auditory tube, tympanum, etc. , and examplesof the apparatus were exhibited in public not only in Germany, but inEngland. There is a variety of testimony to the effect that not onlymusical sounds, but stray words and phrases, were actually transmittedwith mediocre, casual success. It was impossible, however, to maintainthe devices in adjustment for more than a few seconds, since theinvention depended upon the make-and-break principle, the circuit beingmade and broken every time an impulse-creating sound went through it, causing the movement of the diaphragm on which the sound-waves impinged. Reis himself does not appear to have been sufficiently interested in themarvellous possibilities of the idea to follow it up--remarking to theman who bought his telephonic instruments and tools that he had shownthe world the way. In reality it was not the way, although a monumenterected to his memory at Frankfort styles him the inventor of thetelephone. As one of the American judges said, in deciding an earlylitigation over the invention of the telephone, a hundred years of Reiswould not have given the world the telephonic art for public use. Manyothers after Reis tried to devise practical make-and-break telephones, and all failed; although their success would have rendered them veryvaluable as a means of fighting the Bell patent. But the method was agood starting-point, even if it did not indicate the real path. If Reishad been willing to experiment with his apparatus so that it did notmake-and-break, he would probably have been the true father of thetelephone, besides giving it the name by which it is known. It was notnecessary to slam the gate open and shut. All that was required was tokeep the gate closed, and rattle the latch softly. Incidentally itmay be noted that Edison in experimenting with the Reis transmitterrecognized at once the defect caused by the make-and-break action, andsought to keep the gap closed by the use, first, of one drop of water, and later of several drops. But the water decomposed, and the incurabledefect was still there. 

The Reis telephone was brought to America by Dr. P. H. Van der Weyde, a well-known physicist in his day, and was exhibited by him before atechnical audience at Cooper Union, New York, in 1868, and describedshortly after in the technical press. The apparatus attracted attention, and a set was secured by Prof. Joseph Henry for the SmithsonianInstitution. There the famous philosopher showed and explained it toAlexander Graham Bell, when that young and persevering Scotch geniuswent to get help and data as to harmonic telegraphy, upon which he wasworking, and as to transmitting vocal sounds. Bell took up immediatelyand energetically the idea that his two predecessors had dropped--andreached the goal. In 1875 Bell, who as a student and teacher of vocalphysiology had unusual qualifications for determining feasible methodsof speech transmission, constructed his first pair of magneto telephonesfor such a purpose. In February of 1876 his first telephone patent wasapplied for, and in March it was issued. The first published accountof the modern speaking telephone was a paper read by Bell before theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in Boston in May of that year;while at the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia the public firstgained any familiarity with it. It was greeted at once with scientificacclaim and enthusiasm as a distinctly new and great invention, althoughat first it was regarded more as a scientific toy than as a commerciallyvaluable device. 

By an extraordinary coincidence, the very day that Bell's applicationfor a patent went into the United States Patent Office, a caveat wasfiled there by Elisha Gray, of Chicago, covering the specific idea oftransmitting speech and reproducing it in a telegraphic circuit "throughan instrument capable of vibrating responsively to all the tones ofthe human voice, and by which they are rendered audible. " Out of thisincident arose a struggle and a controversy whose echoes are yet heardas to the legal and moral rights of the two inventors, the assertioneven being made that one of the most important claims of Gray, that ona liquid battery transmitter, was surreptitiously "lifted" into theBell application, then covering only the magneto telephone. It was alsoasserted that the filing of the Gray caveat antedated by a few hoursthe filing of the Bell application. All such issues when brought tothe American courts were brushed aside, the Bell patent being broadlymaintained in all its remarkable breadth and fullness, embracing anentire art; but Gray was embittered and chagrined, and to the lastexpressed his belief that the honor and glory should have been his. Thepath of Gray to the telephone was a natural one. A Quaker carpenter whostudied five years at Oberlin College, he took up electrical invention, and brought out many ingenious devices in rapid succession in thetelegraphic field, including the now universal needle annunciator forhotels, etc. , the useful telautograph, automatic self-adjusting relays, private-line printers--leading up to his famous "harmonic" system. Thiswas based upon the principle that a sound produced in the presence of areed or tuning-fork responding to the sound, and acting as the armatureof a magnet in a closed circuit, would, by induction, set up electricimpulses in the circuit and cause a distant magnet having a similarlytuned armature to produce the same tone or note. He also found that overthe same wire at the same time another series of impulses correspondingto another note could be sent through the agency of a second setof magnets without in any way interfering with the first series ofimpulses. Building the principle into apparatus, with a keyboard andvibrating "reeds" before his magnets, Doctor Gray was able not only totransmit music by his harmonic telegraph, but went so far as to sendnine different telegraph messages at the same instant, each set ofinstruments depending on its selective note, while any intermediateoffice could pick up the message for itself by simply tuning its relaysto the keynote required. Theoretically the system could be split up intoany number of notes and semi-tones. Practically it served as the basisof some real telegraphic work, but is not now in use. Any one canrealize, however, that it did not take so acute and ingenious a mindvery long to push forward to the telephone, as a dangerous competitorwith Bell, who had also, like Edison, been working assiduously in thefield of acoustic and multiple telegraphs. Seen in the retrospect, thestruggle for the goal at this moment was one of the memorable incidentsin electrical history. 

Among the interesting papers filed at the Orange Laboratory is alithograph, the size of an ordinary patent drawing, headed "FirstTelephone on Record. " The claim thus made goes back to the periodwhen all was war, and when dispute was hot and rife as to the actualinvention of the telephone. The device shown, made by Edison in 1875, was actually included in a caveat filed January 14, 1876, a month beforeBell or Gray. It shows a little solenoid arrangement, with one endof the plunger attached to the diaphragm of a speaking or resonatingchamber. Edison states that while the device is crudely capable of useas a magneto telephone, he did not invent it for transmitting speech, but as an apparatus for analyzing the complex waves arising from varioussounds. It was made in pursuance of his investigations into the subjectof harmonic telegraphs. He did not try the effect of sound-wavesproduced by the human voice until Bell came forward a few months later;but he found then that this device, made in 1875, was capable of use asa telephone. In his testimony and public utterances Edison has alwaysgiven Bell credit for the discovery of the transmission of articulatespeech by talking against a diaphragm placed in front of anelectromagnet; but it is only proper here to note, in passing, thecurious fact that he had actually produced a device that COULD talk, prior to 1876, and was therefore very close to Bell, who took theone great step further. A strong characterization of the value andimportance of the work done by Edison in the development of the carbontransmitter will be found in the decision of Judge Brown in the UnitedStates Circuit Court of Appeals, sitting in Boston, on February 27, 1901, declaring void the famous Berliner patent of the Bell telephonesystem. [5]

 [Footnote 5: See Federal Reporter, vol. 109, p. 976 et seq. ]

Bell's patent of 1876 was of an all-embracing character, which onlythe make-and-break principle, if practical, could have escaped. It waspointed out in the patent that Bell discovered the great principle thatelectrical undulations induced by the vibrations of a current producedby sound-waves can be represented graphically by the same sinusoidalcurve that expresses the original sound vibrations themselves; or, inother words, that a curve representing sound vibrations will correspondprecisely to a curve representing electric impulses produced orgenerated by those identical sound vibrations--as, for example, whenthe latter impinge upon a diaphragm acting as an armature of anelectromagnet, and which by movement to and fro sets up the electricimpulses by induction. To speak plainly, the electric impulsescorrespond in form and character to the sound vibration which theyrepresent. This reduced to a patent "claim" governed the art as firmlyas a papal bull for centuries enabled Spain to hold the Westernworld. The language of the claim is: "The method of and apparatus fortransmitting vocal or other sounds telegraphically as herein described, by causing electrical undulations similar in form to the vibrations ofthe air accompanying the said vocal or other sounds substantially as setforth. " It was a long time, however, before the inclusive nature of thisgrant over every possible telephone was understood or recognized, andlitigation for and against the patent lasted during its entire life. Atthe outset, the commercial value of the telephone was little appreciatedby the public, and Bell had the greatest difficulty in securing capital;but among far-sighted inventors there was an immediate "rush to the goldfields. " Bell's first apparatus was poor, the results being described byhimself as "unsatisfactory and discouraging, " which was almost astrue of the devices he exhibited at the Philadelphia Centennial. Thenew-comers, like Edison, Berliner, Blake, Hughes, Gray, Dolbear, andothers, brought a wealth of ideas, a fund of mechanical ingenuity, and an inventive ability which soon made the telephone one of the mostnotable gains of the century, and one of the most valuable additionsto human resources. The work that Edison did was, as usual, marked byinfinite variety of method as well as by the power to seize on theone needed element of practical success. Every one of the six milliontelephones in use in the United States, and of the other millions in usethrough out the world, bears the imprint of his genius, as at one timethe instruments bore his stamped name. For years his name was brandedon every Bell telephone set, and his patents were a mainstay of what hasbeen popularly called the "Bell monopoly. " Speaking of his own effortsin this field, Mr. Edison says:

"In 1876 I started again to experiment for the Western Union andMr. Orton. This time it was the telephone. Bell invented the firsttelephone, which consisted of the present receiver, used both as atransmitter and a receiver (the magneto type). It was attempted tointroduce it commercially, but it failed on account of its faintness andthe extraneous sounds which came in on its wires from various causes. Mr. Orton wanted me to take hold of it and make it commercial. As Ihad also been working on a telegraph system employing tuning-forks, simultaneously with both Bell and Gray, I was pretty familiar with thesubject. I started in, and soon produced the carbon transmitter, whichis now universally used. 

"Tests were made between New York and Philadelphia, also between NewYork and Washington, using regular Western Union wires. The noises wereso great that not a word could be heard with the Bell receiver when usedas a transmitter between New York and Newark, New Jersey. Mr. Orton andW. K. Vanderbilt and the board of directors witnessed and took partin the tests. The Western Union then put them on private lines. Mr. Theodore Puskas, of Budapest, Hungary, was the first man to suggesta telephone exchange, and soon after exchanges were established. Thetelephone department was put in the hands of Hamilton McK. Twombly, Vanderbilt's ablest son-in-law, who made a success of it. The Bellcompany, of Boston, also started an exchange, and the fight was on, the Western Union pirating the Bell receiver, and the Boston companypirating the Western Union transmitter. About this time I wanted to betaken care of. I threw out hints of this desire. Then Mr. Orton sentfor me. He had learned that inventors didn't do business by the regularprocess, and concluded he would close it right up. He asked me how muchI wanted. I had made up my mind it was certainly worth $25, 000, if itever amounted to anything for central-station work, so that was the sumI had in mind to stick to and get--obstinately. Still it had been aneasy job, and only required a few months, and I felt a little shaky anduncertain. So I asked him to make me an offer. He promptly said he wouldgive me $100, 000. 'All right, ' I said. 'It is yours on one condition, and that is that you do not pay it all at once, but pay me at the rateof $6000 per year for seventeen years'--the life of the patent. Heseemed only too pleased to do this, and it was closed. My ambition wasabout four times too large for my business capacity, and I knew that Iwould soon spend this money experimenting if I got it all at once, soI fixed it that I couldn't. I saved seventeen years of worry by thisstroke. "

Thus modestly is told the debut of Edison in the telephone art, to whichwith his carbon transmitter he gave the valuable principle of varyingthe resistance of the transmitting circuit with changes in the pressure, as well as the vital practice of using the induction coil as a means ofincreasing the effective length of the talking circuit. Without these, modern telephony would not and could not exist. [6] But Edison, intelephonic work, as in other directions, was remarkably fertile andprolific. His first inventions in the art, made in 1875-76, continuethrough many later years, including all kinds of carbon instruments--the water telephone, electrostatic telephone, condenser telephone, chemical telephone, various magneto telephones, inertia telephone, mercury telephone, voltaic pile telephone, musical transmitter, and theelectromotograph. All were actually made and tested. 

 [Footnote 6: Briefly stated, the essential difference between Bell's telephone and Edison's is this: With the former the sound vibrations impinge upon a steel diaphragm arranged adjacent to the pole of a bar electromagnet, whereby the diaphragm acts as an armature, and by its vibrations induces very weak electric impulses in the magnetic coil. These impulses, according to Bell's theory, correspond in form to the sound-waves, and passing over the line energize the magnet coil at the receiving end, and by varying the magnetism cause the receiving diaphragm to be similarly vibrated to reproduce the sounds. A single apparatus is therefore used at each end, performing the double function of transmitter and receiver. With Edison's telephone a closed circuit is used on which is constantly flowing a battery current, and included in that circuit is a pair of electrodes, one or both of which is of carbon. These electrodes are always in contact with a certain initial pressure, so that current will be always flowing over the circuit. One of the electrodes is connected with the diaphragm on which the sound-waves impinge, and the vibration of this diaphragm causes the pressure between the electrodes to be correspondingly varied, and thereby effects a variation in the current, resulting in the production of impulses which actuate the receiving magnet. In other words, with Bell's telephone the sound-waves themselves generate the electric impulses, which are hence extremely faint. With the Edison telephone, the sound-waves actuate an electric valve, so to speak, and permit variations in a current of any desired strength. 

 A second distinction between the two telephones is this: With the Bell apparatus the very weak electric impulses generated by the vibration of the transmitting diaphragm pass over the entire line to the receiving end, and in consequence the permissible length of line is limited to a few miles under ideal conditions. With Edison's telephone the battery current does not flow on the main line, but passes through the primary circuit of an induction coil, by which corresponding impulses of enormously higher potential are sent out on the main line to the receiving end. In consequence, the line may be hundreds of miles in length. No modern telephone system in use to-day lacks these characteristic features--the varying resistance and the induction coil. ]

The principle of the electromotograph was utilized by Edison inmore ways than one, first of all in telegraphy at this juncture. Thewell-known Page patent, which had lingered in the Patent Office foryears, had just been issued, and was considered a formidable weapon. Itrelated to the use of a retractile spring to withdraw the armaturelever from the magnet of a telegraph or other relay or sounder, and thuscontrolled the art of telegraphy, except in simple circuits. "There wasno known way, " remarks Edison, "whereby this patent could be evaded, andits possessor would eventually control the use of what is known as therelay and sounder, and this was vital to telegraphy. Gould was poundingthe Western Union on the Stock Exchange, disturbing its railroadcontracts, and, being advised by his lawyers that this patent was ofgreat value, bought it. The moment Mr. Orton heard this he sent for meand explained the situation, and wanted me to go to work immediately andsee if I couldn't evade it or discover some other means that could beused in case Gould sustained the patent. It seemed a pretty hard job, because there was no known means of moving a lever at the other end ofa telegraph wire except by the use of a magnet. I said I would go at itthat night. In experimenting some years previously, I had discovereda very peculiar phenomenon, and that was that if a piece of metalconnected to a battery was rubbed over a moistened piece of chalkresting on a metal connected to the other pole, when the current passedthe friction was greatly diminished. When the current was reversed thefriction was greatly increased over what it was when no current waspassing. Remembering this, I substituted a piece of chalk rotated bya small electric motor for the magnet, and connecting a sounder to ametallic finger resting on the chalk, the combination claim of Page wasmade worthless. A hitherto unknown means was introduced in the electricart. Two or three of the devices were made and tested by the company'sexpert. Mr. Orton, after he had me sign the patent application and gotit in the Patent Office, wanted to settle for it at once. He asked myprice. Again I said: 'Make me an offer. ' Again he named $100, 000. Iaccepted, providing he would pay it at the rate of $6000 a year forseventeen years. This was done, and thus, with the telephone money, Ireceived $12, 000 yearly for that period from the Western Union TelegraphCompany. "

A year or two later the motograph cropped up again in Edison's work in acurious manner. The telephone was being developed in England, and Edisonhad made arrangements with Colonel Gouraud, his old associate in theautomatic telegraph, to represent his interests. A company was formed, alarge number of instruments were made and sent to Gouraud in London, andprospects were bright. Then there came a threat of litigation fromthe owners of the Bell patent, and Gouraud found he could not pushthe enterprise unless he could avoid using what was asserted to be aninfringement of the Bell receiver. He cabled for help to Edison, whosent back word telling him to hold the fort. "I had recourse again, "says Edison, "to the phenomenon discovered by me years previous, thatthe friction of a rubbing electrode passing over a moist chalk surfacewas varied by electricity. I devised a telephone receiver which wasafterward known as the 'loud-speaking telephone, ' or 'chalk receiver. 'There was no magnet, simply a diaphragm and a cylinder of compressedchalk about the size of a thimble. A thin spring connected to the centreof the diaphragm extended outwardly and rested on the chalk cylinder, and was pressed against it with a pressure equal to that which would bedue to a weight of about six pounds. The chalk was rotated by hand. The volume of sound was very great. A person talking into the carbontransmitter in New York had his voice so amplified that he could beheard one thousand feet away in an open field at Menlo Park. This greatexcess of power was due to the fact that the latter came from the personturning the handle. The voice, instead of furnishing all the poweras with the present receiver, merely controlled the power, just as anengineer working a valve would control a powerful engine. 

"I made six of these receivers and sent them in charge of an expert onthe first steamer. They were welcomed and tested, and shortly afterwardI shipped a hundred more. At the same time I was ordered to send twentyyoung men, after teaching them to become expert. I set up an exchange, around the laboratory, of ten instruments. I would then go out and geteach one out of order in every conceivable way, cutting the wires ofone, short-circuiting another, destroying the adjustment of a third, putting dirt between the electrodes of a fourth, and so on. A man wouldbe sent to each to find out the trouble. When he could find the troubleten consecutive times, using five minutes each, he was sent to London. About sixty men were sifted to get twenty. Before all had arrived, the Bell company there, seeing we could not be stopped, entered intonegotiations for consolidation. One day I received a cable from Gouraudoffering '30, 000' for my interest. I cabled back I would accept. Whenthe draft came I was astonished to find it was for L30, 000. I hadthought it was dollars. "

In regard to this singular and happy conclusion, Edison makes someinteresting comments as to the attitude of the courts toward inventors, and the difference between American and English courts. "The men I sentover were used to establish telephone exchanges all over the Continent, and some of them became wealthy. It was among this crowd in London thatBernard Shaw was employed before he became famous. The chalk telephonewas finally discarded in favor of the Bell receiver--the latter beingmore simple and cheaper. Extensive litigation with new-comers followed. My carbon-transmitter patent was sustained, and preserved the monopolyof the telephone in England for many years. Bell's patent was notsustained by the courts. Sir Richard Webster, now Chief-Justice ofEngland, was my counsel, and sustained all of my patents in England formany years. Webster has a marvellous capacity for understanding thingsscientific; and his address before the courts was lucidity itself. Hisbrain is highly organized. My experience with the legal fraternity isthat scientific subjects are distasteful to them, and it is rare in thiscountry, on account of the system of trying patent suits, for a judgereally to reach the meat of the controversy, and inventors scarcely everget a decision squarely and entirely in their favor. The fault rests, inmy judgment, almost wholly with the system under which testimony to theextent of thousands of pages bearing on all conceivable subjects, manyof them having no possible connection with the invention in dispute, is presented to an over-worked judge in an hour or two of argumentsupported by several hundred pages of briefs; and the judge is supposedto extract some essence of justice from this mass of conflicting, blind, and misleading statements. It is a human impossibility, no matter howable and fair-minded the judge may be. In England the case is different. There the judges are face to face with the experts and other witnesses. They get the testimony first-hand and only so much as they need, andthere are no long-winded briefs and arguments, and the case is decidedthen and there, a few months perhaps after suit is brought, instead ofmany years afterward, as in this country. And in England, when a case isonce finally decided it is settled for the whole country, while here itis not so. Here a patent having once been sustained, say, in Boston, may have to be litigated all over again in New York, and again inPhiladelphia, and so on for all the Federal circuits. Furthermore, itseems to me that scientific disputes should be decided by somecourt containing at least one or two scientific men--men capable ofcomprehending the significance of an invention and the difficulties ofits accomplishment--if justice is ever to be given to an inventor. AndI think, also, that this court should have the power to summon before itand examine any recognized expert in the special art, who might be ableto testify to FACTS for or against the patent, instead of tryingto gather the truth from the tedious essays of hired experts, whosedepositions are really nothing but sworn arguments. The real gist ofpatent suits is generally very simple, and I have no doubt that anyjudge of fair intelligence, assisted by one or more scientific advisers, could in a couple of days at the most examine all the necessarywitnesses; hear all the necessary arguments, and actually decide anordinary patent suit in a way that would more nearly be just, thancan now be done at an expenditure of a hundred times as much money andmonths and years of preparation. And I have no doubt that the time takenby the court would be enormously less, because if a judge attempts toread the bulky records and briefs, that work alone would require severaldays. 

"Acting as judges, inventors would not be very apt to correctly decidea complicated law point; and on the other hand, it is hard to see how alawyer can decide a complicated scientific point rightly. Some inventorscomplain of our Patent Office, but my own experience with the PatentOffice is that the examiners are fair-minded and intelligent, and whenthey refuse a patent they are generally right; but I think the wholetrouble lies with the system in vogue in the Federal courts for tryingpatent suits, and in the fact, which cannot be disputed, that theFederal judges, with but few exceptions, do not comprehend complicatedscientific questions. To secure uniformity in the several Federalcircuits and correct errors, it has been proposed to establish a centralcourt of patent appeals in Washington. This I believe in; but this courtshould also contain at least two scientific men, who would not be blindto the sophistry of paid experts. [7] Men whose inventions would havecreated wealth of millions have been ruined and prevented from makingany money whereby they could continue their careers as creators ofwealth for the general good, just because the experts befuddled thejudge by their misleading statements. "

 [Footnote 7: As an illustration of the perplexing nature of expert evidence in patent cases, the reader will probably be interested in perusing the following extracts from the opinion of Judge Dayton, in the suit of Bryce Bros. Co. Vs. Seneca Glass Co. , tried in the United States Circuit Court, Northern District of West Virginia, reported in The Federal Reporter, 140, page 161:

 "On this subject of the validity of this patent, a vast amount of conflicting, technical, perplexing, and almost hypercritical discussion and opinion has been indulged, both in the testimony and in the able and exhaustive arguments and briefs of counsel. Expert Osborn for defendant, after setting forth minutely his superior qualifications mechanical education, and great experience, takes up in detail the patent claims, and shows to his own entire satisfaction that none of them are new; that all of them have been applied, under one form or another, in some twenty-two previous patents, and in two other machines, not patented, to-wit, the Central Glass and Kuny Kahbel ones; that the whole machine is only 'an aggregation of well-known mechanical elements that any skilled designer would bring to his use in the construction of such a machine. ' This certainly, under ordinary conditions, would settle the matter beyond peradventure; for this witness is a very wise and learned man in these things, and very positive. But expert Clarke appears for the plaintiff, and after setting forth just as minutely his superior qualifications, mechanical education, and great experience, which appear fully equal in all respects to those of expert Osborn, proceeds to take up in detail the patent claims, and shows to his entire satisfaction that all, with possibly one exception, are new, show inventive genius, and distinct advances upon the prior art. In the most lucid, and even fascinating, way he discusses all the parts of this machine, compares it with the others, draws distinctions, points out the merits of the one in controversy and the defects of all the others, considers the twenty-odd patents referred to by Osborn, and in the politest, but neatest, manner imaginable shows that expert Osborn did not know what he was talking about, and sums the whole matter up by declaring this 'invention of Mr. Schrader's, as embodied in the patent in suit, a radical and wide departure, from the Kahbel machine' (admitted on all sides to be nearest prior approach to it), 'a distinct and important advance in the art of engraving glassware, and generally a machine for this purpose which has involved the exercise of the inventive faculty in the highest degree. '

 "Thus a more radical and irreconcilable disagreement between experts touching the same thing could hardly be found. So it is with the testimony. If we take that for the defendant, the Central Glass Company machine, and especially the Kuny Kahbel machine, built and operated years before this patent issued, and not patented, are just as good, just as effective and practical, as this one, and capable of turning out just as perfect work and as great a variety of it. On the other hand, if we take that produced by the plaintiff, we are driven to the conclusion that these prior machines, the product of the same mind, were only progressive steps forward from utter darkness, so to speak, into full inventive sunlight, which made clear to him the solution of the problem in this patented machine. The shortcomings of the earlier machines are minutely set forth, and the witnesses for the plaintiff are clear that they are neither practical nor profitable. 

 "But this is not all of the trouble that confronts us in this case. Counsel of both sides, with an indomitable courage that must command admiration, a courage that has led them to a vast amount of study, investigation, and thought, that in fact has made them all experts, have dissected this record of 356 closely printed pages, applied all mechanical principles and laws to the facts as they see them, and, besides, have ransacked the law-books and cited an enormous number of cases, more or less in point, as illustration of their respective contentions. The courts find nothing more difficult than to apply an abstract principle to all classes of cases that may arise. The facts in each case so frequently create an exception to the general rule that such rule must be honored rather in its breach than in its observance. Therefore, after a careful examination of these cases, it is no criticism of the courts to say that both sides have found abundant and about an equal amount of authority to sustain their respective contentions, and, as a result, counsel have submitted, in briefs, a sum total of 225 closely printed pages, in which they have clearly, yet, almost to a mathematical certainty, demonstrated on the one side that this Schrader machine is new and patentable, and on the other that it is old and not so. Under these circumstances, it would be unnecessary labor and a fruitless task for me to enter into any further technical discussion of the mechanical problems involved, for the purpose of seeking to convince either side of its error. In cases of such perplexity as this generally some incidents appear that speak more unerringly than do the tongues of the witnesses, and to some of these I purpose to now refer. "]

Mr. Bernard Shaw, the distinguished English author, has given a mostvivid and amusing picture of this introduction of Edison's telephoneinto England, describing the apparatus as "a much too ingeniousinvention, being nothing less than a telephone of such stentorianefficiency that it bellowed your most private communications all overthe house, instead of whispering them with some sort of discretion. "Shaw, as a young man, was employed by the Edison Telephone Company, and was very much alive to his surroundings, often assisting in publicdemonstrations of the apparatus "in a manner which I am persuaded laidthe foundation of Mr. Edison's reputation. " The sketch of the men sentover from America is graphic: "Whilst the Edison Telephone Companylasted it crowded the basement of a high pile of offices in QueenVictoria Street with American artificers. These deluded and romantic mengave me a glimpse of the skilled proletariat of the United States. Theysang obsolete sentimental songs with genuine emotion; and their languagewas frightful even to an Irishman. They worked with a ferociousenergy which was out of all proportion to the actual result achieved. Indomitably resolved to assert their republican manhood by taking noorders from a tall-hatted Englishman whose stiff politeness coveredhis conviction that they were relatively to himself inferior and commonpersons, they insisted on being slave-driven with genuine American oathsby a genuine free and equal American foreman. They utterly despised theartfully slow British workman, who did as little for his wages as hepossibly could; never hurried himself; and had a deep reverence for onewhose pocket could be tapped by respectful behavior. Need I add thatthey were contemptuously wondered at by this same British workman asa parcel of outlandish adult boys who sweated themselves for theiremployer's benefit instead of looking after their own interest? Theyadored Mr. Edison as the greatest man of all time in every possibledepartment of science, art, and philosophy, and execrated Mr. GrahamBell, the inventor of the rival telephone, as his Satanic adversary;but each of them had (or intended to have) on the brink of completionan improvement on the telephone, usually a new transmitter. They werefree-souled creatures, excellent company, sensitive, cheerful, andprofane; liars, braggarts, and hustlers, with an air of making slow oldEngland hum, which never left them even when, as often happened, theywere wrestling with difficulties of their own making, or struggling inno-thoroughfares, from which they had to be retrieved like stray sheepby Englishmen without imagination enough to go wrong. "

Mr. Samuel Insull, who afterward became private secretary to Mr. Edison, and a leader in the development of American electrical manufacturingand the central-station art, was also in close touch with the Londonsituation thus depicted, being at the time private secretary to ColonelGouraud, and acting for the first half hour as the amateur telephoneoperator in the first experimental exchange erected in Europe. Hetook notes of an early meeting where the affairs of the company werediscussed by leading men like Sir John Lubbock (Lord Avebury) and theRight Hon. E. P. Bouverie (then a cabinet minister), none of whomcould see in the telephone much more than an auxiliary for gettingout promptly in the next morning's papers the midnight debates inParliament. "I remember another incident, " says Mr. Insull. "It was atsome celebration of one of the Royal Societies at the Burlington House, Piccadilly. We had a telephone line running across the roofs to thebasement of the building. I think it was to Tyndall's laboratory inBurlington Street. As the ladies and gentlemen came through, theynaturally wanted to look at the great curiosity, the loud-speakingtelephone: in fact, any telephone was a curiosity then. Mr. And Mrs. Gladstone came through. I was handling the telephone at the BurlingtonHouse end. Mrs. Gladstone asked the man over the telephone whether heknew if a man or woman was speaking; and the reply came in quite loudtones that it was a man!"

With Mr. E. H. Johnson, who represented Edison, there went to Englandfor the furtherance of this telephone enterprise, Mr. Charles Edison, a nephew of the inventor. He died in Paris, October, 1879, not twentyyears of age. Stimulated by the example of his uncle, this brilliantyouth had already made a mark for himself as a student and inventor, and when only eighteen he secured in open competition the contract toinstall a complete fire-alarm telegraph system for Port Huron. A fewmonths later he was eagerly welcomed by his uncle at Menlo Park, and after working on the telephone was sent to London to aid in itsintroduction. There he made the acquaintance of Professor Tyndall, exhibited the telephone to the late King of England; and also won thefriendship of the late King of the Belgians, with whom he took up theproject of establishing telephonic communication between Belgium andEngland. At the time of his premature death he was engaged in installingthe Edison quadruplex between Brussels and Paris, being one of the veryfew persons then in Europe familiar with the working of that invention. 

Meantime, the telephonic art in America was undergoing very rapiddevelopment. In March, 1878, addressing "the capitalists of the ElectricTelephone Company" on the future of his invention, Bell outlined withprophetic foresight and remarkable clearness the coming of the moderntelephone exchange. Comparing with gas and water distribution, he said:"In a similar manner, it is conceivable that cables of telephone wirescould be laid underground or suspended overhead communicating by branchwires with private dwellings, country houses, shops, manufactories, etc. , uniting them through the main cable with a central office, where the wire could be connected as desired, establishing directcommunication between any two places in the city. . . . Not only so, but Ibelieve, in the future, wires will unite the head offices of telephonecompanies in different cities; and a man in one part of the country maycommunicate by word of mouth with another in a distant place. "

All of which has come to pass. Professor Bell also suggested how thiscould be done by "the employ of a man in each central office for thepurpose of connecting the wires as directed. " He also indicated the twomethods of telephonic tariff--a fixed rental and a toll; and mentionedthe practice, now in use on long-distance lines, of a time charge. Asa matter of fact, this "centralizing" was attempted in May, 1877, inBoston, with the circuits of the Holmes burglar-alarm system, fourbanking-houses being thus interconnected; while in January of 1878 theBell telephone central-office system at New Haven, Connecticut, wasopened for business, "the first fully equipped commercial telephoneexchange ever established for public or general service. "

All through this formative period Bell had adhered to and introduced themagneto form of telephone, now used only as a receiver, and very poorlyadapted for the vital function of a speech-transmitter. From August, 1877, the Western Union Telegraph Company worked along the other line, and in 1878, with its allied Gold & Stock Telegraph Company, it broughtinto existence the American Speaking Telephone Company to introducethe Edison apparatus, and to create telephone exchanges all over thecountry. In this warfare, the possession of a good battery transmittercounted very heavily in favor of the Western Union, for upon that thereal expansion of the whole industry depended; but in a few monthsthe Bell system had its battery transmitter, too, tending to equalizematters. Late in the same year patent litigation was begun which broughtout clearly the merits of Bell, through his patent, as the original andfirst inventor of the electric speaking telephone; and the Western UnionTelegraph Company made terms with its rival. A famous contract bearingdate of November 10, 1879, showed that under the Edison and othercontrolling patents the Western Union Company had already set going someeighty-five exchanges, and was making large quantities of telephonicapparatus. In return for its voluntary retirement from the telephonicfield, the Western Union Telegraph Company, under this contract, received a royalty of 20 per cent. Of all the telephone earnings of theBell system while the Bell patents ran; and thus came to enjoy an annualincome of several hundred thousand dollars for some years, based chieflyon its modest investment in Edison's work. It was also paid severalthousand dollars in cash for the Edison, Phelps, Gray, and otherapparatus on hand. It secured further 40 per cent. Of the stock of thelocal telephone systems of New York and Chicago; and last, but by nomeans least, it exacted from the Bell interests an agreement to stay outof the telegraph field. 

By March, 1881, there were in the United States only nine cities ofmore than ten thousand inhabitants, and only one of more than fifteenthousand, without a telephone exchange. The industry thrived undercompetition, and the absence of it now had a decided effect in checkinggrowth; for when the Bell patent expired in 1893, the total of telephonesets in operation in the United States was only 291, 253. To quote froman official Bell statement:

"The brief but vigorous Western Union competition was a kind of blessingin disguise. The very fact that two distinct interests were activelyengaged in the work of organizing and establishing competing telephoneexchanges all over the country, greatly facilitated the spread of theidea and the growth of the business, and familiarized the people withthe use of the telephone as a business agency; while the keenness of thecompetition, extending to the agents and employees of both companies, brought about a swift but quite unforeseen and unlooked-for expansionin the individual exchanges of the larger cities, and a correspondingadvance in their importance, value, and usefulness. "

The truth of this was immediately shown in 1894, after the Bell patentshad expired, by the tremendous outburst of new competitive activity, in"independent" country systems and toll lines through sparsely settleddistricts--work for which the Edison apparatus and methods werepeculiarly adapted, yet against which the influence of the Edison patentwas invoked. The data secured by the United States Census Office in 1902showed that the whole industry had made gigantic leaps in eight years, and had 2, 371, 044 telephone stations in service, of which 1, 053, 866were wholly or nominally independent of the Bell. By 1907 an evenmore notable increase was shown, and the Census figures for that yearincluded no fewer than 6, 118, 578 stations, of which 1, 986, 575 were"independent. " These six million instruments every single set employingthe principle of the carbon transmitter--were grouped into 15, 527 publicexchanges, in the very manner predicted by Bell thirty years before, and they gave service in the shape of over eleven billions of talks. Theoutstanding capitalized value of the plant was $814, 616, 004, the incomefor the year was nearly $185, 000, 000, and the people employed were140, 000. If Edison had done nothing else, his share in the creationof such an industry would have entitled him to a high place amonginventors. 

This chapter is of necessity brief in its reference to many extremelyinteresting points and details; and to some readers it may seemincomplete in its references to the work of other men than Edison, whoseinfluence on telephony as an art has also been considerable. In reply tothis pertinent criticism, it may be pointed out that this is a life ofEdison, and not of any one else; and that even the discussion of hisachievements alone in these various fields requires more space than theauthors have at their disposal. The attempt has been made, however, to indicate the course of events and deal fairly with the facts. Thecontroversy that once waged with great excitement over the inventionof the microphone, but has long since died away, is suggestive of thedifficulties involved in trying to do justice to everybody. A standardhistory describes the microphone thus:

"A form of apparatus produced during the early days of the telephoneby Professor Hughes, of England, for the purpose of rendering faint, indistinct sounds distinctly audible, depended for its operation on thechanges that result in the resistance of loose contacts. This apparatuswas called the microphone, and was in reality but one of the many formsthat it is possible to give to the telephone transmitter. For example, the Edison granular transmitter was a variety of microphone, as was alsoEdison's transmitter, in which the solid button of carbon was employed. Indeed, even the platinum point, which in the early form of the Reistransmitter pressed against the platinum contact cemented to the centreof the diaphragm, was a microphone. "

At a time when most people were amazed at the idea of hearing, withthe aid of a "microphone, " a fly walk at a distance of many miles, thepriority of invention of such a device was hotly disputed. Yet withoutdesiring to take anything from the credit of the brilliant American, Hughes, whose telegraphic apparatus is still in use all over Europe, itmay be pointed out that this passage gives Edison the attribution of atleast two original forms of which those suggested by Hughes were merevariations and modifications. With regard to this matter, Mr. Edisonhimself remarks: "After I sent one of my men over to London especially, to show Preece the carbon transmitter, and where Hughes first saw it, and heard it--then within a month he came out with the microphone, without any acknowledgment whatever. Published dates will show thatHughes came along after me. "

There have been other ways also in which Edison has utilized thepeculiar property that carbon possesses of altering its resistanceto the passage of current, according to the pressure to which it issubjected, whether at the surface, or through closer union of themass. A loose road with a few inches of dust or pebbles on it offersappreciable resistance to the wheels of vehicles travelling over it; butif the surface is kept hard and smooth the effect is quite different. In the same way carbon, whether solid or in the shape of finely dividedpowder, offers a high resistance to the passage of electricity; butif the carbon is squeezed together the conditions change, with lessresistance to electricity in the circuit. For his quadruplex system, Mr. Edison utilized this fact in the construction of a rheostat orresistance box. It consists of a series of silk disks saturated with asizing of plumbago and well dried. The disks are compressed by means ofan adjustable screw; and in this manner the resistance of a circuit canbe varied over a wide range. 

In like manner Edison developed a "pressure" or carbon relay, adaptedto the transference of signals of variable strength from one circuit toanother. An ordinary relay consists of an electromagnet inserted in themain line for telegraphing, which brings a local battery and soundercircuit into play, reproducing in the local circuit the signals sentover the main line. The relay is adjusted to the weaker currents likelyto be received, but the signals reproduced on the sounder by the agencyof the relay are, of course, all of equal strength, as they depend uponthe local battery, which has only this steady work to perform. In caseswhere it is desirable to reproduce the signals in the local circuit withthe same variations in strength as they are received by the relay, the Edison carbon pressure relay does the work. The poles of theelectromagnet in the local circuit are hollowed out and filled up withcarbon disks or powdered plumbago. The armature and the carbon-tippedpoles of the electromagnet form part of the local circuit; and if therelay is actuated by a weak current the armature will be attractedbut feebly. The carbon being only slightly compressed will offerconsiderable resistance to the flow of current from the local battery, and therefore the signal on the local sounder will be weak. If, on thecontrary, the incoming current on the main line be strong, the armaturewill be strongly attracted, the carbon will be sharply compressed, theresistance in the local circuit will be proportionately lowered, and thesignal heard on the local sounder will be a loud one. Thus it will beseen, by another clever juggle with the willing agent, carbon, for whichhe has found so many duties, Edison is able to transfer or transmitexactly, to the local circuit, the main-line current in all its minutestvariations. 

In his researches to determine the nature of the motograph phenomena, and to open up other sources of electrical current generation, Edisonhas worked out a very ingenious and somewhat perplexing piece ofapparatus known as the "chalk battery. " It consists of a series of chalkcylinders mounted on a shaft revolved by hand. Resting against each ofthese cylinders is a palladium-faced spring, and similar springs makecontact with the shaft between each cylinder. By connecting all thesesprings in circuit with a galvanometer and revolving the shaft rapidly, a notable deflection is obtained of the galvanometer needle, indicatingthe production of electrical energy. The reason for this does not appearto have been determined. 

Last but not least, in this beautiful and ingenious series, comes the"tasimeter, " an instrument of most delicate sensibility in the presenceof heat. The name is derived from the Greek, the use of the apparatusbeing primarily to measure extremely minute differences of pressure. A strip of hard rubber with pointed ends rests perpendicularly on aplatinum plate, beneath which is a carbon button, under which again liesanother platinum plate. The two plates and the carbon button form partof an electric circuit containing a battery and a galvanometer. Thehard-rubber strip is exceedingly sensitive to heat. The slightest degreeof heat imparted to it causes it to expand invisibly, thus increasingthe pressure contact on the carbon button and producing a variationin the resistance of the circuit, registered immediately by the littleswinging needle of the galvanometer. The instrument is so sensitive thatwith a delicate galvanometer it will show the impingement of the heatfrom a person's hand thirty feet away. The suggestion to employ suchan apparatus in astronomical observations occurs at once, and it maybe noted that in one instance the heat of rays of light from the remotestar Arcturus gave results. 

CHAPTER X

THE PHONOGRAPH

AT the opening of the Electrical Show in New York City in October, 1908, to celebrate the jubilee of the Atlantic Cable and the first quartercentury of lighting with the Edison service on Manhattan Island, theexercises were all conducted by means of the Edison phonograph. Thisincluded the dedicatory speech of Governor Hughes, of New York; themodest remarks of Mr. Edison, as president; the congratulations of thepresidents of several national electric bodies, and a number of vocaland instrumental selections of operatic nature. All this was heardclearly by a very large audience, and was repeated on other evenings. The same speeches were used again phonographically at the ElectricalShow in Chicago in 1909--and now the records are preserved forreproduction a hundred or a thousand years hence. This tour de force, never attempted before, was merely an exemplification of the valueof the phonograph not only in establishing at first hand the facts ofhistory, but in preserving the human voice. What would we not give tolisten to the very accents and tones of the Sermon on the Mount, theorations of Demosthenes, the first Pitt's appeal for American liberty, the Farewell of Washington, or the Address at Gettysburg? Until Edisonmade his wonderful invention in 1877, the human race was entirelywithout means for preserving or passing on to posterity its ownlinguistic utterances or any other vocal sound. We have some idea howthe ancients looked and felt and wrote; the abundant evidence takes usback to the cave-dwellers. But all the old languages are dead, and theliterary form is their embalmment. We do not even know definitely howShakespeare's and Goldsmith's plays were pronounced on the stage inthe theatres of the time; while it is only a guess that perhaps Chaucerwould sound much more modern than he scans. 

The analysis of sound, which owes so much to Helmholtz, was one steptoward recording; and the various means of illustrating the phenomena ofsound to the eye and ear, prior to the phonograph, were all ingenious. One can watch the dancing little flames of Koenig, and see a voiceexpressed in tongues of fire; but the record can only be photographic. In like manner, the simple phonautograph of Leon Scott, invented about1858, records on a revolving cylinder of blackened paper the soundvibrations transmitted through a membrane to which a tiny stylus isattached; so that a human mouth uses a pen and inscribes its sign vocal. Yet after all we are just as far away as ever from enabling the youngactors at Harvard to give Aristophanes with all the true, subtleintonation and inflection of the Athens of 400 B. C. The instrumentis dumb. Ingenuity has been shown also in the invention of"talking-machines, " like Faber's, based on the reed organ pipe. Theseautomata can be made by dexterous manipulation to jabber a little, likea doll with its monotonous "ma-ma, " or a cuckoo clock; but they lackeven the sterile utility of the imitative art of ventriloquism. The realgreat invention lies in creating devices that shall be able to evokefrom tinfoil, wax, or composition at any time to-day or in the futurethe sound that once was as evanescent as the vibrations it made on theair. 

Contrary to the general notion, very few of the great modern inventionshave been the result of a sudden inspiration by which, Minerva-like, they have sprung full-fledged from their creators' brain; but, on thecontrary, they have been evolved by slow and gradual steps, so thatfrequently the final advance has been often almost imperceptible. TheEdison phonograph is an important exception to the general rule; not, of course, the phonograph of the present day with all of its mechanicalperfection, but as an instrument capable of recording and reproducingsound. Its invention has been frequently attributed to the discoverythat a point attached to a telephone diaphragm would, under the effectof sound-waves, vibrate with sufficient force to prick the finger. Thestory, though interesting, is not founded on fact; but, if true, it isdifficult to see how the discovery in question could have contributedmaterially to the ultimate accomplishment. To a man of Edison'sperception it is absurd to suppose that the effect of the so-calleddiscovery would not have been made as a matter of deduction longbefore the physical sensation was experienced. As a matter of fact, theinvention of the phonograph was the result of pure reason. Some timeprior to 1877, Edison had been experimenting on an automatic telegraphin which the letters were formed by embossing strips of paper with theproper arrangement of dots and dashes. By drawing this strip beneath acontact lever, the latter was actuated so as to control the circuits andsend the desired signals over the line. It was observed that when thestrip was moved very rapidly the vibration of the lever resulted inthe production of an audible note. With these facts before him, Edisonreasoned that if the paper strip could be imprinted with elevationsand depressions representative of sound-waves, they might be caused toactuate a diaphragm so as to reproduce the corresponding sounds. The next step in the line of development was to form the necessaryundulations on the strip, and it was then reasoned that original soundsthemselves might be utilized to form a graphic record by actuating adiaphragm and causing a cutting or indenting point carried thereby tovibrate in contact with a moving surface, so as to cut or indent therecord therein. Strange as it may seem, therefore, and contrary to thegeneral belief, the phonograph was developed backward, the production ofthe sounds being of prior development to the idea of actually recordingthem. 

Mr. Edison's own account of the invention of the phonograph is intenselyinteresting. "I was experimenting, " he says, "on an automatic methodof recording telegraph messages on a disk of paper laid on a revolvingplaten, exactly the same as the disk talking-machine of to-day. Theplaten had a spiral groove on its surface, like the disk. Over this wasplaced a circular disk of paper; an electromagnet with the embossingpoint connected to an arm travelled over the disk; and any signals giventhrough the magnets were embossed on the disk of paper. If this disk wasremoved from the machine and put on a similar machine provided witha contact point, the embossed record would cause the signals to berepeated into another wire. The ordinary speed of telegraphic signalsis thirty-five to forty words a minute; but with this machine severalhundred words were possible. 

"From my experiments on the telephone I knew of the power of a diaphragmto take up sound vibrations, as I had made a little toy which, whenyou recited loudly in the funnel, would work a pawl connected to thediaphragm; and this engaging a ratchet-wheel served to give continuousrotation to a pulley. This pulley was connected by a cord to a littlepaper toy representing a man sawing wood. Hence, if one shouted: 'Maryhad a little lamb, ' etc. , the paper man would start sawing wood. Ireached the conclusion that if I could record the movements of thediaphragm properly, I could cause such record to reproduce the originalmovements imparted to the diaphragm by the voice, and thus succeed inrecording and reproducing the human voice. 

"Instead of using a disk I designed a little machine using a cylinderprovided with grooves around the surface. Over this was to be placedtinfoil, which easily received and recorded the movements of thediaphragm. A sketch was made, and the piece-work price, $18, was markedon the sketch. I was in the habit of marking the price I would pay oneach sketch. If the workman lost, I would pay his regular wages; if hemade more than the wages, he kept it. The workman who got the sketch wasJohn Kruesi. I didn't have much faith that it would work, expecting thatI might possibly hear a word or so that would give hope of a future forthe idea. Kruesi, when he had nearly finished it, asked what it was for. I told him I was going to record talking, and then have the machine talkback. He thought it absurd. However, it was finished, the foil wasput on; I then shouted 'Mary had a little lamb, ' etc. I adjusted thereproducer, and the machine reproduced it perfectly. I was never sotaken aback in my life. Everybody was astonished. I was always afraidof things that worked the first time. Long experience proved thatthere were great drawbacks found generally before they could be gotcommercial; but here was something there was no doubt of. "

No wonder that honest John Kruesi, as he stood and listened to themarvellous performance of the simple little machine he had himself justfinished, ejaculated in an awe-stricken tone: "Mein Gott im Himmel!" Andyet he had already seen Edison do a few clever things. No wonder theysat up all night fixing and adjusting it so as to get better and betterresults--reciting and singing, trying each other's voices, and thenlistening with involuntary awe as the words came back again and again, just as long as they were willing to revolve the little cylinder withits dotted spiral indentations in the tinfoil under the vibrating stylusof the reproducing diaphragm. It took a little time to acquire the knackof turning the crank steadily while leaning over the recorder to talkinto the machine; and there was some deftness required also in fasteningdown the tinfoil on the cylinder where it was held by a pin running ina longitudinal slot. Paraffined paper appears also to have beenexperimented with as an impressible material. It is said that Carman, the foreman of the machine shop, had gone the length of wagering Edisona box of cigars that the device would not work. All the world knows thathe lost. 

The original Edison phonograph thus built by Kruesi is preserved in theSouth Kensington Museum, London. That repository can certainly have nogreater treasure of its kind. But as to its immediate use, the inventorsays: "That morning I took it over to New York and walked into theoffice of the Scientific American, went up to Mr. Beach's desk, and saidI had something to show him. He asked what it was. I told him I had amachine that would record and reproduce the human voice. I opened thepackage, set up the machine and recited, 'Mary had a little lamb, ' etc. Then I reproduced it so that it could be heard all over the room. Theykept me at it until the crowd got so great Mr. Beach was afraid thefloor would collapse; and we were compelled to stop. The papers nextmorning contained columns. None of the writers seemed to understand howit was done. I tried to explain, it was so very simple, but the resultswere so surprising they made up their minds probably that they neverwould understand it--and they didn't. 

"I started immediately making several larger and better machines, whichI exhibited at Menlo Park to crowds. The Pennsylvania Railroad ranspecial trains. Washington people telegraphed me to come on. I tooka phonograph to Washington and exhibited it in the room of James G. Blaine's niece (Gail Hamilton); and members of Congress and notablepeople of that city came all day long until late in the evening. I madeone break. I recited 'Mary, ' etc. , and another ditty:

 'There was a little girl, who had a little curl Right in the middle of her forehead; And when she was good she was very, very good, But when she was bad she was horrid. '

"It will be remembered that Senator Roscoe Conkling, then very prominent, had a curl of hair on his forehead; and all the caricaturists developedit abnormally. He was very sensitive about the subject. When he came inhe was introduced; but being rather deaf, I didn't catch his name, butsat down and started the curl ditty. Everybody tittered, and I was toldthat Mr. Conkling was displeased. About 11 o'clock at night word wasreceived from President Hayes that he would be very much pleased if Iwould come up to the White House. I was taken there, and found Mr. Hayesand several others waiting. Among them I remember Carl Schurz, who wasplaying the piano when I entered the room. The exhibition continued tillabout 12. 30 A. M. , when Mrs. Hayes and several other ladies, who had beeninduced to get up and dress, appeared. I left at 3. 30 A. M. 

"For a long time some people thought there was trickery. One morningat Menlo Park a gentleman came to the laboratory and asked to see thephonograph. It was Bishop Vincent, who helped Lewis Miller found theChautauqua I exhibited it, and then he asked if he could speak a fewwords. I put on a fresh foil and told him to go ahead. He commenced torecite Biblical names with immense rapidity. On reproducing it he said:'I am satisfied, now. There isn't a man in the United States who couldrecite those names with the same rapidity. '"

The phonograph was now fairly launched as a world sensation, and areference to the newspapers of 1878 will show the extent to which it andEdison were themes of universal discussion. Some of the press noticesof the period were most amazing--and amusing. As though the realachievements of this young man, barely thirty, were not tangibleand solid enough to justify admiration of his genius, the "yellowjournalists" of the period began busily to create an "Edison myth, " withgross absurdities of assertion and attribution from which the modestsubject of it all has not yet ceased to suffer with unthinking people. A brilliantly vicious example of this method of treatment is to be foundin the Paris Figaro of that year, which under the appropriate title of"This Astounding Eddison" lay bare before the French public the moststartling revelations as to the inventor's life and character. "Itshould be understood, " said this journal, "that Mr. Eddison does notbelong to himself. He is the property of the telegraph company whichlodges him in New York at a superb hotel; keeps him on a luxuriousfooting, and pays him a formidable salary so as to be the one to knowof and profit by his discoveries. The company has, in the dwelling ofEddison, men in its employ who do not quit him for a moment, at thetable, on the street, in the laboratory. So that this wretched man, watched more closely than ever was any malefactor, cannot even give amoment's thought to his own private affairs without one of his guardsasking him what he is thinking about. " This foolish "blague" wasaccompanied by a description of Edison's new "aerophone, " a steammachine which carried the voice a distance of one and a half miles. "Youspeak to a jet of vapor. A friend previously advised can answer youby the same method. " Nor were American journals backward in this wildexaggeration. 

The furor had its effect in stimulating a desire everywhere on thepart of everybody to see and hear the phonograph. A small commercialorganization was formed to build and exploit the apparatus, and theshops at Menlo Park laboratory were assisted by the little Bergmann shopin New York. Offices were taken for the new enterprise at 203 Broadway, where the Mail and Express building now stands, and where, in ageneral way, under the auspices of a talented dwarf, C. A. Cheever, theembryonic phonograph and the crude telephone shared rooms and expenses. Gardiner G. Hubbard, father-in-law of Alex. Graham Bell, was one of thestockholders in the Phonograph Company, which paid Edison $10, 000 cashand a 20 per cent. Royalty. This curious partnership was maintained forsome time, even when the Bell Telephone offices were removed to ReadeStreet, New York, whither the phonograph went also; and was perhapsexplained by the fact that just then the ability of the phonograph asa money-maker was much more easily demonstrated than was that ofthe telephone, still in its short range magneto stage and awaitingdevelopment with the aid of the carbon transmitter. 

The earning capacity of the phonograph then, as largely now, lay in itsexhibition qualities. The royalties from Boston, ever intellectuallyawake and ready for something new, ran as high as $1800 a week. In NewYork there was a ceaseless demand for it, and with the aid of HilbourneL. Roosevelt, a famous organ builder, and uncle of ex-PresidentRoosevelt, concerts were given at which the phonograph was "featured. "To manage this novel show business the services of James Redpath werecalled into requisition with great success. Redpath, famous as a friendand biographer of John Brown, as a Civil War correspondent, and asfounder of the celebrated Redpath Lyceum Bureau in Boston, dividedthe country into territories, each section being leased for exhibitionpurposes on a basis of a percentage of the "gate money. " To 203Broadway from all over the Union flocked a swarm of showmen, cranks, andparticularly of old operators, who, the seedier they were in appearance, the more insistent they were that "Tom" should give them, for the sakeof "Auld lang syne, " this chance to make a fortune for him and forthemselves. At the top of the building was a floor on which thesenovices were graduated in the use and care of the machine, and then, with an equipment of tinfoil and other supplies, they were sent out onthe road. It was a diverting experience while it lasted. The excitementover the phonograph was maintained for many months, until a largeproportion of the inhabitants of the country had seen it; and then theshow receipts declined and dwindled away. Many of the old operators, taken on out of good-nature, were poor exhibitors and worse accountants, and at last they and the machines with which they had been intrustedfaded from sight. But in the mean time Edison had learned many lessonsas to this practical side of development that were not forgotten whenthe renascence of the phonograph began a few years later, leading up tothe present enormous and steady demand for both machines and records. 

It deserves to be pointed out that the phonograph has changed little inthe intervening years from the first crude instruments of 1877-78. Ithas simply been refined and made more perfect in a mechanical sense. Edison was immensely impressed with its possibilities, and greatlyinclined to work upon it, but the coming of the electric light compelledhim to throw all his energies for a time into the vast new fieldawaiting conquest. The original phonograph, as briefly noted above, wasrotated by hand, and the cylinder was fed slowly longitudinally by meansof a nut engaging a screw thread on the cylinder shaft. Wrappedaround the cylinder was a sheet of tinfoil, with which engaged a smallchisel-like recording needle, connected adhesively with the centre ofan iron diaphragm. Obviously, as the cylinder was turned, the needlefollowed a spiral path whose pitch depended upon that of the feed screw. Along this path a thread was cut in the cylinder so as to permit theneedle to indent the foil readily as the diaphragm vibrated. By rotatingthe cylinder and by causing the diaphragm to vibrate under the effectof vocal or musical sounds, the needle-like point would form a seriesof indentations in the foil corresponding to and characteristic of thesound-waves. By now engaging the point with the beginning of the groovedrecord so formed, and by again rotating the cylinder, the undulations ofthe record would cause the needle and its attached diaphragm to vibrateso as to effect the reproduction. Such an apparatus was necessarilyundeveloped, and was interesting only from a scientific point of view. It had many mechanical defects which prevented its use as a practicalapparatus. Since the cylinder was rotated by hand, the speed at whichthe record was formed would vary considerably, even with the samemanipulator, so that it would have been impossible to record andreproduce music satisfactorily; in doing which exact uniformity ofspeed is essential. The formation of the record in tinfoil was alsoobjectionable from a practical standpoint, since such a record was faintand would be substantially obliterated after two or three reproductions. Furthermore, the foil could not be easily removed from and replacedupon the instrument, and consequently the reproduction had to follow therecording immediately, and the successive tinfoils were thrown away. Theinstrument was also heavy and bulky. Notwithstanding these objectionsthe original phonograph created, as already remarked, an enormouspopular excitement, and the exhibitions were considered by manysceptical persons as nothing more than clever ventriloquism. Thepossibilities of the instrument as a commercial apparatus wererecognized from the very first, and some of the fields in which it waspredicted that the phonograph would be used are now fully occupied. Some have not yet been realized. Writing in 1878 in the NorthAmerican-Review, Mr. Edison thus summed up his own ideas as to thefuture applications of the new invention:

"Among the many uses to which the phonograph will be applied are thefollowing:

1. Letter writing and all kinds of dictation without the aid of astenographer. 

2. Phonographic books, which will speak to blind people without efforton their part. 

3. The teaching of elocution. 

4. Reproduction of music. 

5. The 'Family Record'--a registry of sayings, reminiscences, etc. , bymembers of a family in their own voices, and of the last words of dyingpersons. 

6. Music-boxes and toys. 

7. Clocks that should announce in articulate speech the time for goinghome, going to meals, etc. 

8. The preservation of languages by exact reproduction of the manner ofpronouncing. 

9. Educational purposes; such as preserving the explanations made by ateacher, so that the pupil can refer to them at any moment, andspelling or other lessons placed upon the phonograph for convenience incommitting to memory. 

10. Connection with the telephone, so as to make that instrument anauxiliary in the transmission of permanent and invaluable records, instead of being the recipient of momentary and fleeting communication. "

Of the above fields of usefulness in which it was expected thatthe phonograph might be applied, only three have been commerciallyrealized--namely, the reproduction of musical, including vaudeville ortalking selections, for which purpose a very large proportion ofthe phonographs now made is used; the employment of the machine as amechanical stenographer, which field has been taken up actively onlywithin the past few years; and the utilization of the device for theteaching of languages, for which purpose it has been successfullyemployed, for example, by the International Correspondence Schools ofScranton, Pennsylvania, for several years. The other uses, however, which were early predicted for the phonograph have not as yet beenworked out practically, although the time seems not far distant when itsgeneral utility will be widely enlarged. Both dolls and clocks have beenmade, but thus far the world has not taken them seriously. 

The original phonograph, as invented by Edison, remained in itscrude and immature state for almost ten years--still the object ofphilosophical interest, and as a convenient text-book illustration ofthe effect of sound vibration. It continued to be a theme of curiousinterest to the imaginative, and the subject of much fiction, whileits neglected commercial possibilities were still more or less vaguelyreferred to. During this period of arrested development, Edison wascontinuously working on the invention and commercial exploitation ofthe incandescent lamp. In 1887 his time was comparatively free, and thephonograph was then taken up with renewed energy, and the effort made toovercome its mechanical defects and to furnish a commercial instrument, so that its early promise might be realized. The important changes madefrom that time up to 1890 converted the phonograph from a scientific toyinto a successful industrial apparatus. The idea of forming the recordon tinfoil had been early abandoned, and in its stead was substituted acylinder of wax-like material, in which the record was cut by a minutechisel-like gouging tool. Such a record or phonogram, as it was thencalled, could be removed from the machine or replaced at any time, manyreproductions could be obtained without wearing out the record, andwhenever desired the record could be shaved off by a turning-tool soas to present a fresh surface on which a new record could be formed, something like an ancient palimpsest. A wax cylinder having walls lessthan one-quarter of an inch in thickness could be used for receiving alarge number of records, since the maximum depth of the record groove ishardly ever greater than one one-thousandth of an inch. Later on, andas the crowning achievement in the phonograph field, from a commercialpoint of view, came the duplication of records to the extent of manythousands from a single "master. " This work was actively developedbetween the years 1890 and 1898, and its difficulties may be appreciatedwhen the problem is stated; the copying from a single master of manymillions of excessively minute sound-waves having a maximum width of onehundredth of an inch, and a maximum depth of one thousandth of aninch, or less than the thickness of a sheet of tissue-paper. Among theinteresting developments of this process was the coating of the originalor master record with a homogeneous film of gold so thin that threehundred thousand of these piled one on top of the other would present athickness of only one inch!

Another important change was in the nature of a reversal of the originalarrangement, the cylinder or mandrel carrying the record being mountedin fixed bearings, and the recording or reproducing device being fedlengthwise, like the cutting-tool of a lathe, as the blank or record wasrotated. It was early recognized that a single needle for forming therecord and the reproduction therefrom was an undesirable arrangement, since the formation of the record required a very sharp cutting-tool, while satisfactory and repeated reproduction suggested the use of astylus which would result in the minimum wear. After many experimentsand the production of a number of types of machines, the presentrecorders and reproducers were evolved, the former consisting of avery small cylindrical gouging tool having a diameter of about fortythousandths of an inch, and the latter a ball or button-shaped styluswith a diameter of about thirty-five thousandths of an inch. By usingan incisor of this sort, the record is formed of a series of connectedgouges with rounded sides, varying in depth and width, and with whichthe reproducer automatically engages and maintains its engagement. Another difficulty encountered in the commercial development of thephonograph was the adjustment of the recording stylus so as to enter thewax-like surface to a very slight depth, and of the reproducer so asto engage exactly the record when formed. The earlier types of machineswere provided with separate screws for effecting these adjustments;but considerable skill was required to obtain good results, and greatdifficulty was experienced in meeting the variations in the wax-likecylinders, due to the warping under atmospheric changes. Consequently, with the early types of commercial phonographs, it was first necessaryto shave off the blank accurately before a record was formed thereon, in order that an absolutely true surface might be presented. To overcomethese troubles, the very ingenious suggestion was then made and adopted, of connecting the recording and reproducing styluses to their respectivediaphragms through the instrumentality of a compensating weight, which acted practically as a fixed support under the very rapid soundvibrations, but which yielded readily to distortions or variationsin the wax-like cylinders. By reason of this improvement, it becamepossible to do away with all adjustments, the mass of the compensatingweight causing the recorder to engage the blank automatically to therequired depth, and to maintain the reproducing stylus always with thedesired pressure on the record when formed. These automatic adjustmentswere maintained even though the blank or record might be so much out oftrue as an eighth of an inch, equal to more than two hundred times themaximum depth of the record groove. 

Another improvement that followed along the lines adopted by Edison forthe commercial development of the phonograph was making the recordingand reproducing styluses of sapphire, an extremely hard, non-oxidizablejewel, so that those tiny instruments would always retain their trueform and effectively resist wear. Of course, in this work many otherthings were done that may still be found on the perfected phonographas it stands to-day, and many other suggestions were made which werecontemporaneously adopted, but which were later abandoned. For thecurious-minded, reference is made to the records in the Patent Office, which will show that up to 1893 Edison had obtained upward of sixty-fivepatents in this art, from which his line of thought can be very closelytraced. The phonograph of to-day, except for the perfection of itsmechanical features, in its beauty of manufacture and design, and insmall details, may be considered identical with the machine of 1889, with the exception that with the latter the rotation of the recordcylinder was effected by an electric motor. 

Its essential use as then contemplated was as a substitute forstenographers, and the most extravagant fancies were indulged in as toutility in that field. To exploit the device commercially, the patentswere sold to Philadelphia capitalists, who organized the North AmericanPhonograph Company, through which leases for limited periods weregranted to local companies doing business in special territories, generally within the confines of a single State. Under that plan, resembling the methods of 1878, the machines and blank cylinders weremanufactured by the Edison Phonograph Works, which still retains itsfactories at Orange, New Jersey. The marketing enterprise was earlydoomed to failure, principally because the instruments were not wellunderstood, and did not possess the necessary refinements that would fitthem for the special field in which they were to be used. At first theinstruments were leased; but it was found that the leases were seldomrenewed. Efforts were then made to sell them, but the prices werehigh--from $100 to $150. In the midst of these difficulties, the chiefpromoter of the enterprise, Mr. Lippincott, died; and it was soon foundthat the roseate dreams of success entertained by the sanguine promoterswere not to be realized. The North American Phonograph Company failed, its principal creditor being Mr. Edison, who, having acquired the assetsof the defunct concern, organized the National Phonograph Company, towhich he turned over the patents; and with characteristic energy heattempted again to build up a business with which his favorite and, tohim, most interesting invention might be successfully identified. TheNational Phonograph Company from the very start determined to retire atleast temporarily from the field of stenographic use, and to exploit thephonograph for musical purposes as a competitor of the music-box. Henceit was necessary that for such work the relatively heavy and expensiveelectric motor should be discarded, and a simple spring motorconstructed with a sufficiently sensitive governor to permit accuratemusical reproduction. Such a motor was designed, and is now used onall phonographs except on such special instruments as may be made withelectric motors, as well as on the successful apparatus that has morerecently been designed and introduced for stenographic use. Improvedfactory facilities were introduced; new tools were made, and varioustypes of machines were designed so that phonographs can now be bought atprices ranging from $10 to $200. Even with the changes which were thusmade in the two machines, the work of developing the business was slow, as a demand had to be created; and the early prejudice of the publicagainst the phonograph, due to its failure as a stenographic apparatus, had to be overcome. The story of the phonograph as an industrialenterprise, from this point of departure, is itself full of interest, but embraces so many details that it is necessarily given in a separatelater chapter. We must return to the days of 1878, when Edison, with atleast three first-class inventions to his credit--the quadruplex, thecarbon telephone, and the phonograph--had become a man of mark and a"world character. "

The invention of the phonograph was immediately followed, as usual, bythe appearance of several other incidental and auxiliary devices, somepatented, and others remaining simply the application of theprinciples of apparatus that had been worked out. One of these was thetelephonograph, a combination of a telephone at a distant station with aphonograph. The diaphragm of the phonograph mouthpiece is actuated by anelectromagnet in the same way as that of an ordinary telephone receiver, and in this manner a record of the message spoken from a distance canbe obtained and turned into sound at will. Evidently such a processis reversible, and the phonograph can send a message to the distantreceiver. 

This idea was brilliantly demonstrated in practice in February, 1889, byMr. W. J. Hammer, one of Edison's earliest and most capable associates, who carried on telephonographic communication between New York and anaudience in Philadelphia. The record made in New York on the Edisonphonograph was repeated into an Edison carbon transmitter, sent over onehundred and three miles of circuit, including six miles of undergroundcable; received by an Edison motograph; repeated by that on to aphonograph; transferred from the phonograph to an Edison carbontransmitter, and by that delivered to the Edison motograph receiver inthe enthusiastic lecture-hall, where every one could hear each soundand syllable distinctly. In real practice this spectacular playing withsound vibrations, as if they were lacrosse balls to toss around betweenthe goals, could be materially simplified. 

The modern megaphone, now used universally in making announcementsto large crowds, particularly at sporting events, is also due to thisperiod as a perfection by Edison of many antecedent devices going back, perhaps, much further than the legendary funnels through which Alexanderthe Great is said to have sent commands to his outlying forces. Theimproved Edison megaphone for long-distance work comprised two horns ofwood or metal about six feet long, tapering from a diameter of two feetsix inches at the mouth to a small aperture provided with ear-tubes. These converging horns or funnels, with a large speaking-trumpet inbetween them, are mounted on a tripod, and the megaphone is complete. Conversation can be carried on with this megaphone at a distance ofover two miles, as with a ship or the balloon. The modern megaphonenow employs the receiver form thus introduced as its very effectivetransmitter, with which the old-fashioned speaking-trumpet cannotpossibly compete; and the word "megaphone" is universally applied to thesingle, side-flaring horn. 

A further step in this line brought Edison to the "aerophone, " aroundwhich the Figaro weaved its fanciful description. In the constructionof the aerophone the same kind of tympanum is used as in the phonograph, but the imitation of the human voice, or the transmission of sound, is effected by the quick opening and closing of valves placed withina steam-whistle or an organ-pipe. The vibrations of the diaphragmcommunicated to the valves cause them to operate in synchronism, so thatthe vibrations are thrown upon the escaping air or steam; and the resultis an instrument with a capacity of magnifying the sounds two hundredtimes, and of hurling them to great distances intelligibly, like a hugefog-siren, but with immense clearness and penetration. All this studyof sound transmission over long distances without wires led up tothe consideration and invention of pioneer apparatus for wirelesstelegraphy--but that also is another chapter. 

Yet one more ingenious device of this period must be noted--Edison'svocal engine, the patent application for which was executed in August, 1878, the patent being granted the following December. Reference tothis by Edison himself has already been quoted. The "voice-engine, " or"phonomotor, " converts the vibrations of the voice or of music, actingon the diaphragm, into motion which is utilized to drive some secondaryappliance, whether as a toy or for some useful purpose. Thus a man canactually talk a hole through a board. 

Somewhat weary of all this work and excitement, and not having enjoyedany cessation from toil, or period of rest, for ten years, Edison jumpedeagerly at the opportunity afforded him in the summer of 1878 of makinga westward trip. Just thirty years later, on a similar trip over thesame ground, he jotted down for this volume some of his reminiscences. The lure of 1878 was the opportunity to try the ability of his delicatetasimeter during the total eclipse of the sun, July 29. His admiringfriend, Prof. George F. Barker, of the University of Pennsylvania, withwhom he had now been on terms of intimacy for some years, suggested theholiday, and was himself a member of the excursion party that madeits rendezvous at Rawlins, Wyoming Territory. Edison had tested histasimeter, and was satisfied that it would measure down to the millionthpart of a degree Fahrenheit. It was just ten years since he had left theWest in poverty and obscurity, a penniless operator in search of a job;but now he was a great inventor and famous, a welcome addition to theband of astronomers and physicists assembled to observe the eclipse andthe corona. 

"There were astronomers from nearly every nation, " says Mr. Edison. "Wehad a special car. The country at that time was rather new; game wasin great abundance, and could be seen all day long from the car window, especially antelope. We arrived at Rawlins about 4 P. M. It had a smallmachine shop, and was the point where locomotives were changed for thenext section. The hotel was a very small one, and by doubling up we werebarely accommodated. My room-mate was Fox, the correspondent of the NewYork Herald. After we retired and were asleep a thundering knock onthe door awakened us. Upon opening the door a tall, handsome man withflowing hair dressed in western style entered the room. His eyes werebloodshot, and he was somewhat inebriated. He introduced himself as'Texas Jack'--Joe Chromondo--and said he wanted to see Edison, as he hadread about me in the newspapers. Both Fox and I were rather scared, anddidn't know what was to be the result of the interview. The landlordrequested him not to make so much noise, and was thrown out into thehall. Jack explained that he had just come in with a party which hadbeen hunting, and that he felt fine. He explained, also, that he was theboss pistol-shot of the West; that it was he who taught the celebratedDoctor Carver how to shoot. Then suddenly pointing to a weather-vane onthe freight depot, he pulled out a Colt revolver and fired through thewindow, hitting the vane. The shot awakened all the people, and theyrushed in to see who was killed. It was only after I told him I wastired and would see him in the morning that he left. Both Fox and I wereso nervous we didn't sleep any that night. 

"We were told in the morning that Jack was a pretty good fellow, and wasnot one of the 'bad men, ' of whom they had a good supply. They had onein the jail, and Fox and I went over to see him. A few days before hehad held up a Union Pacific train and robbed all the passengers. Inthe jail also was a half-breed horse-thief. We interviewed the bad manthrough bars as big as railroad rails. He looked like a 'bad man. ' Therim of his ear all around came to a sharp edge and was serrated. Hiseyes were nearly white, and appeared as if made of glass and setin wrong, like the life-size figures of Indians in the SmithsonianInstitution. His face was also extremely irregular. He wouldn't answer asingle question. I learned afterward that he got seven years in prison, while the horse-thief was hanged. As horses ran wild, and there was noprotection, it meant death to steal one. "

This was one interlude among others. "The first thing the astronomersdid was to determine with precision their exact locality upon the earth. A number of observations were made, and Watson, of Michigan University, with two others, worked all night computing, until they agreed. Theysaid they were not in error more than one hundred feet, and that thestation was twelve miles out of the position given on the maps. Itseemed to take an immense amount of mathematics. I preserved one ofthe sheets, which looked like the time-table of a Chinese railroad. Theinstruments of the various parties were then set up in different partsof the little town, and got ready for the eclipse which was to occur inthree or four days. Two days before the event we all got together, andobtaining an engine and car, went twelve miles farther west to visit theUnited States Government astronomers at a place called Separation, theapex of the Great Divide, where the waters run east to the Mississippiand west to the Pacific. Fox and I took our Winchester rifles with anidea of doing a little shooting. After calling on the Government peoplewe started to interview the telegraph operator at this most lonely anddesolate spot. After talking over old acquaintances I asked him ifthere was any game around. He said, 'Plenty of jack-rabbits. ' Thesejack-rabbits are a very peculiar species. They have ears about sixinches long and very slender legs, about three times as long as thoseof an ordinary rabbit, and travel at a great speed by a series of jumps, each about thirty feet long, as near as I could judge. The localpeople called them 'narrow-gauge mules. ' Asking the operator the bestdirection, he pointed west, and noticing a rabbit in a clear space inthe sage bushes, I said, 'There is one now. ' I advanced cautiously towithin one hundred feet and shot. The rabbit paid no attention. Ithen advanced to within ten feet and shot again--the rabbit was stillimmovable. On looking around, the whole crowd at the station werewatching--and then I knew the rabbit was stuffed! However, we did shoota number of live ones until Fox ran out of cartridges. On returning tothe station I passed away the time shooting at cans set on a pile oftins. Finally the operator said to Fox: 'I have a fine Springfieldmusket, suppose you try it!' So Fox took the musket and fired. Itknocked him nearly over. It seems that the musket had been run over bya handcar, which slightly bent the long barrel, but not sufficiently foran amateur like Fox to notice. After Fox had his shoulder treated witharnica at the Government hospital tent, we returned to Rawlins. "

The eclipse was, however, the prime consideration, and Edison followedthe example of his colleagues in making ready. The place which hesecured for setting up his tasimeter was an enclosure hardly suitablefor the purpose, and he describes the results as follows:

"I had my apparatus in a small yard enclosed by a board fence six feethigh, at one end there was a house for hens. I noticed that they allwent to roost just before totality. At the same time a slight windarose, and at the moment of totality the atmosphere was filled withthistle-down and other light articles. I noticed one feather, whose weight was at least one hundred and fifty milligrams, riseperpendicularly to the top of the fence, where it floated away on thewind. My apparatus was entirely too sensitive, and I got no results. "It was found that the heat from the corona of the sun was ten timesthe index capacity of the instrument; but this result did not leave thevalue of the device in doubt. The Scientific American remarked;

"Seeing that the tasimeter is affected by a wider range of ethericundulations than the eye can take cognizance of, and is withal far moreacutely sensitive, the probabilities are that it will open up hithertoinaccessible regions of space, and possibly extend the range of aerialknowledge as far beyond the limit obtained by the telescope as that isbeyond the narrow reach of unaided vision. "

The eclipse over, Edison, with Professor Barker, Major Thornberg, several soldiers, and a number of railroad officials, went hunting aboutone hundred miles south of the railroad in the Ute country. A few monthslater the Major and thirty soldiers were ambushed near the spot atwhich the hunting-party had camped, and all were killed. Through anintroduction from Mr. Jay Gould, who then controlled the Union Pacific, Edison was allowed to ride on the cow-catchers of the locomotives. "Thedifferent engineers gave me a small cushion, and every day I rode inthis manner, from Omaha to the Sacramento Valley, except through thesnow-shed on the summit of the Sierras, without dust or anything else toobstruct the view. Only once was I in danger when the locomotive struckan animal about the size of a small cub bear--which I think was abadger. This animal struck the front of the locomotive just under theheadlight with great violence, and was then thrown off by the rebound. Iwas sitting to one side grasping the angle brace, so no harm was done. "

This welcome vacation lasted nearly two months; but Edison was back inhis laboratory and hard at work before the end of August, gatheringup many loose ends, and trying out many thoughts and ideas that hadaccumulated on the trip. One hot afternoon--August 30th, as shown bythe document in the case--Mr. Edison was found by one of the authorsof this biography employed most busily in making a mysterious series oftests on paper, using for ink acids that corrugated and blistered thepaper where written upon. When interrogated as to his object, he statedthat the plan was to afford blind people the means of writing directlyto each other, especially if they were also deaf and could not hear amessage on the phonograph. The characters which he was thus forming onthe paper were high enough in relief to be legible to the delicate touchof a blind man's fingers, and with simple apparatus letters could bethus written, sent, and read. There was certainly no question as to theresult obtained at the moment, which was all that was asked; but theEdison autograph thus and then written now shows the paper eaten out bythe acid used, although covered with glass for many years. Mr. Edisondoes not remember that he ever recurred to this very interesting test. 

He was, however, ready for anything new or novel, and no record can everbe made or presented that would do justice to a tithe of the thoughtsand fancies daily and hourly put upon the rack. The famous note-books, to which reference will be made later, were not begun as a regularseries, as it was only the profusion of these ideas that suggestedthe vital value of such systematic registration. Then as now, thepropositions brought to Edison ranged over every conceivable subject, but the years have taught him caution in grappling with them. He tellsan amusing story of one dilemma into which his good-nature led him atthis period: "At Menlo Park one day, a farmer came in and asked if Iknew any way to kill potato-bugs. He had twenty acres of potatoes, andthe vines were being destroyed. I sent men out and culled two quartsof bugs, and tried every chemical I had to destroy them. Bisulphide ofcarbon was found to do it instantly. I got a drum and went over to thepotato farm and sprinkled it on the vines with a pot. Every bug droppeddead. The next morning the farmer came in very excited and reportedthat the stuff had killed the vines as well. I had to pay $300 for notexperimenting properly. "

During this year, 1878, the phonograph made its way also to Europe, and various sums of money were paid there to secure the rights to itsmanufacture and exploitation. In England, for example, the MicroscopicCompany paid $7500 down and agreed to a royalty, while arrangements wereeffected also in France, Russia, and other countries. In every instance, as in this country, the commercial development had to wait severalyears, for in the mean time another great art had been brought intoexistence, demanding exclusive attention and exhaustive toil. And whenthe work was done the reward was a new heaven and a new earth--in theart of illumination. 

CHAPTER XI

THE INVENTION OF THE INCANDESCENT LAMP

IT is possible to imagine a time to come when the hours of work and restwill once more be regulated by the sun. But the course of civilizationhas been marked by an artificial lengthening of the day, and by aconstant striving after more perfect means of illumination. Why mankindshould sleep through several hours of sunlight in the morning, andstay awake through a needless time in the evening, can probably only beattributed to total depravity. It is certainly a most stupid, expensive, and harmful habit. In no one thing has man shown greater fertility ofinvention than in lighting; to nothing does he cling more tenaciouslythan to his devices for furnishing light. Electricity to-day reignssupreme in the field of illumination, but every other kind of artificiallight that has ever been known is still in use somewhere. Toward itslight-bringers the race has assumed an attitude of veneration, though ithas forgotten, if it ever heard, the names of those who first brightenedits gloom and dissipated its darkness. If the tallow candle, hithertounknown, were now invented, its creator would be hailed as one of thegreatest benefactors of the present age. 

Up to the close of the eighteenth century, the means of house and streetillumination were of two generic kinds--grease and oil; but then camea swift and revolutionary change in the adoption of gas. The ideas andmethods of Murdoch and Lebon soon took definite shape, and "coal smoke"was piped from its place of origin to distant points of consumption. As early as 1804, the first company ever organized for gas lighting wasformed in London, one side of Pall Mall being lit up by the enthusiasticpioneer, Winsor, in 1807. Equal activity was shown in America, andBaltimore began the practice of gas lighting in 1816. It is true thatthere were explosions, and distinguished men like Davy and Watt opinedthat the illuminant was too dangerous; but the "spirit of coal" haddemonstrated its usefulness convincingly, and a commercial developmentbegan, which, for extent and rapidity, was not inferior to that markingthe concurrent adoption of steam in industry and transportation. 

Meantime the wax candle and the Argand oil lamp held their own bravely. The whaling fleets, long after gas came into use, were one of thegreatest sources of our national wealth. To New Bedford, Massachusetts, alone, some three or four hundred ships brought their whale and spermoil, spermaceti, and whalebone; and at one time that port was accountedthe richest city in the United States in proportion to its population. The ship-owners and refiners of that whaling metropolis were slow tobelieve that their monopoly could ever be threatened by newer sources ofillumination; but gas had become available in the cities, and coal-oiland petroleum were now added to the list of illuminating materials. TheAmerican whaling fleet, which at the time of Edison's birth musteredover seven hundred sail, had dwindled probably to a bare tenth when hetook up the problem of illumination; and the competition of oil from theground with oil from the sea, and with coal-gas, had made the artificialproduction of light cheaper than ever before, when up to the middleof the century it had remained one of the heaviest items of domesticexpense. Moreover, just about the time that Edison took up incandescentlighting, water-gas was being introduced on a large scale as acommercial illuminant that could be produced at a much lower cost thancoal-gas. 

Throughout the first half of the nineteenth century the search for apractical electric light was almost wholly in the direction of employingmethods analogous to those already familiar; in other words, obtainingthe illumination from the actual consumption of the light-givingmaterial. In the third quarter of the century these methods werebrought to practicality, but all may be referred back to the brilliantdemonstrations of Sir Humphry Davy at the Royal Institution, circa1809-10, when, with the current from a battery of two thousand cells, heproduced an intense voltaic arc between the points of consuming sticksof charcoal. For more than thirty years the arc light remained anexpensive laboratory experiment; but the coming of the dynamo placedthat illuminant on a commercial basis. The mere fact that electricalenergy from the least expensive chemical battery using up zinc andacids costs twenty times as much as that from a dynamo--driven bysteam-engine--is in itself enough to explain why so many of the electricarts lingered in embryo after their fundamental principles had beendiscovered. Here is seen also further proof of the great truth that oneinvention often waits for another. 

From 1850 onward the improvements in both the arc lamp and the dynamowere rapid; and under the superintendence of the great Faraday, in 1858, protecting beams of intense electric light from the voltaic arc wereshed over the waters of the Straits of Dover from the beacons of SouthForeland and Dungeness. By 1878 the arc-lighting industry had sprunginto existence in so promising a manner as to engender an extraordinaryfever and furor of speculation. At the Philadelphia CentennialExposition of 1876, Wallace-Farmer dynamos built at Ansonia, Connecticut, were shown, with the current from which arc lamps werethere put in actual service. A year or two later the work of Charles F. Brush and Edward Weston laid the deep foundation of modern arc lightingin America, securing as well substantial recognition abroad. 

Thus the new era had been ushered in, but it was based altogether on theconsumption of some material--carbon--in a lamp open to the air. Everylamp the world had ever known did this, in one way or another. Edisonhimself began at that point, and his note-books show that he madevarious experiments with this type of lamp at a very early stage. Indeed, his experiments had led him so far as to anticipate in 1875 whatare now known as "flaming arcs, " the exceedingly bright and generallyorange or rose-colored lights which have been introduced within the lastfew years, and are now so frequently seen in streets and public places. While the arcs with plain carbons are bluish-white, those with carbonscontaining calcium fluoride have a notable golden glow. 

He was convinced, however, that the greatest field of lighting lay inthe illumination of houses and other comparatively enclosed areas, to replace the ordinary gas light, rather than in the illuminationof streets and other outdoor places by lights of great volumeand brilliancy. Dismissing from his mind quickly the commercialimpossibility of using arc lights for general indoor illumination, he arrived at the conclusion that an electric lamp giving light byincandescence was the solution of the problem. 

Edison was familiar with the numerous but impracticable and commerciallyunsuccessful efforts that had been previously made by other inventorsand investigators to produce electric light by incandescence, and at thetime that he began his experiments, in 1877, almost the whole scientificworld had pronounced such an idea as impossible of fulfilment. Theleading electricians, physicists, and experts of the period had beenstudying the subject for more than a quarter of a century, and with butone known exception had proven mathematically and by close reasoningthat the "Subdivision of the Electric Light, " as it was then termed, waspractically beyond attainment. Opinions of this nature have ever beenbut a stimulus to Edison when he has given deep thought to a subject, and has become impressed with strong convictions of possibility, andin this particular case he was satisfied that the subdivision of theelectric light--or, more correctly, the subdivision of the electriccurrent--was not only possible but entirely practicable. 

It will have been perceived from the foregoing chapters that from thetime of boyhood, when he first began to rub against the world, hiscommercial instincts were alert and predominated in almost all of theenterprises that he set in motion. This characteristic trait had grownstronger as he matured, having received, as it did, fresh impetus andstrength from his one lapse in the case of his first patented invention, the vote-recorder. The lesson he then learned was to devote hisinventive faculties only to things for which there was a real, genuinedemand, and that would subserve the actual necessities of humanity; andit was probably a fortunate circumstance that this lesson was learnedat the outset of his career as an inventor. He has never assumed to be aphilosopher or "pure scientist. "

In order that the reader may grasp an adequate idea of the magnitude andimportance of Edison's invention of the incandescent lamp, it will benecessary to review briefly the "state of the art" at the time hebegan his experiments on that line. After the invention of the voltaicbattery, early in the last century, experiments were made whichdetermined that heat could be produced by the passage of the electriccurrent through wires of platinum and other metals, and through piecesof carbon, as noted already, and it was, of course, also observed thatif sufficient current were passed through these conductors they could bebrought from the lower stage of redness up to the brilliant white heatof incandescence. As early as 1845 the results of these experiments weretaken advantage of when Starr, a talented American who died at the earlyage of twenty-five, suggested, in his English patent of that year, twoforms of small incandescent electric lamps, one having a burner madefrom platinum foil placed under a glass cover without excluding the air;and the other composed of a thin plate or pencil of carbon enclosed ina Torricellian vacuum. These suggestions of young Starr were followedby many other experimenters, whose improvements consisted principally indevices to increase the compactness and portability of the lamp, inthe sealing of the lamp chamber to prevent the admission of air, andin means for renewing the carbon burner when it had been consumed. ThusRoberts, in 1852, proposed to cement the neck of the glass globe into ametallic cup, and to provide it with a tube or stop-cock for exhaustionby means of a hand-pump. Lodyguine, Konn, Kosloff, and Khotinsky, between 1872 and 1877, proposed various ingenious devices for perfectingthe joint between the metal base and the glass globe, and also providedtheir lamps with several short carbon pencils, which were automaticallybrought into circuit successively as the pencils were consumed. In 1876or 1877, Bouliguine proposed the employment of a long carbon pencil, ashort section only of which was in circuit at any one time and formedthe burner, the lamp being provided with a mechanism for automaticallypushing other sections of the pencil into position between the contactsto renew the burner. Sawyer and Man proposed, in 1878, to makethe bottom plate of glass instead of metal, and provided ingeniousarrangements for charging the lamp chamber with an atmosphere of purenitrogen gas which does not support combustion. 

These lamps and many others of similar character, ingenious as theywere, failed to become of any commercial value, due, among other things, to the brief life of the carbon burner. Even under the best conditionsit was found that the carbon members were subject to a rapiddisintegration or evaporation, which experimenters assumed was due tothe disrupting action of the electric current; and hence the conclusionthat carbon contained in itself the elements of its own destruction, andwas not a suitable material for the burner of an incandescent lamp. Onthe other hand, platinum, although found to be the best of all materialsfor the purpose, aside from its great expense, and not combining withoxygen at high temperatures as does carbon, required to be broughtso near the melting-point in order to give light, that a very slightincrease in the temperature resulted in its destruction. It was assumedthat the difficulty lay in the material of the burner itself, and not inits environment. 

It was not realized up to such a comparatively recent date as 1879 thatthe solution of the great problem of subdivision of the electric currentwould not, however, be found merely in the production of a durableincandescent electric lamp--even if any of the lamps above referred tohad fulfilled that requirement. The other principal features necessaryto subdivide the electric current successfully were: the burning of anindefinite number of lights on the same circuit; each light to givea useful and economical degree of illumination; and each light tobe independent of all the others in regard to its operation andextinguishment. 

The opinions of scientific men of the period on the subject are wellrepresented by the two following extracts--the first, from a lecture atthe Royal United Service Institution, about February, 1879, by Mr. (Sir)W. H. Preece, one of the most eminent electricians in England, who, after discussing the question mathematically, said: "Hence thesub-division of the light is an absolute ignis fatuus. " The otherextract is from a book written by Paget Higgs, LL. D. , D. Sc. , publishedin London in 1879, in which he says: "Much nonsense has been talkedin relation to this subject. Some inventors have claimed the power to'indefinitely divide' the electric current, not knowing or forgettingthat such a statement is incompatible with the well-proven law ofconservation of energy. "

"Some inventors, " in the last sentence just quoted, probably--indeed, we think undoubtedly--refers to Edison, whose earlier work in electriclighting (1878) had been announced in this country and abroad, andwho had then stated boldly his conviction of the practicability ofthe subdivision of the electrical current. The above extracts are goodillustrations, however, of scientific opinions up to the end of1879, when Mr. Edison's epoch-making invention rendered them entirelyuntenable. The eminent scientist, John Tyndall, while not sharing theseprecise views, at least as late as January 17, 1879, delivered a lecturebefore the Royal Institution on "The Electric Light, " when, afterpointing out the development of the art up to Edison's work, and showingthe apparent hopelessness of the problem, he said: "Knowing something ofthe intricacy of the practical problem, I should certainly prefer seeingit in Edison's hands to having it in mine. "

The reader may have deemed this sketch of the state of the art to bea considerable digression; but it is certainly due to the subject topresent the facts in such a manner as to show that this great inventionwas neither the result of improving some process or device that wasknown or existing at the time, nor due to any unforeseen lucky chance, nor the accidental result of other experiments. On the contrary, it wasthe legitimate outcome of a series of exhaustive experiments foundedupon logical and original reasoning in a mind that had the courage andhardihood to set at naught the confirmed opinions of the world, voiced by those generally acknowledged to be the best exponents of theart--experiments carried on amid a storm of jeers and derision, almostas contemptuous as if the search were for the discovery of perpetualmotion. In this we see the man foreshadowed by the boy who, when heobtained his books on chemistry or physics, did not accept any statementof fact or experiment therein, but worked out every one of them himselfto ascertain whether or not they were true. 

Although this brings the reader up to the year 1879, one must turn backtwo years and accompany Edison in his first attack on the electric-lightproblem. In 1877 he sold his telephone invention (the carbontransmitter) to the Western Union Telegraph Company, which hadpreviously come into possession also of his quadruplex inventions, as already related. He was still busily engaged on the telephone, on acoustic electrical transmission, sextuplex telegraphs, duplextelegraphs, miscellaneous carbon articles, and other inventions of aminor nature. During the whole of the previous year and until late inthe summer of 1877, he had been working with characteristic energy andenthusiasm on the telephone; and, in developing this invention to asuccessful issue, had preferred the use of carbon and had employed it innumerous forms, especially in the form of carbonized paper. 

Eighteen hundred and seventy-seven in Edison's laboratory was averitable carbon year, for it was carbon in some shape or form forinterpolation in electric circuits of various kinds that occupied thethoughts of the whole force from morning to night. It is not surprising, therefore, that in September of that year, when Edison turned histhoughts actively toward electric lighting by incandescence, his earlyexperiments should be in the line of carbon as an illuminant. Hisoriginality of method was displayed at the very outset, for one of thefirst experiments was the bringing to incandescence of a strip of carbonin the open air to ascertain merely how much current was required. This conductor was a strip of carbonized paper about an inch long, one-sixteenth of an inch broad, and six or seven one-thousandths of aninch thick, the ends of which were secured to clamps that formed thepoles of a battery. The carbon was lighted up to incandescence, and, ofcourse, oxidized and disintegrated immediately. Within a few days thiswas followed by experiments with the same kind of carbon, but in vacuoby means of a hand-worked air-pump. This time the carbon strip burnedat incandescence for about eight minutes. Various expedients to preventoxidization were tried, such, for instance, as coating the carbon withpowdered glass, which in melting would protect the carbon from theatmosphere, but without successful results. 

Edison was inclined to concur in the prevailing opinion as to the easydestructibility of carbon, but, without actually settling the point inhis mind, he laid aside temporarily this line of experiment and entereda new field. He had made previously some trials of platinum wire asan incandescent burner for a lamp, but left it for a time in favor ofcarbon. He now turned to the use of almost infusible metals--such asboron, ruthenium, chromium, etc. --as separators or tiny bridges betweentwo carbon points, the current acting so as to bring these separatorsto a high degree of incandescence, at which point they would emit abrilliant light. He also placed some of these refractory metals directlyin the circuit, bringing them to incandescence, and used silicon inpowdered form in glass tubes placed in the electric circuit. His notesinclude the use of powdered silicon mixed with lime or other veryinfusible non-conductors or semi-conductors. Edison's conclusions onthese substances were that, while in some respects they were within thebounds of possibility for the subdivision of the electric current, theydid not reach the ideal that he had in mind for commercial results. 

Edison's systematized attacks on the problem were two in number, thefirst of which we have just related, which began in September, 1877, andcontinued until about January, 1878. Contemporaneously, he and hisforce of men were very busily engaged day and night on other importantenterprises and inventions. Among the latter, the phonograph may bespecially mentioned, as it was invented in the late fall of 1877. Fromthat time until July, 1878, his time and attention day and night werealmost completely absorbed by the excitement caused by the invention andexhibition of the machine. In July, feeling entitled to a brief vacationafter several years of continuous labor, Edison went with the expeditionto Wyoming to observe an eclipse of the sun, and incidentally to testhis tasimeter, a delicate instrument devised by him for measuringheat transmitted through immense distances of space. His trip has beenalready described. He was absent about two months. Coming home restedand refreshed, Mr. Edison says: "After my return from the trip toobserve the eclipse of the sun, I went with Professor Barker, Professorof Physics in the University of Pennsylvania, and Doctor Chandler, Professor of Chemistry in Columbia College, to see Mr. Wallace, a largemanufacturer of brass in Ansonia, Connecticut. Wallace at this time wasexperimenting on series arc lighting. Just at that time I wanted to takeup something new, and Professor Barker suggested that I go to work andsee if I could subdivide the electric light so it could be got in smallunits like gas. This was not a new suggestion, because I had made anumber of experiments on electric lighting a year before this. They hadbeen laid aside for the phonograph. I determined to take up the searchagain and continue it. On my return home I started my usual course ofcollecting every kind of data about gas; bought all the transactionsof the gas-engineering societies, etc. , all the back volumes of gasjournals, etc. Having obtained all the data, and investigated gas-jetdistribution in New York by actual observations, I made up my mind thatthe problem of the subdivision of the electric current could be solvedand made commercial. " About the end of August, 1878, he began his secondorganized attack on the subdivision of the current, which was steadilymaintained until he achieved signal victory a year and two months later. 

The date of this interesting visit to Ansonia is fixed by an inscriptionmade by Edison on a glass goblet which he used. The legend in diamondscratches runs: "Thomas A. Edison, September 8, 1878, made under theelectric light. " Other members of the party left similar memorials, which under the circumstances have come to be greatly prized. A numberof experiments were witnessed in arc lighting, and Edison secureda small Wallace-Farmer dynamo for his own work, as well as a set ofWallace arc lamps for lighting the Menlo Park laboratory. Before leavingAnsonia, Edison remarked, significantly: "Wallace, I believe I can beatyou making electric lights. I don't think you are working in the rightdirection. " Another date which shows how promptly the work was resumedis October 14, 1878, when Edison filed an application for his firstlighting patent: "Improvement in Electric Lights. " In after years, discussing the work of Wallace, who was not only a great pioneerelectrical manufacturer, but one of the founders of the wire-drawing andbrass-working industry, Edison said: "Wallace was one of the earliestpioneers in electrical matters in this country. He has done a great dealof good work, for which others have received the credit; and thework which he did in the early days of electric lighting othershave benefited by largely, and he has been crowded to one side andforgotten. " Associated in all this work with Wallace at Ansonia wasProf. Moses G. Farmer, famous for the introduction of the fire-alarmsystem; as the discoverer of the self-exciting principle of the moderndynamo; as a pioneer experimenter in the electric-railway field; as atelegraph engineer, and as a lecturer on mines and explosives tonaval classes at Newport. During 1858, Farmer, who, like Edison, was aceaseless investigator, had made a series of studies upon the productionof light by electricity, and had even invented an automatic regulatorby which a number of platinum lamps in multiple arc could be kept atuniform voltage for any length of time. In July, 1859, he lit up one ofthe rooms of his house at Salem, Massachusetts, every evening with suchlamps, using in them small pieces of platinum and iridium wire, whichwere made to incandesce by means of current from primary batteries. Farmer was not one of the party that memorable day in September, but hiswork was known through his intimate connection with Wallace, and thereis no doubt that reference was made to it. Such work had not ledvery far, the "lamps" were hopelessly short-lived, and everything wasobviously experimental; but it was all helpful and suggestive to onewhose open mind refused no hint from any quarter. 

At the commencement of his new attempts, Edison returned to hisexperiments with carbon as an incandescent burner for a lamp, and madea very large number of trials, all in vacuo. Not only were the ordinarystrip paper carbons tried again, but tissue-paper coated with tar andlampblack was rolled into thin sticks, like knitting-needles, carbonizedand raised to incandescence in vacuo. Edison also tried hard carbon, wood carbons, and almost every conceivable variety of paper carbon inlike manner. With the best vacuum that he could then get by means of theordinary air-pump, the carbons would last, at the most, only from ten tofifteen minutes in a state of incandescence. Such results were evidentlynot of commercial value. 

Edison then turned his attention in other directions. In his earliestconsideration of the problem of subdividing the electric current, he haddecided that the only possible solution lay in the employment of a lampwhose incandescing body should have a high resistance combined with asmall radiating surface, and be capable of being used in what is called"multiple arc, " so that each unit, or lamp, could be turned on or offwithout interfering with any other unit or lamp. No other arrangementcould possibly be considered as commercially practicable. 

The full significance of the three last preceding sentences will not beobvious to laymen, as undoubtedly many of the readers of this book maybe; and now being on the threshold of the series of Edison's experimentsthat led up to the basic invention, we interpolate a brief explanation, in order that the reader may comprehend the logical reasoning and workthat in this case produced such far-reaching results. 

If we consider a simple circuit in which a current is flowing, andinclude in the circuit a carbon horseshoe-like conductor which it isdesired to bring to incandescence by the heat generated by the currentpassing through it, it is first evident that the resistance offered tothe current by the wires themselves must be less than that offered bythe burner, because, otherwise current would be wasted as heat in theconducting wires. At the very foundation of the electric-lighting art isthe essentially commercial consideration that one cannot spend very muchfor conductors, and Edison determined that, in order to use wires of apracticable size, the voltage of the current (i. E. , its pressure orthe characteristic that overcomes resistance to its flow) should be onehundred and ten volts, which since its adoption has been the standard. To use a lower voltage or pressure, while making the solution of thelighting problem a simple one as we shall see, would make it necessaryto increase the size of the conducting wires to a prohibitive extent. To increase the voltage or pressure materially, while permittingsome saving in the cost of conductors, would enormously increase thedifficulties of making a sufficiently high resistance conductor tosecure light by incandescence. This apparently remote consideration--weight of copper used--was really the commercial key to the problem, just as the incandescent burner was the scientific key to that problem. Before Edison's invention incandescent lamps had been suggested asa possibility, but they were provided with carbon rods or strips ofrelatively low resistance, and to bring these to incandescence requireda current of low pressure, because a current of high voltage would passthrough them so readily as not to generate heat; and to carry a currentof low pressure through wires without loss would require wires ofenormous size. [8] Having a current of relatively high pressure tocontend with, it was necessary to provide a carbon burner which, ascompared with what had previously been suggested, should have a verygreat resistance. Carbon as a material, determined after patient search, apparently offered the greatest hope, but even with this substance thenecessary high resistance could be obtained only by making the burnerof extremely small cross-section, thereby also reducing its radiatingsurface. Therefore, the crucial point was the production of a hair-likecarbon filament, with a relatively great resistance and small radiatingsurface, capable of withstanding mechanical shock, and susceptible ofbeing maintained at a temperature of over two thousand degrees for athousand hours or more before breaking. And this filamentary conductorrequired to be supported in a vacuum chamber so perfectly formed andconstructed that during all those hours, and subjected as it is tovarying temperatures, not a particle of air should enter to disintegratethe filament. And not only so, but the lamp after its design must notbe a mere laboratory possibility, but a practical commercial articlecapable of being manufactured at low cost and in large quantities. Astatement of what had to be done in those days of actual as well asscientific electrical darkness is quite sufficient to explain Tyndall'sattitude of mind in preferring that the problem should be in Edison'shands rather than in his own. To say that the solution of the problemlay merely in reducing the size of the carbon burner to a mere hair, isto state a half-truth only; but who, we ask, would have had the temerityeven to suggest that such an attenuated body could be maintained at awhite heat, without disintegration, for a thousand hours? The solutionconsisted not only in that, but in the enormous mass of patientlyworked-out details--the manufacture of the filaments, their uniformcarbonization, making the globes, producing a perfect vacuum, andcountless other factors, the omission of any one of which would probablyhave resulted eventually in failure. 

 [Footnote 8: As a practical illustration of these facts it was calculated by Professor Barker, of the University of Pennsylvania (after Edison had invented the incandescent lamp), that if it should cost $100, 000 for copper conductors to supply current to Edison lamps in a given area, it would cost about $200, 000, 000 for copper conductors for lighting the same area by lamps of the earlier experimenters--such, for instance, as the lamp invented by Konn in 1875. This enormous difference would be accounted for by the fact that Edison's lamp was one having a high resistance and relatively small radiating surface, while Konn's lamp was one having a very low resistance and large radiating surface. ]

Continuing the digression one step farther in order to explain the term"multiple arc, " it may be stated that there are two principal systemsof distributing electric current, one termed "series, " and the other"multiple arc. " The two are illustrated, diagrammatically, side by side, the arrows indicating flow of current. The series system, it will beseen, presents one continuous path for the current. The current for thelast lamp must pass through the first and all the intermediate lamps. Hence, if any one light goes out, the continuity of the path is broken, current cannot flow, and all the lamps are extinguished unless a loopor by-path is provided. It is quite obvious that such a system would becommercially impracticable where small units, similar to gas jets, wereemployed. On the other hand, in the multiple-arc system, current may beconsidered as flowing in two parallel conductors like the vertical sidesof a ladder, the ends of which never come together. Each lamp is placedin a separate circuit across these two conductors, like a rung in theladder, thus making a separate and independent path for the current ineach case. Hence, if a lamp goes out, only that individual subdivision, or ladder step, is affected; just that one particular path for thecurrent is interrupted, but none of the other lamps is interfered with. They remain lighted, each one independent of the other. The reader willquite readily understand, therefore, that a multiple-arc system is theonly one practically commercial where electric light is to be used insmall units like those of gas or oil. 

Such was the nature of the problem that confronted Edison at the outset. There was nothing in the whole world that in any way approximated asolution, although the most brilliant minds in the electrical art hadbeen assiduously working on the subject for a quarter of a centurypreceding. As already seen, he came early to the conclusion that theonly solution lay in the use of a lamp of high resistance and smallradiating surface, and, with characteristic fervor and energy, heattacked the problem from this standpoint, having absolute faith ina successful outcome. The mere fact that even with the successfulproduction of the electric lamp the assault on the complete problemof commercial lighting would hardly be begun did not deter him in theslightest. To one of Edison's enthusiastic self-confidence the longvista of difficulties ahead--we say it in all sincerity--must have beenalluring. 

After having devoted several months to experimental trials of carbon, at the end of 1878, as already detailed, he turned his attention to theplatinum group of metals and began a series of experiments in which heused chiefly platinum wire and iridium wire, and alloys of refractorymetals in the form of wire burners for incandescent lamps. These metalshave very high fusing-points, and were found to last longer than thecarbon strips previously used when heated up to incandescence by theelectric current, although under such conditions as were then possiblethey were melted by excess of current after they had been lighted acomparatively short time, either in the open air or in such a vacuum ascould be obtained by means of the ordinary air-pump. 

Nevertheless, Edison continued along this line of experiment withunremitting vigor, making improvement after improvement, until aboutApril, 1879, he devised a means whereby platinum wire of a given length, which would melt in the open air when giving a light equal to fourcandles, would emit a light of twenty-five candle-power without fusion. This was accomplished by introducing the platinum wire into an all-glassglobe, completely sealed and highly exhausted of air, and passing acurrent through the platinum wire while the vacuum was being made. In this, which was a new and radical invention, we see the first steptoward the modern incandescent lamp. The knowledge thus obtained thatcurrent passing through the platinum during exhaustion would drive outoccluded gases (i. E. , gases mechanically held in or upon the metal), andincrease the infusibility of the platinum, led him to aim at securinggreater perfection in the vacuum, on the theory that the higher thevacuum obtained, the higher would be the infusibility of the platinumburner. And this fact also was of the greatest importance in makingsuccessful the final use of carbon, because without the subjection ofthe carbon to the heating effect of current during the formation of thevacuum, the presence of occluded gases would have been a fatal obstacle. 

Continuing these experiments with most fervent zeal, taking no accountof the passage of time, with an utter disregard for meals, and butscanty hours of sleep snatched reluctantly at odd periods of the dayor night, Edison kept his laboratory going without cessation. A greatvariety of lamps was made of the platinum-iridium type, mostly withthermal devices to regulate the temperature of the burner and preventits being melted by an excess of current. The study of apparatus forobtaining more perfect vacua was unceasingly carried on, for Edisonrealized that in this there lay a potent factor of ultimate success. About August he had obtained a pump that would produce a vacuum up toabout the one-hundred-thousandth part of an atmosphere, and some timeduring the next month, or beginning of October, had obtained one thatwould produce a vacuum up to the one-millionth part of an atmosphere. It must be remembered that the conditions necessary for MAINTAINING thishigh vacuum were only made possible by his invention of the one-pieceall-glass globe, in which all the joints were hermetically sealed duringits manufacture into a lamp, whereby a high vacuum could be retainedcontinuously for any length of time. 

In obtaining this perfection of vacuum apparatus, Edison realized thathe was approaching much nearer to a solution of the problem. In hisexperiments with the platinum-iridium lamps, he had been working allthe time toward the proposition of high resistance and small radiatingsurface, until he had made a lamp having thirty feet of fine platinumwire wound upon a small bobbin of infusible material; but the desiredeconomy, simplicity, and durability were not obtained in this manner, although at all times the burner was maintained at a critically hightemperature. After attaining a high degree of perfection with theselamps, he recognized their impracticable character, and his mindreverted to the opinion he had formed in his early experiments two yearsbefore--viz. , that carbon had the requisite resistance to permit a verysimple conductor to accomplish the object if it could be used in theform of a hair-like "filament, " provided the filament itself could bemade sufficiently homogeneous. As we have already seen, he could not usecarbon successfully in his earlier experiments, for the strips of carbonhe then employed, although they were much larger than "filaments, "would not stand, but were consumed in a few minutes under the imperfectconditions then at his command. 

Now, however, that he had found means for obtaining and maintaining highvacua, Edison immediately went back to carbon, which from the firsthe had conceived of as the ideal substance for a burner. His next stepproved conclusively the correctness of his old deductions. On October21, 1879, after many patient trials, he carbonized a piece of cottonsewing-thread bent into a loop or horseshoe form, and had it sealedinto a glass globe from which he exhausted the air until a vacuum up toone-millionth of an atmosphere was produced. This lamp, when put onthe circuit, lighted up brightly to incandescence and maintained itsintegrity for over forty hours, and lo! the practical incandescent lampwas born. The impossible, so called, had been attained; subdivisionof the electric-light current was made practicable; the goal hadbeen reached; and one of the greatest inventions of the centurywas completed. Up to this time Edison had spent over $40, 000 in hiselectric-light experiments, but the results far more than justified theexpenditure, for with this lamp he made the discovery that the FILAMENTof carbon, under the conditions of high vacuum, was commerciallystable and would stand high temperatures without the disintegration andoxidation that took place in all previous attempts that he knew offor making an incandescent burner out of carbon. Besides, this lamppossessed the characteristics of high resistance and small radiatingsurface, permitting economy in the outlay for conductors, and requiringonly a small current for each unit of light--conditions that wereabsolutely necessary of fulfilment in order to accomplish commerciallythe subdivision of the electric-light current. 

This slender, fragile, tenuous thread of brittle carbon, glowingsteadily and continuously with a soft light agreeable to the eyes, was the tiny key that opened the door to a world revolutionized inits interior illumination. It was a triumphant vindication of Edison'sreasoning powers, his clear perceptions, his insight into possibilities, and his inventive faculty, all of which had already been productive ofso many startling, practical, and epoch-making inventions. And now hehad stepped over the threshold of a new art which has since become soworld-wide in its application as to be an integral part of modern humanexperience. [9]

 [Footnote 9: The following extract from Walker on Patents (4th edition) will probably be of interest to the reader:

 "Sec. 31a. A meritorious exception, to the rule of the last section, is involved in the adjudicated validity of the Edison incandescent-light patent. The carbon filament, which constitutes the only new part of the combination of the second claim of that patent, differs from the earlier carbon burners of Sawyer and Man, only in having a diameter of one- sixty-fourth of an inch or less, whereas the burners of Sawyer and Man had a diameter of one-thirty-second of an inch or more. But that reduction of one-half in diameter increased the resistance of the burner FOURFOLD, and reduced its radiating surface TWOFOLD, and thus increased eightfold, its ratio of resistance to radiating surface. That eightfold increase of proportion enabled the resistance of the conductor of electricity from the generator to the burner to be increased eightfold, without any increase of percentage of loss of energy in that conductor, or decrease of percentage of development of heat in the burner; and thus enabled the area of the cross-section of that conductor to be reduced eightfold, and thus to be made with one-eighth of the amount of copper or other metal, which would be required if the reduction of diameter of the burner from one-thirty- second to one-sixty-fourth of an inch had not been made. And that great reduction in the size and cost of conductors, involved also a great difference in the composition of the electric energy employed in the system; that difference consisting in generating the necessary amount of electrical energy with comparatively high electromotive force, and comparatively low current, instead of contrariwise. For this reason, the use of carbon filaments, one-sixty-fourth of an inch in diameter or less, instead of carbon burners one- thirty-second of an inch in diameter or more, not only worked an enormous economy in conductors, but also necessitated a great change in generators, and did both according to a philosophy, which Edison was the first to know, and which is stated in this paragraph in its simplest form and aspect, and which lies at the foundation of the incandescent electric lighting of the world. "]

No sooner had the truth of this new principle been established thanthe work to establish it firmly and commercially was carried onmore assiduously than ever. The next immediate step was a furtherinvestigation of the possibilities of improving the quality of thecarbon filament. Edison had previously made a vast number of experimentswith carbonized paper for various electrical purposes, with such goodresults that he once more turned to it and now made fine filament-likeloops of this material which were put into other lamps. These provedeven more successful (commercially considered) than the carbonizedthread--so much so that after a number of such lamps had been made andput through severe tests, the manufacture of lamps from these papercarbons was begun and carried on continuously. This necessitated firstthe devising and making of a large number of special tools for cuttingthe carbon filaments and for making and putting together the variousparts of the lamps. Meantime, great excitement had been caused in thiscountry and in Europe by the announcement of Edison's success. In theOld World, scientists generally still declared the impossibility ofsubdividing the electric-light current, and in the public press Mr. Edison was denounced as a dreamer. Other names of a less complimentarynature were applied to him, even though his lamp were actually inuse, and the principle of commercial incandescent lighting had beenestablished. 

Between October 21, 1879, and December 21, 1879, some hundreds of thesepaper-carbon lamps had been made and put into actual use, not only inthe laboratory, but in the streets and several residences at Menlo Park, New Jersey, causing great excitement and bringing many visitors fromfar and near. On the latter date a full-page article appeared in theNew York Herald which so intensified the excited feeling that Mr. Edisondeemed it advisable to make a public exhibition. On New Year's Eve, 1879, special trains were run to Menlo Park by the PennsylvaniaRailroad, and over three thousand persons took advantage of theopportunity to go out there and witness this demonstration forthemselves. In this great crowd were many public officials and men ofprominence in all walks of life, who were enthusiastic in their praises. 

In the mean time, the mind that conceived and made practical thisinvention could not rest content with anything less than perfection, so far as it could be realized. Edison was not satisfied with papercarbons. They were not fully up to the ideal that he had in mind. Whathe sought was a perfectly uniform and homogeneous carbon, one like the"One-Hoss Shay, " that had no weak spots to break down at inopportunetimes. He began to carbonize everything in nature that he could layhands on. In his laboratory note-books are innumerable jottings of thethings that were carbonized and tried, such as tissue-paper, soft paper, all kinds of cardboards, drawing-paper of all grades, paper saturatedwith tar, all kinds of threads, fish-line, threads rubbed with tarredlampblack, fine threads plaited together in strands, cotton soaked inboiling tar, lamp-wick, twine, tar and lampblack mixed with a proportionof lime, vulcanized fibre, celluloid, boxwood, cocoanut hair and shell, spruce, hickory, baywood, cedar and maple shavings, rosewood, punk, cork, bagging, flax, and a host of other things. He also extended hissearches far into the realms of nature in the line of grasses, plants, canes, and similar products, and in these experiments at that timeand later he carbonized, made into lamps, and tested no fewer than sixthousand different species of vegetable growths. 

The reasons for such prodigious research are not apparent on the face ofthe subject, nor is this the occasion to enter into an explanation, asthat alone would be sufficient to fill a fair-sized book. Suffice itto say that Edison's omnivorous reading, keen observation, power ofassimilating facts and natural phenomena, and skill in applying theknowledge thus attained to whatever was in hand, now came into full playin determining that the results he desired could only be obtained incertain directions. 

At this time he was investigating everything with a microscope, and oneday in the early part of 1880 he noticed upon a table in the laboratoryan ordinary palm-leaf fan. He picked it up and, looking it over, observed that it had a binding rim made of bamboo, cut from the outeredge of the cane; a very long strip. He examined this, and then gave itto one of his assistants, telling him to cut it up and get out of itall the filaments he could, carbonize them, put them into lamps, and trythem. The results of this trial were exceedingly successful, far betterthan with anything else thus far used; indeed, so much so, that afterfurther experiments and microscopic examinations Edison was convincedthat he was now on the right track for making a thoroughly stable, commercial lamp; and shortly afterward he sent a man to Japan to procurefurther supplies of bamboo. The fascinating story of the bamboo huntwill be told later; but even this bamboo lamp was only one item ofa complete system to be devised--a system that has since completelyrevolutionized the art of interior illumination. 

Reference has been made in this chapter to the preliminary study thatEdison brought to bear on the development of the gas art and industry. This study was so exhaustive that one can only compare it to the carefulinvestigation made in advance by any competent war staff of the elementsof strength and weakness, on both sides, in a possible campaign. Apopular idea of Edison that dies hard, pictures a breezy, slap-dash, energetic inventor arriving at new results by luck and intuition, makingboastful assertions and then winning out by mere chance. The nativesimplicity of the man, the absence of pose and ceremony, do much tostrengthen this notion; but the real truth is that while gifted withunusual imagination, Edison's march to the goal of a new invention ispositively humdrum and monotonous in its steady progress. No one eversaw Edison in a hurry; no one ever saw him lazy; and that which he didwith slow, careful scrutiny six months ago, he will be doing with justas much calm deliberation of research six months hence--and six yearshence if necessary. If, for instance, he were asked to find the mostperfect pebble on the Atlantic shore of New Jersey, instead of huntinghere, there, and everywhere for the desired object, we would no doubtfind him patiently screening the entire beach, sifting out the mostperfect stones and eventually, by gradual exclusion, reaching thelong-sought-for pebble; and the mere fact that in this search yearsmight be taken, would not lessen his enthusiasm to the slightest extent. 

In the "prospectus book" among the series of famous note-books, all thereferences and data apply to gas. The book is numbered 184, falls intothe period now dealt with, and runs along casually with items spreadout over two or three years. All these notes refer specifically to"Electricity vs. Gas as General Illuminants, " and cover an astoundingrange of inquiry and comment. One of the very first notes tells thewhole story: "Object, Edison to effect exact imitation of all done bygas, so as to replace lighting by gas by lighting by electricity. Toimprove the illumination to such an extent as to meet all requirementsof natural, artificial, and commercial conditions. " A large programme, but fully executed! The notes, it will be understood, are all inEdison's handwriting. They go on to observe that "a general system ofdistribution is the only possible means of economical illumination, " andthey dismiss isolated-plant lighting as in mills and factories as of solittle importance to the public--"we shall leave the consideration ofthis out of this book. " The shrewd prophecy is made that gas will bemanufactured less for lighting, as the result of electrical competition, and more and more for heating, etc. , thus enlarging its market andincreasing its income. Comment is made on kerosene and its cost, and allkinds of general statistics are jotted down as desirable. Data are to beobtained on lamp and dynamo efficiency, and "Another review of the wholething as worked out upon pure science principles by Rowland, Young, Trowbridge; also Rowland on the possibilities and probabilities ofcheaper production by better manufacture--higher incandescence withoutdecrease of life of lamps. " Notes are also made on meters and motors. "It doesn't matter if electricity is used for light or for power";while small motors, it is observed, can be used night or day, and smallsteam-engines are inconvenient. Again the shrewd comment: "Generallypoorest district for light, best for power, thus evening up wholecity--the effect of this on investment. "

It is pointed out that "Previous inventions failed--necessitiesfor commercial success and accomplishment by Edison. Edison's greateffort--not to make a large light or a blinding light, but a small lighthaving the mildness of gas. " Curves are then called for of ironand copper investment--also energy line--curves of candle-power andelectromotive force; curves on motors; graphic representation ofthe consumption of gas January to December; tables and formulae;representations graphically of what one dollar will buy in differentkinds of light; "table, weight of copper required different distance, 100-ohm lamp, 16 candles"; table with curves showing increasedeconomy by larger engine, higher power, etc. There is not much that isdilettante about all this. Note is made of an article in April, 1879, putting the total amount of gas investment in the whole world at thattime at $1, 500, 000, 000; which is now (1910) about the amount of theelectric-lighting investment in the United States. Incidentally a noteremarks: "So unpleasant is the effect of the products of gas that in thenew Madison Square Theatre every gas jet is ventilated by special tubesto carry away the products of combustion. " In short, there is no aspectof the new problem to which Edison failed to apply his acutest powers;and the speed with which the new system was worked out and introducedwas simply due to his initial mastery of all the factors in the olderart. Luther Stieringer, an expert gas engineer and inventor, whoseservices were early enlisted, once said that Edison knew more about gasthan any other man he had ever met. The remark is an evidence of thekind of preparation Edison gave himself for his new task. 

CHAPTER XII

MEMORIES OF MENLO PARK

FROM the spring of 1876 to 1886 Edison lived and did his work at MenloPark; and at this stage of the narrative, midway in that interesting andeventful period, it is appropriate to offer a few notes and jottings onthe place itself, around which tradition is already weaving its fancies, just as at the time the outpouring of new inventions from it investedthe name with sudden prominence and with the glamour of romance. "In 1876 I moved, " says Edison, "to Menlo Park, New Jersey, on thePennsylvania Railroad, several miles below Elizabeth. The move was dueto trouble I had about rent. I had rented a small shop in Newark, on thetop floor of a padlock factory, by the month. I gave notice that Iwould give it up at the end of the month, paid the rent, moved out, and delivered the keys. Shortly afterward I was served with a paper, probably a judgment, wherein I was to pay nine months' rent. There wassome law, it seems, that made a monthly renter liable for a year. Thisseemed so unjust that I determined to get out of a place that permittedsuch injustice. " For several Sundays he walked through different partsof New Jersey with two of his assistants before he decided on MenloPark. The change was a fortunate one, for the inventor had married MissMary E. Stillwell, and was now able to establish himself comfortablywith his wife and family while enjoying immediate access to the newlaboratory. Every moment thus saved was valuable. 

To-day the place and region have gone back to the insignificance fromwhich Edison's genius lifted them so startlingly. A glance from thecar windows reveals only a gently rolling landscape dotted with modestresidences and unpretentious barns; and there is nothing in sight by wayof memorial to suggest that for nearly a decade this spot was the sceneof the most concentrated and fruitful inventive activity the world hasever known. Close to the Menlo Park railway station is a group ofgaunt and deserted buildings, shelter of the casual tramp, and slowlycrumbling away when not destroyed by the carelessness of some raggedsmoker. This silent group of buildings comprises the famous oldlaboratory and workshops of Mr. Edison, historic as being the birthplaceof the carbon transmitter, the phonograph, the incandescent lamp, and the spot where Edison also worked out his systems of electricaldistribution, his commercial dynamo, his electric railway, hismegaphone, his tasimeter, and many other inventions of greater or lesserdegree. Here he continued, moreover, his earlier work on the quadruplex, sextuplex, multiplex, and automatic telegraphs, and did his notablepioneer work in wireless telegraphy. As the reader knows, it had been amaster passion with Edison from boyhood up to possess a laboratory, in which with free use of his own time and powers, and with command ofabundant material resources, he could wrestle with Nature and probe herclosest secrets. Thus, from the little cellar at Port Huron, from thescant shelves in a baggage car, from the nooks and corners of dingytelegraph offices, and the grimy little shops in New York and Newark, he had now come to the proud ownership of an establishment to whichhis favorite word "laboratory" might justly be applied. Here he couldexperiment to his heart's content and invent on a larger, bolder scalethan ever--and he did!

Menlo Park was the merest hamlet. Omitting the laboratory structures, ithad only about seven houses, the best looking of which Edison lived in, a place that had a windmill pumping water into a reservoir. One of thestories of the day was that Edison had his front gate so connected withthe pumping plant that every visitor as he opened or closed the gateadded involuntarily to the supply in the reservoir. Two or three of thehouses were occupied by the families of members of the staff; in theothers boarders were taken, the laboratory, of course, furnishing allthe patrons. Near the railway station was a small saloon kept by an oldScotchman named Davis, where billiards were played in idle moments, and where in the long winter evenings the hot stove was a centre ofattraction to loungers and story-tellers. The truth is that therewas very little social life of any kind possible under the strenuousconditions prevailing at the laboratory, where, if anywhere, relaxationwas enjoyed at odd intervals of fatigue and waiting. 

The main laboratory was a spacious wooden building of two floors. Theoffice was in this building at first, until removed to the brick librarywhen that was finished. There S. L. Griffin, an old telegraph friendof Edison, acted as his secretary and had charge of a voluminous andamazing correspondence. The office employees were the Carman brothersand the late John F. Randolph, afterwards secretary. According to Mr. Francis Jehl, of Budapest, then one of the staff, to whom the writersare indebted for a great deal of valuable data on this period: "Itwas on the upper story of this laboratory that the most importantexperiments were executed, and where the incandescent lamp was born. This floor consisted of a large hall containing several long tables, upon which could be found all the various instruments, scientific andchemical apparatus that the arts at that time could produce. Bookslay promiscuously about, while here and there long lines ofbichromate-of-potash cells could be seen, together with experimentalmodels of ideas that Edison or his assistants were engaged upon. Theside walls of this hall were lined with shelves filled with bottles, phials, and other receptacles containing every imaginable chemical andother material that could be obtained, while at the end of this hall, and near the organ which stood in the rear, was a large glass casecontaining the world's most precious metals in sheet and wire form, together with very rare and costly chemicals. When evening came on, andthe last rays of the setting sun penetrated through the side windows, this hall looked like a veritable Faust laboratory. 

"On the ground floor we had our testing-table, which stood on two largepillars of brick built deep into the earth in order to get rid of allvibrations on account of the sensitive instruments that were upon it. There was the Thomson reflecting mirror galvanometer and electrometer, while nearby were the standard cells by which the galvanometers wereadjusted and standardized. This testing-table was connected by meansof wires with all parts of the laboratory and machine-shop, so thatmeasurements could be conveniently made from a distance, as in thosedays we had no portable and direct-reading instruments, such as nowexist. Opposite this table we installed, later on, our photometricalchamber, which was constructed on the Bunsen principle. A little wayfrom this table, and separated by a partition, we had the chemicallaboratory with its furnaces and stink-chambers. Later on anotherchemical laboratory was installed near the photometer-room, and this Dr. A. Haid had charge of. "

Next to the laboratory in importance was the machine-shop, a large andwell-lighted building of brick, at one end of which there was the boilerand engine-room. This shop contained light and heavy lathes, boring anddrilling machines, all kinds of planing machines; in fact, tools of alldescriptions, so that any apparatus, however delicate or heavy, could bemade and built as might be required by Edison in experimenting. Mr. JohnKruesi had charge of this shop, and was assisted by a number of skilledmechanics, notably John Ott, whose deft fingers and quick intuitivegrasp of the master's ideas are still in demand under the more recentconditions at the Llewellyn Park laboratory in Orange. 

Between the machine-shop and the laboratory was a small building of woodused as a carpenter-shop, where Tom Logan plied his art. Nearby was thegasoline plant. Before the incandescent lamp was perfected, theonly illumination was from gasoline gas; and that was used laterfor incandescent-lamp glass-blowing, which was done in another smallbuilding on one side of the laboratory. Apparently little or no lightingservice was obtained from the Wallace-Farmer arc lamps secured fromAnsonia, Connecticut. The dynamo was probably needed for Edison's ownexperiments. 

On the outskirts of the property was a small building in which lampblackwas crudely but carefully manufactured and pressed into very smallcakes, for use in the Edison carbon transmitters of that time. Thenight-watchman, Alfred Swanson, took care of this curious plant, whichconsisted of a battery of petroleum lamps that were forced to burn tothe sooting point. During his rounds in the night Swanson would findtime to collect from the chimneys the soot that the lamps gave. It wasthen weighed out into very small portions, which were pressed into cakesor buttons by means of a hand-press. These little cakes were delicatelypacked away between layers of cotton in small, light boxes and shippedto Bergmann in New York, by whom the telephone transmitters were beingmade. A little later the Edison electric railway was built on theconfines of the property out through the woods, at first only a thirdof a mile in length, but reaching ultimately to Pumptown, almost threemiles away. 

Mr. Edison's own words may be quoted as to the men with whom hesurrounded himself here and upon whose services he depended principallyfor help in the accomplishment of his aims. In an autobiographicalarticle in the Electrical World of March 5, 1904, he says: "It isinteresting to note that in addition to those mentioned above (CharlesBatchelor and Frank Upton), I had around me other men who ever sincehave remained active in the field, such as Messrs. Francis Jehl, WilliamJ. Hammer, Martin Force, Ludwig K. Boehm, not forgetting that goodfriend and co-worker, the late John Kruesi. They found plenty to do inthe various developments of the art, and as I now look back I sometimeswonder how we did so much in so short a time. " Mr. Jehl in hisreminiscences adds another name to the above--namely, that of John W. Lawson, and then goes on to say: "These are the names of the pioneers ofincandescent lighting, who were continuously at the side of Edison dayand night for some years, and who, under his guidance, worked upon thecarbon-filament lamp from its birth to ripe maturity. These men all hadcomplete faith in his ability and stood by him as on a rock, guardingtheir work with the secretiveness of a burglar-proof safe. Whenever itleaked out in the world that Edison was succeeding in his work on theelectric light, spies and others came to the Park; so it was of theutmost importance that the experiments and their results should be kepta secret until Edison had secured the protection of the Patent Office. "With this staff was associated from the first Mr. E. H. Johnson, whosework with Mr. Edison lay chiefly, however, outside the laboratory, taking him to all parts of the country and to Europe. There were alsoto be regarded as detached members of it the Bergmann brothers, manufacturing for Mr. Edison in New York, and incessantly experimentingfor him. In addition there must be included Mr. Samuel Insull, whoseactivities for many years as private secretary and financial managerwere devoted solely to Mr. Edison's interests, with Menlo Park as acentre and main source of anxiety as to pay-rolls and other constantlyrecurring obligations. The names of yet other associates occur fromtime to time in this narrative--"Edison men" who have been very proudof their close relationship to the inventor and his work at old Menlo. "There was also Mr. Charles L. Clarke, who devoted himself mainly toengineering matters, and later on acted as chief engineer of the EdisonElectric Light Company for some years. Then there were William Holzerand James Hipple, both of whom took an active part in the practicaldevelopment of the glass-blowing department of the laboratory, and, subsequently, at the first Edison lamp factory at Menlo Park. Later onMessrs. Jehl, Hipple, and Force assisted Mr. Batchelor to install thelamp-works of the French Edison Company at Ivry-sur-Seine. Then therewere Messrs. Charles T. Hughes, Samuel D. Mott, and Charles T. Mott, whodevoted their time chiefly to commercial affairs. Mr. Hughes conductedmost of this work, and later on took a prominent part in Edison'selectric-railway experiments. His business ability was on a high level, while his personal character endeared him to us all. "

Among other now well-known men who came to us and assisted in variouskinds of work were Messrs. Acheson, Worth, Crosby, Herrick, and Hill, while Doctor Haid was placed by Mr. Edison in charge of a specialchemical laboratory. Dr. E. L. Nichols was also with us for a short timeconducting a special series of experiments. There was also Mr. Isaacs, who did a great deal of photographic work, and to whom we must bethankful for the pictures of Menlo Park in connection with Edison'swork. 

"Among others who were added to Mr. Kruesi's staff in the machine-shopwere Messrs. J. H. Vail and W. S. Andrews. Mr. Vail had charge of thedynamo-room. He had a good general knowledge of machinery, and verysoon acquired such familiarity with the dynamos that he could skip aboutamong them with astonishing agility to regulate their brushes or tothrow rosin on the belts when they began to squeal. Later on he tookan active part in the affairs and installations of the Edison LightCompany. Mr. Andrews stayed on Mr. Kruesi's staff as long as thelaboratory machine-shop was kept open, after which he went into theemploy of the Edison Electric Light Company and became actively engagedin the commercial and technical exploitation of the system. Another manwho was with us at Menlo Park was Mr. Herman Claudius, an Austrian, whoat one time was employed in connection with the State Telegraphs of hiscountry. To him Mr. Edison assigned the task of making a complete modelof the network of conductors for the contemplated first station in NewYork. "

Mr. Francis R. Upton, who was early employed by Mr. Edison as hismathematician, furnishes a pleasant, vivid picture of his chiefassociates engaged on the memorable work at Menlo Park. He says: "Mr. Charles Batchelor was Mr. Edison's principal assistant at that time. Hewas an Englishman, and came to this country to set up the thread-weavingmachinery for the Clark thread-works. He was a most intelligent, patient, competent, and loyal assistant to Mr. Edison. I rememberdistinctly seeing him work many hours to mount a small filament; andhis hand would be as steady and his patience as unyielding at the endof those many hours as it was at the beginning, in spite of repeatedfailures. He was a wonderful mechanic; the control that he had of hisfingers was marvellous, and his eyesight was sharp. Mr. Batchelor'sjudgment and good sense were always in evidence. 

"Mr. Kruesi was the superintendent, a Swiss trained in the best Swissideas of accuracy. He was a splendid mechanic with a vigorous temper, and wonderful ability to work continuously and to get work out of men. It was an ideal combination, that of Edison, Batchelor, and Kruesi. Mr. Edison with his wonderful flow of ideas which were sharply defined inhis mind, as can be seen by any of the sketches that he made, as heevidently always thinks in three dimensions; Mr. Kruesi, willing to takethe ideas, and capable of comprehending them, would distribute the workso as to get it done with marvellous quickness and great accuracy. Mr. Batchelor was always ready for any special fine experimenting orobservation, and could hold to whatever he was at as long as Mr. Edisonwished; and always brought to bear on what he was at the greatestskill. "

While Edison depended upon Upton for his mathematical work, he was wontto check it up in a very practical manner, as evidenced by the followingincident described by Mr. Jehl: "I was once with Mr. Upton calculatingsome tables which he had put me on, when Mr. Edison appeared with aglass bulb having a pear-shaped appearance in his hand. It was the kindthat we were going to use for our lamp experiments; and Mr. Edison askedMr. Upton to please calculate for him its cubic contents in centimetres. Now Mr. Upton was a very able mathematician, who, after he finished hisstudies at Princeton, went to Germany and got his final gloss under thatgreat master, Helmholtz. Whatever he did and worked on was executed ina pure mathematical manner, and any wrangler at Oxford would have beendelighted to see him juggle with integral and differential equations, with a dexterity that was surprising. He drew the shape of the bulbexactly on paper, and got the equation of its lines with which he wasgoing to calculate its contents, when Mr. Edison again appeared andasked him what it was. He showed Edison the work he had already done onthe subject, and told him that he would very soon finish calculatingit. 'Why, ' said Edison, 'I would simply take that bulb and fill itwith mercury and weigh it; and from the weight of the mercury and itsspecific gravity I'll get it in five minutes, and use less mental energythan is necessary in such a fatiguing operation. '"

Menlo Park became ultimately the centre of Edison's business life asit was of his inventing. After the short distasteful period during theintroduction of his lighting system, when he spent a large part of histime at the offices at 65 Fifth Avenue, New York, or on the actual workconnected with the New York Edison installation, he settled back againin Menlo Park altogether. Mr. Samuel Insull describes the businessmethods which prevailed throughout the earlier Menlo Park days of "stormand stress, " and the curious conditions with which he had to deal asprivate secretary: "I never attempted to systematize Edison's businesslife. Edison's whole method of work would upset the system of anyoffice. He was just as likely to be at work in his laboratory atmidnight as midday. He cared not for the hours of the day or the daysof the week. If he was exhausted he might more likely be asleep in themiddle of the day than in the middle of the night, as most of his workin the way of inventions was done at night. I used to run his office onas close business methods as my experience admitted; and I would get athim whenever it suited his convenience. Sometimes he would not go overhis mail for days at a time; but other times he would go regularly tohis office in the morning. At other times my engagements used to be withhim to go over his business affairs at Menlo Park at night, if I wasoccupied in New York during the day. In fact, as a matter of convenienceI used more often to get at him at night, as it left my days free totransact his affairs, and enabled me, probably at a midnight luncheon, to get a few minutes of his time to look over his correspondence and gethis directions as to what I should do in some particular negotiation ormatter of finance. While it was a matter of suiting Edison's convenienceas to when I should transact business with him, it also suited my ownideas, as it enabled me after getting through my business with him toenjoy the privilege of watching him at his work, and to learn somethingabout the technical side of matters. Whatever knowledge I may have ofthe electric light and power industry I feel I owe it to the tuition ofEdison. He was about the most willing tutor, and I must confess that hehad to be a patient one. "

Here again occurs the reference to the incessant night-work at MenloPark, a note that is struck in every reminiscence and in every recordof the time. But it is not to be inferred that the atmosphere of grimdetermination and persistent pursuit of the new invention characteristicof this period made life a burden to the small family of laborersassociated with Edison. Many a time during the long, weary nights ofexperimenting Edison would call a halt for refreshments, which he hadordered always to be sent in when night-work was in progress. Everythingwould be dropped, all present would join in the meal, and the last goodstory or joke would pass around. In his notes Mr. Jehl says: "Our lunchalways ended with a cigar, and I may mention here that although Edisonwas never fastidious in eating, he always relished a good cigar, andseemed to find in it consolation and solace. . . . It often happened thatwhile we were enjoying the cigars after our midnight repast, one of theboys would start up a tune on the organ and we would all sing together, or one of the others would give a solo. Another of the boys had a voicethat sounded like something between the ring of an old tomato can anda pewter jug. He had one song that he would sing while we roared withlaughter. He was also great in imitating the tin-foil phonograph. . . . When Boehm was in good-humor he would play his zither now and then, andamuse us by singing pretty German songs. On many of these occasions thelaboratory was the rendezvous of jolly and convivial visitors, mostlyold friends and acquaintances of Mr. Edison. Some of the officeemployees would also drop in once in a while, and as everybody presentwas always welcome to partake of the midnight meal, we all enjoyedthese gatherings. After a while, when we were ready to resume work, ourvisitors would intimate that they were going home to bed, but we fellowscould stay up and work, and they would depart, generally singing somesong like Good-night, ladies! . . . It often happened that when Edisonhad been working up to three or four o'clock in the morning, he wouldlie down on one of the laboratory tables, and with nothing but a coupleof books for a pillow, would fall into a sound sleep. He said it didhim more good than being in a soft bed, which spoils a man. Some of thelaboratory assistants could be seen now and then sleeping on a table inthe early morning hours. If their snoring became objectionable to thosestill at work, the 'calmer' was applied. This machine consisted ofa Babbitt's soap box without a cover. Upon it was mounted a broadratchet-wheel with a crank, while into the teeth of the wheel thereplayed a stout, elastic slab of wood. The box would be placed on thetable where the snorer was sleeping and the crank turned rapidly. Theracket thus produced was something terrible, and the sleeper would jumpup as though a typhoon had struck the laboratory. The irrepressiblespirit of humor in the old days, although somewhat strenuous at times, caused many a moment of hilarity which seemed to refresh the boys, andenabled them to work with renewed vigor after its manifestation. " Mr. Upton remarks that often during the period of the invention of theincandescent lamp, when under great strain and fatigue, Edison would goto the organ and play tunes in a primitive way, and come back to crackjokes with the staff. "But I have often felt that Mr. Edison never couldcomprehend the limitations of the strength of other men, as his ownphysical and mental strength have always seemed to be without limit. He could work continuously as long as he wished, and had sleep at hiscommand. His sleep was always instant, profound, and restful. Hehas told me that he never dreamed. I have known Mr. Edison now forthirty-one years, and feel that he has always kept his mind direct andsimple, going straight to the root of troubles. One of the peculiaritiesI have noticed is that I have never known him to break into aconversation going on around him, and ask what people were talkingabout. The nearest he would ever come to it was when there had evidentlybeen some story told, and his face would express a desire to join in thelaugh, which would immediately invite telling the story to him. "

Next to those who worked with Edison at the laboratory and were withhim constantly at Menlo Park were the visitors, some of whom were hisbusiness associates, some of them scientific men, and some of themhero-worshippers and curiosity-hunters. Foremost in the first categorywas Mr. E. H. Johnson, who was in reality Edison's most intimate friend, and was required for constant consultation; but whose intense activity, remarkable grasp of electrical principles, and unusual powers ofexposition, led to his frequent detachment for long trips, includingthose which resulted in the introduction of the telephone, phonograph, and electric light in England and on the Continent. A less frequentvisitor was Mr. S. Bergmann, who had all he needed to occupy his timein experimenting and manufacturing, and whose contemporaneous WoosterStreet letter-heads advertised Edison's inventions as being made there, Among the scientists were Prof. George F. Barker, of Philadelphia, abig, good-natured philosopher, whose valuable advice Edison esteemedhighly. In sharp contrast to him was the earnest, serious Rowland, ofJohns Hopkins University, afterward the leading American physicist ofhis day. Profs. C. F. Brackett and C. F. Young, of Princeton University, were often received, always interested in what Edison was doing, andproud that one of their own students, Mr. Upton, was taking such aprominent part in the development of the work. 

Soon after the success of the lighting experiments and the installationat Menlo Park became known, Edison was besieged by persons from allparts of the world anxious to secure rights and concessions for theirrespective countries. Among these was Mr. Louis Rau, of Paris, whoorganized the French Edison Company, the pioneer Edison lightingcorporation in Europe, and who, with the aid of Mr. Batchelor, established lamp-works and a machine-shop at Ivry sur-Seine, near Paris, in 1882. It was there that Mr. Nikola Tesla made his entree into thefield of light and power, and began his own career as an inventor; andthere also Mr. Etienne Fodor, general manager of the Hungarian GeneralElectric Company at Budapest, received his early training. It was he whoerected at Athens the first European Edison station on the now universalthree-wire system. Another visitor from Europe, a little later, wasMr. Emil Rathenau, the present director of the great AllgemeineElektricitaets Gesellschaft of Germany. He secured the rights for theempire, and organized the Berlin Edison system, now one of the largestin the world. Through his extraordinary energy and enterprise thebusiness made enormous strides, and Mr. Rathenau has become one of themost conspicuous industrial figures in his native country. From Italycame Professor Colombo, later a cabinet minister, with his friend SignorBuzzi, of Milan. The rights were secured for the peninsula; Colombo andhis friends organized the Italian Edison Company, and erected at Milanthe first central station in that country. Mr. John W. Lieb, Jr. , nowa vice-president of the New York Edison Company, was sent over by Mr. Edison to steer the enterprise technically, and spent ten years inbuilding it up, with such brilliant success that he was later decoratedas Commander of the Order of the Crown of Italy by King Victor. Anotheryoung American enlisted into European service was Mr. E. G. Acheson, the inventor of carborundum, who built a number of plants in Italy andFrance before he returned home. Mr. Lieb has since become President ofthe American Institute of Electrical Engineers and the Association ofEdison Illuminating Companies, while Doctor Acheson has been Presidentof the American Electrochemical Society. 

Switzerland sent Messrs. Turrettini, Biedermann, and Thury, alldistinguished engineers, to negotiate for rights in the republic; andso it went with regard to all the other countries of Europe, as well asthose of South America. It was a question of keeping such visitors awayrather than of inviting them to take up the exploitation of the Edisonsystem; for what time was not spent in personal interviews was requiredfor the masses of letters from every country under the sun, all makinginquiries, offering suggestions, proposing terms. Nor were thevisitors merely those on business bent. There were the lion-hunters andcelebrities, of whom Sarah Bernhardt may serve as a type. One visitof note was that paid by Lieut. G. W. De Long, who had an earnest andprotracted conversation with Edison over the Arctic expedition he wasundertaking with the aid of Mr. James Gordon Bennett, of the New YorkHerald. The Jeannette was being fitted out, and Edison told De Longthat he would make and present him with a small dynamo machine, someincandescent lamps, and an arc lamp. While the little dynamo was beingbuilt all the men in the laboratory wrote their names on the paperinsulation that was wound upon the iron core of the armature. As theJeannette had no steam-engine on board that could be used for thepurpose, Edison designed the dynamo so that it could be worked by manpower and told Lieutenant De Long "it would keep the boys warm up in theArctic, " when they generated current with it. The ill-fated ship neverreturned from her voyage, but went down in the icy waters of the North, there to remain until some future cataclysm of nature, ten thousandyears hence, shall reveal the ship and the first marine dynamo ascurious relics of a remote civilization. 

Edison also furnished De Long with a set of telephones provided withextensible circuits, so that parties on the ice-floes could go longdistances from the ship and still keep in communication with her. Sofar as the writers can ascertain this is the first example of "fieldtelephony. " Another nautical experiment that he made at this time, suggested probably by the requirements of the Arctic expedition, was abuoy that was floated in New York harbor, and which contained a smallEdison dynamo and two or three incandescent lamps. The dynamo was drivenby the wave or tide motion through intermediate mechanism, and thus thelamps were lit up from time to time, serving as signals. These were theprototypes of the lighted buoys which have since become familiar, as inthe channel off Sandy Hook. 

One notable afternoon was that on which the New York board of aldermentook a special train out to Menlo Park to see the lighting systemwith its conductors underground in operation. The Edison ElectricIlluminating Company was applying for a franchise, and the aldermen, for lack of scientific training and specific practical information, werevery sceptical on the subject--as indeed they might well be. "Mr. Edisondemonstrated personally the details and merits of the system to them. The voltage was increased to a higher pressure than usual, and all theincandescent lamps at Menlo Park did their best to win the approbationof the New York City fathers. After Edison had finished exhibiting allthe good points of his system, he conducted his guests upstairs in thelaboratory, where a long table was spread with the best things that oneof the most prominent New York caterers could furnish. The laboratorywitnessed high times that night, for all were in the best of humor, and many a bottle was drained in toasting the health of Edison and thealdermen. " This was one of the extremely rare occasions on which Edisonhas addressed an audience; but the stake was worth the effort. Therepresentatives of New York could with justice drink the health of theyoung inventor, whose system is one of the greatest boons the city hasever had conferred upon it. 

Among other frequent visitors was Mr, Edison's father, "one of thoseamiable, patriarchal characters with a Horace Greeley beard, typicalAmericans of the old school, " who would sometimes come into thelaboratory with his two grandchildren, a little boy and girl called"Dash" and "Dot. " He preferred to sit and watch his brilliant son atwork "with an expression of satisfaction on his face that indicateda sense of happiness and content that his boy, born in that distant, humble home in Ohio, had risen to fame and brought such honor upon thename. It was, indeed, a pathetic sight to see a father venerate his sonas the elder Edison did. " Not less at home was Mr. Mackenzie, the Mt. Clemens station agent, the life of whose child Edison had saved whena train newsboy. The old Scotchman was one of the innocent, charteredlibertines of the place, with an unlimited stock of good jokes andstories, but seldom of any practical use. On one occasion, however, wheneverything possible and impossible under the sun was being carbonizedfor lamp filaments, he allowed a handful of his bushy red beard tobe taken for the purpose; and his laugh was the loudest when theEdison-Mackenzie hair lamps were brought up to incandescence--theirrichness in red rays being slyly attributed to the nature of thefilamentary material! Oddly enough, a few years later, some inventoractually took out a patent for making incandescent lamps with carbonizedhair for filaments!

Yet other visitors again haunted the place, and with the followingreminiscence of one of them, from Mr. Edison himself, this part of thechapter must close: "At Menlo Park one cold winter night there came intothe laboratory a strange man in a most pitiful condition. He was nearlyfrozen, and he asked if he might sit by the stove. In a few momentshe asked for the head man, and I was brought forward. He had a head ofabnormal size, with highly intellectual features and a very small andemaciated body. He said he was suffering very much, and asked if Ihad any morphine. As I had about everything in chemistry that could bebought, I told him I had. He requested that I give him some, so I gotthe morphine sulphate. He poured out enough to kill two men, when I toldhim that we didn't keep a hotel for suicides, and he had better cut thequantity down. He then bared his legs and arms, and they were literallypitted with scars, due to the use of hypodermic syringes. He said he hadtaken it for years, and it required a big dose to have any effect. I lethim go ahead. In a short while he seemed like another man and began totell stories, and there were about fifty of us who sat around listeninguntil morning. He was a man of great intelligence and education. Hesaid he was a Jew, but there was no distinctive feature to verifythis assertion. He continued to stay around until he finished everycombination of morphine with an acid that I had, probably ten ounces alltold. Then he asked if he could have strychnine. I had an ounce of thesulphate. He took enough to kill a horse, and asserted it had as good aneffect as morphine. When this was gone, the only thing I had left was achunk of crude opium, perhaps two or three pounds. He chewed this up anddisappeared. I was greatly disappointed, because I would have laid inanother stock of morphine to keep him at the laboratory. About a weekafterward he was found dead in a barn at Perth Amboy. "

Returning to the work itself, note of which has already been madein this and preceding chapters, we find an interesting and uniquereminiscence in Mr. Jehl's notes of the reversion to carbon as afilament in the lamps, following an exhibition of metallic-filamentlamps given in the spring of 1879 to the men in the syndicate advancingthe funds for these experiments: "They came to Menlo Park on a lateafternoon train from New York. It was already dark when they wereconducted into the machine-shop, where we had several platinum lampsinstalled in series. When Edison had finished explaining the principlesand details of the lamp, he asked Kruesi to let the dynamo machine run. It was of the Gramme type, as our first dynamo of the Edison designwas not yet finished. Edison then ordered the 'juice' to be turnedon slowly. To-day I can see those lamps rising to a cherry red, likeglowbugs, and hear Mr. Edison saying 'a little more juice, ' and thelamps began to glow. 'A little more' is the command again, and then oneof the lamps emits for an instant a light like a star in the distance, after which there is an eruption and a puff; and the machine-shop is intotal darkness. We knew instantly which lamp had failed, and Batchelorreplaced that by a good one, having a few in reserve near by. Theoperation was repeated two or three times with about the same results, after which the party went into the library until it was time to catchthe train for New York. "

Such an exhibition was decidedly discouraging, and it was not a jubilantparty that returned to New York, but: "That night Edison remained in thelaboratory meditating upon the results that the platinum lamp had givenso far. I was engaged reading a book near a table in the front, whileEdison was seated in a chair by a table near the organ. With his headturned downward, and that conspicuous lock of hair hanging loosely onone side, he looked like Napoleon in the celebrated picture, On theEve of a Great Battle. Those days were heroic ones, for he thenbattled against mighty odds, and the prospects were dim and not veryencouraging. In cases of emergency Edison always possessed a keenfaculty of deciding immediately and correctly what to do; and thedecision he then arrived at was predestined to be the turning-pointthat led him on to ultimate success. . . . After that exhibition we had ahouse-cleaning at the laboratory, and the metallic-filament lamps werestored away, while preparations were made for our experiments on carbonlamps. "

Thus the work went on. Menlo Park has hitherto been associated in thepublic thought with the telephone, phonograph, and incandescentlamp; but it was there, equally, that the Edison dynamo and system ofdistribution were created and applied to their specific purposes. Whileall this study of a possible lamp was going on, Mr. Upton was busycalculating the economy of the "multiple arc" system, and making a greatmany tables to determine what resistance a lamp should have for the bestresults, and at what point the proposed general system would fall offin economy when the lamps were of the lower resistance that was thengenerally assumed to be necessary. The world at that time had not theshadow of an idea as to what the principles of a multiple arc systemshould be, enabling millions of lamps to be lighted off distributingcircuits, each lamp independent of every other; but at Menlo Park atthat remote period in the seventies Mr. Edison's mathematician wasformulating the inventor's conception in clear, instructive figures;"and the work then executed has held its own ever since. " From thebeginning of his experiments on electric light, Mr. Edison had awell-defined idea of producing not only a practicable lamp, but alsoa SYSTEM of commercial electric lighting. Such a scheme involved thecreation of an entirely new art, for there was nothing on the face ofthe earth from which to draw assistance or precedent, unless we exceptthe elementary forms of dynamos then in existence. It is true, therewere several types of machines in use for the then very limited field ofarc lighting, but they were regarded as valueless as a part of a greatcomprehensive scheme which could supply everybody with light. Suchmachines were confessedly inefficient, although representing thefarthest reach of a young art. A commission appointed at that time bythe Franklin Institute, and including Prof. Elihu Thomson, investigatedthe merits of existing dynamos and reported as to the best of them: "TheGramme machine is the most economical as a means of converting motiveforce into electricity; it utilizes in the arc from 38 to 41 per cent. Of the motive work produced, after deduction is made for frictionand the resistance of the air. " They reported also that the Brush arclighting machine "produces in the luminous arc useful work equivalent to31 per cent. Of the motive power employed, or to 38 1/2 per cent. Afterthe friction has been deducted. " Commercial possibilities could notexist in the face of such low economy as this, and Mr. Edison realizedthat he would have to improve the dynamo himself if he wanted a bettermachine. The scientific world at that time was engaged in a controversyregarding the external and internal resistance of a circuit in whicha generator was situated. Discussing the subject Mr. Jehl, in hisbiographical notes, says: "While this controversy raged in thescientific papers, and criticism and confusion seemed at its height, Edison and Upton discussed this question very thoroughly, and Edisondeclared he did not intend to build up a system of distribution in whichthe external resistance would be equal to the internal resistance. He said he was just about going to do the opposite; he wanted a largeexternal resistance and a low internal one. He said he wanted to sellthe energy outside of the station and not waste it in the dynamo andconductors, where it brought no profits. . . . In these later days, whenthese ideas of Edison are used as common property, and are applied inevery modern system of distribution, it is astonishing to remember thatwhen they were propounded they met with most vehement antagonism fromthe world at large. " Edison, familiar with batteries in telegraphy, could not bring himself to believe that any substitute generator ofelectrical energy could be efficient that used up half its own possibleoutput before doing an equal amount of outside work. 

Undaunted by the dicta of contemporaneous science, Mr. Edison attackedthe dynamo problem with his accustomed vigor and thoroughness. He chosethe drum form for his armature, and experimented with different kindsof iron. Cores were made of cast iron, others of forged iron; and stillothers of sheets of iron of various thicknesses separated from eachother by paper or paint. These cores were then allowed to run in anexcited field, and after a given time their temperature was measured andnoted. By such practical methods Edison found that the thin, laminatedcores of sheet iron gave the least heat, and had the least amount ofwasteful eddy currents. His experiments and ideas on magnetism at thatperiod were far in advance of the time. His work and tests regardingmagnetism were repeated later on by Hopkinson and Kapp, who thenelucidated the whole theory mathematically by means of formulae andconstants. Before this, however, Edison had attained these results bypioneer work, founded on his original reasoning, and utilized them inthe construction of his dynamo, thus revolutionizing the art of buildingsuch machines. 

After thorough investigation of the magnetic qualities of differentkinds of iron, Edison began to make a study of winding the cores, first determining the electromotive force generated per turn of wire atvarious speeds in fields of different intensities. He also consideredvarious forms and shapes for the armature, and by methodical andsystematic research obtained the data and best conditions upon whichhe could build his generator. In the field magnets of his dynamo heconstructed the cores and yoke of forged iron having a very largecross-section, which was a new thing in those days. Great attention wasalso paid to all the joints, which were smoothed down so as to make aperfect magnetic contact. The Edison dynamo, with its large masses ofiron, was a vivid contrast to the then existing types with their meagrequantities of the ferric element. Edison also made tests on his fieldmagnets by slowly raising the strength of the exciting current, so thathe obtained figures similar to those shown by a magnetic curve, and inthis way found where saturation commenced, and where it was useless toexpend more current on the field. If he had asked Upton at the time toformulate the results of his work in this direction, for publication, hewould have anticipated the historic work on magnetism that was executedby the two other investigators; Hopkinson and Kapp, later on. 

The laboratory note-books of the period bear abundant evidence of thesystematic and searching nature of these experiments and investigations, in the hundreds of pages of notes, sketches, calculations, and tablesmade at the time by Edison, Upton, Batchelor, Jehl, and by others whofrom time to time were intrusted with special experiments toelucidate some particular point. Mr. Jehl says: "The experiments onarmature-winding were also very interesting. Edison had a number ofsmall wooden cores made, at both ends of which we inserted little brassnails, and we wound the wooden cores with twine as if it were wire on anarmature. In this way we studied armature-winding, and had matches whereeach of us had a core, while bets were made as to who would be the firstto finish properly and correctly a certain kind of winding. Care hadto be taken that the wound core corresponded to the direction of thecurrent, supposing it were placed in a field and revolved. After Edisonhad decided this question, Upton made drawings and tables from which thereal armatures were wound and connected to the commutator. To astudent of to-day all this seems simple, but in those days the artof constructing dynamos was about as dark as air navigation is atpresent. . . . Edison also improved the armature by dividing it and thecommutator into a far greater number of sections than up to that timehad been the practice. He was also the first to use mica in insulatingthe commutator sections from each other. "

In the mean time, during the progress of the investigations on thedynamo, word had gone out to the world that Edison expected to invent agenerator of greater efficiency than any that existed at the time. Againhe was assailed and ridiculed by the technical press, for had not theforemost electricians and physicists of Europe and America worked foryears on the production of dynamos and arc lamps as they then existed?Even though this young man at Menlo Park had done some wonderful thingsfor telegraphy and telephony; even if he had recorded and reproducedhuman speech, he had his limitations, and could not upset the settleddictum of science that the internal resistance must equal the externalresistance. 

Such was the trend of public opinion at the time, but "after Mr. Kruesihad finished the first practical dynamo, and after Mr. Upton had testedit thoroughly and verified his figures and results several times--for healso was surprised--Edison was able to tell the world that he had madea generator giving an efficiency of 90 per cent. " Ninety per cent. Asagainst 40 per cent. Was a mighty hit, and the world would not believeit. Criticism and argument were again at their height, while Upton, as Edison's duellist, was kept busy replying to private and publicchallenges of the fact. . . . "The tremendous progress of the world inthe last quarter of a century, owing to the revolution caused by theall-conquering march of 'Heavy Current Engineering, ' is the outcome ofEdison's work at Menlo Park that raised the efficiency of the dynamofrom 40 per cent. To 90 per cent. "

Mr. Upton sums it all up very precisely in his remarks upon this period:"What has now been made clear by accurate nomenclature was then veryfoggy in the text-books. Mr. Edison had completely grasped the effectof subdivision of circuits, and the influence of wires leading to suchsubdivisions, when it was most difficult to express what he knew intechnical language. I remember distinctly when Mr. Edison gave me theproblem of placing a motor in circuit in multiple arc with a fixedresistance; and I had to work out the problem entirely, as I couldfind no prior solution. There was nothing I could find bearing uponthe counter electromotive force of the armature, and the effect of theresistance of the armature on the work given out by the armature. It wasa wonderful experience to have problems given me out of the intuitionsof a great mind, based on enormous experience in practical work, andapplying to new lines of progress. One of the main impressions left uponme after knowing Mr. Edison for many years is the marvellous accuracy ofhis guesses. He will see the general nature of a result long before itcan be reached by mathematical calculation. His greatness was always tobe clearly seen when difficulties arose. They always made him cheerful, and started him thinking; and very soon would come a line of suggestionswhich would not end until the difficulty was met and overcome, or foundinsurmountable. I have often felt that Mr. Edison got himself purposelyinto trouble by premature publications and otherwise, so that he wouldhave a full incentive to get himself out of the trouble. "

This chapter may well end with a statement from Mr. Jehl, shrewd andobservant, as a participator in all the early work of the development ofthe Edison lighting system: "Those who were gathered around him in theold Menlo Park laboratory enjoyed his confidence, and he theirs. Nor wasthis confidence ever abused. He was respected with a respect which onlygreat men can obtain, and he never showed by any word or act that he wastheir employer in a sense that would hurt the feelings, as is often thecase in the ordinary course of business life. He conversed, argued, anddisputed with us all as if he were a colleague on the same footing. Itwas his winning ways and manners that attached us all so loyally to hisside, and made us ever ready with a boundless devotion to execute anyrequest or desire. " Thus does a great magnet, run through a heap of sandand filings, exert its lines of force and attract irresistibly to itselfthe iron and steel particles that are its affinity, and having siftedthem out, leaving the useless dust behind, hold them to itself withresponsive tenacity. 

CHAPTER XIII

A WORLD-HUNT FOR FILAMENT MATERIAL

IN writing about the old experimenting days at Menlo Park, Mr. F. R. Upton says: "Edison's day is twenty-four hours long, for he has alwaysworked whenever there was anything to do, whether day or night, andcarried a force of night workers, so that his experiments could go oncontinually. If he wanted material, he always made it a principle tohave it at once, and never hesitated to use special messengers to getit. I remember in the early days of the electric light he wanted amercury pump for exhausting the lamps. He sent me to Princeton to getit. I got back to Metuchen late in the day, and had to carry the pumpover to the laboratory on my back that evening, set it up, and work allnight and the next day getting results. "

This characteristic principle of obtaining desired material in thequickest and most positive way manifested itself in the search thatEdison instituted for the best kind of bamboo for lamp filaments, immediately after the discovery related in a preceding chapter. It isdoubtful whether, in the annals of scientific research and experiment, there is anything quite analogous to the story of this search and thevarious expeditions that went out from the Edison laboratory in 1880 andsubsequent years, to scour the earth for a material so apparently simpleas a homogeneous strip of bamboo, or other similar fibre. Prolongedand exhaustive experiment, microscopic examination, and an intimateknowledge of the nature of wood and plant fibres, however, had ledEdison to the conclusion that bamboo or similar fibrous filaments weremore suitable than anything else then known for commercial incandescentlamps, and he wanted the most perfect for that purpose. Hence, thequickest way was to search the tropics until the proper material wasfound. 

The first emissary chosen for this purpose was the late William H. Moore, of Rahway, New Jersey, who left New York in the summer of 1880, bound for China and Japan, these being the countries preeminently notedfor the production of abundant species of bamboo. On arrival in theEast he quickly left the cities behind and proceeded into the interior, extending his search far into the more remote country districts, collecting specimens on his way, and devoting much time to the study ofthe bamboo, and in roughly testing the relative value of its fibre incanes of one, two, three, four, and five year growths. Great bales ofsamples were sent to Edison, and after careful tests a certain varietyand growth of Japanese bamboo was determined to be the most satisfactorymaterial for filaments that had been found. Mr. Moore, who wascontinuing his searches in that country, was instructed to arrange forthe cultivation and shipment of regular supplies of this particularspecies. Arrangements to this end were accordingly made with a Japanesefarmer, who began to make immediate shipments, and who subsequentlydisplayed so much ingenuity in fertilizing and cross-fertilizing thatthe homogeneity of the product was constantly improved. The use of thisbamboo for Edison lamp filaments was continued for many years. 

Although Mr. Moore did not meet with the exciting adventures of somesubsequent explorers, he encountered numerous difficulties and novelexperiences in his many months of travel through the hinterland of Japanand China. The attitude toward foreigners thirty years ago was not asfriendly as it has since become, but Edison, as usual, had made a happychoice of messengers, as Mr. Moore's good nature and diplomacy attested. These qualities, together with his persistence and perseverance andfaculty of intelligent discrimination in the matter of fibres, helped tomake his mission successful, and gave to him the honor of being theone who found the bamboo which was adopted for use as filaments incommercial Edison lamps. 

Although Edison had satisfied himself that bamboo furnished the mostdesirable material thus far discovered for incandescent-lamp filaments, he felt that in some part of the world there might be found a naturalproduct of the same general character that would furnish a still moreperfect and homogeneous material. In his study of this subject, andduring the prosecution of vigorous and searching inquiries in variousdirections, he learned that Mr. John C. Brauner, then residing inBrooklyn, New York, had an expert knowledge of indigenous plants of theparticular kind desired. During the course of a geological survey whichhe had made for the Brazilian Government, Mr. Brauner had examinedclosely the various species of palms which grow plentifully in thatcountry, and of them there was one whose fibres he thought would be justwhat Edison wanted. 

Accordingly, Mr. Brauner was sent for and dispatched to Brazil inDecember, 1880, to search for and send samples of this and such otherpalms, fibres, grasses, and canes as, in his judgment, would be suitablefor the experiments then being carried on at Menlo Park. Landing atPara, he crossed over into the Amazonian province, and thence proceededthrough the heart of the country, making his way by canoe on the riversand their tributaries, and by foot into the forests and marshes ofa vast and almost untrodden wilderness. In this manner Mr. Braunertraversed about two thousand miles of the comparatively unknown interiorof Southern Brazil, and procured a large variety of fibrous specimens, which he shipped to Edison a few months later. When these fibres arrivedin the United States they were carefully tested and a few of them foundsuitable but not superior to the Japanese bamboo, which was then beingexclusively used in the manufacture of commercial Edison lamps. 

Later on Edison sent out an expedition to explore the wilds of Cuba andJamaica. A two months' investigation of the latter island revealed avariety of bamboo growths, of which a great number of specimens wereobtained and shipped to Menlo Park; but on careful test they were foundinferior to the Japanese bamboo, and hence rejected. The exploration ofthe glades and swamps of Florida by three men extended over a periodof five months in a minute search for fibrous woods of the palmettospecies. A great variety was found, and over five hundred boxes ofspecimens were shipped to the laboratory from time to time, but none ofthem tested out with entirely satisfactory results. 

The use of Japanese bamboo for carbon filaments was therefore continuedin the manufacture of lamps, although an incessant search was maintainedfor a still more perfect material. The spirit of progress, so pervasivein Edison's character, led him, however, to renew his investigationsfurther afield by sending out two other men to examine the bamboo andsimilar growths of those parts of South America not covered by Mr. Brauner. These two men were Frank McGowan and C. F. Hanington, bothof whom had been for nearly seven years in the employ of the EdisonElectric Light Company in New York. The former was a stocky, ruggedIrishman, possessing the native shrewdness and buoyancy of his race, coupled with undaunted courage and determination; and the latter wasa veteran of the Civil War, with some knowledge of forest and field, acquired as a sportsman. They left New York in September, 1887, arrivingin due time at Para, proceeding thence twenty-three hundred miles up theAmazon River to Iquitos. Nothing of an eventful nature occurred duringthis trip, but on arrival at Iquitos the two men separated; Mr. McGowanto explore on foot and by canoe in Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia, whileMr. Hanington returned by the Amazon River to Para. Thence Haningtonwent by steamer to Montevideo, and by similar conveyance up the Riverde la Plata and through Uruguay, Argentine, and Paraguay to thesouthernmost part of Brazil, collecting a large number of specimens ofpalms and grasses. 

The adventures of Mr. McGowan, after leaving Iquitos, would fill a bookif related in detail. The object of the present narrative and the spaceat the authors' disposal, however, do not permit of more than a briefmention of his experiences. His first objective point was Quito, aboutfive hundred miles away, which he proposed to reach on foot and by meansof canoeing on the Napo River through a wild and comparatively unknowncountry teeming with tribes of hostile natives. The dangers of theexpedition were pictured to him in glowing colors, but spurningprophecies of dire disaster, he engaged some native Indians and a canoeand started on his explorations, reaching Quito in eighty-seven days, after a thorough search of the country on both sides of the Napo River. From Quito he went to Guayaquil, from there by steamer to Buenaventura, and thence by rail, twelve miles, to Cordova. From this point he set outon foot to explore the Cauca Valley and the Cordilleras. 

Mr. McGowan found in these regions a great variety of bamboo, small andlarge, some species growing seventy-five to one hundred feet in height, and from six to nine inches in diameter. He collected a large numberof specimens, which were subsequently sent to Orange for Edison'sexamination. After about fifteen months of exploration attended by muchhardship and privation, deserted sometimes by treacherous guides, twicelaid low by fevers, occasionally in peril from Indian attacks, wildanimals and poisonous serpents, tormented by insect pests, endangeredby floods, one hundred and nineteen days without meat, ninety-eight dayswithout taking off his clothes, Mr. McGowan returned to America, brokenin health but having faithfully fulfilled the commission intrusted tohim. The Evening Sun, New York, obtained an interview with him at thattime, and in its issue of May 2, 1889, gave more than a page to a briefstory of his interesting adventures, and then commented editorially uponthem, as follows:

"A ROMANCE OF SCIENCE"

"The narrative given elsewhere in the Evening Sun of the wanderings ofEdison's missionary of science, Mr. Frank McGowan, furnishes a new proofthat the romances of real life surpass any that the imagination canframe. 

"In pursuit of a substance that should meet the requirements of theEdison incandescent lamp, Mr. McGowan penetrated the wilderness of theAmazon, and for a year defied its fevers, beasts, reptiles, and deadlyinsects in his quest of a material so precious that jealous Nature hashidden it in her most secret fastnesses. 

"No hero of mythology or fable ever dared such dragons to rescue somecaptive goddess as did this dauntless champion of civilization. Theseus, or Siegfried, or any knight of the fairy books might envy the victoriesof Edison's irresistible lieutenant. 

"As a sample story of adventure, Mr. McGowan's narrative is a marvel fitto be classed with the historic journeyings of the greatest travellers. But it gains immensely in interest when we consider that it succeeded inits scientific purpose. The mysterious bamboo was discovered, and largequantities of it were procured and brought to the Wizard's laboratory, there to suffer another wondrous change and then to light up ourpleasure-haunts and our homes with a gentle radiance. "

A further, though rather sad, interest attaches to the McGowan story, for only a short time had elapsed after his return to America when hedisappeared suddenly and mysteriously, and in spite of long-continuedand strenuous efforts to obtain some light on the subject, no clewor trace of him was ever found. He was a favorite among the Edison"oldtimers, " and his memory is still cherished, for when some of the"boys" happen to get together, as they occasionally do, some one isalmost sure to "wonder what became of poor 'Mac. '" He was last seen atMouquin's famous old French restaurant on Fulton Street, New York, wherehe lunched with one of the authors of this book and the late LutherStieringer. He sat with them for two or three hours discussing hiswonderful trip, and telling some fascinating stories of adventure. Thenthe party separated at the Ann Street door of the restaurant, aftermaking plans to secure the narrative in more detailed form forsubsequent use--and McGowan has not been seen from that hour to this. The trail of the explorer was more instantly lost in New York than inthe vast recesses of the Amazon swamps. 

The next and last explorer whom Edison sent out in search ofnatural fibres was Mr. James Ricalton, of Maplewood, New Jersey, aschool-principal, a well-known traveller, and an ardent student ofnatural science. Mr. Ricalton's own story of his memorable expedition isso interesting as to be worthy of repetition here:

"A village schoolmaster is not unaccustomed to door-rappings; for thesteps of belligerent mothers are often thitherward bent seeking redressfor conjured wrongs to their darling boobies. 

"It was a bewildering moment, therefore, to the Maplewood teacher when, in answering a rap at the door one afternoon, he found, instead of anirate mother, a messenger from the laboratory of the world's greatestinventor bearing a letter requesting an audience a few hours later. 

"Being the teacher to whom reference is made, I am now quite willing toconfess that for the remainder of that afternoon, less than a problemin Euclid would have been sufficient to disqualify me for the remainingscholastic duties of the hour. I felt it, of course, to be no smallhonor for a humble teacher to be called to the sanctum of Thomas A. Edison. The letter, however, gave no intimation of the nature of theobject for which I had been invited to appear before Mr. Edison. . . . 

"When I was presented to Mr. Edison his way of setting forth themission he had designated for me was characteristic of how a great mindconceives vast undertakings and commands great things in few words. Atthis time Mr. Edison had discovered that the fibre of a certain bambooafforded a very desirable carbon for the electric lamp, and the varietyof bamboo used was a product of Japan. It was his belief that in otherparts of the world other and superior varieties might be found, and tothat end he had dispatched explorers to bamboo regions in the valleysof the great South American rivers, where specimens were found ofextraordinary quality; but the locality in which these specimens werefound was lost in the limitless reaches of those great river-bottoms. The great necessity for more durable carbons became a desideratum sourgent that the tireless inventor decided to commission another explorerto search the tropical jungles of the Orient. 

"This brings me then to the first meeting of Edison, when he set forthsubstantially as follows, as I remember it twenty years ago, the purposefor which he had called me from my scholastic duties. With a quizzicalgleam in his eye, he said: 'I want a man to ransack all the tropicaljungles of the East to find a better fibre for my lamp; I expect it tobe found in the palm or bamboo family. How would you like that job?'Suiting my reply to his love of brevity and dispatch, I said, 'Thatwould suit me. ' 'Can you go to-morrow?' was his next question. 'Well, Mr. Edison, I must first of all get a leave of absence from my Board ofEducation, and assist the board to secure a substitute for the time ofmy absence. How long will it take, Mr. Edison?' 'How can I tell? Maybesix months, and maybe five years; no matter how long, find it. ' Hecontinued: 'I sent a man to South America to find what I want; he foundit; but lost the place where he found it, so he might as well never havefound it at all. ' Hereat I was enjoined to proceed forthwith to courtthe Board of Education for a leave of absence, which I did successfully, the board considering that a call so important and honorary was entitledto their unqualified favor, which they generously granted. 

"I reported to Mr. Edison on the following day, when he instructed me tocome to the laboratory at once to learn all the details of drawing andcarbonizing fibres, which it would be necessary to do in the Orientaljungles. This I did, and, in the mean time, a set of suitable tools forthis purpose had been ordered to be made in the laboratory. As soon asI learned my new trade, which I accomplished in a few days, Mr. Edisondirected me to the library of the laboratory to occupy a few days instudying the geography of the Orient and, particularly, in drawing mapsof the tributaries of the Ganges, the Irrawaddy, and the Brahmaputrarivers, and other regions which I expected to explore. 

"It was while thus engaged that Mr. Edison came to me one day and said:'If you will go up to the house' (his palatial home not far away) 'andlook behind the sofa in the library you will find a joint of bamboo, aspecimen of that found in South America; bring it down and make a studyof it; if you find something equal to that I will be satisfied. ' At thehome I was guided to the library by an Irish servant-woman, to whom Icommunicated my knowledge of the definite locality of the sample joint. She plunged her arm, bare and herculean, behind the aforementioned sofa, and holding aloft a section of wood, called out in a mood of discovery:'Is that it?' Replying in the affirmative, she added, under an impulseof innocent divination that whatever her wizard master laid hands uponcould result in nothing short of an invention, 'Sure, sor, and what's hegoing to invint out o' that?'

"My kit of tools made, my maps drawn, my Oriental geography reviewed, Icome to the point when matters of immediate departure are discussed; andwhen I took occasion to mention to my chief that, on the subject of lifeinsurance, underwriters refuse to take any risks on an enterprise sohazardous, Mr. Edison said that, if I did not place too high a valuationon my person, he would take the risk himself. I replied that I was bornand bred in New York State, but now that I had become a Jersey man I didnot value myself at above fifteen hundred dollars. Edison laughed andsaid that he would assume the risk, and another point was settled. Thenext matter was the financing of the trip, about which Mr. Edison askedin a tentative way about the rates to the East. I told him the expenseof such a trip could not be determined beforehand in detail, but that Ihad established somewhat of a reputation for economic travel, and thatI did not believe any traveller could surpass me in that respect. Hedesired no further assurance in that direction, and thereupon ordered aletter of credit made out with authorization to order a second when thefirst was exhausted. Herein then are set forth in briefest space thepreliminaries of a circuit of the globe in quest of fibre. 

"It so happened that the day on which I set out fell on Washington'sBirthday, and I suggested to my boys and girls at school that they makea line across the station platform near the school at Maplewood, and from this line I would start eastward around the world, and ifgood-fortune should bring me back I would meet them from the westward atthe same line. As I had often made them 'toe the scratch, ' for once theywere only too well pleased to have me toe the line for them. 

"This was done, and I sailed via England and the Suez Canal to Ceylon, that fair isle to which Sindbad the Sailor made his sixth voyage, picturesquely referred to in history as the 'brightest gem in theBritish Colonial Crown. ' I knew Ceylon to be eminently tropical; I knewit to be rich in many varieties of the bamboo family, which has beencalled the king of the grasses; and in this family had I most hope offinding the desired fibre. Weeks were spent in this paradisiacal isle. Every part was visited. Native wood craftsmen were offered a premium onevery new species brought in, and in this way nearly a hundred specieswere tested, a greater number than was found in any other country. Oneof the best specimens tested during the entire trip around the world wasfound first in Ceylon, although later in Burmah, it being indigenousto the latter country. It is a gigantic tree-grass or reed growing inclumps of from one to two hundred, often twelve inches in diameter, andone hundred and fifty feet high, and known as the giant bamboo (Bambusagigantia). This giant grass stood the highest test as a carbon, and onaccount of its extraordinary size and qualities I extend it this specialmention. With others who have given much attention to this remarkablereed, I believe that in its manifold uses the bamboo is the world'sgreatest dendral benefactor. 

"From Ceylon I proceeded to India, touching the great peninsula firstat Cape Comorin, and continuing northward by way of Pondicherry, Madura, and Madras; and thence to the tableland of Bangalore and the WesternGhauts, testing many kinds of wood at every point, but particularly thepalm and bamboo families. From the range of the Western Ghauts I went toBombay and then north by the way of Delhi to Simla, the summer capitalof the Himalayas; thence again northward to the headwaters of the SutlejRiver, testing everywhere on my way everything likely to afford thedesired carbon. 

"On returning from the mountains I followed the valleys of the Jumnaand the Ganges to Calcutta, whence I again ascended the Sub-Himalayas toDarjeeling, where the numerous river-bottoms were sprinkled plentifullywith many varieties of bamboo, from the larger sizes to dwarfed speciescovering the mountain slopes, and not longer than the grass of meadows. Again descending to the plains I passed eastward to the BrahmaputraRiver, which I ascended to the foot-hills in Assam; but finding nothingof superior quality in all this northern region I returned to Calcuttaand sailed thence to Rangoon, in Burmah; and there, finding no samplesgiving more excellent tests in the lower reaches of the Irrawaddy, I ascended that river to Mandalay, where, through Burmese bamboowiseacres, I gathered in from round about and tested all that theunusually rich Burmese flora could furnish. In Burmah the giant bamboo, as already mentioned, is found indigenous; but beside it no superiorvarieties were found. Samples tested at several points on the MalayPeninsula showed no new species, except at a point north of Singapore, where I found a species large and heavy which gave a test nearly equalto that of the giant bamboo in Ceylon. 

"After completing the Malay Peninsula I had planned to visit Java andBorneo; but having found in the Malay Peninsula and in Ceylon a bamboofibre which averaged a test from one to two hundred per cent. Betterthan that in use at the lamp factory, I decided it was unnecessary tovisit these countries or New Guinea, as my 'Eureka' had already beenestablished, and that I would therefore set forth over the returnhemisphere, searching China and Japan on the way. The rivers in SouthernChina brought down to Canton bamboos of many species, where thiswondrously utilitarian reed enters very largely into the industrial lifeof that people, and not merely into the industrial life, but even intothe culinary arts, for bamboo sprouts are a universal vegetablein China; but among all the bamboos of China I found none ofsuperexcellence in carbonizing qualities. Japan came next in thesuccession of countries to be explored, but there the work was muchsimplified, from the fact that the Tokio Museum contains a completeclassified collection of all the different species in the empire, andthere samples could be obtained and tested. 

"Now the last of the important bamboo-producing countries in the globecircuit had been done, and the 'home-lap' was in order; the broadPacific was spanned in fourteen days; my natal continent in six; andon the 22d of February, on the same day, at the same hour, at thesame minute, one year to a second, 'little Maude, ' a sweet maid of theschool, led me across the line which completed the circuit of the globe, and where I was greeted by the cheers of my boys and girls. I at oncereported to Mr. Edison, whose manner of greeting my return was ascharacteristic of the man as his summary and matter-of-fact manner of mydispatch. His little catechism of curious inquiry was embraced in foursmall and intensely Anglo-Saxon words--with his usual pleasant smile heextended his hand and said: 'Did you get it?' This was surely a summingof a year's exploration not less laconic than Caesar's review of hisGallic campaign. When I replied that I had, but that he must be thefinal judge of what I had found, he said that during my absence hehad succeeded in making an artificial carbon which was meeting therequirements satisfactorily; so well, indeed, that I believe nopractical use was ever made of the bamboo fibres thereafter. 

"I have herein given a very brief resume of my search for fibre throughthe Orient; and during my connection with that mission I was at alltimes not less astonished at Mr. Edison's quick perception of conditionsand his instant decision and his bigness of conceptions, than I hadalways been with his prodigious industry and his inventive genius. 

"Thinking persons know that blatant men never accomplish much, andEdison's marvellous brevity of speech along with his miraculousachievements should do much to put bores and garrulity out of fashion. "

Although Edison had instituted such a costly and exhaustive searchthroughout the world for the most perfect of natural fibres, he did notnecessarily feel committed for all time to the exclusive use of thatmaterial for his lamp filaments. While these explorations were inprogress, as indeed long before, he had given much thought to theproduction of some artificial compound that would embrace not only therequired homogeneity, but also many other qualifications necessary forthe manufacture of an improved type of lamp which had become desirableby reason of the rapid adoption of his lighting system. 

At the very time Mr. McGowan was making his explorations deep in SouthAmerica, and Mr. Ricalton his swift trip around the world, Edison, after much investigation and experiment, had produced a compound whichpromised better results than bamboo fibres. After some changes dictatedby experience, this artificial filament was adopted in the manufactureof lamps. No radical change was immediately made, however, but theproduct of the lamp factory was gradually changed over, during thecourse of a few years, from the use of bamboo to the "squirted"filament, as the new material was called. An artificial compound of onekind or another has indeed been universally adopted for the purposeby all manufacturers; hence the incandescing conductors in allcarbon-filament lamps of the present day are made in that way. The factremains, however, that for nearly nine years all Edison lamps (manymillions in the aggregate) were made with bamboo filaments, and many ofthem for several years after that, until bamboo was finally abandoned inthe early nineties, except for use in a few special types which were somade until about the end of 1908. The last few years have witnesseda remarkable advance in the manufacture of incandescent lamps in thesubstitution of metallic filaments for those of carbon. It will beremembered that many of the earlier experiments were based on the use ofstrips of platinum; while other rare metals were the subject of casualtrial. No real success was attained in that direction, and for manyyears the carbon-filament lamp reigned supreme. During the last fouror five years lamps with filaments made from tantalum and tungsten havebeen produced and placed on the market with great success, and are nowlargely used. Their price is still very high, however, as compared withthat of the carbon lamp, which has been vastly improved in methods ofconstruction, and whose average price of fifteen cents is only one-tenthof what it was when Edison first brought it out. 

With the close of Mr. McGowan's and Mr. Ricalton's expeditions, thereended the historic world-hunt for natural fibres. From start to finishthe investigations and searches made by Edison himself, and carried onby others under his direction, are remarkable not only from the factthat they entailed a total expenditure of about $100, 000, (disbursedunder his supervision by Mr. Upton), but also because of their uniqueinception and thoroughness they illustrate one of the strongest traitsof his character--an invincible determination to leave no stone unturnedto acquire that which he believes to be in existence, and which, whenfound, will answer the purpose that he has in mind. 

CHAPTER XIV

INVENTING A COMPLETE SYSTEM OF LIGHTING

IN Berlin, on December 11, 1908, with notable eclat, the seventiethbirthday was celebrated of Emil Rathenau, the founder of the greatAllgemein Elektricitaets Gesellschaft. This distinguished German, creator of a splendid industry, then received the congratulations of hisfellow-countrymen, headed by Emperor William, who spoke enthusiasticallyof his services to electro-technics and to Germany. In his interestingacknowledgment, Mr. Rathenau told how he went to Paris in 1881, and atthe electrical exhibition there saw the display of Edison's inventionsin electric lighting "which have met with as little proper appreciationas his countless innovations in connection with telegraphy, telephony, and the entire electrical industry. " He saw the Edison dynamo, and hesaw the incandescent lamp, "of which millions have been manufacturedsince that day without the great master being paid the tribute to hisinvention. " But what impressed the observant, thoroughgoing German wasthe breadth with which the whole lighting art had been elaborated andperfected, even at that early day. "The Edison system of lighting was asbeautifully conceived down to the very details, and as thoroughly workedout as if it had been tested for decades in various towns. Neithersockets, switches, fuses, lamp-holders, nor any of the other accessoriesnecessary to complete the installation were wanting; and the generatingof the current, the regulation, the wiring with distributing boxes, house connections, meters, etc. , all showed signs of astonishing skilland incomparable genius. "

Such praise on such an occasion from the man who introduced incandescentelectric lighting into Germany is significant as to the continuedappreciation abroad of Mr. Edison's work. If there is one thing modernGermany is proud and jealous of, it is her leadership in electricalengineering and investigation. But with characteristic insight, Mr. Rathenau here placed his finger on the great merit that has often beenforgotten. Edison was not simply the inventor of a new lamp and anew dynamo. They were invaluable elements, but far from all that wasnecessary. His was the mighty achievement of conceiving and executingin all its details an art and an industry absolutely new to the world. Within two years this man completed and made that art available in itsessential, fundamental facts, which remain unchanged after thirty yearsof rapid improvement and widening application. 

Such a stupendous feat, whose equal is far to seek anywhere in thehistory of invention, is worth studying, especially as the task willtake us over much new ground and over very little of the territoryalready covered. Notwithstanding the enormous amount of thought andlabor expended on the incandescent lamp problem from the autumn of1878 to the winter of 1879, it must not be supposed for one moment thatEdison's whole endeavor and entire inventive skill had been given to thelamp alone, or the dynamo alone. We have sat through the long watchesof the night while Edison brooded on the real solution of the swarmingproblems. We have gazed anxiously at the steady fingers of the deft andcautious Batchelor, as one fragile filament after another refused tostay intact until it could be sealed into its crystal prison and thereglow with light that never was before on land or sea. We have calculatedarmatures and field coils for the new dynamo with Upton, and held thestakes for Jehl and his fellows at their winding bees. We have seen themineral and vegetable kingdoms rifled and ransacked for substances thatwould yield the best "filament. " We have had the vague consciousness ofassisting at a great development whose evidences to-day on every handattest its magnitude. We have felt the fierce play of volcanic effort, lifting new continents of opportunity from the infertile sea, withoutany devastation of pre-existing fields of human toil and harvest. Butit still remains to elucidate the actual thing done; to reduce it toconcrete data, and in reducing, to unfold its colossal dimensions. 

The lighting system that Edison contemplated in this entirely newdeparture from antecedent methods included the generation of electricalenergy, or current, on a very large scale; its distribution throughoutextended areas, and its division and subdivision into small unitsconverted into light at innumerable points in every direction fromthe source of supply, each unit to be independent of every other andsusceptible to immediate control by the user. 

This was truly an altogether prodigious undertaking. We need notwonder that Professor Tyndall, in words implying grave doubt as to thepossibility of any solution of the various problems, said publicly thathe would much rather have the matter in Edison's hands than in his own. There were no precedents, nothing upon which to build or improve. Theproblems could only be answered by the creation of new devices andmethods expressly worked out for their solution. An electric lampanswering certain specific requirements would, indeed, be the key to thesituation, but its commercial adaptation required a multifarious varietyof apparatus and devices. The word "system" is much abused in invention, and during the early days of electric lighting its use applied to a merefreakish lamp or dynamo was often ludicrous. But, after all, nothingshort of a complete system could give real value to the lamp as aninvention; nothing short of a system could body forth the new art tothe public. Let us therefore set down briefly a few of the leading itemsneeded for perfect illumination by electricity, all of which were partof the Edison programme:

First--To conceive a broad and fundamentally correct method ofdistributing the current, satisfactory in a scientific sense andpractical commercially in its efficiency and economy. This meant, readymade, a comprehensive plan analogous to illumination by gas, with anetwork of conductors all connected together, so that in any given cityarea the lights could be fed with electricity from several directions, thus eliminating any interruption due to the disturbance on anyparticular section. 

Second--To devise an electric lamp that would give about the same amountof light as a gas jet, which custom had proven to be a suitable anduseful unit. This lamp must possess the quality of requiring only asmall investment in the copper conductors reaching it. Each lamp mustbe independent of every other lamp. Each and all the lights must beproduced and operated with sufficient economy to compete on a commercialbasis with gas. The lamp must be durable, capable of being easily andsafely handled by the public, and one that would remain capable ofburning at full incandescence and candle-power a great length of time. 

Third--To devise means whereby the amount of electrical energy furnishedto each and every customer could be determined, as in the case of gas, and so that this could be done cheaply and reliably by a meter at thecustomer's premises. 

Fourth--To elaborate a system or network of conductors capable of beingplaced underground or overhead, which would allow of being tapped at anyintervals, so that service wires could be run from the main conductorsin the street into each building. Where these mains went belowthe surface of the thoroughfare, as in large cities, there must beprotective conduit or pipe for the copper conductors, and these pipesmust allow of being tapped wherever necessary. With these conductors andpipes must also be furnished manholes, junction-boxes, connections, anda host of varied paraphernalia insuring perfect general distribution. 

Fifth--To devise means for maintaining at all points in an extended areaof distribution a practically even pressure of current, so that allthe lamps, wherever located, near or far away from the central station, should give an equal light at all times, independent of the number thatmight be turned on; and safeguarding the lamps against rupture by suddenand violent fluctuations of current. There must also be means for thusregulating at the point where the current was generated the quality orpressure of the current throughout the whole lighting area, with devicesfor indicating what such pressure might actually be at various points inthe area. 

Sixth--To design efficient dynamos, such not being in existence at thetime, that would convert economically the steam-power of high-speedengines into electrical energy, together with means for connecting anddisconnecting them with the exterior consumption circuits; means forregulating, equalizing their loads, and adjusting the number of dynamosto be used according to the fluctuating demands on the central station. Also the arrangement of complete stations with steam and electricapparatus and auxiliary devices for insuring their efficient andcontinuous operation. 

Seventh--To invent devices that would prevent the current from becomingexcessive upon any conductors, causing fire or other injury; alsoswitches for turning the current on and off; lamp-holders, fixtures, andthe like; also means and methods for establishing the interior circuitsthat were to carry current to chandeliers and fixtures in buildings. 

Here was the outline of the programme laid down in the autumn of 1878, and pursued through all its difficulties to definite accomplishment inabout eighteen months, some of the steps being made immediately, othersbeing taken as the art evolved. It is not to be imagined for one momentthat Edison performed all the experiments with his own hands. The methodof working at Menlo Park has already been described in these pagesby those who participated. It would not only have been physicallyimpossible for one man to have done all this work himself, in view ofthe time and labor required, and the endless detail; but most of theapparatus and devices invented or suggested by him as the art took shaperequired the handiwork of skilled mechanics and artisans of a high orderof ability. Toward the end of 1879 the laboratory force thus numbered atleast one hundred earnest men. In this respect of collaboration, Edisonhas always adopted a policy that must in part be taken to explain hismany successes. Some inventors of the greatest ability, dealing withideas and conceptions of importance, have found it impossible toorganize or even to tolerate a staff of co-workers, preferring solitaryand secret toil, incapable of team work, or jealous of any intrusionthat could possibly bar them from a full and complete claim to theresult when obtained. Edison always stood shoulder to shoulder with hisassociates, but no one ever questioned the leadership, nor was it everin doubt where the inspiration originated. The real truth is that Edisonhas always been so ceaselessly fertile of ideas himself, he has had morethan his whole staff could ever do to try them all out; he has soughtco-operation, but no exterior suggestion. As a matter of fact a greatmany of the "Edison men" have made notable inventions of their own, withwhich their names are imperishably associated; but while they were withEdison it was with his work that they were and must be busied. 

It was during this period of "inventing a system" that so muchsystematic and continuous work with good results was done by Edison inthe design and perfection of dynamos. The value of his contributionsto the art of lighting comprised in this work has never been fullyunderstood or appreciated, having been so greatly overshadowed byhis invention of the incandescent lamp, and of a complete system ofdistribution. It is a fact, however, that the principal improvements hemade in dynamo-electric generators were of a radical nature and remainin the art. Thirty years bring about great changes, especially in afield so notably progressive as that of the generation of electricity;but different as are the dynamos of to-day from those of the earlierperiod, they embody essential principles and elements that Edison thenmarked out and elaborated as the conditions of success. There was indeedprompt appreciation in some well-informed quarters of what Edison wasdoing, evidenced by the sensation caused in the summer of 1881, whenhe designed, built, and shipped to Paris for the first ElectricalExposition ever held, the largest dynamo that had been built up to thattime. It was capable of lighting twelve hundred incandescent lamps, andweighed with its engine twenty-seven tons, the armature alone weighingsix tons. It was then, and for a long time after, the eighth wonder ofthe scientific world, and its arrival and installation in Paris wereeagerly watched by the most famous physicists and electricians ofEurope. 

Edison's amusing description of his experience in shipping the dynamo toParis when built may appropriately be given here: "I built a very largedynamo with the engine directly connected, which I intended for theParis Exposition of 1881. It was one or two sizes larger than those Ihad previously built. I had only a very short period in which to get itready and put it on a steamer to reach the Exposition in time. After themachine was completed we found the voltage was too low. I had to devisea way of raising the voltage without changing the machine, which I didby adding extra magnets. After this was done, we tested the machine, andthe crank-shaft of the engine broke and flew clear across the shop. By working night and day a new crank-shaft was put in, and we only hadthree days left from that time to get it on board the steamer; and hadalso to run a test. So we made arrangements with the Tammany leader, andthrough him with the police, to clear the street--one of the New Yorkcrosstown streets--and line it with policemen, as we proposed to make aquick passage, and didn't know how much time it would take. About fourhours before the steamer had to get it, the machine was shut down afterthe test, and a schedule was made out in advance of what each man hadto do. Sixty men were put on top of the dynamo to get it ready, and eachman had written orders as to what he was to perform. We got it all takenapart and put on trucks and started off. They drove the horses with afire-bell in front of them to the French pier, the policemen liningthe streets. Fifty men were ready to help the stevedores get it on thesteamer--and we were one hour ahead of time. "

This Exposition brings us, indeed, to a dramatic and rather patheticparting of the ways. The hour had come for the old laboratory force thathad done such brilliant and memorable work to disband, never again toassemble under like conditions for like effort, although its members allremained active in the field, and many have ever since been associatedprominently with some department of electrical enterprise. The factwas they had done their work so well they must now disperse to showthe world what it was, and assist in its industrial exploitation. Inreality, they were too few for the demands that reached Edison fromall parts of the world for the introduction of his system; and in theemergency the men nearest to him and most trusted were those upon whomhe could best depend for such missionary work as was now required. The disciples full of fire and enthusiasm, as well as of knowledge andexperience, were soon scattered to the four winds, and the rapiditywith which the Edison system was everywhere successfully introduced istestimony to the good judgment with which their leader had originallyselected them as his colleagues. No one can say exactly just how thisprocess of disintegration began, but Mr. E. H. Johnson had already beensent to England in the Edison interests, and now the question arose asto what should be done with the French demands and the Paris ElectricalExposition, whose importance as a point of new departure in electricalindustry was speedily recognized on both sides of the Atlantic. It isvery interesting to note that as the earlier staff broke up, Edisonbecame the centre of another large body, equally devoted, but moreparticularly concerned with the commercial development of his ideas. Mr. E. G. Acheson mentions in his personal notes on work at the laboratory, that in December of 1880, while on some experimental work, he was calledto the new lamp factory started recently at Menlo Park, and therefound Edison, Johnson, Batchelor, and Upton in conference, and "Edisoninformed me that Mr. Batchelor, who was in charge of the construction, development, and operation of the lamp factory, was soon to sailfor Europe to prepare for the exhibit to be made at the ElectricalExposition to be held in Paris during the coming summer. " Thesepreparations overlap the reinforcement of the staff with some notableadditions, chief among them being Mr. Samuel Insull, whose interestingnarrative of events fits admirably into the story at this stage, andgives a vivid idea of the intense activity and excitement with which thewhole atmosphere around Edison was then surcharged: "I first met Edisonon March 1, 1881. I arrived in New York on the City of Chester aboutfive or six in the evening, and went direct to 65 Fifth Avenue. I hadcome over to act as Edison's private secretary, the position having beenobtained for me through the good offices of Mr. E. H. Johnson, whom Ihad known in London, and who wrote to Mr. U. H. Painter, of Washington, about me in the fall of 1880. Mr. Painter sent the letter on to Mr. Batchelor, who turned it over to Edison. Johnson returned to Americalate in the fall of 1880, and in January, 1881, cabled to me to cometo this country. At the time he cabled for me Edison was still at MenloPark, but when I arrived in New York the famous offices of the EdisonElectric Light Company had been opened at '65' Fifth Avenue, and Edisonhad moved into New York with the idea of assisting in the exploitationof the Light Company's business. 

"I was taken by Johnson direct from the Inman Steamship pier to 65 FifthAvenue, and met Edison for the first time. There were three rooms onthe ground floor at that time. The front one was used as a kind ofreception-room; the room immediately behind it was used as the office ofthe president of the Edison Electric Light Company, Major S. B. Eaton. The rear room, which was directly back of the front entrance hall, wasEdison's office, and there I first saw him. There was very little inthe room except a couple of walnut roller-top desks--which were verygenerally used in American offices at that time. Edison received me withgreat cordiality. I think he was possibly disappointed at my being soyoung a man; I had only just turned twenty-one, and had a very boyishappearance. The picture of Edison is as vivid to me now as if theincident occurred yesterday, although it is now more than twenty-nineyears since that first meeting. I had been connected with Edison'saffairs in England as private secretary to his London agent for abouttwo years; and had been taught by Johnson to look on Edison as thegreatest electrical inventor of the day--a view of him, by-the-way, which has been greatly strengthened as the years have rolled by. Owingto this, and to the fact that I felt highly flattered at the appointmentas his private secretary, I was naturally prepared to accept him as ahero. With my strict English ideas as to the class of clothes to be wornby a prominent man, there was nothing in Edison's dress to impress me. He wore a rather seedy black diagonal Prince Albert coat and waistcoat, with trousers of a dark material, and a white silk handkerchief aroundhis neck, tied in a careless knot falling over the stiff bosom of awhite shirt somewhat the worse for wear. He had a large wide-awakehat of the sombrero pattern then generally used in this country, and arough, brown overcoat, cut somewhat similarly to his Prince Albertcoat. His hair was worn quite long, and hanging carelessly over his fineforehead. His face was at that time, as it is now, clean shaven. He wasfull in face and figure, although by no means as stout as he has grownin recent years. What struck me above everything else was the wonderfulintelligence and magnetism of his expression, and the extreme brightnessof his eyes. He was far more modest than in my youthful picture of him. I had expected to find a man of distinction. His appearance, as a whole, was not what you would call 'slovenly, ' it is best expressed by the word'careless. '"

Mr. Insull supplements this pen-picture by another, bearing upon thehustle and bustle of the moment: "After a short conversation Johnsonhurried me off to meet his family, and later in the evening, abouteight o'clock, he and I returned to Edison's office; and I found myselflaunched without further ceremony into Edison's business affairs. Johnson had already explained to me that he was sailing the nextmorning, March 2d, on the S. S. Arizona, and that Mr. Edison wanted tospend the evening discussing matters in connection with his Europeanaffairs. It was assumed, inasmuch as I had just arrived from London, that I would be able to give more or less information on this subject. As Johnson was to sail the next morning at five o'clock, Edisonexplained that it would be necessary for him to have an understandingof European matters. Edison started out by drawing from his desk acheck-book and stating how much money he had in the bank; and he wantedto know what European telephone securities were most salable, ashe wished to raise the necessary funds to put on their feet theincandescent lamp factory, the Electric Tube works, and the necessaryshops to build dynamos. All through the interview I was tremendouslyimpressed with Edison's wonderful resourcefulness and grasp, and hisimmediate appreciation of any suggestion of consequence bearing on thesubject under discussion. 

"He spoke with very great enthusiasm of the work before him--namely, thedevelopment of his electric-lighting system; and his one idea seemed tobe to raise all the money he could with the object of pouring itinto the manufacturing side of the lighting business. I remember howextraordinarily I was impressed with him on this account, as I hadjust come from a circle of people in London who not only questioned thepossibility of the success of Edison's invention, but often expresseddoubt as to whether the work he had done could be called an invention atall. After discussing affairs with Johnson--who was receiving his finalinstructions from Edison--far into the night, and going down to thesteamer to see Johnson aboard, I finished my first night's businesswith Edison somewhere between four and five in the morning, feelingthoroughly imbued with the idea that I had met one of the great masterminds of the world. You must allow for my youthful enthusiasm, but youmust also bear in mind Edison's peculiar gift of magnetism, which hasenabled him during his career to attach so many men to him. I fell avictim to the spell at the first interview. "

Events moved rapidly in those days. The next morning, Tuesday, Edisontook his new fidus Achates with him to a conference with John Roach, thefamous old ship-builder, and at it agreed to take the AEtna Iron works, where Roach had laid the foundations of his fame and fortune. Theseworks were not in use at the time. They were situated on Goerck Street, New York, north of Grand Street, on the east side of the city, and there, very soon after, was established the first Edisondynamo-manufacturing establishment, known for many years as the EdisonMachine Works. The same night Insull made his first visit to Menlo Park. Up to that time he had seen very little incandescent lighting, for thesimple reason that there was very little to see. Johnson had had afew Edison lamps in London, lit up from primary batteries, as ademonstration; and in the summer of 1880 Swan had had a few serieslamps burning in London. In New York a small gas-engine plant was beingstarted at the Edison offices on Fifth Avenue. But out at Menlo Parkthere was the first actual electric-lighting central station, supplyingdistributed incandescent lamps and some electric motors by means ofunderground conductors imbedded in asphaltum and surrounded by a woodenbox. Mr. Insull says: "The system employed was naturally the two-wire, as at that time the three-wire had not been thought of. The lampswere partly of the horseshoe filament paper-carbon type, and partlybamboo-filament lamps, and were of an efficiency of 95 to 100 watts per16 c. P. I can never forget the impression that this first view of theelectric-lighting industry produced on me. Menlo Park must always belooked upon as the birthplace of the electric light and power industry. At that time it was the only place where could be seen an electriclight and power multiple arc distribution system, the operation of whichseemed as successful to my youthful mind as the operation of one of thelarge metropolitan systems to-day. I well remember about ten o'clockthat night going down to the Menlo Park depot and getting the stationagent, who was also the telegraph operator, to send some cable messagesfor me to my London friends, announcing that I had seen Edison'sincandescent lighting system in actual operation, and that so far as Icould tell it was an accomplished fact. A few weeks afterward I receiveda letter from one of my London friends, who was a doubting Thomas, upbraiding me for coming so soon under the spell of the 'Yankeeinventor. '"

It was to confront and deal with just this element of doubt in Londonand in Europe generally, that the dispatch of Johnson to England and ofBatchelor to France was intended. Throughout the Edison staff therewas a mingled feeling of pride in the work, resentment at the doubtsexpressed about it, and keen desire to show how excellent it was. Batchelor left for Paris in July, 1881--on his second trip to Europethat year--and the exhibit was made which brought such an instantaneousrecognition of the incalculable value of Edison's lighting inventions, as evidenced by the awards and rewards immediately bestowed upon him. Hewas made an officer of the Legion of Honor, and Prof. George F. Barkercabled as follows from Paris, announcing the decision of the expert jurywhich passed upon the exhibits: "Accept my congratulations. You havedistanced all competitors and obtained a diploma of honor, the highestaward given in the Exposition. No person in any class in which you werean exhibitor received a like reward. "

Nor was this all. Eminent men in science who had previously expressedtheir disbelief in the statements made as to the Edison system were nowforemost in generous praise of his notable achievements, and accordedhim full credit for its completion. A typical instance was M. Du Moncel, a distinguished electrician, who had written cynically about Edison'swork and denied its practicability. He now recanted publicly in thislanguage, which in itself shows the state of the art when Edison cameto the front: "All these experiments achieved but moderate success, andwhen, in 1879, the new Edison incandescent carbon lamp was announced, many of the scientists, and I, particularly, doubted the accuracy ofthe reports which came from America. This horseshoe of carbonizedpaper seemed incapable to resist mechanical shocks and to maintainincandescence for any considerable length of time. Nevertheless, Mr. Edison was not discouraged, and despite the active opposition made tohis lamp, despite the polemic acerbity of which he was the object, hedid not cease to perfect it; and he succeeded in producing the lampswhich we now behold exhibited at the Exposition, and are admired by allfor their perfect steadiness. "

The competitive lamps exhibited and tested at this time comprised thoseof Edison, Maxim, Swan, and Lane-Fox. The demonstration of Edison'ssuccess stimulated the faith of his French supporters, and renderedeasier the completion of plans for the Societe Edison Continental, ofParis, formed to operate the Edison patents on the Continent of Europe. Mr. Batchelor, with Messrs. Acheson and Hipple, and one or two otherassistants, at the close of the Exposition transferred their energiesto the construction and equipment of machine-shops and lamp factoriesat Ivry-sur-Seine for the company, and in a very short time theinstallation of plants began in various countries--France, Italy, Holland, Belgium, etc. 

All through 1881 Johnson was very busy, for his part, in England. Thefirst "Jumbo" Edison dynamo had gone to Paris; the second and thirdwent to London, where they were installed in 1881 by Mr. Johnson and hisassistant, Mr. W. J. Hammer, in the three-thousand-light central stationon Holborn Viaduct, the plant going into operation on January 12, 1882. Outside of Menlo Park this was the first regular station forincandescent lighting in the world, as the Pearl Street station in NewYork did not go into operation until September of the same year. Thishistoric plant was hurriedly thrown together on Crown land, and woulddoubtless have been the nucleus of a great system but for the passage ofthe English electric lighting act of 1882, which at once throttled theindustry by its absurd restrictive provisions, and which, thoughgreatly modified, has left England ever since in a condition of seriousinferiority as to development in electric light and power. The streetsand bridges of Holborn Viaduct were lighted by lamps turned on andoff from the station, as well as the famous City Temple of Dr. JosephParker, the first church in the world to be lighted by incandescentlamps--indeed, so far as can be ascertained, the first church to beilluminated by electricity in any form. Mr. W. J. Hammer, who suppliessome very interesting notes on the installation, says: "I well rememberthe astonishment of Doctor Parker and his associates when they noted thedifference of temperature as compared with gas. I was informed that thepeople would not go in the gallery in warm weather, owing to the greatheat caused by the many gas jets, whereas on the introduction of theincandescent lamp there was no complaint. " The telegraph operating-roomof the General Post-Office, at St. Martin's-Le Grand and Newgate Streetnearby, was supplied with four hundred lamps through the instrumentalityof Mr. (Sir) W. H. Preece, who, having been seriously sceptical as toMr. Edison's results, became one of his most ardent advocates, and didmuch to facilitate the introduction of the light. This station suppliedits customers by a network of feeders and mains of the standardunderground two-wire Edison tubing-conductors in sections of ironpipe--such as was used subsequently in New York, Milan, and othercities. It also had a measuring system for the current, employing theEdison electrolytic meter. Arc lamps were operated from its circuits, and one of the first sets of practicable storage batteries was usedexperimentally at the station. In connection with these batteriesMr. Hammer tells a characteristic anecdote of Edison: "A careless boypassing through the station whistling a tune and swinging carelessly ahammer in his hand, rapped a carboy of sulphuric acid which happened tobe on the floor above a 'Jumbo' dynamo. The blow broke the glass carboy, and the acid ran down upon the field magnets of the dynamo, destroyingthe windings of one of the twelve magnets. This accident happened whileI was taking a vacation in Germany, and a prominent scientific manconnected with the company cabled Mr. Edison to know whether the machinewould work if the coil was cut out. Mr. Edison sent the laconic reply:'Why doesn't he try it and see?' Mr. E. H. Johnson was kept busy notonly with the cares and responsibilities of this pioneer Englishplant, but by negotiations as to company formations, hearings beforeParliamentary committees, and particularly by distinguished visitors, including all the foremost scientific men in England, and a greatmany well-known members of the peerage. Edison was fortunate in beingrepresented by a man with so much address, intimate knowledge of thesubject, and powers of explanation. As one of the leading English paperssaid at the time, with equal humor and truth: 'There is but one Edison, and Johnson is his prophet. '"

As the plant continued in operation, various details and ideas ofimprovement emerged, and Mr. Hammer says: "Up to the time of theconstruction of this plant it had been customary to place a single-poleswitch on one wire and a safety fuse on the other; and the practice ofputting fuses on both sides of a lighting circuit was first used here. Some of the first, if not the very first, of the insulated fixtures wereused in this plant, and many of the fixtures were equipped with ballinsulating joints, enabling the chandeliers--or 'electroliers'--to beturned around, as was common with the gas chandeliers. This particulardevice was invented by Mr. John B. Verity, whose firm built many ofthe fixtures for the Edison Company, and constructed the notableelectroliers shown at the Crystal Palace Exposition of 1882. "

We have made a swift survey of developments from the time when thesystem of lighting was ready for use, and when the staff scattered tointroduce it. It will be readily understood that Edison did not sitwith folded hands or drop into complacent satisfaction the moment hehad reached the practical stage of commercial exploitation. He was notwilling to say "Let us rest and be thankful, " as was one of England'sgreat Liberal leaders after a long period of reform. On the contrary, hewas never more active than immediately after the work we have summedup at the beginning of this chapter. While he had been pursuing hisinvestigations of the generator in conjunction with the experimentson the incandescent lamp, he gave much thought to the question ofdistribution of the current over large areas, revolving in his mindvarious plans for the accomplishment of this purpose, and keeping hismathematicians very busy working on the various schemes that suggestedthemselves from time to time. The idea of a complete system had been inhis mind in broad outline for a long time, but did not crystallize intocommercial form until the incandescent lamp was an accomplished fact. Thus in January, 1880, his first patent application for a "System ofElectrical Distribution" was signed. It was filed in the Patent Office afew days later, but was not issued as a patent until August 30, 1887. Itcovered, fundamentally, multiple arc distribution, how broadly willbe understood from the following extracts from the New York ElectricalReview of September 10, 1887: "It would appear as if the entire fieldof multiple distribution were now in the hands of the owners of thispatent. . . . The patent is about as broad as a patent can be, beingregardless of specific devices, and laying a powerful grasp on thefundamental idea of multiple distribution from a number of generatorsthroughout a metallic circuit. "

Mr. Edison made a number of other applications for patents on electricaldistribution during the year 1880. Among these was the one covering thecelebrated "Feeder" invention, which has been of very great commercialimportance in the art, its object being to obviate the "drop" inpressure, rendering lights dim in those portions of an electric-lightsystem that were remote from the central station. [10]

 [Footnote 10: For further explanation of "Feeder" patent, see Appendix. ]

From these two patents alone, which were absolutely basic andfundamental in effect, and both of which were, and still are, put intoactual use wherever central-station lighting is practiced, the readerwill see that Mr. Edison's patient and thorough study, aided by his keenforesight and unerring judgment, had enabled him to grasp in advancewith a master hand the chief and underlying principles of a truesystem--that system which has since been put into practical use all overthe world, and whose elements do not need the touch or change of moremodern scientific knowledge. 

These patents were not by any means all that he applied for in theyear 1880, which it will be remembered was the year in which he wasperfecting the incandescent electric lamp and methods, to put into themarket for competition with gas. It was an extraordinarily busy year forMr. Edison and his whole force, which from time to time was increasedin number. Improvement upon improvement was the order of the day. Thatwhich was considered good to-day was superseded by something better andmore serviceable to-morrow. Device after device, relating to somepart of the entire system, was designed, built, and tried, only tobe rejected ruthlessly as being unsuitable; but the pursuit was notabandoned. It was renewed over and over again in innumerable ways untilsuccess had been attained. 

During the year 1880 Edison had made application for sixty patents, ofwhich thirty-two were in relation to incandescent lamps; seven coveredinventions relating to distributing systems (including the two aboveparticularized); five had reference to inventions of parts, suchas motors, sockets, etc. ; six covered inventions relating todynamo-electric machines; three related to electric railways, and sevento miscellaneous apparatus, such as telegraph relays, magnetic oreseparators, magneto signalling apparatus, etc. 

The list of Mr. Edison's patents (see Appendices) is not only a monumentto his life's work, but serves to show what subjects he has worked onfrom year to year since 1868. The reader will see from an examinationof this list that the years 1880, 1881, 1882, and 1883 were the mostprolific periods of invention. It is worth while to scrutinize this listclosely to appreciate the wide range of his activities. Not that hispatents cover his entire range of work by any means, for his note-booksreveal a great number of major and minor inventions for which he hasnot seen fit to take out patents. Moreover, at the period now describedEdison was the victim of a dishonest patent solicitor, who deprived himof a number of patents in the following manner:

"Around 1881-82 I had several solicitors attending to different classesof work. One of these did me a most serious injury. It was duringthe time that I was developing my electric-lighting system, and I wasworking and thinking very hard in order to cover all the numerous parts, in order that it would be complete in every detail. I filed a great manyapplications for patents at that time, but there were seventy-eight ofthe inventions I made in that period that were entirely lost to meand my company by reason of the dishonesty of this patent solicitor. Specifications had been drawn, and I had signed and sworn to theapplication for patents for these seventy-eight inventions, andnaturally I supposed they had been filed in the regular way. 

"As time passed I was looking for some action of the Patent Office, asusual, but none came. I thought it very strange, but had no suspicionsuntil I began to see my inventions recorded in the Patent Office Gazetteas being patented by others. Of course I ordered an investigation, andfound that the patent solicitor had drawn from the company the fees forfiling all these applications, but had never filed them. All the papershad disappeared, however, and what he had evidently done was to sellthem to others, who had signed new applications and proceeded to takeout patents themselves on my inventions. I afterward found that hehad been previously mixed up with a somewhat similar crooked job inconnection with telephone patents. 

"I am free to confess that the loss of these seventy-eight inventionshas left a sore spot in me that has never healed. They were important, useful, and valuable, and represented a whole lot of tremendous workand mental effort, and I had had a feeling of pride in having overcomethrough them a great many serious obstacles, One of these inventionscovered the multipolar dynamo. It was an elaborated form of the typecovered by my patent No. 219, 393 which had a ring armature. I modifiedand improved on this form and had a number of pole pieces placed allaround the ring, with a modified form of armature winding. I builtone of these machines and ran it successfully in our early days at theGoerck Street shop. 

"It is of no practical use to mention the man's name. I believe he isdead, but he may have left a family. The occurrence is a matter of theold Edison Company's records. "

It will be seen from an examination of the list of patents in theAppendix that Mr. Edison has continued year after year adding tohis contributions to the art of electric lighting, and in the lasttwenty-eight years--1880-1908--has taken out no fewer than three hundredand seventy-five patents in this branch of industry alone. These patentsmay be roughly tabulated as follows:

 Incandescent lamps and their manufacture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 Distributing systems and their control and regulation. . . . . . . 77 Dynamo-electric machines and accessories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Minor parts, such as sockets, switches, safety catches, meters, underground conductors and parts, etc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Quite naturally most of these patents cover inventions that are inthe nature of improvements or based upon devices which he had alreadycreated; but there are a number that relate to inventions absolutelyfundamental and original in their nature. Some of these have alreadybeen alluded to; but among the others there is one which is worthyof special mention in connection with the present consideration of acomplete system. This is patent No. 274, 290, applied for November 27, 1882, and is known as the "Three-wire" patent. It is described morefully in the Appendix. 

The great importance of the "Feeder" and "Three-wire" inventions will beapparent when it is realized that without them it is a question whetherelectric light could be sold to compete with low-priced gas, on accountof the large investment in conductors that would be necessary. If alarge city area were to be lighted from a central station by meansof copper conductors running directly therefrom to all parts of thedistrict, it would be necessary to install large conductors, or suffersuch a drop of pressure at the ends most remote from the station asto cause the lights there to burn with a noticeable diminution ofcandle-power. The Feeder invention overcame this trouble, and made itpossible to use conductors ONLY ONE-EIGHTH THE SIZE that would otherwisehave been necessary to produce the same results. 

A still further economy in cost of conductors was effected by the"Three-wire" invention, by the use of which the already diminishedconductors could be still further reduced TO ONE-THIRD of this smallersize, and at the same time allow of the successful operation of thestation with far better results than if it were operated exactly as atfirst conceived. The Feeder and Three-wire systems are at this day usedin all parts of the world, not only in central-station work, but in theinstallation and operation of isolated electric-light plants inlarge buildings. No sensible or efficient station manager or electriccontractor would ever think of an installation made upon any other plan. Thus Mr. Edison's early conceptions of the necessities of a completesystem, one of them made even in advance of practice, have stood firm, unimproved, and unchanged during the past twenty-eight years, a periodof time which has witnessed more wonderful and rapid progress inelectrical science and art than has been known during any similar art orperiod of time since the world began. 

It must be remembered that the complete system in all its parts is notcomprised in the few of Mr. Edison's patents, of which specific mentionis here made. In order to comprehend the magnitude and extent of hiswork and the quality of his genius, it is necessary to examine minutelythe list of patents issued for the various elements which go to make upsuch a system. To attempt any relation in detail of the conception andworking-out of each part or element; to enter into any description ofthe almost innumerable experiments and investigations that weremade would entail the writing of several volumes, for Mr. Edison'sclose-written note-books covering these subjects number nearly twohundred. 

It is believed that enough evidence has been given in this chapterto lead to an appreciation of the assiduous work and practical skillinvolved in "inventing a system" of lighting that would surpass, and toa great extent, in one single quarter of a century, supersede all theother methods of illumination developed during long centuries. But itwill be appropriate before passing on to note that on January 17, 1908, while this biography was being written, Mr. Edison became the fourthrecipient of the John Fritz gold medal for achievement in industrialprogress. This medal was founded in 1902 by the professional friendsand associates of the veteran American ironmaster and metallurgicalinventor, in honor of his eightieth birthday. Awards are made by a boardof sixteen engineers appointed in equal numbers from the four greatnational engineering societies--the American Society of CivilEngineers, the American Institute of Mining Engineers, the AmericanSociety of Mechanical Engineers, and the American Institute ofElectrical Engineers, whose membership embraces the very pick and flowerof professional engineering talent in America. Up to the time of theEdison award, three others had been made. The first was to Lord Kelvin, the Nestor of physics in Europe, for his work in submarine-cabletelegraphy and other scientific achievement. The second was to GeorgeWestinghouse for the air-brake. The third was to Alexander Graham Bellfor the invention and introduction of the telephone. The award to Edisonwas not only for his inventions in duplex and quadruplex telegraphy, andfor the phonograph, but for the development of a commercially practicalincandescent lamp, and the development of a complete system of electriclighting, including dynamos, regulating devices, underground system, protective devices, and meters. Great as has been the genius broughtto bear on electrical development, there is no other man to whom such acomprehensive tribute could be paid. 

CHAPTER XV

INTRODUCTION OF THE EDISON ELECTRIC LIGHT

IN the previous chapter on the invention of a system, the narrative hasbeen carried along for several years of activity up to the verge of thesuccessful and commercial application of Edison's ideas and devicesfor incandescent electric lighting. The story of any one year in thisperiod, if treated chronologically, would branch off in a great manydifferent directions, some going back to earlier work, others forward toarts not yet within the general survey; and the effect of such treatmentwould be confusing. In like manner the development of the Edisonlighting system followed several concurrent, simultaneous lines ofadvance; and an effort was therefore made in the last chapter to givea rapid glance over the whole movement, embracing a term of nearly fiveyears, and including in its scope both the Old World and the New. Whatis necessary to the completeness of the story at this stage is not torecapitulate, but to take up some of the loose ends of threads wovenin and follow them through until the clear and comprehensive picture ofevents can be seen. 

Some things it would be difficult to reproduce in any picture of the artand the times. One of the greatest delusions of the public in regardto any notable invention is the belief that the world is waiting for itwith open arms and an eager welcome. The exact contrary is the truth. There is not a single new art or device the world has ever enjoyed ofwhich it can be said that it was given an immediate and enthusiasticreception. The way of the inventor is hard. He can sometimes raisecapital to help him in working out his crude conceptions, but even thenit is frequently done at a distressful cost of personal surrender. Whenthe result is achieved the invention makes its appeal on the score ofeconomy of material or of effort; and then "labor" often awaits withcrushing and tyrannical spirit to smash the apparatus or forbid its veryuse. Where both capital and labor are agreed that the object is worthyof encouragement, there is the supreme indifference of the public toovercome, and the stubborn resistance of pre-existing devices to combat. The years of hardship and struggle are thus prolonged, the chagrinof poverty and neglect too frequently embitters the inventor's scantybread; and one great spirit after another has succumbed to the defeatbeyond which lay the procrastinated triumph so dearly earned. Even inAmerica, where the adoption of improvements and innovations is regardedas so prompt and sure, and where the huge tolls of the Patent Office andthe courts bear witness to the ceaseless efforts of the inventor, it isimpossible to deny the sad truth that unconsciously society discouragesinvention rather than invites it. Possibly our national optimism asrevealed in invention--the seeking a higher good--needs some check. Possibly the leaders would travel too fast and too far on the roadto perfection if conservatism did not also play its salutary part ininsisting that the procession move forward as a whole. 

Edison and his electric light were happily more fortunate than other menand inventions, in the relative cordiality of the reception given them. The merit was too obvious to remain unrecognized. Nevertheless, it wasthrough intense hostility and opposition that the young art made itsway, pushed forward by Edison's own strong personality and by hisunbounded, unwavering faith in the ultimate success of his system. Itmay seem strange that great effort was required to introduce a light somanifestly convenient, safe, agreeable, and advantageous, but thefacts are matter of record; and to-day the recollection of some of theepisodes brings a fierce glitter into the eye and keen indignation intothe voice of the man who has come so victoriously through it all. 

It was not a fact at any time that the public was opposed to the idea ofthe electric light. On the contrary, the conditions for its acceptancehad been ripening fast. Yet the very vogue of the electric arc lightmade harder the arrival of the incandescent. As a new illuminant for thestreets, the arc had become familiar, either as a direct substitutefor the low gas lamp along the sidewalk curb, or as a novel form ofmoonlight, raised in groups at the top of lofty towers often a hundredand fifty feet high. Some of these lights were already in use for largeindoor spaces, although the size of the unit, the deadly pressure ofthe current, and the sputtering sparks from the carbons made themhighly objectionable for such purposes. A number of parent arc-lightingcompanies were in existence, and a great many local companies hadbeen called into being under franchises for commercial business and toexecute regular city contracts for street lighting. In this manner agood deal of capital and the energies of many prominent men in politicsand business had been rallied distinctively to the support of arclighting. Under the inventive leadership of such brilliant men as Brush, Thomson, Weston, and Van Depoele--there were scores of others--theindustry had made considerable progress and the art had been firmlyestablished. Here lurked, however, very vigorous elements of opposition, for Edison predicted from the start the superiority of the smallelectric unit of light, and devoted himself exclusively to itsperfection and introduction. It can be readily seen that this situationmade it all the more difficult for the Edison system to secure the largesums of money needed for its exploitation, and to obtain new franchisesor city ordinances as a public utility. Thus in a curious manner themodern art of electric lighting was in a very true sense divided againstitself, with intense rivalries and jealousies which were none the lessreal because they were but temporary and occurred in a field whereultimate union of forces was inevitable. For a long period the arcwas dominant and supreme in the lighting branch of the electricalindustries, in all respects, whether as to investment, employees, income, and profits, or in respect to the manufacturing side. Whenthe great National Electric Light Association was formed in 1885, itsorganizers were the captains of arc lighting, and not a single Edisoncompany or licensee could be found in its ranks, or dared to solicitmembership. The Edison companies, soon numbering about three hundred, formed their own association--still maintained as a separate and usefulbody--and the lines were tensely drawn in a way that made it none tooeasy for the Edison service to advance, or for an impartial manto remain friendly with both sides. But the growing popularity ofincandescent lighting, the flexibility and safety of the system, theease with which other electric devices for heat, power, etc. , could beput indiscriminately on the same circuits with the lamps, in due courserendered the old attitude of opposition obviously foolish and untenable. The United States Census Office statistics of 1902 show that the incomefrom incandescent lighting by central stations had by that time becomeover 52 per cent. Of the total, while that from arc lighting was lessthan 29; and electric-power service due to the ease with which motorscould be introduced on incandescent circuits brought in 15 percent. More. Hence twenty years after the first Edison stations wereestablished the methods they involved could be fairly credited with noless than 67 per cent. Of all central-station income in the country, andthe proportion has grown since then. It will be readily understoodthat under these conditions the modern lighting company supplies to itscustomers both incandescent and arc lighting, frequently from the samedynamo-electric machinery as a source of current; and that the old feudas between the rival systems has died out. In fact, for some years pastthe presidents of the National Electric Light Association have beenchosen almost exclusively from among the managers of the great Edisonlighting companies in the leading cities. 

The other strong opposition to the incandescent light came from the gasindustry. There also the most bitter feeling was shown. The gas managerdid not like the arc light, but it interfered only with his streetservice, which was not his largest source of income by any means. Whatdid arouse his ire and indignation was to find this new opponent, thelittle incandescent lamp, pushing boldly into the field of interiorlighting, claiming it on a great variety of grounds of superiority, andcalmly ignoring the question of price, because it was so much better. Newspaper records and the pages of the technical papers of the dayshow to what an extent prejudice and passion were stirred up and theastounding degree to which the opposition to the new light was carried. 

Here again was given a most convincing demonstration of the truth thatsuch an addition to the resources of mankind always carries with itunsuspected benefits even for its enemies. In two distinct directionsthe gas art was immediately helped by Edison's work. The competition wasmost salutary in the stimulus it gave to improvements in processes formaking, distributing, and using gas, so that while vast economies havebeen effected at the gas works, the customer has had an infinitelybetter light for less money. In the second place, the coming of theincandescent light raised the standard of illumination in such a mannerthat more gas than ever was wanted in order to satisfy the populardemand for brightness and brilliancy both indoors and on the street. Theresult of the operation of these two forces acting upon it wholly fromwithout, and from a rival it was desired to crush, has been to increaseenormously the production and use of gas in the last twenty-fiveyears. It is true that the income of the central stations is now over$300, 000, 000 a year, and that isolated-plant lighting represents also alarge amount of diverted business; but as just shown, it would obviouslybe unfair to regard all this as a loss from the standpoint of gas. It isin great measure due to new sources of income developed by electricityfor itself. 

A retrospective survey shows that had the men in control of the Americangas-lighting art, in 1880, been sufficiently far-sighted, and had theytaken a broader view of the situation, they might easily have remaineddominant in the whole field of artificial lighting by securing theownership of the patents and devices of the new industry. Apparently nota single step of that kind was undertaken, nor probably was there a gasmanager who would have agreed with Edison in the opinion written downby him at the time in little note-book No. 184, that gas properties werehaving conferred on them an enhanced earning capacity. It was doubtlessfortunate and providential for the electric-lighting art that in itsstate of immature development it did not fall into the hands of menwho were opposed to its growth, and would not have sought its technicalperfection. It was allowed to carve out its own career, and thus escapedthe fate that is supposed to have attended other great inventions--ofbeing bought up merely for purposes of suppression. There is a vaguepopular notion that this happens to the public loss; but the truth isthat no discovery of any real value is ever entirely lost. It may beretarded; but that is all. In the case of the gas companies and theincandescent light, many of them to whom it was in the early days asgreat an irritant as a red flag to a bull, emulated the performance ofthat animal and spent a great deal of money and energy in bellowing andthrowing up dirt in the effort to destroy the hated enemy. This was notlong nor universally the spirit shown; and to-day in hundreds of citiesthe electric and gas properties are united under the one management, which does not find it impossible to push in a friendly and progressiveway the use of both illuminants. The most conspicuous example of thisidentity of interest is given in New York itself. 

So much for the early opposition, of which there was plenty. But it maybe questioned whether inertia is not equally to be dreaded with activeill-will. Nothing is more difficult in the world than to get a good manyhundreds of thousands or millions of people to do something they havenever done before. A very real difficulty in the introduction of hislamp and lighting system by Edison lay in the absolute ignorance ofthe public at large, not only as to its merits, but as to the veryappearance of the light, Some few thousand people had gone out to MenloPark, and had there seen the lamps in operation at the laboratory oron the hillsides, but they were an insignificant proportion of theinhabitants of the United States. Of course, a great many accountswere written and read, but while genuine interest was aroused it wasnecessarily apathetic. A newspaper description or a magazine articlemay be admirably complete in itself, with illustrations, but until somepersonal experience is had of the thing described it does not conveya perfect mental picture, nor can it always make the desire active andinsistent. Generally, people wait to have the new thing brought to them;and hence, as in the case of the Edison light, an educational campaignof a practical nature is a fundamental condition of success. 

Another serious difficulty confronting Edison and his associateswas that nowhere in the world were there to be purchased any of theappliances necessary for the use of the lighting system. Edison hadresolved from the very first that the initial central station embodyinghis various ideas should be installed in New York City, where he couldsuperintend the installation personally, and then watch the operation. Plans to that end were now rapidly maturing; but there would be neededamong many other things--every one of them new and novel--dynamos, switchboards, regulators, pressure and current indicators, fixturesin great variety, incandescent lamps, meters, sockets, small switches, underground conductors, junction-boxes, service-boxes, manhole-boxes, connectors, and even specially made wire. Now, not one of thesemiscellaneous things was in existence; not an outsider was sufficientlyinformed about such devices to make them on order, except perhaps thespecial wire. Edison therefore started first of all a lamp factory inone of the buildings at Menlo Park, equipped it with novel machinery andapparatus, and began to instruct men, boys, and girls, as they could beenlisted, in the absolutely new art, putting Mr. Upton in charge. 

With regard to the conditions attendant upon the manufacture of thelamps, Edison says: "When we first started the electric light we had tohave a factory for manufacturing lamps. As the Edison Light Companydid not seem disposed to go into manufacturing, we started a smalllamp factory at Menlo Park with what money I could raise from my otherinventions and royalties, and some assistance. The lamps at that timewere costing about $1. 25 each to make, so I said to the company: 'If youwill give me a contract during the life of the patents, I will make allthe lamps required by the company and deliver them for forty cents. ' Thecompany jumped at the chance of this offer, and a contract was drawnup. We then bought at a receiver's sale at Harrison, New Jersey, a verylarge brick factory building which had been used as an oil-cloth works. We got it at a great bargain, and only paid a small sum down, andthe balance on mortgage. We moved the lamp works from Menlo Park toHarrison. The first year the lamps cost us about $1. 10 each. We soldthem for forty cents; but there were only about twenty or thirtythousand of them. The next year they cost us about seventy cents, and wesold them for forty. There were a good many, and we lost more money thesecond year than the first. The third year I succeeded in getting upmachinery and in changing the processes, until it got down so that theycost somewhere around fifty cents. I still sold them for forty cents, and lost more money that year than any other, because the sales wereincreasing rapidly. The fourth year I got it down to thirty-seven cents, and I made all the money up in one year that I had lost previously. Ifinally got it down to twenty-two cents, and sold them for forty cents;and they were made by the million. Whereupon the Wall Street peoplethought it was a very lucrative business, so they concluded they wouldlike to have it, and bought us out. 

"One of the incidents which caused a very great cheapening was that, when we started, one of the important processes had to be done byexperts. This was the sealing on of the part carrying the filament intothe globe, which was rather a delicate operation in those days, andrequired several months of training before any one could seal in a fairnumber of parts in a day. When we got to the point where we employedeighty of these experts they formed a union; and knowing it wasimpossible to manufacture lamps without them, they became very insolent. One instance was that the son of one of these experts was employed inthe office, and when he was told to do anything would not do it, orwould give an insolent reply. He was discharged, whereupon the unionnotified us that unless the boy was taken back the whole body would goout. It got so bad that the manager came to me and said he could notstand it any longer; something had got to be done. They were not onlymore surly; they were diminishing the output, and it became impossibleto manage the works. He got me enthused on the subject, so I started into see if it were not possible to do that operation by machinery. Afterfeeling around for some days I got a clew how to do it. I then put menon it I could trust, and made the preliminary machinery. That seemed towork pretty well. I then made another machine which did the work nicely. I then made a third machine, and would bring in yard men, ordinarylaborers, etc. , and when I could get these men to put the parts togetheras well as the trained experts, in an hour, I considered the machinecomplete. I then went secretly to work and made thirty of the machines. Up in the top loft of the factory we stored those machines, and at nightwe put up the benches and got everything all ready. Then we dischargedthe office-boy. Then the union went out. It has been out ever since. 

"When we formed the works at Harrison we divided the interests into onehundred shares or parts at $100 par. One of the boys was hard up aftera time, and sold two shares to Bob Cutting. Up to that time we had neverpaid anything; but we got around to the point where the board declareda dividend every Saturday night. We had never declared a dividend whenCutting bought his shares, and after getting his dividends for threeweeks in succession, he called up on the telephone and wanted to knowwhat kind of a concern this was that paid a weekly dividend. The workssold for $1, 085, 000. "

Incidentally it may be noted, as illustrative of the problems broughtto Edison, that while he had the factory at Harrison an importer in theChinese trade went to him and wanted a dynamo to be run by hand power. The importer explained that in China human labor was cheaper than steampower. Edison devised a machine to answer the purpose, and put longspokes on it, fitted it up, and shipped it to China. He has not, however, heard of it since. 

For making the dynamos Edison secured, as noted in the precedingchapter, the Roach Iron Works on Goerck Street, New York, and thiswas also equipped. A building was rented on Washington Street, wheremachinery and tools were put in specially designed for making theunderground tube conductors and their various paraphernalia; and thefaithful John Kruesi was given charge of that branch of production. ToSigmund Bergmann, who had worked previously with Edison on telephoneapparatus and phonographs, and was already making Edison specialties ina small way in a loft on Wooster Street, New York, was assigned the taskof constructing sockets, fixtures, meters, safety fuses, and numerousother details. 

Thus, broadly, the manufacturing end of the problem of introduction wascared for. In the early part of 1881 the Edison Electric Light Companyleased the old Bishop mansion at 65 Fifth Avenue, close to FourteenthStreet, for its headquarters and show-rooms. This was one of the finesthomes in the city of that period, and its acquisition was a premonitorysign of the surrender of the famous residential avenue to commerce. Thecompany needed not only offices, but, even more, such an interior aswould display to advantage the new light in everyday use; and this housewith its liberal lines, spacious halls, lofty ceilings, wide parlors, and graceful, winding stairway was ideal for the purpose. In fact, inundergoing this violent change, it did not cease to be a home in thereal sense, for to this day many an Edison veteran's pulse is quickenedby some chance reference to "65, " where through many years the work ofdevelopment by a loyal and devoted band of workers was centred. HereEdison and a few of his assistants from Menlo Park installed immediatelyin the basement a small generating plant, at first with a gas-enginewhich was not successful, and then with a Hampson high-speed engine andboiler, constituting a complete isolated plant. The building was wiredfrom top to bottom, and equipped with all the appliances of the art. Theexperience with the little gas-engine was rather startling. "At an earlyperiod at '65' we decided, " says Edison, "to light it up with the Edisonsystem, and put a gas-engine in the cellar, using city gas. One day itwas not going very well, and I went down to the man in charge and gotexploring around. Finally I opened the pedestal--a storehouse for tools, etc. We had an open lamp, and when we opened the pedestal, it blew thedoors off, and blew out the windows, and knocked me down, and the otherman. "

For the next four or five years "65" was a veritable beehive, day andnight. The routine was very much the same as that at the laboratory, inits utter neglect of the clock. The evenings were not only devoted tothe continuance of regular business, but the house was thrown open tothe public until late at night, never closing before ten o'clock, so asto give everybody who wished an opportunity to see that great noveltyof the time--the incandescent light--whose fame had meanwhile beenspreading all over the globe. The first year, 1881, was naturally thatwhich witnessed the greatest rush of visitors; and the building hardlyever closed its doors till midnight. During the day business was carriedon under great stress, and Mr. Insull has described how Edison was tobe found there trying to lead the life of a man of affairs in theconventional garb of polite society, instead of pursuing inventions andresearches in his laboratory. But the disagreeable ordeal could not bedodged. After the experience Edison could never again be tempted to quithis laboratory and work for any length of time; but in this instancethere were some advantages attached to the sacrifice, for the crowds oflion-hunters and people seeking business arrangements would only havegone out to Menlo Park; while, on the other hand, the great plans forlighting New York demanded very close personal attention on the spot. 

As it was, not only Edison, but all the company's directors, officers, and employees, were kept busy exhibiting and explaining the light. Tothe public of that day, when the highest known form of house illuminantwas gas, the incandescent lamp, with its ability to burn in anyposition, its lack of heat so that you could put your hand on thebrilliant glass globe; the absence of any vitiating effect on theatmosphere, the obvious safety from fire; the curious fact that youneeded no matches to light it, and that it was under absolute controlfrom a distance--these and many other features came as a distinctrevelation and marvel, while promising so much additional comfort, convenience, and beauty in the home, that inspection was almostinvariably followed by a request for installation. 

The camaraderie that existed at this time was very democratic, for allwere workers in a common cause; all were enthusiastic believers in thedoctrine they proclaimed, and hoped to profit by the opening up ofthe new art. Often at night, in the small hours, all would adjourn forrefreshments to a famous resort nearby, to discuss the events of to-dayand to-morrow, full of incident and excitement. The easy relationship ofthe time is neatly sketched by Edison in a humorous complaint as to hisinability to keep his own cigars: "When at '65' I used to have in mydesk a box of cigars. I would go to the box four or five times to get acigar, but after it got circulated about the building, everybody wouldcome to get my cigars, so that the box would only last about a day anda half. I was telling a gentleman one day that I could not keep acigar. Even if I locked them up in my desk they would break it open. Hesuggested to me that he had a friend over on Eighth Avenue who made asuperior grade of cigars, and who would show them a trick. He said hewould have some of them made up with hair and old paper, and I could putthem in without a word and see the result. I thought no more about thematter. He came in two or three months after, and said: 'How did thatcigar business work?' I didn't remember anything about it. On coming toinvestigate, it appeared that the box of cigars had been delivered andhad been put in my desk, and I had smoked them all! I was too busy onother things to notice. "

It was no uncommon sight to see in the parlors in the evening JohnPierpont Morgan, Norvin Green, Grosvenor P. Lowrey, Henry Villard, Robert L. Cutting, Edward D. Adams, J. Hood Wright, E. G. Fabbri, R. M. Galloway, and other men prominent in city life, many of themstock-holders and directors; all interested in doing this educationalwork. Thousands of persons thus came--bankers, brokers, lawyers, editors, and reporters, prominent business men, electricians, insuranceexperts, under whose searching and intelligent inquiries the facts wereelicited, and general admiration was soon won for the system, which inadvance had solved so many new problems. Edison himself was in universalrequest and the subject of much adulation, but altogether too busy andmodest to be spoiled by it. Once in a while he felt it his duty to goover the ground with scientific visitors, many of whom were from abroad, and discuss questions which were not simply those of technique, butrelated to newer phenomena, such as the action of carbon, the natureand effects of high vacua; the principles of electrical subdivision; thevalue of insulation, and many others which, unfortunate to say, remainas esoteric now as they were then, ever fruitful themes of controversy. 

Speaking of those days or nights, Edison says: "Years ago one of thegreat violinists was Remenyi. After his performances were over he usedto come down to '65' and talk economics, philosophy, moral science, andeverything else. He was highly educated and had great mental capacity. He would talk with me, but I never asked him to bring his violin. Onenight he came with his violin, about twelve o'clock. I had a libraryat the top of the house, and Remenyi came up there. He was in a genialhumor, and played the violin for me for about two hours--$2000 worth. The front doors were closed, and he walked up and down the room as heplayed. After that, every time he came to New York he used to call at'65' late at night with his violin. If we were not there, he could comedown to the slums at Goerck Street, and would play for an hour or twoand talk philosophy. I would talk for the benefit of his music. Henry E. Dixey, then at the height of his 'Adonis' popularity, would come inin those days, after theatre hours, and would entertain us withstories--1882-84. Another visitor who used to give us a good deal ofamusement and pleasure was Captain Shaw, the head of the London FireBrigade. He was good company. He would go out among the fire-laddiesand have a great time. One time Robert Lincoln and Anson Stager, of theWestern Union, interested in the electric light, came on to make somearrangement with Major Eaton, President of the Edison Electric LightCompany. They came to '65' in the afternoon, and Lincoln commencedtelling stories--like his father. They told stories all the afternoon, and that night they left for Chicago. When they got to Cleveland, itdawned upon them that they had not done any business, so they hadto come back on the next train to New York to transact it. They wereinterested in the Chicago Edison Company, now one of the largest of thesystems in the world. Speaking of telling stories, I once got tellinga man stories at the Harrison lamp factory, in the yard, as he wasleaving. It was winter, and he was all in furs. I had nothing on toprotect me against the cold. I told him one story after the other--sixof them. Then I got pleurisy, and had to be shipped to Florida forcure. "

The organization of the Edison Electric Light Company went back to 1878;but up to the time of leasing 65 Fifth Avenue it had not been engagedin actual business. It had merely enjoyed the delights of anxiousanticipation, and the perilous pleasure of backing Edison's experiments. Now active exploitation was required. Dr. Norvin Green, the well-knownPresident of the Western Union Telegraph Company, was president also ofthe Edison Company, but the pressing nature of his regular dutiesleft him no leisure for such close responsible management as was nowrequired. Early in 1881 Mr. Grosvenor P. Lowrey, after consultation withMr. Edison, prevailed upon Major S. B. Eaton, the leading member ofa very prominent law firm in New York, to accept the position ofvice-president and general manager of the company, in which, as also insome of the subsidiary Edison companies, and as president, he continuedactively and energetically for nearly four years, a critical, formativeperiod in which the solidity of the foundation laid is attested by themagnitude and splendor of the superstructure. 

The fact that Edison conferred at this point with Mr. Lowrey should, perhaps, be explained in justice to the distinguished lawyer, who for somany years was the close friend of the inventor, and the chief counselin all the tremendous litigation that followed the effort to enforce andvalidate the Edison patents. As in England Mr. Edison was fortunate insecuring the legal assistance of Sir Richard Webster, afterward LordChief Justice of England, so in America it counted greatly in his favorto enjoy the advocacy of such a man as Lowrey, prominent among thefamous leaders of the New York bar. Born in Massachusetts, Mr. Lowrey, in his earlier days of straitened circumstances, was accustomed todefray some portion of his educational expenses by teaching music in theBerkshire villages, and by a curious coincidence one of his pupilswas F. L. Pope, later Edison's partner for a time. Lowrey went West to"Bleeding Kansas" with the first Governor, Reeder, and both were activeparticipants in the exciting scenes of the "Free State" war until drivenaway in 1856, like many other free-soilers, by the acts of the "BorderRuffian" legislature. Returning East, Mr. Lowrey took up practice in NewYork, soon becoming eminent in his profession, and upon the accession ofWilliam Orton to the presidency of the Western Union Telegraph Companyin 1866, he was appointed its general counsel, the duties of which posthe discharged for fifteen years. One of the great cases in which hethus took a leading and distinguished part was that of the quadruplextelegraph; and later he acted as legal adviser to Henry Villard in hisnumerous grandiose enterprises. Lowrey thus came to know Edison, toconceive an intense admiration for him, and to believe in his abilityat a time when others could not detect the fire of genius smoulderingbeneath the modest exterior of a gaunt young operator slowly"finding himself. " It will be seen that Mr Lowrey was in a peculiarlyadvantageous position to make his convictions about Edison felt, sothat it was he and his friends who rallied quickly to the new bannerof discovery, and lent to the inventor the aid that came at a criticalperiod. In this connection it may be well to quote an article thatappeared at the time of Mr. Lowrey's death, in 1893: "One of the mostimportant services which Mr. Lowrey has ever performed was in furnishingand procuring the necessary financial backing for Thomas A. Edison inbringing out and perfecting his system of incandescent lighting. Withcharacteristic pertinacity, Mr. Lowrey stood by the inventor throughthick and thin, in spite of doubt, discouragement, and ridicule, untilat last success crowned his efforts. In all the litigation which hasresulted from the wide-spread infringements of the Edison patents, Mr. Lowrey has ever borne the burden and heat of the day, and perhaps inno other field has he so personally distinguished himself as in thesuccessful advocacy of the claims of Edison to the invention of theincandescent lamp and everything 'hereunto pertaining. '"

This was the man of whom Edison had necessarily to make a confidant andadviser, and who supplied other things besides the legal direction andfinancial alliance, by his knowledge of the world and of affairs. Therewere many vital things to be done in the exploitation of the system thatEdison simply could not and would not do; but in Lowrey's savoir faire, ready wit and humor, chivalry of devotion, graceful eloquence, andadmirable equipoise of judgment were all the qualities that the occasiondemanded and that met the exigencies. 

We are indebted to Mr. Insull for a graphic sketch of Edison at thisperiod, and of the conditions under which work was done and progress wasmade: "I do not think I had any understanding with Edison when I firstwent with him as to my duties. I did whatever he told me, and lookedafter all kinds of affairs, from buying his clothes to financing hisbusiness. I used to open the correspondence and answer it all, sometimessigning Edison's name with my initial, and sometimes signing my ownname. If the latter course was pursued, and I was addressing a stranger, I would sign as Edison's private secretary. I held his power ofattorney, and signed his checks. It was seldom that Edison signeda letter or check at this time. If he wanted personally to send acommunication to anybody, if it was one of his close associates, itwould probably be a pencil memorandum signed 'Edison. ' I was a shorthandwriter, but seldom took down from Edison's dictation, unless it was onsome technical subject that I did not understand. I would go overthe correspondence with Edison, sometimes making a marginal note inshorthand, and sometimes Edison would make his own notes on letters, andI would be expected to clean up the correspondence with Edison's laconiccomments as a guide as to the character of answer to make. It was a verycommon thing for Edison to write the words 'Yes' or 'No, ' and this wouldbe all I had on which to base my answer. Edison marginalized documentsextensively. He had a wonderful ability in pointing out the weak pointsof an agreement or a balance-sheet, all the while protesting he was nolawyer or accountant; and his views were expressed in very few words, but in a characteristic and emphatic manner. 

"The first few months I was with Edison he spent most of the time in theoffice at 65 Fifth Avenue. Then there was a great deal of trouble withthe life of the lamps there, and he disappeared from the office andspent his time largely at Menlo Park. At another time there was a greatdeal of trouble with some of the details of construction of the dynamos, and Edison spent a lot of time at Goerck Street, which had been rapidlyequipped with the idea of turning out bi-polar dynamo-electric machines, direct-connected to the engine, the first of which went to Paris andLondon, while the next were installed in the old Pearl Street stationof the Edison Electric Illuminating Company of New York, just south ofFulton Street, on the west side of the street. Edison devoted a greatdeal of his time to the engineering work in connection with the layingout of the first incandescent electric-lighting system in New York. Apparently at that time--between the end of 1881 and spring of 1882--themost serious work was the manufacture and installation of undergroundconductors in this territory. These conductors were manufactured bythe Electric Tube Company, which Edison controlled in a shop at 65Washington Street, run by John Kruesi. Half-round copper conductors wereused, kept in place relatively to each other and in the tube, first ofall by a heavy piece of cardboard, and later on by a rope; and then putin a twenty-foot iron pipe; and a combination of asphaltum and linseedoil was forced into the pipe for the insulation. I remember as acoincidence that the building was only twenty feet wide. These lengthsof conductors were twenty feet six inches long, as the half-roundcoppers extended three inches beyond the drag-ends of the lengths ofpipe; and in one of the operations we used to take the length of tubingout of the window in order to turn it around. I was elected secretary ofthe Electric Tube Company, and was expected to look after its finance;and it was in this position that my long intimacy with John Kruesistarted. "

At this juncture a large part of the correspondence referred verynaturally to electric lighting, embodying requests for all kinds ofinformation, catalogues, prices, terms, etc. ; and all these letters wereturned over to the lighting company by Edison for attention. The companywas soon swamped with propositions for sale of territorial rights andwith other negotiations, and some of these were accompanied by the offerof very large sums of money. It was the beginning of the electric-lightfuror which soon rose to sensational heights. Had the company acceptedthe cash offers from various localities, it could have gathered severalmillions of dollars at once into its treasury; but this was not atall in accord with Mr. Edison's idea, which was to prove by actualexperience the commercial value of the system, and then to licensecentral-station companies in large cities and towns, the parent companytaking a percentage of their capital for the license under the Edisonpatents, and contracting also for the supply of apparatus, lamps, etc. This left the remainder of the country open for the cash sale of plantswherever requested. His counsels prevailed, and the wisdom of the policyadopted was seen in the swift establishment of Edison companies incentres of population both great and small, whose business has ever beena constant and growing source of income for the parent manufacturinginterests. 

From first to last Edison has been an exponent and advocate of thecentral-station idea of distribution now so familiar to the public mind, but still very far from being carried out to its logical conclusion. In this instance, demands for isolated plants for lighting factories, mills, mines, hotels, etc. , began to pour in, and something had to bedone with them. This was a class of plant which the inquirers desired topurchase outright and operate themselves, usually because of remotenessfrom any possible source of general supply of current. It had not beenEdison's intention to cater to this class of customer until his broadcentral-station plan had been worked out, and he has always discouragedthe isolated plant within the limits of urban circuits; but this demandwas so insistent it could not be denied, and it was deemed desirable tocomply with it at once, especially as it was seen that the steady callfor supplies and renewals would benefit the new Edison manufacturingplants. After a very short trial, it was found necessary to createa separate organization for this branch of the industry, leaving theEdison Electric Light Company to continue under the original plan ofoperation as a parent, patent-holding and licensing company. Accordinglya new and distinct corporation was formed called the Edison Company forIsolated Lighting, to which was issued a special license to sell andoperate plants of a self-contained character. As a matter of fact suchwork began in advance of almost every other kind. A small plant usingthe paper-carbon filament lamps was furnished by Edison at the earnestsolicitation of Mr. Henry Villard for the steamship Columbia, in 1879, and it is amusing to note that Mr. Upton carried the lamps himselfto the ship, very tenderly and jealously, like fresh eggs, in amarket-garden basket. The installation was most successful. Anotherpioneer plant was that equipped and started in January, 1881, for Hinds& Ketcham, a New York firm of lithographers and color printers, whohad previously been able to work only by day, owing to difficulties incolor-printing by artificial light. A year later they said: "It is thebest substitute for daylight we have ever known, and almost as cheap. "

Mr. Edison himself describes various instances in which the demand forisolated plants had to be met: "One night at '65, '" he says, "JamesGordon Bennett came in. We were very anxious to get into a printingestablishment. I had caused a printer's composing case to be set up withthe idea that if we could get editors and publishers in to see it, weshould show them the advantages of the electric light. So ultimatelyMr. Bennett came, and after seeing the whole operation of everything, he ordered Mr. Howland, general manager of the Herald, to light thenewspaper offices up at once with electricity. "

Another instance of the same kind deals with the introduction of thelight for purely social purposes: "While at 65 Fifth Avenue, " remarksMr. Edison, "I got to know Christian Herter, then the largest decoratorin the United States. He was a highly intellectual man, and I loved totalk to him. He was always railing against the rich people, for whomhe did work, for their poor taste. One day Mr. W. H. Vanderbilt cameto '65, ' saw the light, and decided that he would have his new houselighted with it. This was one of the big 'box houses' on upper FifthAvenue. He put the whole matter in the hands of his son-in-law, Mr. H. McK. Twombly, who was then in charge of the telephone department ofthe Western Union. Twombly closed the contract with us for a plant. Mr. Herter was doing the decoration, and it was extraordinarily fine. Aftera while we got the engines and boilers and wires all done, and thelights in position, before the house was quite finished, and thought wewould have an exhibit of the light. About eight o'clock in the eveningwe lit up, and it was very good. Mr. Vanderbilt and his wife and someof his daughters came in, and were there a few minutes when a fireoccurred. The large picture-gallery was lined with silk cloth interwovenwith fine metallic thread. In some manner two wires had got crossed withthis tinsel, which became red-hot, and the whole mass was soon afire. Iknew what was the matter, and ordered them to run down and shut off. It had not burst into flame, and died out immediately. Mrs. Vanderbiltbecame hysterical, and wanted to know where it came from. We told her wehad the plant in the cellar, and when she learned we had a boiler thereshe said she would not occupy the house. She would not live over aboiler. We had to take the whole installation out. The houses afterwardwent onto the New York Edison system. "

The art was, however, very crude and raw, and as there were no artisansin existence as mechanics or electricians who had any knowledge of thepractice, there was inconceivable difficulty in getting such isolatedplants installed, as well as wiring the buildings in the district to becovered by the first central station in New York. A night school was, therefore, founded at Fifth Avenue, and was put in charge of Mr. E. H. Johnson, fresh from his successes in England. The most available men forthe purpose were, of course, those who had been accustomed to wiringfor the simpler electrical systems then in vogue--telephones, district-messenger calls, burglar alarms, house annunciators, etc. , anda number of these "wiremen" were engaged and instructed patiently inthe rudiments of the new art by means of a blackboard and oral lessons. Students from the technical schools and colleges were also eagerrecruits, for here was something that promised a career, and one thatwas especially alluring to youth because of its novelty. These beginnerswere also instructed in general engineering problems under the guidanceof Mr. C. L. Clarke, who was brought in from the Menlo Park laboratoryto assume charge of the engineering part of the company's affairs. Many of these pioneer students and workmen became afterward large andsuccessful contractors, or have filled positions of distinctionas managers and superintendents of central stations. Possibly theelectrical industry may not now attract as much adventurous genius as itdid then, for automobiles, aeronautics, and other new arts have cometo the front in a quarter of a century to enlist the enthusiasm of ayounger generation of mercurial spirits; but it is certain that at theperiod of which we write, Edison himself, still under thirty-five, wasthe centre of an extraordinary group of men, full of effervescing andaspiring talent, to which he gave glorious opportunity. 

A very novel literary feature of the work was the issuance of a bulletindevoted entirely to the Edison lighting propaganda. Nowadays the"house organ, " as it is called, has become a very hackneyed featureof industrial development, confusing in its variety and volume, anda somewhat doubtful adjunct to a highly perfected, widely circulatingperiodical technical press. But at that time, 1882, the Bulletin ofthe Edison Electric Light Company, published in ordinary 12mo form, wasdistinctly new in advertising and possibly unique, as it is difficultto find anything that compared with it. The Bulletin was carried on forsome years, until its necessity was removed by the development of otheropportunities for reaching the public; and its pages serve now as avivid and lively picture of the period to which its record applies. Thefirst issue, of January 12, 1882, was only four pages, but it dealtwith the question of insurance; plants at Santiago, Chili, and Rio deJaneiro; the European Company with 3, 500, 000 francs subscribed; the workin Paris, London, Strasburg, and Moscow; the laying of over six miles ofstreet mains in New York; a patent decision in favor of Edison; and thesize of safety catch wire. By April of 1882, the Bulletin had attainedthe respectable size of sixteen pages; and in December it was a portlymagazine of forty-eight. Every item bears testimony to the rapidprogress being made; and by the end of 1882 it is seen that no fewerthan 153 isolated Edison plants had been installed in the United Statesalone, with a capacity of 29, 192 lamps. Moreover, the New York centralstation had gone into operation, starting at 3 P. M. On September 4, andat the close of 1882 it was lighting 225 houses wired for about 5000lamps. This epochal story will be told in the next chapter. Mostinteresting are the Bulletin notes from England, especially in regardto the brilliant exhibition given by Mr. E. H. Johnson at the CrystalPalace, Sydenham, visited by the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, twice bythe Dukes of Westminster and Sutherland, by three hundred members ofthe Gas Institute, and by innumerable delegations from cities, boroughs, etc. Describing this before the Royal Society of Arts, Sir W. H. Preece, F. R. S. , remarked: "Many unkind things have been said of Mr. Edison andhis promises; perhaps no one has been severer in this direction thanmyself. It is some gratification for me to announce my belief that hehas at last solved the problem he set himself to solve, and to be ableto describe to the Society the way in which he has solved it. " Beforethe exhibition closed it was visited by the Prince and Princess ofWales--now the deceased Edward VII. And the Dowager Queen Alexandra--andthe Princess received from Mr. Johnson as a souvenir a tiny electricchandelier fashioned like a bouquet of fern leaves and flowers, the budsbeing some of the first miniature incandescent lamps ever made. 

The first item in the first Bulletin dealt with the "Fire Question, " andall through the successive issues runs a series of significant items onthe same subject. Many of them are aimed at gas, and there are severalgrim summaries of death and fires due to gas-leaks or explosions. Atendency existed at the time to assume that electricity was altogethersafe, while its opponents, predicating their attacks on arc-lightingcasualties, insisted it was most dangerous. Edison's problem ineducating the public was rather difficult, for while his low-pressure, direct-current system has always been absolutely without danger to life, there has also been the undeniable fact that escaping electricity mightcause a fire just as a leaky water-pipe can flood a house. The importantquestion had arisen, therefore, of satisfying the fire underwritersas to the safety of the system. He had foreseen that there would be anabsolute necessity for special devices to prevent fires from occurringby reason of any excess of current flowing in any circuit; and severalof his earliest detail lighting inventions deal with this subject. Theinsurance underwriters of New York and other parts of the country gavea great deal of time and study to the question through their mostexpert representatives, with the aid of Edison and his associates, otherelectric-light companies cooperating; and the knowledge thus gainedwas embodied in insurance rules to govern wiring for electric lights, formulated during the latter part of 1881, adopted by the New York Boardof Fire Underwriters, January 12, 1882, and subsequently endorsedby other boards in the various insurance districts. Under temporaryrulings, however, a vast amount of work had already been done, butit was obvious that as the industry grew there would be less and lesspossibility of supervision except through such regulations, insistingupon the use of the best devices and methods. Indeed, the directsuperintendence soon became unnecessary, owing to the increasingknowledge and greater skill acquired by the installing staff; and thissystem of education was notably improved by a manual written by Mr. Edison himself. Copies of this brochure are as scarce to-day as FirstFolio Shakespeares, and command prices equal to those of other Americanfirst editions. The little book is the only known incursion of itsauthor into literature, if we except the brief articles he has writtenfor technical papers and for the magazines. It contained what was atonce a full, elaborate, and terse explanation of a complete isolatedplant, with diagrams of various methods of connection and operation, anda carefully detailed description of every individual part, its functionsand its characteristics. The remarkable success of those early years wasindeed only achieved by following up with Chinese exactness the minuteand intimate methods insisted upon by Edison as to the use of theapparatus and devices employed. It was a curious example of establishingstandard practice while changing with kaleidoscopic rapidity all theelements involved. He was true to an ideal as to the pole-star, but wasincessantly making improvements in every direction. With an iconoclasmthat has often seemed ruthless and brutal he did not hesitate tosacrifice older devices the moment a new one came in sight that embodieda real advance in securing effective results. The process is heroic butcostly. Nobody ever had a bigger scrap-heap than Edison; but who dareproclaim the process intrinsically wasteful if the losses occur in theinitial stages, and the economies in all the later ones?

With Edison in this introduction of his lighting system the methodwas ruthless, but not reckless. At an early stage of the commercialdevelopment a standardizing committee was formed, consisting of theheads of all the departments, and to this body was intrusted the task oftesting and criticising all existing and proposed devices, as well as ofconsidering the suggestions and complaints of workmen offered fromtime to time. This procedure was fruitful in two principal results--theeducation of the whole executive force in the technical details ofthe system; and a constant improvement in the quality of the Edisoninstallations; both contributing to the rapid growth of the industry. 

For many years Goerck Street played an important part in Edison'saffairs, being the centre of all his manufacture of heavy machinery. Butit was not in a desirable neighborhood, and owing to the rapid growth ofthe business soon became disadvantageous for other reasons. Edison tellsof his frequent visits to the shops at night, with the escort of "Jim"Russell, a well-known detective, who knew all the denizens of theplace: "We used to go out at night to a little, low place, an all-nighthouse--eight feet wide and twenty-two feet long--where we got a lunchat two or three o'clock in the morning. It was the toughest kind ofrestaurant ever seen. For the clam chowder they used the same four clamsduring the whole season, and the average number of flies per pie wasseven. This was by actual count. "

As to the shops and the locality: "The street was lined with rather oldbuildings and poor tenements. We had not much frontage. As our businessincreased enormously, our quarters became too small, so we saw thedistrict Tammany leader and asked him if we could not store castingsand other things on the sidewalk. He gave us permission--told us to goahead, and he would see it was all right. The only thing he required forthis was that when a man was sent with a note from him asking us togive him a job, he was to be put on. We had a hand-laborer foreman--'BigJim'--a very powerful Irishman, who could lift above half a ton. Whenone of the Tammany aspirants appeared, he was told to go right to workat $1. 50 per day. The next day he was told off to lift a certain piece, and if the man could not lift it he was discharged. That made theTammany man all safe. Jim could pick the piece up easily. The other mancould not, and so we let him out. Finally the Tammany leader called ahalt, as we were running big engine lathes out on the sidewalk, and hewas afraid we were carrying it a little too far. The lathes were workedright out in the street, and belted through the windows of the shop. "

At last it became necessary to move from Goerck Street, and Mr. Edisongives a very interesting account of the incidents in connection withthe transfer of the plant to Schenectady, New York: "After our works atGoerck Street got too small, we had labor troubles also. It seems I hadrather a socialistic strain in me, and I raised the pay of the workmentwenty-five cents an hour above the prevailing rate of wages, whereuponHoe & Company, our near neighbors, complained at our doing this. I saidI thought it was all right. But the men, having got a little morewages, thought they would try coercion and get a little more, as wewere considered soft marks. Whereupon they struck at a time thatwas critical. However, we were short of money for pay-rolls; and weconcluded it might not be so bad after all, as it would give us acouple of weeks to catch up. So when the men went out they appointed acommittee to meet us; but for two weeks they could not find us, so theybecame somewhat more anxious than we were. Finally they said they wouldlike to go back. We said all right, and back they went. It was quite anovelty to the men not to be able to find us when they wanted to; andthey didn't relish it at all. 

"What with these troubles and the lack of room, we decided to finda factory elsewhere, and decided to try the locomotive works up atSchenectady. It seems that the people there had had a falling out amongthemselves, and one of the directors had started opposition works; butbefore he had completed all the buildings and put in machinery somecompromise was made, and the works were for sale. We bought them veryreasonably and moved everything there. These works were owned by me andmy assistants until sold to the Edison General Electric Company. At onetime we employed several thousand men; and since then the works havebeen greatly expanded. 

"At these new works our orders were far in excess of our capital tohandle the business, and both Mr. Insull and I were afraid we might getinto trouble for lack of money. Mr. Insull was then my business manager, running the whole thing; and, therefore, when Mr. Henry Villard and hissyndicate offered to buy us out, we concluded it was better to besure than be sorry; so we sold out for a large sum. Villard was a veryaggressive man with big ideas, but I could never quite understand him. He had no sense of humor. I remember one time we were going up on theHudson River boat to inspect the works, and with us was Mr. Henderson, our chief engineer, who was certainly the best raconteur of funnystories I ever knew. We sat at the tail-end of the boat, and he startedin to tell funny stories. Villard could not see a single point, andscarcely laughed at all; and Henderson became so disconcerted he had togive it up. It was the same way with Gould. In the early telegraph daysI remember going with him to see Mackay in 'The Impecunious CountryEditor. ' It was very funny, full of amusing and absurd situations; butGould never smiled once. "

The formation of the Edison General Electric Company involved theconsolidation of the immediate Edison manufacturing interests inelectric light and power, with a capitalization of $12, 000, 000, now arelatively modest sum; but in those days the amount was large, andthe combination caused a great deal of newspaper comment as to sucha coinage of brain power. The next step came with the creation of thegreat General Electric Company of to-day, a combination of the Edison, Thomson-Houston, and Brush lighting interests in manufacture, whichto this day maintains the ever-growing plants at Harrison, Lynn, andSchenectady, and there employs from twenty to twenty-five thousandpeople. 

CHAPTER XVI

THE FIRST EDISON CENTRAL STATION

A NOTED inventor once said at the end of a lifetime of fighting todefend his rights, that he found there were three stages in all greatinventions: the first, in which people said the thing could not be done;the second, in which they said anybody could do it; and the third, in which they said it had always been done by everybody. In hiscentral-station work Edison has had very much this kind of experience;for while many of his opponents came to acknowledge the novelty andutility of his plans, and gave him unstinted praise, there are doubtlessothers who to this day profess to look upon him merely as an adapter. How different the view of so eminent a scientist as Lord Kelvin was, may be appreciated from his remark when in later years, in reply to thequestion why some one else did not invent so obvious and simple a thingas the Feeder System, he said: "The only answer I can think of is thatno one else was Edison. "

Undaunted by the attitude of doubt and the predictions of impossibility, Edison had pushed on until he was now able to realize all his ideas asto the establishment of a central station in the work that culminatedin New York City in 1882. After he had conceived the broad plan, hisambition was to create the initial plant on Manhattan Island, where itwould be convenient of access for watching its operation, and where thedemonstration of its practicability would have influence in financialcircles. The first intention was to cover a district extending fromCanal Street on the north to Wall Street on the south; but Edisonsoon realized that this territory was too extensive for the initialexperiment, and he decided finally upon the district included betweenWall, Nassau, Spruce, and Ferry streets, Peck Slip and the East River, an area nearly a square mile in extent. One of the preliminary stepstaken to enable him to figure on such a station and system was to havemen go through this district on various days and note the number of gasjets burning at each hour up to two or three o'clock in the morning. Thenext step was to divide the region into a number of sub-districts andinstitute a house-to-house canvass to ascertain precisely the data andconditions pertinent to the project. When the canvass was over, Edisonknew exactly how many gas jets there were in every building in theentire district, the average hours of burning, and the cost of light;also every consumer of power, and the quantity used; every hoistway towhich an electric motor could be applied; and other details too numerousto mention, such as related to the gas itself, the satisfaction ofthe customers, and the limitations of day and night demand. All thisinformation was embodied graphically in large maps of the district, byannotations in colored inks; and Edison thus could study the questionwith every detail before him. Such a reconnaissance, like that of acoming field of battle, was invaluable, and may help give a further ideaof the man's inveterate care for the minutiae of things. 

The laboratory note-books of this period--1878-80, moreparticularly--show an immense amount of calculation by Edison and hischief mathematician, Mr. Upton, on conductors for the distribution ofcurrent over large areas, and then later in the district described. With the results of this canvass before them, the sizes of the mainconductors to be laid throughout the streets of this entire territorywere figured, block by block; and the results were then placed on themap. These data revealed the fact that the quantity of copper requiredfor the main conductors would be exceedingly large and costly; and, if ever, Edison was somewhat dismayed. But as usual this apparentlyinsurmountable difficulty only spurred him on to further effort. Itwas but a short time thereafter that he solved the knotty problem by aninvention mentioned in a previous chapter. This is known as the "feederand main" system, for which he signed the application for a patent onAugust 4, 1880. As this invention effected a saving of seven-eighths ofthe cost of the chief conductors in a straight multiple arc system, themains for the first district were refigured, and enormous new maps weremade, which became the final basis of actual installation, as they weresubsequently enlarged by the addition of every proposed junction-box, bridge safety-catch box, and street-intersection box in the whole area. 

When this patent, after protracted fighting, was sustained by JudgeGreen in 1893, the Electrical Engineer remarked that the GeneralElectric Company "must certainly feel elated" because of its importance;and the journal expressed its fear that although the specifications andclaims related only to the maintenance of uniform pressure of current onlighting circuits, the owners might naturally seek to apply it also tofeeders used in the electric-railway work already so extensive. At thistime, however, the patent had only about a year of life left, owingto the expiration of the corresponding English patent. The fact thatthirteen years had elapsed gives a vivid idea of the ordeal involved insustaining a patent and the injustice to the inventor, while there isobviously hardship to those who cannot tell from any decision of thecourt whether they are infringing or not. It is interesting to note thatthe preparation for hearing this case in New Jersey was accompanied bymodels to show the court exactly the method and its economy, asworked out in comparison with what is known as the "tree system"of circuits--the older alternative way of doing it. As a basis ofcomparison, a district of thirty-six city blocks in the form of a squarewas assumed. The power station was placed at the centre of the square;each block had sixteen consumers using fifteen lights each. Conductorswere run from the station to supply each of the four quarters of thedistrict with light. In one example the "feeder" system was used; inthe other the "tree. " With these models were shown two cubes whichrepresented one one-hundredth of the actual quantity of copper requiredfor each quarter of the district by the two-wire tree system as comparedwith the feeder system under like conditions. The total weight of copperfor the four quarter districts by the tree system was 803, 250 pounds, but when the feeder system was used it was only 128, 739 pounds! Thiswas a reduction from $23. 24 per lamp for copper to $3. 72 per lamp. Othermodels emphasized this extraordinary contrast. At the time Edison wasdoing this work on economizing in conductors, much of the criticismagainst him was based on the assumed extravagant use of copper impliedin the obvious "tree" system, and it was very naturally said that therewas not enough copper in the world to supply his demands. It is truethat the modern electrical arts have been a great stimulator of copperproduction, now taking a quarter of all made; yet evidently but for suchinventions as this such arts could not have come into existence atall, or else in growing up they would have forced copper to starvationprices. [11]

 [Footnote 11: For description of feeder patent see Appendix. ]

It should be borne in mind that from the outset Edison had determinedupon installing underground conductors as the only permanent andsatisfactory method for the distribution of current from centralstations in cities; and that at Menlo Park he laid out and operated sucha system with about four hundred and twenty-five lamps. The undergroundsystem there was limited to the immediate vicinity of the laboratory andwas somewhat crude, as well as much less complicated than would be thenetwork of over eighty thousand lineal feet, which he calculated to berequired for the underground circuits in the first district of New YorkCity. At Menlo Park no effort was made for permanency; no provisionwas needed in regard to occasional openings of the street for variouspurposes; no new customers were to be connected from time to time tothe mains, and no repairs were within contemplation. In New York thequestion of permanency was of paramount importance, and the othercontingencies were sure to arise as well as conditions more easyto imagine than to forestall. These problems were all attacked in aresolute, thoroughgoing manner, and one by one solved by the inventionof new and unprecedented devices that were adequate for the purposes ofthe time, and which are embodied in apparatus of slight modification inuse up to the present day. 

Just what all this means it is hard for the present generation toimagine. New York and all the other great cities in 1882, and forsome years thereafter, were burdened and darkened by hideous massesof overhead wires carried on ugly wooden poles along all the mainthoroughfares. One after another rival telegraph and telephone, stockticker, burglar-alarm, and other companies had strung their circuitswithout any supervision or restriction; and these wires in allconditions of sag or decay ramified and crisscrossed in every direction, often hanging broken and loose-ended for months, there being no officialcompulsion to remove any dead wire. None of these circuits carrieddangerous currents; but the introduction of the arc light brought anentirely new menace in the use of pressures that were even worse thanthe bully of the West who "kills on sight, " because this kindred perilwas invisible, and might lurk anywhere. New poles were put up, andthe lighting circuits on them, with but a slight insulation of cottonimpregnated with some "weather-proof" compound, straggled all over thecity exposed to wind and rain and accidental contact with other wires, or with the metal of buildings. So many fatalities occurred that theinsulated wire used, called "underwriters, " because approved by theinsurance bodies, became jocularly known as "undertakers, " and effortswere made to improve its protective qualities. Then came the overheadcircuits for distributing electrical energy to motors for operatingelevators, driving machinery, etc. , and these, while using a lower, safer potential, were proportionately larger. There were no wiresunderground. Morse had tried that at the very beginning of electricalapplication, in telegraphy, and all agreed that renewals of theexperiment were at once costly and foolish. At last, in cities likeNew York, what may be styled generically the "overhead system" of wiresbroke down under its own weight; and various methods of undergroundconductors were tried, hastened in many places by the chopping down ofpoles and wires as the result of some accident that stirred the publicindignation. One typical tragic scene was that in New York, where, within sight of the City Hall, a lineman was killed at his work onthe arc light pole, and his body slowly roasted before the gaze of theexcited populace, which for days afterward dropped its silver and coppercoin into the alms-box nailed to the fatal pole for the benefit of hisfamily. Out of all this in New York came a board of electricalcontrol, a conduit system, and in the final analysis the PublicService Commission, that is credited to Governor Hughes as the furthestdevelopment of utility corporation control. 

The "road to yesterday" back to Edison and his insistence on undergroundwires is a long one, but the preceding paragraph traces it. Evenadmitting that the size and weight of his low-tension conductorsnecessitated putting them underground, this argues nothing against thepropriety and sanity of his methods. He believed deeply and firmly inthe analogy between electrical supply and that for water and gas, andpointed to the trite fact that nobody hoisted the water and gas mainsinto the air on stilts, and that none of the pressures were inimicalto human safety. The arc-lighting methods were unconsciously andunwittingly prophetic of the latter-day long-distance transmissions athigh pressure that, electrically, have placed the energy of Niagara atthe command of Syracuse and Utica, and have put the power of the fallingwaters of the Sierras at the disposal of San Francisco, two hundredmiles away. But within city limits overhead wires, with suchspace-consuming potentials, are as fraught with mischievous peril to thepublic as the dynamite stored by a nonchalant contractor in the cellarof a schoolhouse. As an offset, then, to any tendency to depreciate theintrinsic value of Edison's lighting work, let the claim be here setforth modestly and subject to interference, that he was the father ofunderground wires in America, and by his example outlined the policy nowdominant in every city of the first rank. Even the comment of a cynicin regard to electrical development may be accepted: "Some electricalcompanies wanted all the air; others apparently had use for all thewater; Edison only asked for the earth. "

The late Jacob Hess, a famous New York Republican politician, was amember of the commission appointed to put the wires underground in NewYork City, in the "eighties. " He stated that when the commission wasstruggling with the problem, and examining all kinds of devices andplans, patented and unpatented, for which fabulous sums were oftenasked, the body turned to Edison in its perplexity and asked for advice. Edison said: "All you have to do, gentlemen, is to insulate your wires, draw them through the cheapest thing on earth--iron pipe--run your pipesthrough channels or galleries under the street, and you've got the wholething done. " This was practically the system adopted and in use tothis day. What puzzled the old politician was that Edison would acceptnothing for his advice. 

Another story may also be interpolated here as to the underground workdone in New York for the first Edison station. It refers to the "manhigher up, " although the phrase had not been coined in those daysof lower public morality. That a corporation should be "held up" wasaccepted philosophically by the corporation as one of the unavoidableincidents of its business; and if the corporation "got back" by securingsome privilege without paying for it, the public was ready to condoneif not applaud. Public utilities were in the making, and no one inparticular had a keen sense of what was right or what was wrong, inthe hard, practical details of their development. Edison tells thisilluminating story: "When I was laying tubes in the streets of New York, the office received notice from the Commissioner of Public Works toappear at his office at a certain hour. I went up there with a gentlemanto see the Commissioner, H. O. Thompson. On arrival he said to me: 'Youare putting down these tubes. The Department of Public Works requiresthat you should have five inspectors to look after this work, and thattheir salary shall be $5 per day, payable at the end of each week. Good-morning. ' I went out very much crestfallen, thinking I would bedelayed and harassed in the work which I was anxious to finish, andwas doing night and day. We watched patiently for those inspectors toappear. The only appearance they made was to draw their pay Saturdayafternoon. "

Just before Christmas in 1880--December 17--as an item for the silkstocking of Father Knickerbocker--the Edison Electric IlluminatingCompany of New York was organized. In pursuance of the policy adheredto by Edison, a license was issued to it for the exclusive use ofthe system in that territory--Manhattan Island--in consideration of acertain sum of money and a fixed percentage of its capital in stock forthe patent rights. Early in 1881 it was altogether a paper enterprise, but events moved swiftly as narrated already, and on June 25, 1881, the first "Jumbo" prototype of the dynamo-electric machines to generatecurrent at the Pearl Street station was put through its paces beforebeing shipped to Paris to furnish new sensations to the flaneur of theboulevards. A number of the Edison officers and employees assembled atGoerck Street to see this "gigantic" machine go into action, and watchedits performance with due reverence all through the night until fiveo'clock on Sunday morning, when it respected the conventionalities bybreaking a shaft and suspending further tests. After this dynamo wasshipped to France, and its successors to England for the Holborn Viaductplant, Edison made still further improvements in design, increasingcapacity and economy, and then proceeded vigorously with six machinesfor Pearl Street. 

An ideal location for any central station is at the very centre of thedistrict served. It may be questioned whether it often goes there. Inthe New York first district the nearest property available was a doublebuilding at Nos. 255 and 257 Pearl Street, occupying a lot so by 100feet. It was four stories high, with a fire-wall dividing it intotwo equal parts. One of these parts was converted for the uses of thestation proper, and the other was used as a tube-shop by the undergroundconstruction department, as well as for repair-shops, storage, etc. Those were the days when no one built a new edifice for stationpurposes; that would have been deemed a fantastic extravagance. Oneearly station in New York for arc lighting was an old soap-works whosewell-soaked floors did not need much additional grease to render themchoice fuel for the inevitable flames. In this Pearl Street instance, the building, erected originally for commercial uses, was quiteincapable of sustaining the weight of the heavy dynamos andsteam-engines to be installed on the second floor; so the old flooringwas torn out and a new one of heavy girders supported by stiff columnswas substituted. This heavy construction, more familiar nowadays, andnot unlike the supporting metal structure of the Manhattan Elevatedroad, was erected independent of the enclosing walls, and occupied thefull width of 257 Pearl Street, and about three-quarters of its depth. This change in the internal arrangements did not at all affect the uglyexternal appearance, which did little to suggest the stately andornate stations since put up by the New York Edison Company, the latestoccupying whole city blocks. 

Of this episode Edison gives the following account: "While planningfor my first New York station--Pearl Street--of course, I had no realestate, and from lack of experience had very little knowledge of itscost in New York; so I assumed a rather large, liberal amount of it toplan my station on. It occurred to me one day that before I went too farwith my plans I had better find out what real estate was worth. In myoriginal plan I had 200 by 200 feet. I thought that by going down on aslum street near the water-front I would get some pretty cheap property. So I picked out the worst dilapidated street there was, and found Icould only get two buildings, each 25 feet front, one 100 feet deep andthe other 85 feet deep. I thought about $10, 000 each would cover it;but when I got the price I found that they wanted $75, 000 for one and$80, 000 for the other. Then I was compelled to change my plans andgo upward in the air where real estate was cheap. I cleared out thebuilding entirely to the walls and built my station of structuralironwork, running it up high. "

Into this converted structure was put the most complete steam plantobtainable, together with all the mechanical and engineering adjunctsbearing upon economical and successful operation. Being in a narrowstreet and a congested district, the plant needed special facilities forthe handling of coal and ashes, as well as for ventilation and forceddraught. All of these details received Mr. Edison's personal care andconsideration on the spot, in addition to the multitude of other affairsdemanding his thought. Although not a steam or mechanical engineer, hisquick grasp of principles and omnivorous reading had soon supplied thelack of training; nor had he forgotten the practical experience pickedup as a boy on the locomotives of the Grand Trunk road. It is tobe noticed as a feature of the plant, in common with many of laterconstruction, that it was placed well away from the water's edge, and equipped with non-condensing engines; whereas the modern plantinvariably seeks the bank of a river or lake for the purpose of agenerous supply of water for its condensing engines or steam-turbines. These are among the refinements of practice coincidental with theadvance of the art. 

At the award of the John Fritz gold medal in April, 1909, to Charles T. Porter for his work in advancing the knowledge of steam-engineering, andfor improvements in engine construction, Mr. Frank J. Sprague spoke onbehalf of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers of the debt ofelectricity to the high-speed steam-engine. He recalled the fact thatat the French Exposition of 1867 Mr. Porter installed two Porter-Allenengines to drive electric alternating-current generators for supplyingcurrent to primitive lighthouse apparatus. While the engines were notdirectly coupled to the dynamos, it was a curious fact that the pistonspeeds and number of revolutions were what is common to-day in isolateddirect-coupled plants. In the dozen years following Mr. Porter builtmany engines with certain common characteristics--i. E. , high pistonspeed and revolutions, solid engine bed, and babbitt-metal bearings; butthere was no electric driving until 1880, when Mr. Porter installed ahigh-speed engine for Edison at his laboratory in Menlo Park. Shortlyafter this he was invited to construct for the Edison Pearl Streetstation the first of a series of engines for so-called "steam-dynamos, "each independently driven by a direct-coupled engine. Mr. Spraguecompared the relations thus established between electricity and thehigh-speed engine not to those of debtor and creditor, but rather tothose of partners--an industrial marriage--one of the most importantin the engineering world. Here were two machines destined to be joinedtogether, economizing space, enhancing economy, augmenting capacity, reducing investment, and increasing dividends. 

While rapid progress was being made in this and other directions, thewheels of industry were humming merrily at the Edison Tube Works, forover fifteen miles of tube conductors were required for the district, besides the boxes to connect the network at the street intersections, and the hundreds of junction boxes for taking the service conductorsinto each of the hundreds of buildings. In addition to the immenseamount of money involved, this specialized industry required an enormousamount of experiment, as it called for the development of an entirelynew art. But with Edison's inventive fertility--if ever there was across-fertilizer of mechanical ideas it is he--and with Mr. Kruesi'snever-failing patience and perseverance applied to experiment andevolution, rapid progress was made. A franchise having been obtainedfrom the city, the work of laying the underground conductors began inthe late fall of 1881, and was pushed with almost frantic energy. Itis not to be supposed, however, that the Edison tube system had thenreached a finality of perfection in the eyes of its inventor. In hiscorrespondence with Kruesi, as late as 1887, we find Edison bewailingthe inadequacy of the insulation of the conductors under twelve hundredvolts pressure, as for example: "Dear Kruesi, --There is nothing wrongwith your present compound. It is splendid. The whole trouble isair-bubbles. The hotter it is poured the greater the amount ofair-bubbles. At 212 it can be put on rods and there is no bubble. I havea man experimenting and testing all the time. Until I get at the propermethod of pouring and getting rid of the air-bubbles, it will be wasteof time to experiment with other asphalts. Resin oil distils off easily. It may answer, but paraffine or other similar substances must be put into prevent brittleness, One thing is certain, and that is, everythingmust be poured in layers, not only the boxes, but the tubes. The tubeitself should have a thin coating. The rope should also have a coating. The rods also. The whole lot, rods and rope, when ready for tube, shouldhave another coat, and then be placed in tube and filled. This willdo the business. " Broad and large as a continent in his ideas, if everthere was a man of finical fussiness in attention to detail, itis Edison. A letter of seven pages of about the same date in 1887expatiates on the vicious troubles caused by the air-bubble, and remarkswith fine insight into the problems of insulation and the idea of layersof it: "Thus you have three separate coatings, and it is impossible anair-hole in one should match the other. "

To a man less thorough and empirical in method than Edison, it wouldhave been sufficient to have made his plans clear to associates orsubordinates and hold them responsible for accurate results. No suchvicarious treatment would suit him, ready as he has always been to sharethe work where he could give his trust. In fact he realized, as noone else did at this stage, the tremendous import of this novel andcomprehensive scheme for giving the world light; and he would not letgo, even if busy to the breaking-point. Though plunged in a veritablemaelstrom of new and important business interests, and though applyingfor no fewer than eighty-nine patents in 1881, all of which weregranted, he superintended on the spot all this laying of undergroundconductors for the first district. Nor did he merely stand around andgive orders. Day and night he actually worked in the trenches with thelaborers, amid the dirt and paving-stones and hurry-burly of traffic, helping to lay the tubes, filling up junction-boxes, and taking part inall the infinite detail. He wanted to know for himself how thingswent, why for some occult reason a little change was necessary, whatimprovement could be made in the material. His hours of work were notregulated by the clock, but lasted until he felt the need of a littlerest. Then he would go off to the station building in Pearl Street, throw an overcoat on a pile of tubes, lie down and sleep for a fewhours, rising to resume work with the first gang. There was a smallbedroom on the third floor of the station available for him, butgoing to bed meant delay and consumed time. It is no wonder that suchimpatience, such an enthusiasm, drove the work forward at a headlongpace. 

Edison says of this period: "When we put down the tubes in the lowerpart of New York, in the streets, we kept a big stock of them in thecellar of the station at Pearl Street. As I was on all the time, I wouldtake a nap of an hour or so in the daytime--any time--and I used tosleep on those tubes in the cellar. I had two Germans who were testingthere, and both of them died of diphtheria, caught in the cellar, whichwas cold and damp. It never affected me. "

It is worth pausing just a moment to glance at this man taking a fitfulrest on a pile of iron pipe in a dingy building. His name is on thetip of the world's tongue. Distinguished scientists from every part ofEurope seek him eagerly. He has just been decorated and awarded highhonors by the French Government. He is the inventor of wonderful newapparatus, and the exploiter of novel and successful arts. The magic ofhis achievements and the rumors of what is being done have caused a wilddrop in gas securities, and a sensational rise in his own electric-lightstock from $100 to $3500 a share. Yet these things do not at all affecthis slumber or his democratic simplicity, for in that, as in everythingelse, he is attending strictly to business, "doing the thing that isnext to him. "

Part of the rush and feverish haste was due to the approach of frost, which, as usual in New York, suspended operations in the earth; but thelaying of the conductors was resumed promptly in the spring of 1882; andmeantime other work had been advanced. During the fall and winter monthstwo more "Jumbo" dynamos were built and sent to London, after which theconstruction of six for New York was swiftly taken in hand. In the monthof May three of these machines, each with a capacity of twelve hundredincandescent lamps, were delivered at Pearl Street and assembled on thesecond floor. On July 5th--owing to the better opportunity for ceaselesstoil given by a public holiday--the construction of the operative partof the station was so far completed that the first of the dynamoswas operated under steam; so that three days later the satisfactoryexperiment was made of throwing its flood of electrical energy into abank of one thousand lamps on an upper floor. Other tests followed indue course. All was excitement. The field-regulating apparatus and theelectrical-pressure indicator--first of its kind--were also tested, and in turn found satisfactory. Another vital test was made at thistime--namely, of the strength of the iron structure itself on which theplant was erected. This was done by two structural experts; and not tillhe got their report as to ample factors of safety was Edison reassuredas to this detail. 

A remark of Edison, familiar to all who have worked with him, when itis reported to him that something new goes all right and is satisfactoryfrom all points of view, is: "Well, boys, now let's find the bugs, "and the hunt for the phylloxera begins with fiendish, remorseless zest. Before starting the plant for regular commercial service, he beganpersonally a series of practical experiments and tests to ascertain inadvance what difficulties would actually arise in practice, so that hecould provide remedies or preventives. He had several cots placed in theadjoining building, and he and a few of his most strenuous assistantsworked day and night, leaving the work only for hurried meals and asnatch of sleep. These crucial tests, aiming virtually to break theplant down if possible within predetermined conditions, lasted severalweeks, and while most valuable in the information they afforded, didnot hinder anything, for meantime customers' premises throughout thedistrict were being wired and supplied with lamps and meters. 

On Monday, September 4, 1882, at 3 o'clock, P. M. , Edison realized theconsummation of his broad and original scheme. The Pearl Street stationwas officially started by admitting steam to the engine of one of the"Jumbos, " current was generated, turned into the network of undergroundconductors, and was transformed into light by the incandescent lampsthat had thus far been installed. This date and event may properly beregarded as historical, for they mark the practical beginning of a newart, which in the intervening years has grown prodigiously, and is stillincreasing by leaps and bounds. 

Everything worked satisfactorily in the main. There were a fewmechanical and engineering annoyances that might naturally be expectedto arise in a new and unprecedented enterprise; but nothing ofsufficient moment to interfere with the steady and continuous supplyof current to customers at all hours of the day and night. Indeed, oncestarted, this station was operated uninterruptedly for eight years withonly insignificant stoppage. 

It will have been noted by the reader that there was nothing to indicaterashness in starting up the station, as only one dynamo was put inoperation. Within a short time, however, it was deemed desirable tosupply the underground network with more current, as many additionalcustomers had been connected and the demand for the new light wasincreasing very rapidly. Although Edison had successfully operatedseveral dynamos in multiple arc two years before--i. E. , all feedingcurrent together into the same circuits--there was not, at this earlyperiod of experience, any absolute certainty as to what particularresults might occur upon the throwing of the current from two or moresuch massive dynamos into a great distributing system. The sequelshowed the value of Edison's cautious method in starting the station byoperating only a single unit at first. 

He decided that it would be wise to make the trial operation of a second"Jumbo" on a Sunday, when business houses were closed in the district, thus obviating any danger of false impressions in the public mind in theevent of any extraordinary manifestations. The circumstances attendingthe adding of a second dynamo are thus humorously described by Edison:"My heart was in my mouth at first, but everything worked all right. . . . Then we started another engine and threw them in parallel. Of all thecircuses since Adam was born, we had the worst then! One engine wouldstop, and the other would run up to about a thousand revolutions, andthen they would see-saw. The trouble was with the governors. Whenthe circus commenced, the gang that was standing around ran outprecipitately, and I guess some of them kept running for a block or two. I grabbed the throttle of one engine, and E. H. Johnson, who was theonly one present to keep his wits, caught hold of the other, and we shutthem off. " One of the "gang" that ran, but, in this case, only tothe end of the room, afterward said: "At the time it was a terrifyingexperience, as I didn't know what was going to happen. The engines anddynamos made a horrible racket, from loud and deep groans to a hideousshriek, and the place seemed to be filled with sparks and flames of allcolors. It was as if the gates of the infernal regions had been suddenlyopened. "

This trouble was at once attacked by Edison in his characteristic andstrenuous way. The above experiment took place between three and fouro'clock on a Sunday afternoon, and within a few hours he had gatheredhis superintendent and men of the machine-works and had them at work ona shafting device that he thought would remedy the trouble. He says: "Ofcourse, I discovered that what had happened was that one set was runningthe other as a motor. I then put up a long shaft, connecting all thegovernors together, and thought this would certainly cure the trouble;but it didn't. The torsion of the shaft was so great that one governorstill managed to get ahead of the others. Well, it was a serious stateof things, and I worried over it a lot. Finally I went down to GoerckStreet and got a piece of shafting and a tube in which it fitted. Itwisted the shafting one way and the tube the other as far as I could, and pinned them together. In this way, by straining the whole outfit upto its elastic limit in opposite directions, the torsion was practicallyeliminated, and after that the governors ran together all right. "

Edison realized, however, that in commercial practice this was only atemporary expedient, and that a satisfactory permanence of results couldonly be attained with more perfect engines that could be depended uponfor close and simple regulation. The engines that were made part of thefirst three "Jumbos" placed in the station were the very best that couldbe obtained at the time, and even then had been specially designed andbuilt for the purpose. Once more quoting Edison on this subject: "Aboutthat time" (when he was trying to run several dynamos in parallel in thePearl Street station) "I got hold of Gardiner C. Sims, and he undertookto build an engine to run at three hundred and fifty revolutionsand give one hundred and seventy-five horse-power. He went back toProvidence and set to work, and brought the engine back with him to theshop. It worked only a few minutes when it busted. That man sat aroundthat shop and slept in it for three weeks, until he got his engine rightand made it work the way he wanted it to. When he reached this periodI gave orders for the engine-works to run night and day until we gotenough engines, and when all was ready we started the engines. Theneverything worked all right. . . . One of these engines that Sims built rantwenty-four hours a day, three hundred and sixty-five days in the year, for over a year before it stopped. " [12]

 [Footnote 12: We quote the following interesting notes of Mr. Charles L. Clarke on the question of see-sawing, or "hunting, " as it was afterward termed:

"In the Holborn Viaduct station the difficulty of 'hunting' was notexperienced. At the time the 'Jumbos' were first operated in multiplearc, April 8, 1882, one machine was driven by a Porter-Allen engine, and the other by an Armington & Sims engine, and both machines were ona solid foundation. At the station at Milan, Italy, the first 'Jumbos'operated in multiple arc were driven by Porter-Allen engines, anddash-pots were applied to the governors. These machines were also upon asolid foundation, and no trouble was experienced. 

"At the Pearl Street station, however, the machines were supported uponlong iron floor-beams, and at the high speed of 350 revolutions perminute, considerable vertical vibration was given to the engines. Andthe writer is inclined to the opinion that this vibration, acting in thesame direction as the action of gravitation, which was one of the twocontrolling forces in the operation of the Porter-Allen governor, wasthe primary cause of the 'hunting. ' In the Armington & Sims engine thecontrolling forces in the operation of the governor were the centrifugalforce of revolving weights, and the opposing force of compressedsprings, and neither the action of gravitation nor the verticalvibrations of the engine could have any sensible effect upon thegovernor. "]

The Pearl Street station, as this first large plant was called, maderapid and continuous growth in its output of electric current. Itstarted, as we have said, on September 4, 1882, supplying about fourhundred lights to a comparatively small number of customers. Among thosefirst supplied was the banking firm of Drexel, Morgan & Company, cornerof Broad and Wall streets, at the outermost limits of the system. Beforethe end of December of the same year the light had so grown in favorthat it was being supplied to over two hundred and forty customers whosebuildings were wired for over five thousand lamps. By this time threemore "Jumbos" had been added to the plant. The output from this timeforward increased steadily up to the spring of 1884, when the demands ofthe station necessitated the installation of two additional "Jumbos"in the adjoining building, which, with the venous improvements that hadbeen made in the mean time, gave the station a capacity of over eleventhousand lamps actually in service at any one time. 

During the first three months of operating the Pearl Street stationlight was supplied to customers without charge. Edison had perfectconfidence in his meters, and also in the ultimate judgment of thepublic as to the superiority of the incandescent electric light asagainst other illuminants. He realized, however, that in the beginningof the operation of an entirely novel plant there was ample opportunityfor unexpected contingencies, although the greatest care had beenexercised to make everything as perfect as possible. Mechanical defectsor other unforeseen troubles in any part of the plant or undergroundsystem might arise and cause temporary stoppages of operation, thusgiving grounds for uncertainty which would create a feeling of publicdistrust in the permanence of the supply of light. 

As to the kind of mishap that was wont to occur, Edison tells thefollowing story: "One afternoon, after our Pearl Street station started, a policeman rushed in and told us to send an electrician at once up tothe corner of Ann and Nassau streets--some trouble. Another man andI went up. We found an immense crowd of men and boys there and inthe adjoining streets--a perfect jam. There was a leak in one of ourjunction-boxes, and on account of the cellars extending under thestreet, the top soil had become insulated. Hence, by means of this leakpowerful currents were passing through this thin layer of moist earth. When a horse went to pass over it he would get a very severe shock. WhenI arrived I saw coming along the street a ragman with a dilapidated oldhorse, and one of the boys told him to go over on the other side ofthe road--which was the place where the current leaked. When the ragmanheard this he took that side at once. The moment the horse struck theelectrified soil he stood straight up in the air, and then reared again;and the crowd yelled, the policeman yelled; and the horse started to runaway. This continued until the crowd got so serious that the policemanhad to clear it out; and we were notified to cut the current off. We gota gang of men, cut the current off for several junction-boxes, and fixedthe leak. One man who had seen it came to me next day and wanted me toput in apparatus for him at a place where they sold horses. He said hecould make a fortune with it, because he could get old nags in there andmake them act like thoroughbreds. "

So well had the work been planned and executed, however, that nothinghappened to hinder the continuous working of the station and the supplyof light to customers. Hence it was decided in December, 1882, to begincharging a price for the service, and, accordingly, Edison electrolyticmeters were installed on the premises of each customer then connected. The first bill for lighting, based upon the reading of one of thesemeters, amounted to $50. 40, and was collected on January 18, 1883, fromthe Ansonia Brass and Copper Company, 17 and 19 Cliff Street. Generallyspeaking, customers found that their bills compared fairly with gasbills for corresponding months where the same amount of light was used, and they paid promptly and cheerfully, with emphatic encomiums of thenew light. During November, 1883, a little over one year after thestation was started, bills for lighting amounting to over $9000 werecollected. 

An interesting story of meter experience in the first few months ofoperation of the Pearl Street station is told by one of the "boys" whowas then in position to know the facts; "Mr. J. P. Morgan, whose firmwas one of the first customers, expressed to Mr. Edison some doubt asto the accuracy of the meter. The latter, firmly convinced of itscorrectness, suggested a strict test by having some cards printed andhung on each fixture at Mr. Morgan's place. On these cards was to benoted the number of lamps in the fixture, and the time they were turnedon and off each day for a month. At the end of that time the lamp-hourswere to be added together by one of the clerks and figured on a basis ofa definite amount per lamp-hour, and compared with the bill that wouldbe rendered by the station for the corresponding period. The resultsof the first month's test showed an apparent overcharge by the Edisoncompany. Mr. Morgan was exultant, while Mr. Edison was still confidentand suggested a continuation of the test. Another month's trial showedsomewhat similar results. Mr. Edison was a little disturbed, butinsisted that there was a mistake somewhere. He went down to Drexel, Morgan & Company's office to investigate, and, after looking around, asked when the office was cleaned out. He was told it was done at nightby the janitor, who was sent for, and upon being interrogated as to whatlight he used, said that he turned on a central fixture containing aboutten lights. It came out that he had made no record of the time theselights were in use. He was told to do so in future, and another month'stest was made. On comparison with the company's bill, rendered on themeter-reading, the meter came within a few cents of the amount computedfrom the card records, and Mr. Morgan was completely satisfied of theaccuracy of the meter. "

It is a strange but not extraordinary commentary on the perversity ofhuman nature and the lack of correct observation, to note that evenafter the Pearl Street station had been in actual operation twenty-fourhours a day for nearly three months, there should still remain anattitude of "can't be done. " That such a scepticism still obtained isevidenced by the public prints of the period. Edison's electric-lightsystem and his broad claims were freely discussed and animadverted uponat the very time he was demonstrating their successful application. Toshow some of the feeling at the time, we reproduce the following letter, which appeared November 29, 1882:

"To the Editor of the Sun:

"SIR, --In reading the discussions relative to the Pearl Street stationof the Edison light, I have noted that while it is claimed that thereis scarcely any loss from leakage of current, nothing is said about theloss due to the resistance of the long circuits. I am informed that thisis the secret of the failure to produce with the power in position asufficient amount of current to run all the lamps that have been putup, and that while six, and even seven, lights to the horse-power may beproduced from an isolated plant, the resistance of the long undergroundwires reduces this result in the above case to less than three lights tothe horse-power, thus making the cost of production greatly in excess ofgas. Can the Edison company explain this? 'INVESTIGATOR'. "

This was one of the many anonymous letters that had been written to thenewspapers on the subject, and the following reply by the Edison companywas printed December 3, 1882:

"To the Editor of the Sun:

"SIR, --'Investigator' in Wednesday's Sun, says that the Edison companyis troubled at its Pearl Street station with a 'loss of current, dueto the resistance of the long circuits'; also that, whereas Edison gets'six or even seven lights to the horse-power in isolated plants, theresistance of the long underground wires reduces that result in thePearl Street station to less than three lights to the horse-power. ' Bothof these statements are false. As regards loss due to resistance, thereis a well-known law for determining it, based on Ohm's law. By use ofthat law we knew in advance, that is to say, when the original plans forthe station were drawn, just what this loss would be, precisely the sameas a mechanical engineer when constructing a mill with long lines ofshafting can forecast the loss of power due to friction. The practicalresult in the Pearl Street station has fully demonstrated thecorrectness of our estimate thus made in advance. As regards our gettingonly three lights per horse-power, our station has now been runningthree months, without stopping a moment, day or night, and we invariablyget over six lamps per horse-power, or substantially the same as we doin our isolated plants. We are now lighting one hundred and ninety-threebuildings, wired for forty-four hundred lamps, of which about two-thirdsare in constant use, and we are adding additional houses and lampsdaily. These figures can be verified at the office of the Board ofUnderwriters, where certificates with full details permitting the use ofour light are filed by their own inspector. To light these lamps we runfrom one to three dynamos, according to the lamps in use at any giventime, and we shall start additional dynamos as fast as we can connectmore buildings. Neither as regards the loss due to resistance, nor asregards the number of lamps per horse-power, is there the slightesttrouble or disappointment on the part of our company, and yourcorrespondent is entirely in error is assuming that there is. Let mesuggest that if 'Investigator' really wishes to investigate, and iscompetent and willing to learn the exact facts, he can do so at thisoffice, where there is no mystery of concealment, but, on the contrary, a strong desire to communicate facts to intelligent inquirers. Sucha method of investigating must certainly be more satisfactory to onehonestly seeking knowledge than that of first assuming an error as thebasis of a question, and then demanding an explanation. 

"Yours very truly, "S. B. EATON, President. "

Viewed from the standpoint of over twenty-seven years later, the wisdomand necessity of answering anonymous newspaper letters of this kindmight be deemed questionable, but it must be remembered that, althoughthe Pearl Street station was working successfully, and Edison'scomprehensive plans were abundantly vindicated, the enterprisewas absolutely new and only just stepping on the very threshold ofcommercial exploitation. To enter in and possess the land required theconfidence of capital and the general public. Hence it was necessary tomaintain a constant vigilance to defeat the insidious attacks of carpingcritics and others who would attempt to injure the Edison system bymisleading statements. 

It will be interesting to the modern electrician to note that when thispioneer station was started, and in fact for some little time afterward, there was not a single electrical instrument in the whole station--nota voltmeter or an ammeter! Nor was there a central switchboard! Eachdynamo had its own individual control switch. The feeder connectionswere all at the front of the building, and the general voltage controlapparatus was on the floor above. An automatic pressure indicator hadbeen devised and put in connection with the main circuits. It consisted, generally speaking, of an electromagnet with relays connecting with ared and a blue lamp. When the electrical pressure was normal, neither lamp was lighted; but if the electromotive force rose above apredetermined amount by one or two volts, the red lamp lighted up, and the attendant at the hand-wheel of the field regulator insertedresistance in the field circuit, whereas, if the blue lamp lighted, resistance was cut out until the pressure was raised to normal. Later onthis primitive indicator was supplanted by the "Bradley Bridge, " a crudeform of the "Howell" pressure indicators, which were subsequently usedfor many years in the Edison stations. 

Much could be added to make a complete pictorial description of thehistoric Pearl Street station, but it is not within the scope of thisnarrative to enter into diffuse technical details, interesting as theymay be to many persons. We cannot close this chapter, however, withoutmention of the fate of the Pearl Street station, which continued insuccessful commercial operation until January 2, 1890, when it waspartially destroyed by fire. All the "Jumbos" were ruined, excepting No. 9, which is still a venerated relic in the possession of the NewYork Edison Company. Luckily, the boilers were unharmed. Belt-drivengenerators and engines were speedily installed, and the station wasagain in operation in a few days. The uninjured "Jumbo, " No. 9, againcontinued to perform its duty. But in the words of Mr. Charles L. Clarke, "the glory of the old Pearl Street station, unique in bearingthe impress of Mr. Edison's personality, and, as it were, constructedwith his own hands, disappeared in the flame and smoke of that Thursdaymorning fire. "

The few days' interruption of the service was the only serious onethat has taken place in the history of the New York Edison Company fromSeptember 4, 1882, to the present date. The Pearl Street station wasoperated for some time subsequent to the fire, but increasing demandsin the mean time having led to the construction of other stations, themains of the First District were soon afterward connected to anotherplant, the Pearl Street station was dismantled, and the building wassold in 1895. 

The prophetic insight into the magnitude of central-station lightingthat Edison had when he was still experimenting on the incandescent lampover thirty years ago is a little less than astounding, when it is soamply verified in the operations of the New York Edison Company (thesuccessor of the Edison Electric Illuminating Company of New York) andmany others. At the end of 1909 the New York Edison Company alone wasoperating twenty-eight stations and substations, having a total capacityof 159, 500 kilowatts. Connected with its lines were approximately 85, 000customers wired for 3, 813, 899 incandescent lamps and nearly 225, 000horse-power through industrial electric motors connected with theunderground service. A large quantity of electrical energy is alsosupplied for heating and cooking, charging automobiles, chemical andplating work, and various other uses. 

CHAPTER XVII

OTHER EARLY STATIONS--THE METER

WE have now seen the Edison lighting system given a complete, convincingdemonstration in Paris, London, and New York; and have noted steps takenfor its introduction elsewhere on both sides of the Atlantic. The Parisplant, like that at the Crystal Palace, was a temporary exhibit. TheLondon plant was less temporary, but not permanent, supplying beforeit was torn out no fewer than three thousand lamps in hotels, churches, stores, and dwellings in the vicinity of Holborn Viaduct. There Messrs. Johnson and Hammer put into practice many of the ideas now standard inthe art, and secured much useful data for the work in New York, of whichthe story has just been told. 

As a matter of fact the first Edison commercial station to be operatedin this country was that at Appleton, Wisconsin, but its only seriousclaim to notice is that it was the initial one of the system driven bywater-power. It went into service August 15, 1882, about three weeksbefore the Pearl Street station. It consisted of one small dynamo ofa capacity of two hundred and eighty lights of 10 c. P. Each, and washoused in an unpretentious wooden shed. The dynamo-electric machine, though small, was robust, for under all the varying speeds ofwater-power, and the vicissitudes of the plant to which it, belonged, itcontinued in active use until 1899--seventeen years. 

Edison was from the first deeply impressed with the possibilities ofwater-power, and, as this incident shows, was prompt to seize such avery early opportunity. But his attention was in reality concentratedclosely on the supply of great centres of population, a task whichhe then felt might well occupy his lifetime; and except in regard tofurnishing isolated plants he did not pursue further the development ofhydro-electric stations. That was left to others, and to the applicationof the alternating current, which has enabled engineers to harnessremote powers, and, within thoroughly economical limits, transmitthousands of horse-power as much as two hundred miles at pressuresof 80, 000 and 100, 000 volts. Owing to his insistence on low pressure, direct current for use in densely populated districts, as the only safeand truly universal, profitable way of delivering electrical energy tothe consumers, Edison has been frequently spoken of as an opponentof the alternating current. This does him an injustice. At the timea measure was before the Virginia legislature, in 1890, to limit thepermissible pressures of current so as to render it safe, he said: "Youwant to allow high pressure wherever the conditions are such that byno possible accident could that pressure get into the houses ofthe consumers; you want to give them all the latitude you can. " Inexplaining this he added: "Suppose you want to take the falls down atRichmond, and want to put up a water-power? Why, if we erect a stationat the falls, it is a great economy to get it up to the city. By digginga cheap trench and putting in an insulated cable, and connecting suchstation with the central part of Richmond, having the end of the cablecome up into the station from the earth and there connected with motors, the power of the falls would be transmitted to these motors. If now themotors were made to run dynamos conveying low-pressure currents to thepublic, there is no possible way whereby this high-pressure currentcould get to the public. " In other words, Edison made the sharpfundamental distinction between high pressure alternating current fortransmission and low pressure direct current for distribution; and thisis exactly the practice that has been adopted in all the great citiesof the country to-day. There seems no good reason for believing that itwill change. It might perhaps have been altogether better for Edison, from the financial standpoint, if he had not identified himself socompletely with one kind of current, but that made no difference to him, as it was a matter of conviction; and Edison's convictions are granitic. Moreover, this controversy over the two currents, alternating anddirect, which has become historical in the field of electricity--andis something like the "irrepressible conflict" we heard of years agoin national affairs--illustrates another aspect of Edison's character. Broad as the prairies and free in thought as the winds that sweep them, he is idiosyncratically opposed to loose and wasteful methods, to plansof empire that neglect the poor at the gate. Everything he has done hasbeen aimed at the conservation of energy, the contraction of space, the intensification of culture. Burbank and his tribe represent in thevegetable world, Edison in the mechanical. Not only has he developeddistinctly new species, but he has elucidated the intensive art ofgetting $1200 out of an electrical acre instead of $12--a manuredmarket-garden inside London and a ten-bushel exhausted wheat farmoutside Lawrence, Kansas, being the antipodes of productivity--yet veryfar short of exemplifying the difference of electrical yield between anacre of territory in Edison's "first New York district" and an acre insome small town. 

Edison's lighting work furnished an excellent basis--in fact, the onlyone--for the development of the alternating current now so generallyemployed in central-station work in America; and in the McGrawElectrical Directory of April, 1909, no fewer than 4164 stations out of5780 reported its use. When the alternating current was introduced forpractical purposes it was not needed for arc lighting, the circuit forwhich, from a single dynamo, would often be twenty or thirty milesin length, its current having a pressure of not less than five or sixthousand volts. For some years it was not found feasible to operatemotors on alternating-current circuits, and that reason was oftenurged against it seriously. It could not be used for electroplatingor deposition, nor could it charge storage batteries, all of which areeasily within the ability of the direct current. But when it came to bea question of lighting a scattered suburb, a group of dwellings on theoutskirts, a remote country residence or a farm-house, the alternatingcurrent, in all elements save its danger, was and is ideal. Its thinwires can be carried cheaply over vast areas, and at each local pointof consumption the transformer of size exactly proportioned to itslocal task takes the high-voltage transmission current and lowers itspotential at a ratio of 20 or 40 to 1, for use in distribution andconsumption circuits. This evolution has been quite distinct, with itsown inventors like Gaulard and Gibbs and Stanley, but came subsequentto the work of supplying small, dense areas of population; the art thusgrowing from within, and using each new gain as a means for furtherachievement. 

Nor was the effect of such great advances as those made by Edisonlimited to the electrical field. Every department of mechanics wasstimulated and benefited to an extraordinary degree. Copper for thecircuits was more highly refined than ever before to secure the bestconductivity, and purity was insisted on in every kind of insulation. Edison was intolerant of sham and shoddy, and nothing would satisfy himthat could not stand cross-examination by microscope, test-tube, andgalvanometer. It was, perhaps, the steam-engine on which the deepestimprint for good was made, referred to already in the remarks of Mr. F. J. Sprague in the preceding chapter, but best illustrated in theperfection of the modern high-speed engine of the Armington & Sims type. Unless he could secure an engine of smoother running and more exactlygoverned and regulated than those available for his dynamo and lamp, Edison realized that he would find it almost impossible to give a steadylight. He did not want his customers to count the heart-beats of theengine in the flicker of the lamp. Not a single engine was even withingunshot of the standard thus set up, but the emergency called forth itsman in Gardiner C. Sims, a talented draughtsman and designer whohad been engaged in locomotive construction and in the engineeringdepartment of the United States Navy. He may be quoted as to whathappened: "The deep interest, financial and moral, and friendly backingI received from Mr. Edison, together with valuable suggestions, enabledme to bring out the engine; as I was quite alone in the world--poor--Ihad found a friend who knew what he wanted and explained it clearly. Mr. Edison was a leader far ahead of the time. He compelled the design ofthe successful engine. 

"Our first engine compelled the inventing and making of a suitableengine indicator to indicate it--the Tabor. He obtained the desiredspeed and load with a friction brake; also regulator of speed; butwaited for an indicator to verify it. Then again there was no known wayto lubricate an engine for continuous running, and Mr. Edison informedme that as a marine engine started before the ship left New York andcontinued running until it reached its home port, so an engine for hispurposes must produce light at all times. That was a poser to me, for afive-hours' run was about all that had been required up to that time. 

"A day or two later Mr. Edison inquired: 'How far is it from here toLawrence; it is a long walk, isn't it?' 'Yes, rather. ' He said: 'Ofcourse you will understand I meant without oil. ' To say I was deeplyperplexed does not express my feelings. We were at the machine works, Goerck Street. I started for the oil-room, when, about entering, I saw asmall funnel lying on the floor. It had been stepped on and flattened. Itook it up, and it had solved the engine-oiling problem--and my walk toLawrence like a tramp actor's was off! The eccentric strap had a roundglass oil-cup with a brass base that screwed into the strap. I took itoff, and making a sketch, went to Dave Cunningham, having the funnelin my hand to illustrate what I wanted made. I requested him to make asheet-brass oil-cup and solder it to the base I had. He did so. I thenhad a standard made to hold another oil-cup, so as to see and regulatethe drop-feed. On this combination I obtained a patent which is nowuniversally used. "

It is needless to say that in due course the engine builders ofthe United States developed a variety of excellent prime movers forelectric-light and power plants, and were grateful to the art from whichsuch a stimulus came to their industry; but for many years one never sawan Edison installation without expecting to find one or more Armington& Sims high-speed engines part of it. Though the type has gone out ofexistence, like so many other things that are useful in their day andgeneration, it was once a very vital part of the art, and one moreillustration of that intimate manner in which the advances in differentfields of progress interact and co-operate. 

Edison had installed his historic first great central-station systemin New York on the multiple arc system covered by his feeder and maininvention, which resulted in a notable saving in the cost of conductorsas against a straight two-wire system throughout of the "tree" kind. He soon foresaw that still greater economy would be necessary forcommercial success not alone for the larger territory opening, but forthe compact districts of large cities. Being firmly convinced that therewas a way out, he pushed aside a mass of other work, and settled down tothis problem, with the result that on November 20, 1882, only twomonths after current had been sent out from Pearl Street, he executed anapplication for a patent covering what is now known as the "three-wiresystem. " It has been universally recognized as one of the most valuableinventions in the history of the lighting art. [13] Its use resulted in asaving of over 60 per cent. Of copper in conductors, figured on the mostfavorable basis previously known, inclusive of those calculated underhis own feeder and main system. Such economy of outlay being effected inone of the heaviest items of expense in central-station construction, it was now made possible to establish plants in towns where the largeinvestment would otherwise have been quite prohibitive. The inventionis in universal use today, alike for direct and for alternating current, and as well in the equipment of large buildings as in the distributionsystem of the most extensive central-station networks. One cannotimagine the art without it. 

 [Footnote 13: For technical description and illustration of this invention, see Appendix. ]

The strong position held by the Edison system, under the strenuouscompetition that was already springing up, was enormously improved bythe introduction of the three-wire system; and it gave an immediateimpetus to incandescent lighting. Desiring to put this new system intopractical use promptly, and receiving applications for licenses from allover the country, Edison selected Brockton, Massachusetts, and Sunbury, Pennsylvania, as the two towns for the trial. Of these two Brocktonrequired the larger plant, but with the conductors placed underground. It was the first to complete its arrangements and close its contract. Mr. Henry Villard, it will be remembered, had married the daughter ofGarrison, the famous abolitionist, and it was through his relationshipwith the Garrison family that Brockton came to have the honor ofexemplifying so soon the principles of an entirely new art. Sunbury, however, was a much smaller installation, employed overhead conductors, and hence was the first to "cross the tape. " It was specially suited fora trial plant also, in the early days when a yield of six or eight lampsto the horse-power was considered subject for congratulation. The townbeing situated in the coal region of Pennsylvania, good coal could thenbe obtained there at seventy-five cents a ton. 

The Sunbury generating plant consisted of an Armington & Sims enginedriving two small Edison dynamos having a total capacity of about fourhundred lamps of 16 c. P. The indicating instruments were of the crudestconstruction, consisting of two voltmeters connected by "pressure wires"to the centre of electrical distribution. One ammeter, for measuringthe quantity of current output, was interpolated in the "neutral bus" orthird-wire return circuit to indicate when the load on the two machineswas out of balance. The circuits were opened and closed by means ofabout half a dozen roughly made plug-switches. [14] The "bus-bars" toreceive the current from the dynamos were made of No. 000 copper linewire, straightened out and fastened to the wooden sheathing of thestation by iron staples without any presence to insulation. Commentingupon this Mr. W. S. Andrews, detailed from the central staff, says: "Theinterior winding of the Sunbury station, including the running of twothree-wire feeders the entire length of the building from back tofront, the wiring up of the dynamos and switchboard and all instruments, together with bus-bars, etc. --in fact, all labor and material usedin the electrical wiring installation--amounted to the sum of $90. Ireceived a rather sharp letter from the New York office expostulatingfor this EXTRAVAGANT EXPENDITURE, and stating that great economy mustbe observed in future!" The street conductors were of the overheadpole-line construction, and were installed by the construction companythat had been organized by Edison to build and equip central stations. A special type of street pole had been devised by him for the three-wiresystem. 

 [Footnote 14: By reason of the experience gained at this station through the use of these crude plug-switches, Mr. Edison started a competition among a few of his assistants to devise something better. The result was the invention of a "breakdown" switch by Mr. W. S. Andrews, which was accepted by Mr. Edison as the best of the devices suggested, and was developed and used for a great many years afterward. ]

Supplementing the story of Mr. Andrews is that of Lieut. F. J. Sprague, who also gives a curious glimpse of the glorious uncertainties andvicissitudes of that formative period. Mr. Sprague served on the juryat the Crystal Palace Exhibition with Darwin's son--the present SirHorace--and after the tests were ended left the Navy and enteredEdison's service at the suggestion of Mr. E. H. Johnson, who wasEdison's shrewd recruiting sergeant in those days: "I resigned soonerthan Johnson expected, and he had me on his hands. Meanwhile he hadcalled upon me to make a report of the three-wire system, known inEngland as the Hopkinson, both Dr. John Hopkinson and Mr. Edison beingindependent inventors at practically the same time. I reported on that, left London, and landed in New York on the day of the opening of theBrooklyn Bridge in 1883--May 24--with a year's leave of absence. 

"I reported at the office of Mr. Edison on Fifth Avenue and told him Ihad seen Johnson. He looked me over and said: 'What did he promise you?'I replied: 'Twenty-five hundred dollars a year. ' He did not say much, but looked it. About that time Mr. Andrews and I came together. On July2d of that year we were ordered to Sunbury, and to be ready to start thestation on the fourth. The electrical work had to be done in forty-eighthours! Having travelled around the world, I had cultivated anindifference to any special difficulties of that kind. Mr. Andrews andI worked in collaboration until the night of the third. I think he wasperhaps more appreciative than I was of the discipline of the EdisonConstruction Department, and thought it would be well for us to waituntil the morning of the fourth before we started up. I said we weresent over to get going, and insisted on starting up on the night of thethird. We had an Armington & Sims engine with sight-feed oiler. I hadnever seen one, and did not know how it worked, with the result that wesoon burned up the babbitt metal in the bearings and spent a good partof the night getting them in order. The next day Mr. Edison, Mr. Insull, and the chief engineer of the construction department appeared onthe scene and wanted to know what had happened. They found an enginesomewhat loose in the bearings, and there followed remarks which wouldnot look well in print. Andrews skipped from under; he obeyed orders; Idid not. But the plant ran, and it was the first three-wire station inthis country. "

Seen from yet another angle, the worries of this early work were notmerely those of the men on the "firing line. " Mr. Insull, in speakingof this period, says: "When it was found difficult to push thecentral-station business owing to the lack of confidence in itsfinancial success, Edison decided to go into the business of promotingand constructing central-station plants, and he formed what was known asthe Thomas A. Edison Construction Department, which he put me in chargeof. The organization was crude, the steam-engineering talent poor, and owing to the impossibility of getting any considerable capitalsubscribed, the plants were put in as cheaply as possible. I believethat this construction department was unkindly named the 'DestructionDepartment. ' It served its purpose; never made any money; and I had theunpleasant task of presiding at its obsequies. "

On July 4th the Sunbury plant was put into commercial operation byEdison, and he remained a week studying its conditions and watching forany unforeseen difficulty that might arise. Nothing happened, however, to interfere with the successful running of the station, and for twentyyears thereafter the same two dynamos continued to furnish light inSunbury. They were later used as reserve machines, and finally, with theengine, retired from service as part of the "Collection of Edisonia";but they remain in practically as good condition as when installed in1883. 

Sunbury was also provided with the first electro-chemical meters usedin the United States outside New York City, so that it served also toaccentuate electrical practice in a most vital respect--namely, themeasurement of the electrical energy supplied to customers. At this timeand long after, all arc lighting was done on a "flat rate" basis. Thearc lamp installed outside a customer's premises, or in a circuit forpublic street lighting, burned so many hours nightly, so many nights inthe month; and was paid for at that rate, subject to rebate for hourswhen the lamp might be out through accident. The early arc lamps wererated to require 9 to 10 amperes of current, at 45 volts pressure each, receiving which they were estimated to give 2000 c. P. , which was arrivedat by adding together the light found at four different positions, sothat in reality the actual light was about 500 c. P. Few of these datawere ever actually used, however; and it was all more or less a matterof guesswork, although the central-station manager, aiming to give goodservice, would naturally see that the dynamos were so operated as tomaintain as steadily as possible the normal potential and current. Thesame loose methods applied to the early attempts to use electric motorson arc-lighting circuits, and contracts were made based on the size ofthe motor, the width of the connecting belt, or the amount of power thecustomer thought he used--never on the measurement of the electricalenergy furnished him. 

Here again Edison laid the foundation of standard practice. It is truethat even down to the present time the flat rate is applied to a greatdeal of incandescent lighting, each lamp being charged for individuallyaccording to its probable consumption during each month. This mayanswer, perhaps, in a small place where the manager can gauge prettyclosely from actual observation what each customer does; but even thenthere are elements of risk and waste; and obviously in a large city sucha method would soon be likely to result in financial disaster to theplant. Edison held that the electricity sold must be measured just likegas or water, and he proceeded to develop a meter. There was infinitescepticism around him on the subject, and while other inventors werealso giving the subject their thought, the public took it for grantedthat anything so utterly intangible as electricity, that could not beseen or weighed, and only gave secondary evidence of itself at the exactpoint of use, could not be brought to accurate registration. The generalattitude of doubt was exemplified by the incident in Mr. J. P. Morgan'soffice, noted in the last chapter. Edison, however, had satisfiedhimself that there were various ways of accomplishing the task, and haddetermined that the current should be measured on the premises ofevery consumer. His electrolytic meter was very successful, and wasof widespread use in America and in Europe until the perfection ofmechanical meters by Elihu Thomson and others brought that type intogeneral acceptance. Hence the Edison electrolytic meter is no longerused, despite its excellent qualities. Houston & Kennelly in theirElectricity in Everyday Life sum the matter up as follows: "The Edisonchemical meter is capable of giving fair measurements of the amount ofcurrent passing. By reason, however, of dissatisfaction caused from theinability of customers to read the indications of the meter, it has inlater years, to a great extent, been replaced by registering meters thatcan be read by the customer. "

The principle employed in the Edison electrolytic meter is that whichexemplifies the power of electricity to decompose a chemical substance. In other words it is a deposition bath, consisting of a glass cell inwhich two plates of chemically pure zinc are dipped in a solution ofzinc sulphate. When the lights or motors in the circuit are turned on, and a certain definite small portion of the current is diverted to flowthrough the meter, from the positive plate to the negative plate, thelatter increases in weight by receiving a deposit of metallic zinc; thepositive plate meantime losing in weight by the metal thus carriedaway from it. This difference in weight is a very exact measure of thequantity of electricity, or number of ampere-hours, that have, so tospeak, passed through the cell, and hence of the whole consumption inthe circuit. The amount thus due from the customer is ascertained byremoving the cell, washing and drying the plates, and weighing them ina chemical balance. Associated with this simple form of apparatuswere various ingenious details and refinements to secure regularity ofoperation, freedom from inaccuracy, and immunity from such tamperingas would permit theft of current or damage. As the freezing of the zincsulphate solution in cold weather would check its operation, Edisonintroduced, for example, into the meter an incandescent lamp and athermostat so arranged that when the temperature fell to a certainpoint, or rose above another point, it was cut in or out; and in thismanner the meter could be kept from freezing. The standard Edison meterpractice was to remove the cells once a month to the meter-room of thecentral-station company for examination, another set being substituted. The meter was cheap to manufacture and install, and not at all liable toget out of order. 

In December, 1888, Mr. W. J. Jenks read an interesting paper before theAmerican Institute of Electrical Engineers on the six years of practicalexperience had up to that time with the meter, then more generally inuse than any other. It appears from the paper that twenty-three Edisonstations were then equipped with 5187 meters, which were relied upon forbilling the monthly current consumption of 87, 856 lamps and 350 motorsof 1000 horse-power total. This represented about 75 per cent. Of theentire lamp capacity of the stations. There was an average cost per lampfor meter operation of twenty-two cents a year, and each meter tookcare of an average of seventeen lamps. It is worthy of note, as to thepromptness with which the Edison stations became paying properties, that four of the metered stations were earning upward of 15 per cent. On their capital stock; three others between 8 and 10 per cent. ; eightbetween 5 and 8 per cent. ; the others having been in operation too shorta time to show definite results, although they also went quickly toa dividend basis. Reports made in the discussion at the meeting byengineers showed the simplicity and success of the meter. Mr. C. L. Edgar, of the Boston Edison system, stated that he had 800 of the metersin service cared for by two men and three boys, the latter employed incollecting the meter cells; the total cost being perhaps $2500 a year. Mr. J. W. Lieb wrote from Milan, Italy, that he had in use on the Edisonsystem there 360 meters ranging from 350 ampere-hours per month up to30, 000. 

In this connection it should be mentioned that the Association of EdisonIlluminating Companies in the same year adopted resolutions unanimouslyto the effect that the Edison meter was accurate, and that its use wasnot expensive for stations above one thousand lights; and that the bestfinancial results were invariably secured in a station selling currentby meter. Before the same association, at its meeting in September, 1898, at Sault Ste. Marie, Mr. C. S. Shepard read a paper on the meterpractice of the New York Edison Company, giving data as to the largenumber of Edison meters in use and the transition to other types, ofwhich to-day the company has several on its circuits: "Until October, 1896, the New York Edison Company metered its current in consumer'spremises exclusively by the old-style chemical meters, of which therewere connected on that date 8109. It was then determined to purchaseno more. " Mr. Shepard went on to state that the chemical meters weregradually displaced, and that on September 1, 1898, there were on thesystem 5619 mechanical and 4874 chemical. The meter continued in generalservice during 1899, and probably up to the close of the century. 

Mr. Andrews relates a rather humorous meter story of those early days:"The meter man at Sunbury was a firm and enthusiastic believer in thecorrectness of the Edison meter, having personally verified its readingmany times by actual comparison of lamp-hours. One day, on making out acustomer's bill, his confidence received a severe shock, for the meterreading showed a consumption calling for a charge of over $200, whereas he knew that the light actually used should not cost more thanone-quarter of that amount. He weighed and reweighed the meter plates, and pursued every line of investigation imaginable, but all in vain. Hefelt he was up against it, and that perhaps another kind of a job wouldsuit him better. Once again he went to the customer's meter to lookaround, when a small piece of thick wire on the floor caught his eye. The problem was solved. He suddenly remembered that after weighingthe plates he went and put them in the customer's meter; but the wireattached to one of the plates was too long to go in the meter, and hehad cut it off. He picked up the piece of wire, took it to the station, weighed it carefully, and found that it accounted for about $150 worthof electricity, which was the amount of the difference. "

Edison himself is, however, the best repertory of stories when it comesto the difficulties of that early period, in connection with meteringthe current and charging for it. He may be quoted at length as follows:"When we started the station at Pearl Street, in September, 1882, wewere not very commercial. We put many customers on, but did not make outmany bills. We were more interested in the technical condition of thestation than in the commercial part. We had meters in which there weretwo bottles of liquid. To prevent these electrolytes from freezing wehad in each meter a strip of metal. When it got very cold the metalwould contract and close a circuit, and throw a lamp into circuitinside the meter. The heat from this lamp would prevent the liquid fromfreezing, so that the meter could go on doing its duty. The first coldday after starting the station, people began to come in from theiroffices, especially down in Front Street and Water Street, saying themeter was on fire. We received numerous telephone messages about it. Some had poured water on it, and others said: 'Send a man right up toput it out. '

"After the station had been running several months and was technicallya success, we began to look after the financial part. We started tocollect some bills; but we found that our books were kept badly, andthat the person in charge, who was no business man, had neglected thatpart of it. In fact, he did not know anything about the station, anyway. So I got the directors to permit me to hire a man to run the station. This was Mr. Chinnock, who was then superintendent of the MetropolitanTelephone Company of New York. I knew Chinnock to be square and ofgood business ability, and induced him to leave his job. I made him apersonal guarantee, that if he would take hold of the station and put iton a commercial basis, and pay 5 per cent. On $600, 000, I would give him$10, 000 out of my own pocket. He took hold, performed the feat, andI paid him the $10, 000. I might remark in this connection that yearsafterward I applied to the Edison Electric Light Company asking themif they would not like to pay me this money, as it was spent when I wasvery hard up and made the company a success, and was the foundation oftheir present prosperity. They said they 'were sorry'--that is, 'WallStreet sorry'--and refused to pay it. This shows what a nice, genial, generous lot of people they have over in Wall Street. 

"Chinnock had a great deal of trouble getting the customers straightenedout. I remember one man who had a saloon on Nassau Street. He had hadhis lights burning for two or three months. It was in June, and Chinnockput in a bill for $20; July for $20; August about $28; September about$35. Of course the nights were getting longer. October about $40;November about $45. Then the man called Chinnock up. He said: 'I want tosee you about my electric-light bill. ' Chinnock went up to see him. Hesaid: 'Are you the manager of this electric-light plant?' Chinnock said:'I have the honor. ' 'Well, ' he said, my bill has gone from $20 up to$28, $35, $45. I want you to understand, young fellow, that my limit is$60. '

"After Chinnock had had all this trouble due to the incompetency of theprevious superintendent, a man came in and said to him: 'Did Mr. Blankhave charge of this station?' 'Yes. ' 'Did he know anything about runninga station like this?' Chinnock said: 'Does he KNOW anything aboutrunning a station like this? No, sir. He doesn't even suspect anything. '

"One day Chinnock came to me and said: 'I have a new customer. ' I said:'What is it?' He said: 'I have a fellow who is going to take two hundredand fifty lights. ' I said: 'What for?' 'He has a place down here in atop loft, and has got two hundred and fifty barrels of "rotgut" whiskey. He puts a light down in the barrel and lights it up, and it ages thewhiskey. ' I met Chinnock several weeks after, and said: 'How is thewhiskey man getting along?' 'It's all right; he is paying his bill. Itfixes the whiskey and takes the shudder right out of it. ' Somebody wentand took out a patent on this idea later. 

"In the second year we put the Stock Exchange on the circuits of thestation, but were very fearful that there would be a combination ofheavy demand and a dark day, and that there would be an overloadedstation. We had an index like a steam-gauge, called an ampere-meter, toindicate the amount of current going out. I was up at 65 Fifth Avenueone afternoon. A sudden black cloud came up, and I telephoned toChinnock and asked him about the load. He said: 'We are up to themuzzle, and everything is running all right. ' By-and-by it became sothick we could not see across the street. I telephoned again, and feltsomething would happen, but fortunately it did not. I said toChinnock: 'How is it now?' He replied: 'Everything is red-hot, and theampere-meter has made seventeen revolutions. '"

In 1883 no such fittings as "fixture insulators" were known. It wasthe common practice to twine the electric wires around the disusedgas-fixtures, fasten them with tape or string, and connect them tolamp-sockets screwed into attachments under the gas-burners--elaboratedlater into what was known as the "combination fixture. " As a resultit was no uncommon thing to see bright sparks snapping between thechandelier and the lighting wires during a sharp thunder-storm. Astartling manifestation of this kind happened at Sunbury, when the vividdisplay drove nervous guests of the hotel out into the street, and theprovidential storm led Mr. Luther Stieringer to invent the "insulatingjoint. " This separated the two lighting systems thoroughly, went intoimmediate service, and is universally used to-day. 

Returning to the more specific subject of pioneer plants of importance, that at Brockton must be considered for a moment, chiefly for the reasonthat the city was the first in the world to possess an Edison stationdistributing current through an underground three-wire network ofconductors--the essentially modern contemporaneous practice, standard twenty-five years later. It was proposed to employ pole-lineconstruction with overhead wires, and a party of Edison engineers droveabout the town in an open barouche with a blue-print of the circuits andstreets spread out on their knees, to determine how much tree-trimmingwould be necessary. When they came to some heavily shaded spots, thefine trees were marked "T" to indicate that the work in getting throughthem would be "tough. " Where the trees were sparse and the foliage wasthin, the same cheerful band of vandals marked the spots "E" to indicatethat there it would be "easy" to run the wires. In those days publicopinion was not so alive as now to the desirability of preservingshade-trees, and of enhancing the beauty of a city instead of destroyingit. Brockton had a good deal of pride in its fine trees, and a strongsentiment was very soon aroused against the mutilation proposed sothoughtlessly. The investors in the enterprise were ready and anxiousto meet the extra cost of putting the wires underground. Edison's ownwishes were altogether for the use of the methods he had so carefullydevised; and hence that bustling home of shoe manufacture was sparedthis infliction of more overhead wires. 

The station equipment at Brockton consisted at first of three dynamos, one of which was so arranged as to supply both sides of the systemduring light loads by a breakdown switch connection. This arrangementinterfered with correct meter registration, as the meters on one side ofthe system registered backward during the hours in which the combinationwas employed. Hence, after supplying an all-night customer whose lampswere on one side of the circuits, the company might be found to owe himsome thing substantial in the morning. Soon after the station went intooperation this ingenious plan was changed, and the third dynamo wasreplaced by two others. The Edison construction department took entirecharge of the installation of the plant, and the formal opening wasattended on October 1, 1883, by Mr. Edison, who then remained a week inceaseless study and consultation over the conditions developed bythis initial three-wire underground plant. Some idea of the confidenceinspired by the fame of Edison at this period is shown by the fact thatthe first theatre ever lighted from a central station by incandescentlamps was designed this year, and opened in 1884 at Brockton with anequipment of three hundred lamps. The theatre was never piped for gas!It was also from the Brockton central station that current was firstsupplied to a fire-engine house--another display of remarkably earlybelief in the trustworthiness of the service, under conditions wherecontinuity of lighting was vital. The building was equipped in such amanner that the striking of the fire-alarm would light every lamp inthe house automatically and liberate the horses. It was at this centralstation that Lieutenant Sprague began his historic work on the electricmotor; and here that another distinguished engineer and inventor, Mr. H. Ward Leonard, installed the meters and became meter man, in order thathe might study in every intimate detail the improvements and refinementsnecessary in that branch of the industry. 

The authors are indebted for these facts and some other data embodied inthis book to Mr. W. J. Jenks, who as manager of this plant here made hisdebut in the Edison ranks. He had been connected with local telephoneinterests, but resigned to take active charge of this plant, imbibingquickly the traditional Edison spirit, working hard all day and sleepingin the station at night on a cot brought there for that purpose. Itwas a time of uninterrupted watchfulness. The difficulty of obtainingengineers in those days to run the high-speed engines (three hundred andfifty revolutions per minute) is well illustrated by an amusing incidentin the very early history of the station. A locomotive engineer hadbeen engaged, as it was supposed he would not be afraid of anything. Oneevening there came a sudden flash of fire and a spluttering, sizzlingnoise. There had been a short-circuit on the copper mains in thestation. The fireman hid behind the boiler and the engineer jumped outof the window. Mr. Sprague realized the trouble, quickly threw off thecurrent and stopped the engine. 

Mr. Jenks relates another humorous incident in connection with thisplant: "One night I heard a knock at the office door, and on opening itsaw two well-dressed ladies, who asked if they might be shown through. I invited them in, taking them first to the boiler-room, where I showedthem the coal-pile, explaining that this was used to generate steam inthe boiler. We then went to the dynamo-room, where I pointed out themachines converting the steam-power into electricity, appearing later inthe form of light in the lamps. After that they were shown the metersby which the consumption of current was measured. They appeared to beinterested, and I proceeded to enter upon a comparison of coal madeinto gas or burned under a boiler to be converted into electricity. Theladies thanked me effusively and brought their visit to a close. As theywere about to go through the door, one of them turned to me and said:'We have enjoyed this visit very much, but there is one question wewould like to ask: What is it that you make here?'"

The Brockton station was for a long time a show plant of the Edisoncompany, and had many distinguished visitors, among them being Prof. Elihu Thomson, who was present at the opening, and Sir W. H. Preece, of London. The engineering methods pursued formed the basis of similarinstallations in Lawrence, Massachusetts, in November, 1883; in FallRiver, Massachusetts, in December, 1883; and in Newburgh, New York, thefollowing spring. 

Another important plant of this period deserves special mention, as itwas the pioneer in the lighting of large spaces by incandescent lamps. This installation of five thousand lamps on the three-wire system wasmade to illuminate the buildings at the Louisville, Kentucky, Exposition in 1883, and, owing to the careful surveys, calculations, and preparations of H. M. Byllesby and the late Luther Stieringer, wascompleted and in operation within six weeks after the placing of theorder. The Jury of Awards, in presenting four medals to the Edisoncompany, took occasion to pay a high compliment to the efficiency of thesystem. It has been thought by many that the magnificent success ofthis plant did more to stimulate the growth of the incandescent lightingbusiness than any other event in the history of the Edison company. Itwas literally the beginning of the electrical illumination of AmericanExpositions, carried later to such splendid displays as those of theChicago World's Fair in 1893, Buffalo in 1901, and St. Louis in 1904. 

Thus the art was set going in the United States under many difficulties, but with every sign of coming triumph. Reference has already been madeto the work abroad in Paris and London. The first permanent Edisonstation in Europe was that at Milan, Italy, for which the order wasgiven as early as May, 1882, by an enterprising syndicate. Less thana year later, March 3, 1883, the installation was ready and was put inoperation, the Theatre Santa Radegonda having been pulled down and anew central-station building erected in its place--probably the firstedifice constructed in Europe for the specific purpose of incandescentlighting. Here "Jumbos" were installed from time to time, until atlast there were no fewer than ten of them; and current was furnishedto customers with a total of nearly ten thousand lamps connected to themains. This pioneer system was operated continuously until February9, 1900, or for a period of about seventeen years, when the sturdy oldmachines, still in excellent condition, were put out of service, so thata larger plant could be installed to meet the demand. This new planttakes high-tension polyphase current from a water-power thirty or fortymiles away at Paderno, on the river Adda, flowing from the Apennines;but delivers low-tension direct current for distribution to the regularEdison three-wire system throughout Milan. 

About the same time that southern Europe was thus opened up to thenew system, South America came into line, and the first Edison centralstation there was installed at Santiago, Chile, in the summer of 1883, under the supervision of Mr. W. N. Stewart. This was the result of thesuccess obtained with small isolated plants, leading to the formation ofan Edison company. It can readily be conceived that at such an extremedistance from the source of supply of apparatus the plant was subject tomany peculiar difficulties from the outset, of which Mr. Stewart speaksas follows: "I made an exhibition of the 'Jumbo' in the theatreat Santiago, and on the first evening, when it was filled with thearistocracy of the city, I discovered to my horror that the binding wirearound the armature was slowly stripping off and going to pieces. We hadno means of boring out the field magnets, and we cut grooves in them. I think the machine is still running (1907). The station went intooperation soon after with an equipment of eight Edison 'K' dynamos withcertain conditions inimical to efficiency, but which have not hinderedthe splendid expansion of the local system. With those eight dynamos wehad four belts between each engine and the dynamo. The steam pressurewas limited to seventy-five pounds per square inch. We had two-wireunderground feeders, sent without any plans or specifications for theirinstallation. The station had neither voltmeter nor ammeter. The currentpressure was regulated by a galvanometer. We were using coal costing $12a ton, and were paid for our light in currency worth fifty cents on thedollar. The only thing I can be proud of in connection with the plant isthe fact that I did not design it, that once in a while we made out topay its operating expenses, and that occasionally we could run it forthree months without a total breakdown. "

It was not until 1885 that the first Edison station in Germany wasestablished; but the art was still very young, and the plant representedpioneer lighting practice in the Empire. The station at Berlin comprisedfive boilers, and six vertical steam-engines driving by belts twelveEdison dynamos, each of about fifty-five horse-power capacity. A modelof this station is preserved in the Deutschen Museum at Munich. In thebulletin of the Berlin Electricity Works for May, 1908, it is said withregard to the events that led up to the creation of the system, as notedalready at the Rathenau celebration: "The year 1881 was a mile-stonein the history of the Allgemeine Elektricitaets Gesellschaft. TheInternational Electrical Exposition at Paris was intended to placebefore the eyes of the civilized world the achievements of thecentury. Among the exhibits of that Exposition was the Edison systemof incandescent lighting. IT BECAME THE BASIS OF MODERN HEAVYCURRENT TECHNICS. " The last phrase is italicized as being a happy andauthoritative description, as well as a tribute. 

This chapter would not be complete if it failed to include somereference to a few of the earlier isolated plants of a historiccharacter. Note has already been made of the first Edison plants afloaton the Jeannette and Columbia, and the first commercial plant in the NewYork lithographic establishment. The first mill plant was placed in thewoollen factory of James Harrison at Newburgh, New York, about September15, 1881. A year later, Mr. Harrison wrote with some pride: "I believemy mill was the first lighted with your electric light, and thereforemay be called No. 1. Besides being job No. 1 it is a No. 1 job, and aNo. 1 light, being better and cheaper than gas and absolutely safe asto fire. " The first steam-yacht lighted by incandescent lamps was JamesGordon Bennett's Namouna, equipped early in 1882 with a plant for onehundred and twenty lamps of eight candlepower, which remained in usethere many years afterward. 

The first Edison plant in a hotel was started in October, 1881, at theBlue Mountain House in the Adirondacks, and consisted of two "Z" dynamoswith a complement of eight and sixteen candle lamps. The hotel issituated at an elevation of thirty-five hundred feet above the sea, andwas at that time forty miles from the railroad. The machinery was takenup in pieces on the backs of mules from the foot of the mountain. Theboilers were fired by wood, as the economical transportation of coal wasa physical impossibility. For a six-hour run of the plant one-quarter ofa cord of wood was required, at a cost of twenty-five cents per cord. 

The first theatre in the United States to be lighted by an Edisonisolated plant was the Bijou Theatre, Boston. The installation ofboilers, engines, dynamos, wiring, switches, fixtures, three stageregulators, and six hundred and fifty lamps, was completed in elevendays after receipt of the order, and the plant was successfully operatedat the opening of the theatre, on December 12, 1882. 

The first plant to be placed on a United States steamship was theone consisting of an Edison "Z" dynamo and one hundred and twentyeight-candle lamps installed on the Fish Commission's steamer Albatrossin 1883. The most interesting feature of this installation was theemployment of special deep-sea lamps, supplied with current through acable nine hundred and forty feet in length, for the purpose of alluringfish. By means of the brilliancy of the lamps marine animals in thelower depths were attracted and then easily ensnared. 

CHAPTER XVIII

THE ELECTRIC RAILWAY

EDISON had no sooner designed his dynamo in 1879 than he adopted thesame form of machine for use as a motor. The two are shown in theScientific American of October 18, 1879, and are alike, except thatthe dynamo is vertical and the motor lies in a horizontal position, the article remarking: "Its construction differs but slightly from theelectric generator. " This was but an evidence of his early appreciationof the importance of electricity as a motive power; but it will probablysurprise many people to know that he was the inventor of an electricmotor before he perfected his incandescent lamp. His interest in thesubject went back to his connection with General Lefferts in the days ofthe evolution of the stock ticker. While Edison was carrying on his shopat Newark, New Jersey, there was considerable excitement in electricalcircles over the Payne motor, in regard to the alleged performance ofwhich Governor Cornell of New York and other wealthy capitalists werequite enthusiastic. Payne had a shop in Newark, and in one small roomwas the motor, weighing perhaps six hundred pounds. It was of circularform, incased in iron, with the ends of several small magnets stickingthrough the floor. A pulley and belt, connected to a circular saw largerthan the motor, permitted large logs of oak timber to be sawed with easewith the use of two small cells of battery. Edison's friend, GeneralLefferts, had become excited and was determined to invest a large sumof money in the motor company, but knowing Edison's intimate familiaritywith all electrical subjects he was wise enough to ask his young expertto go and see the motor with him. At an appointed hour Edison went tothe office of the motor company and found there the venerable ProfessorMorse, Governor Cornell, General Lefferts, and many others who had beeninvited to witness a performance of the motor. They all proceeded to theroom where the motor was at work. Payne put a wire in the binding-postof the battery, the motor started, and an assistant began sawing a heavyoak log. It worked beautifully, and so great was the power developed, apparently, from the small battery, that Morse exclaimed: "I am thankfulthat I have lived to see this day. " But Edison kept a close watch on themotor. The results were so foreign to his experience that he knew therewas a trick in it. He soon discovered it. While holding his hand on theframe of the motor he noticed a tremble coincident with the exhaust ofan engine across the alleyway, and he then knew that the power came fromthe engine by a belt under the floor, shifted on and off by a magnet, the other magnets being a blind. He whispered to the General to puthis hand on the frame of the motor, watch the exhaust, and note thecoincident tremor. The General did so, and in about fifteen seconds hesaid: "Well, Edison, I must go now. This thing is a fraud. " And thushe saved his money, although others not so shrewdly advised were easilypersuaded to invest by such a demonstration. 

A few years later, in 1878, Edison went to Wyoming with a group ofastronomers, to test his tasimeter during an eclipse of the sun, andsaw the land white to harvest. He noticed the long hauls to market orelevator that the farmers had to make with their loads of grain at greatexpense, and conceived the idea that as ordinary steam-railroad servicewas too costly, light electric railways might be constructed that couldbe operated automatically over simple tracks, the propelling motorsbeing controlled at various points. Cheap to build and cheap tomaintain, such roads would be a great boon to the newer farming regionsof the West, where the highways were still of the crudest character, andwhere transportation was the gravest difficulty with which the settlershad to contend. The plan seems to have haunted him, and he had nosooner worked out a generator and motor that owing to their low internalresistance could be operated efficiently, than he turned his hand to thepractical trial of such a railroad, applicable to both the haulage offreight and the transportation of passengers. Early in 1880, when thetremendous rush of work involved in the invention of the incandescentlamp intermitted a little, he began the construction of a stretch oftrack close to the Menlo Park laboratory, and at the same time built anelectric locomotive to operate over it. 

This is a fitting stage at which to review briefly what had been donein electric traction up to that date. There was absolutely no art, butthere had been a number of sporadic and very interesting experimentsmade. The honor of the first attempt of any kind appears to rest withthis country and with Thomas Davenport, a self-trained blacksmith, ofBrandon, Vermont, who made a small model of a circular electric railwayand cars in 1834, and exhibited it the following year in Springfield, Boston, and other cities. Of course he depended upon batteries forcurrent, but the fundamental idea was embodied of using the track forthe circuit, one rail being positive and the other negative, and themotor being placed across or between them in multiple arc to receivethe current. Such are also practically the methods of to-day. The littlemodel was in good preservation up to the year 1900, when, being shippedto the Paris Exposition, it was lost, the steamer that carried itfoundering in mid-ocean. The very broad patent taken out by this simplemechanic, so far ahead of his times, was the first one issued inAmerica for an electric motor. Davenport was also the first man to applyelectric power to the printing-press, in 1840. In his traction work hehad a close second in Robert Davidson, of Aberdeen, Scotland, who in1839 operated both a lathe and a small locomotive with the motor he hadinvented. His was the credit of first actually carrying passengers--twoat a time, over a rough plank road--while it is said that his was thefirst motor to be tried on real tracks, those of the Edinburgh-Glasgowroad, making a speed of four miles an hour. 

The curse of this work and of all that succeeded it for a score of yearswas the necessity of depending upon chemical batteries for current, themachine usually being self-contained and hauling the batteries alongwith itself, as in the case of the famous Page experiments in April, 1851, when a speed of nineteen miles an hour was attained on the lineof the Washington & Baltimore road. To this unfruitful period belonged, however, the crude idea of taking the current from a stationary sourceof power by means of an overhead contact, which has found its practicalevolution in the modern ubiquitous trolley; although the patent forthis, based on his caveat of 1879, was granted several years laterthan that to Stephen D. Field, for the combination of an electric motoroperated by means of a current from a stationary dynamo or source ofelectricity conducted through the rails. As a matter of fact, in 1856and again in 1875, George F. Green, a jobbing machinist, of Kalamazoo, Michigan, built small cars and tracks to which current was fed from adistant battery, enough energy being utilized to haul one hundred poundsof freight or one passenger up and down a "road" two hundred feet long. All the work prior to the development of the dynamo as a source ofcurrent was sporadic and spasmodic, and cannot be said to have left anytrace on the art, though it offered many suggestions as to operativemethods. 

The close of the same decade of the nineteenth century that saw theelectric light brought to perfection, saw also the realization inpractice of all the hopes of fifty years as to electric traction. Bothutilizations depended upon the supply of current now cheaply obtainablefrom the dynamo. These arts were indeed twins, feeding at inexhaustiblebreasts. In 1879, at the Berlin Exhibition, the distinguished firm ofSiemens, to whose ingenuity and enterprise electrical development owesso much, installed a road about one-third of a mile in length, overwhich the locomotive hauled a train of three small cars at a speed ofabout eight miles an hour, carrying some twenty persons every trip. Current was fed from a dynamo to the motor through a central third rail, the two outer rails being joined together as the negative or returncircuit. Primitive but essentially successful, this little road made aprofound impression on the minds of many inventors and engineers, andmarked the real beginning of the great new era, which has already seenelectricity applied to the operation of main lines of trunk railways. But it is not to be supposed that on the part of the public there wasany great amount of faith then discernible; and for some years thepioneers had great difficulty, especially in this country, in raisingmoney for their early modest experiments. Of the general conditions atthis moment Frank J. Sprague says in an article in the Century Magazineof July, 1905, on the creation of the new art: "Edison was perhapsnearer the verge of great electric-railway possibilities than any otherAmerican. In the face of much adverse criticism he had developed theessentials of the low-internal-resistance dynamo with high-resistancefield, and many of the essential features of multiple-arc distribution, and in 1880 he built a small road at his laboratory at Menlo Park. "

On May 13th of the year named this interesting road went into operationas the result of hard and hurried work of preparation during the springmonths. The first track was about a third of a mile in length, startingfrom the shops, following a country road, passing around a hill at therear and curving home, in the general form of the letter "U. " The railswere very light. Charles T. Hughes, who went with Edison in 1879, and was in charge of much of the work, states that they were "second"street-car rails, insulated with tar canvas paper and things of thatsort--"asphalt. " They were spiked down on ordinary sleepers laid uponthe natural grade, and the gauge was about three feet six inches. At onepoint the grade dropped some sixty feet in a distance of three hundred, and the curves were of recklessly short radius. The dynamos supplyingcurrent to the road were originally two of the standard size "Z"machines then being made at the laboratory, popularly known throughoutthe Edison ranks as "Longwaisted Mary Anns, " and the circuits from thesewere carried out to the rails by underground conductors. They were notlarge--about twelve horse-power each--generating seventy-five amperesof current at one hundred and ten volts, so that not quite twenty-fivehorse-power of electrical energy was available for propulsion. 

The locomotive built while the roadbed was getting ready was afour-wheeled iron truck, an ordinary flat dump-car about six feet longand four feet wide, upon which was mounted a "Z" dynamo used as a motor, so that it had a capacity of about twelve horsepower. This machine waslaid on its side, with the armature end coming out at the front of thelocomotive, and the motive power was applied to the driving-axle by acumbersome series of friction pulleys. Each wheel of the locomotive hada metal rim and a centre web of wood or papier-mache, and the currentpicked up by one set of wheels was carried through contact brushes anda brass hub to the motor; the circuit back to the track, or other rail, being closed through the other wheels in a similar manner. The motor hadits field-magnet circuit in permanent connection as a shunt across therails, protected by a crude bare copper-wire safety-catch. A switch inthe armature circuit enabled the motorman to reverse the direction oftravel by reversing the current flow through the armature coils. 

Things went fairly well for a time on that memorable Thursday afternoon, when all the laboratory force made high holiday and scrambled forfoothold on the locomotive for a trip; but the friction gearing wasnot equal to the sudden strain put upon it during one run and went topieces. Some years later, also, Daft again tried friction gear in hishistorical experiments on the Manhattan Elevated road, but the resultswere attended with no greater success. The next resort of Edison was tobelts, the armature shafting belted to a countershaft on the locomotiveframe, and the countershaft belted to a pulley on the car-axle. Thelever which threw the former friction gear into adjustment was made tooperate an idler pulley for tightening the axle-belt. When the motorwas started, the armature was brought up to full revolution and then thebelt was tightened on the car-axle, compelling motion of the locomotive. But the belts were liable to slip a great deal in the process, and thechafing of the belts charred them badly. If that did not happen, and ifthe belt was made taut suddenly, the armature burned out--which itdid with disconcerting frequency. The next step was to use a number ofresistance-boxes in series with the armature, so that the locomotivecould start with those in circuit, and then the motorman could bring itup to speed gradually by cutting one box out after the other. To stopthe locomotive, the armature circuit was opened by the main switch, stopping the flow of current, and then brakes were applied by longlevers. Matters generally and the motors in particular went much better, even if the locomotive was so freely festooned with resistance-boxesall of perceptible weight and occupying much of the limited space. Thesedetails show forcibly and typically the painful steps of advance thatevery inventor in this new field had to make in the effort to reach notalone commercial practicability, but mechanical feasibility. It was allempirical enough; but that was the only way open even to the highesttalent. 

Smugglers landing laces and silks have been known to wind them aroundtheir bodies, as being less ostentatious than carrying them in a trunk. Edison thought his resistance-boxes an equally superfluous display, andtherefore ingeniously wound some copper resistance wire around one ofthe legs of the motor field magnet, where it was out of the way, servedas a useful extra field coil in starting up the motor, and dismissedmost of the boxes back to the laboratory--a few being retained under theseat for chance emergencies. Like the boxes, this coil was in serieswith the armature, and subject to plugging in and out at will by themotorman. Thus equipped, the locomotive was found quite satisfactory, and long did yeoman service. It was given three cars to pull, one anopen awning-car with two park benches placed back to back; one a flatfreight-car, and one box-car dubbed the "Pullman, " with which Edisonillustrated a system of electric braking. Although work had been begunso early in the year, and the road had been operating since May, it wasnot until July that Edison executed any application for patents on his"electromagnetic railway engine, " or his ingenious braking system. Everyinventor knows how largely his fate lies in the hands of a competent andalert patent attorney, in both the preparation and the prosecutionof his case; and Mr. Sprague is justified in observing in his Centuryarticle: "The paucity of controlling claims obtained in these earlypatents is remarkable. " It is notorious that Edison did not then enjoythe skilful aid in safeguarding his ideas that he commanded later. 

The daily newspapers and technical journals lost no time in bringing theroad to public attention, and the New York Herald of June 25th was swiftto suggest that here was the locomotive that would be "most pleasing tothe average New Yorker, whose head has ached with noise, whose eyes havebeen filled with dust, or whose clothes have been ruined with oil. " Acouple of days later, the Daily Graphic illustrated and describedthe road and published a sketch of a one-hundred-horse-power electriclocomotive for the use of the Pennsylvania Railroad between Perth Amboyand Rahway. Visitors, of course, were numerous, including many curious, sceptical railroad managers, few if any of whom except Villard couldsee the slightest use for the new motive power. There is, perhaps, some excuse for such indifference. No men in the world have more newinventions brought to them than railroad managers, and this was therankest kind of novelty. It was not, indeed, until a year later, inMay, 1881, that the first regular road collecting fares was put inoperation--a little stretch of one and a half miles from Berlin toLichterfelde, with one miniature motorcar. Edison was in reality doingsome heavy electric-railway engineering, his apparatus full of ideas, suggestions, prophecies; but to the operators of long trunk lines itmust have seemed utterly insignificant and "excellent fooling. "

Speaking of this situation, Mr. Edison says: "One day Frank Thomson, the President of the Pennsylvania Railroad, came out to see the electriclight and the electric railway in operation. The latter was then abouta mile long. He rode on it. At that time I was getting out plans tomake an electric locomotive of three hundred horse-power with six-footdrivers, with the idea of showing people that they could dispense withtheir steam locomotives. Mr. Thomson made the objection that it wasimpracticable, and that it would be impossible to supplant steam. Hisgreat experience and standing threw a wet blanket on my hopes. ButI thought he might perhaps be mistaken, as there had been many suchinstances on record. I continued to work on the plans, and about threeyears later I started to build the locomotive at the works at GoerckStreet, and had it about finished when I was switched off on some otherwork. One of the reasons why I felt the electric railway to be eminentlypractical was that Henry Villard, the President of the Northern Pacific, said that one of the greatest things that could be done would be tobuild right-angle feeders into the wheat-fields of Dakota and bring inthe wheat to the main lines, as the farmers then had to draw it fromforty to eighty miles. There was a point where it would not pay toraise it at all; and large areas of the country were thus of no value. I conceived the idea of building a very light railroad of narrow gauge, and had got all the data as to the winds on the plains, and found thatit would be possible with very large windmills to supply enough power todrive those wheat trains. "

Among others who visited the little road at this juncture were personsinterested in the Manhattan Elevated system of New York, on whichexperiments were repeatedly tried later, but which was not destinedto adopt a method so obviously well suited to all the conditions untilafter many successful demonstrations had been made on elevated roadselsewhere. It must be admitted that Mr. Edison was not very profoundlyimpressed with the desire entertained in that quarter to utilize anyimprovement, for he remarks: "When the Elevated Railroad in New York, upSixth Avenue, was started there was a great clamor about the noise, andinjunctions were threatened. The management engaged me to make a reporton the cause of the noise. I constructed an instrument that would recordthe sound, and set out to make a preliminary report, but I found thatthey never intended to do anything but let the people complain. "

It was upon the co-operation of Villard that Edison fell back, and anagreement was entered into between them on September 14, 1881, whichprovided that the latter would "build two and a half miles of electricrailway at Menlo Park, equipped with three cars, two locomotives, onefor freight, and one for passengers, capacity of latter sixty miles anhour. Capacity freight engine, ten tons net freight; cost of handlinga ton of freight per mile per horse-power to be less than ordinarylocomotive. . . . If experiments are successful, Villard to pay actualoutlay in experiments, and to treat with the Light Company for theinstallation of at least fifty miles of electric railroad in the wheatregions. " Mr. Edison is authority for the statement that Mr. Villardadvanced between $35, 000 and $40, 000, and that the work done was verysatisfactory; but it did not end at that time in any practical results, as the Northern Pacific went into the hands of a receiver, and Mr. Villard's ability to help was hopelessly crippled. The directors of theEdison Electric Light Company could not be induced to have anythingto do with the electric railway, and Mr. Insull states that the moneyadvanced was treated by Mr. Edison as a personal loan and repaid toMr. Villard, for whom he had a high admiration and a strong feelingof attachment. Mr. Insull says: "Among the financial men whose closepersonal friendship Edison enjoyed, I would mention Henry Villard, who, I think, had a higher appreciation of the possibilities of the Edisonsystem than probably any other man of his time in Wall Street. Hedropped out of the business at the time of the consolidation of theThomson-Houston Company with the Edison General Electric Company; butfrom the earliest days of the business, when it was in its experimentalperiod, when the Edison light and power system was but an idea, downto the day of his death, Henry Villard continued a strong supporter notonly with his influence, but with his money. He was the first capitalistto back individually Edison's experiments in electric railways. "

In speaking of his relationships with Mr. Villard at this time, Edisonsays: "When Villard was all broken down, and in a stupor caused by hisdisasters in connection with the Northern Pacific, Mrs. Villard sent forme to come and cheer him up. It was very difficult to rouse him from hisdespair and apathy, but I talked about the electric light to him, andits development, and told him that it would help him win it all back andput him in his former position. Villard made his great rally; he mademoney out of the electric light; and he got back control of the NorthernPacific. Under no circumstances can a hustler be kept down. If he isonly square, he is bound to get back on his feet. Villard has often beenblamed and severely criticised, but he was not the only one to blame. His engineers had spent $20, 000, 000 too much in building the road, andit was not his fault if he found himself short of money, and at thattime unable to raise any more. "

Villard maintained his intelligent interest in electric-railwaydevelopment, with regard to which Edison remarks: "At one time Mr. Villard got the idea that he would run the mountain division of theNorthern Pacific Railroad by electricity. He asked me if it could bedone. I said: 'Certainly, it is too easy for me to undertake; let someone else do it. ' He said: 'I want you to tackle the problem, ' andhe insisted on it. So I got up a scheme of a third rail and shoe anderected it in my yard here in Orange. When I got it all ready, he hadall his division engineers come on to New York, and they came over here. I showed them my plans, and the unanimous decision of the engineers wasthat it was absolutely and utterly impracticable. That system is on theNew York Central now, and was also used on the New Haven road in itsfirst work with electricity. "

At this point it may be well to cite some other statements of Edison asto kindred work, with which he has not usually been associated in thepublic mind. "In the same manner I had worked out for the ManhattanElevated Railroad a system of electric trains, and had the control ofeach car centred at one place--multiple control. This was afterwardworked out and made practical by Frank Sprague. I got up a slot contactfor street railways, and have a patent on it--a sliding contact in aslot. Edward Lauterbach was connected with the Third Avenue Railroad inNew York--as counsel--and I told him he was making a horrible mistakeputting in the cable. I told him to let the cable stand still and sendelectricity through it, and he would not have to move hundreds of tonsof metal all the time. He would rue the day when he put the cable in. "It cannot be denied that the prophecy was fulfilled, for the cable wasthe beginning of the frightful financial collapse of the system, and wastorn out in a few years to make way for the triumphant "trolley in theslot. "

Incidental glimpses of this work are both amusing and interesting. Hughes, who was working on the experimental road with Mr. Edison, tells the following story: "Villard sent J. C. Henderson, one of hismechanical engineers, to see the road when it was in operation, and wewent down one day--Edison, Henderson, and I--and went on the locomotive. Edison ran it, and just after we started there was a trestle sixty feetlong and seven feet deep, and Edison put on all the power. When we wentover it we must have been going forty miles an hour, and I could see theperspiration come out on Henderson. After we got over the trestle andstarted on down the track, Henderson said: 'When we go back I will walk. If there is any more of that kind of running I won't be in it myself. '"To the correspondence of Grosvenor P. Lowrey we are indebted for asimilar reminiscence, under date of June 5, 1880: "Goddard and I havespent a part of the day at Menlo, and all is glorious. I have ridden atforty miles an hour on Mr. Edison's electric railway--and we ran off thetrack. I protested at the rate of speed over the sharp curves, designedto show the power of the engine, but Edison said they had done it often. Finally, when the last trip was to be taken, I said I did not likeit, but would go along. The train jumped the track on a short curve, throwing Kruesi, who was driving the engine, with his face down in thedirt, and another man in a comical somersault through some underbrush. Edison was off in a minute, jumping and laughing, and declaring it amost beautiful accident. Kruesi got up, his face bleeding and a gooddeal shaken; and I shall never forget the expression of voice and facein which he said, with some foreign accent: 'Oh! yes, pairfeckly safe. 'Fortunately no other hurts were suffered, and in a few minutes we hadthe train on the track and running again. "

All this rough-and-ready dealing with grades and curves was not merehorse-play, but had a serious purpose underlying it, every trip havingits record as to some feature of defect or improvement. One particularset of experiments relating to such work was made on behalf of visitorsfrom South America, and were doubtless the first tests of the kind madefor that continent, where now many fine electric street and interurbanrailway systems are in operation. Mr. Edison himself supplies thefollowing data: "During the electric-railway experiments at Menlo Park, we had a short spur of track up one of the steep gullies. The experimentcame about in this way. Bogota, the capital of Columbia, is reached onmuleback--or was--from Honda on the headwaters of the Magdalena River. There were parties who wanted to know if transportation over the muleroute could not be done by electricity. They said the grades wereexcessive, and it would cost too much to do it with steam locomotives, even if they could climb the grades. I said: 'Well, it can't be muchmore than 45 per cent. ; we will try that first. If it will do that itwill do anything else. ' I started at 45 per cent. I got up an electriclocomotive with a grip on the rail by which it went up the 45 per cent. Grade. Then they said the curves were very short. I put the curves in. We started the locomotive with nobody on it, and got up to twenty milesan hour, taking those curves of very short radius; but it was weeksbefore we could prevent it from running off. We had to bank the tracksup to an angle of thirty degrees before we could turn the curve and stayon. These Spanish parties were perfectly satisfied we could put inan electric railway from Honda to Bogota successfully, and then theydisappeared. I have never seen them since. As usual, I paid for theexperiment. "

In the spring of 1883 the Electric Railway Company of America wasincorporated in the State of New York with a capital of $2, 000, 000 todevelop the patents and inventions of Edison and Stephen D. Field, to the latter of whom the practical work of active development wasconfided, and in June of the same year an exhibit was made at theChicago Railway Exposition, which attracted attention throughoutthe country, and did much to stimulate the growing interest inelectric-railway work. With the aid of Messrs. F. B. Rae, C. L. Healy, and C. O. Mailloux a track and locomotive were constructed for thecompany by Mr. Field and put in service in the gallery of the mainexhibition building. The track curved sharply at either end on a radiusof fifty-six feet, and the length was about one-third of a mile. Thelocomotive named "The Judge, " after Justice Field, an uncle of StephenD. Field, took current from a central rail between the two outer rails, that were the return circuit, the contact being a rubbing wire brush oneach side of the "third rail, " answering the same purpose as the contactshoe of later date. The locomotive weighed three tons, was twelve feetlong, five feet wide, and made a speed of nine miles an hour with atrailer car for passengers. Starting on June 5th, when the exhibitionclosed on June 23d this tiny but typical road had operated for over 118hours, had made over 446 miles, and had carried 26, 805 passengers. Afterthe exposition closed the outfit was taken during the same year tothe exposition at Louisville, Kentucky, where it was also successful, carrying a large number of passengers. It deserves note that at Chicagoregular railway tickets were issued to paying passengers, the first everemployed on American electric railways. 

With this modest but brilliant demonstration, to which the illustriousnames of Edison and Field were attached, began the outburst ofexcitement over electric railways, very much like the eras ofspeculation and exploitation that attended only a few years earlierthe introduction of the telephone and the electric light, but with suchsignificant results that the capitalization of electric roads in Americais now over $4, 000, 000, 000, or twice as much as that of the other twoarts combined. There was a tremendous rush into the electric-railwayfield after 1883, and an outburst of inventive activity that has rarely, if ever, been equalled. It is remarkable that, except Siemens, noEuropean achieved fame in this early work, while from America the ideasand appliances of Edison, Van Depoele, Sprague, Field, Daft, and Shorthave been carried and adopted all over the world. 

Mr. Edison was consulting electrician for the Electric Railway Company, but neither a director nor an executive officer. Just what the troublewas as to the internal management of the corporation it is hard todetermine a quarter of a century later; but it was equipped with allessential elements to dominate an art in which after its first effortsit remained practically supine and useless, while other interestsforged ahead and reaped both the profit and the glory. Dissensions arosebetween the representatives of the Field and Edison interests, andin April, 1890, the Railway Company assigned its rights to the Edisonpatents to the Edison General Electric Company, recently formed bythe consolidation of all the branches of the Edison light, power, andmanufacturing industry under one management. The only patent rightsremaining to the Railway Company were those under three Field patents, one of which, with controlling claims, was put in suit June, 1890, against the Jamaica & Brooklyn Road Company, a customer of the EdisonGeneral Electric Company. This was, to say the least, a curious andanomalous situation. Voluminous records were made by both parties tothe suit, and in the spring of 1894 the case was argued before thelate Judge Townsend, who wrote a long opinion dismissing the bill ofcomplaint. [15] The student will find therein a very complete andcareful study of the early electric-railway art. After this decision wasrendered, the Electric Railway Company remained for several years in amoribund condition, and on the last day of 1896 its property was placedin the hands of a receiver. In February of 1897 the receiver sold thethree Field patents to their original owner, and he in turn sold them tothe Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company. The Railway Companythen went into voluntary dissolution, a sad example of failure to seizethe opportunity at the psychological moment, and on the part of theinventor to secure any adequate return for years of effort and strugglein founding one of the great arts. Neither of these men was squelched bysuch a calamitous result, but if there were not something of bitternessin their feelings as they survey what has come of their work, they wouldnot be human. 

As a matter of fact, Edison retained a very lively interest inelectric-railway progress long after the pregnant days at Menlo Park, one of the best evidences of which is an article in the New YorkElectrical Engineer of November 18, 1891, which describes some importantand original experiments in the direction of adapting electricalconditions to the larger cities. The overhead trolley had by that timebegun its victorious career, but there was intense hostility displayedtoward it in many places because of the inevitable increase in thenumber of overhead wires, which, carrying, as they did, a current ofhigh voltage and large quantity, were regarded as a menace to life andproperty. Edison has always manifested a strong objection to overheadwires in cities, and urged placing them underground; and the outcryagainst the overhead "deadly" trolley met with his instant sympathy. His study of the problem brought him to the development of the modern"substation, " although the twists that later evolutions have given theidea have left it scarcely recognizable. 

 [Footnote 15: See 61 Fed. Rep. 655. ]

Mr. Villard, as President of the Edison General Electric Company, requested Mr. Edison, as electrician of the company, to devise astreet-railway system which should be applicable to the largest citieswhere the use of the trolley would not be permitted, where the slotconduit system would not be used, and where, in general, the details ofconstruction should be reduced to the simplest form. The limits imposedpractically were such as to require that the system should not cost morethan a cable road to install. Edison reverted to his ingenious lightingplan of years earlier, and thus settled on a method by whichcurrent should be conveyed from the power plant at high potential tomotor-generators placed below the ground in close proximity to therails. These substations would convert the current received at apressure of, say, one thousand volts to one of twenty volts availablebetween rail and rail, with a corresponding increase in the volume ofthe current. With the utilization of heavy currents at low voltage itbecame necessary, of course, to devise apparatus which should be able topick up with absolute certainty one thousand amperes of current atthis pressure through two inches of mud, if necessary. With his wontedactivity and fertility Edison set about devising such a contact, andexperimented with metal wheels under all conditions of speed and trackconditions. It was several months before he could convey one hundredamperes by means of such contacts, but he worked out at last asatisfactory device which was equal to the task. The next point wasto secure a joint between contiguous rails such as would permit ofthe passage of several thousand amperes without introducing undueresistance. This was also accomplished. 

Objections were naturally made to rails out in the open on the streetsurface carrying large currents at a potential of twenty volts. It wassaid that vehicles with iron wheels passing over the tracks and spanningthe two rails would short-circuit the current, "chew" themselves up, and destroy the dynamos generating the current by choking all thattremendous amount of energy back into them. Edison tackled the objectionsquarely and short-circuited his track with such a vehicle, butsucceeded in getting only about two hundred amperes through the wheels, the low voltage and the insulating properties of the axle-grease beingsufficient to account for such a result. An iron bar was also used, polished, and with a man standing on it to insure solid contact; butonly one thousand amperes passed through it--i. E. , the amount requiredby a single car, and, of course, much less than the capacity of thegenerators able to operate a system of several hundred cars. 

Further interesting experiments showed that the expected large leakageof current from the rails in wet weather did not materialize. Edisonfound that under the worst conditions with a wet and salted track, at apotential difference of twenty volts between the two rails, theextreme loss was only two and one-half horse-power. In this respect thephenomenon followed the same rule as that to which telegraph wires aresubject--namely, that the loss of insulation is greater in damp, murkyweather when the insulators are covered with wet dust than during heavyrains when the insulators are thoroughly washed by the action of thewater. In like manner a heavy rain-storm cleaned the tracks fromthe accumulations due chiefly to the droppings of the horses, whichotherwise served largely to increase the conductivity. Of course, in dryweather the loss of current was practically nothing, and, under ordinaryconditions, Edison held, his system was in respect to leakage and theproblems of electrolytic attack of the current on adjacent pipes, etc. , as fully insulated as the standard trolley network of the day. The costof his system Mr. Edison placed at from $30, 000 to $100, 000 per mile ofdouble track, in accordance with local conditions, and in this respectcomparing very favorably with the cable systems then so much in favorfor heavy traffic. All the arguments that could be urged in support ofthis ingenious system are tenable and logical at the present moment; butthe trolley had its way except on a few lines where the conduit-and-shoemethod was adopted; and in the intervening years the volume of trafficcreated and handled by electricity in centres of dense population hasbrought into existence the modern subway. 

But down to the moment of the preparation of this biography, Edison hasretained an active interest in transportation problems, and his latestwork has been that of reviving the use of the storage battery forstreet-car purposes. At one time there were a number of storage-batterylines and cars in operation in such cities as Washington, New York, Chicago, and Boston; but the costs of operation and maintenancewere found to be inordinately high as compared with those of thedirect-supply methods, and the battery cars all disappeared. The needfor them under many conditions remained, as, for example, in placesin Greater New York where the overhead trolley wires are forbidden asobjectionable, and where the ground is too wet or too often submergedto permit of the conduit with the slot. Some of the roads in GreaterNew York have been anxious to secure such cars, and, as usual, the mostresourceful electrical engineer and inventor of his times has madethe effort. A special experimental track has been laid at the Orangelaboratory, and a car equipped with the Edison storage battery and otherdevices has been put under severe and extended trial there and in NewYork. 

Menlo Park, in ruin and decay, affords no traces of the early Edisonelectric-railway work, but the crude little locomotive built by CharlesT. Hughes was rescued from destruction, and has become the propertyof the Pratt Institute, of Brooklyn, to whose thousands of technicalstudents it is a constant example and incentive. It was loaned in 1904to the Association of Edison Illuminating Companies, and by it exhibitedas part of the historical Edison collection at the St. Louis Exposition. 

CHAPTER XIX

MAGNETIC ORE MILLING WORK

DURING the Hudson-Fulton celebration of October, 1909, Burgomaster VanLeeuwen, of Amsterdam, member of the delegation sent officially fromHolland to escort the Half Moon and participate in the functions of theanniversary, paid a visit to the Edison laboratory at Orange to seethe inventor, who may be regarded as pre-eminent among those of Dutchdescent in this country. Found, as usual, hard at work--this time on hiscement house, of which he showed the iron molds--Edison took occasion toremark that if he had achieved anything worth while, it was due to theobstinacy and pertinacity he had inherited from his forefathers. To which it may be added that not less equally have the natureof inheritance and the quality of atavism been exhibited in hisextraordinary predilection for the miller's art. While those Batavianancestors on the low shores of the Zuyder Zee devoted their energies togrinding grain, he has been not less assiduous than they in reducing therocks of the earth itself to flour. 

Although this phase of Mr. Edison's diverse activities is not asgenerally known to the world as many others of a more popular character, the milling of low-grade auriferous ores and the magnetic separation ofiron ores have been subjects of engrossing interest and study to him formany years. Indeed, his comparatively unknown enterprise of separatingmagnetically and putting into commercial form low-grade iron ore, as carried on at Edison, New Jersey, proved to be the most colossalexperiment that he has ever made. 

If a person qualified to judge were asked to answer categorically as towhether or not that enterprise was a failure, he could truthfully answerboth yes and no. Yes, in that circumstances over which Mr. Edison had nocontrol compelled the shutting down of the plant at the very moment ofsuccess; and no, in that the mechanically successful and commerciallypractical results obtained, after the exercise of stupendous effortsand the expenditure of a fortune, are so conclusive that they mustinevitably be the reliance of many future iron-masters. In other words, Mr. Edison was at least a quarter of a century ahead of the times in thework now to be considered. 

Before proceeding to a specific description of this remarkableenterprise, however, let us glance at an early experiment in separatingmagnetic iron sands on the Atlantic sea-shore: "Some years ago I heardone day that down at Quogue, Long Island, there were immense depositsof black magnetic sand. This would be very valuable if the iron couldbe separated from the sand. So I went down to Quogue with one of myassistants and saw there for miles large beds of black sand on the beachin layers from one to six inches thick--hundreds of thousands of tons. My first thought was that it would be a very easy matter to concentratethis, and I found I could sell the stuff at a good price. I put up asmall plant, but just as I got it started a tremendous storm cameup, and every bit of that black sand went out to sea. During thetwenty-eight years that have intervened it has never come back. " Thisincident was really the prelude to the development set forth in thischapter. 

In the early eighties Edison became familiar with the fact that theEastern steel trade was suffering a disastrous change, and that businesswas slowly drifting westward, chiefly by reason of the discovery andopening up of enormous deposits of high-grade iron ore in the upperpeninsula of Michigan. This ore could be excavated very cheaply bymeans of improved mining facilities, and transported at low cost to lakeports. Hence the iron and steel mills east of the Alleghanies--compelledto rely on limited local deposits of Bessemer ore, and upon foreignores which were constantly rising in value--began to sustain a seriouscompetition with Western mills, even in Eastern markets. 

Long before this situation arose, it had been recognized by Easterniron-masters that sooner or later the deposits of high-grade ore wouldbe exhausted, and, in consequence, there would ensue a compellingnecessity to fall back on the low-grade magnetic ores. For many years ithad been a much-discussed question how to make these ores availablefor transportation to distant furnaces. To pay railroad charges onores carrying perhaps 80 to 90 per cent. Of useless material wouldbe prohibitive. Hence the elimination of the worthless "gangue" byconcentration of the iron particles associated with it, seemed to be theonly solution of the problem. 

Many attempts had been made in by-gone days to concentrate the iron insuch ores by water processes, but with only a partial degree of success. The impossibility of obtaining a uniform concentrate was a most seriousobjection, had there not indeed been other difficulties which renderedthis method commercially impracticable. It is quite natural, therefore, that the idea of magnetic separation should have occurred to manyinventors. Thus we find numerous instances throughout the last centuryof experiments along this line; and particularly in the last forty orfifty years, during which various attempts have been made by others thanEdison to perfect magnetic separation and bring it up to something likecommercial practice. At the time he took up the matter, however, noone seems to have realized the full meaning of the tremendous problemsinvolved. 

From 1880 to 1885, while still very busy in the development of hiselectric-light system, Edison found opportunity to plan crushing andseparating machinery. His first patent on the subject was applied forand issued early in 1880. He decided, after mature deliberation, thatthe magnetic separation of low-grade ores on a colossal scale at a lowcost was the only practical way of supplying the furnace-man with a highquality of iron ore. It was his opinion that it was cheaper to quarryand concentrate lean ore in a big way than to attempt to mine, underadverse circumstances, limited bodies of high-grade ore. He appreciatedfully the serious nature of the gigantic questions involved; and hisplans were laid with a view to exercising the utmost economy in thedesign and operation of the plant in which he contemplated the automatichandling of many thousands of tons of material daily. It may be statedas broadly true that Edison engineered to handle immense masses of stuffautomatically, while his predecessors aimed chiefly at close separation. 

Reduced to its barest, crudest terms, the proposition of magneticseparation is simplicity itself. A piece of the ore (magnetite) may bereduced to powder and the ore particles separated therefrom by the helpof a simple hand magnet. To elucidate the basic principle of Edison'smethod, let the crushed ore fall in a thin stream past such a magnet. The magnetic particles are attracted out of the straight line of thefalling stream, and being heavy, gravitate inwardly and fall to oneside of a partition placed below. The non-magnetic gangue descends ina straight line to the other side of the partition. Thus a completeseparation is effected. 

Simple though the principle appears, it was in its application to vastmasses of material and in the solving of great engineering problemsconnected therewith that Edison's originality made itself manifest inthe concentrating works that he established in New Jersey, early in thenineties. Not only did he develop thoroughly the refining of the crushedore, so that after it had passed the four hundred and eighty magnetsin the mill, the concentrates came out finally containing 91 to 93 percent. Of iron oxide, but he also devised collateral machinery, methodsand processes all fundamental in their nature. These are too numerous tospecify in detail, as they extended throughout the various ramificationsof the plant, but the principal ones are worthy of mention, such as:

 The giant rolls (for crushing). Intermediate rolls. Three-high rolls. Giant cranes (215 feet long span). Vertical dryer. Belt conveyors. Air separation. Mechanical separation of phosphorus. Briquetting. 

That Mr. Edison's work was appreciated at the time is made evidentby the following extract from an article describing the Edisonplant, published in The Iron Age of October 28, 1897; in which, aftermentioning his struggle with adverse conditions, it says: "There is verylittle that is showy, from the popular point of view, in the giganticwork which Mr. Edison has done during these years, but to those who arecapable of grasping the difficulties encountered, Mr. Edison appearsin the new light of a brilliant constructing engineer grappling withtechnical and commercial problems of the highest order. His genius asan inventor is revealed in many details of the great concentratingplant. . . . But to our mind, originality of the highest type as aconstructor and designer appears in the bold way in which he sweepsaside accepted practice in this particular field and attains results nothitherto approached. He pursues methods in ore-dressing at whichthose who are trained in the usual practice may well stand aghast. But considering the special features of the problems to be solved, hismethods will be accepted as those economically wise and expedient. "

A cursory glance at these problems will reveal their import. Mountainsmust be reduced to dust; all this dust must be handled in detail, soto speak, and from it must be separated the fine particles of ironconstituting only one-fourth or one-fifth of its mass; and then thisiron-ore dust must be put into such shape that it could becommercially shipped and used. One of the most interesting and strikinginvestigations made by Edison in this connection is worthy of note, and may be related in his own words: "I felt certain that there must belarge bodies of magnetite in the East, which if crushed and concentratedwould satisfy the wants of the Eastern furnaces for steel-making. Having determined to investigate the mountain regions of New Jersey, Iconstructed a very sensitive magnetic needle, which would dip toward theearth if brought over any considerable body of magnetic iron ore. Oneof my laboratory assistants went out with me and we visited many of themines of New Jersey, but did not find deposits of any magnitude. One day, however, as we drove over a mountain range, not known asiron-bearing land, I was astonished to find that the needle was stronglyattracted and remained so; thus indicating that the whole mountain wasunderlaid with vast bodies of magnetic ore. 

"I knew it was a commercial problem to produce high-grade Bessemer orefrom these deposits, and took steps to acquire a large amount of theproperty. I also planned a great magnetic survey of the East, and Ibelieve it remains the most comprehensive of its kind yet performed. Ihad a number of men survey a strip reaching from Lower Canada to NorthCarolina. The only instrument we used was the special magnetic needle. We started in Lower Canada and travelled across the line of marchtwenty-five miles; then advanced south one thousand feet; then backacross the line of march again twenty-five miles; then south anotherthousand feet, across again, and so on. Thus we advanced all the way toNorth Carolina, varying our cross-country march from two to twenty-fivemiles, according to geological formation. Our magnetic needle indicatedthe presence and richness of the invisible deposits of magnetic ore. We kept minute records of these indications, and when the survey wasfinished we had exact information of the deposits in every part ofeach State we had passed through. We also knew the width, length, andapproximate depth of every one of these deposits, which were enormous. 

"The amount of ore disclosed by this survey was simply fabulous. Howmuch so may be judged from the fact that in the three thousand acresimmediately surrounding the mills that I afterward established atEdison there were over 200, 000, 000 tons of low-grade ore. I also securedsixteen thousand acres in which the deposit was proportionately aslarge. These few acres alone contained sufficient ore to supply thewhole United States iron trade, including exports, for seventy years. "

Given a mountain of rock containing only one-fifth to one-fourthmagnetic iron, the broad problem confronting Edison resolved itself intothree distinct parts--first, to tear down the mountain bodily and grindit to powder; second, to extract from this powder the particles of ironmingled in its mass; and, third, to accomplish these results at a costsufficiently low to give the product a commercial value. 

Edison realized from the start that the true solution of this problemlay in the continuous treatment of the material, with the maximumemployment of natural forces and the minimum of manual labor andgenerated power. Hence, all his conceptions followed this generalprinciple so faithfully and completely that we find in the plantembodying his ideas the forces of momentum and gravity steadily inharness and keeping the traces taut; while there was no touch of thehuman hand upon the material from the beginning of the treatment to itsfinish--the staff being employed mainly to keep watch on the correctworking of the various processes. 

It is hardly necessary to devote space to the beginnings of theenterprise, although they are full of interest. They served, however, toconvince Edison that if he ever expected to carry out his scheme on theextensive scale planned, he could not depend upon the market to supplysuitable machinery for important operations, but would be obliged todevise and build it himself. Thus, outside the steam-shovel and suchstaple items as engines, boilers, dynamos, and motors, all of thediverse and complex machinery of the entire concentrating plant, assubsequently completed, was devised by him especially for the purpose. The necessity for this was due to the many radical variations made fromaccepted methods. 

No such departure was as radical as that of the method of crushing theore. Existing machinery for this purpose had been designed on thebasis of mining methods then in vogue, by which the rock was thoroughlyshattered by means of high explosives and reduced to pieces of onehundred pounds or less. These pieces were then crushed by power directlyapplied. If a concentrating mill, planned to treat five or six thousandtons per day, were to be operated on this basis the investment incrushers and the supply of power would be enormous, to say nothing ofthe risk of frequent breakdowns by reason of multiplicity of machineryand parts. From a consideration of these facts, and with his usualtendency to upset traditional observances, Edison conceived the boldidea of constructing gigantic rolls which, by the force of momentum, would be capable of crushing individual rocks of vastly greater sizethan ever before attempted. He reasoned that the advantages thusobtained would be fourfold: a minimum of machinery and parts; greatercompactness; a saving of power; and greater economy in mining. As thislast-named operation precedes the crushing, let us first consider it asit was projected and carried on by him. 

Perhaps quarrying would be a better term than mining in this case, asEdison's plan was to approach the rock and tear it down bodily. Thefaith that "moves mountains" had a new opportunity. In work of thisnature it had been customary, as above stated, to depend upon a highexplosive, such as dynamite, to shatter and break the ore to lumpsof one hundred pounds or less. This, however, he deemed to be a mostuneconomical process, for energy stored as heat units in dynamite at$260 per ton was much more expensive than that of calories in a ton ofcoal at $3 per ton. Hence, he believed that only the minimum of workshould be done with the costly explosive; and, therefore, planned to usedynamite merely to dislodge great masses of rock, and depended upon thesteam-shovel, operated by coal under the boiler, to displace, handle, and remove the rock in detail. This was the plan that was subsequentlyput into practice in the great works at Edison, New Jersey. A series ofthree-inch holes twenty feet deep were drilled eight feet apart, abouttwelve feet back of the ore-bank, and into these were inserted dynamitecartridges. The blast would dislodge thirty to thirty-five thousand tonsof rock, which was scooped up by great steam-shovels and loaded on toskips carried by a line of cars on a narrow-gauge railroad runningto and from the crushing mill. Here the material was automaticallydelivered to the giant rolls. The problem included handling and crushingthe "run of the mine, " without selection. The steam-shovel did notdiscriminate, but picked up handily single pieces weighing five or sixtons and loaded them on the skips with quantities of smaller lumps. When the skips arrived at the giant rolls, their contents were dumpedautomatically into a superimposed hopper. The rolls were well named, forwith ear-splitting noise they broke up in a few seconds the great piecesof rock tossed in from the skips. 

It is not easy to appreciate to the full the daring exemplified in thesegreat crushing rolls, or rather "rock-crackers, " without having watchedthem in operation delivering their "solar-plexus" blows. It was onlyas one might stand in their vicinity and hear the thunderous roaraccompanying the smashing and rending of the massive rocks as theydisappeared from view that the mind was overwhelmed with a sense of themagnificent proportions of this operation. The enormous force exertedduring this process may be illustrated from the fact that during itsdevelopment, in running one of the early forms of rolls, pieces of rockweighing more than half a ton would be shot up in the air to a height oftwenty or twenty-five feet. 

The giant rolls were two solid cylinders, six feet in diameter and fivefeet long, made of cast iron. To the faces of these rolls were bolted aseries of heavy, chilled-iron plates containing a number of projectingknobs two inches high. Each roll had also two rows of four-inch knobs, intended to strike a series of hammer-like blows. The rolls were setface to face fourteen inches apart, in a heavy frame, and the totalweight was one hundred and thirty tons, of which seventy tons were inmoving parts. The space between these two rolls allowed pieces of rockmeasuring less than fourteen inches to descend to other smaller rollsplaced below. The giant rolls were belt-driven, in opposite directions, through friction clutches, although the belt was not depended upon forthe actual crushing. Previous to the dumping of a skip, the rolls werespeeded up to a circumferential velocity of nearly a mile a minute, thusimparting to them the terrific momentum that would break up easily in afew seconds boulders weighing five or six tons each. It was as though arock of this size had got in the way of two express trains travellingin opposite directions at nearly sixty miles an hour. In other words, it was the kinetic energy of the rolls that crumbled up the rocks withpile-driver effect. This sudden strain might have tended to stop theengine driving the rolls; but by an ingenious clutch arrangement thebelt was released at the moment of resistance in the rolls by reason ofthe rocks falling between them. The act of breaking and crushing wouldnaturally decrease the tremendous momentum, but after the rock wasreduced and the pieces had passed through, the belt would again comeinto play, and once more speed up the rolls for a repetition of theirregular prize-fighter duty. 

On leaving the giant rolls the rocks, having been reduced to pieces notlarger than fourteen inches, passed into the series of "IntermediateRolls" of similar construction and operation, by which they were stillfurther reduced, and again passed on to three other sets of rollsof smaller dimensions. These latter rolls were also face-lined withchilled-iron plates; but, unlike the larger ones, were positivelydriven, reducing the rock to pieces of about one-half-inch size, orsmaller. The whole crushing operation of reduction from massive bouldersto small pebbly pieces having been done in less time than the tellinghas occupied, the product was conveyed to the "Dryer, " a tower ninefeet square and fifty feet high, heated from below by great open furnacefires. All down the inside walls of this tower were placed cast-ironplates, nine feet long and seven inches wide, arranged alternately in"fish-ladder" fashion. The crushed rock, being delivered at the top, would fall down from plate to plate, constantly exposing differentsurfaces to the heat, until it landed completely dried in the lowerportion of the tower, where it fell into conveyors which took it up tothe stock-house. 

This method of drying was original with Edison. At the time this adjunctto the plant was required, the best dryer on the market was of a rotarytype, which had a capacity of only twenty tons per hour, with theexpenditure of considerable power. As Edison had determined upontreating two hundred and fifty tons or more per hour, he decided todevise an entirely new type of great capacity, requiring a minimum ofpower (for elevating the material), and depending upon the force ofgravity for handling it during the drying process. A long series ofexperiments resulted in the invention of the tower dryer with a capacityof three hundred tons per hour. 

The rock, broken up into pieces about the size of marbles, having beendried and conveyed to the stock-house, the surplusage was automaticallycarried out from the other end of the stock-house by conveyors, topass through the next process, by which it was reduced to a powder. Themachinery for accomplishing this result represents another interestingand radical departure of Edison from accepted usage. He had investigatedall the crushing-machines on the market, and tried all he could get. He found them all greatly lacking in economy of operation; indeed, thehighest results obtainable from the best were 18 per cent. Of actualwork, involving a loss of 82 per cent. By friction. His nature revoltedat such an immense loss of power, especially as he proposed the crushingof vast quantities of ore. Thus, he was obliged to begin again at thefoundation, and he devised a crushing-machine which was subsequentlynamed the "Three-High Rolls, " and which practically reversed the abovefigures, as it developed 84 per cent. Of work done with only 16 percent. Loss in friction. 

A brief description of this remarkable machine will probably interestthe reader. In the two end pieces of a heavy iron frame were set threerolls, or cylinders--one in the centre, another below, and the otherabove--all three being in a vertical line. These rolls were of castiron three feet in diameter, having chilled-iron smooth face-plates ofconsiderable thickness. The lowest roll was set in a fixed bearing atthe bottom of the frame, and, therefore, could only turn around on itsaxis. The middle and top rolls were free to move up or down from andtoward the lower roll, and the shafts of the middle and upper rolls wereset in a loose bearing which could slip up and down in the iron frame. It will be apparent, therefore, that any material which passed inbetween the top and the middle rolls, and the middle and bottom rolls, could be ground as fine as might be desired, depending entirely upon theamount of pressure applied to the loose rolls. In operation the materialpassed first through the upper and middle rolls, and then between themiddle and lowest rolls. 

This pressure was applied in a most ingenious manner. On the ends of theshafts of the bottom and top rolls there were cylindrical sleeves, orbearings, having seven sheaves, in which was run a half-inch endlesswire rope. This rope was wound seven times over the sheaves as above, and led upward and over a single-groove sheave which was operated by thepiston of an air cylinder, and in this manner the pressure was appliedto the rolls. It will be seen, therefore, that the system consisted in asingle rope passed over sheaves and so arranged that it could be variedin length, thus providing for elasticity in exerting pressure andregulating it as desired. The efficiency of this system was incomparablygreater than that of any other known crusher or grinder, for while apressure of one hundred and twenty-five thousand pounds could be exertedby these rolls, friction was almost entirely eliminated because theupper and lower roll bearings turned with the rolls and revolved in thewire rope, which constituted the bearing proper. 

The same cautious foresight exercised by Edison in providing a safetydevice--the fuse--to prevent fires in his electric-light system, wasagain displayed in this concentrating plant, where, to save possibleinjury to its expensive operating parts, he devised an analogous factor, providing all the crushing machinery with closely calculated "safetypins, " which, on being overloaded, would shear off and thus stop themachine at once. 

The rocks having thus been reduced to fine powder, the mass was readyfor screening on its way to the magnetic separators. Here again Edisonreversed prior practice by discarding rotary screens and devising a formof tower screen, which, besides having a very large working capacityby gravity, eliminated all power except that required to elevate thematerial. The screening process allowed the finest part of the crushedrock to pass on, by conveyor belts, to the magnetic separators, whilethe coarser particles were in like manner automatically returned to therolls for further reduction. 

In a narrative not intended to be strictly technical, it would probablytire the reader to follow this material in detail through the numeroussteps attending the magnetic separation. These may be seen in adiagram reproduced from the above-named article in the Iron Age, andsupplemented by the following extract from the Electrical Engineer, New York, October 28, 1897: "At the start the weakest magnet at the topfrees the purest particles, and the second takes care of others; but thethird catches those to which rock adheres, and will extract particlesof which only one-eighth is iron. This batch of material goes back foranother crushing, so that everything is subjected to an equality ofrefining. We are now in sight of the real 'concentrates, ' which areconveyed to dryer No. 2 for drying again, and are then delivered tothe fifty-mesh screens. Whatever is fine enough goes through to theeight-inch magnets, and the remainder goes back for recrushing. Below the eight-inch magnets the dust is blown out of the particlesmechanically, and they then go to the four-inch magnets for finalcleansing and separation. . . . Obviously, at each step the percentage offelspar and phosphorus is less and less until in the final concentratesthe percentage of iron oxide is 91 to 93 per cent. As intimated at theoutset, the tailings will be 75 per cent. Of the rock taken from theveins of ore, so that every four tons of crude, raw, low-grade ore willhave yielded roughly one ton of high-grade concentrate and three tons ofsand, the latter also having its value in various ways. "

This sand was transported automatically by belt conveyors to the rear ofthe works to be stored and sold. Being sharp, crystalline, and even inquality, it was a valuable by-product, finding a ready sale forbuilding purposes, railway sand-boxes, and various industrial uses. Theconcentrate, in fine powdery form, was delivered in similar manner to astock-house. 

As to the next step in the process, we may now quote again from thearticle in the Iron Age: "While Mr. Edison and his associates wereworking on the problem of cheap concentration of iron ore, an addeddifficulty faced them in the preparation of the concentrates for themarket. Furnacemen object to more than a very small proportion of fineore in their mixtures, particularly when the ore is magnetic, not easilyreduced. The problem to be solved was to market an agglomerated materialso as to avoid the drawbacks of fine ore. The agglomerated product mustbe porous so as to afford access of the furnace-reducing gases to theore. It must be hard enough to bear transportation, and to carry thefurnace burden without crumbling to pieces. It must be waterproof, to acertain extent, because considerations connected with securing low ratesof freight make it necessary to be able to ship the concentrates tomarket in open coal cars, exposed to snow and rain. In many respects theattainment of these somewhat conflicting ends was the most perplexingof the problems which confronted Mr. Edison. The agglomeration of theconcentrates having been decided upon, two other considerations, notmentioned above, were of primary importance--first, to find a suitablecheap binding material; and, second, its nature must be such thatvery little would be necessary per ton of concentrates. These severerequirements were staggering, but Mr. Edison's courage did not falter. Although it seemed a well-nigh hopeless task, he entered upon theinvestigation with his usual optimism and vim. After many monthsof unremitting toil and research, and the trial of thousands ofexperiments, the goal was reached in the completion of a successfulformula for agglomerating the fine ore and pressing it into briquettesby special machinery. "

This was the final process requisite for the making of a completedcommercial product. Its practice, of course, necessitated the additionof an entirely new department of the works, which was carried intoeffect by the construction and installation of the novel mixing andbriquetting machinery, together with extensions of the conveyors, withwhich the plant had already been liberally provided. 

Briefly described, the process consisted in mixing the concentrates withthe special binding material in machines of an entirely new type, and inpassing the resultant pasty mass into the briquetting machines, where itwas pressed into cylindrical cakes three inches in diameter and one anda half inches thick, under successive pressures of 7800, 14, 000, and60, 000 pounds. Each machine made these briquettes at the rate of sixtyper minute, and dropped them into bucket conveyors by which they werecarried into drying furnaces, through which they made five loops, andwere then delivered to cross-conveyors which carried them into thestock-house. At the end of this process the briquettes were so hardthat they would not break or crumble in loading on the cars or intransportation by rail, while they were so porous as to be capable ofabsorbing 26 per cent. Of their own volume in alcohol, but repellingwater absolutely--perfect "old soaks. "

Thus, with never-failing persistence and patience, coupled with intensethought and hard work, Edison met and conquered, one by one, the complexdifficulties that confronted him. He succeeded in what he had set outto do, and it is now to be noted that the product he had striven sosedulously to obtain was a highly commercial one, for not only did thebriquettes of concentrated ore fulfil the purpose of their creation, butin use actually tended to increase the working capacity of the furnace, as the following test, quoted from the Iron Age, October 28, 1897, will attest: "The only trial of any magnitude of the briquettes inthe blast-furnace was carried through early this year at the Crane IronWorks, Catasauqua, Pennsylvania, by Leonard Peckitt. 

"The furnace at which the test was made produces from one hundred to onehundred and ten tons per day when running on the ordinary mixture. Thecharging of briquettes was begun with a percentage of 25 per cent. , and was carried up to 100 per cent. The following is the record of theresults:

 RESULTS OF WORKING BRIQUETTES AT THE CRANE FURNACE

 Quantity of Phos- ManDate Briquette Tons Silica phorus Sulphur ganese Working Per Cent. January 5th 25 104 2. 770 0. 830 0. 018 0. 500 January 6th 37 1/2 4 1/2 2. 620 0 740 0. 018 0. 350 January 7th 50 138 1/2 2. 572 0. 580 0. 015 0. 200 January 8th 75 119 1. 844 0. 264 0. 022 0. 200 January 9th 100 138 1/2 1. 712 0. 147 0. 038 0. 185

"On the 9th, at 5 P. M. , the briquettes having been nearly exhausted, the percentage was dropped to 25 per cent. , and on the 10th the outputdropped to 120 tons, and on the 11th the furnace had resumed the usualwork on the regular standard ores. 

"These figures prove that the yield of the furnace is considerablyincreased. The Crane trial was too short to settle the question to whatextent the increase in product may be carried. This increase in output, of course, means a reduction in the cost of labor and of generalexpenses. 

"The richness of the ore and its purity of course affect the limestoneconsumption. In the case of the Crane trial there was a reduction from30 per cent. To 12 per cent. Of the ore charge. 

"Finally, the fuel consumption is reduced, which in the case of theEastern plants, with their relatively costly coke, is a very importantconsideration. It is regarded as possible that Eastern furnaces willbe able to use a smaller proportion of the costlier coke andcorrespondingly increase in anthracite coal, which is a cheaper fuelin that section. So far as foundry iron is concerned, the experience atCatasauqua, Pennsylvania, brief as it has been, shows that a strongerand tougher metal is made. "

Edison himself tells an interesting little story in this connection, when he enjoyed the active help of that noble character, John Fritz, the distinguished inventor and pioneer of the modern steel industryin America. He says: "When I was struggling along with the iron-oreconcentration, I went to see several blast-furnace men to sell the oreat the market price. They saw I was very anxious to sell it, and theywould take advantage of my necessity. But I happened to go to Mr. JohnFritz, of the Bethlehem Steel Company, and told him what I was doing. 'Well, ' he said to me, 'Edison, you are doing a good thing for theEastern furnaces. They ought to help you, for it will help us out. I amwilling to help you. I mix a little sentiment with business, and I willgive you an order for one hundred thousand tons. ' And he sat right downand gave me the order. "

The Edison concentrating plant has been sketched in the briefest outlinewith a view of affording merely a bare idea of the great work of itsprojector. To tell the whole story in detail and show its logicalsequence, step by step, would take little less than a volume in itself, for Edison's methods, always iconoclastic when progress is in sight, were particularly so at the period in question. It has been said that"Edison's scrap-heap contains the elements of a liberal education, "and this was essentially true of the "discard" during the ore-millingexperience. Interesting as it might be to follow at length the numerousphases of ingenious and resourceful development that took place duringthose busy years, the limit of present space forbids their relation. Itwould, however, be denying the justice that is Edison's due to omit allmention of two hitherto unnamed items in particular that have addedto the world's store of useful devices. We refer first to the greattravelling hoisting-crane having a span of two hundred and fifteen feet, and used for hoisting loads equal to ten tons, this being the largestof the kind made up to that time, and afterward used as a model by manyothers. The second item was the ingenious and varied forms of conveyorbelt, devised and used by Edison at the concentrating works, andsubsequently developed into a separate and extensive business by anengineer to whom he gave permission to use his plans and patterns. 

Edison's native shrewdness and knowledge of human nature was put topractical use in the busy days of plant construction. It was foundimpossible to keep mechanics on account of indifferent residentialaccommodations afforded by the tiny village, remote from civilization, among the central mountains of New Jersey. This puzzling question wasmuch discussed between him and his associate, Mr. W. S. Mallory, untilfinally he said to the latter: "If we want to keep the men here we mustmake it attractive for the women--so let us build some houses that willhave running water and electric lights, and rent at a low rate. " He setto work, and in a day finished a design for a type of house. Fifty werequickly built and fully described in advertising for mechanics. Threedays' advertisements brought in over six hundred and fifty applications, and afterward Edison had no trouble in obtaining all the first-class menhe required, as settlers in the artificial Yosemite he was creating. 

We owe to Mr. Mallory a characteristic story of this period as toan incidental unbending from toil, which in itself illustrates theever-present determination to conquer what is undertaken: "Along inthe latter part of the nineties, when the work on the problem ofconcentrating iron ore was in progress, it became necessary when leavingthe plant at Edison to wait over at Lake Hopatcong one hour for aconnecting train. During some of these waits Mr. Edison had seen me playbilliards. At the particular time this incident happened, Mrs. Edisonand her family were away for the summer, and I was staying at theGlenmont home on the Orange Mountains. 

"One hot Saturday night, after Mr. Edison had looked over the eveningpapers, he said to me: 'Do you want to play a game of billiards?'Naturally this astonished me very much, as he is a man who careslittle or nothing for the ordinary games, with the single exception ofparcheesi, of which he is very fond. I said I would like to play, so wewent up into the billiard-room of the house. I took off the cloth, gotout the balls, picked out a cue for Mr. Edison, and when we banked forthe first shot I won and started the game. After making two or threeshots I missed, and a long carom shot was left for Mr. Edison, the cueball and object ball being within about twelve inches of each other, andthe other ball a distance of nearly the length of the table. Mr. Edisonattempted to make the shot, but missed it and said 'Put the balls back. 'So I put them back in the same position and he missed it the secondtime. I continued at his request to put the balls back in the sameposition for the next fifteen minutes, until he could make the shotevery time--then he said: 'I don't want to play any more. '"

Having taken a somewhat superficial survey of the great enterprise underconsideration; having had a cursory glance at the technical developmentof the plant up to the point of its successful culmination in the makingof a marketable, commercial product as exemplified in the test at theCrane Furnace, let us revert to that demonstration and note the eventsthat followed. The facts of this actual test are far more eloquent thanvolumes of argument would be as a justification of Edison's assiduouslabors for over eight years, and of the expenditure of a fortune inbringing his broad conception to a concrete possibility. In the patientsolving of tremendous problems he had toiled up the mountain-side ofsuccess--scaling its topmost peak and obtaining a view of the boundlessprospect. But, alas! "The best laid plans o' mice and men gang aftagley. " The discovery of great deposits of rich Bessemer ore in theMesaba range of mountains in Minnesota a year or two previous to thecompletion of his work had been followed by the opening up of thosedeposits and the marketing of the ore. It was of such rich characterthat, being cheaply mined by greatly improved and inexpensive methods, the market price of crude ore of like iron units fell from about$6. 50 to $3. 50 per ton at the time when Edison was ready to supply hisconcentrated product. At the former price he could have supplied themarket and earned a liberal profit on his investment, but at $3. 50 perton he was left without a reasonable chance of competition. Thus wasswept away the possibility of reaping the reward so richly earned byyears of incessant thought, labor, and care. This great and notableplant, representing a very large outlay of money, brought to completion, ready for business, and embracing some of the most brilliant andremarkable of Edison's inventions and methods, must be abandoned byforce of circumstances over which he had no control, and with it mustdie the high hopes that his progressive, conquering march to success hadlegitimately engendered. 

The financial aspect of these enterprises is often overlooked andforgotten. In this instance it was of more than usual import andseriousness, as Edison was virtually his own "backer, " putting into thecompany almost the whole of all the fortune his inventions had broughthim. There is a tendency to deny to the capital that thus takesdesperate chances its full reward if things go right, and to insist thatit shall have barely the legal rate of interest and far less than thereturn of over-the-counter retail trade. It is an absolute fact that thegreat electrical inventors and the men who stood behind them have hadlittle return for their foresight and courage. In this instance, whenthe inventor was largely his own financier, the difficulties and perilswere redoubled. Let Mr. Mallory give an instance: "During the latterpart of the panic of 1893 there came a period when we were very hardup for ready cash, due largely to the panicky conditions; and a largepay-roll had been raised with considerable difficulty. A short timebefore pay-day our treasurer called me up by telephone, and said: 'Ihave just received the paid checks from the bank, and I am fearfulthat my assistant, who has forged my name to some of the checks, hasabsconded with about $3000. ' I went immediately to Mr. Edison andtold him of the forgery and the amount of money taken, and in what anembarrassing position we were for the next pay-roll. When I had finishedhe said: 'It is too bad the money is gone, but I will tell you what todo. Go and see the president of the bank which paid the forged checks. Get him to admit the bank's liability, and then say to him that Mr. Edison does not think the bank should suffer because he happened to havea dishonest clerk in his employ. Also say to him that I shall not askthem to make the amount good. ' This was done; the bank admitting itsliability and being much pleased with this action. When I reported toMr. Edison he said: 'That's all right. We have made a friend of thebank, and we may need friends later on. ' And so it happened that sometime afterward, when we greatly needed help in the way of loans, thebank willingly gave us the accommodations we required to tide us over acritical period. "

This iron-ore concentrating project had lain close to Edison's heart andambition--indeed, it had permeated his whole being to the exclusionof almost all other investigations or inventions for a while. For fiveyears he had lived and worked steadily at Edison, leaving there only onSaturday night to spend Sunday at his home in Orange, and returning tothe plant by an early train on Monday morning. Life at Edison was of thesimple kind--work, meals, and a few hours' sleep--day by day. The littlevillage, called into existence by the concentrating works, was of themost primitive nature and offered nothing in the way of frivolity oramusement. Even the scenery is austere. Hence Edison was enabledto follow his natural bent in being surrounded day and night by hisresponsible chosen associates, with whom he worked uninterrupted byoutsiders from early morning away into the late hours of the evening. Those who were laboring with him, inspired by his unflagging enthusiasm, followed his example and devoted all their long waking hours to thefurtherance of his plans with a zeal that ultimately bore fruit in thepractical success here recorded. 

In view of its present status, this colossal enterprise at Edison maywell be likened to the prologue of a play that is to be subsequentlyenacted for the benefit of future generations, but before ringing downthe curtain it is desirable to preserve the unities by quoting thewords of one of the principal actors, Mr. Mallory, who says: "TheConcentrating Works had been in operation, and we had produced aconsiderable quantity of the briquettes, and had been able to sellonly a portion of them, the iron market being in such condition thatblast-furnaces were not making any new purchases of iron ore, andwere having difficulty to receive and consume the ores which had beenpreviously contracted for, so what sales we were able to make were atextremely low prices, my recollection being that they were between $3. 50and $3. 80 per ton, whereas when the works had started we had hoped toobtain $6. 00 to $6. 50 per ton for the briquettes. We had also thoroughlyinvestigated the wonderful deposit at Mesaba, and it was with thegreatest possible reluctance that Mr. Edison was able to come finally tothe conclusion that, under existing conditions, the concentrating plantcould not then be made a commercial success. This decision was reachedonly after the most careful investigations and calculations, as Mr. Edison was just as full of fight and ambition to make it a success aswhen he first started. 

"When this decision was reached Mr. Edison and I took the Jersey Centraltrain from Edison, bound for Orange, and I did not look forward to theimmediate future with any degree of confidence, as the concentratingplant was heavily in debt, without any early prospect of being ableto pay off its indebtedness. On the train the matter of the future wasdiscussed, and Mr. Edison said that, inasmuch as we had the knowledgegained from our experience in the concentrating problem, we must, ifpossible, apply it to some practical use, and at the same time we mustwork out some other plans by which we could make enough money to payoff the Concentrating Company's indebtedness, Mr. Edison stating mostpositively that no company with which he had personally been activelyconnected had ever failed to pay its debts, and he did not propose tohave the Concentrating Company any exception. 

"In the discussion that followed he suggested several kinds of workwhich he had in his mind, and which might prove profitable. Wefigured carefully over the probabilities of financial returns from thePhonograph Works and other enterprises, and after discussing many plans, it was finally decided that we would apply the knowledge we had gainedin the concentrating plant by building a plant for manufacturingPortland cement, and that Mr. Edison would devote his attention to thedeveloping of a storage battery which did not use lead and sulphuricacid. So these two lines of work were taken up by Mr. Edison with justas much enthusiasm and energy as is usual with him, the commercialfailure of the concentrating plant seeming not to affect his spiritsin any way. In fact, I have often been impressed strongly with the factthat, during the dark days of the concentrating problem, Mr. Edison'sdesire was very strong that the creditors of the Concentrating Worksshould be paid in full; and only once did I hear him make any referenceto the financial loss which he himself made, and he then said: 'Asfar as I am concerned, I can any time get a job at $75 per month asa telegrapher, and that will amply take care of all my personalrequirements. ' As already stated, however, he started in with themaximum amount of enthusiasm and ambition, and in the course of aboutthree years we succeeded in paying off all the indebtedness of theConcentrating Works, which amounted to several hundred thousand dollars. 

"As to the state of Mr. Edison's mind when the final decision wasreached to close down, if he was specially disappointed, there wasnothing in his manner to indicate it, his every thought being for thefuture, and as to what could be done to pull us out of the financialsituation in which we found ourselves, and to take advantage of theknowledge which we had acquired at so great a cost. "

It will have been gathered that the funds for this great experimentwere furnished largely by Edison. In fact, over two million dollars werespent in the attempt. Edison's philosophic view of affairs is given inthe following anecdote from Mr. Mallory: "During the boom times of 1902, when the old General Electric stock sold at its high-water mark of about$330, Mr. Edison and I were on our way from the cement plant at NewVillage, New Jersey, to his home at Orange. When we arrived at Dover, New Jersey, we got a New York newspaper, and I called his attention tothe quotation of that day on General Electric. Mr. Edison then asked:'If I hadn't sold any of mine, what would it be worth to-day?' and aftersome figuring I replied: 'Over four million dollars. ' When Mr. Edisonis thinking seriously over a problem he is in the habit of pulling hisright eyebrow, which he did now for fifteen or twenty seconds. Then hisface lighted up, and he said: 'Well, it's all gone, but we had a hell ofa good time spending it. '" With which revelation of an attitude worthyof Mark Tapley himself, this chapter may well conclude. 

CHAPTER XX

EDISON PORTLAND CEMENT

NEW developments in recent years have been more striking than thegeneral adoption of cement for structural purposes of all kinds inthe United States; or than the increase in its manufacture here. Asa material for the construction of office buildings, factories, anddwellings, it has lately enjoyed an extraordinary vogue; yet everyindication is confirmatory of the belief that such use has barely begun. Various reasons may be cited, such as the growing scarcity of wood, oncethe favorite building material in many parts of the country, and theincreasing dearness of brick and stone. The fact remains, indisputable, and demonstrated flatly by the statistics of production. In 1902 theAmerican output of cement was placed at about 21, 000, 000 barrels, valued at over $17, 000, 000. In 1907 the production is given as nearly49, 000, 000 barrels. Here then is an industry that doubled in five years. The average rate of industrial growth in the United States is 10 percent. A year, or doubling every ten years. It is a singular fact thatelectricity also so far exceeds the normal rate as to double in valueand quantity of output and investment every five years. There is perhapsmore than ordinary coincidence in the association of Edison with twosuch active departments of progress. 

As a purely manufacturing business the general cement industry is oneof even remote antiquity, and if Edison had entered into it merely asa commercial enterprise by following paths already so well trodden, thefact would hardly have been worthy of even passing notice. It is not inhis nature, however, to follow a beaten track except in regard to therecognition of basic principles; so that while the manufacture of EdisonPortland cement embraces the main essentials and familiar processes ofcement-making, such as crushing, drying, mixing, roasting, and grinding, his versatility and originality, as exemplified in the conception andintroduction of some bold and revolutionary methods and devices, haveresulted in raising his plant from the position of an outsider to therank of the fifth largest producer in the United States, in the shortspace of five years after starting to manufacture. 

Long before his advent in cement production, Edison had held verypronounced views on the value of that material as the one which wouldobtain largely for future building purposes on account of its stability. More than twenty-five years ago one of the writers of this narrativeheard him remark during a discussion on ancient buildings: "Wood willrot, stone will chip and crumble, bricks disintegrate, but a cement andiron structure is apparently indestructible. Look at some of the oldRoman baths. They are as solid as when they were built. " With suchconvictions, and the vast fund of practical knowledge and experience hehad gained at Edison in the crushing and manipulation of large masses ofmagnetic iron ore during the preceding nine years, it is not surprisingthat on that homeward railway journey, mentioned at the close of thepreceding chapter, he should have decided to go into the manufactureof cement, especially in view of the enormous growth of its use forstructural purposes during recent times. 

The field being a new one to him, Edison followed his usual course ofreading up every page of authoritative literature on the subject, andseeking information from all quarters. In the mean time, while he wasbusy also with his new storage battery, Mr. Mallory, who had been hardat work on the cement plan, announced that he had completed arrangementsfor organizing a company with sufficient financial backing to carry onthe business; concluding with the remark that it was now time to engageengineers to lay out the plant. Edison replied that he intended todo that himself, and invited Mr. Mallory to go with him to one of thedraughting-rooms on an upper floor of the laboratory. 

Here he placed a large sheet of paper on a draughting-table, andimmediately began to draw out a plan of the proposed works, continuingall day and away into the evening, when he finished; thus completingwithin the twenty-four hours the full lay-out of the entire plant asit was subsequently installed, and as it has substantially remainedin practical use to this time. It will be granted that this was aremarkable engineering feat, especially in view of the fact that Edisonwas then a new-comer in the cement business, and also that if theplant were to be rebuilt to-day, no vital change would be desirableor necessary. In that one day's planning every part was considered andprovided for, from the crusher to the packing-house. From one end to theother, the distance over which the plant stretches in length is abouthalf a mile, and through the various buildings spread over this spacethere passes, automatically, in course of treatment, a vast quantityof material resulting in the production of upward of two and a quartermillion pounds of finished cement every twenty-four hours, seven days inthe week. 

In that one day's designing provision was made not only for allimportant parts, but minor details, such, for instance, as the carryingof all steam, water, and air pipes, and electrical conductors in a largesubway running from one end of the plant to the other; and, an oilingsystem for the entire works. This latter deserves special mention, notonly because of its arrangement for thorough lubrication, but also onaccount of the resultant economy affecting the cost of manufacture. 

Edison has strong convictions on the liberal use of lubricants, butargued that in the ordinary oiling of machinery there is great waste, while much dirt is conveyed into the bearings. He therefore planneda system by which the ten thousand bearings in the plant are oiledautomatically; requiring the services of only two men for the entirework. This is accomplished by a central pumping and filtering plantand the return of the oil from all parts of the works by gravity. Everybearing is made dust-proof, and is provided with two interior pipes. Oneis above and the other below the bearing. The oil flows in through theupper pipe, and, after lubricating the shaft, flows out through thelower pipe back to the pumping station, where any dirt is filtered outand the oil returned to circulation. While this system of oiling isnot unique, it was the first instance of its adaptation on so large andcomplete a scale, and illustrates the far-sightedness of his plans. 

In connection with the adoption of this lubricating system thereoccurred another instance of his knowledge of materials and intuitiveinsight into the nature of things. He thought that too frequentcirculation of a comparatively small quantity of oil would, to someextent, impair its lubricating qualities, and requested his assistantsto verify this opinion by consultation with competent authorities. Onmaking inquiry of the engineers of the Standard Oil Company, his theorywas fully sustained. Hence, provision was made for carrying a largestock of oil, and for giving a certain period of rest to that alreadyused. 

A keen appreciation of ultimate success in the production of a finequality of cement led Edison to provide very carefully in his originalscheme for those details that he foresaw would become requisite--such, for instance, as ample stock capacity for raw materials and theirautomatic delivery in the various stages of manufacture, as wellas mixing, weighing, and frequent sampling and analyzing during theprogress through the mills. This provision even included the details ofthe packing-house, and his perspicacity in this case is well sustainedfrom the fact that nine years afterward, in anticipation of building anadditional packing-house, the company sent a representative to differentparts of the country to examine the systems used by manufacturers inthe packing of large quantities of various staple commodities involvingsomewhat similar problems, and found that there was none better thanthat devised before the cement plant was started. Hence, the order wasgiven to build the new packing-house on lines similar to those of theold one. 

Among the many innovations appearing in this plant are two that standout in bold relief as indicating the large scale by which Edisonmeasures his ideas. One of these consists of the crushing and grindingmachinery, and the other of the long kilns. In the preceding chapterthere has been given a description of the giant rolls, by means of whichgreat masses of rock, of which individual pieces may weigh eight or moretons, are broken and reduced to about a fourteen-inch size. The economyof this is apparent when it is considered that in other cement plantsthe limit of crushing ability is "one-man size"--that is, pieces not toolarge for one man to lift. 

The story of the kiln, as told by Mr. Mallory, is illustrative ofEdison's tendency to upset tradition and make a radical departure fromgenerally accepted ideas. "When Mr. Edison first decided to go intothe cement business, it was on the basis of his crushing-rolls and airseparation, and he had every expectation of installing duplicates of thekilns which were then in common use for burning cement. These kilns wereusually made of boiler iron, riveted, and were about sixty feet long andsix feet in diameter, and had a capacity of about two hundred barrels ofcement clinker in twenty-four hours. 

"When the detail plans for our plant were being drawn, Mr. Edison and Ifigured over the coal capacity and coal economy of the sixty-foot kiln, and each time thought that both could he materially bettered. Afterhaving gone over this matter several times, he said: 'I believe Ican make a kiln which will give an output of one thousand barrels intwenty-four hours. ' Although I had then been closely associated with himfor ten years and was accustomed to see him accomplish great things, Icould not help feeling the improbability of his being able to jump intoan old-established industry--as a novice--and start by improving the'heart' of the production so as to increase its capacity 400 percent. When I pressed him for an explanation, he was unable to give anydefinite reasons, except that he felt positive it could be done. In thisconnection let me say that very many times I have heard Mr. Edison makepredictions as to what a certain mechanical device ought to do in theway of output and costs, when his statements did not seem to be evenamong the possibilities. Subsequently, after more or less experience, these predictions have been verified, and I cannot help coming to theconclusion that he has a faculty, not possessed by the average mortal, of intuitively and correctly sizing up mechanical and commercialpossibilities. 

"But, returning to the kiln, Mr. Edison went to work immediately andvery soon completed the design of a new type which was to be one hundredand fifty feet long and nine feet in diameter, made up in ten-footsections of cast iron bolted together and arranged to be revolvedon fifteen bearings. He had a wooden model made and studied itvery carefully, through a series of experiments. These resulted sosatisfactorily that this form was finally decided upon, and ultimatelyinstalled as part of the plant. 

"Well, for a year or so the kiln problem was a nightmare to me. When westarted up the plant experimentally, and the long kiln was first put inoperation, an output of about four hundred barrels in twenty-four hourswas obtained. Mr. Edison was more than disappointed at this result. Histerse comment on my report was: 'Rotten. Try it again. ' When we became alittle more familiar with the operation of the kiln we were able toget the output up to about five hundred and fifty barrels, and a littlelater to six hundred and fifty barrels per day. I would go down toOrange and report with a great deal of satisfaction the increase inoutput, but Mr. Edison would apparently be very much disappointed, andoften said to me that the trouble was not with the kiln, but with ourmethod of operating it; and he would reiterate his first statement thatit would make one thousand barrels in twenty-four hours. 

"Each time I would return to the plant with the determination toincrease the output if possible, and we did increase it to sevenhundred and fifty, then to eight hundred and fifty barrels. Every time Ireported these increases Mr. Edison would still be disappointed. I saidto him several times that if he was so sure the kiln could turn out onethousand barrels in twenty-four hours we would be very glad to have himtell us how to do it, and that we would run it in any way he directed. He replied that he did not know what it was that kept the output down, but he was just as confident as ever that the kiln would make onethousand barrels per day, and that if he had time to work with and watchthe kiln it would not take him long to find out the reasons why. He hadmade a number of suggestions throughout these various trials, however, and, as we continued to operate, we learned additional points inhandling, and were able to get the output up to nine hundred barrels, then one thousand, and finally to over eleven hundred barrels per day, thus more than realizing the prediction made by Mr. Edison before eventhe plans were drawn. It is only fair to say, however, that prolongedexperience has led us to the conclusion that the maximum economy incontinuous operation of these kilns is obtained by working them at alittle less than their maximum capacity. 

"It is interesting to note, in connection with the Edison type of kiln, that when the older cement manufacturers first learned of it, theyridiculed the idea universally, and were not slow to predict our early'finish' as cement manufacturers. The ultimate success of the kiln, however, proved their criticisms to be unwarranted. Once aware ofits possibility, some of the cement manufacturers proceeded to availthemselves of the innovation (at first without Mr. Edison's consent), and to-day more than one-half of the Portland cement produced in thiscountry is made in kilns of the Edison type. Old plants are lengtheningtheir kilns wherever practicable, and no wide-awake manufacturerbuilding a modern plant could afford to install other than these longkilns. This invention of Mr. Edison has been recognized by the largercement manufacturers, and there is every prospect now that the entiretrade will take licenses under his kiln patents. "

When he decided to go into the cement business, Edison wasthoroughly awake to the fact that he was proposing to "butt into" anold-established industry, in which the principal manufacturerswere concerns of long standing. He appreciated fully its inherentdifficulties, not only in manufacture, but also in the marketing of theproduct. These considerations, together with his long-settled principleof striving always to make the best, induced him at the outset to studymethods of producing the highest quality of product. Thus he was led tooriginate innovations in processes, some of which have been preservedas trade secrets; but of the others there are two deserving specialnotice--namely, the accuracy of mixing and the fineness of grinding. 

In cement-making, generally speaking, cement rock and limestone inthe rough are mixed together in such relative quantities as may bedetermined upon in advance by chemical analysis. In many plants thismixture is made by barrow or load units, and may be more or lessaccurate. Rule-of-thumb methods are never acceptable to Edison, and hedevised therefore a system of weighing each part of the mixture, sothat it would be correct to a pound, and, even at that, made the device"fool-proof, " for as he observed to one of his associates: "The man atthe scales might get to thinking of the other fellow's best girl, sofifty or a hundred pounds of rock, more or less, wouldn't make muchdifference to him. " The Edison checking plan embraces two hopperssuspended above two platform scales whose beams are electricallyconnected with a hopper-closing device by means of needles dipping intomercury cups. The scales are set according to the chemist's weighingorders, and the material is fed into the scales from the hoppers. Theinstant the beam tips, the connection is broken and the feed stopsinstantly, thus rendering it impossible to introduce any more materialuntil the charge has been unloaded. 

The fine grinding of cement clinker is distinctively Edisonian inboth origin and application. As has been already intimated, its authorfollowed a thorough course of reading on the subject long beforereaching the actual projection or installation of a plant, and he hadfound all authorities to agree on one important point--namely, that thevalue of cement depends upon the fineness to which it is ground. [16] Healso ascertained that in the trade the standard of fineness was that 75per cent. Of the whole mass would pass through a 200-mesh screen. Havingmade some improvements in his grinding and screening apparatus, andbelieving that in the future engineers, builders, and contractorswould eventually require a higher degree of fineness, he determined, inadvance of manufacturing, to raise the standard ten points, so that atleast 85 per cent. Of his product should pass through a 200-mesh screen. This was a bold step to be taken by a new-comer, but his judgment, backed by a full confidence in ability to live up to this standard, hasbeen fully justified in its continued maintenance, despite the earlyincredulity of older manufacturers as to the possibility of attainingsuch a high degree of fineness. 

 [Footnote 16: For a proper understanding and full appreciation of the importance of fine grinding, it may be explained that Portland cement (as manufactured in the Lehigh Valley) is made from what is commonly spoken of as "cement rock, " with the addition of sufficient limestone to give the necessary amount of lime. The rock is broken down and then ground to a fineness of 80 to 90 per cent. Through a 200-mesh screen. This ground material passes through kilns and comes out in "clinker. " This is ground and that part of this finely ground clinker that will pass a 200-mesh screen is cement; the residue is still clinker. These coarse particles, or clinkers, absorb water very slowly, are practically inert, and have very feeble cementing properties. The residue on a 200-mesh screen is useless. ]

If Edison measured his happiness, as men often do, by merely commercialor pecuniary rewards of success, it would seem almost redundant to statethat he has continued to manifest an intense interest in the cementplant. Ordinarily, his interest as an inventor wanes in proportion tothe approach to mere commercialism--in other words, the keenness of hispleasure is in overcoming difficulties rather than the mere piling up ofa bank account. He is entirely sensible of the advantages arising froma good balance at the banker's, but that has not been the goal of hisambition. Hence, although his cement enterprise reached the commercialstage a long time ago, he has been firmly convinced of his own abilityto devise still further improvements and economical processes of greateror less fundamental importance, and has, therefore, made a constantstudy of the problem as a whole and in all its parts. By means offrequent reports, aided by his remarkable memory, he keeps in as closetouch with the plant as if he were there in person every day, andis thus enabled to suggest improvement in any particular detail. Theengineering force has a great respect for the accuracy of his knowledgeof every part of the plant, for he remembers the dimensions and detailsof each item of machinery, sometimes to the discomfiture of those whoare around it every day. 

A noteworthy instance of Edison's memory occurred in connection withthis cement plant. Some years ago, as its installation was nearingcompletion, he went up to look it over and satisfy himself as to whatneeded to be done. On the arrival of the train at 10. 40 in the morning, he went to the mill, and, with Mr. Mason, the general superintendent, started at the crusher at one end, and examined every detail all the waythrough to the packing-house at the other end. He made neither notes normemoranda, but the examination required all the day, which happened tobe a Saturday. He took a train for home at 5. 30 in the afternoon, and onarriving at his residence at Orange, got out some note-books and beganto write entirely from memory each item consecutively. He continuedat this task all through Saturday night, and worked steadily on untilSunday afternoon, when he completed a list of nearly six hundred items. The nature of this feat is more appreciable from the fact that a largenumber of changes included all the figures of new dimensions he haddecided upon for some of the machinery throughout the plant. 

As the reader may have a natural curiosity to learn whether or not thelist so made was practical, it may be stated that it was copied andsent up to the general superintendent with instructions to make themodifications suggested, and report by numbers as they were attended to. This was faithfully done, all the changes being made before the plantwas put into operation. Subsequent experience has amply proven the valueof Edison's prescience at this time. 

Although Edison's achievements in the way of improved processes andmachinery have already made a deep impression in the cement industry, it is probable that this impression will become still more profoundlystamped upon it in the near future with the exploitation of his "PouredCement House. " The broad problem which he set himself was to providehandsome and practically indestructible detached houses, which could betaken by wage-earners at very moderate monthly rentals. He turnedthis question over in his mind for several years, and arrived at theconclusion that a house cast in one piece would be the answer. Toproduce such a house involved the overcoming of many engineering andother technical difficulties. These he attacked vigorously and disposedof patiently one by one. 

In this connection a short anecdote may be quoted from Edison asindicative of one of the influences turning his thoughts in thisdirection. In the story of the ore-milling work, it has been noted thatthe plant was shut down owing to the competition of the cheap orefrom the Mesaba Range. Edison says: "When I shut down, the insurancecompanies cancelled my insurance. I asked the reason why. 'Oh, ' theysaid, 'this thing is a failure. The moral risk is too great. ' 'Allright; I am glad to hear it. I will now construct buildings that won'thave any moral risk. ' I determined to go into the Portland cementbusiness. I organized a company and started cement-works which havenow been running successfully for several years. I had so perfected themachinery in trying to get my ore costs down that the making of cheapcement was an easy matter to me. I built these works entirely ofconcrete and steel, so that there is not a wagon-load of lumber in them;and so that the insurance companies would not have any possibility ofhaving any 'moral risk. ' Since that time I have put up numerous factorybuildings all of steel and concrete, without any combustible whateverabout them--to avoid this 'moral risk. ' I am carrying further theapplication of this idea in building private houses for poor people, inwhich there will be no 'moral risk' at all--nothing whatever to burn, not even by lightning. "

As a casting necessitates a mold, together with a mixture sufficientlyfluid in its nature to fill all the interstices completely, Edisondevoted much attention to an extensive series of experiments forproducing a free-flowing combination of necessary materials. Hisproposition was against all precedent. All expert testimony pointed tothe fact that a mixture of concrete (cement, sand, crushed stone, andwater) could not be made to flow freely to the smallest parts of anintricate set of molds; that the heavy parts of the mixture could notbe held in suspension, but would separate out by gravity and makean unevenly balanced structure; that the surface would be full ofimperfections, etc. 

Undeterred by the unanimity of adverse opinions, however, he pursued hisinvestigations with the thorough minuteness that characterizes all hislaboratory work, and in due time produced a mixture which on elaboratetest overcame all objections and answered the complex requirementsperfectly, including the making of a surface smooth, even, and entirelywaterproof. All the other engineering problems have received study inlike manner, and have been overcome, until at the present writing thewhole question is practically solved and has been reduced to actualpractice. The Edison poured or cast cement house may be reckoned as areality. 

The general scheme, briefly outlined, is to prepare a model and plans ofthe house to be cast, and then to design a set of molds in sections ofconvenient size. When all is ready, these molds, which are of cast ironwith smooth interior surfaces, are taken to the place where the houseis to be erected. Here there has been provided a solid concrete cellarfloor, technically called "footing. " The molds are then locked togetherso that they rest on this footing. Hundreds of pieces are necessary forthe complete set. When they have been completely assembled, there willbe a hollow space in the interior, representing the shape of the house. Reinforcing rods are also placed in the molds, to be left behind in thefinished house. 

Next comes the pouring of the concrete mixture into this form. Largemechanical mixers are used, and, as it is made, the mixture is dumpedinto tanks, from which it is conveyed to a distributing tank on the top, or roof, of the form. From this tank a large number of open troughs orpipes lead the mixture to various openings in the roof, whence it flowsdown and fills all parts of the mold from the footing in the basementuntil it overflows at the tip of the roof. 

The pouring of the entire house is accomplished in about six hours, and then the molds are left undisturbed for six days, in order that theconcrete may set and harden. After that time the work of taking awaythe molds is begun. This requires three or four days. When the molds aretaken away an entire house is disclosed, cast in one piece, from cellarto tip of roof, complete with floors, interior walls, stairways, bathand laundry tubs, electric-wire conduits, gas, water, and heating pipes. No plaster is used anywhere; but the exterior and interior wallsare smooth and may be painted or tinted, if desired. All that isnow necessary is to put in the windows, doors, heater, and lightingfixtures, and to connect up the plumbing and heating arrangements, thusmaking the house ready for occupancy. 

As these iron molds are not ephemeral like the wooden framing now usedin cement construction, but of practically illimitable life, it isobvious that they can be used a great number of times. A complete setof molds will cost approximately $25, 000, while the necessary plantwill cost about $15, 000 more. It is proposed to work as a unit plant forsuccessful operation at least six sets of molds, to keep the men busyand the machinery going. Any one, with a sheet of paper, can ascertainthe yearly interest on the investment as a fixed charge to be assessedagainst each house, on the basis that one hundred and forty-four housescan be built in a year with the battery of six sets of molds. Puttingthe sum at $175, 000, and the interest at 6 per cent. On the cost of themolds and 4 per cent. For breakage, together with 6 per cent. Interestand 15 per cent. Depreciation on machinery, the plant charge isapproximately $140 per house. It does not require a particularly acuteprophetic vision to see "Flower Towns" of "Poured Houses" going up inwhole suburbs outside all our chief centres of population. 

Edison's conception of the workingman's ideal house has been a broadone from the very start. He was not content merely to provide a roomy, moderately priced house that should be fireproof, waterproof, andvermin-proof, and practically indestructible, but has been solicitousto get away from the idea of a plain "packing-box" type. He has alsoprovided for ornamentation of a high class in designing the details ofthe structure. As he expressed it: "We will give the workingman and hisfamily ornamentation in their house. They deserve it, and besides, itcosts no more after the pattern is made to give decorative effects thanit would to make everything plain. " The plans have provided for a typeof house that would cost not far from $30, 000 if built of cut stone. Hegave to Messrs. Mann & McNaillie, architects, New York, his idea ofthe type of house he wanted. On receiving these plans he changed themconsiderably, and built a model. After making many more changes in thiswhile in the pattern shop, he produced a house satisfactory to himself. 

This one-family house has a floor plan twenty-five by thirty feet, andis three stories high. The first floor is divided off into two largerooms--parlor and living-room--and the upper floors contain four largebedrooms, a roomy bath-room, and wide halls. The front porch extendseight feet, and the back porch three feet. A cellar seven and a halffeet high extends under the whole house, and will contain the boiler, wash-tubs, and coal-bunker. It is intended that the house shall be builton lots forty by sixty feet, giving a lawn and a small garden. 

It is contemplated that these houses shall be built in industrialcommunities, where they can be put up in groups of several hundred. Iferected in this manner, and by an operator buying his materials in largequantities, Edison believes that these houses can be erected complete, including heating apparatus and plumbing, for $1200 each. This figurewould also rest on the basis of using in the mixture the gravelexcavated on the site. Comment has been made by persons of artistictaste on the monotony of a cluster of houses exactly alike inappearance, but this criticism has been anticipated, and the molds areso made as to be capable of permutations of arrangement. Thus it willbe possible to introduce almost endless changes in the style of house byvariation of the same set of molds. 

For more than forty years Edison was avowedly an inventor for purelycommercial purposes; but within the last two years he decided to retirefrom that field so far as new inventions were concerned, and to devotehimself to scientific research and experiment in the leisure hoursthat might remain after continuing to improve his existing devices. But although the poured cement house was planned during the commercialperiod, the spirit in which it was conceived arose out of an earnestdesire to place within the reach of the wage-earner an opportunity tobetter his physical, pecuniary, and mental conditions in so far as thatcould be done through the medium of hygienic and beautiful homes atmoderate rentals. From the first Edison has declared that it was nothis intention to benefit pecuniarily through the exploitation of thisproject. Having actually demonstrated the practicability and feasibilityof his plans, he will allow responsible concerns to carry them intopractice under such limitations as may be necessary to sustain the basicobject, but without any payment to him except for the actual expenseincurred. The hypercritical may cavil and say that, as a manufacturer ofcement, Edison will be benefited. True, but as ANY good Portland cementcan be used, and no restrictions as to source of supply are enforced, he, or rather his company, will be merely one of many possiblepurveyors. 

This invention is practically a gift to the workingmen of the worldand their families. The net result will be that those who care to availthemselves of the privilege may, sooner or later, forsake thecrowded apartment or tenement and be comfortably housed in sanitary, substantial, and roomy homes fitted with modern conveniences, andbeautified by artistic decorations, with no outlay for insurance orrepairs; no dread of fire, and all at a rental which Edison believeswill be not more, but probably less than, $10 per month in any cityof the United States. While his achievement in its present status willbring about substantial and immediate benefits to wage-earners, histhoughts have already travelled some years ahead in the formulation of astill further beneficial project looking toward the individual ownershipof these houses on a basis startling in its practical possibilities. 

CHAPTER XXI

MOTION PICTURES

THE preceding chapters have treated of Edison in various aspects as aninventor, some of which are familiar to the public, others of which arebelieved to be in the nature of a novel revelation, simply because noone had taken the trouble before to put the facts together. To thosewho have perhaps grown weary of seeing Edison's name in articles ofa sensational character, it may sound strange to say that, after all, justice has not been done to his versatile and many-sided nature; andthat the mere prosaic facts of his actual achievement outrun the wildestflights of irrelevant journalistic imagination. Edison hates nothingmore than to be dubbed a genius or played up as a "wizard"; but thisfate has dogged him until he has come at last to resign himself to itwith a resentful indignation only to be appreciated when watchinghim read the latest full-page Sunday "spread" that develops a casualconversation into oracular verbosity, and gives to his shrewd surmisethe cast of inspired prophecy. 

In other words, Edison's real work has seldom been seriously discussed. Rather has it been taken as a point of departure into a realm of fancyand romance, where as a relief from drudgery he is sometimes quitewilling to play the pipe if some one will dance to it. Indeed, thestories woven around his casual suggestions are tame and vapid alongsidehis own essays in fiction, probably never to be published, but whichshow what a real inventor can do when he cuts loose to create a newheaven and a new earth, unrestrained by any formal respect for existingconditions of servitude to three dimensions and the standard elements. 

The present chapter, essentially technical in its subject-matter, isperhaps as significant as any in this biography, because it presentsEdison as the Master Impresario of his age, and maybe of many followingages also. His phonographs and his motion pictures have more audiencesin a week than all the theatres in America in a year. The "Nickelodeon"is the central fact in modern amusement, and Edison founded it. All thatmillions know of music and drama he furnishes; and the whole study ofthe theatrical managers thus reaching the masses is not to ascertain thelimitations of the new art, but to discover its boundless possibilities. None of the exuberant versions of things Edison has not done couldendure for a moment with the simple narrative of what he has really doneas the world's new Purveyor of Pleasure. And yet it all depends onthe toilful conquest of a subtle and intricate art. The story of theinvention of the phonograph has been told. That of the evolution ofmotion pictures follows. It is all one piece of sober, careful analysis, and stubborn, successful attack on the problem. 

The possibility of making a record of animate movement, and subsequentlyreproducing it, was predicted long before the actual accomplishment. This, as we have seen, was also the case with the phonograph, thetelephone, and the electric light. As to the phonograph, the predictionwent only so far as the RESULT; the apparent intricacy of the problembeing so great that the MEANS for accomplishing the desired endwere seemingly beyond the grasp of the imagination or the mastery ofinvention. 

With the electric light and the telephone the prediction included notonly the result to be accomplished, but, in a rough and general way, the mechanism itself; that is to say, long before a single sound wasintelligibly transmitted it was recognized that such a thing might bedone by causing a diaphragm, vibrated by original sounds, to communicateits movements to a distant diaphragm by a suitably controlled electriccurrent. In the case of the electric light, the heating of a conductorto incandescence in a highly rarefied atmosphere was suggested as ascheme of illumination long before its actual accomplishment, andin fact before the production of a suitable generator for deliveringelectric current in a satisfactory and economical manner. 

It is a curious fact that while the modern art of motion picturesdepends essentially on the development of instantaneous photography, the suggestion of the possibility of securing a reproduction of animatemotion, as well as, in a general way, of the mechanism for accomplishingthe result, was made many years before the instantaneous photographbecame possible. While the first motion picture was not actuallyproduced until the summer of 1889, its real birth was almost a centuryearlier, when Plateau, in France, constructed an optical toy, to whichthe impressive name of "Phenakistoscope" was applied, for producing anillusion of motion. This toy in turn was the forerunner of the Zoetrope, or so-called "Wheel of Life, " which was introduced into this countryabout the year 1845. These devices were essentially toys, depending fortheir successful operation (as is the case with motion pictures) upona physiological phenomenon known as persistence of vision. If, forinstance, a bright light is moved rapidly in front of the eye in a darkroom, it appears not as an illuminated spark, but as a line of fire;a so-called shooting star, or a flash of lightning produces the sameeffect. This result is purely physiological, and is due to the factthat the retina of the eye may be considered as practically a sensitizedplate of relatively slow speed, and an image impressed upon it remains, before being effaced, for a period of from one-tenth to one-seventh ofa second, varying according to the idiosyncrasies of the individual andthe intensity of the light. When, therefore, it is said that we shouldonly believe things we actually see, we ought to remember that in almostevery instance we never see things as they are. 

Bearing in mind the fact that when an image is impressed on the humanretina it persists for an appreciable period, varying as stated, with the individual, and depending also upon the intensity of theillumination, it will be seen that, if a number of pictures orphotographs are successively presented to the eye, they will appear asa single, continuous photograph, provided the periods between them areshort enough to prevent one of the photographs from being effaced beforeits successor is presented. If, for instance, a series of identicalportraits were rapidly presented to the eye, a single picture wouldapparently be viewed, or if we presented to the eye the seriesof photographs of a moving object, each one representing a minutesuccessive phase of the movement, the movements themselves wouldapparently again take place. 

With the Zoetrope and similar toys rough drawings were used fordepicting a few broadly outlined successive phases of movement, becausein their day instantaneous photography was unknown, and in additionthere were certain crudities of construction that seriously interferedwith the illumination of the pictures, rendering it necessary to makethem practically as silhouettes on a very conspicuous background. Hence it will be obvious that these toys produced merely an ILLUSION ofTHEORETICAL motion. 

But with the knowledge of even an illusion of motion, and with thephilosophy of persistence of vision fully understood, it wouldseem that, upon the development of instantaneous photography, thereproduction of ACTUAL motion by means of pictures would have followed, almost as a necessary consequence. Yet such was not the case, andsuccess was ultimately accomplished by Edison only after persistentexperimenting along lines that could not have been predicted, includingthe construction of apparatus for the purpose, which, if it had not beenmade, would undoubtedly be considered impossible. In fact, if it werenot for Edison's peculiar mentality, that refuses to recognize anythingas impossible until indubitably demonstrated to be so, the production ofmotion pictures would certainly have been delayed for years, if not forall time. 

One of the earliest suggestions of the possibility of utilizingphotography for exhibiting the illusion of actual movement was made byDucos, who, as early as 1864, obtained a patent in France, in whichhe said: "My invention consists in substituting rapidly and withoutconfusion to the eye not only of an individual, but when so desired of awhole assemblage, the enlarged images of a great number of pictures whentaken instantaneously and successively at very short intervals. . . . The observer will believe that he sees only one image, which changesgradually by reason of the successive changes of form and position ofthe objects which occur from one picture to the other. Even supposingthat there be a slight interval of time during which the same object wasnot shown, the persistence of the luminous impression upon the eyewill fill this gap. There will be as it were a living representation ofnature and . . . The same scene will be reproduced upon the screen withthe same degree of animation. . . . By means of my apparatus I am enabledespecially to reproduce the passing of a procession, a review ofmilitary manoeuvres, the movements of a battle, a public fete, atheatrical scene, the evolution or the dances of one or of severalpersons, the changing expression of countenance, or, if one desires, the grimaces of a human face; a marine view, the motion of waves, the passage of clouds in a stormy sky, particularly in a mountainouscountry, the eruption of a volcano, " etc. 

Other dreamers, contemporaries of Ducos, made similar suggestions; theyrecognized the scientific possibility of the problem, but they wereirretrievably handicapped by the shortcomings of photography. Even whensubstantially instantaneous photographs were evolved at a somewhatlater date they were limited to the use of wet plates, which have to beprepared by the photographer and used immediately, and were thereforequite out of the question for any practical commercial scheme. Besidesthis, the use of plates would have been impracticable, because thelimitations of their weight and size would have prevented the takingof a large number of pictures at a high rate of speed, even if thesensitized surface had been sufficiently rapid. 

Nothing ever came of Ducos' suggestions and those of the early dreamersin this essentially practical and commercial art, and their ideashave made no greater impress upon the final result than Jules Verne'sNautilus of our boyhood days has developed the modern submarine. Fromtime to time further suggestions were made, some in patents, and othersin photographic and scientific publications, all dealing with thefascinating thought of preserving and representing actual scenes andevents. The first serious attempt to secure an illusion of motion byphotography was made in 1878 by Edward Muybridge as a result of awager with the late Senator Leland Stanford, the California pioneerand horse-lover, who had asserted, contrary to the usual belief, thata trotting-horse at one point in its gait left the ground entirely. Atthis time wet plates of very great rapidity were known, and by arranginga series of cameras along the line of a track and causing the horsein trotting past them, by striking wires or strings attached to theshutters, to actuate the cameras at the right instant, a series of veryclear instantaneous photographs was obtained. From these negatives, when developed, positive prints were made, which were later mounted on amodified form of Zoetrope and projected upon a screen. 

One of these early exhibitions is described in the Scientific Americanof June 5, 1880: "While the separate photographs had shown thesuccessive positions of a trotting or running horse in making a singlestride, the Zoogyroscope threw upon the screen apparently the livinganimal. Nothing was wanting but the clatter of hoofs upon the turf, andan occasional breath of steam from the nostrils, to make the spectatorbelieve that he had before him genuine flesh-and-blood steeds. In theviews of hurdle-leaping, the simulation was still more admirable, evento the motion of the tail as the animal gathered for the jump, theraising of his head, all were there. Views of an ox trotting, a wildbull on the charge, greyhounds and deer running and birds flying inmid-air were shown, also athletes in various positions. " It must not beassumed from this statement that even as late as the work of Muybridgeanything like a true illusion of movement had been obtained, becausesuch was not the case. Muybridge secured only one cycle of movement, because a separate camera had to be used for each photograph andconsequently each cycle was reproduced over and over again. To have madephotographs of a trotting-horse for one minute at the moderate rate oftwelve per second would have required, under the Muybridge scheme, sevenhundred and twenty separate cameras, whereas with the modern art only asingle camera is used. A further defect with the Muybridge pictures wasthat since each photograph was secured when the moving object was in thecentre of the plate, the reproduction showed the object always centrallyon the screen with its arms or legs in violent movement, but not makingany progress, and with the scenery rushing wildly across the field ofview!

In the early 80's the dry plate was first introduced into generaluse, and from that time onward its rapidity and quality were graduallyimproved; so much so that after 1882 Prof. E. J. Marey, of the FrenchAcademy, who in 1874 had published a well-known treatise on "AnimalMovement, " was able by the use of dry plates to carry forward theexperiments of Muybridge on a greatly refined scale. Marey was, however, handicapped by reason of the fact that glass plates were still used, although he was able with a single camera to obtain twelve photographson successive plates in the space of one second. Marey, like Muybridge, photographed only one cycle of the movements of a single object, whichwas subsequently reproduced over and over again, and the camera was inthe form of a gun, which could follow the object so that the successivepictures would be always located in the centre of the plates. 

The review above given, as briefly as possible, comprises substantiallythe sum of the world's knowledge at the time the problem of recordingand reproducing animate movement was first undertaken by Edison. Themost that could be said of the condition of the art when Edisonentered the field was that it had been recognized that if a series ofinstantaneous photographs of a moving object could be secured at anenormously high rate many times per second--they might be passed beforethe eye either directly or by projection upon a screen, and therebyresult in a reproduction of the movements. Two very serious difficultieslay in the way of actual accomplishment, however--first, the productionof a sensitive surface in such form and weight as to be capable of beingsuccessively brought into position and exposed, at the necessarily highrate; and, second, the production of a camera capable of so taking thepictures. There were numerous other workers in the field, but they addednothing to what had already been proposed. Edison himself knew nothingof Ducos, or that the suggestions had advanced beyond the singlecentrally located photographs of Muybridge and Marey. As a matter ofpublic policy, the law presumes that an inventor must be familiar withall that has gone before in the field within which he is working, andif a suggestion is limited to a patent granted in New South Wales, oris described in a single publication in Brazil, an inventor in America, engaged in the same field of thought, is by legal fiction presumed tohave knowledge not only of the existence of that patent or publication, but of its contents. We say this not in the way of an apology for theextent of Edison's contribution to the motion-picture art, because therecan be no question that he was as much the creator of that art as hewas of the phonographic art; but to show that in a practical sense thesuggestion of the art itself was original with him. He himself says: "Inthe year 1887 the idea occurred to me that it was possible to devise aninstrument which should do for the eye what the phonograph does for theear, and that by a combination of the two, all motion and sound couldbe recorded and reproduced simultaneously. This idea, the germ of whichcame from the little toy called the Zoetrope and the work of Muybridge, Marey, and others, has now been accomplished, so that every changeof facial expression can be recorded and reproduced life-size. Thekinetoscope is only a small model illustrating the present stage of theprogress, but with each succeeding month new possibilities are broughtinto view. I believe that in coming years, by my own work and thatof Dickson, Muybridge, Marey, and others who will doubtless enter thefield, grand opera can be given at the Metropolitan Opera House at NewYork without any material change from the original, and with artists andmusicians long since dead. "

In the earliest experiments attempts were made to secure thephotographs, reduced microscopically, arranged spirally on a cylinderabout the size of a phonograph record, and coated with a highlysensitized surface, the cylinder being given an intermittent movement, so as to be at rest during each exposure. Reproductions were obtained inthe same way, positive prints being observed through a magnifying glass. Various forms of apparatus following this general type were made, but they were all open to the serious objection that the very rapidemulsions employed were relatively coarse-grained and prevented thesecuring of sharp pictures of microscopic size. On the other hand, theenlarging of the apparatus to permit larger pictures to be obtainedwould present too much weight to be stopped and started with therequisite rapidity. In these early experiments, however, it wasrecognized that, to secure proper results, a single camera should beused, so that the objects might move across its field just as theymove across the field of the human eye; and the important fact wasalso observed that the rate at which persistence of vision took placerepresented the minimum speed at which the pictures should be obtained. If, for instance, five pictures per second were taken (half of the timebeing occupied in exposure and the other half in moving the exposedportion of the film out of the field of the lens and bringing a newportion into its place), and the same ratio is observed in exhibitingthe pictures, the interval of time between successive pictures wouldbe one-tenth of a second; and for a normal eye such an exhibition wouldpresent a substantially continuous photograph. If the angular movementof the object across the field is very slow, as, for instance, a distantvessel, the successive positions of the object are so nearly coincidentthat when reproduced before the eye an impression of smooth, continuousmovement is secured. If, however, the object is moving rapidly acrossthe field of view, one picture will be separated from its successor to amarked extent, and the resulting impression will be jerky and unnatural. Recognizing this fact, Edison always sought for a very high speed, so asto give smooth and natural reproductions, and even with his experimentalapparatus obtained upward of forty-eight pictures per second, whereas, in practice, at the present time, the accepted rate varies betweentwenty and thirty per second. In the efforts of the present dayto economize space by using a minimum length of film, pictures arefrequently taken at too slow a rate, and the reproductions are thereforeoften objectionable, by reason of more or less jerkiness. 

During the experimental period and up to the early part of 1889, thekodak film was being slowly developed by the Eastman Kodak Company. Edison perceived in this product the solution of the problem on which hehad been working, because the film presented a very light body of toughmaterial on which relatively large photographs could be taken at rapidintervals. The surface, however, was not at first sufficiently sensitiveto admit of sharply defined pictures being secured at the necessarilyhigh rates. It seemed apparent, therefore, that in order to obtainthe desired speed there would have to be sacrificed that finenessof emulsion necessary for the securing of sharp pictures. But as wassubsequently seen, this sacrifice was in time rendered unnecessary. Muchcredit is due the Eastman experts--stimulated and encouraged by Edison, but independently of him--for the production at last of a highlysensitized, fine-grained emulsion presenting the highly sensitizedsurface that Edison sought. 

Having at last obtained apparently the proper material upon which tosecure the photographs, the problem then remained to devise an apparatusby means of which from twenty to forty pictures per second could betaken; the film being stationary during the exposure and, upon theclosing of the shutter, being moved to present a fresh surface. Inconnection with this problem it is interesting to note that thisquestion of high speed was apparently regarded by all Edison'spredecessors as the crucial point. Ducos, for example, expended a greatdeal of useless ingenuity in devising a camera by means of which atape-line film could receive the photographs while being in continuousmovement, necessitating the use of a series of moving lenses. Anotherexperimenter, Dumont, made use of a single large plate and a greatnumber of lenses which were successively exposed. Muybridge, as we haveseen, used a series of cameras, one for each plate. Marey was limited toa very few photographs, because the entire surface had to be stopped andstarted in connection with each exposure. 

After the accomplishment of the fact, it would seem to be the obviousthing to use a single lens and move the sensitized film with respect toit, intermittently bringing the surface to rest, then exposing it, thencutting off the light and moving the surface to a fresh position; butwho, other than Edison, would assume that such a device could be madeto repeat these movements over and over again at the rate of twenty toforty per second? Users of kodaks and other forms of film cameras willappreciate perhaps better than others the difficulties of the problem, because in their work, after an exposure, they have to advance thefilm forward painfully to the extent of the next picture before anotherexposure can take place, these operations permitting of speeds of buta few pictures per minute at best. Edison's solution of the probleminvolved the production of a kodak in which from twenty to fortypictures should be taken IN EACH SECOND, and with such fineness ofadjustment that each should exactly coincide with its predecessors evenwhen subjected to the test of enlargement by projection. This, however, was finally accomplished, and in the summer of 1889 the first modernmotion-picture camera was made. More than this, the mechanism foroperating the film was so constructed that the movement of the film tookplace in one-tenth of the time required for the exposure, giving thefilm an opportunity to come to rest prior to the opening of the shutter. From that day to this the Edison camera has been the accepted standardfor securing pictures of objects in motion, and such changes as havebeen made in it have been purely in the nature of detail mechanicalrefinements. 

The earliest form of exhibiting apparatus, known as the Kinetoscope, wasa machine in which a positive print from the negative obtained in thecamera was exhibited directly to the eye through a peep-hole; but in1895 the films were applied to modified forms of magic lanterns, bywhich the images are projected upon a screen. Since that date theindustry has developed very rapidly, and at the present time (1910) allof the principal American manufacturers of motion pictures are paying aroyalty to Edison under his basic patents. 

From the early days of pictures representing simple movements, such asa man sneezing, or a skirt-dance, there has been a gradual evolution, until now the pictures represent not only actual events in all theirpalpitating instantaneity, but highly developed dramas and scenariosenacted in large, well-equipped glass studios, and the result ofinfinite pains and expense of production. These pictures are exhibitedin upward of eight thousand places of amusement in the United States, and are witnessed by millions of people each year. They constitute acheap, clean form of amusement for many persons who cannot spare themoney to go to the ordinary theatres, or they may be exhibited in townsthat are too small to support a theatre. More than this, they offerto the poor man an effective substitute for the saloon. Probably noinvention ever made has afforded more pleasure and entertainment thanthe motion picture. 

Aside from the development of the motion picture as a spectacle, therehas gone on an evolution in its use for educational purposes of widerange, which must not be overlooked. In fact, this form of utilizationhas been carried further in Europe than in this country as a means ofdemonstration in the arts and sciences. One may study animal life, watcha surgical operation, follow the movement of machinery, take lessonsin facial expression or in calisthenics. It seems a pity that in motionpictures should at last have been found the only competition that theancient marionettes cannot withstand. But aside from the disappearanceof those entertaining puppets, all else is gain in the creation of thisnew art. 

The work at the Edison laboratory in the development of the motionpicture was as usual intense and concentrated, and, as might beexpected, many of the early experiments were quite primitive intheir character until command had been secured of relatively perfectapparatus. The subjects registered jerkily by the films were crude andamusing, such as of Fred Ott's sneeze, Carmencita dancing, Italiansand their performing bears, fencing, trapeze stunts, horsemanship, blacksmithing--just simple movements without any attempt to portray thesilent drama. One curious incident of this early study occurred when"Jim" Corbett was asked to box a few rounds in front of the camera, witha "dark un" to be selected locally. This was agreed to, and a celebratedbruiser was brought over from Newark. When this "sparring partner" cameto face Corbett in the imitation ring he was so paralyzed with terrorhe could hardly move. It was just after Corbett had won one of hisbig battles as a prize-fighter, and the dismay of his opponent wasexcusable. The "boys" at the laboratory still laugh consumedly when theytell about it. 

The first motion-picture studio was dubbed by the staff the "BlackMaria. " It was an unpretentious oblong wooden structure erected in thelaboratory yard, and had a movable roof in the central part. This roofcould be raised or lowered at will. The building was covered with blackroofing paper, and was also painted black inside. There was no sceneryto render gay this lugubrious environment, but the black interior servedas the common background for the performers, throwing all their actionsinto high relief. The whole structure was set on a pivot so that itcould be swung around with the sun; and the movable roof was openedso that the accentuating sunlight could stream in upon the actor whosegesticulations were being caught by the camera. These beginnings andcrudities are very remote from the elaborate and expensive paraphernaliaand machinery with which the art is furnished to-day. 

At the present time the studios in which motion pictures are taken areexpensive and pretentious affairs. An immense building of glass, withall the properties and stage-settings of a regular theatre, is required. The Bronx Park studio of the Edison company cost at least one hundredthousand dollars, while the well-known house of Pathe Freres inFrance--one of Edison's licensees--makes use of no fewer than seven ofthese glass theatres. All of the larger producers of pictures in thiscountry and abroad employ regular stock companies of actors, men andwomen selected especially for their skill in pantomime, although, asmost observers have perhaps suspected, in the actual taking of thepictures the performers are required to carry on an animated andprepared dialogue with the same spirit and animation as on the regularstage. Before setting out on the preparation of a picture, the book isfirst written--known in the business as a scenario--giving a completestatement as to the scenery, drops and background, and the sequence ofevents, divided into scenes as in an ordinary play. These are placed inthe hands of a "producer, " corresponding to a stage-director, generallyan actor or theatrical man of experience, with a highly developeddramatic instinct. The various actors are selected, parts are assigned, and the scene-painters are set to work on the production of thedesired scenery. Before the photographing of a scene, a long series ofrehearsals takes place, the incidents being gone over and over againuntil the actors are "letter perfect. " So persistent are the producersin the matter of rehearsals and the refining and elaboration ofdetails, that frequently a picture that may be actually photographed andreproduced in fifteen minutes, may require two or three weeks for itsproduction. After the rehearsal of a scene has advanced sufficientlyto suit the critical requirements of the producer, the camera man isin requisition, and he is consulted as to lighting so as to produce therequired photographic effect. Preferably, of course, sunlight is usedwhenever possible, hence the glass studios; but on dark days, and whennight-work is necessary, artificial light of enormous candle-poweris used, either mercury arcs or ordinary arc lights of great size andnumber. 

Under all conditions the light is properly screened and diffused to suitthe critical eye of the camera man. All being in readiness, the actualpicture is taken, the actors going through their rehearsed parts, theproducer standing out of the range of the camera, and with a megaphoneto his lips yelling out his instructions, imprecations, and approval, and the camera man grinding at the crank of the camera and securing thepictures at the rate of twenty or more per second, making a faithfuland permanent record of every movement and every change of facialexpression. At the end of the scene the negative is developed in theordinary way, and is then ready for use in the printing of the positivesfor sale. When a further scene in the play takes place in the samesetting, and without regard to its position in the plot, it is takenup, rehearsed, and photographed in the same way, and afterward allthe scenes are cemented together in the proper sequence, and formthe complete negative. Frequently, therefore, in the production ofa motion-picture play, the first and the last scene may be takensuccessively, the only thing necessary being, of course, that after allis done the various scenes should be arranged in their proper order. Theframes, having served their purpose, now go back to the scene-painterfor further use. All pictures are not taken in studios, because whenlight and weather permit and proper surroundings can be secured outside, scenes can best be obtained with natural scenery--city streets, woods, and fields. The great drawback to the taking of pictures out-of-doors, however, is the inevitable crowd, attracted by the novelty of theproceedings, which makes the camera man's life a torment by getting intothe field of his instrument. The crowds are patient, however, and in oneEdison picture involving the blowing up of a bridge by the villainof the piece and the substitution of a pontoon bridge by a companyof engineers just in time to allow the heroine to pass over in herautomobile, more than a thousand people stood around for almost anentire day waiting for the tedious rehearsals to end and the actualperformance to begin. Frequently large bodies of men are used inpictures, such as troops of soldiers, and it is an open secret that forweeks during the Boer War regularly equipped British and Boer armiesconfronted each other on the peaceful hills of Orange, New Jersey, readyto enact before the camera the stirring events told by the cable fromthe seat of hostilities. These conflicts were essentially harmless, except in one case during the battle of Spion Kopje, when "GeneralCronje, " in his efforts to fire a wooden cannon, inadvertently droppedhis fuse into a large glass bottle containing gunpowder. The effect wascertainly most dramatic, and created great enthusiasm among the manyaudiences which viewed the completed production; but the unfortunategeneral, who is still an employee, was taken to the hospital, and evennow, twelve years afterward, he says with a grin that whenever he has amoment of leisure he takes the time to pick a few pieces of glass fromhis person!

Edison's great contribution to the regular stage was the incandescentelectric lamp, which enabled the production of scenic effectsnever before even dreamed of, but which we accept now with so muchcomplacency. Yet with the motion picture, effects are secured thatcould not be reproduced to the slightest extent on the real stage. Thevillain, overcome by a remorseful conscience, sees on the wall of theroom the very crime which he committed, with HIMSELF as the principalactor; one of the easy effects of double exposure. The substantial andofttimes corpulent ghost or spirit of the real stage has been succeededby an intangible wraith, as transparent and unsubstantial as may bedemanded in the best book of fairy tales--more double exposure. A manemerges from the water with a splash, ascends feet foremost ten yards ormore, makes a graceful curve and lands on a spring-board, runs down itto the bank, and his clothes fly gently up from the ground and enclosehis person--all unthinkable in real life, but readily possible byrunning the motion-picture film backward! The fairy prince commands theprincess to appear, consigns the bad brothers to instant annihilation, turns the witch into a cat, confers life on inanimate things; and manymore startling and apparently incomprehensible effects are carried outwith actual reality, by stop-work photography. In one case, when thecommand for the heroine to come forth is given, the camera is stopped, the young woman walks to the desired spot, and the camera is againstarted; the effect to the eye--not knowing of this little by-play--isas if she had instantly appeared from space. The other effects areperhaps obvious, and the field and opportunities are absolutelyunlimited. Other curious effects are secured by taking the pictures at adifferent speed from that at which they are exhibited. If, for example, a scene occupying thirty seconds is reproduced in ten seconds, themovements will be three times as fast, and vice versa. Many scenesfamiliar to the reader, showing automobiles tearing along the road androunding corners at an apparently reckless speed, are really pictures ofslow and dignified movements reproduced at a high speed. 

Brief reference has been made to motion pictures of educationalsubjects, and in this field there are very great opportunities fordevelopment. The study of geography, scenes and incidents in foreigncountries, showing the lives and customs and surroundings of otherpeoples, is obviously more entertaining to the child when activelydepicted on the screen than when merely described in words. The lives ofgreat men, the enacting of important historical events, the reproductionof great works of literature, if visually presented to the child mustnecessarily impress his mind with greater force than if shown by merewords. We predict that the time is not far distant when, in many ofour public schools, two or three hours a week will be devoted to thisrational and effective form of education. 

By applying microphotography to motion pictures an additional fieldis opened up, one phase of which may be the study of germ life andbacteria, so that our future medical students may become as familiarwith the habits and customs of the Anthrax bacillus, for example, as ofthe domestic cat. 

From whatever point of view the subject is approached, the fact remainsthat in the motion picture, perhaps more than with any other invention, Edison has created an art that must always make a special appeal to themind and emotions of men, and although so far it has not advanced muchbeyond the field of amusement, it contains enormous possibilities forserious development in the future. Let us not think too lightly of thehumble five-cent theatre with its gaping crowd following with breathlessinterest the vicissitudes of the beautiful heroine. Before us lies anundeveloped land of opportunity which is destined to play an importantpart in the growth and welfare of the human race. 

CHAPTER XXII

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE EDISON STORAGE BATTERY

IT is more than a hundred years since the elementary principle of thestorage battery or "accumulator" was detected by a Frenchman namedGautherot; it is just fifty years since another Frenchman, named Plante, discovered that on taking two thin plates of sheet lead, immersing themin dilute sulphuric acid, and passing an electric current through thecell, the combination exhibited the ability to give back part of theoriginal charging current, owing to the chemical changes and reactionsset up. Plante coiled up his sheets into a very handy cell like a littleroll of carpet or pastry; but the trouble was that the battery took along time to "form. " One sheet becoming coated with lead peroxideand the other with finely divided or spongy metallic lead, they wouldreceive current, and then, even after a long period of inaction, furnishor return an electromotive force of from 1. 85 to 2. 2 volts. This abilityto store up electrical energy produced by dynamos in hours otherwiseidle, whether driven by steam, wind, or water, was a distinct advancein the art; but the sensational step was taken about 1880, when Faure inFrance and Brush in America broke away from the slow and weary processof "forming" the plates, and hit on clever methods of furnishing them"ready made, " so to speak, by dabbing red lead onto lead-grid plates, just as butter is spread on a slice of home-made bread. This brought thestorage battery at once into use as a practical, manufactured piece ofapparatus; and the world was captivated with the idea. The great Englishscientist, Sir William Thomson, went wild with enthusiasm when aFaure "box of electricity" was brought over from Paris to him in 1881containing a million foot-pounds of stored energy. His biographer, Dr. Sylvanus P. Thompson, describes him as lying ill in bed with a woundedleg, and watching results with an incandescent lamp fastened to his bedcurtain by a safety-pin, and lit up by current from the little Faurecell. Said Sir William: "It is going to be a most valuable, practicalaffair--as valuable as water-cisterns to people whether they had or hadnot systems of water-pipes and water-supply. " Indeed, in one outburst ofpanegyric the shrewd physicist remarked that he saw in it "a realizationof the most ardently and increasingly felt scientific aspiration of hislife--an aspiration which he hardly dared to expect or to see realized. "A little later, however, Sir William, always cautious and canny, began to discover the inherent defects of the primitive battery, asto disintegration, inefficiency, costliness, etc. , and though offeredtempting inducements, declined to lend his name to its financialintroduction. Nevertheless, he accepted the principle as valuable, andput the battery to actual use. 

For many years after this episode, the modern lead-lead type of batterythus brought forward with so great a flourish of trumpets had a hardtime of it. Edison's attitude toward it, even as a useful supplementto his lighting system, was always one of scepticism, and he remarkedcontemptuously that the best storage battery he knew was a ton of coal. The financial fortunes of the battery, on both sides of the Atlantic, were as varied and as disastrous as its industrial; but it did at lastemerge, and "made good. " By 1905, the production of lead-lead storagebatteries in the United States alone had reached a value for the yearof nearly $3, 000, 000, and it has increased greatly since that time. The storage battery is now regarded as an important and indispensableadjunct in nearly all modern electric-lighting and electric-railwaysystems of any magnitude; and in 1909, in spite of its weight, it hadfound adoption in over ten thousand automobiles of the truck, deliverywagon, pleasure carriage, and runabout types in America. 

Edison watched closely all this earlier development for about fifteenyears, not changing his mind as to what he regarded as the incurabledefects of the lead-lead type, but coming gradually to the conclusionthat if a storage battery of some other and better type could be broughtforward, it would fulfil all the early hopes, however extravagant, ofsuch men as Kelvin (Sir William Thomson), and would become as necessaryand as universal as the incandescent lamp or the electric motor. The beginning of the present century found him at his point of newdeparture. 

Generally speaking, non-technical and uninitiated persons have atendency to regard an invention as being more or less the ultimateresult of some happy inspiration. And, indeed, there is no doubt thatsuch may be the fact in some instances; but in most cases the inventorhas intentionally set out to accomplish a definite and desiredresult--mostly through the application of the known laws of the art inwhich he happens to be working. It is rarely, however, that a man willstart out deliberately, as Edison did, to evolve a radically new type ofsuch an intricate device as the storage battery, with only a meagre clewand a vague starting-point. 

In view of the successful outcome of the problem which, in 1900, heundertook to solve, it will be interesting to review his mental attitudeat that period. It has already been noted at the end of a previouschapter that on closing the magnetic iron-ore concentrating plantat Edison, New Jersey, he resolved to work on a new type of storagebattery. It was about this time that, in the course of a conversationwith Mr. R. H. Beach, then of the street-railway department of theGeneral Electric Company, he said: "Beach, I don't think Nature would beso unkind as to withhold the secret of a GOOD storage battery if a realearnest hunt for it is made. I'm going to hunt. "

Frequently Edison has been asked what he considers the secret ofachievement. To this query he has invariably replied: "Hard work, basedon hard thinking. " The laboratory records bear the fullest witness thathe has consistently followed out this prescription to the utmost. Theperfection of all his great inventions has been signalized by patient, persistent, and incessant effort which, recognizing nothing short ofsuccess, has resulted in the ultimate accomplishment of his ideas. Optimistic and hopeful to a high degree, Edison has the happy faculty ofbeginning the day as open-minded as a child--yesterday's disappointmentsand failures discarded and discounted by the alluring possibilities ofto-morrow. 

Of all his inventions, it is doubtful whether any one of them hascalled forth more original thought, work, perseverance, ingenuity, andmonumental patience than the one we are now dealing with. One of hisassociates who has been through the many years of the storage-batterydrudgery with him said: "If Edison's experiments, investigations, andwork on this storage battery were all that he had ever done, I shouldsay that he was not only a notable inventor, but also a great man. It isalmost impossible to appreciate the enormous difficulties that have beenovercome. "

From a beginning which was made practically in the dark, it was notuntil he had completed more than ten thousand experiments that heobtained any positive preliminary results whatever. Through allthis vast amount of research there had been no previous signs of theelectrical action he was looking for. These experiments had extendedover many months of constant work by day and night, but there was nobreakdown of Edison's faith in ultimate success--no diminution of hissanguine and confident expectations. The failure of an experiment simplymeant to him that he had found something else that would not work, thusbringing the possible goal a little nearer by a process of painstakingelimination. 

Now, however, after these many months of arduous toil, in which hehad examined and tested practically all the known elements in numerouschemical combinations, the electric action he sought for had beenobtained, thus affording him the first inkling of the secret that hehad industriously tried to wrest from Nature. It should be borne inmind that from the very outset Edison had disdained any intention offollowing in the only tracks then known by employing lead and sulphuricacid as the components of a successful storage battery. Impressed withwhat he considered the serious inherent defects of batteries made ofthese materials, and the tremendously complex nature of the chemicalreactions taking place in all types of such cells, he determined boldlyat the start that he would devise a battery without lead, and one inwhich an alkaline solution could be used--a form which would, he firmlybelieved, be inherently less subject to decay and dissolution than thestandard type, which after many setbacks had finally won its way to anannual production of many thousands of cells, worth millions of dollars. 

Two or three thousand of the first experiments followed the line of hiswell-known primary battery in the attempted employment of copper oxideas an element in a new type of storage cell; but its use offered noadvantages, and the hunt was continued in other directions and pursueduntil Edison satisfied himself by a vast number of experiments thatnickel and iron possessed the desirable qualifications he was in searchof. 

This immense amount of investigation which had consumed so many monthsof time, and which had culminated in the discovery of a series ofreactions between nickel and iron that bore great promise, broughtEdison merely within sight of a strange and hitherto unexploredcountry. Slowly but surely the results of the last few thousands of hispreliminary experiments had pointed inevitably to a new and fruitfulregion ahead. He had discovered the hidden passage and held the clewwhich he had so industriously sought. And now, having outlined adefinite path, Edison was all afire to push ahead vigorously in orderthat he might enter in and possess the land. 

It is a trite saying that "history repeats itself, " and certainly noaxiom carries more truth than this when applied to the history of eachof Edison's important inventions. The development of the storage batteryhas been no exception; indeed, far from otherwise, for in the ten yearsthat have elapsed since the time he set himself and his mechanics, chemists, machinists, and experimenters at work to develop a practicalcommercial cell, the old story of incessant and persistent efforts somanifest in the working out of other inventions was fully repeated. 

Very soon after he had decided upon the use of nickel and iron as theelemental metals for his storage battery, Edison established achemical plant at Silver Lake, New Jersey, a few miles from the Orangelaboratory, on land purchased some time previously. This place was thescene of the further experiments to develop the various chemical formsof nickel and iron, and to determine by tests what would be best adaptedfor use in cells manufactured on a commercial scale. With a littlehandful of selected experimenters gathered about him, Edison settleddown to one of his characteristic struggles for supremacy. To someextent it was a revival of the old Menlo Park days (or, rather, nights). Some of these who had worked on the preliminary experiments, with theaddition of a few new-comers, toiled together regardless of passingtime and often under most discouraging circumstances, but with thatremarkable esprit de corps that has ever marked Edison's relations withhis co-workers, and that has contributed so largely to the successfulcarrying out of his ideas. 

The group that took part in these early years of Edison's arduous laborsincluded his old-time assistant, Fred Ott, together with his chemist, J. W. Aylsworth, as well as E. J. Ross, Jr. , W. E. Holland, and RalphArbogast, and a little later W. G. Bee, all of whom have grown upwith the battery and still devote their energies to its commercialdevelopment. One of these workers, relating the strenuous experiences ofthese few years, says: "It was hard work and long hours, but stillthere were some things that made life pleasant. One of them was thesupper-hour we enjoyed when we worked nights. Mr. Edison would havesupper sent in about midnight, and we all sat down together, includinghimself. Work was forgotten for the time, and all hands were ready forfun. I have very pleasant recollections of Mr. Edison at these times. Hewould always relax and help to make a good time, and on some occasionsI have seen him fairly overflow with animal spirits, just like a boylet out from school. After the supper-hour was over, however, he againbecame the serious, energetic inventor, deeply immersed in the work athand. 

"He was very fond of telling and hearing stories, and always appreciateda joke. I remember one that he liked to get off on us once in a while. Our lighting plant was in duplicate, and about 12. 30 or 1 o'clock in themorning, at the close of the supper-hour, a change would be made fromone plant to the other, involving the gradual extinction of the electriclights and their slowly coming up to candle-power again, the wholechange requiring probably about thirty seconds. Sometimes, as this wastaking place, Edison would fold his hands, compose himself as if he werein sound sleep, and when the lights were full again would apparentlywake up, with the remark, 'Well, boys, we've had a fine rest; now let'spitch into work again. '"

Another interesting and amusing reminiscence of this period ofactivity has been gathered from another of the family of experimenters:"Sometimes, when Mr. Edison had been working long hours, he wouldwant to have a short sleep. It was one of the funniest things I everwitnessed to see him crawl into an ordinary roll-top desk and curl upand take a nap. If there was a sight that was still more funny, it wasto see him turn over on his other side, all the time remaining in thedesk. He would use several volumes of Watts's Dictionary of Chemistryfor a pillow, and we fellows used to say that he absorbed the contentsduring his sleep, judging from the flow of new ideas he had on waking. "

Such incidents as these serve merely to illustrate the lighter momentsthat stand out in relief against the more sombre background of thestrenuous years, for, of all the absorbingly busy periods of Edison'sinventive life, the first five years of the storage-battery era wasone of the very busiest of them all. It was not that there remained anybasic principle to be discovered or simplified, for that had alreadybeen done; but it was in the effort to carry these principles intopractice that there arose the numerous difficulties that at times seemedinsurmountable. But, according to another co-worker, "Edison seemedpleased when he used to run up against a serious difficulty. It wouldseem to stiffen his backbone and make him more prolific of new ideas. For a time I thought I was foolish to imagine such a thing, but I couldnever get away from the impression that he really appeared happy whenhe ran up against a serious snag. That was in my green days, and I soonlearned that the failure of an experiment never discourages him unlessit is by reason of the carelessness of the man making it. Then Edisongets disgusted. If it fails on its merits, he doesn't worry or fretabout it, but, on the contrary, regards it as a useful fact learned;remains cheerful and tries something else. I have known him to reversean unsuccessful experiment and come out all right. "

To follow Edison's trail in detail through the innumerable twists andturns of his experimentation and research on the storage battery, duringthe past ten years, would not be in keeping with the scope of thisnarrative, nor would it serve any useful purpose. Besides, such detailswould fill a big volume. The narrative, however, would not be completewithout some mention of the general outline of his work, and referencemay be made briefly to a few of the chief items. And lest the readerthink that the word "innumerable" may have been carelessly or hastilyused above, we would quote the reply of one of the laboratory assistantswhen asked how many experiments had been made on the Edison storagebattery since the year 1900: "Goodness only knows! We used to number ourexperiments consecutively from 1 to 10, 000, and when we got up to10, 000 we turned back to 1 and ran up to 10, 000 again, and so on. We ranthrough several series--I don't know how many, and have lost track ofthem now, but it was not far from fifty thousand. "

From the very first, Edison's broad idea of his storage battery was tomake perforated metallic containers having the active materials packedtherein; nickel hydrate for the positive and iron oxide for the negativeplate. This plan has been adhered to throughout, and has found itsconsummation in the present form of the completed commercial cell, butin the middle ground which stands between the early crude beginningsand the perfected type of to-day there lies a world of original thought, patient plodding, and achievement. 

The first necessity was naturally to obtain the best and purestcompounds for active materials. Edison found that comparatively littlewas known by manufacturing chemists about nickel and iron oxides of thehigh grade and purity he required. Hence it became necessary for him toestablish his own chemical works and put them in charge of men speciallytrained by himself, with whom he worked. This was the plant at SilverLake, above referred to. Here, for several years, there was ceaselessactivity in the preparation of these chemical compounds by everyimaginable process and subsequent testing. Edison's chief chemist says:"We left no stone unturned to find a way of making those chemicals sothat they would give the highest results. We carried on the experimentswith the two chemicals together. Sometimes the nickel would be aheadin the tests, and then again it would fall behind. To stimulate us togreater improvement, Edison hung up a card which showed the resultsof tests in milliampere-hours given by the experimental elements as wetried them with the various grades of nickel and iron we had made. Thisstirred up a great deal of ambition among the boys to push the figuresup. Some of our earliest tests showed around 300, but as we improvedthe material, they gradually crept up to over 500. Just about that timeEdison made a trip to Canada, and when he came back we had made suchgood progress that the figures had crept up to about 1000. I wellremember how greatly he was pleased. "

In speaking of the development of the negative element of the battery, Mr. Aylsworth said: "In like manner the iron element had to be developedand improved; and finally the iron, which had generally enjoyedsuperiority in capacity over its companion, the nickel element, had togo in training in order to retain its lead, which was imperative, inorder to produce a uniform and constant voltage curve. In talkingwith me one day about the difficulties under which we were working andcontrasting them with the phonograph experimentation, Edison said: 'Inphonographic work we can use our ears and our eyes, aided with powerfulmicroscopes; but in the battery our difficulties cannot be seen orheard, but must be observed by our mind's eye!' And by reason of theemployment of such vision in the past, Edison is now able to see quiteclearly through the forest of difficulties after eliminating them one byone. "

The size and shape of the containing pockets in the battery plates orelements and the degree of their perforation were matters that receivedmany years of close study and experiment; indeed, there is still to-dayconstant work expended on their perfection, although their presentgeneral form was decided upon several years ago. The mechanicalconstruction of the battery, as a whole, in its present form, compelsinstant admiration on account of its beauty and completeness. Mr. Edisonhas spared neither thought, ingenuity, labor, nor money in the effort tomake it the most complete and efficient storage cell obtainable, and theresults show that his skill, judgment, and foresight have lost nothingof the power that laid the foundation of, and built up, other great artsat each earlier stage of his career. 

Among the complex and numerous problems that presented themselves inthe evolution of the battery was the one concerning the internalconductivity of the positive unit. The nickel hydrate was a poorelectrical conductor, and although a metallic nickel pocket might befilled with it, there would not be the desired electrical action unlessa conducting substance were mixed with it, and so incorporated andpacked that there would be good electrical contact throughout. This proved to be a most knotty and intricate puzzle--tricky andevasive--always leading on and promising something, and at the lastslipping away leaving the work undone. Edison's remarkable patience andpersistence in dealing with this trying problem and in finally solvingit successfully won for him more than ordinary admiration from hisassociates. One of them, in speaking of the seemingly interminableexperiments to overcome this trouble, said: "I guess that question ofconductivity of the positive pocket brought lots of gray hairs to hishead. I never dreamed a man could have such patience and perseverance. Any other man than Edison would have given the whole thing up a thousandtimes, but not he! Things looked awfully blue to the whole bunch ofus many a time, but he was always hopeful. I remember one time thingslooked so dark to me that I had just about made up my mind to throw upmy job, but some good turn came just then and I didn't. Now I'm glad Iheld on, for we've got a great future. "

The difficulty of obtaining good electrical contact in the positiveelement was indeed Edison's chief trouble for many years. After a greatamount of work and experimentation he decided upon a certain formof graphite, which seemed to be suitable for the purpose, and thenproceeded to the commercial manufacture of the battery at a specialfactory in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, installed for the purpose. There wasno lack of buyers, but, on the contrary, the factory was unable to turnout batteries enough. The newspapers had previously published articlesshowing the unusual capacity and performance of the battery, and publicinterest had thus been greatly awakened. 

Notwithstanding the establishment of a regular routine of manufactureand sale, Edison did not cease to experiment for improvement. Althoughthe graphite apparently did the work desired of it, he was notaltogether satisfied with its performance and made extended trialsof other substances, but at that time found nothing that on the wholeserved the purpose better. Continuous tests of the commercial cells werecarried on at the laboratory, as well as more practical and heavy testsin automobiles, which were constantly kept running around the adjoiningcountry over all kinds of roads. All these tests were very closelywatched by Edison, who demanded rigorously that the various trials ofthe battery should be carried on with all strenuousness so as to get theutmost results and develop any possible weakness. So insistent was he onthis, that if any automobile should run several days without bursting atire or breaking some part of the machine, he would accuse the chauffeurof picking out easy roads. 

After these tests had been going on for some time, and some thousandsof cells had been sold and were giving satisfactory results to thepurchasers, the test sheets and experience gathered from various sourcespointed to the fact that occasionally a cell here and there would showup as being short in capacity. Inasmuch as the factory processes werevery exact and carefully guarded, and every cell was made as uniform ashuman skill and care could provide, there thus arose a serious problem. Edison concentrated his powers on the investigation of this trouble, andfound that the chief cause lay in the graphite. Some other minor mattersalso attracted his attention. What to do, was the important questionthat confronted him. To shut down the factory meant great loss andapparent failure. He realized this fully, but he also knew that to goon would simply be to increase the number of defective batteries incirculation, which would ultimately result in a permanent closureand real failure. Hence he took the course which one would expect ofEdison's common sense and directness of action. He was not satisfiedthat the battery was a complete success, so he shut down and went toexperimenting once more. 

"And then, " says one of the laboratory men, "we started on anotherseries of record-breaking experiments that lasted over five years. I might almost say heart-breaking, too, for of all the elusive, disappointing things one ever hunted for that was the worst. But secretshave to be long-winded and roost high if they want to get away when the'Old Man' goes hunting for them. He doesn't get mad when he misses them, but just keeps on smiling and firing, and usually brings them into camp. That's what he did on the battery, for after a whole lot of work heperfected the nickel-flake idea and process, besides making the greatimprovement of using tubes instead of flat pockets for the positive. Healso added a minor improvement here and there, and now we have a finerbattery than we ever expected. "

In the interim, while the experimentation of these last five years wasin progress, many customers who had purchased batteries of the originaltype came knocking at the door with orders in their hands for additionaloutfits wherewith to equip more wagons and trucks. Edison expressedhis regrets, but said he was not satisfied with the old cells and wasengaged in improving them. To which the customers replied that THEY wereentirely satisfied and ready and willing to pay for more batteries ofthe same kind; but Edison could not be moved from his determination, although considerable pressure was at times brought to bear to sway hisdecision. 

Experiment was continued beyond the point of peradventure, and aftersome new machinery had been built, the manufacture of the new type ofcell was begun in the early summer of 1909, and at the present writingis being extended as fast as the necessary additional machinery can bemade. The product is shipped out as soon as it is completed. 

The nickel flake, which is Edison's ingenious solution of theconductivity problem, is of itself a most interesting product, intenselypractical in its application and fascinating in its manufacture. Theflake of nickel is obtained by electroplating upon a metallic cylinderalternate layers of copper and nickel, one hundred of each, after whichthe combined sheet is stripped from the cylinder. So thin are the layersthat this sheet is only about the thickness of a visiting-card, and yetit is composed of two hundred layers of metal. The sheet is cut intotiny squares, each about one-sixteenth of an inch, and these squaresare put into a bath where the copper is dissolved out. This releasesthe layers of nickel, so that each of these small squares becomes onehundred tiny sheets, or flakes, of pure metallic nickel, so thin thatwhen they are dried they will float in the air, like thistle-down. 

In their application to the manufacture of batteries, the flakes areused through the medium of a special machine, so arranged that smallcharges of nickel hydrate and nickel flake are alternately fed into thepockets intended for positives, and tamped down with a pressure equalto about four tons per square inch. This insures complete and perfectcontact and consequent electrical conductivity throughout the entireunit. 

The development of the nickel flake contains in itself a history ofpatient investigation, labor, and achievement, but we have not space forit, nor for tracing the great work that has been done in developingand perfecting the numerous other parts and adjuncts of this remarkablebattery. Suffice it to say that when Edison went boldly out into newterritory, after something entirely unknown, he was quite prepared forhard work and exploration. He encountered both in unstinted measure, butkept on going forward until, after long travel, he had found all that heexpected and accomplished something more beside. Nature DID respond tohis whole-hearted appeal, and, by the time the hunt was ended, revealeda good storage battery of entirely new type. Edison not only recognizedand took advantage of the principles he had discovered, but inadapting them for commercial use developed most ingenious processesand mechanical appliances for carrying his discoveries into practicaleffect. Indeed, it may be said that the invention of an enormous varietyof new machines and mechanical appliances rendered necessary by eachchange during the various stages of development of the battery, fromfirst to last, stands as a lasting tribute to the range and versatilityof his powers. 

It is not within the scope of this narrative to enter into anydescription of the relative merits of the Edison storage battery, thatbeing the province of a commercial catalogue. It does, however, seementirely allowable to say that while at the present writing the teststhat have been made extend over a few years only, their results and theintrinsic value of this characteristic Edison invention are of such asubstantial nature as to point to the inevitable growth of anothergreat industry arising from its manufacture, and to its wide-spreadapplication to many uses. 

The principal use that Edison has had in mind for his battery istransportation of freight and passengers by truck, automobile, andstreet-car. The greatly increased capacity in proportion to weight ofthe Edison cell makes it particularly adaptable for this class of workon account of the much greater radius of travel that is possible by itsuse. The latter point of advantage is the one that appeals most to theautomobilist, as he is thus enabled to travel, it is asserted, more thanthree times farther than ever before on a single charge of the battery. 

Edison believes that there are important advantages possible in theemployment of his storage battery for street-car propulsion. Under thepresent system of operation, a plant furnishing the electric power forstreet railways must be large enough to supply current for the maximumload during "rush hours, " although much of the machinery may be lyingidle and unproductive in the hours of minimum load. By the use ofstorage-battery cars, this immense and uneconomical maximum investmentin plant can be cut down to proportions of true commercial economy, asthe charging of the batteries can be conducted at a uniform rate with areasonable expenditure for generating machinery. Not only this, but eachcar becomes an independently moving unit, not subject to delay by reasonof a general breakdown of the power plant or of the line. In additionto these advantages, the streets would be freed from their burden oftrolley wires or conduits. To put his ideas into practice, Edison builta short railway line at the Orange works in the winter of 1909-10, and, in co-operation with Mr. R. H. Beach, constructed a special type ofstreet-car, and equipped it with motor, storage battery, and othernecessary operating devices. This car was subsequently put upon thestreet-car lines in New York City, and demonstrated its efficiency socompletely that it was purchased by one of the street-car companies, which has since ordered additional cars for its lines. The demonstrationof this initial car has been watched with interest by many railroadofficials, and its performance has been of so successful a nature thatat the present writing (the summer of 1910) it has been necessary toorganize and equip a preliminary factory in which to constructmany other cars of a similar type that have been ordered by otherstreet-railway companies. This enterprise will be conducted by acorporation which has been specially organized for the purpose. Thus, there has been initiated the development of a new and important industrywhose possible ultimate proportions are beyond the range of presentcalculation. Extensive as this industry may become, however, Edison isfirmly convinced that the greatest field for his storage battery liesin its adaptation to commercial trucking and hauling, and to pleasurevehicles, in comparison with which the street-car business even with itsgreat possibilities--will not amount to more than 1 per cent. 

Edison has pithily summed up his work and his views in an article on"The To-Morrows of Electricity and Invention" in Popular Electricityfor June, 1910, in which he says: "For years past I have been trying toperfect a storage battery, and have now rendered it entirely suitableto automobile and other work. There is absolutely no reason why horsesshould be allowed within city limits; for between the gasoline and theelectric car, no room is left for them. They are not needed. The cowand the pig have gone, and the horse is still more undesirable. A higherpublic ideal of health and cleanliness is working toward such banishmentvery swiftly; and then we shall have decent streets, instead of stablesmade out of strips of cobblestones bordered by sidewalks. The worstuse of money is to make a fine thoroughfare, and then turn it over tohorses. Besides that, the change will put the humane societies out ofbusiness. Many people now charge their own batteries because of lack offacilities; but I believe central stations will find in this work verysoon the largest part of their load. The New York Edison Company, orthe Chicago Edison Company, should have as much current going out forstorage batteries as for power motors; and it will be so some near day. "

CHAPTER XXIII

MISCELLANEOUS INVENTIONS

IT has been the endeavor in this narrative to group Edison's inventionsand patents so that his work in the different fields can be studiedindependently and separately. The history of his career has thereforefallen naturally into a series of chapters, each aiming to describe someparticular development or art; and, in a way, the plan has been helpfulto the writers while probably useful to the readers. It happens, however, that the process has left a vast mass of discovery andinvention wholly untouched, and relegates to a concluding brief chaptersome of the most interesting episodes of a fruitful life. Any one whowill turn to the list of Edison patents at the end of the book will finda large number of things of which not even casual mention has been made, but which at the time occupied no small amount of the inventor's timeand attention, and many of which are now part and parcel of moderncivilization. Edison has, indeed, touched nothing that he did not insome way improve. As Thoreau said: "The laws of the Universe are notindifferent, but are forever on the side of the most sensitive, " andthere never was any one more sensitive to the defects of every art andappliance, nor any one more active in applying the law of evolution. It is perhaps this many-sidedness of Edison that has impressed themultitude, and that in the "popular vote" taken a couple of years agoby the New York Herald placed his name at the head of the list of tengreatest living Americans. It is curious and pertinent to note that asimilar plebiscite taken by a technical journal among its expert readershad exactly the same result. Evidently the public does not agree withthe opinion expressed by the eccentric artist Blake in his "Marriage ofHeaven and Hell, " when he said: "Improvement makes strange roads; butthe crooked roads without improvements are roads of Genius. "

The product of Edison's brain may be divided into three classes. Thefirst embraces such arts and industries, or such apparatus, as havealready been treated. The second includes devices like the tasimeter, phonomotor, odoroscope, etc. , and others now to be noted. The thirdembraces a number of projected inventions, partially completedinvestigations, inventions in use but not patented, and a great manycaveats filed in the Patent Office at various times during the lastforty years for the purpose of protecting his ideas pending theircontemplated realization in practice. These caveats served their purposethoroughly in many instances, but there have remained a great variety ofprojects upon which no definite action was ever taken. One ought toadd the contents of an unfinished piece of extraordinary fiction basedwholly on new inventions and devices utterly unknown to mankind. Someday the novel may be finished, but Edison has no inclination to goback to it, and says he cannot understand how any man is able to make aspeech or write a book, for he simply can't do it. 

After what has been said in previous chapters, it will not seem sostrange that Edison should have hundreds of dormant inventions on hishands. There are human limitations even for such a tireless worker as heis. While the preparation of data for this chapter was going on, one ofthe writers in discussing with him the vast array of unexploited thingssaid: "Don't you feel a sense of regret in being obliged to leave somany things uncompleted?" To which he replied: "What's the use? Onelifetime is too short, and I am busy every day improving essential partsof my established industries. " It must suffice to speak briefly of a fewleading inventions that have been worked out, and to dismiss withscant mention all the rest, taking just a few items, as typical andsuggestive, especially when Edison can himself be quoted as to them. Incidentally it may be noted that things, not words, are referred to;for Edison, in addition to inventing the apparatus, has often had tocoin the word to describe it. A large number of the words and phrases inmodern electrical parlance owe their origin to him. Even the "call-word"of the telephone, "Hello!" sent tingling over the wire a few milliontimes daily was taken from Menlo Park by men installing telephonesin different parts of the world, men who had just learned it atthe laboratory, and thus made it a universal sesame for telephonicconversation. 

It is hard to determine where to begin with Edison's miscellaneousinventions, but perhaps telegraphy has the "right of line, " and Edison'swork in that field puts him abreast of the latest wireless developmentsthat fill the world with wonder. "I perfected a system of traintelegraphy between stations and trains in motion whereby messages couldbe sent from the moving train to the central office; and this was theforerunner of wireless telegraphy. This system was used for a number ofyears on the Lehigh Valley Railroad on their construction trains. Theelectric wave passed from a piece of metal on top of the car acrossthe air to the telegraph wires; and then proceeded to the despatcher'soffice. In my first experiments with this system I tried it on theStaten Island Railroad, and employed an operator named King to do theexperimenting. He reported results every day, and received instructionsby mail; but for some reason he could send messages all right when thetrain went in one direction, but could not make it go in the contrarydirection. I made suggestions of every kind to get around thisphenomenon. Finally I telegraphed King to find out if he had anysuggestions himself; and I received a reply that the only way he couldpropose to get around the difficulty was to put the island on a pivotso it could be turned around! I found the trouble finally, and thepractical introduction on the Lehigh Valley road was the result. Thesystem was sold to a very wealthy man, and he would never sell anyrights or answer letters. He became a spiritualist subsequently, whichprobably explains it. " It is interesting to note that Edison becamegreatly interested in the later developments by Marconi, and is anadmiring friend and adviser of that well-known inventor. 

The earlier experiments with wireless telegraphy at Menlo Park weremade at a time when Edison was greatly occupied with his electric-lightinterests, and it was not until the beginning of 1886 that he wasable to spare the time to make a public demonstration of the systemas applied to moving trains. Ezra T. Gilliland, of Boston, had becomeassociated with him in his experiments, and they took out several jointpatents subsequently. The first practical use of the system took placeon a thirteen-mile stretch of the Staten Island Railroad with theresults mentioned by Edison above. 

A little later, Edison and Gilliland joined forces with Lucius J. Phelps, another investigator, who had been experimenting along the samelines and had taken out several patents. The various interests werecombined in a corporation under whose auspices the system was installedon the Lehigh Valley Railroad, where it was used for several years. Theofficial demonstration trip on this road took place on October 6, 1887, on a six-car train running to Easton, Pennsylvania, a distance offifty-four miles. A great many telegrams were sent and received whilethe train was at full speed, including a despatch to the "cable king, "John Pender. London, England, and a reply from him. [17]

 [Footnote 17: Broadly described in outline, the system consisted of an induction circuit obtained by laying strips of tin along the top or roof of a railway car, and the installation of a special telegraph line running parallel with the track and strung on poles of only medium height. The train and also each signalling station were equipped with regulation telegraphic apparatus, such as battery, key, relay, and sounder, together with induction-coil and condenser. In addition, there was a transmitting device in the shape of a musical reed, or buzzer. In practice, this buzzer was continuously operated at high speed by a battery. Its vibrations were broken by means of a key into long and short periods, representing Morse characters, which were transmitted inductively from the train circuit to the pole line, or vice versa, and received by the operator at the other end through a high-resistance telephone receiver inserted in the secondary circuit of the induction-coil. ]

Although the space between the cars and the pole line was probably notmore than about fifty feet, it is interesting to note that in Edison'searly experiments at Menlo Park he succeeded in transmitting messagesthrough the air at a distance of 580 feet. Speaking of this and ofhis other experiments with induction telegraphy by means of kites, communicating from one to the other and thus from the kites toinstruments on the earth, Edison said recently: "We only transmittedabout two and one-half miles through the kites. What has always puzzledme since is that I did not think of using the results of my experimentson 'etheric force' that I made in 1875. I have never been able tounderstand how I came to overlook them. If I had made use of my own workI should have had long-distance wireless telegraphy. "

In one of the appendices to this book is given a brief technical accountof Edison's investigations of the phenomena which lie at the root ofmodern wireless or "space" telegraphy, and the attention of the readeris directed particularly to the description and quotations there fromthe famous note-books of Edison's experiments in regard to what hecalled "etheric force. " It will be seen that as early as 1875 Edisondetected and studied certain phenomena--i. E. , the production ofelectrical effects in non-closed circuits, which for a time made himthink he was on the trail of a new force, as there was no plausibleexplanation for them by the then known laws of electricity andmagnetism. Later came the magnificent work of Hertz identifying thephenomena as "electromagnetic waves" in the ether, and developing anew world of theory and science based upon them and their production bydisruptive discharges. 

Edison's assertions were treated with scepticism by the scientificworld, which was not then ready for the discovery and not sufficientlyfurnished with corroborative data. It is singular, to say the least, to note how Edison's experiments paralleled and proved in advance thosethat came later; and even his apparatus such as the "dark box" formaking the tiny sparks visible (as the waves impinged on the receiver)bears close analogy with similar apparatus employed by Hertz. Indeed, asEdison sent the dark-box apparatus to the Paris Exposition in 1881, and let Batchelor repeat there the puzzling experiments, it seems by nomeans unlikely that, either directly or on the report of some friend, Hertz may thus have received from Edison a most valuable suggestion, theinventor aiding the physicist in opening up a wonderful new realm. In this connection, indeed, it is very interesting to quote two greatauthorities. In May, 1889, at a meeting of the Institution of ElectricalEngineers in London, Dr. (now Sir) Oliver Lodge remarked in a discussionon a paper of his own on lightning conductors, embracing the Hertzianwaves in its treatment: "Many of the effects I have shown--sparks inunsuspected places and other things--have been observed before. Henryobserved things of the kind and Edison noticed some curious phenomena, and said it was not electricity but 'etheric force' that caused thesesparks; and the matter was rather pooh-poohed. It was a small part ofTHIS VERY THING; only the time was not ripe; theoretical knowledge wasnot ready for it. " Again in his "Signalling without Wires, " in givingthe history of the coherer principle, Lodge remarks: "Sparks identicalin all respects with those discovered by Hertz had been seen in recenttimes both by Edison and by Sylvanus Thompson, being styled 'ethericforce' by the former; but their theoretic significance had not beenperceived, and they were somewhat sceptically regarded. " During the samediscussion in London, in 1889, Sir William Thomson (Lord Kelvin), afterciting some experiments by Faraday with his insulated cage at the RoyalInstitution, said: "His (Faraday's) attention was not directed to lookfor Hertz sparks, or probably he might have found them in the interior. Edison seems to have noticed something of the kind in what he called'etheric force. ' His name 'etheric' may thirteen years ago have seemedto many people absurd. But now we are all beginning to call theseinductive phenomena 'etheric. '" With which testimony from the greatKelvin as to his priority in determining the vital fact, and with theevidence that as early as 1875 he built apparatus that demonstrated thefact, Edison is probably quite content. 

It should perhaps be noted at this point that a curious effect observedat the laboratory was shown in connection with Edison lamps at thePhiladelphia Exhibition of 1884. It became known in scientific parlanceas the "Edison effect, " showing a curious current condition or dischargein the vacuum of the bulb. It has since been employed by Fleming inEngland and De Forest in this country, and others, as the basis forwireless-telegraph apparatus. It is in reality a minute rectifier ofalternating current, and analogous to those which have since been madeon a large scale. 

When Roentgen came forward with his discovery of the new "X"-ray in1895, Edison was ready for it, and took up experimentation with it ona large scale; some of his work being recorded in an article in theCentury Magazine of May, 1896, where a great deal of data may be found. Edison says with regard to this work: "When the X-ray came up, I madethe first fluoroscope, using tungstate of calcium. I also found thatthis tungstate could be put into a vacuum chamber of glass and fusedto the inner walls of the chamber; and if the X-ray electrodes were letinto the glass chamber and a proper vacuum was attained, you could get afluorescent lamp of several candle-power. I started in to make a numberof these lamps, but I soon found that the X-ray had affected poisonouslymy assistant, Mr. Dally, so that his hair came out and his fleshcommenced to ulcerate. I then concluded it would not do, and that itwould not be a very popular kind of light; so I dropped it. 

"At the time I selected tungstate of calcium because it wasso fluorescent, I set four men to making all kinds of chemicalcombinations, and thus collected upward of 8000 different crystals ofvarious chemical combinations, discovering several hundred differentsubstances which would fluoresce to the X-ray. So far little had comeof X-ray work, but it added another letter to the scientific alphabet. I don't know any thing about radium, and I have lots of company. " TheElectrical Engineer of June 3, 1896, contains a photograph of Mr. Edisontaken by the light of one of his fluorescent lamps. The same journalin its issue of April 1, 1896, shows an Edison fluoroscope in use byan observer, in the now familiar and universal form somewhat like astereoscope. This apparatus as invented by Edison consists of a flaringbox, curved at one end to fit closely over the forehead and eyes, whilethe other end of the box is closed by a paste-board cover. On the insideof this is spread a layer of tungstate of calcium. By placing theobject to be observed, such as the hand, between the vacuum-tube andthe fluorescent screen, the "shadow" is formed on the screen and can beobserved at leisure. The apparatus has proved invaluable in surgery andhas become an accepted part of the equipment of modern surgery. In 1896, at the Electrical Exhibition in the Grand Central Palace, New York City, given under the auspices of the National Electric Light Association, thousands and thousands of persons with the use of this apparatus inEdison's personal exhibit were enabled to see their own bones; and theresultant public sensation was great. Mr. Mallory tells a characteristicstory of Edison's own share in the memorable exhibit: "The exhibitwas announced for opening on Monday. On the preceding Friday all theapparatus, which included a large induction-coil, was shipped fromOrange to New York, and on Saturday afternoon Edison, accompanied byFred Ott, one of his assistants, and myself, went over to install it soas to have it ready for Monday morning. Had everything been normal, afew hours would have sufficed for completion of the work, but on comingto test the big coil, it was found to be absolutely out of commission, having been so seriously injured as to necessitate its entire rewinding. It being summer-time, all the machine shops were closed until Mondaymorning, and there were several miles of wire to be wound on the coil. Edison would not consider a postponement of the exhibition, so there wasnothing to do but go to work and wind it by hand. We managed to finda lathe, but there was no power; so each of us, including Edison, tookturns revolving the lathe by pulling on the belt, while the other twoattended to the winding of the wire. We worked continuously all throughthat Saturday night and all day Sunday until evening, when we finishedthe job. I don't remember ever being conscious of more muscles inmy life. I guess Edison was tired also, but he took it veryphilosophically. " This was apparently the first public demonstration ofthe X-ray to the American public. 

Edison's ore-separation work has been already fully described, but thestory would hardly be complete without a reference to similar workin gold extraction, dating back to the Menlo Park days: "I got up amethod, " says Edison, "of separating placer gold by a dry process, inwhich I could work economically ore as lean as five cents of gold to thecubic yard. I had several car-loads of different placer sands sent to meand proved I could do it. Some parties hearing I had succeeded in doingsuch a thing went to work and got hold of what was known as the Ortizmine grant, twelve miles from Santa Fe, New Mexico. This mine, accordingto the reports of several mining engineers made in the last forty years, was considered one of the richest placer deposits in the United States, and various schemes had been put forward to bring water from themountains forty miles away to work those immense beds. The reportsstated that the Mexicans had been panning gold for a hundred years outof these deposits. 

"These parties now made arrangements with the stockholders or owners ofthe grant, and with me, to work the deposits by my process. As I had hadsome previous experience with the statements of mining men, I concludedI would just send down a small plant and prospect the field beforeputting up a large one. This I did, and I sent two of my assistants, whom I could trust, down to this place to erect the plant; and startedto sink shafts fifty feet deep all over the area. We soon learned thatthe rich gravel, instead of being spread over an area of three by sevenmiles, and rich from the grass roots down, was spread over a space ofabout twenty-five acres, and that even this did not average more thanten cents to the cubic yard. The whole placer would not give more thanone and one-quarter cents per cubic yard. As my business arrangementshad not been very perfectly made, I lost the usual amount. "

Going to another extreme, we find Edison grappling with one of thebiggest problems known to the authorities of New York--the disposal ofits heavy snows. It is needless to say that witnessing the ordinary slowand costly procedure would put Edison on his mettle. "One time whenthey had a snow blockade in New York I started to build a machine withBatchelor--a big truck with a steam-engine and compressor on it. Wewould run along the street, gather all the snow up in front of us, passit into the compressor, and deliver little blocks of ice behind usin the gutter, taking one-tenth the room of the snow, and notinconveniencing anybody. We could thus take care of a snow-stormby diminishing the bulk of material to be handled. The preliminaryexperiment we made was dropped because we went into other things. Themachine would go as fast as a horse could walk. "

Edison has always taken a keen interest in aerial flight, and has alsoexperimented with aeroplanes, his preference inclining to the helicoptertype, as noted in the newspapers and periodicals from time to time. The following statement from him refers to a type of aeroplane of greatnovelty and ingenuity: "James Gordon Bennett came to me and asked thatI try some primary experiments to see if aerial navigation was feasiblewith 'heavier-than-air' machines. I got up a motor and put it on thescales and tried a large number of different things and contrivancesconnected to the motor, to see how it would lighten itself on thescales. I got some data and made up my mind that what was needed was avery powerful engine for its weight, in small compass. So I conceived ofan engine employing guncotton. I took a lot of ticker paper tape, turnedit into guncotton and got up an engine with an arrangement whereby Icould feed this gun-cotton strip into the cylinder and explode it insideelectrically. The feed took place between two copper rolls. The copperkept the temperature down, so that it could only explode up to the pointwhere it was in contact with the feed rolls. It worked pretty well;but once the feed roll didn't save it, and the flame went through andexploded the whole roll and kicked up such a bad explosion I abandonedit. But the idea might be made to work. "

Turning from the air to the earth, it is interesting to note that theintroduction of the underground Edison system in New York made an appealto inventive ingenuity and that one of the difficulties was met asfollows: "When we first put the Pearl Street station in operation, inNew York, we had cast-iron junction-boxes at the intersections of allthe streets. One night, or about two o'clock in the morning, a policemancame in and said that something had exploded at the corner of Williamand Nassau streets. I happened to be in the station, and went out to seewhat it was. I found that the cover of the manhole, weighing about 200pounds, had entirely disappeared, but everything inside was intact. Ithad even stripped some of the threads of the bolts, and we could neverfind that cover. I concluded it was either leakage of gas into themanhole, or else the acid used in pickling the casting had given offhydrogen, and air had leaked in, making an explosive mixture. As thiswas a pretty serious problem, and as we had a good many of the manholes, it worried me very much for fear that it would be repeated and thecompany might have to pay a lot of damages, especially in districtslike that around William and Nassau, where there are a good many peopleabout. If an explosion took place in the daytime it might lift a few ofthem up. However, I got around the difficulty by putting a little bottleof chloroform in each box, corked up, with a slight hole in the cork. The chloroform being volatile and very heavy, settled in the box anddisplaced all the air. I have never heard of an explosion in a manholewhere this chloroform had been used. Carbon tetrachloride, now madeelectrically at Niagara Falls, is very cheap and would be ideal for thepurpose. "

Edison has never paid much attention to warfare, and has in generaldisdained to develop inventions for the destruction of life andproperty. Some years ago, however, he became the joint inventor ofthe Edison-Sims torpedo, with Mr. W. Scott Sims, who sought hisco-operation. This is a dirigible submarine torpedo operated byelectricity. In the torpedo proper, which is suspended from a longfloat so as to be submerged a few feet under water, are placed the smallelectric motor for propulsion and steering, and the explosive charge. The torpedo is controlled from the shore or ship through an electriccable which it pays out as it goes along, and all operations of varyingthe speed, reversing, and steering are performed at the will of thedistant operator by means of currents sent through the cable. During theSpanish-American War of 1898 Edison suggested to the Navy Department theadoption of a compound of calcium carbide and calcium phosphite, whichwhen placed in a shell and fired from a gun would explode as soon as itstruck water and ignite, producing a blaze that would continue severalminutes and make the ships of the enemy visible for four or five milesat sea. Moreover, the blaze could not be extinguished. 

Edison has always been deeply interested in "conservation, " and muchof his work has been directed toward the economy of fuel in obtainingelectrical energy directly from the consumption of coal. Indeed, itwill be noted that the example of his handwriting shown in these volumesdeals with the importance of obtaining available energy direct from thecombustible without the enormous loss in the intervening stages thatmakes our best modern methods of steam generation and utilization sobarbarously extravagant and wasteful. Several years ago, experimentingin this field, Edison devised and operated some ingenious pyromagneticmotors and generators, based, as the name implies, on the directapplication of heat to the machines. The motor is founded upon theprinciple discovered by the famous Dr. William Gilbert--court physicianto Queen Elizabeth, and the Father of modern electricity--that themagnetic properties of iron diminish with heat. At a light-red heat, iron becomes non-magnetic, so that a strong magnet exerts no influenceover it. Edison employed this peculiar property by constructing a smallmachine in which a pivoted bar is alternately heated and cooled. Itis thus attracted toward an adjacent electromagnet when cold and isuninfluenced when hot, and as the result motion is produced. 

The pyromagnetic generator is based on the same phenomenon; its aimbeing of course to generate electrical energy directly from the heat ofthe combustible. The armature, or moving part of the machine, consistsin reality of eight separate armatures all constructed of corrugatedsheet iron covered with asbestos and wound with wire. These armaturesare held in place by two circular iron plates, through the centre ofwhich runs a shaft, carrying at its lower extremity a semicircularshield of fire-clay, which covers the ends of four of the armatures. The heat, of whatever origin, is applied from below, and the shaft beingrevolved, four of the armatures lose their magnetism constantly, whilethe other four gain it, so to speak. As the moving part revolves, therefore, currents of electricity are set up in the wires of thearmatures and are collected by a commutator, as in an ordinary dynamo, placed on the upper end of the central shaft. 

A great variety of electrical instruments are included in Edison'sinventions, many of these in fundamental or earlier forms being devisedfor his systems of light and power, as noted already. There are numerousothers, and it might be said with truth that Edison is hardly everwithout some new device of this kind in hand, as he is by no meanssatisfied with the present status of electrical measurements. He holdsin general that the meters of to-day, whether for heavy or for feeblecurrents, are too expensive, and that cheaper instruments are anecessity of the times. These remarks apply more particularly to whatmay be termed, in general, circuit meters. In other classes Edisonhas devised an excellent form of magnetic bridge, being an ingeniousapplication of the principles of the familiar Wheatstone bridge, usedso extensively for measuring the electrical resistance of wires; thetesting of iron for magnetic qualities being determined by it in thesame way. Another special instrument is a "dead beat" galvanometer whichdiffers from the ordinary form of galvanometer in having no coils ormagnetic needle. It depends for its action upon the heating effect ofthe current, which causes a fine platinum-iridium wire enclosed in aglass tube to expand; thus allowing a coiled spring to act on a pivotedshaft carrying a tiny mirror. The mirror as it moves throws a beam oflight upon a scale and the indications are read by the spot oflight. Most novel of all the apparatus of this measuring kind is theodoroscope, which is like the tasimeter described in an earlier chapter, except that a strip of gelatine takes the place of hard rubber, asthe sensitive member. Besides being affected by heat, this device isexceedingly sensitive to moisture. A few drops of water or perfumethrown on the floor of a room are sufficient to give a very decidedindication on the galvanometer in circuit with the instrument. Barometers, hygrometers, and similar instruments of great delicacy canbe constructed on the principle of the odoroscope; and it may also beused in determining the character or pressure of gases and vapors inwhich it has been placed. 

In the list of Edison's patents at the end of this work may be notedmany other of his miscellaneous inventions, covering items such aspreserving fruit in vacuo, making plate-glass, drawing wire, andmetallurgical processes for treatment of nickel, gold, and copper ores;but to mention these inventions separately would trespass too much onour limited space here. Hence, we shall leave the interested reader toexamine that list for himself. 

From first to last Edison has filed in the United States PatentOffice--in addition to more than 1400 applications for patents--some120 caveats embracing not less than 1500 inventions. A "caveat" isessentially a notice filed by an inventor, entitling him to receivewarning from the Office of any application for a patent for an inventionthat would "interfere" with his own, during the year, while he issupposed to be perfecting his device. The old caveat system has now beenabolished, but it served to elicit from Edison a most astounding recordof ideas and possible inventions upon which he was working, and manyof which he of course reduced to practice. As an example of Edison'sfertility and the endless variety of subjects engaging his thoughts, thefollowing list of matters covered by ONE caveat is given. It is needlessto say that all the caveats are not quite so full of "plums, " but thisis certainly a wonder. 

Forty-one distinct inventions relating to the phonograph, coveringvarious forms of recorders, arrangement of parts, making of records, shaving tool, adjustments, etc. 

Eight forms of electric lamps using infusible earthy oxides and broughtto high incandescence in vacuo by high potential current of severalthousand volts; same character as impingement of X-rays on object inbulb. 

A loud-speaking telephone with quartz cylinder and beam of ultra-violetlight. 

Four forms of arc light with special carbons. 

A thermostatic motor. 

A device for sealing together the inside part and bulb of anincandescent lamp mechanically. 

Regulators for dynamos and motors. 

Three devices for utilizing vibrations beyond the ultra violet. 

A great variety of methods for coating incandescent lamp filaments withsilicon, titanium, chromium, osmium, boron, etc. 

Several methods of making porous filaments. 

Several methods of making squirted filaments of a variety of materials, of which about thirty are specified. 

Seventeen different methods and devices for separating magnetic ores. 

A continuously operative primary battery. 

A musical instrument operating one of Helmholtz's artificial larynxes. 

A siren worked by explosion of small quantities of oxygen and hydrogenmixed. 

Three other sirens made to give vocal sounds or articulate speech. 

A device for projecting sound-waves to a distance without spreading andin a straight line, on the principle of smoke rings. 

A device for continuously indicating on a galvanometer the depths of theocean. 

A method of preventing in a great measure friction of water against thehull of a ship and incidentally preventing fouling by barnacles. 

A telephone receiver whereby the vibrations of the diaphragm areconsiderably amplified. 

Two methods of "space" telegraphy at sea. 

An improved and extended string telephone. 

Devices and method of talking through water for considerable distances. 

An audiphone for deaf people. 

Sound-bridge for measuring resistance of tubes and other materials forconveying sound. 

A method of testing a magnet to ascertain the existence of flaws in theiron or steel composing the same. 

Method of distilling liquids by incandescent conductor immersed in theliquid. 

Method of obtaining electricity direct from coal. 

An engine operated by steam produced by the hydration and dehydration ofmetallic salts. 

Device and method for telegraphing photographically. 

Carbon crucible kept brilliantly incandescent by current in vacuo, forobtaining reaction with refractory metals. 

Device for examining combinations of odors and their changes by rotationat different speeds. 

From one of the preceding items it will be noted that even in theeighties Edison perceived much advantage to be gained in the line ofeconomy by the use of lamp filaments employing refractory metals intheir construction. From another caveat, filed in 1889, we extract thefollowing, which shows that he realized the value of tungsten also forthis purpose. "Filaments of carbon placed in a combustion tube with alittle chloride ammonium. Chloride tungsten or titanium passed throughhot tube, depositing a film of metal on the carbon; or filaments ofzirconia oxide, or alumina or magnesia, thoria or other infusible oxidesmixed or separate, and obtained by moistening and squirting through adie, are thus coated with above metals and used for incandescent lamps. Osmium from a volatile compound of same thus deposited makes a filamentas good as carbon when in vacuo. "

In 1888, long before there arose the actual necessity of duplicatingphonograph records so as to produce replicas in great numbers, Edisondescribed in one of his caveats a method and process much similar tothe one which was put into practice by him in later years. In thesame caveat he describes an invention whereby the power to indent ona phonograph cylinder, instead of coming directly from the voice, iscaused by power derived from the rotation or movement of the phonogramsurface itself. He did not, however, follow up this invention and put itinto practice. Some twenty years later it was independently inventedand patented by another inventor. A further instance of this kind isa method of telegraphy at sea by means of a diaphragm in a closedport-hole flush with the side of the vessel, and actuated by asteam-whistle which is controlled by a lever, similarly to a Morse key. A receiving diaphragm is placed in another and near-by chamber, which isprovided with very sensitive stethoscopic ear-pieces, by which theMorse characters sent from another vessel may be received. This wasalso invented later by another inventor, and is in use to-day, but willnaturally be rivalled by wireless telegraphy. Still another instanceis seen in one of Edison's caveats, where he describes a method ofdistilling liquids by means of internally applied heat through electricconductors. Although Edison did not follow up the idea and take out apatent, this system of distillation was later hit upon by others and isin use at the present time. 

In the foregoing pages of this chapter the authors have endeavoredto present very briefly a sketchy notion of the astounding range ofEdison's practical ideas, but they feel a sense of impotence in beingunable to deal adequately with the subject in the space that can bedevoted to it. To those who, like the authors, have had the privilegeof examining the voluminous records which show the flights of hisimagination, there comes a feeling of utter inadequacy to convey toothers the full extent of the story they reveal. 

The few specific instances above related, although not representing atithe of Edison's work, will probably be sufficient to enable the readerto appreciate to some extent his great wealth of ideas and fertilityof imagination, and also to realize that this imagination is not onlyintensely practical, but that it works prophetically along lines ofnatural progress. 

CHAPTER XXIV

EDISON'S METHOD IN INVENTING

WHILE the world's progress depends largely upon their ingenuity, inventors are not usually persons who have adopted invention as adistinct profession, but, generally speaking, are otherwise engaged invarious walks of life. By reason of more or less inherent native geniusthey either make improvements along lines of present occupation, orelse evolve new methods and means of accomplishing results in fields forwhich they may have personal predilections. 

Now and then, however, there arises a man so greatly endowed withnatural powers and originality that the creative faculty within himis too strong to endure the humdrum routine of affairs, and manifestsitself in a life devoted entirely to the evolution of methods anddevices calculated to further the world's welfare. In other words, hebecomes an inventor by profession. Such a man is Edison. Notwithstandingthe fact that nearly forty years ago (not a great while after he hademerged from the ranks of peripatetic telegraph operators) he wasthe owner of a large and profitable business as a manufacturer of thetelegraphic apparatus invented by him, the call of his nature was toostrong to allow of profits being laid away in the bank to accumulate. Ashe himself has said, he has "too sanguine a temperament to allow moneyto stay in solitary confinement. " Hence, all superfluous cash wasdevoted to experimentation. In the course of years he grew more andmore impatient of the shackles that bound him to business routine, and, realizing the powers within him, he drew away gradually from purelymanufacturing occupations, determining deliberately to devote hislife to inventive work, and to depend upon its results as a means ofsubsistence. 

All persons who make inventions will necessarily be more or lessoriginal in character, but to the man who chooses to become an inventorby profession must be conceded a mind more than ordinarily repletewith virility and originality. That these qualities in Edison aresuperabundant is well known to all who have worked with him, and, indeed, are apparent to every one from his multiplied achievementswithin the period of one generation. 

If one were allowed only two words with which to describe Edison, itis doubtful whether a close examination of the entire dictionary woulddisclose any others more suitable than "experimenter--inventor. " Thesewould express the overruling characteristics of his eventful career. Itis as an "inventor" that he sets himself down in the membership list ofthe American Institute of Electrical Engineers. To attempt the strictplacing of these words in relation to each other (except alphabetically)would be equal to an endeavor to solve the old problem as to which camefirst, the egg or the chicken; for although all his inventions have beenevolved through experiment, many of his notable experiments havecalled forth the exercise of highly inventive faculties in their veryinception. Investigation and experiment have been a consuming passion, an impelling force from within, as it were, from his petticoat days whenhe collected goose-eggs and tried to hatch them out by sitting overthem himself. One might be inclined to dismiss this trivial incidentsmilingly, as a mere childish, thoughtless prank, had not subsequentdevelopment as a child, boy, and man revealed a born investigator withoriginal reasoning powers that, disdaining crooks and bends, alwaysaimed at the centre, and, like the flight of the bee, were accurate anddirect. 

It is not surprising, therefore, that a man of this kind shouldexhibit a ceaseless, absorbing desire for knowledge, and an apparentlyuncontrollable tendency to experiment on every possible occasion, even though his last cent were spent in thus satisfying the insatiatecravings of an inquiring mind. 

During Edison's immature years, when he was flitting about from place toplace as a telegraph operator, his experimentation was of a desultory, hand-to-mouth character, although it was always notable for originality, as expressed in a number of minor useful devices produced during thisperiod. Small wonder, then, that at the end of these wanderings, whenhe had found a place to "rest the sole of his foot, " he established alaboratory in which to carry on his researches in a more methodical andpractical manner. In this was the beginning of the work which has sincemade such a profound impression on contemporary life. 

There is nothing of the helter-skelter, slap-dash style in Edison'sexperiments. Although all the laboratory experimenters agree in theopinion that he "tries everything, " it is not merely the mixing of alittle of this, some of that, and a few drops of the other, in the HOPEthat SOMETHING will come of it. Nor is the spirit of the laboratorywork represented in the following dialogue overheard between two allegedcarpenters picked up at random to help on a hurry job. 

"How near does she fit, Mike?"

"About an inch. "

"Nail her!"

A most casual examination of any of the laboratory records will revealevidence of the minutest exactitude insisted on in the conduct ofexperiments, irrespective of the length of time they occupied. Edison'sinstructions, always clear cut and direct, followed by his keenoversight, admit of nothing less than implicit observance in alldetails, no matter where they may lead, and impel to the utmostminuteness and accuracy. 

To some extent there has been a popular notion that many of Edison'ssuccesses have been due to mere dumb fool luck--to blind, fortuitous"happenings. " Nothing could be further from the truth, for, on thecontrary, it is owing almost entirely to the comprehensive scope of hisknowledge, the breadth of his conception, the daring originality ofhis methods, and minuteness and extent of experiment, combined withunwavering pertinacity, that new arts have been created and additionsmade to others already in existence. Indeed, without this tirelessminutiae, and methodical, searching spirit, it would have beenpractically impossible to have produced many of the most important ofthese inventions. 

Needless to say, mastery of its literature is regarded by him as amost important preliminary in taking up any line of investigation. Whatothers may have done, bearing directly or collaterally on the subject, in print, is carefully considered and sifted to the point of exhaustion. Not that he takes it for granted that the conclusions are correct, forhe frequently obtains vastly different results by repeating in his ownway experiments made by others as detailed in books. 

"Edison can travel along a well-used road and still find virgin soil, "remarked recently one of his most practical experimenters, who had beenworking along a certain line without attaining the desired result. "Hewanted to get a particular compound having definite qualities, and I hadtried in all sorts of ways to produce it but with only partial success. He was confident that it could be done, and said he would try ithimself. In doing so he followed the same path in which I had travelled, but, by making an undreamed-of change in one of the operations, succeeded in producing a compound that virtually came up to hisspecifications. It is not the only time I have known this sort of thingto happen. "

In speaking of Edison's method of experimenting, another of hislaboratory staff says: "He is never hindered by theory, but resorts toactual experiment for proof. For instance, when he conceived the idea ofpouring a complete concrete house it was universally held that it wouldbe impossible because the pieces of stone in the mixture would not riseto the level of the pouring-point, but would gravitate to a lower planein the soft cement. This, however, did not hinder him from makinga series of experiments which resulted in an invention that provedconclusively the contrary. "

Having conceived some new idea and read everything obtainablerelating to the subject in general, Edison's fertility of resource andoriginality come into play. Taking one of the laboratory note-books, he will write in it a memorandum of the experiments to be tried, illustrated, if necessary, by sketches. This book is then passed onto that member of the experimental staff whose special training andexperience are best adapted to the work. Here strenuousness is expected;and an immediate commencement of investigation and prompt report arerequired. Sometimes the subject may be such as to call for a long lineof frequent tests which necessitate patient and accurate attention tominute details. Results must be reported often--daily, or possibly withstill greater frequency. Edison does not forget what is going on; but inhis daily tours through the laboratory keeps in touch with all the workthat is under the hands of his various assistants, showing by an instantgrasp of the present conditions of any experiment that he has afull consciousness of its meaning and its reference to his originalconception. 

The year 1869 saw the beginning of Edison's career as an acknowledgedinventor of commercial devices. From the outset, an innate recognitionof system dictated the desirability and wisdom of preserving recordsof his experiments and inventions. The primitive records, covering theearliest years, were mainly jotted down on loose sheets of paper coveredwith sketches, notes, and data, pasted into large scrap-books, orpreserved in packages; but with the passing of years and enlargement ofhis interests, it became the practice to make all original laboratorynotes in large, uniform books. This course was pursued until the MenloPark period, when he instituted a new regime that has been continueddown to the present day. A standard form of note-book, about eight anda half by six inches, containing about two hundred pages, was adopted. A number of these books were (and are now) always to be found scatteredaround in the different sections of the laboratory, and in them havebeen noted by Edison all his ideas, sketches, and memoranda. Detailsof the various experiments concerning them have been set down by hisassistants from time to time. 

These later laboratory note-books, of which there are now over onethousand in the series, are eloquent in the history they reveal of thestrenuous labors of Edison and his assistants and the vast fieldsof research he has covered during the last thirty years. They areoverwhelmingly rich in biographic material, but analysis would bea prohibitive task for one person, and perhaps interesting only totechnical readers. Their pages cover practically every departmentof science. The countless thousands of separate experiments recordedexhibit the operations of a master mind seeking to surprise Nature intoa betrayal of her secrets by asking her the same question in a hundreddifferent ways. For instance, when Edison was investigating a certainproblem of importance many years ago, the note-books show that on thispoint alone about fifteen thousand experiments and tests were made byone of his assistants. 

A most casual glance over these note-books will illustrate the followingremark, which was made to one of the writers not long ago by a member ofthe laboratory staff who has been experimenting there for twenty years:"Edison can think of more ways of doing a thing than any man I ever sawor heard of. He tries everything and never lets up, even though failureis apparently staring him in the face. He only stops when he simplycan't go any further on that particular line. When he decides on anymode of procedure he gives his notes to the experimenter and lets himalone, only stepping in from time to time to look at the operations andreceive reports of progress. "

The history of the development of the telephone transmitter, phonograph, incandescent lamp, dynamo, electrical distributing systems from centralstations, electric railway, ore-milling, cement, motion pictures, anda host of minor inventions may be found embedded in the laboratorynote-books. A passing glance at a few pages of these written recordswill serve to illustrate, though only to a limited extent, thethoroughness of Edison's method. It is to be observed that thesereferences can be but of the most meagre kind, and must be regarded asmerely throwing a side-light on the subject itself. For instance, thecomplex problem of a practical telephone transmitter gave rise to aseries of most exhaustive experiments. Combinations in almost infinitevariety, including gums, chemical compounds, oils, minerals, and metalswere suggested by Edison; and his assistants were given long listsof materials to try with reference to predetermined standards ofarticulation, degrees of loudness, and perfection of hissing sounds. Thenote-books contain hundreds of pages showing that a great many thousandsof experiments were tried and passed upon. Such remarks as "N. G. ";"Pretty good"; "Whistling good, but no articulation"; "Rattly";"Articulation, whispering, and whistling good"; "Best to-night so far";and others are noted opposite the various combinations as they weretried. Thus, one may follow the investigation through a maze ofexperiments which led up to the successful invention of the carbonbutton transmitter, the vital device to give the telephone its neededarticulation and perfection. 

The two hundred and odd note-books, covering the strenuous period duringwhich Edison was carrying on his electric-light experiments, tell ontheir forty thousand pages or more a fascinating story of the evolutionof a new art in its entirety. From the crude beginnings, through allthe varied phases of this evolution, the operations of a master mindare apparent from the contents of these pages, in which are recorded theinnumerable experiments, calculations, and tests that ultimately broughtlight out of darkness. 

The early work on a metallic conductor for lamps gave rise to some verythorough research on melting and alloying metals, the preparation ofmetallic oxides, the coating of fine wires by immersing them in a greatvariety of chemical solutions. Following his usual custom, Edison wouldindicate the lines of experiment to be followed, which were carriedout and recorded in the note-books. He himself, in January, 1879, madepersonally a most minute and searching investigation into the propertiesand behavior of plating-iridium, boron, rutile, zircon, chromium, molybdenum, and nickel, under varying degrees of current strength, onwhich there may be found in the notes about forty pages of detailedexperiments and deductions in his own handwriting, concluding with theremark (about nickel): "This is a great discovery for electric light inthe way of economy. "

This period of research on nickel, etc. , was evidently a trying one, forafter nearly a month's close application he writes, on January 27, 1879:"Owing to the enormous power of the light my eyes commenced to painafter seven hours' work, and I had to quit. " On the next day appearsthe following entry: "Suffered the pains of hell with my eyes last nightfrom 10 P. M. Till 4 A. M. , when got to sleep with a big dose of morphine. Eyes getting better, and do not pain much at 4 P. M. ; but I lose to-day. "

The "try everything" spirit of Edison's method is well illustrated inthis early period by a series of about sixteen hundred resistance testsof various ores, minerals, earths, etc. , occupying over fifty pages ofone of the note-books relating to the metallic filament for his lamps. 

But, as the reader has already learned, the metallic filament was soonlaid aside in favor of carbon, and we find in the laboratory notes anamazing record of research and experiment conducted in the minuteand searching manner peculiar to Edison's method. His inquiries weredirected along all the various roads leading to the desired goal, for long before he had completed the invention of a practical lamp herealized broadly the fundamental requirements of a successful system ofelectrical distribution, and had given instructions for the making ofa great variety of calculations which, although far in advance ofthe time, were clearly foreseen by him to be vitally important in theultimate solution of the complicated problem. Thus we find many hundredsof pages of the note-books covered with computations and calculationsby Mr. Upton, not only on the numerous ramifications of the projectedsystem and comparisons with gas, but also on proposed forms of dynamosand the proposed station in New York. A mere recital by titles ofthe vast number of experiments and tests on carbons, lamps, dynamos, armatures, commutators, windings, systems, regulators, sockets, vacuum-pumps, and the thousand and one details relating to the subjectin general, originated by Edison, and methodically and systematicallycarried on under his general direction, would fill a great many pageshere, and even then would serve only to convey a confused impression ofceaseless probing. 

It is possible only to a broad, comprehensive mind well stored withknowledge, and backed with resistless, boundless energy, that such adiversified series of experiments and investigations could be carriedon simultaneously and assimilated, even though they should relate to aclass of phenomena already understood and well defined. But if we pauseto consider that the commercial subdivision of the electric current(which was virtually an invention made to order) involved the solutionof problems so unprecedented that even they themselves had to becreated, we cannot but conclude that the afflatus of innate geniusplayed an important part in the unique methods of investigationinstituted by Edison at that and other times. 

The idea of attributing great successes to "genius" has always beenrepudiated by Edison, as evidenced by his historic remark that "Geniusis 1 per cent. Inspiration and 99 per cent. Perspiration. " Again, in aconversation many years ago at the laboratory between Edison, Batchelor, and E. H. Johnson, the latter made allusion to Edison's genius asevidenced by some of his achievements, when Edison replied:

"Stuff! I tell you genius is hard work, stick-to-it-iveness, and commonsense. "

"Yes, " said Johnson, "I admit there is all that to it, but there's stillmore. Batch and I have those qualifications, but although we knew quitea lot about telephones, and worked hard, we couldn't invent a brand-newnon-infringing telephone receiver as you did when Gouraud cabled forone. Then, how about the subdivision of the electric light?"

"Electric current, " corrected Edison. 

"True, " continued Johnson; "you were the one to make that verydistinction. The scientific world had been working hard on subdivisionfor years, using what appeared to be common sense. Results worse thannil. Then you come along, and about the first thing you do, afterlooking the ground over, is to start off in the opposite direction, which subsequently proves to be the only possible way to reach the goal. It seems to me that this is pretty close to the dictionary definition ofgenius. "

It is said that Edison replied rather incoherently and changed the topicof conversation. 

This innate modesty, however, does not prevent Edison from recognizingand classifying his own methods of investigation. In a conversation withtwo old associates recently (April, 1909), he remarked: "It has beensaid of me that my methods are empirical. That is true only so faras chemistry is concerned. Did you ever realize that practically allindustrial chemistry is colloidal in its nature? Hard rubber, celluloid, glass, soap, paper, and lots of others, all have to deal with amorphoussubstances, as to which comparatively little has been really settled. My methods are similar to those followed by Luther Burbank. He plants anacre, and when this is in bloom he inspects it. He has a sharp eye, andcan pick out of thousands a single plant that has promise of what hewants. From this he gets the seed, and uses his skill and knowledge inproducing from it a number of new plants which, on development, furnishthe means of propagating an improved variety in large quantity. So, whenI am after a chemical result that I have in mind, I may make hundredsor thousands of experiments out of which there may be one that promisesresults in the right direction. This I follow up to its legitimateconclusion, discarding the others, and usually get what I am after. There is no doubt about this being empirical; but when it comes toproblems of a mechanical nature, I want to tell you that all I'veever tackled and solved have been done by hard, logical thinking. " Theintense earnestness and emphasis with which this was said were veryimpressive to the auditors. This empirical method may perhaps be betterillustrated by a specific example. During the latter part of the storagebattery investigations, after the form of positive element had beendetermined upon, it became necessary to ascertain what definiteproportions and what quality of nickel hydrate and nickel flake wouldgive the best results. A series of positive tubes were filled with thetwo materials in different proportions--say, nine parts hydrate to oneof flake; eight parts hydrate to two of flake; seven parts hydrate tothree of flake, and so on through varying proportions. Three sets ofeach of these positives were made, and all put into separate test tubeswith a uniform type of negative element. These were carried through along series of charges and discharges under strict test conditions. Fromthe tabulated results of hundreds of tests there were selectedthree that showed the best results. These, however, showed only thesuperiority of certain PROPORTIONS of the materials. The next stepwould be to find out the best QUALITY. Now, as there are several hundredvariations in the quality of nickel flake, and perhaps a thousand waysto make the hydrate, it will be realized that Edison's methods led tostupendous detail, for these tests embraced a trial of all the qualitiesof both materials in the three proportions found to be most suitable. Among these many thousands of experiments any that showed extraordinaryresults were again elaborated by still further series of tests, untilEdison was satisfied that he had obtained the best result in thatparticular line. 

The laboratory note-books do not always tell the whole story or meaningof an experiment that may be briefly outlined on one of their pages. Forexample, the early filament made of a mixture of lampblack and tar ismerely a suggestion in the notes, but its making afforded an exampleof Edison's pertinacity. These materials, when mixed, became a friablemass, which he had found could be brought into such a cohesive, putty-like state by manipulation, as to be capable of being rolled outinto filaments as fine as seven-thousandths of an inch in cross-section. One of the laboratory assistants was told to make some of this mixture, knead it, and roll some filaments. After a time he brought the mass toEdison, and said:

"There's something wrong about this, for it crumbles even aftermanipulating it with my fingers. "

"How long did you knead it?" said Edison. 

"Oh! more than an hour, " replied the assistant. 

"Well, just keep on for a few hours more and it will come out allright, " was the rejoinder. And this proved to be correct, for, aftera prolonged kneading and rolling, the mass changed into a cohesive, stringy, homogeneous putty. It was from a mixture of this kind thatspiral filaments were made and used in some of the earliest formsof successful incandescent lamps; indeed, they are described andillustrated in Edison's fundamental lamp patent (No. 223, 898). 

The present narrative would assume the proportions of a history ofthe incandescent lamp, should the authors attempt to follow Edison'sinvestigations through the thousands of pages of note-books away back inthe eighties and early nineties. Improvement of the lamp was constantlyin his mind all those years, and besides the vast amount of detailexperimental work he laid out for his assistants, he carried on a greatdeal of research personally. Sometimes whole books are filled in hisown handwriting with records of experiments showing every conceivablevariation of some particular line of inquiry; each trial bearing someterse comment expressive of results. In one book appear the details ofone of these experiments on September 3, 1891, at 4. 30 A. M. , with thecomment: "Brought up lamp higher than a 16-c. P. 240 was ever broughtbefore--Hurrah!" Notwithstanding the late hour, he turns over to thenext page and goes on to write his deductions from this result ascompared with those previously obtained. Proceeding day by day, asappears by this same book, he follows up another line of investigationon lamps, apparently full of difficulty, for after one hundred andthirty-two other recorded experiments we find this note: "Saturday 3. 30went home disgusted with incandescent lamps. " This feeling was evidentlyevanescent, for on the succeeding Monday the work was continued andcarried on by him as keenly as before, as shown by the next batch ofnotes. 

This is the only instance showing any indication of impatience that theauthors have found in looking through the enormous mass of laboratorynotes. All his assistants agree that Edison is the most patient, tireless experimenter that could be conceived of. Failures do notdistress him; indeed, he regards them as always useful, as may begathered from the following, related by Dr. E. G. Acheson, formerly oneof his staff: "I once made an experiment in Edison's laboratory at MenloPark during the latter part of 1880, and the results were not as lookedfor. I considered the experiment a perfect failure, and while bemoaningthe results of this apparent failure Mr. Edison entered, and, afterlearning the facts of the case, cheerfully remarked that I should notlook upon it as a failure, for he considered every experiment a success, as in all cases it cleared up the atmosphere, and even though it failedto accomplish the results sought for, it should prove a valuable lessonfor guidance in future work. I believe that Mr. Edison's success asan experimenter was, to a large extent, due to this happy view of allexperiments. "

Edison has frequently remarked that out of a hundred experiments hedoes not expect more than one to be successful, and as to that one heis always suspicious until frequent repetition has verified the originalresults. 

This patient, optimistic view of the outcome of experiments has remainedpart of his character down to this day, just as his painstaking, minute, incisive methods are still unchanged. But to the careless, stupid, orlazy person he is a terror for the short time they remain around him. Honest mistakes may be tolerated, but not carelessness, incompetence, or lack of attention to business. In such cases Edison is apt to expresshimself freely and forcibly, as when he was asked why he had parted witha certain man, he said: "Oh, he was so slow that it would take him halfan hour to get out of the field of a microscope. " Another instance willbe illustrative. Soon after the Brockton (Massachusetts) central stationwas started in operation many years ago, he wrote a note to Mr. W. S. Andrews, containing suggestions as to future stations, part of whichrelated to the various employees and their duties. After outlining theduties of the meter man, Edison says: "I should not take too young a manfor this, say, a man from twenty-three to thirty years old, bright andbusinesslike. Don't want any one who yearns to enter a laboratory andexperiment. We have a bad case of that at Brockton; he neglects businessto potter. What we want is a good lamp average and no unprofitablecustomer. You should have these men on probation and subject to passingan examination by me. This will wake them up. "

Edison's examinations are no joke, according to Mr. J. H. Vail, formerlyone of the Menlo Park staff. "I wanted a job, " he said, "and wasambitious to take charge of the dynamo-room. Mr. Edison led me to a heapof junk in a corner and said: 'Put that together and let me knowwhen it's running. ' I didn't know what it was, but received a liberaleducation in finding out. It proved to be a dynamo, which I finallysucceeded in assembling and running. I got the job. " Another man whosucceeded in winning a place as assistant was Mr. John F. Ott, who hasremained in his employ for over forty years. In 1869, when Edison wasoccupying his first manufacturing shop (the third floor of a smallbuilding in Newark), he wanted a first-class mechanician, and Mr. Ottwas sent to him. "He was then an ordinary-looking young fellow, " saysMr. Ott, "dirty as any of the other workmen, unkempt, and not muchbetter dressed than a tramp, but I immediately felt that there was agreat deal in him. " This is the conversation that ensued, led by Mr. Edison's question:

"What do you want?"

"Work. "

"Can you make this machine work?" (exhibiting it and explaining itsdetails). 

"Yes. "

"Are you sure?"

"Well, you needn't pay me if I don't. "

And thus Mr. Ott went to work and succeeded in accomplishing the resultsdesired. Two weeks afterward Mr. Edison put him in charge of the shop. 

Edison's life fairly teems with instances of unruffled patience in thepursuit of experiments. When he feels thoroughly impressed with thepossibility of accomplishing a certain thing, he will settle downcomposedly to investigate it to the end. 

This is well illustrated in a story relating to his invention of thetype of storage battery bearing his name. Mr. W. S. Mallory, one of hisclosest associates for many years, is the authority for the following:"When Mr. Edison decided to shut down the ore-milling plant at Edison, New Jersey, in which I had been associated with him, it became aproblem as to what he could profitably take up next, and we had severaldiscussions about it. He finally thought that a good storage batterywas a great requisite, and decided to try and devise a new type, for hedeclared emphatically he would make no battery requiring sulphuric acid. After a little thought he conceived the nickel-iron idea, and started towork at once with characteristic energy. About 7 or 7. 30 A. M. He wouldgo down to the laboratory and experiment, only stopping for a short timeat noon to eat a lunch sent down from the house. About 6 o'clock thecarriage would call to take him to dinner, from which he would return by7. 30 or 8 o'clock to resume work. The carriage came again at midnightto take him home, but frequently had to wait until 2 or 3 o'clock, andsometimes return without him, as he had decided to continue all night. 

"This had been going on more than five months, seven days a week, whenI was called down to the laboratory to see him. I found him at a benchabout three feet wide and twelve to fifteen feet long, on which therewere hundreds of little test cells that had been made up by his corpsof chemists and experimenters. He was seated at this bench testing, figuring, and planning. I then learned that he had thus made overnine thousand experiments in trying to devise this new type of storagebattery, but had not produced a single thing that promised to solvethe question. In view of this immense amount of thought and labor, mysympathy got the better of my judgment, and I said: 'Isn't it a shamethat with the tremendous amount of work you have done you haven't beenable to get any results?' Edison turned on me like a flash, and witha smile replied: 'Results! Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results! Iknow several thousand things that won't work. '

"At that time he sent me out West on a special mission. On my return, afew weeks later, his experiments had run up to over ten thousand, buthe had discovered the missing link in the combination sought for. Ofcourse, we all remember how the battery was completed and put on themarket. Then, because he was dissatisfied with it, he stopped the salesand commenced a new line of investigation, which has recently culminatedsuccessfully. I shouldn't wonder if his experiments on the battery ranup pretty near to fifty thousand, for they fill more than one hundredand fifty of the note-books, to say nothing of some thousands of testsin curve sheets. "

Although Edison has an absolute disregard for the total outlay of moneyin investigation, he is particular to keep down the cost of individualexperiments to a minimum, for, as he observed to one of his assistants:"A good many inventors try to develop things life-size, and thus spendall their money, instead of first experimenting more freely on a smallscale. " To Edison life is not only a grand opportunity to find outthings by experiment, but, when found, to improve them by furtherexperiment. One night, after receiving a satisfactory report of progressfrom Mr. Mason, superintendent of the cement plant, he said: "The onlyway to keep ahead of the procession is to experiment. If you don't, theother fellow will. When there's no experimenting there's no progress. Stop experimenting and you go backward. If anything goes wrong, experiment until you get to the very bottom of the trouble. "

It is easy to realize, therefore, that a character so thoroughlypermeated with these ideas is not apt to stop and figure out expensewhen in hot pursuit of some desired object. When that object has beenattained, however, and it passes from the experimental to the commercialstage, Edison's monetary views again come into strong play, but theytake a diametrically opposite position, for he then begins immediatelyto plan the extreme of economy in the production of the article. Athousand and one instances could be quoted in illustration; but asthey would tend to change the form of this narrative into a history ofeconomy in manufacture, it will suffice to mention but one, and that arecent occurrence, which serves to illustrate how closely he keeps intouch with everything, and also how the inventive faculty and instinctof commercial economy run close together. It was during Edison's winterstay in Florida, in March, 1909. He had reports sent to him dailyfrom various places, and studied them carefully, for he would writefrequently with comments, instructions, and suggestions; and in onecase, commenting on the oiling system at the cement plant, he wrote:"Your oil losses are now getting lower, I see. " Then, after suggestingsome changes to reduce them still further, he went on to say: "Here is achance to save a mill per barrel based on your regular daily output. "

This thorough consideration of the smallest detail is essentiallycharacteristic of Edison, not only in economy of manufacture, but inall his work, no matter of what kind, whether it be experimenting, investigating, testing, or engineering. To follow him through thelabyrinthine paths of investigation contained in the great array oflaboratory note-books is to become involved in a mass of minutelydetailed searches which seek to penetrate the inmost recesses of natureby an ultimate analysis of an infinite variety of parts. As the readerwill obtain a fuller comprehension of this idea, and of Edison'smethods, by concrete illustration rather than by generalization, theauthors have thought it well to select at random two typical instancesof specific investigations out of the thousands that are scatteredthrough the notebooks. These will be found in the following extractsfrom one of the note-books, and consist of Edison's instructions to becarried out in detail by his experimenters:

"Take, say, 25 lbs. Hard Cuban asphalt and separate all the differenthydrocarbons, etc. , as far as possible by means of solvents. It will benecessary first to dissolve everything out by, say, hot turpentine, thensuccessively treat the residue with bisulphide carbon, benzol, ether, chloroform, naphtha, toluol, alcohol, and other probable solvents. After you can go no further, distil off all the solvents so the asphaltmaterial has a tar-like consistency. Be sure all the ash is out of theturpentine portion; now, after distilling the turpentine off, act on theresidue with all the solvents that were used on the residue, using forthe first the solvent which is least likely to dissolve a great partof it. By thus manipulating the various solvents you will beenabled probably to separate the crude asphalt into several distincthydrocarbons. Put each in a bottle after it has been dried, and labelthe bottle with the process, etc. , so we may be able to duplicate it;also give bottle a number and describe everything fully in note-book. "

"Destructively distil the following substances down to a point justshort of carbonization, so that the residuum can be taken out of theretort, powdered, and acted on by all the solvents just as the asphaltin previous page. The distillation should be carried to, say, 600degrees or 700 degrees Fahr. , but not continued long enough to whollyreduce mass to charcoal, but always run to blackness. Separate theresiduum in as many definite parts as possible, bottle and label, andkeep accurate records as to process, weights, etc. , so a reproduction ofthe experiment can at any time be made: Gelatine, 4 lbs. ; asphalt, hardCuban, 10 lbs. ; coal-tar or pitch, 10 lbs. ; wood-pitch, 10 lbs. ;Syrian asphalt, 10 lbs. ; bituminous coal, 10 lbs. ; cane-sugar, 10 lbs. ;glucose, 10 lbs. ; dextrine, 10 lbs. ; glycerine, 10 lbs. ; tartaric acid, 5 lbs. ; gum guiac, 5 lbs. ; gum amber, 3 lbs. ; gum tragacanth, 3 Lbs. ;aniline red, 1 lb. ; aniline oil, 1 lb. ; crude anthracene, 5 lbs. ;petroleum pitch, 10 lbs. ; albumen from eggs, 2 lbs. ; tar from passingchlorine through aniline oil, 2 lbs. ; citric acid, 5 lbs. ; sawdust ofboxwood, 3 lbs. ; starch, 5 lbs. ; shellac, 3 lbs. ; gum Arabic, 5 lbs. ;castor oil, 5 lbs. "

The empirical nature of his method will be apparent from an examinationof the above items; but in pursuing it he leaves all uncertaintybehind and, trusting nothing to theory, he acquires absolute knowledge. Whatever may be the mental processes by which he arrives at thestarting-point of any specific line of research, the final resultsalmost invariably prove that he does not plunge in at random; indeed, as an old associate remarked: "When Edison takes up any propositionin natural science, his perceptions seem to be elementally broad andanalytical, that is to say, in addition to the knowledge he has acquiredfrom books and observation, he appears to have an intuitive apprehensionof the general order of things, as they might be supposed to exist innatural relation to each other. It has always seemed to me that he goesto the core of things at once. "

Although nothing less than results from actual experiments areacceptable to him as established facts, this view of Edison mayalso account for his peculiar and somewhat weird ability to "guess"correctly, a faculty which has frequently enabled him to take shortcuts to lines of investigation whose outcome has verified in a mostremarkable degree statements apparently made offhand and withoutcalculation. Mr. Upton says: "One of the main impressions left upon me, after knowing Mr. Edison for many years, is the marvellous accuracy ofhis guesses. He will see the general nature of a result long before itcan be reached by mathematical calculation. " This was supplemented byone of his engineering staff, who remarked: "Mr. Edison can guess betterthan a good many men can figure, and so far as my experience goes, Ihave found that he is almost invariably correct. His guess is more thana mere starting-point, and often turns out to be the final solution ofa problem. I can only account for it by his remarkable insight andwonderful natural sense of the proportion of things, in addition towhich he seems to carry in his head determining factors of allkinds, and has the ability to apply them instantly in considering anymechanical problem. "

While this mysterious intuitive power has been of the greatest advantagein connection with the vast number of technical problems that haveentered into his life-work, there have been many remarkable instancesin which it has seemed little less than prophecy, and it is deemed worthwhile to digress to the extent of relating two of them. One day inthe summer of 1881, when the incandescent lamp-industry was stillin swaddling clothes, Edison was seated in the room of Major Eaton, vice-president of the Edison Electric Light Company, talking overbusiness matters, when Mr. Upton came in from the lamp factory atMenlo Park, and said: "Well, Mr. Edison, we completed a thousandlamps to-day. " Edison looked up and said "Good, " then relapsed intoa thoughtful mood. In about two minutes he raised his head, and said:"Upton, in fifteen years you will be making forty thousand lamps a day. "None of those present ventured to make any remark on this assertion, although all felt that it was merely a random guess, based on thesanguine dream of an inventor. The business had not then really made astart, and being entirely new was without precedent upon which to baseany such statement, but, as a matter of fact, the records of the lampfactory show that in 1896 its daily output of lamps was actually aboutforty thousand. 

The other instance referred to occurred shortly after the Edison MachineWorks was moved up to Schenectady, in 1886. One day, when he was at theworks, Edison sat down and wrote on a sheet of paper fifteen separatepredictions of the growth and future of the electrical business. Notwithstanding the fact that the industry was then in an immaturestate, and that the great boom did not set in until a few yearsafterward, twelve of these predictions have been fully verified by theenormous growth and development in all branches of the art. 

What the explanation of this gift, power, or intuition may be, isperhaps better left to the psychologist to speculate upon. If one wereto ask Edison, he would probably say, "Hard work, not too much sleep, and free use of the imagination. " Whether or not it would be possiblefor the average mortal to arrive at such perfection of "guessing" byfaithfully following this formula, even reinforced by the Edisonrecipe for stimulating a slow imagination with pastry, is open fordemonstration. 

Somewhat allied to this curious faculty is another no less remarkable, and that is, the ability to point out instantly an error in a mass ofreported experimental results. While many instances could be definitelynamed, a typical one, related by Mr. J. D. Flack, formerly mastermechanic at the lamp factory, may be quoted: "During the many yearsof lamp experimentation, batches of lamps were sent to the photometerdepartment for test, and Edison would examine the tabulated test sheets. He ran over every item of the tabulations rapidly, and, apparentlywithout any calculation whatever, would check off errors as fast as hecame to them, saying: 'You have made a mistake; try this one over. 'In every case the second test proved that he was right. This wonderfulaptitude for infallibly locating an error without an instant'shesitation for mental calculation, has always appealed to me veryforcibly. "

The ability to detect errors quickly in a series of experiments is oneof the things that has enabled Edison to accomplish such a vast amountof work as the records show. Examples of the minuteness of detail intowhich his researches extend have already been mentioned, and asthere are always a number of such investigations in progress at thelaboratory, this ability stands Edison in good stead, for he is thusenabled to follow, and, if necessary, correct each one step by step. In this he is aided by the great powers of a mind that is able to freeitself from absorbed concentration on the details of one problem, andinstantly to shift over and become deeply and intelligently concentratedin another and entirely different one. For instance, he may have beenbusy for hours on chemical experiments, and be called upon suddenly todetermine some mechanical questions. The complete and easy transitionis the constant wonder of his associates, for there is no confusionof ideas resulting from these quick changes, no hesitation or apparenteffort, but a plunge into the midst of the new subject, and an instantacquaintance with all its details, as if he had been studying it forhours. 

A good stiff difficulty--one which may, perhaps, appear to be anunsurmountable obstacle--only serves to make Edison cheerful, and bringsout variations of his methods in experimenting. Such an occurrence willstart him thinking, which soon gives rise to a line of suggestions forapproaching the trouble from various sides; or he will sit down andwrite out a series of eliminations, additions, or changes to be workedout and reported upon, with such variations as may suggest themselvesduring their progress. It is at such times as these that his unfailingpatience and tremendous resourcefulness are in evidence. Ideas andexpedients are poured forth in a torrent, and although some of them havetemporarily appeared to the staff to be ridiculous or irrelevant, theyhave frequently turned out to be the ones leading to a correct solutionof the trouble. 

Edison's inexhaustible resourcefulness and fertility of ideas havecontributed largely to his great success, and have ever been a cause ofamazement to those around him. Frequently, when it would seem to othersthat the extreme end of an apparently blind alley had been reached, andthat it was impossible to proceed further, he has shown that there wereseveral ways out of it. Examples without number could be quoted, butone must suffice by way of illustration. During the progress of theore-milling work at Edison, it became desirable to carry on a certainoperation by some special machinery. He requested the proper person onhis engineering staff to think this matter up and submit a few sketchesof what he would propose to do. He brought three drawings to Edison, whoexamined them and said none of them would answer. The engineer remarkedthat it was too bad, for there was no other way to do it. Mr. Edisonturned to him quickly, and said: "Do you mean to say that these drawingsrepresent the only way to do this work?" To which he received the reply:"I certainly do. " Edison said nothing. This happened on a Saturday. Hefollowed his usual custom of spending Sunday at home in Orange. When hereturned to the works on Monday morning, he took with him sketches hehad made, showing FORTY-EIGHT other ways of accomplishing the desiredoperation, and laid them on the engineer's desk without a word. Subsequently one of these ideas, with modifications suggested by some ofthe others, was put into successful practice. 

Difficulties seem to have a peculiar charm for Edison, whether theyrelate to large or small things; and although the larger matters havecontributed most to the history of the arts, the same carefulness ofthought has often been the means of leading to improvements of permanentadvantage even in minor details. For instance, in the very earliest daysof electric lighting, the safe insulation of two bare wires fastenedtogether was a serious problem that was solved by him. An iron pot overa fire, some insulating material melted therein, and narrow strips oflinen drawn through it by means of a wooden clamp, furnished a readilyapplied and adhesive insulation, which was just as perfect for thepurpose as the regular and now well-known insulating tape, of which itwas the forerunner. 

Dubious results are not tolerated for a moment in Edison's experimentalwork. Rather than pass upon an uncertainty, the experiment will bedissected and checked minutely in order to obtain absolute knowledge, pro and con. This searching method is followed not only in chemical orother investigations, into which complexities might naturally enter, but also in more mechanical questions, where simplicity of constructionmight naturally seem to preclude possibilities of uncertainty. Forinstance, at the time when he was making strenuous endeavors to obtaincopper wire of high conductivity, strict laboratory tests were made ofsamples sent by manufacturers. One of these samples tested out poorerthan a previous lot furnished from the same factory. A report of this toEdison brought the following note: "Perhaps the ---- wire had a bad spotin it. Please cut it up into lengths and test each one and send resultsto me immediately. " Possibly the electrical fraternity does not realizethat this earnest work of Edison, twenty-eight years ago, resulted inthe establishment of the high quality of copper wire that has beenthe recognized standard since that time. Says Edison on this point:"I furnished the expert and apparatus to the Ansonia Brass and CopperCompany in 1883, and he is there yet. It was this expert and thiscompany who pioneered high-conductivity copper for the electricaltrade. "

Nor is it generally appreciated in the industry that the adoption ofwhat is now regarded as a most obvious proposition--the high-economyincandescent lamp--was the result of that characteristic foresight whichthere has been occasion to mention frequently in the course of thisnarrative, together with the courage and "horse-sense" which havealways been displayed by the inventor in his persistent pushing outwith far-reaching ideas, in the face of pessimistic opinions. As iswell known, the lamps of the first ten or twelve years of incandescentlighting were of low economy, but had long life. Edison's study of thesubject had led him to the conviction that the greatest growth ofthe electric-lighting industry would be favored by a lamp taking lesscurrent, but having shorter, though commercially economical life;and after gradually making improvements along this line he developed, finally, a type of high-economy lamp which would introduce a mostradical change in existing conditions, and lead ultimately to highlyadvantageous results. His start on this lamp, and an expressed desire tohave it manufactured for regular use, filled even some of his businessassociates with dismay, for they could see nothing but disaster aheadin forcing such a lamp on the market. His persistence and profoundconviction of the ultimate results were so strong and his arguments sosound, however, that the campaign was entered upon. Although it took twoor three years to convince the public of the correctness of his views, the idea gradually took strong root, and has now become an integralprinciple of the business. 

In this connection it may be noted that with remarkable prescienceEdison saw the coming of the modern lamps of to-day, which, by reason oftheir small consumption of energy to produce a given candle-power, havedismayed central-station managers. A few years ago a consumption of 3. 1watts per candle-power might safely be assumed as an excellent average, and many stations fixed their rates and business on such a basis. Theresults on income when the consumption, as in the new metallic-filamentlamps, drops to 1. 25 watts per candle can readily be imagined. Edisonhas insisted that central stations are selling light and not current;and he points to the predicament now confronting them as truth of hisassertion that when selling light they share in all the benefits ofimprovement, but that when they sell current the consumer gets allthose benefits without division. The dilemma is encountered by centralstations in a bewildered way, as a novel and unexpected experience; butEdison foresaw the situation and warned against it long ago. It is oneof the greatest gifts of statesmanship to see new social problems yearsbefore they arise and solve them in advance. It is one of the greatestattributes of invention to foresee and meet its own problems in exactlythe same way. 

CHAPTER XXV

THE LABORATORY AT ORANGE AND THE STAFF

A LIVING interrogation-point and a born investigator from childhood, Edison has never been without a laboratory of some kind for upward ofhalf a century. 

In youthful years, as already described in this book, he became ardentlyinterested in chemistry, and even at the early age of twelve felt thenecessity for a special nook of his own, where he could satisfy hisunconvinced mind of the correctness or inaccuracy of statements andexperiments contained in the few technical books then at his command. 

Ordinarily he was like other normal lads of his age--full of boyish, hearty enjoyments--but withal possessed of an unquenchable spirit ofinquiry and an insatiable desire for knowledge. Being blessed with awise and discerning mother, his aspirations were encouraged; and he wasallowed a corner in her cellar. It is fair to offer tribute here to herbravery as well as to her wisdom, for at times she was in mortal terrorlest the precocious experimenter below should, in his inexperience, makesome awful combination that would explode and bring down the house inruins on himself and the rest of the family. 

Fortunately no such catastrophe happened, but young Edison workedaway in his embryonic laboratory, satisfying his soul and incidentallydepleting his limited pocket-money to the vanishing-point. It was, indeed, owing to this latter circumstance that in a year or two hisaspirations necessitated an increase of revenue; and a consequentdetermination to earn some money for himself led to his first realcommercial enterprise as "candy butcher" on the Grand Trunk Railroad, already mentioned in a previous chapter. It has also been related howhis precious laboratory was transferred to the train; how he and it weresubsequently expelled; and how it was re-established in his home, wherehe continued studies and experiments until the beginning of his careeras a telegraph operator. 

The nomadic life of the next few years did not lessen his devotion tostudy; but it stood seriously in the way of satisfying the ever-presentcraving for a laboratory. The lack of such a place never preventedexperimentation, however, as long as he had a dollar in his pocketand some available "hole in the wall. " With the turning of the tide offortune that suddenly carried him, in New York in 1869, from povertyto the opulence of $300 a month, he drew nearer to a realization of hischerished ambition in having money, place, and some time (stolen fromsleep) for more serious experimenting. Thus matters continued until, at about the age of twenty-two, Edison's inventions had brought him arelatively large sum of money, and he became a very busy manufacturer, and lessee of a large shop in Newark, New Jersey. 

Now, for the first time since leaving that boyish laboratory in the oldhome at Port Huron, Edison had a place of his own to work in, to thinkin; but no one in any way acquainted with Newark as a swarming centreof miscellaneous and multitudinous industries would recommend it as acloistered retreat for brooding reverie and introspection, favorable tocreative effort. Some people revel in surroundings of hustle and bustle, and find therein no hindrance to great accomplishment. The electricalgenius of Newark is Edward Weston, who has thriven amid its turmoiland there has developed his beautiful instruments of precision; justas Brush worked out his arc-lighting system in Cleveland; or even asFaraday, surrounded by the din and roar of London, laid the intellectualfoundations of the whole modern science of dynamic electricity. ButEdison, though deaf, could not make too hurried a retreat from Newark toMenlo Park, where, as if to justify his change of base, vital inventionssoon came thick and fast, year after year. The story of Menlo has beentold in another chapter, but the point was not emphasized that Edisonthen, as later, tried hard to drop manufacturing. He would infinitelyrather be philosopher than producer; but somehow the necessity ofmanufacturing is constantly thrust back upon him by a profound--perhapsfinical--sense of dissatisfaction with what other people make for him. The world never saw a man more deeply and desperately convinced thatnothing in it approaches perfection. Edison is the doctrine of evolutionincarnate, applied to mechanics. As to the removal from Newark, he maybe allowed to tell his own story: "I had a shop at Newark in which Imanufactured stock tickers and such things. When I moved to Menlo ParkI took out only the machinery that would be necessary for experimentalpurposes and left the manufacturing machinery in the place. It consistedof many milling machines and other tools for duplicating. I rented thisto a man who had formerly been my bookkeeper, and who thought he couldmake money out of manufacturing. There was about $10, 000 worth ofmachinery. He was to pay me $2000 a year for the rent of the machineryand keep it in good order. After I moved to Menlo Park, I was verybusy with the telephone and phonograph, and I paid no attention to thislittle arrangement. About three years afterward, it occurred to me thatI had not heard at all from the man who had rented this machinery, so Ithought I would go over to Newark and see how things were going. When Igot there, I found that instead of being a machine shop it was a hotel!I have since been utterly unable to find out what became of the manor the machinery. " Such incidents tend to justify Edison in his rathercynical remark that he has always been able to improve machinery muchquicker than men. All the way up he has had discouraging experiences. "One day while I was carrying on my work in Newark, a Wall Street brokercame from the city and said he was tired of the 'Street, ' and wanted togo into something real. He said he had plenty of money. He wanted somekind of a job to keep his mind off Wall Street. So we gave him a jobas a 'mucker' in chemical experiments. The second night he was therehe could not stand the long hours and fell asleep on a sofa. One of theboys took a bottle of bromine and opened it under the sofa. It floatedup and produced a violent effect on the mucous membrane. The broker wastaken with such a fit of coughing he burst a blood-vessel, and theman who let the bromine out got away and never came back. I suppose hethought there was going to be a death. But the broker lived, and leftthe next day; and I have never seen him since, either. " Edison tellsalso of another foolhardy laboratory trick of the same kind: "Some of myassistants in those days were very green in the business, as I did notcare whether they had had any experience or not. I generally tried toturn them loose. One day I got a new man, and told him to conduct acertain experiment. He got a quart of ether and started to boil it overa naked flame. Of course it caught fire. The flame was about fourfeet in diameter and eleven feet high. We had to call out the firedepartment; and they came down and put a stream through the window. Thatlet all the fumes and chemicals out and overcame the firemen; and therewas the devil to pay. Another time we experimented with a tub full ofsoapy water, and put hydrogen into it to make large bubbles. One of theboys, who was washing bottles in the place, had read in some book thathydrogen was explosive, so he proceeded to blow the tub up. There wasabout four inches of soap in the bottom of the tub, fourteen incheshigh; and he filled it with soap bubbles up to the brim. Then he took abamboo fish-pole, put a piece of paper at the end, and touched it off. It blew every window out of the place. "

Always a shrewd, observant, and kindly critic of character, Edison tellsmany anecdotes of the men who gathered around him in various capacitiesat that quiet corner of New Jersey--Menlo Park--and later at Orange, inthe Llewellyn Park laboratory; and these serve to supplement the mainnarrative by throwing vivid side-lights on the whole scene. Here, forexample, is a picture drawn by Edison of a laboratory interlude--justa bit Rabelaisian: "When experimenting at Menlo Park we had all the wayfrom forty to fifty men. They worked all the time. Each man was allowedfrom four to six hours' sleep. We had a man who kept tally, and when thetime came for one to sleep, he was notified. At midnight we had lunchbrought in and served at a long table at which the experimenterssat down. I also had an organ which I procured from HilbourneRoosevelt--uncle of the ex-President--and we had a man play thisorgan while we ate our lunch. During the summertime, after we had madesomething which was successful, I used to engage a brick-sloop at PerthAmboy and take the whole crowd down to the fishing-banks on the Atlanticfor two days. On one occasion we got outside Sandy Hook on the banks andanchored. A breeze came up, the sea became rough, and a large number ofthe men were sick. There was straw in the bottom of the boat, which weall slept on. Most of the men adjourned to this straw very sick. Thosewho were not got a piece of rancid salt pork from the skipper, and cut alarge, thick slice out of it. This was put on the end of a fish-hookand drawn across the men's faces. The smell was terrific, and the effectadded to the hilarity of the excursion. 

"I went down once with my father and two assistants for a little fishinginside Sandy Hook. For some reason or other the fishing was very poor. We anchored, and I started in to fish. After fishing for several hoursthere was not a single bite. The others wanted to pull up anchor, butI fished two days and two nights without a bite, until they pulled upanchor and went away. I would not give up. I was going to catch thatfish if it took a week. "

This is general. Let us quote one or two piquant personal observationsof a more specific nature as to the odd characters Edison drew aroundhim in his experimenting. "Down at Menlo Park a man came in one day andwanted a job. He was a sailor. I hadn't any particular work to give him, but I had a number of small induction coils, and to give him somethingto do I told him to fix them up and sell them among his sailor friends. They were fixed up, and he went over to New York and sold them all. Hewas an extraordinary fellow. His name was Adams. One day I asked him howlong it was since he had been to sea, and he replied two or three years. I asked him how he had made a living in the mean time, before he cameto Menlo Park. He said he made a pretty good living by going around todifferent clinics and getting $10 at each clinic, because of having theworst case of heart-disease on record. I told him if that was the casehe would have to be very careful around the laboratory. I had him thereto help in experimenting, and the heart-disease did not seem to botherhim at all. 

"It appeared that he had once been a slaver; and altogether he was atough character. Having no other man I could spare at that time, I senthim over with my carbon transmitter telephone to exhibit it in England. It was exhibited before the Post-Office authorities. Professor Hughesspent an afternoon in examining the apparatus, and in about a month cameout with his microphone, which was absolutely nothing more nor lessthan my exact invention. But no mention was made of the fact that, justpreviously, he had seen the whole of my apparatus. Adams stayed over inEurope connected with the telephone for several years, and finally diedof too much whiskey--but not of heart-disease. This shows how whiskeyis the more dangerous of the two. 

"Adams said that at one time he was aboard a coffee-ship in the harborof Santos, Brazil. He fell down a hatchway and broke his arm. They tookhim up to the hospital--a Portuguese one--where he could not speak thelanguage, and they did not understand English. They treated him for twoweeks for yellow fever! He was certainly the most profane man we everhad around the laboratory. He stood high in his class. "

And there were others of a different stripe. "We had a man with us atMenlo called Segredor. He was a queer kind of fellow. The men got in thehabit of plaguing him; and, finally, one day he said to the assembledexperimenters in the top room of the laboratory: 'The next man that doesit, I will kill him. ' They paid no attention to this, and next day oneof them made some sarcastic remark to him. Segredor made a start forhis boarding-house, and when they saw him coming back up the hill witha gun, they knew there would be trouble, so they all made for the woods. One of the men went back and mollified him. He returned to his work;but he was not teased any more. At last, when I sent men out hunting forbamboo, I dispatched Segredor to Cuba. He arrived in Havana on Tuesday, and on the Friday following he was buried, having died of the blackvomit. On the receipt of the news of his death, half a dozen of the menwanted his job, but my searcher in the Astor Library reported that thechances of finding the right kind of bamboo for lamps in Cuba were verysmall; so I did not send a substitute. "

Another thumb-nail sketch made of one of his associates is this: "Whenexperimenting with vacuum-pumps to exhaust the incandescent lamps, Irequired some very delicate and close manipulation of glass, and hireda German glass-blower who was said to be the most expert man of hiskind in the United States. He was the only one who could make clinicalthermometers. He was the most extraordinarily conceited man I have evercome across. His conceit was so enormous, life was made a burden to himby all the boys around the laboratory. He once said that he was educatedin a university where all the students belonged to families of thearistocracy; and the highest class in the university all wore little redcaps. He said HE wore one. "

Of somewhat different caliber was "honest" John Kruesi, who first madehis mark at Menlo Park, and of whom Edison says: "One of the workmenI had at Menlo Park was John Kruesi, who afterward became, from hisexperience, engineer of the lighting station, and subsequently engineerof the Edison General Electric Works at Schenectady. Kruesi was veryexact in his expressions. At the time we were promoting and puttingup electric-light stations in Pennsylvania, New York, and New England, there would be delegations of different people who proposed to pay forthese stations. They would come to our office in New York, at '65, ' totalk over the specifications, the cost, and other things. At first, Mr. Kruesi was brought in, but whenever a statement was made which he couldnot understand or did not believe could be substantiated, he would blurtright out among these prospects that he didn't believe it. Finally itdisturbed these committees so much, and raised so many doubts in theirminds, that one of my chief associates said: 'Here, Kruesi, we don'twant you to come to these meetings any longer. You are too painfullyhonest. ' I said to him: 'We always tell the truth. It may be deferredtruth, but it is the truth. ' He could not understand that. "

Various reasons conspired to cause the departure from Menlo Park midwayin the eighties. For Edison, in spite of the achievement with which itsname will forever be connected, it had lost all its attractions and allits possibilities. It had been outgrown in many ways, and strange as theremark may seem, it was not until he had left it behind and had settledin Orange, New Jersey, that he can be said to have given definite shapeto his life. He was only forty in 1887, and all that he had done up tothat time, tremendous as much of it was, had worn a haphazard, Bohemianair, with all the inconsequential freedom and crudeness somehowattaching to pioneer life. The development of the new laboratory in WestOrange, just at the foot of Llewellyn Park, on the Orange Mountains, not only marked the happy beginning of a period of perfect domestic andfamily life, but saw in the planning and equipment of a model laboratoryplant the consummation of youthful dreams, and of the keen desire toenjoy resources adequate at any moment to whatever strain the fiercefervor of research might put upon them. Curiously enough, whilehitherto Edison had sought to dissociate his experimenting from hismanufacturing, here he determined to develop a large industry to whicha thoroughly practical laboratory would be a central feature, and ever asource of suggestion and inspiration. Edison's standpoint to-day is thatan evil to be dreaded in manufacture is that of over-standardization, and that as soon as an article is perfect that is the time to beginimproving it. But he who would improve must experiment. 

The Orange laboratory, as originally planned, consisted of a mainbuilding two hundred and fifty feet long and three stories in height, together with four other structures, each one hundred by twenty-fivefeet, and only one story in height. All these were substantially builtof brick. The main building was divided into five chief divisions--thelibrary, office, machine shops, experimental and chemical rooms, and stock-room. The use of the smaller buildings will be presentlyindicated. 

Surrounding the whole was erected a high picket fence with a gate placedon Valley Road. At this point a gate-house was provided and put incharge of a keeper, for then, as at the present time, Edison was greatlysought after; and, in order to accomplish any work at all, he wasobliged to deny himself to all but the most important callers. Thekeeper of the gate was usually chosen with reference to his capacityfor stony-hearted implacability and adherence to instructions; and thischoice was admirably made in one instance when a new gateman, not yetthoroughly initiated, refused admittance to Edison himself. It was of nouse to try and explain. To the gateman EVERY ONE was persona non gratawithout proper credentials, and Edison had to wait outside until hecould get some one to identify him. 

On entering the main building the first doorway from the ample passageleads the visitor into a handsome library finished throughout in yellowpine, occupying the entire width of the building, and almost as broadas long. The centre of this spacious room is an open rectangular spaceabout forty by twenty-five feet, rising clear about forty feet from themain floor to a panelled ceiling. Around the sides of the room, boundingthis open space, run two tiers of gallery, divided, as is the main floorbeneath them; into alcoves of liberal dimensions. These alcoves areformed by racks extending from floor to ceiling, fitted with shelves, except on two sides of both galleries, where they are formed by a seriesof glass-fronted cabinets containing extensive collections of curiousand beautiful mineralogical and geological specimens, among which isthe notable Tiffany-Kunz collection of minerals acquired by Edison someyears ago. Here and there in these cabinets may also be found afew models which he has used at times in his studies of anatomy andphysiology. 

The shelves on the remainder of the upper gallery and part of those onthe first gallery are filled with countless thousands of specimens ofores and minerals of every conceivable kind gathered from all parts ofthe world, and all tagged and numbered. The remaining shelves of thefirst gallery are filled with current numbers (and some back numbers) ofthe numerous periodicals to which Edison subscribes. Here may befound the popular magazines, together with those of a technical naturerelating to electricity, chemistry, engineering, mechanics, building, cement, building materials, drugs, water and gas, power, automobiles, railroads, aeronautics, philosophy, hygiene, physics, telegraphy, mining, metallurgy, metals, music, and others; also theatrical weeklies, as well as the proceedings and transactions of various learned andtechnical societies. 

The first impression received as one enters on the main floor of thelibrary and looks around is that of noble proportions and symmetry as awhole. The open central space of liberal dimensions and height, flankedby the galleries and relieved by four handsome electric-lightingfixtures suspended from the ceiling by long chains, conveys an idea oflofty spaciousness; while the huge open fireplace, surmounted by a greatclock built into the wall, at one end of the room, the large rugs, thearm-chairs scattered around, the tables and chairs in the alcoves, givea general air of comfort combined with utility. In one of the largeralcoves, at the sunny end of the main hall, is Edison's own desk, wherehe may usually be seen for a while in the early morning hours lookingover his mail or otherwise busily working on matters requiring hisattention. 

At the opposite end of the room, not far from the open fireplace, is along table surrounded by swivel desk-chairs. It is here that directors'meetings are sometimes held, and also where weighty matters are oftendiscussed by Edison at conference with his closer associates. Ithas been the privilege of the writers to be present at some of theseconferences, not only as participants, but in some cases as lookers-onwhile awaiting their turn. On such occasions an interesting opportunityis offered to study Edison in his intense and constructive moods. Apparently oblivious to everything else, he will listen withconcentrated mind and close attention, and then pour forth a perfecttorrent of ideas and plans, and, if the occasion calls for it, will turnaround to the table, seize a writing-pad and make sketch after sketchwith lightning-like rapidity, tearing off each sheet as filled andtossing it aside to the floor. It is an ordinary indication thatthere has been an interesting meeting when the caretaker about fills awaste-basket with these discarded sketches. 

Directly opposite the main door is a beautiful marble statue purchasedby Edison at the Paris Exposition in 1889, on the occasion of his visitthere. The statue, mounted on a base three feet high, is an allegoricalrepresentation of the supremacy of electric light over all other formsof illumination, carried out by the life-size figure of a youth withhalf-spread wings seated upon the ruins of a street gas-lamp, holdingtriumphantly high above his head an electric incandescent lamp. Groupedabout his feet are a gear-wheel, voltaic pile, telegraph key, andtelephone. This work of art was executed by A. Bordiga, of Rome, helda prominent place in the department devoted to Italian art at the ParisExposition, and naturally appealed to Edison as soon as he saw it. 

In the middle distance, between the entrance door and this statue, haslong stood a magnificent palm, but at the present writing it has beenset aside to give place to a fine model of the first type of the Edisonpoured cement house, which stands in a miniature artificial lawn upona special table prepared for it; while on the floor at the foot of thetable are specimens of the full-size molds in which the house will becast. 

The balustrades of the galleries and all other available places arefilled with portraits of great scientists and men of achievement, aswell as with pictures of historic and scientific interest. Over thefireplace hangs a large photograph showing the Edison cement plantin its entire length, flanked on one end of the mantel by a bust ofHumboldt, and on the other by a statuette of Sandow, the latter havingbeen presented to Edison by the celebrated athlete after the visit hemade to Orange to pose for the motion pictures in the earliest days oftheir development. On looking up under the second gallery at this endis seen a great roll resting in sockets placed on each side of the room. This is a huge screen or curtain which may be drawn down to the floor toprovide a means of projection for lantern slides or motion pictures, forthe entertainment or instruction of Edison and his guests. In one ofthe larger alcoves is a large terrestrial globe pivoted in its specialstand, together with a relief map of the United States; and here andthere are handsomely mounted specimens of underground conductors andelectric welds that were made at the Edison Machine Works at Schenectadybefore it was merged into the General Electric Company. On twopedestals stand, respectively, two other mementoes of the works, onea fifteen-light dynamo of the Edison type, and the other an elaborateelectric fan--both of them gifts from associates or employees. 

In noting these various objects of interest one must not lose sightof the fact that this part of the building is primarily a library, if indeed that fact did not at once impress itself by a glance at thewell-filled unglazed book-shelves in the alcoves of the main floor. HereEdison's catholic taste in reading becomes apparent as one scans thetitles of thousands of volumes ranged upon the shelves, for they includeastronomy, botany, chemistry, dynamics, electricity, engineering, forestry, geology, geography, mechanics, mining, medicine, metallurgy, magnetism, philosophy, psychology, physics, steam, steam-engines, telegraphy, telephony, and many others. Besides these there are thejournals and proceedings of numerous technical societies; encyclopaediasof various kinds; bound series of important technical magazines; acollection of United States and foreign patents, embracing some hundredsof volumes, together with an extensive assortment of miscellaneous booksof special and general interest. There is another big library up inthe house on the hill--in fact, there are books upon books all over thehome. And wherever they are, those books are read. 

As one is about to pass out of the library attention is arrested by anincongruity in the form of a cot, which stands in an alcove near thedoor. Here Edison, throwing himself down, sometimes seeks a short restduring specially long working tours. Sleep is practically instantaneousand profound, and he awakes in immediate and full possession of hisfaculties, arising from the cot and going directly "back to the job"without a moment's hesitation, just as a person wide awake would arisefrom a chair and proceed to attend to something previously determinedupon. 

Immediately outside the library is the famous stock-room, about whichmuch has been written and invented. Its fame arose from the fact thatEdison planned it to be a repository of some quantity, great or small, of every known and possibly useful substance not readily perishable, together with the most complete assortment of chemicals and drugsthat experience and knowledge could suggest. Always strenuous in hisexperimentation, and the living embodiment of the spirit of the song, IWant What I Want When I Want It, Edison had known for years what itwas to be obliged to wait, and sometimes lack, for some substance orchemical that he thought necessary to the success of an experiment. Naturally impatient at any delay which interposed in his insistentand searching methods, and realizing the necessity of maintaining theinspiration attending his work at any time, he determined to have withinhis immediate reach the natural resources of the world. 

Hence it is not surprising to find the stock-room not only a museum, but a sample-room of nature, as well as a supply department. To acasual visitor the first view of this heterogeneous collection is quitebewildering, but on more mature examination it resolves itself into anatural classification--as, for instance, objects pertaining to variousanimals, birds, and fishes, such as skins, hides, hair, fur, feathers, wool, quills, down, bristles, teeth, bones, hoofs, horns, tusks, shells;natural products, such as woods, barks, roots, leaves, nuts, seeds, herbs, gums, grains, flours, meals, bran; also minerals in greatassortment; mineral and vegetable oils, clay, mica, ozokerite, etc. Inthe line of textiles, cotton and silk threads in great variety, withwoven goods of all kinds from cheese-cloth to silk plush. As for paper, there is everything in white and colored, from thinnest tissue up to theheaviest asbestos, even a few newspapers being always on hand. Twinesof all sizes, inks, waxes, cork, tar, resin, pitch, turpentine, asphalt, plumbago, glass in sheets and tubes; and a host of miscellaneousarticles revealed on looking around the shelves, as well as aninterminable collection of chemicals, including acids, alkalies, salts, reagents, every conceivable essential oil and all the thinkableextracts. It may be remarked that this collection includes the eighteenhundred or more fluorescent salts made by Edison during his experimentalsearch for the best material for a fluoroscope in the initial X-rayperiod. All known metals in form of sheet, rod and tube, and of greatvariety in thickness, are here found also, together with a most completeassortment of tools and accessories for machine shop and laboratorywork. 

The list is confined to the merest general mention of the scope of thisremarkable and interesting collection, as specific details wouldstretch out into a catalogue of no small proportions. When it is stated, however, that a stock clerk is kept exceedingly busy all day answeringthe numerous and various demands upon him, the reader will appreciatethat this comprehensive assortment is not merely a fad of Edison's, but stands rather as a substantial tribute to his wide-angled view ofpossible requirements as his various investigations take him far afield. It has no counterpart in the world!

Beyond the stock-room, and occupying about half the building on the samefloor, lie a machine shop, engine-room, and boiler-room. This machineshop is well equipped, and in it is constantly employed a large forceof mechanics whose time is occupied in constructing the heavier class ofmodels and mechanical devices called for by the varied experiments andinventions always going on. 

Immediately above, on the second floor, is found another machine shop inwhich is maintained a corps of expert mechanics who are called upon todo work of greater precision and fineness, in the construction of toolsand experimental models. This is the realm presided over lovingly byJohn F. Ott, who has been Edison's designer of mechanical devices forover forty years. He still continues to ply his craft with unabatedskill and oversees the work of the mechanics as his productions arewrought into concrete shape. 

In one of the many experimental-rooms lining the sides of the secondfloor may usually be seen his younger brother, Fred Ott, whose skill asa dexterous manipulator and ingenious mechanic has found ample scopefor exercise during the thirty-two years of his service with Edison, notonly at the regular laboratories, but also at that connected with theinventor's winter home in Florida. Still another of the Ott family, theson of John F. , for some years past has been on the experimental staffof the Orange laboratory. Although possessing in no small degree themechanical and manipulative skill of the family, he has chosen chemistryas his special domain, and may be found with the other chemists in oneof the chemical-rooms. 

On this same floor is the vacuum-pump room with a glass-blowers' roomadjoining, both of them historic by reason of the strenuous work doneon incandescent lamps and X-ray tubes within their walls. The tools andappliances are kept intact, for Edison calls occasionally for their usein some of his later experiments, and there is a suspicion among thelaboratory staff that some day he may resume work on incandescent lamps. Adjacent to these rooms are several others devoted to physical andmechanical experiments, together with a draughting-room. 

Last to be mentioned, but the first in order as one leaves the head ofthe stairs leading up to this floor, is No. 12, Edison's favorite room, where he will frequently be found. Plain of aspect, being merely a spaceboarded off with tongued-and-grooved planks--as all the other roomsare--without ornament or floor covering, and containing only a fewarticles of cheap furniture, this room seems to exercise a namelesscharm for him. The door is always open, and often he can be seen seatedat a plain table in the centre of the room, deeply intent on some of thenumerous problems in which he is interested. The table is usually prettywell filled with specimens or data of experimental results which havebeen put there for his examination. At the time of this writing thesespecimens consist largely of sections of positive elements of thestorage battery, together with many samples of nickel hydrate, to whichEdison devotes deep study. Close at hand is a microscope which isin frequent use by him in these investigations. Around the room, onshelves, are hundreds of bottles each containing a small quantityof nickel hydrate made in as many different ways, each labelledcorrespondingly. Always at hand will be found one or two of thelaboratory note-books, with frequent entries or comments in thehandwriting which once seen is never forgotten. 

No. 12 is at times a chemical, a physical, or a mechanicalroom--occasionally a combination of all, while sometimes it might becalled a consultation-room or clinic--for often Edison may be seen therein animated conference with a group of his assistants; but its chiefdistinction lies in its being one of his favorite haunts, and in thefact that within its walls have been settled many of the perplexingproblems and momentous questions that have brought about great changesin electrical and engineering arts during the twenty-odd years that haveelapsed since the Orange laboratory was built. 

Passing now to the top floor the visitor finds himself at the head of abroad hall running almost the entire length of the building, andlined mostly with glass-fronted cabinets containing a multitude ofexperimental incandescent lamps and an immense variety of models ofphonographs, motors, telegraph and telephone apparatus, meters, and ahost of other inventions upon which Edison's energies have at one timeand another been bent. Here also are other cabinets containing oldpapers and records, while further along the wall are piled up boxesof historical models and instruments. In fact, this hallway, with itsconglomerate contents, may well be considered a scientific attic. It isto be hoped that at no distant day these Edisoniana will be assembledand arranged in a fireproof museum for the benefit of posterity. 

In the front end of the building, and extending over the library, isa large room intended originally and used for a time as the phonographmusic-hall for record-making, but now used only as an experimental-roomfor phonograph work, as the growth of the industry has necessitated avery much larger and more central place where records can be made on acommercial scale. Even the experimental work imposes no slight burden onit. On each side of the hallway above mentioned, rooms are partitionedoff and used for experimental work of various kinds, mostlyphonographic, although on this floor are also located thestorage-battery testing-room, a chemical and physical room and Edison'sprivate office, where all his personal correspondence and businessaffairs are conducted by his personal secretary, Mr. H. F. Miller. Avisitor to this upper floor of the laboratory building cannot but beimpressed with a consciousness of the incessant efforts that are beingmade to improve the reproducing qualities of the phonograph, as he hearsfrom all sides the sounds of vocal and instrumental music constantlyvarying in volume and timbre, due to changes in the experimental devicesunder trial. 

The traditions of the laboratory include cots placed in many of therooms of these upper floors, but that was in the earlier years when thestrenuous scenes of Menlo Park were repeated in the new quarters. Edisonand his closest associates were accustomed to carry their labors farinto the wee sma' hours, and when physical nature demanded a respitefrom work, a short rest would be obtained by going to bed on a cot. One would naturally think that the wear and tear of this intenseapplication, day after day and night after night, would have tended toinduce a heaviness and gravity of demeanor in these busy men; but onthe contrary, the old spirit of good-humor and prankishness was everpresent, as its frequent outbursts manifested from time to time. Oneinstance will serve as an illustration. One morning, about 2. 30, thelate Charles Batchelor announced that he was tired and would go to bed. Leaving Edison and the others busily working, he went out and returnedquietly in slippered feet, with his nightgown on, the handle of afeather duster stuck down his back with the feathers waving over hishead, and his face marked. With unearthly howls and shrieks, a l'Indien, he pranced about the room, incidentally giving Edison a scare that madehim jump up from his work. He saw the joke quickly, however, and joinedin the general merriment caused by this prank. 

Leaving the main building with its corps of busy experimenters, andcoming out into the spacious yard, one notes the four long single-storybrick structures mentioned above. The one nearest the Valley Road iscalled the galvanometer-room, and was originally intended by Edison tobe used for the most delicate and minute electrical measurements. Inorder to provide rigid resting-places for the numerous and elaborateinstruments he had purchased for this purpose, the building was equippedalong three-quarters of its length with solid pillars, or tables, ofbrick set deep in the earth. These were built up to a height of abouttwo and a half feet, and each was surmounted with a single heavy slab ofblack marble. A cement floor was laid, and every precaution was taken torender the building free from all magnetic influences, so that it wouldbe suitable for electrical work of the utmost accuracy and precision. Hence, iron and steel were entirely eliminated in its construction, copper being used for fixtures for steam and water piping, and, indeed, for all other purposes where metal was employed. 

This room was for many years the headquarters of Edison's ableassistant, Dr. A. E. Kennelly, now professor of electrical engineeringin Harvard University to whose energetic and capable management wereintrusted many scientific investigations during his long sojourn atthe laboratory. Unfortunately, however, for the continued success ofEdison's elaborate plans, he had not been many years established in thelaboratory before a trolley road through West Orange was projected andbuilt, the line passing in front of the plant and within seventy-fivefeet of the galvanometer-room, thus making it practically impossible touse it for the delicate purposes for which it was originally intended. 

For some time past it has been used for photography and some specialexperiments on motion pictures as well as for demonstrations connectedwith physical research; but some reminders of its old-time glory stillremain in evidence. In lofty and capacious glass-enclosed cabinets, incompany with numerous models of Edison's inventions, repose many ofthe costly and elaborate instruments rendered useless by the ubiquitoustrolley. Instruments are all about, on walls, tables, and shelves, thephotometer is covered up; induction coils of various capacities, with other electrical paraphernalia, lie around, almost as if theexperimenter were absent for a few days but would soon return and resumehis work. 

In numbering the group of buildings, the galvanometer-room is No. 1, while the other single-story structures are numbered respectively 2, 3, and 4. On passing out of No. 1 and proceeding to the succeeding buildingis noticed, between the two, a garage of ample dimensions and a smallerstructure, at the door of which stands a concrete-mixer. In this smallbuilding Edison has made some of his most important experiments in theprocess of working out his plans for the poured house. It is in thislittle place that there was developed the remarkable mixture which is toplay so vital a part in the successful construction of these everlastinghomes for living millions. 

Drawing near to building No. 2, olfactory evidence presents itself ofthe immediate vicinity of a chemical laboratory. This is confirmed asone enters the door and finds that the entire building is devoted tochemistry. Long rows of shelves and cabinets filled with chemicals linethe room; a profusion of retorts, alembics, filters, and other chemicalapparatus on numerous tables and stands, greet the eye, while a corpsof experimenters may be seen busy in the preparation of variouscombinations, some of which are boiling or otherwise cooking under theirdexterous manipulation. 

It would not require many visits to discover that in this room, also, Edison has a favorite nook. Down at the far end in a corner are a plainlittle table and chair, and here he is often to be found deeply immersedin a study of the many experiments that are being conducted. Notinfrequently he is actively engaged in the manipulation of some compoundof special intricacy, whose results might be illuminative of obscurefacts not patent to others than himself. Here, too, is a select littlelibrary of chemical literature. 

The next building, No. 3, has a double mission--the farther half beingpartitioned off for a pattern-making shop, while the other half is usedas a store-room for chemicals in quantity and for chemical apparatusand utensils. A grimly humorous incident, as related by one of thelaboratory staff, attaches to No. 3. It seems that some time ago one ofthe helpers in the chemical department, an excitable foreigner, became dissatisfied with his wages, and after making an unsuccessfulapplication for an increase, rushed in desperation to Edison, and said"Eef I not get more money I go to take ze cyanide potassia. " Edison gavehim one quick, searching glance and, detecting a bluff, replied in anoffhand manner: "There's a five-pound bottle in No. 3, " and turned tohis work again. The foreigner did not go to get the cyanide, but gave uphis job. 

The last of these original buildings, No. 4, was used for many yearsin Edison's ore-concentrating experiments, and also for rough-and-readyoperations of other kinds, such as furnace work and the like. At thepresent writing it is used as a general stock-room. 

In the foregoing details, the reader has been afforded but a passingglance at the great practical working equipment which constitutes thetheatre of Edison's activities, for, in taking a general view of such aunique and comprehensive laboratory plant, its salient features only canbe touched upon to advantage. It would be but repetition to enumeratehere the practical results of the laboratory work during the past twodecades, as they appear on other pages of this work. Nor can one assumefor a moment that the history of Edison's laboratory is a closed book. On the contrary, its territorial boundaries have been increasing step bystep with the enlargement of its labors, until now it has been obligedto go outside its own proper domains to occupy some space in and aboutthe great Edison industrial buildings and space immediately adjacent. Itmust be borne in mind that the laboratory is only the core of a group ofbuildings devoted to production on a huge scale by hundreds of artisans. 

Incidental mention has already been made of the laboratory at Edison'swinter residence in Florida, where he goes annually to spend a month orsix weeks. This is a miniature copy of the Orange laboratory, with itsmachine shop, chemical-room, and general experimental department. Whileit is only in use during his sojourn there, and carries no extensivecorps of assistants, the work done in it is not of a perfunctory nature, but is a continuation of his regular activities, and serves to keep himin touch with the progress of experiments at Orange, and enables him togive instructions for their variation and continuance as their scopeis expanded by his own investigations made while enjoying what he calls"vacation. " What Edison in Florida speaks of as "loafing" would be formost of us extreme and healthy activity in the cooler Far North. 

A word or two may be devoted to the visitors received at the laboratory, and to the correspondence. It might be injudicious to gauge thegreatness of a man by the number of his callers or his letters; butthey are at least an indication of the degree to which he intereststhe world. In both respects, for these forty years, Edison has been astriking example of the manner in which the sentiment of hero-worshipcan manifest itself, and of the deep desire of curiosity to getsatisfaction by personal observation or contact. Edison's mail, likethat of most well-known men, is extremely large, but composed in nosmall degree of letters--thousands of them yearly--that concern only thewriters, and might well go to the waste-paper basket without prolongedconsideration. The serious and important part of the mail, some personaland some business, occupies the attention of several men; all suchletters finding their way promptly into the proper channels, often witha pithy endorsement by Edison scribbled on the margin. What to do witha host of others it is often difficult to decide, even when written by"cranks, " who imagine themselves subject to strange electrical ailmentsfrom which Edison alone can relieve them. Many people write asking hisopinion as to a certain invention, or offering him an interest in itif he will work it out. Other people abroad ask help in locating lostrelatives; and many want advice as to what they shall do with theirsons, frequently budding geniuses whose ability to wire a bell hasdemonstrated unusual qualities. A great many persons want autographs, and some would like photographs. The amazing thing about it all isthat this flood of miscellaneous letters flows on in one steady, uninterrupted stream, year in and year out; always a curiouspsychological study in its variety and volume; and ever a proof of thefact that once a man has become established as a personality in thepublic eye and mind, nothing can stop the tide of correspondence thatwill deluge him. 

It is generally, in the nature of things, easier to write a letter thanto make a call; and the semi-retirement of Edison at a distance ofan hour by train from New York stands as a means of protection to himagainst those who would certainly present their respects in person, ifhe could be got at without trouble. But it may be seriously questionedwhether in the aggregate Edison's visitors are less numerous orless time-consuming than his epistolary besiegers. It is the commonexperience of any visitor to the laboratory that there are usuallyseveral persons ahead of him, no matter what the hour of the day, andsome whose business has been sufficiently vital to get them insidethe porter's gate, or even into the big library and lounging-room. Celebrities of all kinds and distinguished foreigners arenumerous--princes, noblemen, ambassadors, artists, litterateurs, scientists, financiers, women. A very large part of the visiting is doneby scientific bodies and societies; and then the whole place will beturned over to hundreds of eager, well-dressed men and women, anxiousto see everything and to be photographed in the big courtyard aroundthe central hero. Nor are these groups and delegations limited to thiscountry, for even large parties of English, Dutch, Italian, or Japanesevisitors come from time to time, and are greeted with the same readyhospitality, although Edison, it is easy to see, is torn between theconflicting emotions of a desire to be courteous, and an anxiety toguard the precious hours of work, or watch the critical stage of a newexperiment. 

One distinct group of visitors has always been constituted by the"newspaper men. " Hardly a day goes by that the journals do not containsome reference to Edison's work or remarks; and the items are generallybased on an interview. The reporters are never away from the laboratoryvery long; for if they have no actual mission of inquiry, there isalways the chance of a good story being secured offhand; and the easy, inveterate good-nature of Edison toward reporters is proverbial inthe craft. Indeed, it must be stated here that once in a while thisconfidence has been abused; that stories have been published utterlywithout foundation; that interviews have been printed which never tookplace; that articles with Edison's name as author have been widelycirculated, although he never saw them; and that in such ways he hassuffered directly. But such occasional incidents tend in no wise tolessen Edison's warm admiration of the press or his readiness to availhimself of it whenever a representative goes over to Orange to get thetruth or the real facts in regard to any matter of public importance. Asfor the newspaper clippings containing such articles, or others in whichEdison's name appears--they are literally like sands of the sea-shorefor number; and the archives of the laboratory that preserve only a veryminute percentage of them are a further demonstration of what publicitymeans, where a figure like Edison is concerned. 

CHAPTER XXVI

EDISON IN COMMERCE AND MANUFACTURE

AN applicant for membership in the Engineers' Club of Philadelphia isrequired to give a brief statement of the professional work he hasdone. Some years ago a certain application was made, and contained thefollowing terse and modest sentence:

"I have designed a concentrating plant and built a machine shop, etc. , etc. THOMAS A. EDISON. "

Although in the foregoing pages the reader has been made acquaintedwith the tremendous import of the actualities lying behind those "etc. , etc. , " the narrative up to this point has revealed Edison chiefly in thelight of inventor, experimenter, and investigator. There have beensome side glimpses of the industries he has set on foot, and of theirfinancial aspects, and a later chapter will endeavor to sum up theintrinsic value of Edison's work to the world. But there are some otherinteresting points that may be touched on now in regard to a few ofEdison's financial and commercial ventures not generally known orappreciated. 

It is a popular idea founded on experience that an inventor is notusually a business man. One of the exceptions proving the rule mayperhaps be met in Edison, though all depends on the point of view. Allhis life he has had a great deal to do with finance and commerce, andas one looks at the magnitude of the vast industries he has helped tocreate, it would not be at all unreasonable to expect him to be amongthe multi-millionaires. That he is not is due to the absence of certainqualities, the lack of which Edison is himself the first to admit. Those qualities may not be amiable, but great wealth is hardly everaccumulated without them. If he had not been so intent on inventing hewould have made more of his great opportunities for getting rich. Ifthis utter detachment from any love of money for its own sake has notalready been illustrated in some of the incidents narrated, one or twostories are available to emphasize the point. They do not involve anywant of the higher business acumen that goes to the proper conduct ofaffairs. It was said of Gladstone that he was the greatest Chancellor ofthe Exchequer England ever saw, but that as a retail merchant he wouldsoon have ruined himself by his bookkeeping. 

Edison confesses that he has never made a cent out of his patents inelectric light and power--in fact, that they have been an expenseto him, and thus a free gift to the world. [18] This was true of theEuropean patents as well as the American. "I endeavored to sell mylighting patents in different countries of Europe, and made a contractwith a couple of men. On account of their poor business capacity andlack of practicality, they conveyed under the patents all rights todifferent corporations but in such a way and with such confused wordingof the contracts that I never got a cent. One of the companiesstarted was the German Edison, now the great Allgemeine ElektricitaetsGesellschaft. The English company I never got anything for, because alawyer had originally advised Drexel, Morgan & Co. As to the signing ofa certain document, and said it was all right for me to sign. I signed, and I never got a cent because there was a clause in it which preventedme from ever getting anything. " A certain easy-going belief in humannature, and even a certain carelessness of attitude toward businessaffairs, are here revealed. We have already pointed out two instanceswhere in his dealings with the Western Union Company he stipulated thatpayments of $6000 per year for seventeen years were to be made insteadof $100, 000 in cash, evidently forgetful of the fact that the annual sumso received was nothing more than legal interest, which could have beenearned indefinitely if the capital had been only insisted upon. In laterlife Edison has been more circumspect, but throughout his early careerhe was constantly getting into some kind of scrape. Of one experience hesays:

 [Footnote 18: Edison received some stock from the parent lighting company, but as the capital stock of that company was increased from time to time, his proportion grew smaller, and he ultimately used it to obtain ready money with which to create and finance the various "shops" in which were manufactured the various items of electric- lighting apparatus necessary to exploit his system. Besides, he was obliged to raise additional large sums of money from other sources for this purpose. He thus became a manufacturer with capital raised by himself, and the stock that he received later, on the formation of the General Electric Company, was not for his electric-light patents, but was in payment for his manufacturing establishments, which had then grown to be of great commercial importance. ]

"In the early days I was experimenting with metallic filaments for theincandescent light, and sent a certain man out to California in searchof platinum. He found a considerable quantity in the sluice-boxes ofthe Cherokee Valley Mining Company; but just then he found also thatfruit-gardening was the thing, and dropped the subject. He then came tome and said that if he could raise $4000 he could go into some kind oforchard arrangement out there, and would give me half the profits. Iwas unwilling to do it, not having very much money just then, but hispersistence was such that I raised the money and gave it to him. He wentback to California, and got into mining claims and into fruit-growing, and became one of the politicians of the Coast, and, I believe, was onthe staff of the Governor of the State. A couple of years ago he woundedhis daughter and shot himself because he had become ruined financially. I never heard from him after he got the money. "

Edison tells of another similar episode. "I had two men working forme--one a German, the other a Jew. They wanted me to put up a littlemoney and start them in a shop in New York to make repairs, etc. Iput up $800, and was to get half of the profits, and each of themone-quarter. I never got anything for it. A few years afterward I wentto see them, and asked what they were doing, and said I would liketo sell my interest. They said: 'Sell out what?' 'Why, ' I said, 'myinterest in the machinery. ' They said: 'You don't own this machinery. This is our machinery. You have no papers to show anything. You hadbetter get out. ' I am inclined to think that the percentage of crookedpeople was smaller when I was young. It has been steadily rising, andhas got up to a very respectable figure now. I hope it will never reachpar. " To which lugubrious episode so provocative of cynicism, Edisonadds: "When I was a young fellow the first thing I did when I went toa town was to put something into the savings-bank and start an account. When I came to New York I put $30 into a savings-bank under the New YorkSun office. After the money had been in about two weeks the bank busted. That was in 1870. In 1909 I got back $6. 40, with a charge for $1. 75 forlaw expenses. That shows the beauty of New York receiverships. "

It is hardly to be wondered at that Edison is rather frank and unsparingin some of his criticisms of shady modern business methods, and themention of the following incident always provokes him to a fine scorn. "I had an interview with one of the wealthiest men in New York. Hewanted me to sell out my associates in the electric lighting business, and offered me all I was going to get and $100, 000 besides. Of course Iwould not do it. I found out that the reason for this offer was that hehad had trouble with Mr. Morgan, and wanted to get even with him. " WallStreet is, in fact, a frequent object of rather sarcastic reference, applying even to its regular and probably correct methods of banking. "When I was running my ore-mine, " he says, "and got up to the point ofmaking shipments to John Fritz, I didn't have capital enough to carrythe ore, so I went to J. P. Morgan & Co. And said I wanted them to giveme a letter to the City Bank. I wanted to raise some money. I got aletter to Mr. Stillman; and went over and told him I wanted to open anaccount and get some loans and discounts. He turned me down, and wouldnot do it. 'Well, ' I said, 'isn't it banking to help a man in this way?'He said: 'What you want is a partner. ' I felt very much crestfallen. I went over to a bank in Newark--the Merchants'--and told them whatI wanted. They said: 'Certainly, you can have the money. ' I made mydeposit, and they pulled me through all right. My idea of Wall Streetbanking has been very poor since that time. Merchant banking seems to bedifferent. "

As a general thing, Edison has had no trouble in raising money when heneeded it, the reason being that people have faith in him as soonas they come to know him. A little incident bears on this point. "Inoperating the Schenectady works Mr. Insull and I had a terrible burden. We had enormous orders and little money, and had great difficulty tomeet our payrolls and buy supplies. At one time we had so many orders onhand we wanted $200, 000 worth of copper, and didn't have a cent to buyit. We went down to the Ansonia Brass and Copper Company, and told Mr. Cowles just how we stood. He said: 'I will see what I can do. Will youlet my bookkeeper look at your books?' We said: 'Come right up and lookthem over. ' He sent his man up and found we had the orders and were allright, although we didn't have the money. He said: 'I will let you havethe copper. ' And for years he trusted us for all the copper we wanted, even if we didn't have the money to pay for it. "

It is not generally known that Edison, in addition to being a newsboyand a contributor to the technical press, has also been a backer andan "angel" for various publications. This is perhaps the right place atwhich to refer to the matter, as it belongs in the list of his financialor commercial enterprises. Edison sums up this chapter of his life verypithily. "I was interested, as a telegrapher, in journalism, and startedthe Telegraph Journal, and got out about a dozen numbers when it wastaken over by W. J. Johnston, who afterward founded the Electrical Worldon it as an offshoot from the Operator. I also started Science, and ranit for a year and a half. It cost me too much money to maintain, and Isold it to Gardiner Hubbard, the father-in-law of Alexander GrahamBell. He carried it along for years. " Both these papers are stillin prosperous existence, particularly the Electrical World, as therecognized exponent of electrical development in America, where nowthe public spends as much annually for electricity as it does for dailybread. 

From all that has been said above it will be understood that Edison'sreal and remarkable capacity for business does not lie in ability to"take care of himself, " nor in the direction of routine office practice, nor even in ordinary administrative affairs. In short, he would and doesregard it as a foolish waste of his time to give attention to the mereoccupancy of a desk. 

His commercial strength manifests itself rather in the outlining ofmatters relating to organization and broad policy with a sagacityarising from a shrewd perception and appreciation of general businessrequirements and conditions, to which should be added his intenselycomprehensive grasp of manufacturing possibilities and details, andan unceasing vigilance in devising means of improving the quality ofproducts and increasing the economy of their manufacture. 

Like other successful commanders, Edison also possesses the happyfaculty of choosing suitable lieutenants to carry out his policies andto manage the industries he has created, such, for instance, as thosewith which this chapter has to deal--namely, the phonograph, motionpicture, primary battery, and storage battery enterprises. 

The Portland cement business has already been dealt with separately, andalthough the above remarks are appropriate to it also, Edison beingits head and informing spirit, the following pages are intended to bedevoted to those industries that are grouped around the laboratory atOrange, and that may be taken as typical of Edison's methods on themanufacturing side. 

Within a few months after establishing himself at the presentlaboratory, in 1887, Edison entered upon one of those intensely activeperiods of work that have been so characteristic of his methods incommercializing his other inventions. In this case his labors weredirected toward improving the phonograph so as to put it into thoroughlypracticable form, capable of ordinary use by the public at large. Thenet result of this work was the general type of machine of which thewell-known phonograph of today is a refinement evolved through manyyears of sustained experiment and improvement. 

After a considerable period of strenuous activity in the eighties, thephonograph and its wax records were developed to a sufficient degree ofperfection to warrant him in making arrangements for their manufactureand commercial introduction. At this time the surroundings of the Orangelaboratory were distinctly rural in character. Immediately adjacentto the main building and the four smaller structures, constitutingthe laboratory plant, were grass meadows that stretched away for someconsiderable distance in all directions, and at its back door, so tospeak, ducks paddled around and quacked in a pond undisturbed. Being nowready for manufacturing, but requiring more facilities, Edison increasedhis real-estate holdings by purchasing a large tract of land lyingcontiguous to what he already owned. At one end of the newly acquiredland two unpretentious brick structures were erected, equippedwith first-class machinery, and put into commission as shops formanufacturing phonographs and their record blanks; while the capacioushall forming the third story of the laboratory, over the library, wasfitted up and used as a music-room where records were made. 

Thus the modern Edison phonograph made its modest debut in 1888, in whatwas then called the "Improved" form to distinguish it from the originalstyle of machine he invented in 1877, in which the record was made on asheet of tin-foil held in place upon a metallic cylinder. The "Improved"form is the general type so well known for many years and sold at thepresent day--viz. , the spring or electric motor-driven machine with thecylindrical wax record--in fact, the regulation Edison phonograph. 

It did not take a long time to find a market for the products of thenewly established factory, for a world-wide public interest in themachine had been created by the appearance of newspaper articles fromtime to time, announcing the approaching completion by Edison of hisimproved phonograph. The original (tin-foil) machine had been sufficientto illustrate the fact that the human voice and other sounds couldbe recorded and reproduced, but such a type of machine had sharplimitations in general use; hence the coming into being of a type thatany ordinary person could handle was sufficient of itself to insure amarket. Thus the demand for the new machines and wax records grew apaceas the corporations organized to handle the business extended theirlines. An examination of the newspaper files of the years 1888, 1889, and 1890 will reveal the great excitement caused by the bringing out ofthe new phonograph, and how frequently and successfully it was employedin public entertainments, either for the whole or part of an evening. In this and other ways it became popularized to a still further extent. This led to the demand for a nickel-in-the-slot machine, which, whenestablished, became immensely popular over the whole country. In itsearlier forms the "Improved" phonograph was not capable of suchgeneral non-expert handling as is the machine of the present day, andconsequently there was a constant endeavor on Edison's part tosimplify the construction of the machine and its manner of operation. Experimentation was incessantly going on with this in view, and in theprocesses of evolution changes were made here and there that resulted ina still greater measure of perfection. 

In various ways there was a continual slow and steady growth of theindustry thus created, necessitating the erection of many additionalbuildings as the years passed by. During part of the last decade therewas a lull, caused mostly from the failure of corporate interests tocarry out their contract relations with Edison, and he was therebycompelled to resort to legal proceedings, at the end of which hebought in the outstanding contracts and assumed command of the businesspersonally. 

Being thus freed from many irksome restrictions that had hung heavilyupon him, Edison now proceeded to push the phonograph business under abroader policy than that which obtained under his previous contractualrelations. With the ever-increasing simplification and efficiency of themachine and a broadening of its application, the results of this policywere manifested in a still more rapid growth of the business thatnecessitated further additions to the manufacturing plant. And thusmatters went on until the early part of the present decade, when thefactory facilities were becoming so rapidly outgrown as to renderradical changes necessary. It was in these circumstances that Edison'ssagacity and breadth of business capacity came to the front. Withcharacteristic boldness and foresight he planned the erection of theseries of magnificent concrete buildings that now stand adjacent toand around the laboratory, and in which the manufacturing plant is atpresent housed. 

There was no narrowness in his views in designing these buildings, but, on the contrary, great faith in the future, for his plans includednot only the phonograph industry, but provided also for the comingdevelopment of motion pictures and of the primary and storage batteryenterprises. 

In the aggregate there are twelve structures (including theadministration building), of which six are of imposing dimensions, running from 200 feet long by 50 feet wide to 440 feet in length by115 feet in width, all these larger buildings, except one, being fivestories in height. They are constructed entirely of reinforced concretewith Edison cement, including walls, floors, and stairways, thuseliminating fire hazard to the utmost extent, and insuring a high degreeof protection, cleanliness, and sanitation. As fully three-fourths ofthe area of their exterior framework consists of windows, an abundanceof daylight is secured. These many advantages, combined with loftyceilings on every floor, provide ideal conditions for the thousands ofworking people engaged in this immense plant. 

In addition to these twelve concrete structures there are a few smallerbrick and wooden buildings on the grounds, in which some specialoperations are conducted. These, however, are few in number, and atsome future time will be concentrated in one or more additional concretebuildings. It will afford a clearer idea of the extent of the industriesclustered immediately around the laboratory when it is stated that thecombined floor space which is occupied by them in all these buildings isequivalent in the aggregate to over fourteen acres. 

It would be instructive, but scarcely within the scope of the narrative, to conduct the reader through this extensive plant and see its manyinteresting operations in detail. It must suffice, however, to noteits complete and ample equipment with modern machinery of every kindapplicable to the work; its numerous (and some of them wonderfullyingenious) methods, processes, machines, and tools specially designedor invented for the manufacture of special parts and supplementalappliances for the phonograph or other Edison products; and also tonote the interesting variety of trades represented in the differentdepartments, in which are included chemists, electricians, electricalmechanicians, machinists, mechanics, pattern-makers, carpenters, cabinet-makers, varnishers, japanners, tool-makers, lapidaries, wax experts, photographic developers and printers, opticians, electroplaters, furnacemen, and others, together with factoryexperimenters and a host of general employees, who by careful traininghave become specialists and experts in numerous branches of theseindustries. 

Edison's plans for this manufacturing plant were sufficiently welloutlined to provide ample capacity for the natural growth of thebusiness; and although that capacity (so far as phonographs isconcerned) has actually reached an output of over 6000 completephonographs PER WEEK, and upward of 130, 000 molded records PER DAY--witha pay-roll embracing over 3500 employees, including office force--andamounting to about $45, 000 per week--the limits of production have notyet been reached. 

The constant outpouring of products in such large quantities bespeaksthe unremitting activities of an extensive and busy selling organizationto provide for their marketing and distribution. This importantdepartment (the National Phonograph Company), in all its branches, frompresident to office-boy, includes about two hundred employees on itsoffice pay-roll, and makes its headquarters in the administrationbuilding, which is one of the large concrete structures above referredto. The policy of the company is to dispose of its wares through regulartrade channels rather than to deal direct with the public, trustingto local activity as stimulated by a liberal policy of nationaladvertising. Thus, there has been gradually built up a very extensivebusiness until at the present time an enormous output of phonographsand records is distributed to retail customers in the United States andCanada through the medium of about one hundred and fifty jobbers andover thirteen thousand dealers. The Edison phonograph industry thusorganized is helped by frequent conventions of this large commercialforce. 

Besides this, the National Phonograph Company maintains a special stafffor carrying on the business with foreign countries. While the aggregatetransactions of this department are not as extensive as those forthe United States and Canada, they are of considerable volume, as theforeign office distributes in bulk a very large number of phonographsand records to selling companies and agencies in Europe, Asia, Australia, Japan, and, indeed, to all the countries of the civilizedworld. [19] Like England's drumbeat, the voice of the Edison phonographis heard around the world in undying strains throughout the twenty-fourhours. 

 [Footnote 19: It may be of interest to the reader to note some parts of the globe to which shipments of phonographs and records are made:

 Samoan Islands Falkland Islands Siam Corea Crete Island Paraguay Chile Canary Islands Egypt British East Africa Cape Colony Portuguese East Africa Liberia Java Straits Settlements Madagascar Fanning Islands New Zealand French Indo-China Morocco Ecuador Brazil Madeira South Africa Azores Manchuria Ceylon Sierra Leone]

In addition to the main manufacturing plant at Orange, another importantadjunct must not be forgotten, and that is, the Recording Departmentin New York City, where the master records are made under thesuperintendence of experts who have studied the intricacies of the artwith Edison himself. This department occupies an upper story in a loftybuilding, and in its various rooms may be seen and heard many prominentmusicians, vocalists, speakers, and vaudeville artists studiously andbusily engaged in making the original records, which are afterward sentto Orange, and which, if approved by the expert committee, are passed onto the proper department for reproduction in large quantities. 

When we consider the subject of motion pictures we find a similarity ingeneral business methods, for while the projecting machines and copiesof picture films are made in quantity at the Orange works (just asphonographs and duplicate records are so made), the original picture, or film, like the master record, is made elsewhere. There is thisdifference, however: that, from the particular nature of the work, practically ALL master records are made at one convenient place, whilethe essential interest in SOME motion pictures lies in the fact thatthey are taken in various parts of the world, often under exceptionalcircumstances. The "silent drama, " however, calls also for manyrepresentations which employ conventional acting, staging, and thevaried appliances of stagecraft. Hence, Edison saw early the necessityof providing a place especially devised and arranged for the productionof dramatic performances in pantomime. 

It is a far cry from the crude structure of early days--the "BlackMaria" of 1891, swung around on its pivot in the Orange laboratoryyard--to the well-appointed Edison theatres, or pantomime studios, inNew York City. The largest of these is located in the suburban Boroughof the Bronx, and consists of a three-story-and-basement building ofreinforced concrete, in which are the offices, dressing-rooms, wardrobeand property-rooms, library and developing department. Contiguous tothis building, and connected with it, is the theatre proper, a large andlofty structure whose sides and roof are of glass, and whose floor spaceis sufficiently ample for six different sets of scenery at one time, with plenty of room left for a profusion of accessories, such as tables, chairs, pianos, bunch-lights, search-lights, cameras, and a host ofvaried paraphernalia pertaining to stage effects. 

The second Edison theatre, or studio, is located not far from theshopping district in New York City. In all essential features, exceptsize and capacity, it is a duplicate of the one in the Bronx, of whichit is a supplement. 

To a visitor coming on the floor of such a theatre for the first timethere is a sense of confusion in beholding the heterogeneous "sets"of scenery and the motley assemblage of characters represented in thevarious plays in the process of "taking, " or rehearsal. While each setconstitutes virtually a separate stage, they are all on the same floor, without wings or proscenium-arches, and separated only by a few feet. Thus, for instance, a Japanese house interior may be seen cheek by jowlwith an ordinary prison cell, flanked by a mining-camp, which in turnstands next to a drawing-room set, and in each a set of appropriatecharacters in pantomimic motion. The action is incessant, for in anydramatic representation intended for the motion-picture film everysecond counts. 

The production of several completed plays per week necessitates theemployment of a considerable staff of people of miscellaneous trades andabilities. At each of these two studios there is employed a numberof stage-directors, scene-painters, carpenters, property-men, photographers, costumers, electricians, clerks, and general assistants, besides a capable stock company of actors and actresses, whose generousnumbers are frequently augmented by the addition of a special star, or by a number of extra performers, such as Rough Riders or otherspecialists. It may be, occasionally, that the exigencies of theoccasion require the work of a performing horse, dog, or other animal. No matter what the object required may be, whether animate or inanimate, if it is necessary for the play it is found and pressed into service. 

These two studios, while separated from the main plant, are under thesame general management, and their original negative films are forwardedas made to the Orange works, where the large copying department islocated in one of the concrete buildings. Here, after the film has beenpassed upon by a committee, a considerable number of positive copies aremade by ingenious processes, and after each one is separately tested, or"run off, " in one or other of the three motion-picture theatres in thebuilding, they are shipped out to film exchanges in every part of thecountry. How extensive this business has become may be appreciated whenit is stated that at the Orange plant there are produced at this timeover eight million feet of motion-picture film per year. And Edison'scompany is only one of many producers. 

Another of the industries at the Orange works is the manufacture ofprojecting kinetoscopes, by means of which the motion pictures areshown. While this of itself is also a business of considerable magnitudein its aggregate yearly transactions, it calls for no special commentin regard to commercial production, except to note that a corps ofexperimenters is constantly employed refining and perfecting detailsof the machine. Its basic features of operation as conceived by Edisonremain unchanged. 

On coming to consider the Edison battery enterprises, we must perforceextend the territorial view to include a special chemical-manufacturingplant, which is in reality a branch of the laboratory and the Orangeworks, although actually situated about three miles away. 

Both the primary and the storage battery employ certain chemicalproducts as essential parts of their elements, and indeed owe their veryexistence to the peculiar preparation and quality of such products, asexemplified by Edison's years of experimentation and research. Hence theestablishment of his own chemical works at Silver Lake, where, under hispersonal supervision, the manufacture of these products is carried onin charge of specially trained experts. At the present writing theplant covers about seven acres of ground; but there is ample room forexpansion, as Edison, with wise forethought, secured over forty acres ofland, so as to be prepared for developments. 

Not only is the Silver Lake works used for the manufacture of thechemical substances employed in the batteries, but it is the plant atwhich the Edison primary battery is wholly assembled and made up fordistribution to customers. This in itself is a business of no smallmagnitude, having grown steadily on its merits year by year until ithas now arrived at a point where its sales run into the hundreds ofthousands of cells per annum, furnished largely to the steam railroadsof the country for their signal service. 

As to the storage battery, the plant at Silver Lake is responsible onlyfor the production of the chemical compounds, nickel-hydrate and ironoxide, which enter into its construction. All the mechanical parts, the nickel plating, the manufacture of nickel flake, the assembling andtesting, are carried on at the Orange works in two of the large concretebuildings above referred to. A visit to this part of the plant revealsan amazing fertility of resourcefulness and ingenuity in the devisingof the special machines and appliances employed in constructing themechanical parts of these cells, for it is practically impossible tofashion them by means of machinery and tools to be found in the openmarket, notwithstanding the immense variety that may be there obtained. 

Since Edison completed his final series of investigations on hisstorage battery and brought it to its present state of perfection, thecommercial values have increased by leaps and bounds. The battery, asit was originally put out some years ago, made for itself an enviablereputation; but with its improved form there has come a vast increaseof business. Although the largest of the concrete buildings whereits manufacture is carried on is over four hundred feet long and fourstories in height, it has already become necessary to plan extensionsand enlargements of the plant in order to provide for the production ofbatteries to fill the present demands. It was not until the summerof 1909 that Edison was willing to pronounce the final verdict ofsatisfaction with regard to this improved form of storage battery; butsubsequent commercial results have justified his judgment, and it isnot too much to predict that in all probability the business will assumegigantic proportions within a very few years. At the present time (1910)the Edison storage-battery enterprise is in its early stages of growth, and its status may be compared with that of the electric-light systemabout the year 1881. 

There is one more industry, though of comparatively small extent, that is included in the activities of the Orange works, namely, the manufacture and sale of the Bates numbering machine. This is awell-known article of commerce, used in mercantile establishments forthe stamping of consecutive, duplicate, and manifold numbers onchecks and other documents. It is not an invention of Edison, but theorganization owning it, together with the patent rights, were acquiredby him some years ago, and he has since continued and enlarged thebusiness both in scope and volume, besides, of course, improving andperfecting the apparatus itself. These machines are known everywherethroughout the country, and while the annual sales are of comparativelymoderate amount in comparison with the totals of the other Edisonindustries at Orange, they represent in the aggregate a comfortable andencouraging business. 

In this brief outline review of the flourishing and extensive commercialenterprises centred around the Orange laboratory, the facts, it isbelieved, contain a complete refutation of the idea that an inventorcannot be a business man. They also bear abundant evidence of thecompatibility of these two widely divergent gifts existing, even to ahigh degree, in the same person. A striking example of the correctnessof this proposition is afforded in the present case, when it is borne inmind that these various industries above described (whose annual salesrun into many millions of dollars) owe not only their very creation(except the Bates machine) and existence to Edison's inventiveoriginality and commercial initiative, but also their continued growthand prosperity to his incessant activities in dealing with theirmultifarious business problems. In publishing a portrait of Edison thisyear, one of the popular magazines placed under it this caption: "Werethe Age called upon to pay Thomas A. Edison all it owes to him, the Agewould have to make an assignment. " The present chapter will havethrown some light on the idiosyncrasies of Edison as financier and asmanufacturer, and will have shown that while the claim thus suggestedmay be quite good, it will certainly never be pressed or collected. 

CHAPTER XXVII

THE VALUE OF EDISON'S INVENTIONS TO THE WORLD

IF the world were to take an account of stock, so to speak, and proceedin orderly fashion to marshal its tangible assets in relation todollars and cents, the natural resources of our globe, from centre tocircumference, would head the list. Next would come inventors, whosevalue to the world as an asset could be readily estimated from anincrease of its wealth resulting from the actual transformations ofthese resources into items of convenience and comfort through theexercise of their inventive ingenuity. 

Inventors of practical devices may be broadly divided into twoclasses--first, those who may be said to have made two blades of grassgrow where only one grew before; and, second, great inventors, who havemade grass grow plentifully on hitherto unproductive ground. The vastmajority of practical inventors belong to and remain in the first ofthese divisions, but there have been, and probably always will be, aless number who, by reason of their greater achievements, are entitledto be included in both classes. Of these latter, Thomas Alva Edison isone, but in the pages of history he stands conspicuously pre-eminent--acommanding towering figure, even among giants. 

The activities of Edison have been of such great range, and hisconquests in the domains of practical arts so extensive and varied, thatit is somewhat difficult to estimate with any satisfactory degree ofaccuracy the money value of his inventions to the world of to-day, evenafter making due allowance for the work of other great inventors andthe propulsive effect of large amounts of capital thrown into theenterprises which took root, wholly or in part, through the productionsof his genius and energies. This difficulty will be apparent, forinstance, when we consider his telegraph and telephone inventions. Thesewere absorbed in enterprises already existing, and were the means ofassisting their rapid growth and expansion, particularly the telephoneindustry. Again, in considering the fact that Edison was one of thefirst in the field to design and perfect a practical and operativeelectric railway, the main features of which are used in all electricroads of to-day, we are confronted with the problem as to whatproportion of their colossal investment and earnings should be ascribedto him. 

Difficulties are multiplied when we pause for a moment to think ofEdison's influence on collateral branches of business. In the publicmind he is credited with the invention of the incandescent electriclight, the phonograph, and other widely known devices; but how fewrealize his actual influence on other trades that are not generallythought of in connection with these things. For instance, let us notewhat a prominent engine builder, the late Gardiner C. Sims, has said:"Watt, Corliss, and Porter brought forward steam-engines to a highstate of proficiency, yet it remained for Mr. Edison to force betterproportions, workmanship, designs, use of metals, regulation, thesolving of the complex problems of high speed and endurance, and thesuccessful development of the shaft governor. Mr. Edison is preeminentin the realm of engineering. "

The phenomenal growth of the copper industry was due to a rapid andever-increasing demand, owing to the exploitation of the telephone, electric light, electric motor, and electric railway industries. Withoutthese there might never have been the romance of "Coppers" and the riseand fall of countless fortunes. And although one cannot estimate indefinite figures the extent of Edison's influence in the enormousincrease of copper production, it is to be remembered that his basicinventions constitute a most important factor in the demand for themetal. Besides, one must also give him the credit, as already noted, for having recognized the necessity for a pure quality of copper forelectric conductors, and for his persistence in having compelled themanufacturers of that period to introduce new and additional methodsof refinement so as to bring about that result, which is now a sine quanon. 

Still considering his influence on other staples and collateral trades, let us enumerate briefly and in a general manner some of the moreimportant and additional ones that have been not merely stimulated, butin many cases the business and sales have been directly increased andnew arts established through the inventions of this one man--namely, iron, steel, brass, zinc, nickel, platinum ($5 per ounce in 1878, now$26 an ounce), rubber, oils, wax, bitumen, various chemical compounds, belting, boilers, injectors, structural steel, iron tubing, glass, silk, cotton, porcelain, fine woods, slate, marble, electrical measuringinstruments, miscellaneous machinery, coal, wire, paper, buildingmaterials, sapphires, and many others. 

The question before us is, To what extent has Edison added to the wealthof the world by his inventions and his energy and perseverance? It willbe noted from the foregoing that no categorical answer can be offeredto such a question, but sufficient material can be gathered from astatistical review of the commercial arts directly influenced to affordan approximate idea of the increase in national wealth that has beenaffected by or has come into being through the practical application ofhis ideas. 

First of all, as to inventions capable of fairly definite estimate, letus mention the incandescent electric light and systems of distributionof electric light, heat, and power, which may justly be considered asthe crowning inventions of Edison's life. Until October 21, 1879, therewas nothing in existence resembling our modern incandescent lamp. On that date, as we have seen in a previous chapter, Edison's laborsculminated in his invention of a practical incandescent electric lampembodying absolutely all the essentials of the lamp of to-day, thusopening to the world the doors of a new art and industry. To-day thereare in the United States more than 41, 000, 000 of these lamps, connectedto existing central-station circuits in active operation. 

Such circuits necessarily imply the existence of central stations withtheir equipment. Until the beginning of 1882 there were only a fewarc-lighting stations in existence for the limited distribution ofcurrent. At the present time there are over 6000 central stations inthis country for the distribution of electric current for light, heat, and power, with capital obligations amounting to not less than$1, 000, 000, 000. Besides the above-named 41, 000, 000 incandescent lampsconnected to their mains, there are about 500, 000 arc lamps and 150, 000motors, using 750, 000 horse-power, besides countless fan motors andelectric heating and cooking appliances. 

When it is stated that the gross earnings of these central stationsapproximate the sum of $225, 000, 000 yearly, the significant import ofthese statistics of an art that came so largely from Edison's laboratoryabout thirty years ago will undoubtedly be apparent. 

But the above are not by any means all the facts relating toincandescent electric lighting in the United States, for in addition tocentral stations there are upward of 100, 000 isolated or private plantsin mills, factories, steamships, hotels, theatres, etc. , owned bythe persons or concerns who operate them. These plants represent anapproximate investment of $500, 000, 000, and the connection of not lessthan 25, 000, 000 incandescent lamps or their equivalent. 

Then there are the factories where these incandescent lamps are made, about forty in number, representing a total investment that may beapproximated at $25, 000, 000. It is true that many of these factoriesare operated by other than the interests which came into control ofthe Edison patents (General Electric Company), but the 150, 000, 000incandescent electric lamps now annually made are broadly covered inprinciple by Edison's fundamental ideas and patents. 

It will be noted that these figures are all in round numbers, but theyare believed to be well within the mark, being primarily founded uponthe special reports of the Census Bureau issued in 1902 and 1907, withthe natural increase from that time computed by experts who are inposition to obtain the facts. It would be manifestly impossible to giveexact figures of such a gigantic and swiftly moving industry, whosetotals increase from week to week. 

The reader will naturally be disposed to ask whether it is intended toclaim that Edison has brought about all this magnificent growth of theelectric-lighting art. The answer to this is decidedly in the negative, for the fact is that he laid some of the foundation and erected abuilding thereon, and in the natural progressive order of things otherinventors of more or less fame have laid substructures or added a winghere and a story there until the resultant great structure has attainedsuch proportions as to evoke the admiration of the beholder; but the oldfoundation and the fundamental building still remain to support otherparts. In other words, Edison created the incandescent electric lamp, and invented certain broad and fundamental systems of distributionof current, with all the essential devices of detail necessary forsuccessful operation. These formed a foundation. He also spent greatsums of money and devoted several years of patient labor in the earlypractical exploitation of the dynamo and central station and isolatedplants, often under, adverse and depressing circumstances, with a doggeddetermination that outlived an opposition steadily threatening defeat. These efforts resulted in the firm commercial establishment of modernelectric lighting. It is true that many important inventions of othershave a distinguished place in the art as it is exploited today, but thefact remains that the broad essentials, such as the incandescent lamp, systems of distribution, and some important details, are not onlyuniversally used, but are as necessary to-day for successful commercialpractice as they were when Edison invented them many years ago. 

The electric railway next claims our consideration, but we areimmediately confronted by a difficulty which seems insurmountable whenwe attempt to formulate any definite estimate of the value and influenceof Edison's pioneer work and inventions. There is one incontrovertiblefact--namely, that he was the first man to devise, construct, andoperate from a central station a practicable, life-size electricrailroad, which was capable of transporting and did transport passengersand freight at variable speeds over varying grades, and under completecontrol of the operator. These are the essential elements in allelectric railroading of the present day; but while Edison's originalbroad ideas are embodied in present practice, the perfection of themodern electric railway is greatly due to the labors and inventions ofa large number of other well-known inventors. There was no reasonwhy Edison could not have continued the commercial development of theelectric railway after he had helped to show its practicability in 1880, 1881, and 1882, just as he had completed his lighting system, had itnot been that his financial allies of the period lacked faith in thepossibilities of electric railroads, and therefore declined to furnishthe money necessary for the purpose of carrying on the work. 

With these facts in mind, we shall ask the reader to assign to Edison adue proportion of credit for his pioneer and basic work in relation tothe prodigious development of electric railroading that has since takenplace. The statistics of 1908 for American street and elevated railwaysshow that within twenty-five years the electric-railway industry hasgrown to embrace 38, 812 miles of track on streets and for elevatedrailways, operated under the ownership of 1238 separate companies, whosetotal capitalization amounted to the enormous sum of $4, 123, 834, 598. In the equipments owned by such companies there are included 68, 636electric cars and 17, 568 trailers and others, making a total of 86, 204of such vehicles. These cars and equipments earned over $425, 000, 000in 1907, in giving the public transportation, at a cost, includingtransfers, of a little over three cents per passenger, for whom afifteen-mile ride would be possible. It is the cheapest transportationin the world. 

Some mention should also be made of the great electrical works of thecountry, in which the dynamos, motors, and other varied paraphernaliaare made for electric lighting, electric railway, and other purposes. The largest of these works is undoubtedly that of the GeneralElectric Company at Schenectady, New York, a continuation and enormousenlargement of the shops which Edison established there in 1886. Thisplant at the present time embraces over 275 acres, of which sixty acresare covered by fifty large and over one hundred small buildings; besideswhich the company also owns other large plants elsewhere, representinga total investment approximating the sum of $34, 850, 000 up to 1908. Theproductions of the General Electric Company alone average annualsales of nearly $75, 000, 000, but they do not comprise the total of thecountry's manufactures in these lines. 

Turning our attention now to the telephone, we again meet a conditionthat calls for thoughtful consideration before we can properlyappreciate how much the growth of this industry owes to Edison'sinventive genius. In another place there has already been told the storyof the telephone, from which we have seen that to Alexander GrahamBell is due the broad idea of transmission of speech by means of anelectrical circuit; also that he invented appropriate instruments anddevices through which he accomplished this result, although not to thatextent which gave promise of any great commercial practicability forthe telephone as it then existed. While the art was in this inefficientcondition, Edison went to work on the subject, and in due time, as wehave already learned, invented and brought out the carbon transmitter, which is universally acknowledged to have been the needed device thatgave to the telephone the element of commercial practicability, andhas since led to its phenomenally rapid adoption and world-wide use. Itmatters not that others were working in the same direction, Edison waslegally adjudicated to have been the first to succeed in point oftime, and his inventions were put into actual use, and may be found inprinciple in every one of the 7, 000, 000 telephones which are estimatedto be employed in the country at the present day. Basing the statementsupon facts shown by the Census reports of 1902 and 1907, and addingthereto the growth of the industry since that time, we find on aconservative estimate that at this writing the investment has been notless than $800, 000, 000 in now existing telephone systems, while no fewerthan 10, 500, 000, 000 talks went over the lines during the year 1908. These figures relate only to telephone systems, and do not include anydetails regarding the great manufacturing establishments engaged inthe construction of telephone apparatus, of which there is a productionamounting to at least $15, 000, 000 per annum. 

Leaving the telephone, let us now turn our attention to the telegraph, and endeavor to show as best we can some idea of the measure to which ithas been affected by Edison's inventions. Although, as we have seen ina previous part of this book, his earliest fame arose from his greatpractical work in telegraphic inventions and improvements, there is noway in which any definite computation can be made of the value of hiscontributions in the art except, perhaps, in the case of his quadruplex, through which alone it is estimated that there has been saved from$15, 000, 000 to $20, 000, 000 in the cost of line construction in thiscountry. If this were the only thing that he had ever accomplished, it would entitle him to consideration as an inventor of note. Thequadruplex, however, has other material advantages, but how far they andthe natural growth of the business have contributed to the investmentand earnings of the telegraph companies, is beyond practicablecomputation. 

It would, perhaps, be interesting to speculate upon what might have beenthe growth of the telegraph and the resultant benefit to the communityhad Edison's automatic telegraph inventions been allowed to take theirlegitimate place in the art, but we shall not allow ourselves toindulge in flights of fancy, as the value of this chapter rests not uponconjecture, but only upon actual fact. Nor shall we attempt to offer anystatistics regarding Edison's numerous inventions relating to telegraphsand kindred devices, such as stock tickers, relays, magnets, rheotomes, repeaters, printing telegraphs, messenger calls, etc. , on which he wasso busily occupied as an inventor and manufacturer during the ten yearsthat began with January, 1869. The principles of many of these devicesare still used in the arts, but have become so incorporated in otherdevices as to be inseparable, and cannot now be dealt with separately. To show what they mean, however, it might be noted that New York Cityalone has 3000 stock "tickers, " consuming 50, 000 miles of record tapeevery year. 

Turning now to other important arts and industries which have beencreated by Edison's inventions, and in which he is at this time takingan active personal interest, let us visit Orange, New Jersey. When hispresent laboratory was nearing completion in 1887, he wrote to Mr. J. Hood Wright, a partner in the firm of Drexel, Morgan & Co. : "My ambitionis to build up a great industrial works in the Orange Valley, startingin a small way and gradually working up. "

In this plant, which represents an investment approximating the sumof $4, 000, 000, are grouped a number of industrial enterprises of whichEdison is either the sole or controlling owner and the guiding spirit. These enterprises are the National Phonograph Company, the EdisonBusiness Phonograph Company, the Edison Phonograph Works, the EdisonManufacturing Company, the Edison Storage Battery Company, and theBates Manufacturing Company. The importance of these industries will beapparent when it is stated that at this plant the maximum pay-roll showsthe employment of over 4200 persons, with annual earnings in salariesand wages of more than $2, 750, 000. 

In considering the phonograph in its commercial aspect, and endeavoringto arrive at some idea of the world's estimate of the value of thisinvention, we feel the ground more firm under our feet, for Edisonhas in later years controlled its manufacture and sale. It will beremembered that the phonograph lay dormant, commercially speaking, for about ten years after it came into being, and then later inventionreduced it to a device capable of more popular utility. A few yearsof rather unsatisfactory commercial experience brought about areorganization, through which Edison resumed possession of the business. It has since been continued under his general direction and ownership, and he has made a great many additional inventions tending to improvethe machine in all its parts. 

The uses made of the phonograph up to this time have been of four kinds, generally speaking--first, and principally, for amusement; second, for instruction in languages; third, for business, in the dictation ofcorrespondence; and fourth, for sentimental reasons in preserving thevoices of friends. No separate figures are available to show the extentof its employment in the second and fourth classes, as they are probablyincluded in machines coming under the first subdivision. Under this headwe find that there have been upward of 1, 310, 000 phonographs sold duringthe last twenty years, with and for which there have been made andsold no fewer than 97, 845, 000 records of a musical or other character. Phonographic records are now being manufactured at Orange at the rateof 75, 000 a day, the annual sale of phonographs and records beingapproximately $7, 000, 000, including business phonographs. This does notinclude blank records, of which large numbers have also been supplied tothe public. 

The adoption of the business phonograph has not been characterizedby the unanimity that obtained in the case of the one used merely foramusement, as its use involves some changes in methods that businessmen are slow to adopt until they realize the resulting convenience andeconomy. Although it is only a few years since the business phonographhas begun to make some headway, it is not difficult to appreciate thatEdison's prediction in 1878 as to the value of such an appliance isbeing realized, when we find that up to this time the sales run up to12, 695 in number. At the present time the annual sales of the businessphonographs and supplies, cylinders, etc. , are not less than $350, 000. 

We must not forget that the basic patent of Edison on the phonograph haslong since expired, thus throwing open to the world the wonderful artof reproducing human speech and other sounds. The world was not slow totake advantage of the fact, hence there are in the field numerous otherconcerns in the same business. It is conservatively estimated by thosewho know the trade and are in position to form an opinion, that thefigures above given represent only about one-half of the entire businessof the country in phonographs, records, cylinders, and supplies. 

Taking next his inventions that pertain to a more recently establishedbut rapidly expanding branch of business that provides for the amusementof the public, popularly known as "motion pictures, " we also find ageneral recognition of value created. Referring the reader to a previouschapter for a discussion of Edison's standing as a pioneer inventor inthis art, let us glance at the commercial proportions of this young butlusty business, whose ramifications extend to all but the most remoteand primitive hamlets of our country. 

The manufacture of the projecting machines and accessories, togetherwith the reproduction of films, is carried on at the Orange Valleyplant, and from the inception of the motion-picture business to thepresent time there have been made upward of 16, 000 projecting machinesand many million feet of films carrying small photographs of movingobjects. Although the motion-picture business, as a commercialenterprise, is still in its youth, it is of sufficient moment to callfor the annual production of thousands of machines and many millionfeet of films in Edison's shops, having a sale value of not less than$750, 000. To produce the originals from which these Edison films aremade, there have been established two "studios, " the largest of which isin the Bronx, New York City. 

In this, as well as in the phonograph business, there are many othermanufacturers in the field. Indeed, the annual product of the EdisonManufacturing Company in this line is only a fractional part of thetotal that is absorbed by the 8000 or more motion-picture theatres andexhibitions that are in operation in the United States at the presenttime, and which represent an investment of some $45, 000, 000. Licenseesunder Edison patents in this country alone produce upward of 60, 000, 000feet of films annually, containing more than a billion and a halfseparate photographs. To what extent the motion-picture business maygrow in the not remote future it is impossible to conjecture, for it hastaken a place in the front rank of rapidly increasing enterprises. 

The manufacture and sale of the Edison-Lalande primary battery, conducted by the Edison Manufacturing Company at the Orange Valleyplant, is a business of no mean importance. Beginning about twentyyears ago with a battery that, without polarizing, would furnish largecurrents specially adapted for gas-engine ignition and other importantpurposes, the business has steadily grown in magnitude until the presentoutput amounts to about 125, 000 cells annually; the total number ofcells put into the hands of the public up to date being approximately1, 500, 000. It will be readily conceded that to most men this alone wouldbe an enterprise of a lifetime, and sufficient in itself to satisfy amoderate ambition. But, although it has yielded a considerable profit toEdison and gives employment to many people, it is only one of the manysmaller enterprises that owe an existence to his inventive ability andcommercial activity. 

So it also is in regard to the mimeograph, whose forerunner, theelectric pen, was born of Edison's brain in 1877. He had been longimpressed by the desirability of the rapid production of copies ofwritten documents, and, as we have seen by a previous chapter, heinvented the electric pen for this purpose, only to improve upon itlater with a more desirable device which he called the mimeograph, thatis in use, in various forms, at this time. Although the electric pen hada large sale and use in its time, the statistics relating to it are notavailable. The mimeograph, however, is, and has been for many years, a standard office appliance, and is entitled to consideration, as thetotal number put into use up to this time is approximately 180, 000, valued at $3, 500, 000, while the annual output is in the neighborhoodof 9000 machines, sold for about $150, 000, besides the vast quantity ofspecial paper and supplies which its use entails in the production ofthe many millions of facsimile letters and documents. The extent ofproduction and sale of supplies for the mimeograph may be appreciatedwhen it is stated that they bring annually an equivalent of three timesthe amount realized from sales of machines. The manufacture and saleof the mimeograph does not come within the enterprises conducted underEdison's personal direction, as he sold out the whole thing some yearsago to Mr. A. B. Dick, of Chicago. 

In making a somewhat radical change of subject, from duplicatingmachines to cement, we find ourselves in a field in which Edison hasmade a most decided impression. The reader has already learned that hisentry into this field was, in a manner, accidental, although logicallyin line with pronounced convictions of many years' standing, andfollowing up the fund of knowledge gained in the magnetic ore-millingbusiness. From being a new-comer in the cement business, his corporationin five years has grown to be the fifth largest producer in the UnitedStates, with a still increasing capacity. From the inception of thisbusiness there has been a steady and rapid development, resulting in theproduction of a grand total of over 7, 300, 000 barrels of cement upto the present date, having a value of about $6, 000, 000, exclusive ofpackage. At the time of this writing, the rate of production is over8000 barrels of cement per day, or, say, 2, 500, 000 barrels per year, having an approximate selling value of a little less than $2, 000, 000, with prospects of increasing in the near future to a daily output of10, 000 barrels. This enterprise is carried on by a corporation calledthe Edison Portland Cement Company, in which he is very largelyinterested, and of which he is the active head and guiding spirit. 

Had not Edison suspended the manufacture and sale of his storage batterya few years ago because he was not satisfied with it, there might havebeen given here some noteworthy figures of an extensive business, forthe company's books show an astonishing number of orders that werereceived during the time of the shut-down. He was implored forbatteries, but in spite of the fact that good results had been obtainedfrom the 18, 000 or 20, 000 cells sold some years ago, he adhered firmlyto his determination to perfect them to a still higher standard beforeresuming and continuing their manufacture as a regular commodity. As wehave noted in a previous chapter, however, deliveries of the perfectedtype were begun in the summer of 1909, and since that time thebusiness has continued to grow in the measure indicated by the earlierexperience. 

Thus far we have concerned ourselves chiefly with those figures whichexhibit the extent of investment and production, but there is anotherand humanly important side that presents itself for considerationnamely, the employment of a vast industrial army of men and women, who earn a living through their connection with some of the arts andindustries to which our narrative has direct reference. To this thereader's attention will now be drawn. 

The following figures are based upon the Special Reports of the CensusBureau, 1902 and 1907, with additions computed upon the increase thathas subsequently taken place. In the totals following is included thecompensation paid to salaried officials and clerks. Details relating totelegraph systems are omitted. 

Taking the electric light into consideration first, we find that in thecentral stations of the United States there are not less than an averageof 50, 000 persons employed, requiring an aggregate yearly payroll ofover $40, 000, 000. This does not include the 100, 000 or more isolatedelectric-light plants scattered throughout the land. Many of theseare quite large, and at least one-third of them require one additionalhelper, thus adding, say, 33, 000 employees to the number alreadymentioned. If we assume as low a wage as $10 per week for each ofthese helpers, we must add to the foregoing an additional sum of over$17, 000, 000 paid annually for wages, almost entirely in the isolatedincandescent electric lighting field. 

Central stations and isolated plants consume over 100, 000, 000incandescent electric lamps annually, and in the production of thesethere are engaged about forty factories, on whose pay-rolls appearan average of 14, 000 employees, earning an aggregate yearly sum of$8, 000, 000. 

Following the incandescent lamp we must not forget an industryexclusively arising from it and absolutely dependent upon it--namely, that of making fixtures for such lamps, the manufacture of which givesemployment to upward of 6000 persons, who annually receive at least$3, 750, 000 in compensation. 

The detail devices of the incandescent electric lighting system alsocontribute a large quota to the country's wealth in the millions ofdollars paid out in salaries and wages to many thousands of persons whoare engaged in their manufacture. 

The electric railways of our country show even larger figures than thelighting stations and plants, as they employ on the average over250, 000 persons, whose annual compensation amounts to not less than$155, 000, 000. 

In the manufacture of about $50, 000, 000 worth of dynamos and motorsannually, for central-station equipment, isolated plants, electricrailways, and other purposes, the manufacturers of the country employ anaverage of not less than 30, 000 people, whose yearly pay-roll amounts tono less a sum than $20, 000, 000. 

The growth of the telephone systems of the United States also furnishesus with statistics of an analogous nature, for we find that the averagenumber of employees engaged in this industry is at least 140, 000, whoseannual earnings aggregate a minimum of $75, 000, 000; besides which themanufacturers of telephone apparatus employ over 12, 000 persons, to whomis paid annually about $5, 500, 000. 

No attempt is made to include figures of collateral industries, such, for instance, as copper, which is very closely allied with theelectrical arts, and the great bulk of which is refined electrically. 

The 8000 or so motion-picture theatres of the country employ no fewerthan 40, 000 people, whose aggregate annual income amounts to not lessthan $37, 000, 000. 

Coming now to the Orange Valley plant, we take a drop from these figuresto the comparatively modest ones which give us an average of 3600employees and calling for an annual pay-roll of about $2, 250, 000. Itmust be remembered, however, that the sums mentioned above representindustries operated by great aggregations of capital, while the OrangeValley plant, as well as the Edison Portland Cement Company, with anaverage daily number of 530 employees and over $400, 000 annual pay-roll, represent in a large measure industries that are more in the natureof closely held enterprises and practically under the direction of onemind. 

The table herewith given summarizes the figures that have just beenpresented, and affords an idea of the totals affected by the geniusof this one man. It is well known that many other men and many otherinventions have been needed for the perfection of these arts; but itis equally true that, as already noted, some of these industries aredirectly the creation of Edison, while in every one of the rest hisimpress has been deep and significant. Before he began inventing, onlytwo of them were known at all as arts--telegraphy and the manufactureof cement. Moreover, these figures deal only with the United States, andtake no account of the development of many of the Edison inventionsin Europe or of their adoption throughout the world at large. Let itsuffice

 STATISTICAL RESUME (APPROXIMATE) OF SOME OF THE INDUSTRIES IN THE UNITED STATES DIRECTLY FOUNDED UPON OR AFFECTED BY INVENTIONS OF THOMAS A. EDISON

 Annual Gross Rev- Number Annual Class of Industry Investment enue or of Em- Pay-Rolls sales Central station lighting and power $1, 000, 000, 000 $125, 000, 000 50, 000 $40, 000, 000 Isolated incandescent lighting 500, 000, 000 -- 33, 000 17, 000 000 Incandescent lamps 25, 000, 000 20, 000, 000 14, 000 8, 000 000 Electric fixtures 8, 000, 000 5, 000, 000 6, 000 3, 750, 000 Dynamos and motors 60, 000, 000 50, 000, 000 30, 000 20, 000, 000 Electric railways 4, 000, 000, 000 430, 000, 000 250, 000 155, 000, 000 Telephone systems 800, 000, 000 175, 000, 000 140, 000 75, 000, 000 Telephone apparatus 30, 000, 000 15, 000, 000 12, 000 5, 500, 000 Phonograph and motion pictures 10, 000, 000 15, 000, 000 5, 000 6, 000, 000 Motion picture theatres 40, 000, 000 80, 000, 000 40, 000 37, 000, 000 Edison Portland cement 4, 000, 000 2, 000, 000 530 400, 000 Telegraphy 250, 000, 000 60, 000, 000 100, 000 30, 000, 000 --------------------------------------------------------------------------Totals 6, 727, 000, 000 1, 077, 000, 000 680, 530 397, 650, 000

that in America alone the work of Edison has been one of the most potentfactors in bringing into existence new industries now capitalized atnearly $ 7, 000, 000, 000, earning annually over $1, 000, 000, 000, and givingemployment to an army of more than six hundred thousand people. 

A single diamond, prismatically flashing from its many facetsthe beauties of reflected light, comes well within the limits ofcomprehension of the human mind and appeals to appreciation by thefiner sensibilities; but in viewing an exhibition of thousands ofthese beautiful gems, the eye and brain are simply bewildered with therichness of a display which tends to confuse the intellect untilthe function of analysis comes into play and leads to more adequateapprehension. 

So, in presenting the mass of statistics contained in this chapter, wefear that the result may have been the bewilderment of the reader tosome extent. Nevertheless, in writing a biography of Edison, themain object is to present the facts as they are, and leave it to theintelligent reader to classify, apply, and analyze them in such manneras appeals most forcibly to his intellectual processes. If in theforegoing pages there has appeared to be a tendency to attribute toEdison the entire credit for the growth to which many of the above-namedgreat enterprises have in these latter days attained, we must especiallydisclaim any intention of giving rise to such a deduction. No one whohas carefully followed the course of this narrative can deny, however, that Edison is the father of some of the arts and industries that havebeen mentioned, and that as to some of the others it was the magic ofhis touch that helped make them practicable. Not only to his work andingenuity is due the present magnitude of these arts and industries, butit is attributable also to the splendid work and numerous contributionsof other great inventors, such as Brush, Bell, Elihu Thomson, Weston, Sprague, and many others, as well as to the financiers and investors whoin the past thirty years have furnished the vast sums of money that werenecessary to exploit and push forward these enterprises. 

The reader may have noticed in a perusal of this chapter the lack ofautobiographical quotations, such as have appeared in other parts ofthis narrative. Edison's modesty has allowed us but one remark on thesubject. This was made by him to one of the writers a short time ago, when, after an interesting indulgence in reminiscences of old times andearly inventions, he leaned back in his chair, and with a broad smile onhis face, said, reflectively: "Say, I HAVE been mixed up in a whole lotof things, haven't I?"

CHAPTER XXVIII

THE BLACK FLAG

THROUGHOUT the forty-odd years of his creative life, Edison has realizedby costly experience the truth of the cynical proverb that "A patentis merely a title to a lawsuit. " It is not intended, however, by thisstatement to lead to any inference on the part of the reader that HEstands peculiarly alone in any such experience, for it has been andstill is the common lot of every successful inventor, sooner or later. 

To attribute dishonesty or cupidity as the root of the defence in allpatent litigation would be aiming very wide of the mark, for in noclass of suits that come before the courts are there any that presenta greater variety of complex, finely shaded questions, or thatrequire more delicacy of interpretation, than those that involve theconstruction of patents, particularly those relating to electricaldevices. Indeed, a careful study of legal procedure of this charactercould not be carried far without discovery of the fact that in numerousinstances the differences of opinion between litigants were marked bythe utmost bona fides. 

On the other hand, such study would reveal many cases of undoubtedfraudulent intent, as well as many bold attempts to deprive the inventorof the fruits of his endeavors by those who have sought to evade, through subtle technicalities of the law, the penalty justly due themfor trickery, evasion, or open contempt of the rights of others. 

In the history of science and of the arts to which the world hasowed its continued progress from year to year there is disclosed oneremarkable fact, and that is, that whenever any important discovery orinvention has been made and announced by one man, it has almost alwaysbeen disclosed later that other men--possibly widely separated andknowing nothing of the other's work--have been following up the samegeneral lines of investigation, independently, with the same object inmind. Their respective methods might be dissimilar while tending to thesame end, but it does not necessarily follow that any one of these otherexperimenters might ever have achieved the result aimed at, although, after the proclamation of success by one, it is easy to believe thateach of the other independent investigators might readily persuadehimself that he would ultimately have reached the goal in just that sameway. 

This peculiar coincidence of simultaneous but separate work not onlycomes to light on the bringing out of great and important discoveriesor inventions, but becomes more apparent if a new art is disclosed, forthen the imagination of previous experimenters is stimulated throughwide dissemination of the tidings, sometimes resulting in more or lesseffort to enter the newly opened field with devices or methods thatresemble closely the original and fundamental ones in principle andapplication. In this and other ways there arises constantly in theUnited States Patent Office a large number of contested cases, called"Interferences, " where applications for patents covering the inventionof a similar device have been independently filed by two or even morepersons. In such cases only one patent can be issued, and that tothe inventor who on the taking of testimony shows priority in date ofinvention. [20]

 [Footnote 20: A most remarkable instance of contemporaneous invention and without a parallel in the annals of the United States Patent Office, occurred when, on the same day, February 15, 1876, two separate descriptions were filed in that office, one a complete application and the other a caveat, but each covering an invention for "transmitting vocal sounds telegraphically. " The application was made by Alexander Graham Bell, of Salem, Massachusetts, and the caveat by Elisha Gray, of Chicago, Illinois. On examination of the two papers it was found that both of them covered practically the same ground, hence, as only one patent could be granted, it became necessary to ascertain the precise hour at which the documents were respectively filed, and put the parties in interference. This was done, with the result that the patent was ultimately awarded to Bell. ]

In the opening up and development of any new art based upon afundamental discovery or invention, there ensues naturally an era ofsupplemental or collateral inventive activity--the legitimate outcomeof the basic original ideas. Part of this development may be due tothe inventive skill and knowledge of the original inventor and hisassociates, who, by reason of prior investigation, would be in betterposition to follow up the art in its earliest details than others, who might be regarded as mere outsiders. Thus a new enterprise may bepresented before the world by its promoters in the belief that they arestrongly fortified by patent rights which will protect them in a degreecommensurate with the risks they have assumed. 

Supplemental inventions, however, in any art, new or old, are notlimited to those which emanate from the original workers, for theingenuity of man, influenced by the spirit of the times, seizes upon anynovel line of action and seeks to improve or enlarge upon it, or, atany rate, to produce more or less variation of its phases. Consequently, there is a constant endeavor on the part of a countless host of menpossessing some degree of technical skill and inventive ability, to winfame and money by entering into the already opened fields of endeavorwith devices and methods of their own, for which subsidiary patents maybe obtainable. Some of such patents may prove to be valuable, whileit is quite certain that in the natural order of things others willbe commercially worthless, but none may be entirely disregarded in thehistory and development of the art. 

It will be quite obvious, therefore, that the advent of any usefulinvention or discovery, great or small, is followed by a clashing ofmany interests which become complex in their interpretation by reason ofthe many conflicting claims that cluster around the main principle. Noris the confusion less confounded through efforts made on the part ofdishonest persons, who, like vultures, follow closely on the trailof successful inventors and (sometimes through information derivedby underhand methods) obtain patents on alleged inventions, closelyapproximating the real ones, solely for the purpose of harassing theoriginal patentee until they are bought up, or else, with the intentof competing boldly in the new business, trust in the delays of legalproceedings to obtain a sure foothold in their questionable enterprise. 

Then again there are still others who, having no patent rights, butwaving aside all compunction and in downright fraud, simply enter thecommercial field against the whole world, using ruthlessly whateverinventive skill and knowledge the original patentee may have disclosed, and trusting to the power of money, rapid movement, and mendaciousadvertising to build up a business which shall presently assume suchformidable proportions as to force a compromise, or stave off aninjunction until the patent has expired. In nine cases out of ten sucha course can be followed with relative impunity; and guided by skilfulexperts who may suggest really trivial changes here and there over thepatented structure, and with the aid of keen and able counsel, hardly apatent exists that could not be invaded by such infringers. Such isthe condition of our laws and practice that the patentee in seeking toenforce his rights labors under a terrible handicap. 

And, finally, in this recital of perplexing conditions confronting theinventor, there must not be forgotten the commercial "shark, " whosepredatory instincts are ever keenly alert for tender victims. In thewake of every newly developed art of world-wide importance there issure to follow a number of unscrupulous adventurers, who hasten to takeadvantage of general public ignorance of the true inwardness of affairs. Basing their operations on this lack of knowledge, and upon the tendencyof human nature to give credence to widely advertised and high-soundingdescriptions and specious promises of vast profits, these men findlittle difficulty in conjuring money out of the pockets of theunsophisticated and gullible, who rush to become stockholders inconcerns that have "airy nothings" for a foundation, and that collapsequickly when the bubble is pricked. [21]

 [Footnote 21: A notable instance of the fleecing of unsuspecting and credulous persons occurred in the early eighties, during the furor occasioned by the introduction of Mr. Edison's electric-light system. A corporation claiming to have a self-generating dynamo (practically perpetual motion) advertised its preposterous claims extensively, and actually succeeded in selling a large amount of stock, which, of course, proved to be absolutely worthless. ]

To one who is unacquainted with the trying circumstances attendingthe introduction and marketing of patented devices, it might seemunnecessary that an inventor and his business associates should beobliged to take into account the unlawful or ostensible competition ofpirates or schemers, who, in the absence of legal decision, may run afree course for a long time. Nevertheless, as public patronage is theelement vitally requisite for commercial success, and as the public isnot usually in full possession of all the facts and therefore cannotdiscriminate between the genuine and the false, the legitimate inventormust avail himself of every possible means of proclaiming and assertinghis rights if he desires to derive any benefit from the results of hisskill and labor. Not only must he be prepared to fight in the PatentOffice and pursue a regular course of patent litigation against thosewho may honestly deem themselves to be protected by other inventionsor patents of similar character, and also proceed against more palpableinfringers who are openly, defiantly, and illegitimately engaged incompetitive business operations, but he must, as well, endeavor toprotect himself against the assaults of impudent fraud by educating thepublic mind to a point of intelligent apprehension of the true status ofhis invention and the conflicting claims involved. 

When the nature of a patent right is considered it is difficult to seewhy this should be so. The inventor creates a new thing--an invention ofutility--and the people, represented by the Federal Government, say tohim in effect: "Disclose your invention to us in a patent so that we mayknow how to practice it, and we will agree to give you a monopoly forseventeen years, after which we shall be free to use it. If the rightthus granted is invaded, apply to a Federal Court and the infringer willbe enjoined and required to settle in damages. " Fair and false promise!Is it generally realized that no matter how flagrant the infringementnor how barefaced and impudent the infringer, no Federal Court willgrant an injunction UNTIL THE PATENT SHALL HAVE BEEN FIRST LITIGATED TOFINAL HEARING AND SUSTAINED? A procedure, it may be stated, requiringyears of time and thousands of dollars, during which other infringershave generally entered the field, and all have grown fat. 

Thus Edison and his business associates have been forced into averitable maelstrom of litigation during the major part of the lastforty years, in the effort to procure for themselves a small measureof protection for their interests under the numerous inventions of notethat he has made at various times in that period. The earlier years ofhis inventive activity, while productive of many important contributionsto electrical industries, such as stock tickers and printers, duplex, quadruplex, and automatic telegraphs, were not marked by the turmoilof interminable legal conflicts that arose after the beginning of thetelephone and electric-light epochs. In fact, his inventions; up toand including his telephone improvements (which entered into alreadyexisting arts), had been mostly purchased by the Western Union and othercompanies, and while there was more or less contesting of his claims(especially in respect of the telephone), the extent of such litigationwas not so conspicuously great as that which centred subsequently aroundhis patents covering incandescent electric lighting and power systems. 

Through these inventions there came into being an entirely new art, complete in its practicability evolved by Edison after protractedexperiments founded upon most patient, thorough, and original methodsof investigation extending over several years. Long before attainingthe goal, he had realized with characteristic insight the underlyingprinciples of the great and comprehensive problem he had started outto solve, and plodded steadily along the path that he had marked out, ignoring the almost universal scientific disbelief in his ultimatesuccess. "Dreamer, " "fool, " "boaster" were among the appellationsbestowed upon him by unbelieving critics. Ridicule was heaped uponhim in the public prints, and mathematics were called into serviceby learned men to settle the point forever that he was attempting theutterly impossible. 

But, presto! no sooner had he accomplished the task and shown concreteresults to the world than he found himself in the anomalous positionof being at once surrounded by the conditions which inevitably confrontevery inventor. The path through the trackless forest had been blazed, and now every one could find the way. At the end of the road was a richprize belonging rightfully to the man who had opened a way to it, butthe struggles of others to reach it by more or less honest methods nowbegan and continued for many years. If, as a former commissioner oncesaid, "Edison was the man who kept the path to the Patent Officehot with his footsteps, " there were other great inventors abreast orimmediately on his heels, some, to be sure, with legitimate, originalmethods and vital improvements representing independent work; whilethere were also those who did not trouble to invent, but simply helpedthemselves to whatever ideas were available, and coming from any source. 

Possibly events might have happened differently had Edison been able toprevent the announcement of his electric-light inventions until hewas entirely prepared to bring out the system as a whole, ready forcommercial exploitation, but the news of his production of a practicaland successful incandescent lamp became known and spread like wild-fireto all corners of the globe. It took more than a year after theevolution of the lamp for Edison to get into position to do actualbusiness, and during that time his laboratory was the natural Mecca ofevery inquiring person. Small wonder, then, that when he was prepared tomarket his invention he should find others entering that market, athome and abroad, at the same time, and with substantially similarmerchandise. 

Edison narrates two incidents that may be taken as characteristic ofa good deal that had to be contended with, coming in the shape ofnefarious attack. "In the early days of my electric light, " he says, "curiosity and interest brought a great many people to Menlo Park to seeit. Some of them did not come with the best of intentions. I rememberthe visit of one expert, a well-known electrician, a graduate of JohnsHopkins University, and who then represented a Baltimore gas company. Wehad the lamps exhibited in a large room, and so arranged on a table asto illustrate the regular layout of circuits for houses and streets. Sixty of the men employed at the laboratory were used as watchers, eachto keep an eye on a certain section of the exhibit, and see there wasno monkeying with it. This man had a length of insulated No. 10 wirepassing through his sleeves and around his back, so that his hands wouldconceal the ends and no one would know he had it. His idea, of course, was to put this wire across the ends of the supplying circuits, andshort-circuit the whole thing--put it all out of business without beingdetected. Then he could report how easily the electric light went out, and a false impression would be conveyed to the public. He did not knowthat we had already worked out the safety-fuse, and that every groupof lights was thus protected independently. He put this jumper slyly incontact with the wires--and just four lamps went out on the section hetampered with. The watchers saw him do it, however, and got hold of himand just led him out of the place with language that made the recordingangels jump for their typewriters. "

The other incident is as follows: "Soon after I had got out theincandescent light I had an interference in the Patent Office with a manfrom Wisconsin. He filed an application for a patent and entered into aconspiracy to 'swear back' of the date of my invention, so as todeprive me of it. Detectives were put on the case, and we found he was a'faker, ' and we took means to break the thing up. Eugene Lewis, of Eaton& Lewis, had this in hand for me. Several years later this same manattempted to defraud a leading firm of manufacturing chemists in NewYork, and was sent to State prison. A short time after that a syndicatetook up a man named Goebel and tried to do the same thing, but again ourdetective-work was too much for them. This was along the same line asthe attempt of Drawbaugh to deprive Bell of his telephone. Wheneveran invention of large prospective value comes out, these cases alwaysoccur. The lamp patent was sustained in the New York Federal Court. Ithought that was final and would end the matter, but another Federaljudge out in St. Louis did not sustain it. The result is I have neverenjoyed any benefits from my lamp patents, although I fought for manyyears. " The Goebel case will be referred to later in this chapter. 

The original owner of the patents and inventions covering hiselectric-lighting system, the Edison Electric Light Company (in whichEdison was largely interested as a stockholder), thus found at theoutset that its commercial position was imperilled by the activity ofcompetitors who had sprung up like mushrooms. It became necessary totake proper preliminary legal steps to protect the interests which hadbeen acquired at the cost of so much money and such incessant toil andexperiment. During the first few years in which the business of theintroduction of the light was carried on with such strenuous andconcentrated effort, the attention of Edison and his original associateswas constantly focused upon the commercial exploitation and thefurther development of the system at home and abroad. The difficultand perplexing situation at that time is thus described by Major S. B. Eaton:

"The reason for the delay in beginning and pushing suits forinfringements of the lamp patent has never been generally understood. Inmy official position as president of the Edison Electric Light CompanyI became the target, along with Mr. Edison, for censure from thestockholders and others on account of this delay, and I well rememberhow deep the feeling was. In view of the facts that a final injunctionon the lamp patent was not obtained until the life of the patent wasnear its end, and, next, that no damages in money were ever paid bythe guilty infringers, it has been generally believed that Mr. Edisonsacrificed the interest of his stockholders selfishly when he delayedthe prosecution of patent suits and gave all his time and energies tomanufacturing. This belief was the stronger because the manufacturingenterprises belonged personally to Mr. Edison and not to his company. But the facts render it easy to dispel this false belief. The Edisoninventions were not only a lamp; they comprised also an entire system ofcentral stations. Such a thing was new to the world, and the apparatus, as well as the manufacture thereof, was equally new. Boilers, engines, dynamos, motors, distribution mains, meters, house-wiring, safety-devices, lamps, and lamp-fixtures--all were vital parts of thewhole system. Most of them were utterly novel and unknown to the arts, and all of them required quick, and, I may say, revolutionary thoughtand invention. The firm of Babcock & Wilcox gave aid on the boilers, Armington & Sims undertook the engines, but everything else wasabnormal. No factories in the land would take up the manufacture. Iremember, for instance, our interviews with Messrs. Mitchell, Vance &Co. , the leading manufacturers of house gas-lighting fixtures, such asbrackets and chandeliers. They had no faith in electric lighting, andrejected all our overtures to induce them to take up the new businessof making electric-light fixtures. As regards other parts of the Edisonsystem, notably the Edison dynamo, no such machines had ever existed;there was no factory in the world equipped to make them, and, most discouraging of all, the very scientific principles of theirconstruction were still vague and experimental. 

"What was to be done? Mr. Edison has never been greater than when he metand solved this crisis. 'If there are no factories, ' he said, 'to makemy inventions, I will build the factories myself. Since capital istimid, I will raise and supply it. The issue is factories or death. ' Mr. Edison invited the cooperation of his leading stockholders. They lackedconfidence or did not care to increase their investments. He was forcedto go on alone. The chain of Edison shops was then created. By far themost perplexing of these new manufacturing problems was the lamp. Notonly was it a new industry, one without shadow of prototype, but themechanical devices for making the lamps, and to some extent the verymachines to make those devices, were to be invented. All of this wasdone by the courage, capital, and invincible energy and genius of thegreat inventor. But Mr. Edison could not create these great and diverseindustries and at the same time give requisite attention to litigation. He could not start and develop the new and hard business of electriclighting and yet spare one hour to pursue infringers. One thing or theother must wait. All agreed that it must be the litigation. And rightthere a lasting blow was given to the prestige of the Edison patents. The delay was translated as meaning lack of confidence; and the alertinfringer grew strong in courage and capital. Moreover, and what was theheaviest blow of all, he had time, thus unmolested, to get a good start. 

"In looking back on those days and scrutinizing them through the years, I am impressed by the greatness, the solitary greatness I may say, ofMr. Edison. We all felt then that we were of importance, and that ourcontribution of effort and zeal were vital. I can see now, however, thatthe best of us was nothing but the fly on the wheel. Suppose anythinghad happened to Edison? All would have been chaos and ruin. . To him, therefore, be the glory, if not the profit. "

The foregoing remarks of Major Eaton show authoritatively how themuch-discussed delay in litigating the Edison patents was so greatlymisunderstood at the time, and also how imperatively necessary it wasfor Edison and his associates to devote their entire time and energiesto the commercial development of the art. As the lighting businessincreased, however, and a great number of additional men were initiatedinto its mysteries, Edison and his experts were able to spare sometime to legal matters, and an era of active patent litigation againstinfringers was opened about the year 1885 by the Edison company, andthereafter continued for many years. 

While the history of this vast array of legal proceedings possesses afascinating interest for those involved, as well as for professionalmen, legal and scientific, it could not be expected that it wouldexcite any such feeling on the part of a casual reader. Hence, it isnot proposed to encumber this narrative with any detailed record of thenumerous suits that were brought and conducted through their complicatedramifications by eminent counsel. Suffice it to say that within aboutsixteen years after the commencement of active patent litigation, therehad been spent by the owners of the Edison lighting patents upwardof two million dollars in prosecuting more than two hundred lawsuitsbrought against persons who were infringing many of the patents ofEdison on the incandescent electric lamp and component parts of hissystem. Over fifty separate patents were involved in these suits, including the basic one on the lamp (ordinarily called the "Filament"patent), other detail lamp patents, as well as those on sockets, switches, dynamos, motors, and distributing systems. 

The principal, or "test, " suit on the "Filament" patent was that broughtagainst "The United States Electric Lighting Company, " which became acause celebre in the annals of American jurisprudence. Edison's claimswere strenuously and stubbornly contested throughout a series of intenselegal conflicts that raged in the courts for a great many years. Bothsides of the controversy were represented by legal talent of thehighest order, under whose examination and cross-examination volumesof testimony were taken, until the printed record (including exhibits)amounted to more than six thousand pages. Scientific and technicalliterature and records in all parts of the civilized world weresubjected to the most minute scrutiny of opposing experts in theendeavor to prove Edison to be merely an adapter of methods and devicesalready projected or suggested by others. The world was ransacked foranything that might be claimed as an anticipation of what he had done. Every conceivable phase of ingenuity that could be devised bytechnical experts was exercised in the attempt to show that Edisonhad accomplished nothing new. Everything that legal acumen couldsuggest--every subtle technicality of the law--all the complicatedvariations of phraseology that the novel nomenclature of a youngart would allow--all were pressed into service and availed of by thecontestors of the Edison invention in their desperate effort to defeathis claims. It was all in vain, however, for the decision of the courtwas in favor of Edison, and his lamp patent was sustained not only bythe tribunal of the first resort, but also by the Appellate Court sometime afterward. 

The first trial was had before Judge Wallace in the United StatesCircuit Court for the Southern District of New York, and the appeal washeard by Judges Lacombe and Shipman, of the United States Circuit Courtof Appeals. Before both tribunals the cause had been fully representedby counsel chosen from among the most eminent representatives of thebar at that time, those representing the Edison interests being thelate Clarence A. Seward and Grosvenor P. Lowrey, together with SherburneBlake Eaton, Albert H. Walker, and Richard N. Dyer. The presentation ofthe case to the courts had in both instances been marked by masterly andable arguments, elucidated by experiments and demonstrations to educatethe judges on technical points. Some appreciation of the magnitude ofthis case may be gained from the fact that the argument on its firsttrial employed a great many days, and the minutes covered hundredsof pages of closely typewritten matter, while the argument on appealrequired eight days, and was set forth in eight hundred and fifty pagesof typewriting. Eliminating all purely forensic eloquence and expartestatements, the addresses of counsel in this celebrated suit are worthyof deep study by an earnest student, for, taken together, they comprisethe most concise, authentic, and complete history of the prior state ofthe art and the development of the incandescent lamp that had been madeup to that time. [22]

 [22] The argument on appeal was conducted with the dignity and decorum that characterize such a proceeding in that court. There is usually little that savors of humor in the ordinary conduct of a case of this kind, but in the present instance a pertinent story was related by Mr. Lowrey, and it is now reproduced. In the course of his address to the court, Mr. Lowrey said:

 "I have to mention the name of one expert whose testimony will, I believe, be found as accurate, as sincere, as straightforward as if it were the preaching of the gospel. I do it with great pleasure, and I ask you to read the testimony of Charles L. Clarke along with that of Thomas A. Edison. He had rather a hard row to hoe. He is a young gentleman; he is a very well-instructed man in his profession; he is not what I have called in the argument below an expert in the art of testifying, like some of the others, he has not yet become expert; what he may descend to later cannot be known; he entered upon his first experience, I think, with my brother Duncan, who is no trifler when he comes to deal with these questions, and for several months Mr. Clarke was pursued up and down, over a range of suggestions of what he would have thought if he had thought something else had been said at some time when something else was not said. "

 Mr. Duncan--"I got three pages a day out of him, too. "

 Mr. Lowrey--"Well, it was a good result. It always recalled to me what I venture now, since my friend breaks in upon me in this rude manner, to tell the court as well illustrative of what happened there. It is the story of the pickerel and the roach. My friend, Professor Von Reisenberg, of the University of Ghent, pursued a series of investigations into the capacity of various animals to receive ideas. Among the rest he put a pickerel into a tank containing water, and separated across its middle by a transparent glass plate, and on the other side he put a red roach. Now your Honors both know how a pickerel loves a red roach, and I have no doubt you will remember that he is a fish of a very low forehead and an unlimited appetite. When this pickerel saw the red roach through the glass, he made one of those awful dashes which is usually the ruin of whatever stands in its way; but he didn't reach the red roach. He received an impression, doubtless. It was not sufficient, however, to discourage him, and he immediately tried again, and he continued to try for three-quarters of an hour. At the end of three-quarters of an hour he seemed a little shaken and discouraged, and stopped, and the red roach was taken out for that day and the pickerel left. On the succeeding day the red roach was restored, and the pickerel had forgotten the impressions of the first day, and he repeated this again. At the end of the second day the roach was taken out. This was continued, not through so long a period as the effort to take my friend Clarke and devour him, but for a period of about three weeks. At the end of the three weeks, the time during which the pickerel persisted each day had been shortened and shortened, until it was at last discovered that he didn't try at all. The plate glass was then removed, and the pickerel and the red roach sailed around together in perfect peace ever afterward. The pickerel doubtless attributed to the roach all this shaking, the rebuff which he had received. And that is about the condition in which my brother Duncan and my friend Clarke were at the end of this examination. "

 Mr. Duncan--"I notice on the redirect that Mr. Clarke changed his color. "

 Mr. Lowrey--"Well, perhaps he was a different kind of a roach then; but you didn't succeed in taking him. 

 "I beg your Honors to read the testimony of Mr. Clarke in the light of the anecdote of the pickerel and the roach. "

Owing to long-protracted delays incident to the taking of testimony andpreparation for trial, the argument before the United States CircuitCourt of Appeals was not had until the late spring of 1892, and itsdecision in favor of the Edison Lamp patent was filed on October 4, 1892, MORE THAN TWELVE YEARS AFTER THE ISSUANCE OF THE PATENT ITSELF. 

As the term of the patent had been limited under the law, becausecertain foreign patents had been issued to Edison before that in thiscountry, there was now but a short time left for enjoyment of theexclusive rights contemplated by the statute and granted to Edison andhis assigns by the terms of the patent itself. A vigorous and aggressivelegal campaign was therefore inaugurated by the Edison Electric LightCompany against the numerous infringing companies and individuals thathad sprung up while the main suit was pending. Old suits were revivedand new ones instituted. Injunctions were obtained against many oldoffenders, and it seemed as though the Edison interests were about tocome into their own for the brief unexpired term of the fundamentalpatent, when a new bombshell was dropped into the Edison camp in theshape of an alleged anticipation of the invention forty years previouslyby one Henry Goebel. Thus, in 1893, the litigation was reopened, and aprotracted series of stubbornly contested conflicts was fought in thecourts. 

Goebel's claims were not unknown to the Edison Company, for as far backas 1882 they had been officially brought to its notice coupled with anoffer of sale for a few thousand dollars. A very brief examination intotheir merits, however, sufficed to demonstrate most emphatically thatGoebel had never made a practical incandescent lamp, nor had he evercontributed a single idea or device bearing, remotely or directly, onthe development of the art. Edison and his company, therefore, rejectedthe offer unconditionally and declined to enter into any arrangementswhatever with Goebel. During the prosecution of the suits in 1893 ittranspired that the Goebel claims had also been investigated by thecounsel of the defendant company in the principal litigation alreadyrelated, but although every conceivable defence and anticipation hadbeen dragged into the case during the many years of its progress, thealleged Goebel anticipation was not even touched upon therein. Fromthis fact it is quite apparent that they placed no credence on its bonafides. 

But desperate cases call for desperate remedies. Some of the infringinglamp-manufacturing concerns, which during the long litigation had grownstrong and lusty, and thus far had not been enjoined by the court, nowsaw injunctions staring them in the face, and in desperation set up theGoebel so-called anticipation as a defence in the suits brought againstthem. 

This German watchmaker, Goebel, located in the East Side of New YorkCity, had undoubtedly been interested, in a desultory kind of way, insimple physical phenomena, and a few trifling experiments made by himsome forty or forty-five years previously were magnified and distortedinto brilliant and all-comprehensive discoveries and inventions. Avalanches of affidavits of himself, "his sisters and his cousins andhis aunts, " practically all persons in ordinary walks of life, and ofold friends, contributed a host of recollections that seemed littleshort of miraculous in their detailed accounts of events of a scientificnature that were said to have occurred so many years before. Accordingto affidavits of Goebel himself and some of his family, nothing thatwould anticipate Edison's claim had been omitted from his work, for he(Goebel) claimed to have employed the all-glass globe, into which weresealed platinum wires carrying a tenuous carbon filament, from which theoccluded gases had been liberated during the process of high exhaustion. He had even determined upon bamboo as the best material for filaments. On the face of it he was seemingly gifted with more than humanprescience, for in at least one of his exhibit lamps, said to have beenmade twenty years previously, he claimed to have employed processeswhich Edison and his associates had only developed by several years ofexperience in making thousands of lamps!

The Goebel story was told by the affidavits in an ingenuous manner, witha wealth of simple homely detail that carried on its face an appearanceof truth calculated to deceive the elect, had not the elect beensomewhat prepared by their investigation made some eleven years before. 

The story was met by the Edison interests with counter-affidavits, showing its utter improbabilities and absurdities from the standpoint ofmen of science and others versed in the history and practice of the art;also affidavits of other acquaintances and neighbors of Goebel flatlydenying the exhibitions he claimed to have made. The issue thus beingjoined, the legal battle raged over different sections of the country. Anumber of contumeliously defiant infringers in various cities based fondhopes of immunity upon the success of this Goebel evidence, but weredefeated. The attitude of the courts is well represented in the opinionof Judge Colt, rendered in a motion for injunction against the BeaconVacuum Pump and Electrical Company. The defence alleged the Goebelanticipation, in support of which it offered in evidence four lamps, Nos. 1, 2, and 3 purporting to have been made before 1854, and No. 4before 1872. After a very full review of the facts in the case, anda fair consideration of the defendants' affidavits, Judge Colt in hisopinion goes on to say:

"It is extremely improbable that Henry Goebel constructed a practicalincandescent lamp in 1854. This is manifest from the history of the artfor the past fifty years, the electrical laws which since that time havebeen discovered as applicable to the incandescent lamp, the imperfectmeans which then existed for obtaining a vacuum, the high degree ofskill necessary in the construction of all its parts, and the crudeinstruments with which Goebel worked. 

"Whether Goebel made the fiddle-bow lamps, 1, 2, and 3, is not necessaryto determine. The weight of evidence on this motion is in the directionthat he made these lamp or lamps similar in general appearance, thoughit is manifest that few, if any, of the many witnesses who saw theGoebel lamp could form an accurate judgment of the size of the filamentor burner. But assuming they were made, they do not anticipate theinvention of Edison. At most they were experimental toys used toadvertise his telescope, or to flash a light upon his clock, or toattract customers to his shop. They were crudely constructed, and theirlife was brief. They could not be used for domestic purposes. Theywere in no proper sense the practical commercial lamp of Edison. Theliterature of the art is full of better lamps, all of which are held notto anticipate the Edison patent. 

"As for Lamp No. 4, I cannot but view it with suspicion. It presentsa new appearance. The reason given for not introducing it before thehearing is unsatisfactory. This lamp, to my mind, envelops with a cloudof distrust the whole Goebel story. It is simply impossible under thecircumstances to believe that a lamp so constructed could have beenmade by Goebel before 1872. Nothing in the evidence warrants such asupposition, and other things show it to be untrue. This lamp has acarbon filament, platinum leading-in wires, a good vacuum, and is wellsealed and highly finished. It is said that this lamp shows no traces ofmercury in the bulb because the mercury was distilled, but Goebel saysnothing about distilled mercury in his first affidavit, and twicehe speaks of the particles of mercury clinging to the inside of thechamber, and for that reason he constructed a Geissler pump after hemoved to 468 Grand Street, which was in 1877. Again, if this lamp hasbeen in his possession since before 1872, as he and his son swear, whywas it not shown to Mr. Crosby, of the American Company, when he visitedhis shop in 1881 and was much interested in his lamps? Why was it notshown to Mr. Curtis, the leading counsel for the defendants in the NewYork cases, when he was asked to produce a lamp and promised to do so?Why did not his son take this lamp to Mr. Bull's office in 1892, whenhe took the old fiddle-bow lamps, 1, 2, and 3? Why did not his son takethis lamp to Mr. Eaton's office in 1882, when he tried to negotiatethe sale of his father's inventions to the Edison Company? A lamp soconstructed and made before 1872 was worth a large sum of money to thoseinterested in defeating the Edison patent like the American Company, andGoebel was not a rich man. Both he and one of his sons were employed in1881 by the American Company. Why did he not show this lamp to McMahonwhen he called in the interest of the American Company and talked overthe electrical matters? When Mr. Dreyer tried to organize a company in1882, and procured an option from him of all his inventions relating toelectric lighting for which $925 was paid, and when an old lamp of thiskind was of vital consequence and would have insured a fortune, why wasit not forthcoming? Mr. Dreyer asked Goebel to produce an old lamp, andwas especially anxious to find one pending his negotiations with theEdison Company for the sale of Goebel's inventions. Why did he notproduce this lamp in his interviews with Bohm, of the American Company, or Moses, of the Edison Company, when it was for his interest to do so?The value of such an anticipation of the Edison lamp was made known tohim. He was desirous of realizing upon his inventions. He was proud ofhis incandescent lamps, and was pleased to talk about them with anybodywho would listen. Is it conceivable under all these circumstances, thathe should have had this all-important lamp in his possession from 1872to 1893, and yet no one have heard of it or seen it except his son? Itcannot be said that ignorance of the English language offers an excuse. He knew English very well although Bohm and Dreyer conversed with himin German. His children spoke English. Neither his ignorance nor hissimplicity prevented him from taking out three patents: the firstin 1865 for a sewing-machine hemmer, and the last in 1882 for animprovement in incandescent lamps. If he made Lamp No. 4 previous to1872, why was it not also patented?

"There are other circumstances which throw doubt on this alleged Goebelanticipation. The suit against the United States Electric LightingCompany was brought in the Southern District of New York in 1885. Largeinterests were at stake, and the main defence to the Edison patent wasbased on prior inventions. This Goebel claim was then investigated bythe leading counsel for the defence, Mr. Curtis. It was further inquiredinto in 1892, in the case against the Sawyer-Man Company. It was broughtto the attention and considered by the Edison Company in 1882. It wasat that time known to the American Company, who hoped by this means todefeat the monopoly under the Edison patent. Dreyer tried to organizea company for its purchase. Young Goebel tried to sell it. It must havebeen known to hundreds of people. And now when the Edison Company afteryears of litigation, leaving but a short time for the patent to run, have obtained a final adjudication establishing its validity, thisclaim is again resurrected to defeat the operation of the judgmentso obtained. A court in equity should not look with favor on sucha defence. Upon the evidence here presented, I agree with the firstimpression of Mr. Curtis and with the opinion of Mr. Dickerson thatwhatever Goebel did must be considered as an abandoned experiment. 

"It has often been laid down that a meritorious invention is not to bedefeated by something which rests in speculation or experiment, or whichis rudimentary or incomplete. 

"The law requires not conjecture, but certainty. It is easy after animportant invention has gone into public use for persons to come forwardwith claims that they invented the same thing years before, and toendeavor to establish this by the recollection of witnesses as to eventslong past. Such evidence is to be received with great caution, and thepresumption of novelty arising from the grant of the patent is not to beovercome except upon clear and convincing proof. 

"When the defendant company entered upon the manufacture of incandescentlamps in May, 1891, it well knew the consequences which must follow afavorable decision for the Edison Company in the New York case. "

The injunction was granted. 

Other courts took practically the same view of the Goebel story as wastaken by Judge Colt, and the injunctions asked in behalf of the Edisoninterests were granted on all applications except one in St. Louis, Missouri, in proceedings instituted against a strong local concern ofthat city. 

Thus, at the eleventh hour in the life of this important patent, aftera long period of costly litigation, Edison and his associates werecompelled to assume the defensive against a claimant whose utterlybaseless pretensions had already been thoroughly investigated andrejected years before by every interested party, and ultimately, onexamination by the courts, pronounced legally untenable, if not indeedactually fraudulent. Irritating as it was to be forced into theposition of combating a proposition so well known to be preposterous andinsincere, there was nothing else to do but to fight this fabricationwith all the strenuous and deadly earnestness that would have beenbrought to bear on a really meritorious defence. Not only did thisGoebel episode divert for a long time the energies of the Edisoninterests from activities in other directions, but the cost ofovercoming the extravagantly absurd claims ran up into hundreds ofthousands of dollars. 

Another quotation from Major Eaton is of interest in this connection:

"Now a word about the Goebel case. I took personal charge of runningdown this man and his pretensions in the section of the city wherehe lived and among his old neighbors. They were a typical East Sidelot--ignorant, generally stupid, incapable of long memory, but ready tooblige a neighbor and to turn an easy dollar by putting a cross-mark atthe bottom of a forthcoming friendly affidavit. I can say in all truthand justice that their testimony was utterly false, and that the lawyerswho took it must have known it. 

"The Goebel case emphasizes two defects in the court procedure in patentcases. One is that they may be spun out almost interminably, even, possibly, to the end of the life of the patent; the other is that thejudge who decides the case does not see the witnesses. That adversedecision at St. Louis would never have been made if the court couldhave seen the men who swore for Goebel. When I met Mr. F. P. Fish onhis return from St. Louis, after he had argued the Edison side, he feltkeenly that disadvantage, to say nothing of the hopeless difficulty ofeducating the court. "

In the earliest days of the art, when it was apparent that incandescentlighting had come to stay, the Edison Company was a shining mark atwhich the shafts of the dishonest were aimed. Many there were whostood ready to furnish affidavits that they or some one else whom theycontrolled had really invented the lamp, but would obligingly withdrawand leave Edison in possession of the field on payment of money. Investigation of these cases, however, revealed invariably the purelyfraudulent nature of all such offers, which were uniformly declined. 

As the incandescent light began to advance rapidly in public favor, theimmense proportions of the future market became sufficiently obvious totempt unauthorized persons to enter the field and become manufacturers. When the lamp became a thoroughly established article it was not adifficult matter to copy it, especially when there were employees to behired away at increased pay, and their knowledge utilized by the moreunscrupulous of these new competitors. This is not conjecture but knownto be a fact, and the practice continued many years, during which newlamp companies sprang up on every side. Hence, it is not surprisingthat, on the whole, the Edison lamp litigation was not less remarkablefor quantity than quality. Between eighty and ninety separate suits uponEdison's fundamental lamp and detail patents were brought in the courtsof the United States and prosecuted to completion. 

In passing it may be mentioned that in England France, and Germany alsothe Edison fundamental lamp patent was stubbornly fought in the judicialarena, and his claim to be the first inventor of practical incandescentlighting was uniformly sustained in all those countries. 

Infringement was not, however, confined to the lamp alone, but, inAmerica, extended all along the line of Edison's patents relating tothe production and distribution of electric light, including those ondynamos, motors, distributing systems, sockets, switches, and otherdetails which he had from time to time invented. Consequently, in orderto protect its interests at all points, the Edison Company had found itnecessary to pursue a vigorous policy of instituting legal proceedingsagainst the infringers of these various patents, and, in addition to thelarge number of suits on the lamp alone, not less than one hundred andtwenty-five other separate actions, involving some fifty or more ofEdison's principal electric-lighting patents, were brought againstconcerns which were wrongfully appropriating his ideas and activelycompeting with his companies in the market. 

The ramifications of this litigation became so extensive and complexas to render it necessary to institute a special bureau, or department, through which the immense detail could be systematically sifted, analyzed, and arranged in collaboration with the numerous expertsand counsel responsible for the conduct of the various cases. Thisdepartment was organized in 1889 by Major Eaton, who was at this timeand for some years afterward its general counsel. 

In the selection of the head of this department a man of methodical andanalytical habit of mind was necessary, capable of clear reasoning, andat the same time one who had gained a thoroughly practical experiencein electric light and power fields, and the choice fell upon Mr. W. J. Jenks, the manager of the Edison central station at Brockton, Massachusetts. He had resigned that position in 1885, and had spentthe intervening period in exploiting the Edison municipal system oflighting, as well as taking an active part in various other branches ofthe Edison enterprises. 

Thus, throughout the life of Edison's patents on electric light, power, and distribution, the interminable legal strife has continued fromday to day, from year to year. Other inventors, some of them great andnotable, have been coming into the field since the foundation of theart, patents have multiplied exceedingly, improvement has succeededimprovement, great companies have grown greater, new concerns have comeinto existence, coalitions and mergers have taken place, all tendingto produce changes in methods, but not much in diminution of patentlitigation. While Edison has not for a long time past interested himselfparticularly in electric light and power inventions, the bureau whichwas initiated under the old regime in 1889 still continues, enlargedin scope, directed by its original chief, but now conducted under theauspices of several allied companies whose great volumes of combinedpatents (including those of Edison) cover a very wide range of theelectrical field. 

As the general conception and theory of a lawsuit is the recovery ofsome material benefit, the lay mind is apt to conceive of great sums ofmoney being awarded to a complainant by way of damages upon a favorabledecision in an important patent case. It might, therefore, be natural toask how far Edison or his companies have benefited pecuniarily by reasonof the many belated victories they have scored in the courts. To thisquestion a strict regard for truth compels the answer that they have notbeen benefited at all, not to the extent of a single dollar, so far ascash damages are concerned. 

It is not to be denied, however, that substantial advantages haveaccrued to them more or less directly through the numerous favorabledecisions obtained by them as a result of the enormous amount oflitigation, in the prosecution of which so great a sum of money has beenspent and so concentrated an amount of effort and time lavished. Indeed, it would be strange and unaccountable were the results otherwise. Whilethe benefits derived were not directly pecuniary in their nature, theywere such as tended to strengthen commercially the position of therightful owners of the patents. Many irresponsible and purely piraticalconcerns were closed altogether; others were compelled to take outroyalty licenses; consolidations of large interests were brought about;the public was gradually educated to a more correct view of the truemerits of conflicting claims, and, generally speaking, the business hasbeen greatly unified and brought within well-defined and controllablelines. 

Not only in relation to his electric light and power inventions has theprogress of Edison and his associates been attended by legal controversyall through the years of their exploitation, but also in respect toother inventions, notably those relating to the phonograph and to motionpictures. 

The increasing endeavors of infringers to divert into their own pocketssome of the proceeds arising from the marketing of the devicescovered by Edison's inventions on these latter lines, necessitated theinstitution by him, some years ago, of a legal department which, as inthe case of the light inventions, was designed to consolidate all lawand expert work and place it under the management of a general counsel. The department is of considerable extent, including a number of residentand other associate counsel, and a general office staff, all of whom areconstantly engaged from day to day in patent litigation and other legalwork necessary to protect the Edison interests. Through their labors theold story is reiterated in the contesting of approximate but conflictingclaims, the never-ending effort to suppress infringement, and thedestruction as far as possible of the commercial pirates who set sailupon the seas of all successful enterprises. The details, circumstances, and technical questions are, of course, different from those relatingto other classes of inventions, and although there has been no causecelebre concerning the phonograph and motion-picture patents, thecontention is as sharp and strenuous as it was in the cases relating toelectric lighting and heavy current technics. 

Mr. Edison's storage battery and the poured cement house have not yetreached the stage of great commercial enterprises, and therefore havenot yet risen to the dignity of patent litigation. If, however, theexperience of past years is any criterion, there will probably come atime in the future when, despite present widely expressed incredulityand contemptuous sniffs of unbelief in the practicability of his ideasin these directions, ultimate success will give rise to a series ofhotly contested legal conflicts such as have signalized the practicaloutcome of his past efforts in other lines. 

When it is considered what Edison has done, what the sum and substanceof his contributions to human comfort and happiness have been, theresults, as measured by legal success, have been pitiable. With theexception of the favorable decision on the incandescent lamp filamentpatent, coming so late, however, that but little practical good wasaccomplished, the reader may search the law-books in vain for a singledecision squarely and fairly sustaining a single patent of first order. There never was a monopoly in incandescent electric lighting, and evenfrom the earliest days competitors and infringers were in the fieldreaping the benefits, and though defeated in the end, paying not a centof tribute. The market was practically as free and open as if no patentexisted. There never was a monopoly in the phonograph; practically allof the vital inventions were deliberately appropriated by others, andthe inventor was laughed at for his pains. Even so beautiful a processas that for the duplication of phonograph records was solemnly held bya Federal judge as lacking invention--as being obvious to any one. Themere fact that Edison spent years of his life in developing that processcounted for nothing. 

The invention of the three-wire system, which, when it was firstannounced as saving over 60 per cent. Of copper in the circuits, wasregarded as an utter impossibility--this patent was likewise held bya Federal judge to be lacking in invention. In the motion-picture art, infringements began with its very birth, and before the inevitablelitigation could be terminated no less than ten competitors were in thefield, with whom compromises had to be made. 

In a foreign country, Edison would have undoubtedly received signalhonors; in his own country he has won the respect and admiration ofmillions; but in his chosen field as an inventor and as a patentee hisreward has been empty. The courts abroad have considered his patents ina liberal spirit and given him his due; the decisions in this countryhave fallen wide of the mark. We make no criticism of our Federaljudges; as a body they are fair, able, and hard-working; but theyoperate under a system of procedure that stifles absolutely thedevelopment of inventive genius. 

Until that system is changed and an opportunity offered for a final, swift, and economical adjudication of patent rights, American inventorsmay well hesitate before openly disclosing their inventions to thepublic, and may seriously consider the advisability of retaining them as"trade secrets. "

CHAPTER XXIX

THE SOCIAL SIDE OF EDISON

THE title of this chapter might imply that there is an unsocial sideto Edison. In a sense this is true, for no one is more impatientor intolerant of interruption when deeply engaged in some line ofexperiment. Then the caller, no matter how important or what hismission, is likely to realize his utter insignificance and be sent awaywithout accomplishing his object. But, generally speaking, Edison iseasy tolerance itself, with a peculiar weakness toward those who havethe least right to make any demands on his time. Man is a social animal, and that describes Edison; but it does not describe accurately theinventor asking to be let alone. 

Edison never sought Society; but "Society" has never ceased to seekhim, and to-day, as ever, the pressure upon him to give up his work andreceive honors, meet distinguished people, or attend public functions, is intense. Only two or three years ago, a flattering invitation camefrom one of the great English universities to receive a degree, but atthat moment he was deep in experiments on his new storage battery, andnothing could budge him. He would not drop the work, and while highlyappreciative of the proposed honor, let it go by rather than quit fora week or two the stern drudgery of probing for the fact and the truth. Whether one approves or not, it is at least admirable stoicism, of whichthe world has too little. A similar instance is that of a visit paid tothe laboratory by some one bringing a gold medal from a foreign society. It was a very hot day in summer, the visitor was in full social regaliaof silk hat and frock-coat, and insisted that he could deliver the medalonly into Edison's hands. At that moment Edison, stripped pretty nearlydown to the buff, was at the very crisis of an important experiment, andrefused absolutely to be interrupted. He had neither sought nor expectedthe medal; and if the delegate didn't care to leave it he could take itaway. At last Edison was overpersuaded, and, all dirty and perspiring ashe was, received the medal rather than cause the visitor to come again. On one occasion, receiving a medal in New York, Edison forgot it onthe ferry-boat and left it behind him. A few years ago, when Edisonhad received the Albert medal of the Royal Society of Arts, one of thepresent authors called at the laboratory to see it. Nobody knew whereit was; hours passed before it could be found; and when at last theaccompanying letter was produced, it had an office date stamp right overthe signature of the royal president. A visitor to the laboratory withone of these medallic awards asked Edison if he had any others. "Ohyes, " he said, "I have a couple of quarts more up at the house!" Allthis sounds like lack of appreciation, but it is anything else thanthat. While in Paris, in 1889, he wore the decoration of the Legionof Honor whenever occasion required, but at all other times turned thebadge under his lapel "because he hated to have fellow-Americans thinkhe was showing off. " And any one who knows Edison will bear testimony tohis utter absence of ostentation. It may be added that, in additionto the two quarts of medals up at the house, there will be found atGlenmont many other signal tokens of esteem and good-will--a beautifulcigar-case from the late Tsar of Russia, bronzes from the Government ofJapan, steel trophies from Krupp, and a host of other mementos, to oneof which he thus refers: "When the experiments with the light were goingon at Menlo Park, Sarah Bernhardt came to America. One evening, RobertL. Cutting, of New York, brought her out to see the light. She was aterrific 'rubberneck. ' She jumped all over the machinery, and I had oneman especially to guard her dress. She wanted to know everything. Shewould speak in French, and Cutting would translate into English. Shestayed there about an hour and a half. Bernhardt gave me two pictures, painted by herself, which she sent me from Paris. "

Reference has already been made to the callers upon Edison; and to givesimply the names of persons of distinction would fill many pages of thisrecord. Some were mere consumers of time; others were gladly welcomed, like Lord Kelvin, the greatest physicist of the last century, with whomEdison was always in friendly communication. "The first time I saw LordKelvin, he came to my laboratory at Menlo Park in 1876. " (Hereported most favorably on Edison's automatic telegraph system at thePhiladelphia Exposition of 1876. ) "I was then experimenting with sendingeight messages simultaneously over a wire by means of synchronizingtuning-forks. I would take a wire with similar apparatus at both ends, and would throw it over on one set of instruments, take it away, and getit back so quickly that you would not miss it, thereby taking advantageof the rapidity of electricity to perform operations. On my local wireI got it to work very nicely. When Sir William Thomson (Kelvin) came inthe room, he was introduced to me, and had a number of friends with him. He said: 'What have you here?' I told him briefly what it was. He thenturned around, and to my great surprise explained the whole thing tohis friends. Quite a different exhibition was given two weeks later byanother well-known Englishman, also an electrician, who came in withhis friends, and I was trying for two hours to explain it to him andfailed. "

After the introduction of the electric light, Edison was more than everin demand socially, but he shunned functions like the plague, notonly because of the serious interference with work, but because of hisdeafness. Some dinners he had to attend, but a man who ate little andheard less could derive practically no pleasure from them. "GeorgeWashington Childs was very anxious I should go down to Philadelphia todine with him. I seldom went to dinners. He insisted I should go--thata special car would leave New York. It was for me to meet Mr. JosephChamberlain. We had the private car of Mr. Roberts, President of thePennsylvania Railroad. We had one of those celebrated dinners that onlyMr. Childs could give, and I heard speeches from Charles Francis Adamsand different people. When I came back to the depot, Mr. Robertswas there, and insisted on carrying my satchel for me. I never couldunderstand that. "

Among the more distinguished visitors of the electric-lighting periodwas President Diaz, with whom Edison became quite intimate. "PresidentDiaz, of Mexico, visited this country with Mrs. Diaz, a highly educatedand beautiful woman. She spoke very good English. They both took a deepinterest in all they saw. I don't know how it ever came about, as it isnot in my line, but I seemed to be delegated to show them around. I tookthem to railroad buildings, electric-light plants, fire departments, andshowed them a great variety of things. It lasted two days. " Of anothervisit Edison says: "Sitting Bull and fifteen Sioux Indians came toWashington to see the Great Father, and then to New York, and wentto the Goerck Street works. We could make some very good pyrotechnicsthere, so we determined to give the Indians a scare. But it didn't work. We had an arc there of a most terrifying character, but they never moveda muscle. " Another episode at Goerck Street did not find the visitorsquite so stoical. "In testing dynamos at Goerck Street we had a longflat belt running parallel with the floor, about four inches above it, and travelling four thousand feet a minute. One day one of thedirectors brought in three or four ladies to the works to see the newelectric-light system. One of the ladies had a little poodle led by astring. The belt was running so smoothly and evenly, the poodle did notnotice the difference between it and the floor, and got into the beltbefore we could do anything. The dog was whirled around forty or fiftytimes, and a little flat piece of leather came out--and the ladiesfainted. "

A very interesting period, on the social side, was the visit paid byEdison and his family to Europe in 1889, when he had made a splendidexhibit of his inventions and apparatus at the great Paris CentennialExposition of that year, to the extreme delight of the French, who welcomed him with open arms. The political sentiments that theExposition celebrated were not such as to find general sympathy inmonarchical Europe, so that the "crowned heads" were conspicuous bytheir absence. It was not, of course, by way of theatrical antithesisthat Edison appeared in Paris at such a time. But the contrast was nonethe less striking and effective. It was felt that, after all, that whichthe great exposition exemplified at its best--the triumph of geniusover matter, over ignorance, over superstition--met with its duerecognition when Edison came to participate, and to felicitate a noblenation that could show so much in the victories of civilization and thearts, despite its long trials and its long struggle for liberty. It isno exaggeration to say that Edison was greeted with the enthusiastichomage of the whole French people. They could find no praise warm enoughfor the man who had "organized the echoes" and "tamed the lightning, "and whose career was so picturesque with eventful and romanticdevelopment. In fact, for weeks together it seemed as though no Parisianpaper was considered complete and up to date without an article onEdison. The exuberant wit and fancy of the feuilletonists seizedupon his various inventions evolving from them others of the mostextraordinary nature with which to bedazzle and bewilder the reader. Atthe close of the Exposition Edison was created a Commander of the Legionof Honor. His own exhibit, made at a personal expense of over $100, 000, covered several thousand square feet in the vast Machinery Hall, and wascentred around a huge Edison lamp built of myriads of smaller lamps ofthe ordinary size. The great attraction, however, was the display of theperfected phonograph. Several instruments were provided, and every day, all day long, while the Exposition lasted, queues of eager visitors fromevery quarter of the globe were waiting to hear the little machinetalk and sing and reproduce their own voices. Never before was sucha collection of the languages of the world made. It was the firstlinguistic concourse since Babel times. We must let Edison tell thestory of some of his experiences:

"At the Universal Exposition at Paris, in 1889, I made a personalexhibit covering about an acre. As I had no intention of offering tosell anything I was showing, and was pushing no companies, the wholeexhibition was made for honor, and without any hope of profit. But theParis newspapers came around and wanted pay for notices of it, which wepromptly refused; whereupon there was rather a stormy time for a while, but nothing was published about it. 

"While at the Exposition I visited the Opera-House. The President ofFrance lent me his private box. The Opera-House was one of the firstto be lighted by the incandescent lamp, and the managers took greatpleasure in showing me down through the labyrinth containing thewiring, dynamos, etc. When I came into the box, the orchestra played the'Star-Spangled Banner, ' and all the people in the house arose; whereuponI was very much embarrassed. After I had been an hour at the play, themanager came around and asked me to go underneath the stage, as theywere putting on a ballet of 300 girls, the finest ballet in Europe. Itseems there is a little hole on the stage with a hood over it, in whichthe prompter sits when opera is given. In this instance it was notoccupied, and I was given the position in the prompter's seat, and sawthe whole ballet at close range. 

"The city of Paris gave me a dinner at the new Hotel de Ville, which wasalso lighted with the Edison system. They had a very fine installationof machinery. As I could not understand or speak a word of French, I went to see our minister, Mr. Whitelaw Reid, and got him to send adeputy to answer for me, which he did, with my grateful thanks. Then thetelephone company gave me a dinner, and the engineers of France; andI attended the dinner celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of thediscovery of photography. Then they sent to Reid my decoration, and theytried to put a sash on me, but I could not stand for that. My wife hadme wear the little red button, but when I saw Americans coming I wouldslip it out of my lapel, as I thought they would jolly me for wearingit. "

Nor was this all. Edison naturally met many of the celebrities ofFrance: "I visited the Eiffel Tower at the invitation of Eiffel. We wentto the top, where there was an extension and a small place in which wasEiffel's private office. In this was a piano. When my wife and I arrivedat the top, we found that Gounod, the composer, was there. We stayed acouple of hours, and Gounod sang and played for us. We spent a day atMeudon, an old palace given by the government to Jansen, the astronomer. He occupied three rooms, and there were 300. He had the granddining-room for his laboratory. He showed me a gyroscope he had gotup which made the incredible number of 4000 revolutions in a second. Amodification of this was afterward used on the French Atlantic lines formaking an artificial horizon to take observations for position atsea. In connection with this a gentleman came to me a number of yearsafterward, and I got out a part of some plans for him. He wanted to makea gigantic gyroscope weighing several tons, to be run by an electricmotor and put on a sailing ship. He wanted this gyroscope to keep aplatform perfectly horizontal, no matter how rough the sea was. Uponthis platform he was going to mount a telescope to observe an eclipseoff the Gold Coast of Africa. But for some reason it was nevercompleted. 

"Pasteur invited me to come down to the Institute, and I went and hadquite a chat with him. I saw a large number of persons being inoculated, and also the whole modus operandi, which was very interesting. I saw onebeautiful boy about ten, the son of an English lord. His father was withhim. He had been bitten in the face, and was taking the treatment. Isaid to Pasteur, 'Will he live?' 'No, ' said he, 'the boy will be dead insix days. He was bitten too near the top of the spinal column, and cametoo late!'"

Edison has no opinion to offer as an expert on art, but has his ownstandard of taste: "Of course I visited the Louvre and saw the OldMasters, which I could not enjoy. And I attended the Luxembourg, withmodern masters, which I enjoyed greatly. To my mind, the Old Mastersare not art, and I suspect that many others are of the same opinion;and that their value is in their scarcity and in the variety of men withlots of money. " Somewhat akin to this is a shrewd comment on one featureof the Exposition: "I spent several days in the Exposition at Paris. Iremember going to the exhibit of the Kimberley diamond mines, and theykindly permitted me to take diamonds from some of the blue earth whichthey were washing by machinery to exhibit the mine operations. I foundseveral beautiful diamonds, but they seemed a little light weight to mewhen I was picking them out. They were diamonds for exhibition purposes--probably glass. "

This did not altogether complete the European trip of 1889, for Edisonwished to see Helmholtz. "After leaving Paris we went to Berlin. TheFrench papers then came out and attacked me because I went to Germany;and said I was now going over to the enemy. I visited all the things ofinterest in Berlin; and then on my way home I went with Helmholtzand Siemens in a private compartment to the meeting of the GermanAssociation of Science at Heidelberg, and spent two days there. WhenI started from Berlin on the trip, I began to tell American stories. Siemens was very fond of these stories and would laugh immensely atthem, and could see the points and the humor, by his imagination; butHelmholtz could not see one of them. Siemens would quickly, inGerman, explain the point, but Helmholtz could not see it, although heunderstood English, which Siemens could speak. Still the explanationswere made in German. I always wished I could have understood Siemens'sexplanations of the points of those stories. At Heidelberg, myassistant, Mr. Wangemann, an accomplished German-American, showed thephonograph before the Association. "

Then came the trip from the Continent to England, of which this willcertainly pass as a graphic picture: "When I crossed over to EnglandI had heard a good deal about the terrors of the English Channel asregards seasickness. I had been over the ocean three times and did notknow what seasickness was, so far as I was concerned myself. I was toldthat while a man might not get seasick on the ocean, if he met a goodstorm on the Channel it would do for him. When we arrived at Calaisto cross over, everybody made for the restaurant. I did not care abouteating, and did not go to the restaurant, but my family did. I walkedout and tried to find the boat. Going along the dock I saw two smallsmokestacks sticking up, and looking down saw a little boat. 'Where isthe steamer that goes across the Channel?' 'This is the boat. ' There hadbeen a storm in the North Sea that had carried away some of the boats onthe German steamer, and it certainly looked awful tough outside. I saidto the man: 'Will that boat live in that sea?' 'Oh yes, ' he said, 'butwe've had a bad storm. ' So I made up my mind that perhaps I would getsick this time. The managing director of the English railroad owningthis line was Forbes, who heard I was coming over, and placed theprivate saloon at my disposal. The moment my family got in the room withthe French lady's maid and the rest, they commenced to get sick, so Ifelt pretty sure I was in for it. We started out of the little inletand got into the Channel, and that boat went in seventeen directionssimultaneously. I waited awhile to see what was going to occur, and thenwent into the smoking-compartment. Nobody was there. By-and-by the funbegan. Sounds of all kinds and varieties were heard in every direction. They were all sick. There must have been 100 people aboard. I didn'tsee a single exception except the waiters and myself. I asked one of thewaiters concerning the boat itself, and was taken to see the engineer, and went down to look at the engines, and saw the captain. But I keptmostly in the smoking-room. I was smoking a big cigar, and when a manlooked in I would give a big puff, and every time they saw that theywould go away and begin again. The English Channel is a holy terror, allright, but it didn't affect me. I must be out of balance. "

While in Paris, Edison had met Sir John Pender, the English "cableking, " and had received an invitation from him to make a visit to hiscountry residence: "Sir John Pender, the master of the cable system ofthe world at that time, I met in Paris. I think he must have lived amonga lot of people who were very solemn, because I went out riding withhim in the Bois de Boulogne and started in to tell him American stories. Although he was a Scotchman he laughed immoderately. He had the facultyof understanding and quickly seeing the point of the stories; andfor three days after I could not get rid of him. Finally I made hima promise that I would go to his country house at Foot's Cray, nearLondon. So I went there, and spent two or three days telling himstories. 

"While at Foot's Cray, I met some of the backers of Ferranti, thenputting up a gigantic alternating-current dynamo near London to sendten or fifteen thousand volts up into the main district of the city forelectric lighting. I think Pender was interested. At any rate the peopleinvited to dinner were very much interested, and they questioned me asto what I thought of the proposition. I said I hadn't any thought aboutit, and could not give any opinion until I saw it. So I was taken upto London to see the dynamo in course of construction and the methodsemployed; and they insisted I should give them some expression of myviews. While I gave them my opinion, it was reluctantly; I did not wantto do so. I thought that commercially the thing was too ambitious, thatFerranti's ideas were too big, just then; that he ought to have starteda little smaller until he was sure. I understand that this installationwas not commercially successful, as there were a great many troubles. But Ferranti had good ideas, and he was no small man. "

Incidentally it may be noted here that during the same year (1889) thevarious manufacturing Edison lighting interests in America were broughttogether, under the leadership of Mr. Henry Villard, and consolidatedin the Edison General Electric Company with a capital of no less than$12, 000, 000 on an eight-per-cent. -dividend basis. The numerous Edisoncentral stations all over the country represented much more than thatsum, and made a splendid outlet for the product of the factories. A fewyears later came the consolidation with the Thomson-Houston interestsin the General Electric Company, which under the brilliant and vigorousmanagement of President C. A. Coffin has become one of the greatestmanufacturing institutions of the country, with an output of apparatusreaching toward $75, 000, 000 annually. The net result of both financialoperations was, however, to detach Edison from the special field ofinvention to which he had given so many of his most fruitful years; andto close very definitely that chapter of his life, leaving him free todevelop other ideas and interests as set forth in these volumes. 

It might appear strange on the surface, but one of the reasons that mostinfluenced Edison to regrets in connection with the "big trade" of 1889was that it separated him from his old friend and ally, Bergmann, who, on selling out, saw a great future for himself in Germany, wentthere, and realized it. Edison has always had an amused admiration forBergmann, and his "social side" is often made evident by his love oftelling stories about those days of struggle. Some of the stories weretold for this volume. "Bergmann came to work for me as a boy, " saysEdison. "He started in on stock-quotation printers. As he was a rapidworkman and paid no attention to the clock, I took a fancy to him, andgave him piece-work. He contrived so many little tools to cheapen thework that he made lots of money. I even helped him get up tools untilit occurred to me that this was too rapid a process of getting rid ofmy money, as I hadn't the heart to cut the price when it was originallyfair. After a year or so, Bergmann got enough money to start a smallshop in Wooster Street, New York, and it was at this shop that thefirst phonographs were made for sale. Then came the carbon telephonetransmitter, a large number of which were made by Bergmann for theWestern Union. Finally came the electric light. A dynamo was installedin Bergmann's shop to permit him to test the various small devices whichhe was then making for the system. He rented power from a Jew who ownedthe building. Power was supplied from a fifty-horse-power engine toother tenants on the several floors. Soon after the introduction of thebig dynamo machine, the landlord appeared in the shop and insisted thatBergmann was using more power than he was paying for, and said thatlately the belt on the engine was slipping and squealing. Bergmannmaintained that he must be mistaken. The landlord kept going among histenants and finally discovered the dynamo. 'Oh! Mr. Bergmann, now I knowwhere my power goes to, ' pointing to the dynamo. Bergmann gave him awithering look of scorn, and said, 'Come here and I will show you. 'Throwing off the belt and disconnecting the wires, he spun the armaturearound by hand. 'There, ' said Bergmann, 'you see it's not here that youmust look for your loss. ' This satisfied the landlord, and he startedoff to his other tenants. He did not know that that machine, when thewires were connected, could stop his engine. 

"Soon after, the business had grown so large that E. H. Johnson and Iwent in as partners, and Bergmann rented an immense factory buildingat the corner of Avenue B and East Seventeenth Street, New York, sixstories high and covering a quarter of a block. Here were made all thesmall things used on the electric-lighting system, such as sockets, chandeliers, switches, meters, etc. In addition, stock tickers, telephones, telephone switchboards, and typewriters were made theHammond typewriters were perfected and made there. Over 1500 men werefinally employed. This shop was very successful both scientifically andfinancially. Bergmann was a man of great executive ability and carriedeconomy of manufacture to the limit. Among all the men I have hadassociated with me, he had the commercial instinct most highlydeveloped. "

One need not wonder at Edison's reminiscent remark that, "In any tradeany of my 'boys' made with Bergmann he always got the best of them, no matter what it was. One time there was to be a convention of themanagers of Edison illuminating companies at Chicago. There were a lotof representatives from the East, and a private car was hired. At JerseyCity a poker game was started by one of the delegates. Bergmann wasinduced to enter the game. This was played right through to Chicagowithout any sleep, but the boys didn't mind that. I had gotten themimmune to it. Bergmann had won all the money, and when the porter camein and said 'Chicago, ' Bergmann jumped up and said: 'What! Chicago! Ithought it was only Philadelphia!'"

But perhaps this further story is a better indication of developed humorand shrewdness: "A man by the name of Epstein had been in the habitof buying brass chips and trimmings from the lathes, and in some wayBergmann found out that he had been cheated. This hurt his pride, andhe determined to get even. One day Epstein appeared and said:'Good-morning, Mr. Bergmann, have you any chips to-day?' 'No, ' saidBergmann, 'I have none. ' 'That's strange, Mr. Bergmann; won't youlook?' No, he wouldn't look; he knew he had none. Finally Epstein was sopersistent that Bergmann called an assistant and told him to go andsee if he had any chips. He returned and said they had the largest andfinest lot they ever had. Epstein went up to several boxes piled full ofchips, and so heavy that he could not lift even one end of a box. 'Now, Mr. Bergmann, ' said Epstein, 'how much for the lot?' 'Epstein, ' saidBergmann, 'you have cheated me, and I will no longer sell by the lot, but will sell only by the pound. ' No amount of argument would apparentlychange Bergmann's determination to sell by the pound, but finallyEpstein got up to $250 for the lot, and Bergmann, appearing as ifdisgusted, accepted and made him count out the money. Then he said:'Well, Epstein, good-bye, I've got to go down to Wall Street. ' Epsteinand his assistant then attempted to lift the boxes to carry them out, but couldn't; and then discovered that calculations as to quantity hadbeen thrown out because the boxes had all been screwed down to the floorand mostly filled with boards with a veneer of brass chips. He made sucha scene that he had to be removed by the police. I met him several daysafterward and he said he had forgiven Mr. Bergmann, as he was such asmart business man, and the scheme was so ingenious. 

"One day as a joke I filled three or four sheets of foolscap paper witha jumble of figures and told Bergmann they were calculations showing thegreat loss of power from blowing the factory whistle. Bergmann thoughtit real, and never after that would he permit the whistle to blow. "

Another glimpse of the "social side" is afforded in the following littleseries of pen-pictures of the same place and time: "I had my laboratoryat the top of the Bergmann works, after moving from Menlo Park. Thebuilding was six stories high. My father came there when he was eightyyears of age. The old man had powerful lungs. In fact, when I wasexamined by the Mutual Life Insurance Company, in 1873, my lungexpansion was taken by the doctor, and the old gentleman was thereat the time. He said to the doctor: 'I wish you would take my lungexpansion, too. ' The doctor took it, and his surprise was very great, as it was one of the largest on record. I think it was five and one-halfinches. There were only three or four could beat it. Little Bergmannhadn't much lung power. The old man said to him, one day: 'Let's runup-stairs. ' Bergmann agreed and ran up. When they got there Bergmannwas all done up, but my father never showed a sign of it. There was anelevator there, and each day while it was travelling up I held the stemof my Waterbury watch up against the column in the elevator shaft andit finished the winding by the time I got up the six stories. " Thisoriginal method of reducing the amount of physical labor involved inwatch-winding brings to mind another instance of shrewdness mentioned byEdison, with regard to his newsboy days. Being asked whether he did notget imposed upon with bad bank-bills, he replied that he subscribed to abank-note detector and consulted it closely whenever a note of any sizefell into his hands. He was then less than fourteen years old. 

The conversations with Edison that elicited these stories brought outsome details as to peril that attends experimentation. He has confrontedmany a serious physical risk, and counts himself lucky to have comethrough without a scratch or scar. Four instances of personal dangermay be noted in his own language: "When I started at Menlo, I had anelectric furnace for welding rare metals that I did not know aboutvery clearly. I was in the dark-room, where I had a lot of chloride ofsulphur, a very corrosive liquid. I did not know that it would decomposeby water. I poured in a beakerful of water, and the whole thing explodedand threw a lot of it into my eyes. I ran to the hydrant, leaned overbackward, opened my eyes, and ran the hydrant water right into them. Butit was two weeks before I could see. 

"The next time we just saved ourselves. I was making some stuff tosquirt into filaments for the incandescent lamp. I made about a pound ofit. I had used ammonia and bromine. I did not know it at the time, butI had made bromide of nitrogen. I put the large bulk of it in threefilters, and after it had been washed and all the water had come throughthe filter, I opened the three filters and laid them on a hot steamplate to dry with the stuff. While I and Mr. Sadler, one of myassistants, were working near it, there was a sudden flash of light, and a very smart explosion. I said to Sadler: 'What is that?' 'I don'tknow, ' he said, and we paid no attention. In about half a minute therewas a sharp concussion, and Sadler said: 'See, it is that stuff on thesteam plate. ' I grabbed the whole thing and threw it in the sink, andpoured water on it. I saved a little of it and found it was a terrificexplosive. The reason why those little preliminary explosions took placewas that a little had spattered out on the edge of the filter paper, and had dried first and exploded. Had the main body exploded there wouldhave been nothing left of the laboratory I was working in. 

"At another time, I had a briquetting machine for briquetting iron ore. I had a lever held down by a powerful spring, and a rod one inch indiameter and four feet long. While I was experimenting with it, andstanding beside it, a washer broke, and that spring threw the rod rightup to the ceiling with a blast; and it came down again just withinan inch of my nose, and went clear through a two-inch plank. That was'within an inch of your life, ' as they say. 

"In my experimental plant for concentrating iron ore in the northernpart of New Jersey, we had a vertical drier, a column about nine feetsquare and eighty feet high. At the bottom there was a space where twomen could go through a hole; and then all the rest of the column wasfilled with baffle plates. One day this drier got blocked, and the orewould not run down. So I and the vice-president of the company, Mr. Mallory, crowded through the manhole to see why the ore would not comedown. After we got in, the ore did come down and there were fourteentons of it above us. The men outside knew we were in there, and they hada great time digging us out and getting air to us. "

Such incidents brought out in narration the fact that many of the menworking with him had been less fortunate, particularly those who hadexperimented with the Roentgen X-ray, whose ravages, like those ofleprosy, were responsible for the mutilation and death of at least oneexpert assistant. In the early days of work on the incandescent lamp, also, there was considerable trouble with mercury. "I had a series ofvacuum-pumps worked by mercury and used for exhausting experimentalincandescent lamps. The main pipe, which was full of mercury, was aboutseven and one-half feet from the floor. Along the length of the pipewere outlets to which thick rubber tubing was connected, each tube to apump. One day, while experimenting with the mercury pump, my assistant, an awkward country lad from a farm on Staten Island, who had adenoids inhis nose and breathed through his mouth, which was always wide open, was looking up at this pipe, at a small leak of mercury, when the rubbertube came off and probably two pounds of mercury went into his mouth anddown his throat, and got through his system somehow. In a short time hebecame salivated, and his teeth got loose. He went home, and shortly hismother appeared at the laboratory with a horsewhip, which she proposedto use on the proprietor. I was fortunately absent, and she wasmollified somehow by my other assistants. I had given the boyconsiderable iodide of potassium to prevent salivation, but it did nogood in this case. 

"When the first lamp-works were started at Menlo Park, one of myexperiments seemed to show that hot mercury gave a better vacuum in thelamp than cold mercury. I thereupon started to heat it. Soon all the mengot salivated, and things looked serious; but I found that in the mirrorfactories, where mercury was used extensively, the French Governmentmade the giving of iodide of potassium compulsory to prevent salivation. I carried out this idea, and made every man take a dose every day, butthere was great opposition, and hot mercury was finally abandoned. "

It will have been gathered that Edison has owed his special immunityfrom "occupational diseases" not only to luck but to unusual powers ofendurance, and a strong physique, inherited, no doubt, from his father. Mr. Mallory mentions a little fact that bears on this exceptionalquality of bodily powers. "I have often been surprised at Edison'swonderful capacity for the instant visual perception of differences inmaterials that were invisible to others until he would patiently pointthem out. This had puzzled me for years, but one day I was unexpectedlylet into part of the secret. For some little time past Mr. Edison hadnoticed that he was bothered somewhat in reading print, and I asked himto have an oculist give him reading-glasses. He partially promised, butnever took time to attend to it. One day he and I were in the city, andas Mrs. Edison had spoken to me about it, and as we happened to havean hour to spare, I persuaded him to go to an oculist with me. Usingno names, I asked the latter to examine the gentleman's eyes. He did sovery conscientiously, and it was an interesting experience, for he waskept busy answering Mr. Edison's numerous questions. When the oculistfinished, he turned to me and said: 'I have been many years inthe business, but have never seen an optic nerve like that of thisgentleman. An ordinary optic nerve is about the thickness of a thread, but his is like a cord. He must be a remarkable man in some walk oflife. Who is he?'"

It has certainly required great bodily vigor and physical capacity tosustain such fatigue as Edison has all his life imposed upon himself, to the extent on one occasion of going five days without sleep. In aconversation during 1909, he remarked, as though it were nothing out ofthe way, that up to seven years previously his average of daily workinghours was nineteen and one-half, but that since then he figured itat eighteen. He said he stood it easily, because he was interested ineverything, and was reading and studying all the time. For instance, he had gone to bed the night before exactly at twelve and had arisen at4. 30 A. M. To read some New York law reports. It was suggested that thesecret of it might be that he did not live in the past, but was alwayslooking forward to a greater future, to which he replied: "Yes, that'sit. I don't live with the past; I am living for to-day and to-morrow. Iam interested in every department of science, arts, and manufacture. I read all the time on astronomy, chemistry, biology, physics, music, metaphysics, mechanics, and other branches--political economy, electricity, and, in fact, all things that are making for progress inthe world. I get all the proceedings of the scientific societies, theprincipal scientific and trade journals, and read them. I also read TheClipper, The Police Gazette, The Billboard, The Dramatic Mirror, anda lot of similar publications, for I like to know what is going on. Inthis way I keep up to date, and live in a great moving world of my own, and, what's more, I enjoy every minute of it. " Referring to some eventof the past, he said: "Spilt milk doesn't interest me. I have spilt lotsof it, and while I have always felt it for a few days, it is quicklyforgotten, and I turn again to the future. " During another talk onkindred affairs it was suggested to Edison that, as he had worked sohard all his life, it was about time for him to think somewhat of thepleasures of travel and the social side of life. To which he repliedlaughingly: "I already have a schedule worked out. From now until I amseventy-five years of age, I expect to keep more or less busy with myregular work, not, however, working as many hours or as hard as I havein the past. At seventy five I expect to wear loud waistcoats withfancy buttons; also gaiter tops; at eighty I expect to learn how to playbridge whist and talk foolishly to the ladies. At eighty-five I expectto wear a full-dress suit every evening at dinner, and at ninety--well, I never plan more than thirty years ahead. "

The reference to clothes is interesting, as it is one of the fewsubjects in which Edison has no interest. It rather bores him. His dressis always of the plainest; in fact, so plain that, at the Bergmann shopsin New York, the children attending a parochial Catholic school werewont to salute him with the finger to the head, every time he went by. Upon inquiring, he found that they took him for a priest, with his darkgarb, smooth-shaven face, and serious expression. Edison says: "I geta suit that fits me; then I compel the tailors to use that as a jig orpattern or blue-print to make others by. For many years a suit was usedas a measurement; once or twice they took fresh measurements, but thesedidn't fit and they had to go back. I eat to keep my weight constant, hence I need never change measurements. " In regard to this, Mr. Malloryfurnishes a bit of chat as follows: "In a lawsuit in which I was awitness, I went out to lunch with the lawyers on both sides, and thelawyer who had been cross-examining me stated that he had for a clienta Fifth Avenue tailor, who had told him that he had made all of Mr. Edison's clothes for the last twenty years, and that he had never seenhim. He said that some twenty years ago a suit was sent to him fromOrange, and measurements were made from it, and that every suit sincehad been made from these measurements. I may add, from my own personalobservation, that in Mr. Edison's clothes there is no evidence but thatevery new suit that he has worn in that time looks as if he had beenspecially measured for it, which shows how very little he has changedphysically in the last twenty years. "

Edison has never had any taste for amusements, although he will indulgein the game of "Parchesi" and has a billiard-table in his house. Thecoming of the automobile was a great boon to him, because it gave hima form of outdoor sport in which he could indulge in a spirit ofobservation, without the guilty feeling that he was wasting valuabletime. In his automobile he has made long tours, and with his family hasparticularly indulged his taste for botany. That he has had the usualexperience in running machines will be evidenced by the following littlestory from Mr. Mallory: "About three years ago I had a motor-car ofa make of which Mr. Edison had already two cars; and when the car wasreceived I made inquiry as to whether any repair parts were carriedby any of the various garages in Easton, Pennsylvania, near our cementworks. I learned that this particular car was the only one in Easton. Knowing that Mr. Edison had had an experience lasting two or threeyears with this particular make of car, I determined to ask him forinformation relative to repair parts; so the next time I was at thelaboratory I told him I was unable to get any repair parts in Easton, and that I wished to order some of the most necessary, so that, in caseof breakdowns, I would not be compelled to lose the use of the car forseveral days until the parts came from the automobile factory. I askedhis advice as to what I should order, to which he replied: 'I don'tthink it will be necessary to order an extra top. '" Since that episode, which will probably be appreciated by most automobilists, Edisonhas taken up the electric automobile, and is now using it as well asdeveloping it. One of the cars equipped with his battery is the Bailey, and Mr. Bee tells the following story in regard to it: "One day ColonelBailey, of Amesbury, Massachusetts, who was visiting the Automobile Showin New York, came out to the laboratory to see Mr. Edison, as thelatter had expressed a desire to talk with him on his next visit to themetropolis. When he arrived at the laboratory, Mr. Edison, who had beenup all night experimenting, was asleep on the cot in the library. Asa rule we never wake Mr. Edison from sleep, but as he wanted to seeColonel Bailey, who had to go, I felt that an exception should be made, so I went and tapped him on the shoulder. He awoke at once, smiling, jumped up, was instantly himself as usual, and advanced and greeted thevisitor. His very first question was: 'Well, Colonel, how did you comeout on that experiment?'--referring to some suggestions he had made attheir last meeting a year before. For a minute Colonel Bailey did notrecall what was referred to; but a few words from Mr. Edison brought itback to his remembrance, and he reported that the results had justifiedMr. Edison's expectations. "

It might be expected that Edison would have extreme and even radicalideas on the subject of education--and he has, as well as a perfectreadiness to express them, because he considers that time is wasted onthings that are not essential: "What we need, " he has said, "are mencapable of doing work. I wouldn't give a penny for the ordinary collegegraduate, except those from the institutes of technology. Those comingup from the ranks are a darned sight better than the others. They aren'tfilled up with Latin, philosophy, and the rest of that ninny stuff. " Afurther remark of his is: "What the country needs now is the practicalskilled engineer, who is capable of doing everything. In three or fourcenturies, when the country is settled, and commercialism is diminished, there will be time for the literary men. At present we want engineers, industrial men, good business-like managers, and railroad men. " It ishardly to be marvelled at that such views should elicit warm protest, summed up in the comment: "Mr. Edison and many like him see in reversethe course of human progress. Invention does not smooth the way for thepractical men and make them possible. There is always too much dangerof neglecting thoughts for things, ideas for machinery. No theoryof education that aggravates this danger is consistent with nationalwell-being. "

Edison is slow to discuss the great mysteries of life, but is ofreverential attitude of mind, and ever tolerant of others' beliefs. Heis not a religious man in the sense of turning to forms and creeds, but, as might be expected, is inclined as an inventor and creator to arguefrom the basis of "design" and thence to infer a designer. "After yearsof watching the processes of nature, " he says, "I can no more doubt theexistence of an Intelligence that is running things than I do of theexistence of myself. Take, for example, the substance water that formsthe crystals known as ice. Now, there are hundreds of combinations thatform crystals, and every one of them, save ice, sinks in water. Ice, Isay, doesn't, and it is rather lucky for us mortals, for if it had doneso, we would all be dead. Why? Simply because if ice sank to the bottomsof rivers, lakes, and oceans as fast as it froze, those places would befrozen up and there would be no water left. That is only one exampleout of thousands that to me prove beyond the possibility of a doubt thatsome vast Intelligence is governing this and other planets. "

A few words as to the domestic and personal side of Edison's life, towhich many incidental references have already been made in these pages. He was married in 1873 to Miss Mary Stillwell, who died in 1884, leavingthree children--Thomas Alva, William Leslie, and Marion Estelle. 

Mr. Edison was married again in 1886 to Miss Mina Miller, daughter ofMr. Lewis Miller, a distinguished pioneer inventor and manufacturer inthe field of agricultural machinery, and equally entitled to fame as thefather of the "Chautauqua idea, " and the founder with Bishop Vincentof the original Chautauqua, which now has so many replicas all over thecountry, and which started in motion one of the great modern educationaland moral forces in America. By this marriage there are threechildren--Charles, Madeline, and Theodore. 

For over a score of years, dating from his marriage to Miss Miller, Edison's happy and perfect domestic life has been spent at Glenmont, a beautiful property acquired at that time in Llewellyn Park, on thehigher slopes of Orange Mountain, New Jersey, within easy walkingdistance of the laboratory at the foot of the hill in West Orange. Asnoted already, the latter part of each winter is spent at Fort Myers, Florida, where Edison has, on the banks of the Calahoutchie River, aplantation home that is in many ways a miniature copy of the home andlaboratory up North. Glenmont is a rather elaborate and florid buildingin Queen Anne English style, of brick, stone, and wooden beams showingon the exterior, with an abundance of gables and balconies. It is set inan environment of woods and sweeps of lawn, flanked by unusually largeconservatories, and always bright in summer with glowing flower beds. Itwould be difficult to imagine Edison in a stiffly formal house, and thisbig, cozy, three-story, rambling mansion has an easy freedom about it, without and within, quite in keeping with the genius of the inventor, but revealing at every turn traces of feminine taste and culture. Theground floor, consisting chiefly of broad drawing-rooms, parlors, anddining-hall, is chiefly noteworthy for the "den, " or lounging-room, atthe end of the main axis, where the family and friends are likely tobe found in the evening hours, unless the party has withdrawn for moreintimate social intercourse to the interesting and fascinating privatelibrary on the floor above. The lounging-room on the ground floor ismore or less of an Edison museum, for it is littered with souvenirs fromgreat people, and with mementos of travel, all related to some eventor episode. A large cabinet contains awards, decorations, and medalspresented to Edison, accumulating in the course of a long career, some of which may be seen in the illustration opposite. Near by may benoticed a bronze replica of the Edison gold medal which was founded inthe American Institute of Electrical Engineers, the first award of whichwas made to Elihu Thomson during the present year (1910). There arestatues of serpentine marble, gifts of the late Tsar of Russia, whoseadmiration is also represented by a gorgeous inlaid and enamelledcigar-case. 

There are typical bronze vases from the Society of Engineers of Japan, and a striking desk-set of writing apparatus from Krupp, all the piecesbeing made out of tiny but massive guns and shells of Krupp steel. Inaddition to such bric-a-brac and bibelots of all kinds are many picturesand photographs, including the original sketches of the reception givento Edison in 1889 by the Paris Figaro, and a letter from Madame Carnot, placing the Presidential opera-box at the disposal of Mr. And Mrs. Edison. One of the most conspicuous features of the room is a phonographequipment on which the latest and best productions by the greatestsingers and musicians can always be heard, but which Edison himself iseverlastingly experimenting with, under the incurable delusion that thisdomestic retreat is but an extension of his laboratory. 

The big library--semi-boudoir--up-stairs is also very expressive of thehome life of Edison, but again typical of his nature and disposition, for it is difficult to overlay his many technical books and scientificperiodicals with a sufficiently thick crust of popular magazines orcurrent literature to prevent their outcropping into evidence. In likemanner the chat and conversation here, however lightly it may begin, turns invariably to large questions and deep problems, especially in thefields of discovery and invention; and Edison, in an easy-chair, willsit through the long evenings till one or two in the morning, pullingmeditatively at his eyebrows, quoting something he has just readpertinent to the discussion, hearing and telling new stories with gusto, offering all kinds of ingenious suggestions, and without fail gettinghold of pads and sheets of paper on which to make illustrative sketches. He is wonderfully handy with the pencil, and will sometimes amusehimself, while chatting, with making all kinds of fancy bits ofpenmanship, twisting his signature into circles and squares, but alwayswriting straight lines--so straight they could not be ruled truer. Manya night it is a question of getting Edison to bed, for he would muchrather probe a problem than eat or sleep; but at whatever hour thevisitor retires or gets up, he is sure to find the master of the houseon hand, serene and reposeful, and just as brisk at dawn as when heallowed the conversation to break up at midnight. The ordinary routineof daily family life is of course often interrupted by receptions andparties, visits to the billiard-room, the entertainment of visitors, thedeparture to and return from college, at vacation periods, of the youngpeople, and matters relating to the many social and philanthropic causesin which Mrs. Edison is actively interested; but, as a matter of fact, Edison's round of toil and relaxation is singularly uniform and freefrom agitation, and that is the way he would rather have it. 

Edison at sixty-three has a fine physique, and being free from seriousailments of any kind, should carry on the traditions of his long-livedancestors as to a vigorous old age. His hair has whitened, but is stillthick and abundant, and though he uses glasses for certain work, hisgray-blue eyes are as keen and bright and deeply lustrous as ever, withthe direct, searching look in them that they have ever worn. Hestands five feet nine and one-half inches high, weighs one hundred andseventy-five pounds, and has not varied as to weight in a quarter of acentury, although as a young man he was slim to gauntness. He is veryabstemious, hardly ever touching alcohol, caring little for meat, butfond of fruit, and never averse to a strong cup of coffee or a goodcigar. He takes extremely little exercise, although his good color andquickness of step would suggest to those who do not know better that heis in the best of training, and one who lives in the open air. 

His simplicity as to clothes has already been described. One would bestartled to see him with a bright tie, a loud checked suit, or a fancywaistcoat, and yet there is a curious sense of fastidiousness aboutthe plain things he delights in. Perhaps he is not wholly responsiblepersonally for this state of affairs. In conversation Edison is direct, courteous, ready to discuss a topic with anybody worth talking to, and, in spite of his sore deafness, an excellent listener. No one ever goesaway from Edison in doubt as to what he thinks or means, but he is evershy and diffident to a degree if the talk turns on himself rather thanon his work. 

If the authors were asked, after having written the foregoing pages, to explain here the reason for Edison's success, based upon theirobservations so far made, they would first answer that he combines witha vigorous and normal physical structure a mind capable of clear andlogical thinking, and an imagination of unusual activity. But this wouldby no means offer a complete explanation. There are many men ofequal bodily and mental vigor who have not achieved a tithe ofhis accomplishment. What other factors are there to be taken intoconsideration to explain this phenomenon? First, a stolid, almostphlegmatic, nervous system which takes absolutely no notice of ennui--asystem like that of a Chinese ivory-carver who works day after day andmonth after month on a piece of material no larger than your hand. Nobetter illustration of this characteristic can be found than in thedevelopment of the nickel pocket for the storage battery, an element thesize of a short lead-pencil, on which upward of five years were spentin experiments, costing over a million dollars, day after day, alwaysapparently with the same tubes but with small variations carefullytabulated in the note-books. To an ordinary person the mere sight ofsuch a tube would have been as distasteful, certainly after a week orso, as the smell of a quail to a man striving to eat one every day for amonth, near the end of his gastronomic ordeal. But to Edison these smallperforated steel tubes held out as much of a fascination at the end offive years as when the search was first begun, and every morning foundhim as eager to begin the investigation anew as if the battery was anabsolutely novel problem to which his thoughts had just been directed. 

Another and second characteristic of Edison's personality contributingso strongly to his achievements is an intense, not to say courageous, optimism in which no thought of failure can enter, an optimism born ofself-confidence, and becoming--after forty or fifty years of experiencemore and more a sense of certainty in the accomplishment of success. Inthe overcoming of difficulties he has the same intellectual pleasureas the chess-master when confronted with a problem requiring all theefforts of his skill and experience to solve. To advance along smoothand pleasant paths, to encounter no obstacles, to wrestle with nodifficulties and hardships--such has absolutely no fascination to him. He meets obstruction with the keen delight of a strong man battling withthe waves and opposing them in sheer enjoyment, and the greater and moreapparently overwhelming the forces that may tend to sweep him back, themore vigorous his own efforts to forge through them. At the conclusionof the ore-milling experiments, when practically his entire fortune wassunk in an enterprise that had to be considered an impossibility, whenat the age of fifty he looked back upon five or six years of intenseactivity expended apparently for naught, when everything seemed mostblack and the financial clouds were quickly gathering on the horizon, not the slightest idea of repining entered his mind. The main experimenthad succeeded--he had accomplished what he sought for. Nature at anotherpoint had outstripped him, yet he had broadened his own sum of knowledgeto a prodigious extent. It was only during the past summer (1910) thatone of the writers spent a Sunday with him riding over the beautifulNew Jersey roads in an automobile, Edison in the highest spirits andpointing out with the keenest enjoyment the many beautiful views ofvalley and wood. The wanderings led to the old ore-milling plant atEdison, now practically a mass of deserted buildings all going to decay. It was a depressing sight, marking such titanic but futile struggleswith nature. To Edison, however, no trace of sentiment or regretoccurred, and the whole ruins were apparently as much a matter ofunconcern as if he were viewing the remains of Pompeii. Sitting on theporch of the White House, where he lived during that period, in thelight of the setting sun, his fine face in repose, he looked as placidlyover the scene as a happy farmer over a field of ripening corn. All thathe said was: "I never felt better in my life than during the five yearsI worked here. Hard work, nothing to divert my thought, clear air andsimple food made my life very pleasant. We learned a great deal. It willbe of benefit to some one some time. " Similarly, in connection with thestorage battery, after having experimented continuously for three years, it was found to fall below his expectations, and its manufacture hadto be stopped. Hundreds of thousands of dollars had been spent on theexperiments, and, largely without Edison's consent, the battery had beenvery generally exploited in the press. To stop meant not only to pocketa great loss already incurred, facing a dark and uncertain future, butto most men animated by ordinary human feelings, it meant more thananything else, an injury to personal pride. Pride? Pooh! that hadnothing to do with the really serious practical problem, and the writerscan testify that at the moment when his decision was reached, workstopped and the long vista ahead was peered into, Edison was as littleconcerned as if he had concluded that, after all, perhaps peach-piemight be better for present diet than apple-pie. He has often said thattime meant very little to him, that he had but a small realizationof its passage, and that ten or twenty years were as nothing whenconsidering the development of a vital invention. 

These references to personal pride recall another characteristic ofEdison wherein he differs from most men. There are many individualswho derive an intense and not improper pleasure in regalia or militarygarments, with plenty of gold braid and brass buttons, and thus arrayed, in appearing before their friends and neighbors. Putting at the head ofthe procession the man who makes his appeal to public attention solelybecause of the brilliancy of his plumage, and passing down the ranksthrough the multitudes having a gradually decreasing sense of vanity intheir personal accomplishment, Edison would be placed at the very end. Reference herein has been made to the fact that one of the two greatEnglish universities wished to confer a degree upon him, but that hewas unable to leave his work for the brief time necessary to accept thehonor. At that occasion it was pointed out to him that he should makeevery possible sacrifice to go, that the compliment was great, and thatbut few Americans had been so recognized. It was hopeless--anappeal based on sentiment. Before him was something real--work to beaccomplished--a problem to be solved. Beyond, was a prize as intangibleas the button of the Legion of Honor, which he concealed from hisfriends that they might not feel he was "showing off. " The fact is thatEdison cares little for the approval of the world, but that he careseverything for the approval of himself. Difficult as it may be--perhapsimpossible--to trace its origin, Edison possesses what he would probablycall a well-developed case of New England conscience, for whose approvalhe is incessantly occupied. 

These, then, may be taken as the characteristics of Edison that haveenabled him to accomplish more than most men--a strong body, a clearand active mind, a developed imagination, a capacity of great mental andphysical concentration, an iron-clad nervous system that knows no ennui, intense optimism, and courageous self-confidence. Any one having thesecapacities developed to the same extent, with the same opportunities foruse, would probably accomplish as much. And yet there is a peculiarityabout him that so far as is known has never been referred to before inprint. He seems to be conscientiously afraid of appearing indolent, and in consequence subjects himself regularly to unnecessary hardship. Working all night is seldom necessary, or until two or three o'clock inthe morning, yet even now he persists in such tests upon his strength. Recently one of the writers had occasion to present to him a longtypewritten document of upward of thirty pages for his approval. Itwas taken home to Glenmont. Edison had a few minor corrections to make, probably not more than a dozen all told. They could have been embodiedby interlineations and marginal notes in the ordinary way, and certainlywould not have required more than ten or fifteen minutes of his time. Yet what did he do? HE COPIED OUT PAINSTAKINGLY THE ENTIRE PAPER INLONG HAND, embodying the corrections as he went along, and presented theresult of his work the following morning. At the very least such a taskmust have occupied several hours. How can such a trait--and scores ofsimilar experiences could be given--be explained except by the factthat, evidently, he felt the need of special schooling in industry--thatunder no circumstances must he allow a thought of indolence to enter hismind?

Undoubtedly in the days to come Edison will not only be recognized as anintellectual prodigy, but as a prodigy of industry--of hard work. In hisfield as inventor and man of science he stands as clear-cut and secureas the lighthouse on a rock, and as indifferent to the tumult around. But as the "old man"--and before he was thirty years old he wasaffectionately so called by his laboratory associates--he is a normal, fun-loving, typical American. His sense of humor is intense, but notof the hothouse, overdeveloped variety. One of his favorite jokes is toenter the legal department with an air of great humility and apply for ajob as an inventor! Never is he so preoccupied or fretted with cares asnot to drop all thought of his work for a few moments to listen to a newstory, with a ready smile all the while, and a hearty, boyish laugh atthe end. His laugh, in fact, is sometimes almost aboriginal; slappinghis hands delightedly on his knees, he rocks back and forth and fairlyshouts his pleasure. Recently a daily report of one of his companiesthat had just been started contained a large order amounting to severalthousand dollars, and was returned by him with a miniature sketch of asmall individual viewing that particular item through a telescope! Hisfacility in making hasty but intensely graphic sketches is proverbial. He takes great delight in imitating the lingo of the New York streetgamin. A dignified person named James may be greeted with: "Hully Gee!Chimmy, when did youse blow in?" He likes to mimic and imitate types, generally, that are distasteful to him. The sanctimonious hypocrite, thesleek speculator, and others whom he has probably encountered in lifeare done "to the queen's taste. "

One very cold winter's day he entered the laboratory library in finespirits, "doing" the decayed dandy, with imaginary cane under hisarm, struggling to put on a pair of tattered imaginary gloves, witha self-satisfied smirk and leer that would have done credit to a realcomedian. This particular bit of acting was heightened by the fact thateven in the coldest weather he wears thin summer clothes, generallyacid-worn and more or less disreputable. For protection he varies thenumber of his suits of underclothing, sometimes wearing three or foursets, according to the thermometer. 

If one could divorce Edison from the idea of work, and could regardhim separate and apart from his embodiment as an inventor and man ofscience, it might truly be asserted that his temperament is essentiallymercurial. Often he is in the highest spirits, with all the spontaneityof youth, and again he is depressed, moody, and violently angry. Angerwith him, however, is a good deal like the story attributed to Napoleon:

"Sire, how is it that your judgment is not affected by your great rage?"asked one of his courtiers. 

"Because, " said the Emperor, "I never allow it to rise above this line, "drawing his hand across his throat. Edison has been seen sometimesalmost beside himself with anger at a stupid mistake or inexcusableoversight on the part of an assistant, his voice raised to a high pitch, sneeringly expressing his feelings of contempt for the offender; and yetwhen the culprit, like a bad school-boy, has left the room, Edison hasimmediately returned to his normal poise, and the incident is a thingof the past. At other times the unsettled condition persists, and hisspleen is vented not only on the original instigator but upon others whomay have occasion to see him, sometimes hours afterward. When such afit is on him the word is quickly passed around, and but few of hisassociates find it necessary to consult with him at the time. Thegenuine anger can generally be distinguished from the imitation articleby those who know him intimately by the fact that when really enragedhis forehead between the eyes partakes of a curious rotary movement thatcannot be adequately described in words. It is as if the storm-cloudswithin are moving like a whirling cyclone. As a general rule, Edisondoes not get genuinely angry at mistakes and other human weaknesses ofhis subordinates; at best he merely simulates anger. But woe betide theone who has committed an act of bad faith, treachery, dishonesty, oringratitude; THEN Edison can show what it is for a strong man to getdownright mad. But in this respect he is singularly free, and hisspells of anger are really few. In fact, those who know him best arecontinually surprised at his moderation and patience, often when therehas been great provocation. People who come in contact with him and whomay have occasion to oppose his views, may leave with the impressionthat he is hot-tempered; nothing could be further from the truth. Heargues his point with great vehemence, pounds on the table to emphasizehis views, and illustrates his theme with a wealth of apt similes; but, on account of his deafness, it is difficult to make the argument reallytwo-sided. Before the visitor can fully explain his side of the mattersome point is brought up that starts Edison off again, and new argumentsfrom his viewpoint are poured forth. This constant interruption is takenby many to mean that Edison has a small opinion of any arguments thatoppose him; but he is only intensely in earnest in presenting his ownside. If the visitor persists until Edison has seen both sides of thecontroversy, he is always willing to frankly admit that his own viewsmay be unsound and that his opponent is right. In fact, after such acontroversy, both parties going after each other hammer and tongs, thearguments TO HIM being carried on at the very top of one's voice toenable him to hear, and FROM HIM being equally loud in the excitementof the discussion, he has often said: "I see now that my position wasabsolutely rotten. "

Obviously, however, all of these personal characteristics have nothingto do with Edison's position in the world of affairs. They show himto be a plain, easy-going, placid American, with no sense ofself-importance, and ready at all times to have his mind turned into alighter channel. In private life they show him to be a good citizen, agood family man, absolutely moral, temperate in all things, and of greatcharitableness to all mankind. But what of his position in the agein which he lives? Where does he rank in the mountain range of greatAmericans?

It is believed that from the other chapters of this book the reader canformulate his own answer to the question. 

INTRODUCTION TO THE APPENDIX

THE reader who has followed the foregoing narrative may feel thatinasmuch as it is intended to be an historical document, an appropriateaddendum thereto would be a digest of all the inventions of Edison. Thedesirability of such a digest is not to be denied, but as there are sometwenty-five hundred or more inventions to be considered (including thosecovered by caveats), the task of its preparation would be stupendous. Besides, the resultant data would extend this book into severaladditional volumes, thereby rendering it of value chiefly to thetechnical student, but taking it beyond the bounds of biography. 

We should, however, deem our presentation of Mr. Edison's work tobe imperfectly executed if we neglected to include an intelligibleexposition of the broader theoretical principles of his more importantinventions. In the following Appendix we have therefore endeavoredto present a few brief statements regarding Mr. Edison's principalinventions, classified as to subject-matter and explained in languageas free from technicalities as is possible. No attempt has been made toconform with strictly scientific terminology, but, for the benefit ofthe general reader, well-understood conventional expressions, such as"flow of current, " etc. , have been employed. It should be borne in mindthat each of the following items has been treated as a whole or class, generally speaking, and not as a digest of all the individual patentsrelating to it. Any one who is sufficiently interested can obtain copiesof any of the patents referred to for five cents each by addressing theCommissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C. 

APPENDIX

I. THE STOCK PRINTER

IN these modern days, when the Stock Ticker is in universal use, oneseldom, if ever, hears the name of Edison coupled with the littleinstrument whose chatterings have such tremendous import to the wholeworld. It is of much interest, however, to remember the fact that itwas by reason of his notable work in connection with this device that hefirst became known as an inventor. Indeed, it was through the intrinsicmerits of his improvements in stock tickers that he made his real entreeinto commercial life. 

The idea of the ticker did not originate with Edison, as we have alreadyseen in Chapter VII of the preceding narrative, but at the time of hisemployment with the Western Union, in Boston, in 1868, the crudities ofthe earlier forms made an impression on his practical mind, and he gotout an improved instrument of his own, which he introduced inBoston through the aid of a professional promoter. Edison, then onlytwenty-one, had less business experience than the promoter, throughwhose manipulation he soon lost his financial interest in this earlyticker enterprise. The narrative tells of his coming to New York in1869, and immediately plunging into the business of gold and stockreporting. It was at this period that his real work on stock printerscommenced, first individually, and later as a co-worker with F. L. Pope. This inventive period extended over a number of years, during which timehe took out forty-six patents on stock-printing instruments and devices, two of such patents being issued to Edison and Pope as joint inventors. These various inventions were mostly in the line of development of theart as it progressed during those early years, but out of it all camethe Edison universal printer, which entered into very extensive use, and which is still used throughout the United States and in some foreigncountries to a considerable extent at this very day. 

Edison's inventive work on stock printers has left its mark upon the artas it exists at the present time. In his earlier work he directed hisattention to the employment of a single-circuit system, in which onlyone wire was required, the two operations of setting the type-wheelsand of printing being controlled by separate electromagnets which wereactuated through polarized relays, as occasion required, one polarityenergizing the electromagnet controlling the type-wheels, and theopposite polarity energizing the electromagnet controlling the printing. Later on, however, he changed over to a two-wire circuit, such asshown in Fig. 2 of this article in connection with the universal stockprinter. In the earliest days of the stock printer, Edison realizedthe vital commercial importance of having all instruments recordingprecisely alike at the same moment, and it was he who first devised (in1869) the "unison stop, " by means of which all connected instrumentscould at any moment be brought to zero from the central transmittingstation, and thus be made to work in correspondence with the centralinstrument and with one another. He also originated the idea of usingonly one inking-pad and shifting it from side to side to ink thetype-wheels. It was also in Edison's stock printer that the principle ofshifting type-wheels was first employed. Hence it will be seen that, as in many other arts, he made a lasting impression in this one by theintrinsic merits of the improvements resulting from his work therein. 

We shall not attempt to digest the forty-six patents above named, nor tofollow Edison through the progressive steps which led to the completionof his universal printer, but shall simply present a sketch of theinstrument itself, and follow with a very brief and general explanationof its theory. The Edison universal printer, as it virtually appearsin practice, is illustrated in Fig. 1 below, from which it will be seenthat the most prominent parts are the two type-wheels, the inking-pad, and the paper tape feeding from the reel, all appropriately placed in asubstantial framework. 

The electromagnets and other actuating mechanism cannot be seen plainlyin this figure, but are produced diagrammatically in Fig. 2, andsomewhat enlarged for convenience of explanation. 

It will be seen that there are two electromagnets, one of which, TM, isknown as the "type-magnet, " and the other, PM, as the "press-magnet, "the former having to do with the operation of the type-wheels, and thelatter with the pressing of the paper tape against them. As will be seenfrom the diagram, the armature, A, of the type-magnet has an extensionarm, on the end of which is an escapement engaging with a toothed wheelplaced at the extremity of the shaft carrying the type-wheels. Thisextension arm is pivoted at B. Hence, as the armature is alternatelyattracted when current passes around its electromagnet, and drawn up bythe spring on cessation of current, it moves up and down, thus actuatingthe escapement and causing a rotation of the toothed wheel in thedirection of the arrow. This, in turn, brings any desired lettersor figures on the type-wheels to a central point, where they may beimpressed upon the paper tape. One type-wheel carries letters, and theother one figures. These two wheels are mounted rigidly on a sleevecarried by the wheel-shaft. As it is desired to print from only onetype-wheel at a time, it becomes necessary to shift them back and forthfrom time to time, in order to bring the desired characters in linewith the paper tape. This is accomplished through the movements of athree-arm rocking-lever attached to the wheel-sleeve at the end ofthe shaft. This lever is actuated through the agency of two small pinscarried by an arm projecting from the press-lever, PL. As the lattermoves up and down the pins play upon the under side of the lower arm ofthe rocking-lever, thus canting it and pushing the type-wheels tothe right or left, as the case may be. The operation of shifting thetype-wheels will be given further on. 

The press-lever is actuated by the press-magnet. From the diagramit will be seen that the armature of the latter has a long, pivotedextension arm, or platen, trough-like in shape, in which the paper taperuns. It has already been noted that the object of the press-lever isto press this tape against that character of the type-wheel centrallylocated above it at the moment. It will at once be perceived that thisaction takes place when current flows through the electromagnet and itsarmature is attracted downward, the platen again dropping away from thetype-wheel as the armature is released upon cessation of current. Thepaper "feed" is shown at the end of the press-lever, and consists ofa push "dog, " or pawl, which operates to urge the paper forward as thepress-lever descends. 

The worm-gear which appears in the diagram on the shaft, near thetoothed wheel, forms part of the unison stop above referred to, but thisdevice is not shown in full, in order to avoid unnecessary complicationsof the drawing. 

At the right-hand side of the diagram (Fig. 2) is shown a portion ofthe transmitting apparatus at a central office. Generally speaking, this consists of a motor-driven cylinder having metallic pins placedat intervals, and arranged spirally, around its periphery. These pinscorrespond in number to the characters on the type-wheels. A keyboard(not shown) is arranged above the cylinder, having keys lettered andnumbered corresponding to the letters and figures on the type-wheels. Upon depressing any one of these keys the motion of the cylinder isarrested when one of its pins is caught and held by the depressed key. When the key is released the cylinder continues in motion. Hence, it isevident that the revolution of the cylinder may be interrupted as oftenas desired by manipulation of the various keys in transmitting theletters and figures which are to be recorded by the printing instrument. The method of transmission will presently appear. 

In the sketch (Fig. 2) there will be seen, mounted upon the cylindershaft, two wheels made up of metallic segments insulated from eachother, and upon the hubs of these wheels are two brushes which connectwith the main battery. Resting upon the periphery of these two segmentalwheels there are two brushes to which are connected the wires whichcarry the battery current to the type-magnet and press-magnet, respectively, as the brushes make circuit by coming in contact with themetallic segments. It will be remembered that upon the cylinder thereare as many pins as there are characters on the type-wheels of theticker, and one of the segmental wheels, W, has a like number ofmetallic segments, while upon the other wheel, W', there are onlyone-half that number. The wheel W controls the supply of current tothe press-magnet, and the wheel W' to the type-magnet. The type-magnetadvances the letter and figure wheels one step when the magnet isenergized, and a succeeding step when the circuit is broken. Hence, themetallic contact surfaces on wheel W' are, as stated, only half as manyas on the wheel W, which controls the press-magnet. 

It should be borne in mind, however, that the contact surfaces andinsulated surfaces on wheel W' are together equal in number to thecharacters on the type-wheels, but the retractile spring of TM does halfthe work of operating the escapement. On the other hand, the wheel Whas the full number of contact surfaces, because it must provide for theoperative closure of the press-magnet circuit whether the brush B' is inengagement with a metallic segment or an insulated segment of the wheelW'. As the cylinder revolves, the wheels are carried around with itsshaft and current impulses flow through the wires to the magnets as thebrushes make contact with the metallic segments of these wheels. 

One example will be sufficient to convey to the reader an idea of theoperation of the apparatus. Assuming, for instance, that it is desiredto send out the letters AM to the printer, let us suppose that the pincorresponding to the letter A is at one end of the cylinder and near theupper part of its periphery, and that the letter M is about the centreof the cylinder and near the lower part of its periphery. The operatorat the keyboard would depress the letter A, whereupon the cylinder wouldin its revolution bring the first-named pin against the key. Duringthe rotation of the cylinder a current would pass through wheel W' andactuate TM, drawing down the armature and operating the escapement, which would bring the type-wheel to a point where the letter A wouldbe central as regards the paper tape When the cylinder came to rest, current would flow through the brush of wheel W to PM, and its armaturewould be attracted, causing the platen to be lifted and thus bringingthe paper tape in contact with the type-wheel and printing the letter A. The operator next sends the letter M by depressing the appropriate key. On account of the position of the corresponding pin, the cylinder wouldmake nearly half a revolution before bringing the pin to the key. Duringthis half revolution the segmental wheels have also been turning, andthe brushes have transmitted a number of current impulses to TM, whichhave caused it to operate the escapement a corresponding number oftimes, thus turning the type-wheels around to the letter M. When thecylinder stops, current once more goes to the press-magnet, and theoperation of lifting and printing is repeated. As a matter of fact, current flows over both circuits as the cylinder is rotated, but thepress-magnet is purposely made to be comparatively "sluggish" and thenarrowness of the segments on wheel W tends to diminish the flow ofcurrent in the press circuit until the cylinder comes to rest, when thecurrent continuously flows over that circuit without interruption andfully energizes the press-magnet. The shifting of the type-wheels isbrought about as follows: On the keyboard of the transmitter there aretwo characters known as "dots"--namely, the letter dot and the figuredot. If the operator presses one of these dot keys, it is engaged by anappropriate pin on the revolving cylinder. Meanwhile the type-wheels arerotating, carrying with them the rocking-lever, and current is pulsatingover both circuits. When the type-wheels have arrived at the properpoint the rocking-lever has been carried to a position where its lowerarm is directly over one of the pins on the arm extending from theplaten of the press-lever. The cylinder stops, and current operatesthe sluggish press-magnet, causing its armature to be attracted, thuslifting the platen and its projecting arm. As the arm lifts upward, thepin moves along the under side of the lower arm of the rocking-lever, thus causing it to cant and shift the type-wheels to the right or left, as desired. The principles of operation of this apparatus have beenconfined to a very brief and general description, but it is believed tobe sufficient for the scope of this article. 

NOTE. --The illustrations in this article are reproduced from AmericanTelegraphy and Encyclopedia of the Telegraph, by William Maver, Jr. , bypermission of Maver Publishing Company, New York. 

II. THE QUADRUPLEX AND PHONOPLEX

EDISON'S work in stock printers and telegraphy had marked him as arising man in the electrical art of the period but his invention ofquadruplex telegraphy in 1874 was what brought him very prominentlybefore the notice of the public. Duplex telegraphy, or the sending oftwo separate messages in opposite directions at the same time overone line was known and practiced previous to this time, but quadruplextelegraphy, or the simultaneous sending of four separate messages, two in each direction, over a single line had not been successfullyaccomplished, although it had been the subject of many an inventor'sdream and the object of anxious efforts for many long years. 

In the early part of 1873, and for some time afterward, the systeminvented by Joseph Stearns was the duplex in practical use. In April ofthat year, however, Edison took up the study of the subject and filedtwo applications for patents. One of these applications [23] embracedan invention by which two messages could be sent not only duplex, orin opposite directions as above explained, but could also be sent"diplex"--that is to say, in one direction, simultaneously, as separateand distinct messages, over the one line. Thus there was introduced anew feature into the art of multiplex telegraphy, for, whereas duplexing(accomplished by varying the strength of the current) permitted messagesto be sent simultaneously from opposite stations, diplexing (achievedby also varying the direction of the current) permitted the simultaneoustransmission of two messages from the same station and their separatereception at the distant station. 

 [Footnote 23: Afterward issued as Patent No. 162, 633, April 27, 1875. ]

The quadruplex was the tempting goal toward which Edison now constantlyturned, and after more than a year's strenuous work he filed a number ofapplications for patents in the late summer of 1874. Among them was onewhich was issued some years afterward as Patent No. 480, 567, coveringhis well-known quadruplex. He had improved his own diplex, combined itwith the Stearns duplex and thereby produced a system by means of whichfour messages could be sent over a single line at the same time, two ineach direction. 

As the reader will probably be interested to learn something of thetheoretical principles of this fascinating invention, we shall endeavorto offer a brief and condensed explanation thereof with as littletechnicality as the subject will permit. This explanation willnecessarily be of somewhat elementary character for the benefit of thelay reader, whose indulgence is asked for an occasional reiterationintroduced for the sake of clearness of comprehension. While theapparatus and the circuits are seemingly very intricate, the principlesare really quite simple, and the difficulty of comprehension is moreapparent than real if the underlying phenomena are studied attentively. 

At the root of all systems of telegraphy, including multiplex systems, there lies the single basic principle upon which their performancedepends--namely, the obtaining of a slight mechanical movement at themore or less distant end of a telegraph line. This is accomplishedthrough the utilization of the phenomena of electromagnetism. Thesephenomena are easy of comprehension and demonstration. If a rod of softiron be wound around with a number of turns of insulated wire, anda current of electricity be sent through the wire, the rod will beinstantly magnetized and will remain a magnet as long as the currentflows; but when the current is cut off the magnetic effect instantlyceases. This device is known as an electromagnet, and the charging anddischarging of such a magnet may, of course, be repeated indefinitely. Inasmuch as a magnet has the power of attracting to itself pieces ofiron or steel, the basic importance of an electromagnet in telegraphywill be at once apparent when we consider the sounder, whose clicksare familiar to every ear. This instrument consists essentially of anelectro-magnet of horseshoe form with its two poles close together, andwith its armature, a bar of iron, maintained in close proximity to thepoles, but kept normally in a retracted position by a spring. Whenthe distant operator presses down his key the circuit is closed and acurrent passes along the line and through the (generally two) coils ofthe electromagnet, thus magnetizing the iron core. Its attractive powerdraws the armature toward the poles. When the operator releases thepressure on his key the circuit is broken, current does not flow, themagnetic effect ceases, and the armature is drawn back by its spring. These movements give rise to the clicking sounds which represent thedots and dashes of the Morse or other alphabet as transmitted by theoperator. Similar movements, produced in like manner, are availed ofin another instrument known as the relay, whose office is to actpractically as an automatic transmitter key, repeating the messagesreceived in its coils, and sending them on to the next section of theline, equipped with its own battery; or, when the message is intendedfor its own station, sending the message to an adjacent sounder includedin a local battery circuit. With a simple circuit, therefore, betweentwo stations and where an intermediate battery is not necessary, a relayis not used. 

Passing on to the consideration of another phase of the phenomena ofelectromagnetism, the reader's attention is called to Fig. 1, in whichwill be seen on the left a simple form of electromagnet consisting ofa bar of soft iron wound around with insulated wire, through which acurrent is flowing from a battery. The arrows indicate the direction offlow. 

All magnets have two poles, north and south. A permanent magnet (made ofsteel, which, as distinguished from soft iron, retains its magnetism forlong periods) is so called because it is permanently magnetized and itspolarity remains fixed. In an electromagnet the magnetism exists onlyas long as current is flowing through the wire, and the polarity of thesoft-iron bar is determined by the DIRECTION of flow of current aroundit for the time being. If the direction is reversed, the polarity willalso be reversed. Assuming, for instance, the bar to be end-on towardthe observer, that end will be a south pole if the current is flowingfrom left to right, clockwise, around the bar; or a north pole ifflowing in the other direction, as illustrated at the right of thefigure. It is immaterial which way the wire is wound around the bar, thedetermining factor of polarity being the DIRECTION of the current. Itwill be clear, therefore, that if two EQUAL currents be passed arounda bar in opposite directions (Fig. 3) they will tend to produce exactlyopposite polarities and thus neutralize each other. Hence, the bar wouldremain non-magnetic. 

As the path to the quadruplex passes through the duplex, let us considerthe Stearns system, after noting one other principle--namely, thatif more than one path is presented in which an electric current maycomplete its circuit, it divides in proportion to the resistance of eachpath. Hence, if we connect one pole of a battery with the earth, andfrom the other pole run to the earth two wires of equal resistance asillustrated in Fig. 2, equal currents will traverse the wires. 

The above principles were employed in the Stearns differential duplexsystem in the following manner: Referring to Fig. 3, suppose a wire, A, is led from a battery around a bar of soft iron from left to right, andanother wire of equal resistance and equal number of turns, B, aroundfrom right to left. The flow of current will cause two equal opposingactions to be set up in the bar; one will exactly offset the other, andno magnetic effect will be produced. A relay thus wound is known as adifferential relay--more generally called a neutral relay. 

The non-technical reader may wonder what use can possibly be made of anapparently non-operative piece of apparatus. It must be borne in mind, however, in considering a duplex system, that a differential relay isused AT EACH END of the line and forms part of the circuit; and thatwhile each relay must be absolutely unresponsive to the signals SENTOUT FROM ITS HOME OFFICE, it must respond to signals transmitted bya DISTANT OFFICE. Hence, the next figure (4), with its accompanyingexplanation, will probably make the matter clear. If another battery, D, be introduced at the distant end of the wire A the differential orneutral relay becomes actively operative as follows: Battery C supplieswires A and B with an equal current, but battery D doubles the strengthof the current traversing wire A. This is sufficient to not onlyneutralize the magnetism which the current in wire B would tend to setup, but also--by reason of the excess of current in wire A--to make thebar a magnet whose polarity would be determined by the direction of theflow of current around it. 

In the arrangement shown in Fig. 4 the batteries are so connected thatcurrent flow is in the same direction, thus doubling the amount ofcurrent flowing through wire A. But suppose the batteries wereso connected that the current from each set flowed in an oppositedirection? The result would be that these currents would oppose andneutralize each other, and, therefore, none would flow in wire A. Inasmuch, however, as there is nothing to hinder, current wouldflow from battery C through wire B, and the bar would therefore bemagnetized. Hence, assuming that the relay is to be actuated fromthe distant end, D, it is in a sense immaterial whether the batteriesconnected with wire A assist or oppose each other, as, in either case, the bar would be magnetized only through the operation of the distantkey. 

A slight elaboration of Fig. 4 will further illustrate the principle ofthe differential duplex. In Fig. 5 are two stations, A the home end, and B the distant station to which a message is to be sent. The relay ateach end has two coils, 1 and 2, No. 1 in each case being known as the"main-line coil" and 2 as the "artificial-line coil. " The latter, ineach case, has in its circuit a resistance, R, to compensate for theresistance of the main line, so that there shall be no inequalitiesin the circuits. The artificial line, as well as that to which the twocoils are joined, are connected to earth. There is a battery, C, and akey, K. When the key is depressed, current flows through the relaycoils at A, but no magnetism is produced, as they oppose each other. Thecurrent, however, flows out through the main-line coil over the line andthrough the main-line coil 1 at B, completing its circuit to earthand magnetizing the bar of the relay, thus causing its armature to beattracted. On releasing the key the circuit is broken and magnetisminstantly ceases. 

It will be evident, therefore, that the operator at A may cause therelay at B to act without affecting his own relay. Similar effects wouldbe produced from B to A if the battery and key were placed at the B end. 

If, therefore, like instruments are placed at each end of the line, asin Fig. 6, we have a differential duplex arrangement by means of whichtwo operators may actuate relays at the ends distant from them, withoutcausing the operation of the relays at their home ends. In practicethis is done by means of a special instrument known as a continuitypreserving transmitter, or, usually, as a transmitter. This consistsof an electromagnet, T, operated by a key, K, and separate battery. Thearmature lever, L, is long, pivoted in the centre, and is bent overat the end. At a point a little beyond its centre is a small piece ofinsulating material to which is screwed a strip of spring metal, S. Conveniently placed with reference to the end of the lever is a bentmetallic piece, P, having a contact screw in its upper horizontal arm, and attached to the lower end of this bent piece is a post, or standard, to which the main battery is electrically connected. The relay coilsare connected by wire to the spring piece, S, and the armature lever isconnected to earth. If the key is depressed, the armature is attractedand its bent end is moved upward, depressing the spring which makescontact with the upper screw, which places the battery to the line, andsimultaneously breaks the ground connection between the spring andthe upturned end of the lever, as shown at the left. When the key isreleased the battery is again connected to earth. The compensatingresistances and condensers necessary for a duplex arrangement are shownin the diagram. 

In Fig. 6 one transmitter is shown as closed, at A, while the other oneis open. From our previous illustrations and explanations it will bereadily seen that, with the transmitter closed at station A, currentflows via post P, through S, and to both relay coils at A, thence overthe main line to main-line coil at B, and down to earth through S andthe armature lever with its grounded wire. The relay at A would beunresponsive, but the core of the relay at B would be magnetized and itsarmature respond to signals from A. In like manner, if the transmitterat B be closed, current would flow through similar parts and thuscause the relay at A to respond. If both transmitters be closedsimultaneously, both batteries will be placed to the line, which wouldpractically result in doubling the current in each of the main-linecoils, in consequence of which both relays are energized and theirarmatures attracted through the operation of the keys at the distantends. Hence, two messages can be sent in opposite directions over thesame line simultaneously. 

The reader will undoubtedly see quite clearly from the above system, which rests upon varying the STRENGTH of the current, that two messagescould not be sent in the same direction over the one line at the sametime. To accomplish this object Edison introduced another and distinctfeature--namely, the using of the same current, but ALSO varying itsDIRECTION of flow; that is to say, alternately reversing the POLARITYof the batteries as applied to the line and thus producing correspondingchanges in the polarity of another specially constructed type of relay, called a polarized relay. To afford the reader a clear conception ofsuch a relay we would refer again to Fig. 1 and its explanation, fromwhich it appears that the polarity of a soft-iron bar is determined notby the strength of the current flowing around it but by the directionthereof. 

With this idea clearly in mind, the theory of the polarized relay, generally called "polar" relay, as presented in the diagram (Fig. 7), will be readily understood. 

A is a bar of soft iron, bent as shown, and wound around with insulatedcopper wire, the ends of which are connected with a battery, B, thusforming an electromagnet. An essential part of this relay consists ofa swinging PERMANENT magnet, C, whose polarity remains fixed, that endbetween the terminals of the electromagnet being a north pole. Inasmuchas unlike poles of magnets are attracted to each other and like polesrepelled, it follows that this north pole will be repelled by the northpole of the electromagnet, but will swing over and be attracted byits south pole. If the direction of flow of current be reversed, byreversing the battery, the electromagnetic polarity also reverses andthe end of the permanent magnet swings over to the other side. Thisis shown in the two figures of Fig. 7. This device being a relay, itspurpose is to repeat transmitted signals into a local circuit, as beforeexplained. For this purpose there are provided at D and E a contact anda back stop, the former of which is opened and closed by the swingingpermanent magnet, thus opening and closing the local circuit. 

Manifestly there must be provided some convenient way for rapidlytransposing the direction of the current flow if such a device as thepolar relay is to be used for the reception of telegraph messages, andthis is accomplished by means of an instrument called a pole-changer, which consists essentially of a movable contact piece connectedpermanently to the earth, or grounded, and arranged to connect one orthe other pole of a battery to the line and simultaneously ground theother pole. This action of the pole-changer is effected by movements ofthe armature of an electromagnet through the manipulation of an ordinarytelegraph key by an operator at the home station, as in the operation ofthe "transmitter, " above referred to. 

By a combination of the neutral relay and the polar relay twooperators, by manipulating two telegraph keys in the ordinary way, cansimultaneously send two messages over one line in the SAME directionwith the SAME current, one operator varying its strength and the otheroperator varying its polarity or direction of flow. This principle wascovered by Edison's Patent No. 162, 633, and was known as the "diplex"system, although, in the patent referred to, Edison showed and claimedthe adaptation of the principle to duplex telegraphy. Indeed, asa matter of fact, it was found that by winding the polar relaydifferentially and arranging the circuits and collateral appliancesappropriately, the polar duplex system was more highly efficient thanthe neutral system, and it is extensively used to the present day. 

Thus far we have referred to two systems, one the neutral ordifferential duplex, and the other the combination of the neutral andpolar relays, making a diplex system. By one of these two systemsa single wire could be used for sending two messages in oppositedirections, and by the other in the same direction or in oppositedirections. Edison followed up his work on the diplex and combined thetwo systems into the quadruplex, by means of which FOUR messages couldbe sent and received simultaneously over the one wire, two in eachdirection, thus employing eight operators--four at each end--two sendingand two receiving. The general principles of quadruplex telegraphy arebased upon the phenomena which we have briefly outlined in connectionwith the neutral relay and the polar relay. The equipment of sucha system at each end of the line consists of these two instruments, together with the special form of transmitter and the pole-changer andtheir keys for actuating the neutral and polar relays at the other, ordistant, end. Besides these there are the compensating resistances andcondensers. All of these will be seen in the diagram (Fig. 8). Itwill be understood, of course, that the polar relay, as used in thequadruplex system, is wound differentially, and therefore its operationis somewhat similar in principle to that of the differentially woundneutral relay, in that it does not respond to the operation of the keyat the home office, but only operates in response to the movements ofthe distant key. 

Our explanation has merely aimed to show the underlying phenomena andprinciples in broad outline without entering into more detail than wasdeemed absolutely necessary. It should be stated, however, that betweenthe outline and the filling in of the details there was an enormousamount of hard work, study, patient plodding, and endless experimentsbefore Edison finally perfected his quadruplex system in the year 1874. 

If it were attempted to offer here a detailed explanation of the variedand numerous operations of the quadruplex, this article would assume theproportions of a treatise. An idea of their complexity may be gatheredfrom the following, which is quoted from American Telegraphy andEncyclopedia of the Telegraph, by William Maver, Jr. :

"It may well be doubted whether in the whole range of appliedelectricity there occur such beautiful combinations, so quickly made, broken up, and others reformed, as in the operation of the Edisonquadruplex. For example, it is quite demonstrable that during the makingof a simple dash of the Morse alphabet by the neutral relay at the homestation the distant pole-changer may reverse its battery several times;the home pole-changer may do likewise, and the home transmitter mayincrease and decrease the electromotive force of the home batteryrepeatedly. Simultaneously, and, of course, as a consequence of theforegoing actions, the home neutral relay itself may have had itsmagnetism reversed several times, and the SIGNAL, that is, the dash, will have been made, partly by the home battery, partly by the distantand home batteries combined, partly by current on the main line, partlyby current on the artificial line, partly by the main-line 'static'current, partly by the condenser static current, and yet, on awell-adjusted circuit the dash will have been produced on the quadruplexsounder as clearly as any dash on an ordinary single-wire sounder. "

We present a diagrammatic illustration of the Edison quadruplex, batterykey system, in Fig. 8, and refer the reader to the above or othertext-books if he desires to make a close study of its intricateoperations. Before finally dismissing the quadruplex, and for thebenefit of the inquiring reader who may vainly puzzle over theintricacies of the circuits shown in Fig. 8, a hint as to an essentialdifference between the neutral relay, as used in the duplex and as usedin the quadruplex, may be given. With the duplex, as we have seen, thecurrent on the main line is changed in strength only when both keys atOPPOSITE stations are closed together, so that a current due to bothbatteries flows over the main line. When a single message is sent fromone station to the other, or when both stations are sending messagesthat do not conflict, only one battery or the other is connected to themain line; but with the quadruplex, suppose one of the operators, in NewYork for instance, is sending reversals of current to Chicago; we canreadily see how these changes in polarity will operate the polar relayat the distant station, but why will they not also operate the neutralrelay at the distant station as well? This difficulty was solved bydividing the battery at each station into two unequal parts, the smallerbattery being always in circuit with the pole-changer ready to have itspolarity reversed on the main line to operate the distant polar relay, but the spring retracting the armature of the neutral relay is made sostiff as to resist these weak currents. If, however, the transmitter isoperated at the same end, the entire battery is connected to the mainline, and the strength of this current is sufficient to operate theneutral relay. Whether the part or all the battery is alternatelyconnected to or disconnected from the main line by the transmitter, thecurrent so varied in strength is subject to reversal of polarity by thepole-changer; but the variations in strength have no effect upon thedistant polar relay, because that relay being responsive to changesin polarity of a weak current is obviously responsive to correspondingchanges in polarity of a powerful current. With this distinction beforehim, the reader will have no difficulty in following the circuitsof Fig. 8, bearing always in mind that by reason of the differentialwinding of the polar and neutral relays, neither of the relays at onestation will respond to the home battery, and can only respond to thedistant battery--the polar relay responding when the polarity of thecurrent is reversed, whether the current be strong or weak, and theneutral relay responding when the line-current is increased, regardlessof its polarity. It should be added that besides the system illustratedin Fig. 8, which is known as the differential principle, the quadruplexwas also arranged to operate on the Wheatstone bridge principle; butit is not deemed necessary to enter into its details. The underlyingphenomena were similar, the difference consisting largely in thearrangement of the circuits and apparatus. [24]

 [Footnote 24: Many of the illustrations in this article are reproduced from American Telegraphy and Encyclopedia of the Telegraph, by William Maver, Jr. , by permission of Maver Publishing Company, New York. ]

Edison made another notable contribution to multiplex telegraphysome years later in the Phonoplex. The name suggests the use of thetelephone, and such indeed is the case. The necessity for this inventionarose out of the problem of increasing the capacity of telegraph linesemployed in "through" and "way" service, such as upon railroads. In arailroad system there are usually two terminal stations and a number ofway stations. There is naturally much intercommunication, which wouldbe greatly curtailed by a system having the capacity of only a singlemessage at a time. The duplexes above described could not be used ona railroad telegraph system, because of the necessity of electricallybalancing the line, which, while entirely feasible on a through line, would not be practicable between a number of intercommunicating points. Edison's phonoplex normally doubled the capacity of telegraph lines, whether employed on way business or through traffic, but in actualpractice made it possible to obtain more than double service. It hasbeen in practical use for many years on some of the leading railroads ofthe United States. 

The system is a combination of telegraphic apparatus and telephonereceiver, although in this case the latter instrument is not used in thegenerally understood manner. It is well known that the diaphragm of atelephone vibrates with the fluctuations of the current energizing themagnet beneath it. If the make and break of the magnetizing currentbe rapid, the vibrations being within the limits of the human ear, thediaphragm will produce an audible sound; but if the make and break be asslow as with ordinary Morse transmission, the diaphragm will be merelyflexed and return to its original form without producing a sound. If, therefore, there be placed in the same circuit a regular telegraph relayand a special telephone, an operator may, by manipulating a key, operatethe relay (and its sounder) without producing a sound in the telephone, as the makes and breaks of the key are far below the limit ofaudibility. But if through the same circuit, by means of another keysuitably connected there is sent the rapid changes in current from aninduction-coil, it will cause a series of loud clicks in the telephone, corresponding to the signals transmitted; but this current is too weakto affect the telegraph relay. It will be seen, therefore, that thismethod of duplexing is practiced, not by varying the strength orpolarity, but by sending TWO KINDS OF CURRENT over the wire. Thus, twosets of Morse signals can be transmitted by two operators over oneline at the same time without interfering with each other, and not onlybetween terminal offices, but also between a terminal office and anyintermediate office, or between two intermediate offices alone. 

III

AUTOMATIC TELEGRAPHY

FROM the year 1848, when a Scotchman, Alexander Bain, first devised ascheme for rapid telegraphy by automatic methods, down to the beginningof the seventies, many other inventors had also applied themselves tothe solution of this difficult problem, with only indifferent success. "Cheap telegraphy" being the slogan of the time, Edison became arduouslyinterested in the subject, and at the end of three years of hard workproduced an entirely successful system, a public test of which was madeon December 11, 1873 when about twelve thousand (12, 000) wordswere transmitted over a single wire from Washington to New York. Intwenty-two and one-half minutes. Edison's system was commerciallyexploited for several years by the Automatic Telegraph Company, asrelated in the preceding narrative. 

As a premise to an explanation of the principles involved it should benoted that the transmission of telegraph messages by hand at a rate offifty words per minute is considered a good average speed; hence, theavailability of a telegraph line, as thus operated, is limited to thiscapacity except as it may be multiplied by two with the use ofthe duplex, or by four, with the quadruplex. Increased rapidity oftransmission may, however, be accomplished by automatic methods, bymeans of which, through the employment of suitable devices, messages maybe stamped in or upon a paper tape, transmitted through automaticallyacting instruments, and be received at distant points in visiblecharacters, upon a similar tape, at a rate twenty or more timesgreater--a speed far beyond the possibilities of the human hand totransmit or the ear to receive. 

In Edison's system of automatic telegraphy a paper tape was perforatedwith a series of round holes, so arranged and spaced as to representMorse characters, forming the words of the message to be transmitted. This was done in a special machine of Edison's invention, called aperforator, consisting of a series of punches operated by a bank ofkeys--typewriter fashion. The paper tape passed over a cylinder, andwas kept in regular motion so as to receive the perforations in propersequence. 

The perforated tape was then placed in the transmitting instrument, the essential parts of which were a metallic drum and a projecting armcarrying two small wheels, which, by means of a spring, were maintainedin constant pressure on the drum. The wheels and drum were electricallyconnected in the line over which the message was to be sent. Currentbeing supplied by batteries in the ordinary manner. 

When the transmitting instrument was in operation, the perforated tapewas passed over the drum in continuous, progressive motion. Thus, thepaper passed between the drum and the two small wheels, and, as drypaper is a non-conductor, current was prevented from passing until aperforation was reached. As the paper passed along, the wheels droppedinto the perforations, making momentary contacts with the drum beneathand causing momentary impulses of current to be transmitted over theline in the same way that they would be produced by the manipulationof the telegraph key, but with much greater rapidity. The perforationsbeing so arranged as to regulate the length of the contact, the resultwould be the transmission of long and short impulses corresponding withthe dots and dashes of the Morse alphabet. 

The receiving instrument at the other end of the line was constructedupon much the same general lines as the transmitter, consisting of ametallic drum and reels for the paper tape. Instead of the two smallcontact wheels, however, a projecting arm carried an iron pin or stylus, so arranged that its point would normally impinge upon the periphery ofthe drum. The iron pin and the drum were respectively connected so as tobe in circuit with the transmission line and batteries. As the principleinvolved in the receiving operation was electrochemical decomposition, the paper tape upon which the incoming message was to be received wasmoistened with a chemical solution readily decomposable by the electriccurrent. This paper, while still in a damp condition, was passedbetween the drum and stylus in continuous, progressive motion. When anelectrical impulse came over the line from the transmitting end, currentpassed through the moistened paper from the iron pin, causing chemicaldecomposition, by reason of which the iron would be attacked and wouldmark a line on the paper. Such a line would be long or short, accordingto the duration of the electric impulse. Inasmuch as a succession ofsuch impulses coming over the line owed their origin to the perforationsin the transmitting tape, it followed that the resulting marks upon thereceiving tape would correspond thereto in their respective lengths. Hence, the transmitted message was received on the tape in visible dotsand dashes representing characters of the Morse alphabet. 

The system will, perhaps, be better understood by reference to thefollowing diagrammatic sketch of its general principles:

Some idea of the rapidity of automatic telegraphy may be obtained whenwe consider the fact that with the use of Edison's system in the earlyseventies it was common practice to transmit and receive from three tofour thousand words a minute over a single line between New York andPhiladelphia. This system was exploited through the use of a moderatelypaid clerical force. 

In practice, there was employed such a number of perforating machinesas the exigencies of business demanded. Each machine was operated bya clerk, who translated the message into telegraphic characters andprepared the transmitting tape by punching the necessary perforationstherein. An expert clerk could perforate such a tape at the rate offifty to sixty words per minute. At the receiving end the tape was takenby other clerks who translated the Morse characters into ordinary words, which were written on message blanks for delivery to persons for whomthe messages were intended. 

This latter operation--"copying. " as it was called--was not consistentwith truly economical business practice. Edison therefore undertook thetask of devising an improved system whereby the message when receivedwould not require translation and rewriting, but would automaticallyappear on the tape in plain letters and words, ready for instantdelivery. 

The result was his automatic Roman letter system, the basis for whichincluded the above-named general principles of perforated transmissiontape and electrochemical decomposition. Instead of punching Morsecharacters in the transmission tape however, it was perforated witha series of small round holes forming Roman letters. The verticalsof these letters were originally five holes high. The transmittinginstrument had five small wheels or rollers, instead of two, for makingcontacts through the perforations and causing short electric impulsesto pass over the lines. At first five lines were used to carry theseimpulses to the receiving instrument, where there were five iron pinsimpinging on the drum. By means of these pins the chemically preparedtape was marked with dots corresponding to the impulses as received, leaving upon it a legible record of the letters and words transmitted. 

For purposes of economy in investment and maintenance, Edison devisedsubsequently a plan by which the number of conducting lines was reducedto two, instead of five. The verticals of the letters were perforatedonly four holes high, and the four rollers were arranged in pairs, onepair being slightly in advance of the other. There were, of course, only four pins at the receiving instrument. Two were of iron and two oftellurium, it being the gist of Edison's plan to effect the markingof the chemical paper by one metal with a positive current, and by theother metal with a negative current. In the following diagram, whichshows the theory of this arrangement, it will be seen that both thetransmitting rollers and the receiving pins are arranged in pairs, one pair in each case being slightly in advance of the other. Of thesereceiving pins, one pair--1 and 3--are of iron, and the other pair--2and 4--of tellurium. Pins 1-2 and 3-4 are electrically connectedtogether in other pairs, and then each of these pairs is connected withone of the main lines that run respectively to the middle of two groupsof batteries at the transmitting end. The terminals of these groups ofbatteries are connected respectively to the four rollers which impingeupon the transmitting drum, the negatives being connected to 5 and 7, and the positives to 6 and 8, as denoted by the letters N and P. Thetransmitting and receiving drums are respectively connected to earth. 

In operation the perforated tape is placed on the transmission drum, andthe chemically prepared tape on the receiving drum. As the perforatedtape passes over the transmission drum the advanced rollers 6 or 8first close the circuit through the perforations, and a positive currentpasses from the batteries through the drum and down to the ground;thence through the earth at the receiving end up to the other drum andback to the batteries via the tellurium pins 2 or 4 and the line wire. With this positive current the tellurium pins make marks upon thepaper tape, but the iron pins make no mark. In the merest fraction of asecond, as the perforated paper continues to pass over the transmissiondrum, the rollers 5 or 7 close the circuit through other perforationsand t e current passes in the opposite direction, over the line wire, through pins 1 or 3, and returns through the earth. In this case theiron pins mark the paper tape, but the tellurium pins make no mark. Itwill be obvious, therefore, that as the rollers are set so as to allowof currents of opposite polarity to be alternately and rapidly sentby means of the perforations, the marks upon the tape at the receivingstation will occupy their proper relative positions, and the aggregateresult will be letters corresponding to those perforated in thetransmission tape. 

Edison subsequently made still further improvements in this direction, by which he reduced the number of conducting wires to one, but theprinciples involved were analogous to the one just described. 

This Roman letter system was in use for several years on lines betweenNew York, Philadelphia, and Washington, and was so efficient that aspeed of three thousand words a minute was attained on the line betweenthe two first-named cities. 

Inasmuch as there were several proposed systems of rapid automatictelegraphy in existence at the time Edison entered the field, but noneof them in practical commercial use, it becomes a matter of interest toinquire wherein they were deficient, and what constituted the elementsof Edison's success. 

The chief difficulties in the transmission of Morse characters had beentwo in number, the most serious of which was that on the receiving tapethe characters would be prolonged and run into one another, forming adraggled line and thus rendering the message unintelligible. This arosefrom the fact that, on account of the rapid succession of the electricimpulses, there was not sufficient time between them for the electricaction to cease entirely. Consequently the line could not clear itself, and became surcharged, as it were; the effect being an attenuatedprolongation of each impulse as manifested in a weaker continuation ofthe mark on the tape, thus making the whole message indistinct. Thesesecondary marks were called "tailings. "

For many years electricians had tried in vain to overcome thisdifficulty. Edison devoted a great deal of thought and energy to thequestion, in the course of which he experimented through one hundredand twenty consecutive nights, in the year 1873, on the line betweenNew York and Washington. His solution of the problem was simple buteffectual. It involved the principle of inductive compensation. Ina shunt circuit with the receiving instrument he introducedelectromagnets. The pulsations of current passed through the helices ofthese magnets, producing an augmented marking effect upon the receivingtape, but upon the breaking of the current, the magnet, in dischargingitself of the induced magnetism, would set up momentarily acounter-current of opposite polarity. This neutralized the "tailing"effect by clearing the line between pulsations, thus allowing thetelegraphic characters to be clearly and distinctly outlined upon thetape. Further elaboration of this method was made later by the additionof rheostats, condensers, and local opposition batteries on long lines. 

The other difficulty above referred to was one that had also occupiedconsiderable thought and attention of many workers in the field, andrelated to the perforating of the dash in the transmission tape. Itinvolved mechanical complications that seemed to be insurmountable, andup to the time Edison invented his perforating machine no really goodmethod was available. He abandoned the attempt to cut dashes as such, inthe paper tape, but instead punched three round holes so arranged asto form a triangle. A concrete example is presented in the illustrationbelow, which shows a piece of tape with perforations representing theword "same. "

The philosophy of this will be at once perceived when it is rememberedthat the two little wheels running upon the drum of the transmittinginstrument were situated side by side, corresponding in distance to thetwo rows of holes. When a triangle of three holes, intended to form thedash, reached the wheels, one of them dropped into a lower hole. Beforeit could get out, the other wheel dropped into the hole at the apex ofthe triangle, thus continuing the connection, which was still furtherprolonged by the first wheel dropping into the third hole. Thus, anextended contact was made, which, by transmitting a long impulse, resulted in the marking of a dash upon the receiving tape. 

This method was in successful commercial use for some time in the earlyseventies, giving a speed of from three to four thousand words a minuteover a single line, but later on was superseded by Edison's Roman lettersystem, above referred to. 

The subject of automatic telegraphy received a vast amount of attentionfrom inventors at the time it was in vogue. None was more earnestor indefatigable than Edison, who, during the progress of hisinvestigations, took out thirty-eight patents on various inventionsrelating thereto, some of them covering chemical solutions for thereceiving paper. This of itself was a subject of much importance anda vast amount of research and labor was expended upon it. In thelaboratory note-books there are recorded thousands of experimentsshowing that Edison's investigations not only included an enormousnumber of chemical salts and compounds, but also an exhaustive varietyof plants, flowers, roots, herbs, and barks. 

It seems inexplicable at first view that a system of telegraphysufficiently rapid and economical to be practically available forimportant business correspondence should have fallen into disuse. This, however, is made clear--so far as concerns Edison's invention at anyrate--in Chapter VIII of the preceding narrative. 

IV. WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY

ALTHOUGH Mr. Edison has taken no active part in the development ofthe more modern wireless telegraphy, and his name has not occurred inconnection therewith, the underlying phenomena had been noted by himmany years in advance of the art, as will presently be explained. Theauthors believe that this explanation will reveal a status of Edison inrelation to the subject that has thus far been unknown to the public. 

While the term "wireless telegraphy, " as now applied to the modernmethod of electrical communication between distant points withoutintervening conductors, is self-explanatory, it was also applicable, strictly speaking, to the previous art of telegraphing to and frommoving trains, and between points not greatly remote from each other, and not connected together with wires. 

The latter system (described in Chapter XXIII and in a succeedingarticle of this Appendix) was based upon the phenomena ofelectromagnetic or electrostatic induction between conductors separatedby more or less space, whereby electric impulses of relatively lowpotential and low frequency set up in. One conductor were transmittedinductively across the air to another conductor, and there receivedthrough the medium of appropriate instruments connected therewith. 

As distinguished from this system, however, modern wirelesstelegraphy--so called--has its basis in the utilization of electricor ether waves in free space, such waves being set up by electricoscillations, or surgings, of comparatively high potential and highfrequency, produced by the operation of suitable electrical apparatus. Broadly speaking, these oscillations arise from disruptive discharges ofan induction coil, or other form of oscillator, across an air-gap, andtheir character is controlled by the manipulation of a special type ofcircuit-breaking key, by means of which long and short discharges areproduced. The electric or etheric waves thereby set up are detectedand received by another special form of apparatus more or less distant, without any intervening wires or conductors. 

In November, 1875, Edison, while experimenting in his Newark laboratory, discovered a new manifestation of electricity through mysterious sparkswhich could be produced under conditions unknown up to that time. Recognizing at once the absolutely unique character of the phenomena, hecontinued his investigations enthusiastically over two mouths, finallyarriving at a correct conclusion as to the oscillatory nature of thehitherto unknown manifestations. Strange to say, however, the trueimport and practical applicability of these phenomena did not occur tohis mind. Indeed, it was not until more than TWELVE YEARS AFTERWARD, in1887, upon the publication of the notable work of Prof. H. Hertz provingthe existence of electric waves in free space, that Edison realized thefact that the fundamental principle of aerial telegraphy had been withinhis grasp in the winter of 1875; for although the work of Hertz was moreprofound and mathematical than that of Edison, the principle involvedand the phenomena observed were practically identical--in fact, it maybe remarked that some of the methods and experimental apparatus werequite similar, especially the "dark box" with micrometer adjustment, used by both in observing the spark. [25]

 [Footnote 25: During the period in which Edison exhibited his lighting system at the Paris Exposition in 1881, his representative, Mr. Charles Batchelor, repeated Edison's remarkable experiments of the winter of 1875 for the benefit of a great number of European savants, using with other apparatus the original "dark box" with micrometer adjustment. ]

There is not the slightest intention on the part of the authors todetract in the least degree from the brilliant work of Hertz, but, onthe contrary, to ascribe to him the honor that is his due in havinggiven mathematical direction and certainty to so important a discovery. The adaptation of the principles thus elucidated and the subsequentdevelopment of the present wonderful art by Marconi, Branly, Lodge, Slaby, and others are now too well known to call for further remark atthis place. 

Strange to say, that although Edison's early experiments in "ethericforce" called forth extensive comment and discussion in the publicprints of the period, they seemed to have been generally overlookedwhen the work of Hertz was published. At a meeting of the Institution ofElectrical Engineers, held in London on May 16, 1889, at which therewas a discussion on the celebrated paper of Prof. (Sir) Oliver Lodge on"Lightning Conductors, " however; the chairman, Sir William Thomson (LordKelvin), made the following remarks:

"We all know how Faraday made himself a cage six feet in diameter, hungit up in mid-air in the theatre of the Royal Institution, went into it, and, as he said, lived in it and made experiments. It was a cage withtin-foil hanging all round it; it was not a complete metallic enclosingshell. Faraday had a powerful machine working in the neighborhood, giving all varieties of gradual working-up and discharges by 'impulsiverush'; and whether it was a sudden discharge of ordinary insulatedconductors, or of Leyden jars in the neighborhood outside the cage, orelectrification and discharge of the cage itself, he saw no effects onhis most delicate gold-leaf electroscopes in the interior. His attentionwas not directed to look for Hertz sparks, or probably he might havefound them in the interior. Edison seems to have noticed something ofthe kind in what he called the etheric force. His name 'etheric' may, thirteen years ago, have seemed to many people absurd. But now we areall beginning to call these inductive phenomena 'etheric. '"

With these preliminary observations, let us now glance briefly atEdison's laboratory experiments, of which mention has been made. 

Oh the first manifestation of the unusual phenomena in November, 1875, Edison's keenness of perception led him at once to believe that he haddiscovered a new force. Indeed, the earliest entry of this discovery inthe laboratory note-book bore that caption. After a few days of furtherexperiment and observation, however, he changed it to "Etheric Force, "and the further records thereof (all in Mr. Batchelor's handwriting)were under that heading. 

The publication of Edison's discovery created considerable attention atthe time, calling forth a storm of general ridicule and incredulity. But a few scientific men of the period, whose experimental methods werecareful and exact, corroborated his deductions after obtaining similarphenomena by repeating his experiments with intelligent precision. Amongthese was the late Dr. George M. Beard, a noted physicist, who enteredenthusiastically into the investigation, and, in addition to a greatdeal of independent experiment, spent much time with Edison at hislaboratory. Doctor Beard wrote a treatise of some length on the subject, in which he concurred with Edison's deduction that the phenomenawere the manifestation of oscillations, or rapidly reversing wavesof electricity, which did not respond to the usual tests. Edisonhad observed the tendency of this force to diffuse itself in variousdirections through the air and through matter, hence the name "Etheric"that he had provisionally applied to it. 

Edison's laboratory notes on this striking investigation are fascinatingand voluminous, but cannot be reproduced in full for lack of space. In view of the later practical application of the principles involved, however, the reader will probably be interested in perusing a fewextracts therefrom as illustrated by facsimiles of the original sketchesfrom the laboratory note-book. 

As the full significance of the experiments shown by these extractsmay not be apparent to a lay reader, it may be stated by way of premisethat, ordinarily, a current only follows a closed circuit. An electricbell or electric light is a familiar instance of this rule. There is ineach case an open (wire) circuit which is closed by pressing the buttonor turning the switch, thus making a complete and uninterrupted path inwhich the current may travel and do its work. Until the time of Edison'sinvestigations of 1875, now under consideration, electricity had neverbeen known to manifest itself except through a closed circuit. But, asthe reader will see from the following excerpts, Edison discovered ahitherto unknown phenomenon--namely, that under certain conditions therule would be reversed and electricity would pass through space andthrough matter entirely unconnected with its point of origin. In otherwords, he had found the forerunner of wireless telegraphy. Had he thenrealized the full import of his discovery, all he needed was to increasethe strength of the waves and to provide a very sensitive detector, likethe coherer, in order to have anticipated the principal developmentsthat came many years afterward. With these explanatory observations, wewill now turn to the excerpts referred to, which are as follows:

"November 22, 1875. New Force. --In experimenting with a vibrator magnetconsisting of a bar of Stubb's steel fastened at one end and made tovibrate by means of a magnet, we noticed a spark coming from the coresof the magnet. This we have noticed often in relays, in stock-printers, when there were a little iron filings between the armature and core, and more often in our new electric pen, and we have always come to theconclusion that it was caused by strong induction. But when we noticedit on this vibrator it seemed so strong that it struck us forcibly theremight be something more than induction. We now found that if we touchedany metallic part of the vibrator or magnet we got the spark. The largerthe body of iron touched to the vibrator the larger the spark. We nowconnected a wire to X, the end of the vibrating rod, and we found wecould get a spark from it by touching a piece of iron to it, and one ofthe most curious phenomena is that if you turn the wire around on itselfand let the point of the wire touch any other portion of itself youget a spark. By connecting X to the gas-pipe we drew sparks from thegas-pipes in any part of the room by drawing an iron wire over the brassjet of the cock. This is simply wonderful, and a good proof that thecause of the spark is a TRUE UNKNOWN FORCE. "

"November 23, 1815. New Force. --The following very curious result wasobtained with it. The vibrator shown in Fig. 1 and battery were placedon insulated stands; and a wire connected to X (tried both copper andiron) carried over to the stove about twenty feet distant. When the endof the wire was rubbed on the stove it gave out splendid sparks. Whenpermanently connected to the stove, sparks could be drawn from the stoveby a piece of wire held in the hand. The point X of vibrator was nowconnected to the gas-pipe and still the sparks could be drawn from thestove. "

. . . . . . . . . 

"Put a coil of wire over the end of rod X and passed the ends of spoolthrough galvanometer without affecting it in any way. Tried a 6-ohmspool add a 200-ohm. We now tried all the metals, touching each one inturn to the point X. " [Here follows a list of metals and the characterof spark obtained with each. ]

. . . . . . . . . 

"By increasing the battery from eight to twelve cells we get a sparkwhen the vibrating magnet is shunted with 3 ohms. Cannot taste the leastshock at B, yet between carbon points the spark is very vivid. As willbe seen, X has no connection with anything. With a glass rod four feetlong, well rubbed with a piece of silk over a hot stove, with a pieceof battery carbon secured to one end, we received vivid sparks into thecarbon when the other end was held in the hand with the handkerchief, yet the galvanometer, chemical paper, the sense of shock in the tongue, and a gold-leaf electroscope which would diverge at two feet from ahalf-inch spark plate-glass machine were not affected in the least byit. 

"A piece of coal held to the wire showed faint sparks. 

"We had a box made thus: whereby two points could be brought togetherwithin a dark box provided with an eyepiece. The points were iron, andwe found the sparks were very irregular. After testing some time twolead-pencils found more regular and very much more vivid. We thensubstituted the graphite points instead of iron. " [26]

 [Footnote 26: The dark box had micrometer screws for delicate adjustment of the carbon points, and was thereafter largely used in this series of investigations for better study of the spark. When Mr. Edison's experiments were repeated by Mr. Batchelor, who represented him at the Paris Exposition of 1881, the dark box was employed for a similar purpose. ]

. . . . . . . . . 

After recording a considerable number of other experiments, thelaboratory notes go on to state:

"November 30, 1875. Etheric Force. --We found the addition of battery tothe Stubb's wire vibrator greatly increased the volume of spark. Severalpersons could obtain sparks from the gas-pipes at once, each spark beingequal in volume and brilliancy to the spark drawn by a single person. . . . Edison now grasped the (gas) pipe, and with the other hand holding apiece of metal, he touched several other metallic substances, obtainedsparks, showing that the force passed through his body. "

. . . . . . . . . 

"December 3, 1875. Etheric Force. --Charley Edison hung to the gas-pipewith feet above the floor, and with a knife got a spark from the pipe hewas hanging on. We now took the wire from the vibrator in one handand stood on a block of paraffin eighteen inches square and six inchesthick; holding a knife in the other hand, we drew sparks from thestove-pipe. We now tried the crucial test of passing the etheric currentthrough the sciatic nerve of a frog just killed. Previous to trying, wetested its sensibility by the current from a single Bunsen cell. Weput in resistance up to 500, 000 ohms, and the twitching was stillperceptible. We tried the induced current from our induction coil havingone cell on primary, , the spark jumping about one-fiftieth of an inch, the terminal of the secondary connected to the frog and it straightenedout with violence. We arranged frog's legs to pass etheric forcethrough. We placed legs on an inverted beaker, and held the two endsof the wires on glass rods eight inches long. On connecting one to thesciatic nerve and the other to the fleshy part of the leg no movementcould be discerned, although brilliant sparks could be obtained on thegraphite points when the frog was in circuit. Doctor Beard was presentwhen this was tried. "

. . . . . . . . . 

"December 5, 1875. Etheric Force. --Three persons grasping hands andstanding upon blocks of paraffin twelve inches square and six thick drewsparks from the adjoining stove when another person touched the sounderwith any piece of metal. . . . A galvanoscopic frog giving contractionswith one cell through two water rheostats was then placed in circuit. When the wires from the vibrator and the gas-pipe were connected, slightcontractions were noted, sometimes very plain and marked, showing theapparent presence of electricity, which from the high insulation seemedimprobable. Doctor Beard, who was present, inferred from the way theleg contracted that it moved on both opening and closing the circuit. To test this we disconnected the wire between the frog and battery, andplaced, instead of a vibrating sounder, a simple Morse key and a soundertaking the 'etheric' from armature. The spark was now tested in dark boxand found to be very strong. It was then connected to the nerves of thefrog, BUT NO MOVEMENT OF ANY KIND COULD BE DETECTED UPON WORKING THEKEY, although the brilliancy and power of the spark were undiminished. The thought then occurred to Edison that the movement of the frog wasdue to mechanical vibrations from the vibrator (which gives probably twohundred and fifty vibrations per second), passing through the wiresand irritating the sensitive nerves of the frog. Upon disconnectingthe battery wires and holding a tuning-fork giving three hundredand twenty-six vibrations per second to the base of the sounder, thevibrations over the wire made the frog contract nearly every time. . . . The contraction of the frog's legs may with considerable safety be saidto be caused by these mechanical vibrations being transmitted throughthe conducting wires. "

Edison thought that the longitudinal vibrations caused by the sounderproduced a more marked effect, and proceeded to try out his theory. Thevery next entry in the laboratory note-book bears the same date as theabove (December 5, 1875), and is entitled "Longitudinal Vibrations, " andreads as follows:

"We took a long iron wire one-sixteenth of an inch in diameter andrubbed it lengthways with a piece of leather with resin on for aboutthree feet, backward and forward. About ten feet away we applied thewire to the back of the neck and it gives a horrible sensation, showingthe vibrations conducted through the wire. "

. . . . . . . . . 

The following experiment illustrates notably the movement of theelectric waves through free space:

"December 26, 1875. Etheric Force. --An experiment tried to-night gives acurious result. A is a vibrator, B, C, D, E are sheets of tin-foil hungon insulating stands. The sheets are about twelve by eight inches. B andC are twenty-six inches apart, C and D forty-eight inches and D and Etwenty-six inches. B is connected to the vibrator and E to point indark box, the other point to ground. We received sparks at intervals, although insulated by such space. "

With the above our extracts must close, although we have given but a fewof the interesting experiments tried at the time. It will be noticed, however, that these records show much progression in a little over amonth. Just after the item last above extracted, the Edison shop becamegreatly rushed on telegraphic inventions, and not many months afterwardcame the removal to Menlo Park; hence the etheric-force investigationswere side-tracked for other matters deemed to be more important at thattime. 

Doctor Beard in his previously mentioned treatise refers, on page 27, tothe views of others who have repeated Edison's experiments and observedthe phenomena, and in a foot-note says:

"Professor Houston, of Philadelphia, among others, has repeated some ofthese physical experiments, has adopted in full and after but a partialstudy of the subject, the hypothesis of rapidly reversed electricityas suggested in my letter to the Tribune of December 8th, and furtherclaims priority of discovery, because he observed the spark of this whenexperimenting with a Ruhmkorff coil four years ago. To this claim, ifit be seriously entertained, the obvious reply is that thousands ofpersons, probably, had seen this spark before it was DISCOVERED by Mr. Edison; it had been seen by Professor Nipher, who supposed, and stillsupposes, it is the spark of the extra current; it has been seen bymy friend, Prof. J. E. Smith, who assumed, as he tells me, withoutexamination, that it was inductive electricity breaking through badinsulation; it had been seen, as has been stated, by Mr. Edison manytimes before he thought it worthy of study, it was undoubtedly seen byProfessor Houston, who, like so many others, failed to even suspectits meaning and thus missed an important discovery. The honor of ascientific discovery belongs, not to him who first sees a thing, butto him who first sees it with expert eyes; not to him even who dropsan original suggestion, but to him who first makes, that suggestionfruitful of results. If to see with the eyes a phenomenon is to discoverthe law of which that phenomenon is a part, then every schoolboy who, before the time of Newton, ever saw an apple fall, was a discoverer ofthe law of gravitation. . . . "

Edison took out only one patent on long-distance telegraphy withoutwires. While the principle involved therein (induction) was notprecisely analogous to the above, or to the present system of wirelesstelegraphy, it was a step forward in the progress of the art. Theapplication was filed May 23, 1885, at the time he was working oninduction telegraphy (two years before the publication of the work ofHertz), but the patent (No. 465, 971) was not issued until December29, 1891. In 1903 it was purchased from him by the Marconi WirelessTelegraph Company. Edison has always had a great admiration for Marconiand his work, and a warm friendship exists between the two men. Duringthe formative period of the Marconi Company attempts were made toinfluence Edison to sell this patent to an opposing concern, but hisregard for Marconi and belief in the fundamental nature of his work wereso strong that he refused flatly, because in the hands of an enemy thepatent might be used inimically to Marconi's interests. 

Edison's ideas, as expressed in the specifications of this patent, showvery clearly the close analogy of his system to that now in vogue. As they were filed in the Patent Office several years before thepossibility of wireless telegraphy was suspected, it will undoubtedly beof interest to give the following extract therefrom:

"I have discovered that if sufficient elevation be obtained to overcomethe curvature of the earth's surface and to reduce to the minimum theearth's absorption, electric telegraphing or signalling betweendistant points can be carried on by induction without the use of wiresconnecting such distant points. This discovery is especially applicableto telegraphing across bodies of water, thus avoiding the use ofsubmarine cables, or for communicating between vessels at sea, orbetween vessels at sea and points on land, but it is also applicableto electric communication between distant points on land, it beingnecessary, however, on land (with the exception of communication overopen prairie) to increase the elevation in order to reduce to theminimum the induction-absorbing effect of houses, trees, and elevationsin the land itself. At sea from an elevation of one hundred feet I cancommunicate electrically a great distance, and since this elevationor one sufficiently high can be had by utilizing the masts of ships, signals can be sent and received between ships separated a considerabledistance, and by repeating the signals from ship to ship communicationcan be established between points at any distance apart or across thelargest seas and even oceans. The collision of ships in fogs can beprevented by this character of signalling, by the use of which, also, the safety of a ship in approaching a dangerous coast in foggy weathercan be assured. In communicating between points on land, poles of greatheight can be used, or captive balloons. At these elevated points, whether upon the masts of ships, upon poles or balloons, condensingsurfaces of metal or other conductor of electricity are located. Eachcondensing surface is connected with earth by an electrical conductingwire. On land this earth connection would be one of usual character intelegraphy. At sea the wire would run to one or more metal plates on thebottom of the vessel, where the earth connection would be made with thewater. The high-resistance secondary circuit of an induction coil islocated in circuit between the condensing surface and the ground. Theprimary circuit of the induction coil includes a battery and a devicefor transmitting signals, which may be a revolving circuit-breakeroperated continually by a motor of any suitable kind, either electricalor mechanical, and a key normally short-circuiting the circuit-breakeror secondary coil. For receiving signals I locate in said circuitbetween the condensing surface and the ground a diaphragm sounder, whichis preferably one of my electromotograph telephone receivers. The keynormally short-circuiting the revolving circuit-breaker, no impulses areproduced in the induction coil until the key is depressed, when a largenumber of impulses are produced in the primary, and by means of thesecondary corresponding impulses or variations in tension are producedat the elevated condensing surface, producing thereat electrostaticimpulses. These electrostatic impulses are transmitted inductivelyto the elevated condensing surface at the distant point, and are madeaudible by the electromotograph connected in the ground circuit withsuch distant condensing surface. "

The accompanying illustrations are reduced facsimiles of the drawingsattached to the above patent, No. 465, 971. 

V. THE ELECTROMOTOGRAPH

IN solving a problem that at the time was thought to be insurmountable, and in the adaptability of its principles to the successful overcomingof apparently insuperable difficulties subsequently arising in otherlines of work, this invention is one of the most remarkable of the manythat Edison has made in his long career as an inventor. 

The object primarily sought to be accomplished was the repeating oftelegraphic signals from a distance without the aid of a galvanometeror an electromagnetic relay, to overcome the claims of the Page patentreferred to in the preceding narrative. This object was achieved in thedevice described in Edison's basic patent No. 158, 787, issued January19, 1875, by the substitution of friction and anti-friction for thepresence and absence of magnetism in a regulation relay. 

It may be observed, parenthetically, for the benefit of the layreader, that in telegraphy the device known as the relay is a receivinginstrument containing an electromagnet adapted to respond to the weakline-current. Its armature moves in accordance with electrical impulses, or signals, transmitted from a distance, and, in so responding, operatesmechanically to alternately close and open a separate local circuitin which there is a sounder and a powerful battery. When used for truerelaying purposes the signals received from a distance are in turnrepeated over the next section of the line, the powerful local batteryfurnishing current for this purpose. As this causes a loud repetitionof the original signals, it will be seen that relaying is an economicmethod of extending a telegraph circuit beyond the natural limits of itsbattery power. 

At the time of Edison's invention, as related in Chapter IX of thepreceding narrative, there existed no other known method than the onejust described for the repetition of transmitted signals, thus limitingthe application of telegraphy to the pleasure of those who might own anypatent controlling the relay, except on simple circuits where a singlebattery was sufficient. Edison's previous discovery of differentialfriction of surfaces through electrochemical decomposition was nowadapted by him to produce motion at the end of a circuit withoutthe intervention of an electromagnet. In other words, he invented atelegraph instrument having a vibrator controlled by electrochemicaldecomposition, to take the place of a vibrating armature operated by anelectromagnet, and thus opened an entirely new and unsuspected avenue inthe art. 

Edison's electromotograph comprised an ingeniously arranged apparatus inwhich two surfaces, normally in contact with each other, were causedto alternately adhere by friction or slip by reason of electrochemicaldecomposition. One of these surfaces consisted of a small drum orcylinder of chalk, which was kept in a moistened condition with asuitable chemical solution, and adapted to revolve continuously byclockwork. The other surface consisted of a small pad which rested withfrictional pressure on the periphery of the drum. This pad was carriedon the end of a vibrating arm whose lateral movement was limited betweentwo adjustable points. Normally, the frictional pressure between thedrum and pad would carry the latter with the former as it revolved, butif the friction were removed a spring on the end of the vibrator armwould draw it back to its starting-place. 

In practice, the chalk drum was electrically connected with one pole ofan incoming telegraph circuit, and the vibrating arm and pad with theother pole. When the drum rotated, the friction of the pad carried thevibrating arm forward, but an electrical impulse coming over the linewould decompose the chemical solution with which the drum was moistened, causing an effect similar to lubrication, and thus allowing the pad toslip backward freely in response to the pull of its retractile spring. The frictional movements of the pad with the drum were comparativelylong or short, and corresponded with the length of the impulses sent inover the line. Thus, the transmission of Morse dots and dashes by thedistant operator resulted in movements of corresponding length by thefrictional pad and vibrating arm. 

This brings us to the gist of the ingenious way in which Edisonsubstituted the action of electrochemical decomposition for that of theelectromagnet to operate a relay. The actual relaying was accomplishedthrough the medium of two contacts making connection with the localor relay circuit. One of these contacts was fixed, while the other wascarried by the vibrating arm; and, as the latter made its forward andbackward movements, these contacts were alternately brought together orseparated, thus throwing in and out of circuit the battery and sounderin the local circuit and causing a repetition of the incoming signals. The other side of the local circuit was permanently connected to aninsulated block on the vibrator. This device not only worked with greatrapidity, but was extremely sensitive, and would respond to currentstoo weak to affect the most delicate electromagnetic relay. It shouldbe stated that Edison did not confine himself to the working of theelectromotograph by the slipping of surfaces through the action ofincoming current, but by varying the character of the surfaces incontact the frictional effect might be intensified by the electricalcurrent. In such a case the movements would be the reverse ofthose above indicated, but the end sought--namely, the relaying ofmessages--would be attained with the same certainty. 

While the principal object of this invention was to accomplish therepetition of signals without the aid of an electromagnetic relay, theinstrument devised by Edison was capable of use as a recorder also, byemploying a small wheel inked by a fountain wheel and attached to thevibrating arm through suitable mechanism. By means of this adjunct thedashes and dots of the transmitted impulses could be recorded upon apaper ribbon passing continuously over the drum. 

The electromotograph is shown diagrammatically in Figs. 1 and 2, in planand vertical section respectively. The reference letters in each caseindicate identical parts: A being the chalk drum, B the paper tape, Cthe auxiliary cylinder, D the vibrating arm, E the frictional pad, F thespring, G and H the two contacts, I and J the two wires leading to localcircuit, K a battery, and L an ordinary telegraph key. The two lastnamed, K and L, are shown to make the sketch complete but in practicewould be at the transmitting end, which might be hundreds of milesaway. It will be understood, of course, that the electromotograph is areceiving and relaying instrument. 

Another notable use of the electromotograph principle was in itsadaptation to the receiver in Edison's loud-speaking telephone, on whichUnited States Patent No. 221, 957 was issued November 25, 1879. A chalkcylinder moistened with a chemical solution was revolved by hand ora small motor. Resting on the cylinder was a palladium-faced pen orspring, which was attached to a mica diaphragm in a resonator. Thecurrent passed from the main line through the pen to the chalk and tothe battery. The sound-waves impinging upon the distant transmittervaried the resistance of the carbon button therein, thus causingcorresponding variations in the strength of the battery current. Thesevariations, passing through the chalk cylinder produced more or lesselectrochemical decomposition, which in turn caused differences ofadhesion between the pen and cylinder and hence gave rise to mechanicalvibrations of the diaphragm by reason of which the speaker's words werereproduced. Telephones so operated repeated speaking and singing invery loud tones. In one instance, spoken words and the singing of songsoriginating at a distance were heard perfectly by an audience of overfive thousand people. 

The loud-speaking telephone is shown in section, diagrammatically, in the sketch (Fig. 3), in which A is the chalk cylinder mounted ona shaft, B. The palladium-faced pen or spring, C, is connected todiaphragm D. The instrument in its commercial form is shown in Fig. 4. 

VI. THE TELEPHONE

ON April 27, 1877, Edison filed in the United States Patent Office anapplication for a patent on a telephone, and on May 3, 1892, morethan fifteen years afterward, Patent No. 474, 230 was granted thereon. Numerous other patents have been issued to him for improvements intelephones, but the one above specified may be considered as themost important of them, since it is the one that first discloses theprinciple of the carbon transmitter. 

This patent embodies but two claims, which are as follows:

"1. In a speaking-telegraph transmitter, the combination of a metallicdiaphragm and disk of plumbago or equivalent material, the contiguousfaces of said disk and diaphragm being in contact, substantially asdescribed. 

"2. As a means for effecting a varying surface contact in the circuit ofa speaking-telegraph transmitter, the combination of two electrodes, one of plumbago or similar material, and both having broad surfaces invibratory contact with each other, substantially as described. "

The advance that was brought about by Edison's carbon transmitter willbe more apparent if we glance first at the state of the art of telephonyprior to his invention. 

Bell was undoubtedly the first inventor of the art of transmittingspeech over an electric circuit, but, with his particular form oftelephone, the field was circumscribed. Bell's telephone is shown in thediagrammatic sectional sketch (Fig. 1). 

In the drawing M is a bar magnet contained in the rubber case, L. Abobbin, or coil of wire, B, surrounds one end of the magnet. A diaphragmof soft iron is shown at D, and E is the mouthpiece. The wire terminalsof the coil, B, connect with the binding screws, C C. 

The next illustration shows a pair of such telephones connected for use, the working parts only being designated by the above reference letters. 

It will be noted that the wire terminals are here put to their properuses, two being joined together to form a line of communication, and theother two being respectively connected to "ground. "

Now, if we imagine a person at each one of the instruments (Fig. 2) weshall find that when one of them speaks the sound vibrations impingeupon the diaphragm and cause it to act as a vibrating armature. Byreason of its vibrations, this diaphragm induces very weak electricimpulses in the magnetic coil. These impulses, according to Bell'stheory, correspond in form to the sound-waves, and, passing over theline, energize the magnet coil at the receiving end, thus giving rise tocorresponding variations in magnetism by reason of which the receivingdiaphragm is similarly vibrated so as to reproduce the sounds. A singleapparatus at each end is therefore sufficient, performing the doublefunction of transmitter and receiver. It will be noticed that in thisarrangement no battery is used The strength of the impulses transmittedis therefore limited to that of the necessarily weak induction currentsgenerated by the original sounds minus any loss arising by reason ofresistance in the line. 

Edison's carbon transmitter overcame this vital or limiting weaknessby providing for independent power on the transmission circuit, and byintroducing the principle of varying the resistance of that circuit withchanges in the pressure. With Edison's telephone there is used a closedcircuit on which a battery current constantly flows, and in thatcircuit is a pair of electrodes, one or both of which is carbon. Theseelectrodes are always in contact with a certain initial pressure, so that current will be always flowing over the circuit. One of theelectrodes is connected with the diaphragm on which the sound-wavesimpinge, and the vibrations of this diaphragm cause correspondingvariations in pressure between the electrodes, and thereby effectsimilar variations in the current which is passing over the line to thereceiving end. This current, flowing around the receiving magnet, causescorresponding impulses therein, which, acting upon its diaphragm, effecta reproduction of the original vibrations and hence of the originalsounds. 

In other words, the essential difference is that with Bell's telephonethe sound-waves themselves generate the electric impulses, which aretherefore extremely faint. With Edison's telephone the sound-wavessimply actuate an electric valve, so to speak, and permit variations ina current of any desired strength. 

A second distinction between the two telephones is this: With the Bellapparatus the very weak electric impulses generated by the vibration ofthe transmitting diaphragm pass over the entire line to the receivingend, and, in consequence, the possible length of line is limited toa few miles, even under ideal conditions. With Edison's telephone thebattery current does not flow on the main line, but passes throughthe primary circuit of an induction-coil, from the secondary of whichcorresponding impulses of enormously higher potential are sent out onthe main line to the receiving end. In consequence, the line may behundreds of miles in length. No modern telephone system is in use to-daythat does not use these characteristic features: the varying resistanceand the induction-coil. The system inaugurated by Edison is shown by thediagram (Fig. 3), in which the carbon transmitter, the induction-coil, the line, and the distant receiver are respectively indicated. 

In Fig. 4 an early form of the Edison carbon transmitter is representedin sectional view. 

The carbon disk is represented by the black portion, E, near thediaphragm, A, placed between two platinum plates D and G, which areconnected in the battery circuit, as shown by the lines. A smallpiece of rubber tubing, B, is attached to the centre of the metallicdiaphragm, and presses lightly against an ivory piece, F, which isplaced directly over one of the platinum plates. Whenever, therefore, any motion is given to the diaphragm, it is immediately followed by acorresponding pressure upon the carbon, and by a change of resistance inthe latter, as described above. 

It is interesting to note the position which Edison occupies inthe telephone art from a legal standpoint. To this end the reader'sattention is called to a few extracts from a decision of Judge Brownin two suits brought in the United States Circuit Court, Districtof Massachusetts, by the American Bell Telephone Company against theNational Telephone Manufacturing Company, et al. , and Century TelephoneCompany, et al. , reported in Federal Reporter, 109, page 976, et seq. These suits were brought on the Berliner patent, which, it was claimed, covered broadly the electrical transmission of speech by variations ofpressure between opposing electrodes in constant contact. The Berlinerpatent was declared invalid, and in the course of a long and exhaustiveopinion, in which the state of art and the work of Bell, Edison, Berliner, and others was fully discussed, the learned Judge made thefollowing remarks: "The carbon electrode was the invention of Edison. . . . Edison preceded Berliner in the transmission of speech. . . . The carbontransmitter was an experimental invention of a very high order ofmerit. . . . Edison, by countless experiments, succeeded in advancing theart. . . . That Edison did produce speech with solid electrodes beforeBerliner is clearly proven. . . . The use of carbon in a transmitter is, beyond controversy, the invention of Edison. Edison was the first tomake apparatus in which carbon was used as one of the electrodes. . . . The carbon transmitter displaced Bell's magnetic transmitter, and, under several forms of construction, remains the only commercialinstrument. . . . The advance in the art was due to the carbon electrode ofEdison. . . . It is conceded that the Edison transmitter as apparatus is avery important invention. . . . An immense amount of painstaking and highlyingenious experiment preceded Edison's successful result. The discoveryof the availability of carbon was unquestionably invention, and itresulted in the 'first practical success in the art. '"

VII. EDISON'S TASIMETER

THIS interesting and remarkable device is one of Edison's manyinventions not generally known to the public at large, chiefly becausethe range of its application has been limited to the higher branches ofscience. He never applied for a patent on the instrument, but dedicatedit to the public. 

The device was primarily intended for use in detecting and measuringinfinitesimal degrees of temperature, however remote, and its conceptionfollowed Edison's researches on the carbon telephone transmitter. Itsprinciple depends upon the variable resistance of carbon in accordancewith the degree of pressure to which it is subjected. By means ofthis instrument, pressures that are otherwise inappreciable andundiscoverable may be observed and indicated. 

The detection of small variations of temperatures is brought aboutthrough the changes which heat or cold will produce in a sensitivematerial placed in contact with a carbon button, which is put in circuitwith a battery and delicate galvanometer. In the sketch (Fig. 1) thereis illustrated, partly in section, the form of tasimeter which Edisontook with him to Rawlins, Wyoming, in July, 1878, on the expedition toobserve the total eclipse of the sun. 

The substance on whose expansion the working of the instrument dependsis a strip of some material extremely sensitive to heat, such asvulcanite. Shown at A, and firmly clamped at B. Its lower end fits intoa slot in a metal plate, C, which in turn rests upon a carbon button. This latter and the metal plate are connected in an electric circuitwhich includes a battery and a sensitive galvanometer. A vulcanite orother strip is easily affected by differences of temperature, expanding and contracting by reason of the minutest changes. Thus, aninfinitesimal variation in its length through expansion or contractionchanges the pressure on the carbon and affects the resistance of thecircuit to a corresponding degree, thereby causing a deflection ofthe galvanometer; a movement of the needle in one direction denotingexpansion, and in the other contraction. The strip, A, is first putunder a slight pressure, deflecting the needle a few degrees from zero. Any subsequent expansion or contraction of the strip may readilybe noted by further movements of the needle. In practice, and formeasurements of a very delicate nature, the tasimeter is inserted in onearm of a Wheatstone bridge, as shown at A in the diagram (Fig. 2). Thegalvanometer is shown at B in the bridge wire, and at C, D, and E thereare shown the resistances in the other arms of the bridge, which areadjusted to equal the resistance of the tasimeter circuit. The batteryis shown at F. This arrangement tends to obviate any misleadingdeflections that might arise through changes in the battery. 

The dial on the front of the instrument is intended to indicate theexact amount of physical expansion or contraction of the strip. This isascertained by means of a micrometer screw, S, which moves a needle, T, in front of the dial. This screw engages with a second and similar screwwhich is so arranged as to move the strip of vulcanite up or down. Aftera galvanometer deflection has been obtained through the expansion orcontraction of the strip by reason of a change of temperature, a similardeflection is obtained mechanically by turning the screw, S, one way orthe other. This causes the vulcanite strip to press more or lessupon the carbon button, and thus produces the desired change in theresistance of the circuit. When the galvanometer shows the desireddeflection, the needle, T, will indicate upon the dial, in decimalfractions of an inch, the exact distance through which the strip hasbeen moved. 

With such an instrument as the above, Edison demonstrated the existenceof heat in the corona at the above-mentioned total eclipse of the sun, but exact determinations could not be made at that time, because thetasimeter adjustment was too delicate, and at the best the galvanometerdeflections were so marked that they could not be kept within thelimits of the scale. The sensitiveness of the instrument may be easilycomprehended when it is stated that the heat of the hand thirty feetaway from the cone-like funnel of the tasimeter will so affect thegalvanometer as to cause the spot of light to leave the scale. 

This instrument can also be used to indicate minute changes ofmoisture in the air by substituting a strip of gelatine in place of thevulcanite. When so arranged a moistened piece of paper held several feetaway will cause a minute expansion of the gelatine strip, whicheffects a pressure on the carbon, and causes a variation in the circuitsufficient to throw the spot of light from the galvanometer mirror offthe scale. 

The tasimeter has been used to demonstrate heat from remote stars(suns), such as Arcturus. 

VIII. THE EDISON PHONOGRAPH

THE first patent that was ever granted on a device for permanentlyrecording the human voice and other sounds, and for reproducing the sameaudibly at any future time, was United States Patent No. 200, 251, issuedto Thomas A. Edison on February 19, 1878, the application havingbeen filed December 24, 1877. It is worthy of note that no referenceswhatever were cited against the application while under examination inthe Patent Office. This invention therefore, marked the very beginningof an entirely new art, which, with the new industries attendant uponits development, has since grown to occupy a position of worldwidereputation. 

That the invention was of a truly fundamental character is also evidentfrom the fact that although all "talking-machines" of to-day differ verywidely in refinement from the first crude but successful phonograph ofEdison, their performance is absolutely dependent upon the employment ofthe principles stated by him in his Patent No. 200, 251. Quoting from thespecification attached to this patent, we find that Edison said:

"The invention consists in arranging a plate, diaphragm or otherflexible body capable of being vibrated by the human voice or othersounds, in conjunction with a material capable of registering themovements of such vibrating body by embossing or indenting or alteringsuch material, in such a manner that such register marks will besufficient to cause a second vibrating plate or body to be set in motionby them, and thus reproduce the motions of the first vibrating body. "

It will be at once obvious that these words describe perfectly thebasic principle of every modern phonograph or other talking-machine, irrespective of its manufacture or trade name. 

Edison's first model of the phonograph is shown in the followingillustration. 

It consisted of a metallic cylinder having a helical indenting groovecut upon it from end to end. This cylinder was mounted on a shaftsupported on two standards. This shaft at one end was fitted with ahandle, by means of which the cylinder was rotated. There were twodiaphragms, one on each side of the cylinder, one being for recordingand the other for reproducing speech or other sounds. Each diaphragmhad attached to it a needle. By means of the needle attached to therecording diaphragm, indentations were made in a sheet of tin-foilstretched over the peripheral surface of the cylinder when the diaphragmwas vibrated by reason of speech or other sounds. The needle onthe other diaphragm subsequently followed these indentations, thusreproducing the original sounds. 

Crude as this first model appears in comparison with machines of laterdevelopment and refinement, it embodied their fundamental essentials, and was in fact a complete, practical phonograph from the first momentof its operation. 

The next step toward the evolution of the improved phonograph of to-daywas another form of tin-foil machine, as seen in the illustration. 

It will be noted that this was merely an elaborated form of the firstmodel, and embodied several mechanical modifications, among which wasthe employment of only one diaphragm for recording and reproducing. Such was the general type of phonograph used for exhibition purposesin America and other countries in the three or four years immediatelysucceeding the date of this invention. 

In operating the machine the recording diaphragm was advanced nearlyto the cylinder, so that as the diaphragm was vibrated by the voice theneedle would prick or indent a wave-like record in the tin-foil thatwas on the cylinder. The cylinder was constantly turned during therecording, and in turning, was simultaneously moved forward. Thus therecord would be formed on the tin-foil in a continuous spiral line. To reproduce this record it was only necessary to again start at thebeginning and cause the needle to retrace its path in the spiral line. The needle, in passing rapidly in contact with the recorded waves, wasvibrated up and down, causing corresponding vibrations of the diaphragm. In this way sound-waves similar to those caused by the original soundswould be set up in the air, thus reproducing the original speech. 

The modern phonograph operates in a precisely similar way, the onlydifference being in details of refinement. Instead of tin-foil, a waxcylinder is employed, the record being cut thereon by a cutting-toolattached to a diaphragm, while the reproduction is effected by means ofa blunt stylus similarly attached. 

The cutting-tool and stylus are devices made of sapphire, a gem next inhardness to a diamond, and they have to be cut and formed to an exactnicety by means of diamond dust, most of the work being performed underhigh-powered microscopes. The minute proportions of these devices willbe apparent by a glance at the accompanying illustrations, in which theobject on the left represents a common pin, and the objects on the rightthe cutting-tool and reproducing stylus, all actual sizes. 

In the next illustration (Fig. 4) there is shown in the upper sketch, greatly magnified, the cutting or recording tool in the act of formingthe record, being vibrated rapidly by the diaphragm; and in the lowersketch, similarly enlarged, a representation of the stylus travellingover the record thus made, in the act of effecting a reproduction. 

From the late summer of 1878 and to the fall of 1887 Edison wasintensely busy on the electric light, electric railway, and otherproblems, and virtually gave no attention to the phonograph. Hence, just prior to the latter-named period the instrument was still in itstin-foil age; but he then began to devote serious attention to thedevelopment of an improved type that should be of greater commercialimportance. The practical results are too well known to call for furthercomment. That his efforts were not limited in extent may be inferredfrom the fact that since the fall of 1887 to the present writing he hasbeen granted in the United States one hundred and four patents relatingto the phonograph and its accessories. 

Interesting as the numerous inventions are, it would be a work ofsupererogation to digest all these patents in the present pages, as theyrepresent not only the inception but also the gradual development andgrowth of the wax-record type of phonograph from its infancy to thepresent perfected machine and records now so widely known all over theworld. From among these many inventions, however, we will select twoor three as examples of ingenuity and importance in their bearing uponpresent perfection of results. 

One of the difficulties of reproduction for many years was the troubleexperienced in keeping the stylus in perfect engagement with thewave-like record, so that every minute vibration would be reproduced. Itshould be remembered that the deepest cut of the recording tool is onlyabout one-third the thickness of tissue-paper. Hence, it will be quiteapparent that the slightest inequality in the surface of the wax wouldbe sufficient to cause false vibration, and thus give rise to distortedeffects in such music or other sounds as were being reproduced. Toremedy this, Edison added an attachment which is called a "floatingweight, " and is shown at A in the illustration above. 

The function of the floating weight is to automatically keep thestylus in close engagement with the record, thus insuring accuracy ofreproduction. The weight presses the stylus to its work, but becauseof its mass it cannot respond to the extremely rapid vibrations of thestylus. They are therefore communicated to the diaphragm. 

Some of Edison's most remarkable inventions are revealed in a number ofinteresting patents relating to the duplication of phonograph records. It would be obviously impossible, from a commercial standpoint, toobtain a musical record from a high-class artist and sell such anoriginal to the public, as its cost might be from one hundred to severalthousand dollars. Consequently, it is necessary to provide some way bywhich duplicates may be made cheaply enough to permit their purchase bythe public at a reasonable price. 

The making of a perfect original musical or other record is a matterof no small difficulty, as it requires special technical knowledge andskill gathered from many years of actual experience; but in the exactcopying, or duplication, of such a record, with its many millionsof microscopic waves and sub-waves, the difficulties are enormouslyincreased. The duplicates must be microscopically identical with theoriginal, they must be free from false vibrations or other defects, although both original and duplicates are of such easily defacablematerial as wax; and the process must be cheap and commercial not ascientific laboratory possibility. 

For making duplicates it was obviously necessary to first secure a moldcarrying the record in negative or reversed form. From this could bemolded, or cast, positive copies which would be identical with theoriginal. While the art of electroplating would naturally suggestitself as the means of making such a mold, an apparently insurmountableobstacle appeared on the very threshold. Wax, being a non-conductor, cannot be electroplated unless a conducting surface be first applied. The coatings ordinarily used in electro-deposition were entirely out ofthe question on account of coarseness, the deepest waves of the recordbeing less than one-thousandth of an inch in depth, and many of themprobably ten to one hundred times as shallow. Edison finally decidedto apply a preliminary metallic coating of infinitesimal thinness, andaccomplished this object by a remarkable process known as the vacuousdeposit. With this he applied to the original record a film of goldprobably no thicker than one three-hundred-thousandth of an inch, orseveral hundred times less than the depth of an average wave. Threehundred such layers placed one on top of the other would make a sheet nothicker than tissue-paper. 

The process consists in placing in a vacuum two leaves, or electrodes, of gold, and between them the original record. A constant discharge ofelectricity of high tension between the electrodes is effected by meansof an induction-coil. The metal is vaporized by this discharge, and iscarried by it directly toward and deposited upon the original record, thus forming the minute film of gold above mentioned. The record isconstantly rotated until its entire surface is coated. A sectionaldiagram of the apparatus (Fig. 6. ) will aid to a clearer understandingof this ingenious process. 

After the gold film is formed in the manner described above, a heavybacking of baser metal is electroplated upon it, thus forming asubstantial mold, from which the original record is extracted bybreakage or shrinkage. 

Duplicate records in any quantity may now be made from this mold bysurrounding it with a cold-water jacket and dipping it in a moltenwax-like material. This congeals on the record surface just as meltedbutter would collect on a cold knife, and when the mold is removed thesurplus wax falls out, leaving a heavy deposit of the material whichforms the duplicate record. Numerous ingenious inventions have been madeby Edison providing for a variety of rapid and economical methodsof duplication, including methods of shrinking a newly made copy tofacilitate its quick removal from the mold; methods of reaming, offorming ribs on the interior, and for many other important and essentialdetails, which limits of space will not permit of elaboration. Thosementioned above are but fair examples of the persistent and effectivework he has done to bring the phonograph to its present state ofperfection. 

In perusing Chapter X of the foregoing narrative, the reader undoubtedlynoted Edison's clear apprehension of the practical uses of thephonograph, as evidenced by his prophetic utterances in the articlewritten by him for the North American Review in June, 1878. In view ofthe crudity of the instrument at that time, it must be acknowledged thatEdison's foresight, as vindicated by later events was most remarkable. No less remarkable was his intensely practical grasp of mechanicalpossibilities of future types of the machine, for we find in one of hisearly English patents (No. 1644 of 1878) the disk form of phonographwhich, some ten to fifteen years later, was supposed to be a newdevelopment in the art. This disk form was also covered by Edison'sapplication for a United States patent, filed in 1879. This applicationmet with some merely minor technical objections in the Patent Office, and seems to have passed into the "abandoned" class for want ofprosecution, probably because of being overlooked in the tremendouspressure arising from his development of his electric-lighting system. 

IX. THE INCANDESCENT LAMP

ALTHOUGH Edison's contributions to human comfort and progress areextensive in number and extraordinarily vast and comprehensive inscope and variety, the universal verdict of the world points to hisincandescent lamp and system of distribution of electrical current asthe central and crowning achievements of his life up to this time. Thisview would seem entirely justifiable when we consider the wonderfulchanges in the conditions of modern life that have been brought aboutby the wide-spread employment of these inventions, and the giganticindustries that have grown up and been nourished by their world-wideapplication. That he was in this instance a true pioneer and creatoris evident as we consider the subject, for the United States Patent No. 223, 898, issued to Edison on January 27, 1880, for an incandescent lamp, was of such fundamental character that it opened up an entirely new andtremendously important art--the art of incandescent electric lighting. This statement cannot be successfully controverted, for it has beenabundantly verified after many years of costly litigation. If furtherproof were desired, it is only necessary to point to the fact that, after thirty years of most strenuous and practical application in theart by the keenest intellects of the world, every incandescent lampthat has ever since been made, including those of modern days, isstill dependent upon the employment of the essentials disclosed in theabove-named patent--namely, a filament of high resistance enclosed ina sealed glass globe exhausted of air, with conducting wires passingthrough the glass. 

An incandescent lamp is such a simple-appearing article--merely afilament sealed into a glass globe--that its intrinsic relation to theart of electric lighting is far from being apparent at sight. To the laymind it would seem that this must have been THE obvious device to makein order to obtain electric light by incandescence of carbon orother material. But the reader has already learned from the precedingnarrative that prior to its invention by Edison such a device was NOTobvious, even to the most highly trained experts of the world at thatperiod; indeed, it was so far from being obvious that, for some timeafter he had completed practical lamps and was actually lighting them uptwenty-four hours a day, such a device and such a result were declaredby these same experts to be an utter impossibility. For a short whilethe world outside of Menlo Park held Edison's claims in derision. His lamp was pronounced a fake, a myth, possibly a momentary successmagnified to the dignity of a permanent device by an overenthusiasticinventor. 

Such criticism, however, did not disturb Edison. He KNEW that he hadreached the goal. Long ago, by a close process of reasoning, he hadclearly seen that the only road to it was through the path he hadtravelled, and which was now embodied in the philosophy of hisincandescent lamp--namely, a filament, or carbon, of high resistance andsmall radiating surface, sealed into a glass globe exhausted of air to ahigh degree of vacuum. In originally committing himself to this lineof investigation he was well aware that he was going in a directiondiametrically opposite to that followed by previous investigators. Theirefforts had been confined to low-resistance burners of large radiatingsurface for their lamps, but he realized the utter futility of suchdevices. The tremendous problems of heat and the prohibitive quantitiesof copper that would be required for conductors for such lamps would beabsolutely out of the question in commercial practice. 

He was convinced from the first that the true solution of theproblem lay in a lamp which should have as its illuminating bodya strip of material which would offer such a resistance tothe flow of electric current that it could be raised to a hightemperature--incandescence--and be of such small cross-section that itwould radiate but little heat. At the same time such a lamp must requirea relatively small amount of current, in order that comparatively smallconductors could be used, and its burner must be capable of withstandingthe necessarily high temperatures without disintegration. 

It is interesting to note that these conceptions were in Edison's mindat an early period of his investigations, when the best expert opinionwas that the subdivision of the electric current was an ignis fatuus. Hence we quote the following notes he made, November 15, 1878, in one ofthe laboratory note-books:

"A given straight wire having 1 ohm resistance and certain length isbrought to a given degree of temperature by given battery. If the samewire be coiled in such a manner that but one-quarter of its surfaceradiates, its temperature will be increased four times with thesame battery, or, one-quarter of this battery will bring it to thetemperature of straight wire. Or the same given battery will bringa wire whose total resistance is 4 ohms to the same temperature asstraight wire. 

"This was actually determined by trial. 

"The amount of heat lost by a body is in proportion to the radiatingsurface of that body. If one square inch of platina be heated to 100degrees it will fall to, say, zero in one second, whereas, if it was at200 degrees it would require two seconds. 

"Hence, in the case of incandescent conductors, if the radiating surfacebe twelve inches and the temperature on each inch be 100, or 1200 forall, if it is so coiled or arranged that there is but one-quarter, orthree inches, of radiating surface, then the temperature on each inchwill be 400. If reduced to three-quarters of an inch it will have onthat three-quarters of an inch 1600 degrees Fahr. , notwithstandingthe original total amount was but 1200, because the radiation hasbeen reduced to three-quarters, or 75 units; hence, the effect of thelessening of the radiation is to raise the temperature of each remaininginch not radiating to 125 degrees. If the radiating surface should bereduced to three-thirty-seconds of an inch, the temperature would reach6400 degrees Fahr. To carry out this law to the best advantage in regardto platina, etc. , then with a given length of wire to quadruple the heatwe must lessen the radiating surface to one-quarter, and to do this in aspiral, three-quarters must be within the spiral and one-quarter outsidefor radiating; hence, a square wire or other means, such as a spiralwithin a spiral, must be used. These results account for the enormoustemperature of the Electric Arc with one horse-power; as, for instance, if one horse-power will heat twelve inches of wire to 1000 degreesFahr. , and this is concentrated to have one-quarter of the radiatingsurface, it would reach a temperature of 4000 degrees or sufficientto melt it; but, supposing it infusible, the further concentration toone-eighth its surface, it would reach a temperature of 16, 000 degrees, and to one-thirty-second its surface, which would be about the radiatingsurface of the Electric Arc, it would reach 64, 000 degrees Fahr. Ofcourse, when Light is radiated in great quantities not quite thesetemperatures would be reached. 

"Another curious law is this: It will require a greater initial batteryto bring an iron wire of the same size and resistance to a giventemperature than it will a platina wire in proportion to their specificheats, and in the case of Carbon, a piece of Carbon three inches longand one-eighth diameter, with a resistance of 1 ohm, will require agreater battery power to bring it to a given temperature than a cylinderof thin platina foil of the same length, diameter, and resistance, because the specific heat of Carbon is many times greater; besides, ifI am not mistaken, the radiation of a roughened body for heat is greaterthan a polished one like platina. "

Proceeding logically upon these lines of thought and following themout through many ramifications, we have seen how he at length made afilament of carbon of high resistance and small radiating surface, andthrough a concurrent investigation of the phenomena of high vacua andoccluded gases was able to produce a true incandescent lamp. Not onlywas it a lamp as a mere article--a device to give light--but it was alsoan integral part of his great and complete system of lighting, to everypart of which it bore a fixed and definite ratio, and in relation towhich it was the keystone that held the structure firmly in place. 

The work of Edison on incandescent lamps did not stop at thisfundamental invention, but extended through more than eighteen yearsof a most intense portion of his busy life. During that period he wasgranted one hundred and forty-nine other patents on the lamp and itsmanufacture. Although very many of these inventions were of the utmostimportance and value, we cannot attempt to offer a detailed expositionof them in this necessarily brief article, but must refer the reader, if interested, to the patents themselves, a full list being given atthe end of this Appendix. The outline sketch will indicate the principalpatents covering the basic features of the lamp. 

The litigation on the Edison lamp patents was one of the most determinedand stubbornly fought contests in the history of modern jurisprudence. Vast interests were at stake. All of the technical, expert, andprofessional skill and knowledge that money could procure or experiencedevise were availed of in the bitter fights that raged in the courts formany years. And although the Edison interests had spent from first tolast nearly $2, 000, 000, and had only about three years left in thelife of the fundamental patent, Edison was thoroughly sustained as topriority by the decisions in the various suits. We shall offer a fewbrief extracts from some of these decisions. 

In a suit against the United States Electric Lighting Company, UnitedStates Circuit Court for the Southern District of New York, July 14, 1891, Judge Wallace said, in his opinion: "The futility of hoping tomaintain a burner in vacuo with any permanency had discouraged priorinventors, and Mr. Edison is entitled to the credit of obviating themechanical difficulties which disheartened them. . . . He was the firstto make a carbon of materials, and by a process which was especiallydesigned to impart high specific resistance to it; the first to make acarbon in the special form for the special purpose of imparting to ithigh total resistance; and the first to combine such a burner with thenecessary adjuncts of lamp construction to prevent its disintegrationand give it sufficiently long life. By doing these things he made a lampwhich was practically operative and successful, the embryo of the bestlamps now in commercial use, and but for which the subdivision of theelectric light by incandescence would still be nothing but the ignisfatuus which it was proclaimed to be in 1879 by some of the reamedexperts who are now witnesses to belittle his achievement and show thatit did not rise to the dignity of an invention. . . . It is impossible toresist the conclusion that the invention of the slender thread of carbonas a substitute for the burners previously employed opened the path tothe practical subdivision of the electric light. "

An appeal was taken in the above suit to the United States Circuit Courtof Appeals, and on October 4, 1892, the decree of the lower court wasaffirmed. The judges (Lacombe and Shipman), in a long opinion reviewedthe facts and the art, and said, inter alia: "Edison's invention waspractically made when he ascertained the theretofore unknown fact thatcarbon would stand high temperature, even when very attenuated, ifoperated in a high vacuum, without the phenomenon of disintegration. This fact he utilized by the means which he has described, a lamp havinga filamentary carbon burner in a nearly perfect vacuum. "

In a suit against the Boston Incandescent Lamp Company et al. , in theUnited States Circuit Court for the District of Massachusetts, decidedin favor of Edison on June 11, 1894, Judge Colt, in his opinion, said, among other things: "Edison made an important invention; he produced thefirst practical incandescent electric lamp; the patent is a pioneer inthe sense of the patent law; it may be said that his invention createdthe art of incandescent electric lighting. "

Opinions of other courts, similar in tenor to the foregoing, might becited, but it would be merely in the nature of reiteration. The aboveare sufficient to illustrate the direct clearness of judicial decisionon Edison's position as the founder of the art of electric lighting byincandescence. 

X. EDISON'S DYNAMO WORK

AT the present writing, when, after the phenomenally rapid electricaldevelopment of thirty years, we find on the market a great variety ofmodern forms of efficient current generators advertised under the namesof different inventors (none, however, bearing the name of Edison), ayoung electrical engineer of the present generation might well inquirewhether the great inventor had ever contributed anything to the artbeyond a mere TYPE of machine formerly made and bearing his name, butnot now marketed except second hand. 

For adequate information he might search in vain the books usuallyregarded as authorities on the subject of dynamo-electric machinery, for with slight exceptions there has been a singular unanimity inthe omission of writers to give Edison credit for his great and basiccontributions to heavy-current technics, although they have beenuniversally acknowledged by scientific and practical men to have laidthe foundation for the efficiency of, and to be embodied in all moderngenerators of current. 

It might naturally be expected that the essential facts of Edison'swork would appear on the face of his numerous patents on dynamo-electricmachinery, but such is not necessarily the case, unless they arecarefully studied in the light of the state of the art as it existedat the time. While some of these patents (especially the earlier ones)cover specific devices embodying fundamental principles that not onlysurvive to the present day, but actually lie at the foundation ofthe art as it now exists, there is no revelation therein of Edison'spreceding studies of magnets, which extended over many years, nor of hislater systematic investigations and deductions. 

Dynamo-electric machines of a primitive kind had been invented and werein use to a very limited extent for arc lighting and electroplating forsome years prior to the summer of 1819, when Edison, with an embryoniclighting SYSTEM in mind, cast about for a type of machine technicallyand commercially suitable for the successful carrying out of his plans. He found absolutely none. On the contrary, all of the few types thenobtainable were uneconomical, indeed wasteful, in regard to efficiency. The art, if indeed there can be said to have been an art at that time, was in chaotic confusion, and only because of Edison's many years' studyof the magnet was he enabled to conclude that insufficiency in quantityof iron in the magnets of such machines, together with poor surfacecontacts, rendered the cost of magnetization abnormally high. Theheating of solid armatures, the only kind then known, and poorinsulation in the commutators, also gave rise to serious losses. Butperhaps the most serious drawback lay in the high-resistance armature, based upon the highest scientific dictum of the time that in orderto obtain the maximum amount of work from a machine, the internalresistance of the armature must equal the resistance of the exteriorcircuit, although the application of this principle entailed the uselessexpenditure of at least 50 per cent. Of the applied energy. 

It seems almost incredible that only a little over thirty years ago thesum of scientific knowledge in regard to dynamo-electric machines was someagre that the experts of the period should settle upon such a dictumas this, but such was the fact, as will presently appear. Mechanicalgenerators of electricity were comparatively new at that time; theirtheory and practice were very imperfectly understood; indeed, it isquite within the bounds of truth to say that the correct principles werebefogged by reason of the lack of practical knowledge of their actualuse. Electricians and scientists of the period had been accustomed formany years past to look to the chemical battery as the source from whichto obtain electrical energy; and in the practical application of suchenergy to telegraphy and kindred uses, much thought and ingenuity hadbeen expended in studying combinations of connecting such cells so as toget the best results. In the text-books of the period it was stated as asettled principle that, in order to obtain the maximum work out of aset of batteries, the internal resistance must approximately equal theresistance of the exterior circuit. This principle and its applicationin practice were quite correct as regards chemical batteries, but not asregards dynamo machines. Both were generators of electrical current, butso different in construction and operation, that rules applicable to thepractical use of the one did not apply with proper commercial efficiencyto the other. At the period under consideration, which may be said tohave been just before dawn of the day of electric light, the philosophyof the dynamo was seen only in mysterious, hazy outlines--just emergingfrom the darkness of departing night. Perhaps it is not surprising, then, that the dynamo was loosely regarded by electricians asthe practical equivalent of a chemical battery; that many of thecharacteristics of performance of the chemical cell were also attributedto it, and that if the maximum work could be gotten out of a set ofbatteries when the internal and external resistances were equal (andthis was commercially the best thing to do), so must it be also with adynamo. 

It was by no miracle that Edison was far and away ahead of his timewhen he undertook to improve the dynamo. He was possessed of absoluteKNOWLEDGE far beyond that of his contemporaries. This he ad acquired bythe hardest kind of work and incessant experiment with magnets of allkinds during several years preceding, particularly in connectionwith his study of automatic telegraphy. His knowledge of magnets wastremendous. He had studied and experimented with electromagnets inenormous variety, and knew their peculiarities in charge and discharge, lag, self-induction, static effects, condenser effects, and the variousother phenomena connected therewith. He had also made collateral studiesof iron, steel, and copper, insulation, winding, etc. Hence, by reasonof this extensive work and knowledge, Edison was naturally in a positionto realize the utter commercial impossibility of the then best dynamomachine in existence, which had an efficiency of only about 40 percent. , and was constructed on the "cut-and-try" principle. 

He was also naturally in a position to assume the task he set out toaccomplish, of undertaking to plan and-build an improved type of machinethat should be commercial in having an efficiency of at least 90 percent. Truly a prodigious undertaking in those dark days, when from thestandpoint of Edison's large experience the most practical and correctelectrical treatise was contained in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, andin a German publication which Mr. Upton had brought with him after hehad finished his studies with the illustrious Helmholtz. It was at thisperiod that Mr. Upton commenced his association with Edison, bringingto the great work the very latest scientific views and the assistanceof the higher mathematics, to which he had devoted his attention forseveral years previously. 

As some account of Edison's investigations in this connection hasalready been given in Chapter XII of the narrative, we shall not enlargeupon them here, but quote from An Historical Review, by Charles L. Clarke, Laboratory Assistant at Menlo Park, 1880-81; Chief Engineer ofthe Edison Electric Light Company, 1881-84:

"In June, 1879, was published the account of the Edison dynamo-electricmachine that survived in the art. This machine went into extensivecommercial use, and was notable for its very massive and powerfulfield-magnets and armature of extremely low resistance as compared withthe combined external resistance of the supply-mains and lamps. By meansof the large masses of iron in the field-magnets, and closely fittedjoints between the several parts thereof, the magnetic resistance(reluctance) of the iron parts of the magnetic circuit was reduced toa minimum, and the required magnetization effected with the maximumeconomy. At the same time Mr. Edison announced the commercial necessityof having the armature of the dynamo of low resistance, as comparedwith the external resistance, in order that a large percentage of theelectrical energy developed should be utilized in the lamps, and only asmall percentage lost in the armature, albeit this procedure reduced thetotal generating capacity of the machine. He also proposed to make theresistance of the supply-mains small, as compared with the combinedresistance of the lamps in multiple arc, in order to still furtherincrease the percentage of energy utilized in the lamps. And likewise tothis end the combined resistance of the generator armatures in multiplearc was kept relatively small by adjusting the number of generatorsoperating in multiple at any time to the number of lamps then in use. The field-magnet circuits of the dynamos were connected in multiple witha separate energizing source; and the field-current; and strength offield, were regulated to maintain the required amount of electromotiveforce upon the supply-mains under all conditions of load from themaximum to the minimum number of lamps in use, and to keep theelectromotive force of all machines alike. "

Among the earliest of Edison's dynamo experiments were those relating tothe core of the armature. He realized at once that the heat generated ina solid core was a prolific source of loss. He experimented withbundles of iron wires variously insulated, also with sheet-iron rolledcylindrically and covered with iron wire wound concentrically. Theseexperiments and many others were tried in a great variety of ways, until, as the result of all this work, Edison arrived at the principlewhich has remained in the art to this day. He split up the iron core ofthe armature into thin laminations, separated by paper, thus practicallysuppressing Foucault currents therein and resulting heating effect. It was in his machine also that mica was used for the first time as aninsulating medium in a commutator. [27]

 [Footnote 27: The commercial manufacture of built-up sheets of mica for electrical purposes was first established at the Edison Machine Works, Goerck Street, New York, in 1881. ]

Elementary as these principles will appear to the modern student orengineer, they were denounced as nothing short of absurdity at the timeof their promulgation--especially so with regard to Edison's proposalto upset the then settled dictum that the armature resistance shouldbe equal to the external resistance. His proposition was derided inthe technical press of the period, both at home and abroad. As publicopinion can be best illustrated by actual quotation, we shall present acharacteristic instance. 

In the Scientific American of October 18, 1879, there appeared anillustrated article by Mr. Upton on Edison's dynamo machine, in whichEdison's views and claims were set forth. A subsequent issue contained asomewhat acrimonious letter of criticism by a well-known maker of dynamomachines. At the risk of being lengthy, we must quote nearly all thisletter: "I can scarcely conceive it as possible that the article on theabove subject '(Edison's Electric Generator)' in last week's ScientificAmerican could have been written from statements derived from Mr. Edisonhimself, inasmuch as so many of the advantages claimed for the machinedescribed and statements of the results obtained are so manifestlyabsurd as to indicate on the part of both writer and prompter a positivewant of knowledge of the electric circuit and the principles governingthe construction and operation of electric machines. 

"It is not my intention to criticise the design or construction of themachine (not because they are not open to criticism), as I am nowand have been for many years engaged in the manufacture of electricmachines, but rather to call attention to the impossibility ofobtaining the described results without destroying the doctrine of theconservation and correlation of forces. 

. . . . . 

"It is stated that 'the internal resistance of the armature' of thismachine 'is only 1/2 ohm. ' On this fact and the disproportion betweenthis resistance and that of the external circuit, the theory of thealleged efficiency of the machine is stated to be based, for we areinformed that, 'while this generator in general principle is the sameas in the best well-known forms, still there is an all-importantdifference, which is that it will convert and deliver for useful worknearly double the number of foot-pounds that any other machine willunder like conditions. '" The writer of this critical letter thenproceeds to quote Mr. Upton's statement of this efficiency: "'Now theenergy converted is distributed over the whole resistance, hence if theresistance of the machine be represented by 1 and the exterior circuitby 9, then of the total energy converted nine-tenths will be useful, asit is outside of the machine, and one-tenth is lost in the resistance ofthe machine. '"

After this the critic goes on to say:

"How any one acquainted with the laws of the electric circuit can makesuch statements is what I cannot understand. The statement last quotedis mathematically absurd. It implies either that the machine isCAPABLE OF INCREASING ITS OWN ELECTROMOTIVE FORCE NINE TIMES WITHOUTAN INCREASED EXPENDITURE OF POWER, or that external resistance is NOTresistance to the current induced in the Edison machine. 

"Does Mr. Edison, or any one for him, mean to say that r/n enables himto obtain nE, and that C IS NOT = E / (r/n + R)? If so Mr. Edison hasdiscovered something MORE than perpetual motion, and Mr. Keely hadbetter retire from the field. 

"Further on the writer (Mr. Upton) gives us another example of this modeof reasoning when, emboldened and satisfied with the absurd theory aboveexposed, he endeavors to prove the cause of the inefficiency of theSiemens and other machines. Couldn't the writer of the article see thatsince C = E/(r + R) that by R/n or by making R = r, the machine would, according to his theory, have returned more useful current to thecircuit than could be due to the power employed (and in the ratioindicated), so that there would actually be a creation of force! . . . . 

"In conclusion allow me to say that if Mr Edison thinks he hasaccomplished so much by the REDUCTION OF THE INTERNAL RESISTANCE ofhis machine, that he has much more to do in this direction before hismachine will equal IN THIS RESPECT others already in the market. "

Another participant in the controversy on Edison's generator was ascientific gentleman, who in a long article published in the ScientificAmerican, in November, 1879, gravely undertook to instruct Edison inthe A B C of electrical principles, and then proceeded to demonstratemathematically the IMPOSSIBILITY of doing WHAT EDISON HAD ACTUALLY DONE. This critic concludes with a gentle rebuke to the inventor for ill-timedjesting, and a suggestion to furnish AUTHENTIC information!

In the light of facts, as they were and are, this article is so full ofhumor that we shall indulge in a few quotations It commences in A BC fashion as follows: "Electric machines convert mechanical intoelectrical energy. . . . The ratio of yield to consumption is theexpression of the efficiency of the machine. . . . How many foot-poundsof electricity can be got out of 100 foot-pounds of mechanical energy?Certainly not more than 100: certainly less. . . . The facts and lawsof physics, with the assistance of mathematical logic, never fail tofurnish precious answers to such questions. "

The would-be critic then goes on to tabulate tests of certain otherdynamo machines by a committee of the Franklin Institute in 1879, theresults of which showed that these machines returned about 50 per cent. Of the applied mechanical energy, ingenuously remarking: "Why is it thatwhen we have produced the electricity, half of it must slip away? Somepersons will be content if they are told simply that it is a way whichelectricity has of behaving. But there is a satisfactory rationalexplanation which I believe can be made plain to persons of ordinaryintelligence. It ought to be known to all those who are making or usingmachines. I am grieved to observe that many persons who talk and writeglibly about electricity do not understand it; some even ignore or denythe fact to be explained. "

Here follows HIS explanation, after which he goes on to say: "At thispoint plausibly comes in a suggestion that the internal part of thecircuit be made very small and the external part very large. Whynot (say) make the internal part 1 and the external 9, thus savingnine-tenths and losing only one-tenth? Unfortunately, the suggestion isnot practical; a fallacy is concealed in it. "

He then goes on to prove his case mathematically, to his ownsatisfaction, following it sadly by condoling with and a warning toEdison: "But about Edison's electric generator! . . . No one capable ofmaking the improvements in the telegraph and telephone, for which we areindebted to Mr. Edison, could be other than an accomplished electrician. His reputation as a scientist, indeed, is smirched by the newspaperexaggerations, and no doubt he will be more careful in future. But thereis a danger nearer home, indeed, among his own friends and in his veryhousehold. 

". . . The writer of page 242" (the original article) "is probably afriend of Mr. Edison, but possibly, alas! a wicked partner. Why doeshe say such things as these? 'Mr. Edison claims that he realizes 90per cent. Of the power applied to this machine in external work. ' . . . Perhaps the writer is a humorist, and had in his mind Colonel Sellers, etc. , which he could not keep out of a serious discussion; but suchjests are not good. 

"Mr. Edison has built a very interesting machine, and he has theopportunity of making a valuable contribution to the electrical arts byfurnishing authentic accounts of its capabilities. "

The foregoing extracts are unavoidably lengthy, but, viewed in the lightof facts, serve to illustrate most clearly that Edison's conceptions andwork were far and away ahead of the comprehension of his contemporariesin the art, and that his achievements in the line of efficient dynamodesign and construction were indeed truly fundamental and revolutionaryin character. Much more of similar nature to the above could be quotedfrom other articles published elsewhere, but the foregoing will serve asinstances generally representing all. In the controversy whichappeared in the columns of the Scientific American, Mr. Upton, Edison'smathematician, took up the question on his side, and answered thecritics by further elucidations of the principles on which Edison hadfounded such remarkable and radical improvements in the art. The typeof Edison's first dynamo-electric machine, the description of which gaverise to the above controversy, is shown in Fig. 1. 

Any account of Edison's work on the dynamo would be incomplete didit omit to relate his conception and construction of the greatdirect-connected steam-driven generator that was the prototype of thecolossal units which are used throughout the world to-day. 

In the demonstrating plant installed and operated by him at MenloPark in 1880 ten dynamos of eight horse-power each were driven by aslow-speed engine through a complicated system of counter-shafting, and, to quote from Mr. Clarke's Historical Review, "it was found thata considerable percentage of the power of the engine was necessarilywasted in friction by this method of driving, and to prevent this wasteand thus increase the economy of his system, Mr. Edison conceivedthe idea of substituting a single large dynamo for the several smalldynamos, and directly coupling it with the driving engine, and at thesame time preserve the requisite high armature speed by using an engineof the high-speed type. He also expected to realize still further gainsin economy from the use of a large dynamo in place of several smallmachines by a more than correspondingly lower armature resistance, lessenergy for magnetizing the field, and for other minor reasons. To thesame end, he intended to supply steam to the engine under a much higherboiler pressure than was customary in stationary-engine driving at thattime. "

The construction of the first one of these large machines was commencedlate in the year 1880. Early in 1881 it was completed and tested, butsome radical defects in armature construction were developed, and it wasalso demonstrated that a rate of engine speed too high for continuouslysafe and economical operation had been chosen. The machine was laidaside. An accurate illustration of this machine, as it stood in theengine-room at Menlo Park, is given in Van Nostrand's EngineeringMagazine, Vol. XXV, opposite page 439, and a brief description is givenon page 450. 

With the experience thus gained, Edison began, in the spring of 1881, atthe Edison Machine Works, Goerck Street, New York City, the constructionof the first successful machine of this type. This was the great machineknown as "Jumbo No. 1, " which is referred to in the narrative as havingbeen exhibited at the Paris International Electrical Exposition, whereit was regarded as the wonder of the electrical world. An intimation ofsome of the tremendous difficulties encountered in the construction ofthis machine has already been given in preceding pages, hence we shallnot now enlarge on the subject, except to note in passing that theterribly destructive effects of the spark of self-induction and thearcing following it were first manifested in this powerful machine, butwere finally overcome by Edison after a strenuous application of hispowers to the solution of the problem. 

It may be of interest, however, to mention some of its dimensionsand electrical characteristics, quoting again from Mr. Clarke: "Thefield-magnet had eight solid cylindrical cores, 8 inches in diameterand 57 inches long, upon each of which was wound an exciting-coil of 3. 2ohms resistance, consisting of 2184 turns of No. 10 B. W. G. Insulatedcopper wire, disposed in six layers. The laminated iron core of thearmature, formed of thin iron disks, was 33 3/4 inches long, and had aninternal diameter of 12 1/2 inches, and an external diameter of 26 7/16inches. It was mounted on a 6-inch shaft. The field-poles were 33 3/4inches long, and 27 1/2 inches inside diameter The armature windingconsisted of 146 copper bars on the face of the core, connected into aclosed-coil winding by means of 73 copper disks at each end of the core. The cross-sectional area of each bar was 0. 2 square inch their averagelength was 42. 7 inches, and the copper end-disks were 0. 065 inch thick. The commutator had 73 sections. The armature resistance was 0. 0092ohm, [28] of which 0. 0055 ohm was in the armature bars and 0. 0037 ohm inthe end-disks. " An illustration of the next latest type of this machineis presented in Fig. 2. 

 [Footnote 28: Had Edison in Upton's Scientific American article in 1879 proposed such an exceedingly low armature resistance for this immense generator (although its ratio was proportionate to the original machine), his critics might probably have been sufficiently indignant as to be unable to express themselves coherently. ]

The student may find it interesting to look up Edison's United StatesPatents Nos. 242, 898, 263, 133, 263, 146, and 246, 647, bearing upon theconstruction of the "Jumbo"; also illustrated articles in the technicaljournals of the time, among which may be mentioned: Scientific American, Vol. XLV, page 367; Engineering, London, Vol. XXXII, pages 409 and 419, The Telegraphic Journal and Electrical Review, London, Vol. IX, pages431-433, 436-446; La Nature, Paris, 9th year, Part II, pages 408-409;Zeitschrift fur Angewandte Elektricitaatslehre, Munich and Leipsic, Vol. IV, pages 4-14; and Dredge's Electric Illumination, 1882, Vol. I, page261. 

The further development of these great machines later on, and theirextensive practical use, are well known and need no further comment, except in passing it may be noted that subsequent machines had eacha capacity of 1200 lamps of 16 candle-power, and that the armatureresistance was still further reduced to 0. 0039 ohm. 

Edison's clear insight into the future, as illustrated by his persistentadvocacy of large direct-connected generating units, is abundantlyvindicated by present-day practice. His Jumbo machines, of 175horse-power, so enormous for their time, have served as prototypes, andhave been succeeded by generators which have constantly grown in sizeand capacity until at this time (1910) it is not uncommon to employsuch generating units of a capacity of 14, 000 kilowatts, or about 18, 666horse-power. 

We have not entered into specific descriptions of the many other formsof dynamo machines invented by Edison, such as the multipolar, thedisk dynamo, and the armature with two windings, for sub-stationdistribution; indeed, it is not possible within our limited space topresent even a brief digest of Edison's great and comprehensive work onthe dynamo-electric machine, as embodied in his extensive experimentsand in over one hundred patents granted to him. We have, therefore, confined ourselves to the indication of a few salient and basicfeatures, leaving it to the interested student to examine the patentsand the technical literature of the long period of time over whichEdison's labors were extended. 

Although he has not given any attention to the subject of generators formany years, an interesting instance of his incisive method of overcomingminor difficulties occurred while the present volumes were underpreparation (1909). Carbon for commutator brushes has been supersededby graphite in some cases, the latter material being found much moreadvantageous, electrically. Trouble developed, however, for the reasonthat while carbon was hard and would wear away the mica insulationsimultaneously with the copper, graphite, being softer, would wearaway only the copper, leaving ridges of mica and thus causing sparkingthrough unequal contact. At this point Edison was asked to diagnose thetrouble and provide a remedy. He suggested the cutting out of the micapieces almost to the bottom, leaving the commutator bars separated byair-spaces. This scheme was objected to on the ground that particlesof graphite would fill these air-spaces and cause a short-circuit. Hisanswer was that the air-spaces constituted the value of his plan, asthe particles of graphite falling into them would be thrown out by theaction of centrifugal force as the commutator revolved. And thus itoccurred as a matter of fact, and the trouble was remedied. This ideawas subsequently adopted by a great manufacturer of generators. 

XI. THE EDISON FEEDER SYSTEM

TO quote from the preamble of the specifications of United StatesPatent No. 264, 642, issued to Thomas A. Edison September 19, 1882: "Thisinvention relates to a method of equalizing the tension or 'pressure'of the current through an entire system of electric lighting or othertranslation of electric force, preventing what is ordinarily known as a'drop' in those portions of the system the more remote from the centralstation. . . . "

The problem which was solved by the Edison feeder system was thatrelating to the equal distribution of current on a large scale overextended areas, in order that a constant and uniform electrical pressurecould be maintained in every part of the distribution area withoutprohibitory expenditure for copper for mains and conductors. 

This problem had a twofold aspect, although each side was inseparablybound up in the other. On the one hand it was obviously necessary in alighting system that each lamp should be of standard candle-power, andcapable of interchangeable use on any part of the system, giving thesame degree of illumination at every point, whether near to or remotefrom the source of electrical energy. On the other hand, this must beaccomplished by means of a system of conductors so devised and arrangedthat while they would insure the equal pressure thus demanded, theirmass and consequent cost would not exceed the bounds of practical andcommercially economical investment. 

The great importance of this invention can be better understood andappreciated by a brief glance at the state of the art in 1878-79, when Edison was conducting the final series of investigations whichculminated in his invention of the incandescent lamp and SYSTEM oflighting. At this time, and for some years previously, the scientificworld had been working on the "subdivision of the electric light, " asit was then termed. Some leading authorities pronounced it absolutelyimpossible of achievement on any extended scale, while a very fewothers, of more optimistic mind, could see no gleam of light through thedarkness, but confidently hoped for future developments by such workersas Edison. 

The earlier investigators, including those up to the period above named, thought of the problem as involving the subdivision of a FIXED UNITof current, which, being sufficient to cause illumination by one largelamp, might be divided into a number of small units whose aggregatelight would equal the candle-power of this large lamp. It was found, however, in their experiments that the contrary effect was produced, for with every additional lamp introduced in the circuit the totalcandle-power decreased instead of increasing. If they were placed inseries the light varied inversely as the SQUARE of the number of lampsin circuit; while if they were inserted in multiple arc, the lightdiminished as the CUBE of the number in circuit. [29] The idea ofmaintaining a constant potential and of PROPORTIONING THE CURRENT tothe number of lamps in circuit did not occur to most of theseearly investigators as a feasible method of overcoming the supposeddifficulty. 

 [Footnote 29: M. Fontaine, in his book on Electric Lighting (1877), showed that with the current of a battery composed of sixteen elements, one lamp gave an illumination equal to 54 burners; whereas two similar lamps, if introduced in parallel or multiple arc, gave the light of only 6 1/2 burners in all; three lamps of only 2 burners in all; four lamps of only 3/4 of one burner, and five lamps of 1/4 of a burner. ]

It would also seem that although the general method of placingexperimental lamps in multiple arc was known at this period, the ideaof "drop" of electrical pressure was imperfectly understood, if, indeed, realized at all, as a most important item to be considered in attemptingthe solution of the problem. As a matter of fact, the investigatorspreceding Edison do not seem to have conceived the idea of a "system" atall; hence it is not surprising to find them far astray from the correcttheory of subdivision of the electric current. It may easily bebelieved that the term "subdivision" was a misleading one to these earlyexperimenters. For a very short time Edison also was thus misled, butas soon as he perceived that the problem was one involving theMULTIPLICATION OF CURRENT UNITS, his broad conception of a "system" wasborn. 

Generally speaking, all conductors of electricity offer more or lessresistance to the passage of current through them and in the technicalterminology of electrical science the word "drop" (when used inreference to a system of distribution) is used to indicate a fall orloss of initial electrical pressure arising from the resistance offeredby the copper conductors leading from the source of energy to the lamps. The result of this resistance is to convert or translate a portion ofthe electrical energy into another form--namely, heat, which in theconductors is USELESS and wasteful and to some extent inevitable inpractice, but is to be avoided and remedied as far as possible. 

It is true that in an electric-lighting system there is also a fall orloss of electrical pressure which occurs in overcoming the much greaterresistance of the filament in an incandescent lamp. In this case thereis also a translation of the energy, but here it accomplishes a USEFULpurpose, as the energy is converted into the form of light through theincandescence of the filament. Such a conversion is called "work"as distinguished from "drop, " although a fall of initial electricalpressure is involved in each case. 

The percentage of "drop" varies according to the quantity of copperused in conductors, both as to cross-section and length. The smaller thecross-sectional area, the greater the percentage of drop. The practicaleffect of this drop would be a loss of illumination in the lamps as wego farther away from the source of energy. This may be illustrated bya simple diagram in which G is a generator, or source of energy, furnishing current at a potential or electrical pressure of 110 volts;1 and 2 are main conductors, from which 110-volt lamps, L, are taken inderived circuits. It will be understood that the circuits represented inFig. 1 are theoretically supposed to extend over a large area. The mainconductors are sufficiently large in cross-section to offer but littleresistance in those parts which are comparatively near the generator, but as the current traverses their extended length there is a gradualincrease of resistance to overcome, and consequently the drop increases, as shown by the figures. The result of the drop in such a case wouldbe that while the two lamps, or groups, nearest the generator would beburning at their proper degree of illumination, those beyond would givelower and lower candle-power, successively, until the last lamp, orgroup, would be giving only about two-thirds the light of the first two. In other words, a very slight drop in voltage means a disproportionatelygreat loss in illumination. Hence, by using a primitive system ofdistribution, such as that shown by Fig. 1, the initial voltage wouldhave to be so high, in order to obtain the proper candle-power atthe end of the circuit, that the lamps nearest the generator would bedangerously overheated. It might be suggested as a solution of thisproblem that lamps of different voltages could be used. But, as we areconsidering systems of extended distribution employing vast numbers oflamps (as in New York City, where millions are in use), it will be seenthat such a method would lead to inextricable confusion, and thereforebe absolutely out of the question. Inasmuch as the percentage ofdrop decreases in proportion to the increased cross-section of theconductors, the only feasible plan would seem to be to increase theirsize to such dimensions as to eliminate the drop altogether, beginningwith conductors of large cross-section and tapering off as necessary. This would, indeed, obviate the trouble, but, on the other hand, wouldgive rise to a much more serious difficulty--namely, the enormousoutlay for copper; an outlay so great as to be absolutely prohibitory inconsidering the electric lighting of large districts, as now practiced. 

Another diagram will probably make this more clear. The referencefigures are used as before, except that the horizontal lines extendingfrom square marked G represent the main conductors. As each lamprequires and takes its own proportion of the total current generated, it is obvious that the size of the conductors to carry the current fora number of lamps must be as large as the sum of ALL the separateconductors which would be required to carry the necessary amount ofcurrent to each lamp separately. Hence, in a primitive multiple-arcsystem, it was found that the system must have conductors of a sizeequal to the aggregate of the individual conductors necessary for everylamp. Such conductors might either be separate, as shown above (Fig. 2), or be bunched together, or made into a solid tapering conductor, asshown in the following figure:

The enormous mass of copper needed in such a system can be betterappreciated by a concrete example. Some years ago Mr. W. J. Jenks madea comparative calculation which showed that such a system of conductors(known as the "Tree" system), to supply 8640 lamps in a territoryextending over so small an area as nine city blocks, would require803, 250 pounds of copper, which at the then price of 25 cents per poundwould cost $200, 812. 50!

Such, in brief, was the state of the art, generally speaking, at theperiod above named (1878-79). As early in the art as the latter end ofthe year 1878, Edison had developed his ideas sufficiently to determinethat the problem of electric illumination by small units could be solvedby using incandescent lamps of high resistance and small radiatingsurface, and by distributing currents of constant potential thereto inmultiple arc by means of a ramification of conductors, starting from acentral source and branching therefrom in every direction. This wasan equivalent of the method illustrated in Fig. 3, known as the "Tree"system, and was, in fact, the system used by Edison in the firstand famous exhibition of his electric light at Menlo Park around theChristmas period of 1879. He realized, however, that the enormousinvestment for copper would militate against the commercial adoption ofelectric lighting on an extended scale. His next inventive stepcovered the division of a large city district into a number of smallsub-stations supplying current through an interconnected network ofconductors, thus reducing expenditure for copper to some extent, becauseeach distribution unit was small and limited the drop. 

His next development was the radical advancement of the state of the artto the feeder system, covered by the patent now under discussion. This invention swept away the tree and other systems, and at one boundbrought into being the possibility of effectively distributing largecurrents over extended areas with a commercially reasonable investmentfor copper. 

The fundamental principles of this invention were, first, to severentirely any direct connection of the main conductors with the source ofenergy; and, second, to feed current at a constant potential to centralpoints in such main conductors by means of other conductors, called"feeders, " which were to be connected directly with the source of energyat the central station. This idea will be made more clear by referenceto the following simple diagram, in which the same letters are used asbefore, with additions:

In further elucidation of the diagram, it may be considered that themains are laid in the street along a city block, more or less distantfrom the station, while the feeders are connected at one end with thesource of energy at the station, their other extremities being connectedto the mains at central points of distribution. Of course, this systemwas intended to be applied in every part of a district to be suppliedwith current, separate sets of feeders running out from the station tothe various centres. The distribution mains were to be of sufficientlylarge size that between their most extreme points the loss would notbe more than 3 volts. Such a slight difference would not make anappreciable variation in the candle-power of the lamps. 

By the application of these principles, the inevitable but useless loss, or "drop, " required by economy might be incurred, but was LOCALIZED INTHE FEEDERS, where it would not affect the uniformity of illuminationof the lamps in any of the circuits, whether near to or remote from thestation, because any variations of loss in the feeders would not giverise to similar fluctuations in any lamp circuit. The feeders might beoperated at any desired percentage of loss that would realize economy incopper, so long as they delivered current to the main conductors at thepotential represented by the average voltage of the lamps. 

Thus the feeders could be made comparatively small in cross-section. Itwill be at once appreciated that, inasmuch as the mains required to belaid ONLY along the blocks to be lighted, and were not required to berun all the way to the central station (which might be half a mile ormore away), the saving of copper by Edison's feeder system was enormous. Indeed, the comparative calculation of Mr. Jenks, above referred to, shows that to operate the same number of lights in the same extendedarea of territory, the feeder system would require only 128, 739 poundsof copper, which, at the then price of 25 cents per pound, would costonly $39, 185, or A SAVING of $168, 627. 50 for copper in this very smalldistrict of only nine blocks. 

An additional illustration, appealing to the eye, is presented in thefollowing sketch, in which the comparative masses of copper of the treeand feeder systems for carrying the same current are shown side by side:

XII. THE THREE-WIRE SYSTEM

THIS invention is covered by United States Patent No. 274, 290, issued toEdison on March 20, 1883. The object of the invention was to providefor increased economy in the quantity of copper employed for the mainconductors in electric light and power installations of considerableextent at the same time preserving separate and independent controlof each lamp, motor, or other translating device, upon any one of thevarious distribution circuits. 

Immediately prior to this invention the highest state of the art ofelectrical distribution was represented by Edison's feeder system, whichhas already been described as a straight parallel or multiple-arcsystem wherein economy of copper was obtained by using separate setsof conductors--minus load--feeding current at standard potential orelectrical pressure into the mains at centres of distribution. 

It should be borne in mind that the incandescent lamp which was acceptedat the time as a standard (and has so remained to the present day) wasa lamp of 110 volts or thereabouts. In using the word "standard, "therefore, it is intended that the same shall apply to lamps of aboutthat voltage, as well as to electrical circuits of the approximatepotential to operate them. 

Briefly stated, the principle involved in the three-wire system is toprovide main circuits of double the standard potential, so as to operatestandard lamps, or other translating devices, in multiple series of twoto each series; and for the purpose of securing independent, individualcontrol of each unit, to divide each main circuit into any desirednumber of derived circuits of standard potential (properly balanced)by means of a central compensating conductor which would be normallyneutral, but designed to carry any minor excess of current that mightflow by reason of any temporary unbalancing of either side of the maincircuit. 

Reference to the following diagrams will elucidate this principle moreclearly than words alone can do. For the purpose of increased luciditywe will first show a plain multiple-series system. 

In this diagram G and G represent two generators, each producingcurrent at a potential of 110 volts. By connecting them in series thispotential is doubled, thus providing a main circuit (P and N) of 220volts. The figures marked L represent eight lamps of 110 volts each, inmultiple series of two, in four derived circuits. The arrows indicatethe flow of current. By this method each pair of lamps takes, together, only the same quantity or volume of current required by a single lamp ina simple multiple-arc system; and, as the cross-section of a conductordepends upon the quantity of current carried, such an arrangement asthe above would allow the use of conductors of only one-fourth thecross-section that would be otherwise required. From the standpoint ofeconomy of investment such an arrangement would be highly desirable, but considered commercially it is impracticable because the principle ofindependent control of each unit would be lost, as the turning out of alamp in any series would mean the extinguishment of its companion also. By referring to the diagram it will be seen that each series of twoforms one continuous path between the main conductors, and if this pathbe broken at any one point current will immediately cease to flow inthat particular series. 

Edison, by his invention of the three-wire system, overcame thisdifficulty entirely, and at the same time conserved approximately, thesaving of copper, as will be apparent from the following illustration ofthat system, in its simplest form. 

The reference figures are similar to those in the preceding diagram, and all conditions are also alike except that a central compensating, orbalancing, conductor, PN, is here introduced. This is technically termedthe "neutral" wire, and in the discharge of its functions lies thesolution of the problem of economical distribution. Theoretically, athree-wire installation is evenly balanced by wiring for an equal numberof lamps on both sides. If all these lamps were always lighted, burned, and extinguished simultaneously the central conductor would, in fact, remain neutral, as there would be no current passing through it, exceptfrom lamp to lamp. In practice, however, no such perfect conditions canobtain, hence the necessity of the provision for balancing in order tomaintain the principle of independent control of each unit. 

It will be apparent that the arrangement shown in Fig. 2 comprisespractically two circuits combined in one system, in which the centralconductor, PN, in case of emergency, serves in two capacities--namely, as negative to generator G or as positive to generator G, although normally neutral. There are two sides to the system, thepositive side being represented by the conductors P and PN, and thenegative side by the conductors PN and N. Each side, if consideredseparately, has a potential of about 110 volts, yet the potential of thetwo outside conductors, P and N, is 220 volts. The lamps are 110 volts. 

In practical use the operation of the system is as follows: If all thelamps were lighted the current would flow along P and through each pairof lamps to N, and so back to the source of energy. In this case thebalance is preserved and the central wire remains neutral, as no returncurrent flows through it to the source of energy. But let us supposethat one lamp on the positive side is extinguished. None of the otherlamps is affected thereby, but the system is immediately thrown out ofbalance, and on the positive side there is an excess of current to thisextent which flows along or through the central conductor and returns tothe generator, the central conductor thus becoming the negative of thatside of the system for the time being. If the lamp extinguished had beenone of those on the negative side of the system results of a similarnature would obtain, except that the central conductor would for thetime being become the positive of that side, and the excess of currentwould flow through the negative, N, back to the source of energy. Thusit will be seen that a three-wire system, considered as a whole, iselastic in that it may operate as one when in balance and as two whenunbalanced, but in either event giving independent control of each unit. 

For simplicity of illustration a limited number of circuits, shown inFig. 2, has been employed. In practice, however, where great numbersof lamps are in use (as, for instance, in New York City, where about7, 000, 000 lamps are operated from various central stations), there isconstantly occurring more or less change in the balance of many circuitsextending over considerable distances, but of course there is a netresult which is always on one side of the system or the other for thetime being, and this is met by proper adjustment at the appropriategenerator in the station. 

In order to make the explanation complete, there is presented anotherdiagram showing a three-wire system unbalanced:

The reference figures are used as before, but in this case the verticallines represent branches taken from the main conductors into buildingsor other spaces to be lighted, and the loops between these branch wiresrepresent lamps in operation. It will be seen from this sketch thatthere are ten lamps on the positive side and twelve on the negativeside. Hence, the net result is an excess of current equal to thatrequired by two lamps flowing through the central or compensatingconductor, which is now acting as positive to generator G The arrowsshow the assumed direction of flow of current throughout the system, and the small figures at the arrow-heads the volume of that currentexpressed in the number of lamps which it supplies. 

The commercial value of this invention may be appreciated from the factthat by the application of its principles there is effected a savingof 62 1/2 per cent. Of the amount of copper over that which wouldbe required for conductors in any previously devised two-wire systemcarrying the same load. This arises from the fact that by the doublingof potential the two outside mains are reduced to one-quarter thecross-section otherwise necessary. A saving of 75 per cent. Would thusbe assured, but the addition of a third, or compensating, conductor ofthe same cross-section as one of the outside mains reduces the totalsaving to 62 1/2 per cent. 

The three-wire system is in universal use throughout the world at thepresent day. 

XIII. EDISON'S ELECTRIC RAILWAY

AS narrated in Chapter XVIII, there were two electric railroadsinstalled by Edison at Menlo Park--one in 1880, originally a third of amile long, but subsequently increased to about a mile in length, and theother in 1882, about three miles long. As the 1880 road was built verysoon after Edison's notable improvements in dynamo machines, and as theart of operating them to the best advantage was then being developed, this early road was somewhat crude as compared with the railroad of1882; but both were practicable and serviceable for the purpose ofhauling passengers and freight. The scope of the present article willbe confined to a description of the technical details of these twoinstallations. 

The illustration opposite page 454 of the preceding narrative shows thefirst Edison locomotive and train of 1880 at Menlo Park. 

For the locomotive a four-wheel iron truck was used, and upon itwas mounted one of the long "Z" type 110-volt Edison dynamos, with acapacity of 75 amperes, which was to be used as a motor. This machinewas laid on its side, its armature being horizontal and located towardthe front of the locomotive. 

We now quote from an article by Mr. E. W. Hammer, published in theElectrical World, New York, June 10, 1899, and afterward elaborated andreprinted in a volume entitled Edisonia, compiled and published underthe auspices of a committee of the Association of Edison IlluminatingCompanies, in 1904: "The gearing originally employed consisted of afriction-pulley upon the armature shaft, another friction-pulley uponthe driven axle, and a third friction-pulley which could be broughtin contact with the other two by a suitable lever. Each wheel of thelocomotive was made with metallic rim and a centre portion made of woodor papier-mache. A three-legged spider connected the metal rim of eachfront wheel to a brass hub, upon which rested a collecting brush. The other wheels were subsequently so equipped. It was the intention, therefore, that the current should enter the locomotive wheels at oneside, and after passing through the metal spiders, collecting brushesand motor, would pass out through the corresponding brushes, spiders, and wheels to the other rail. "

As to the road: "The rails were light and were spiked to ordinarysleepers, with a gauge of about three and one-half feet. The sleeperswere laid upon the natural grade, and there was comparatively no effortmade to ballast the road. . . . No special precautions were taken toinsulate the rails from the earth or from each other. "

The road started about fifty feet away from the generating station, which in this case was the machine shop. Two of the "Z" type dynamoswere used for generating the current, which was conveyed to the tworails of the road by underground conductors. 

On Thursday, May 13, 1880, at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, this historiclocomotive made its first trip, packed with as many of the "boys" ascould possibly find a place to hang on. "Everything worked to a charm, until, in starting up at one end of the road, the friction gearingwas brought into action too suddenly and it was wrecked. This accidentdemonstrated that some other method of connecting the armature with thedriven axle should be arranged. 

"As thus originally operated, the motor had its field circuit inpermanent connection as a shunt across the rails, and this field circuitwas protected by a safety-catch made by turning up two bare ends of thewire in its circuit and winding a piece of fine copper wire across fromone bare end to the other. The armature circuit had a switch in it whichpermitted the locomotive to be reversed by reversing the direction ofcurrent flow through the armature. 

"After some consideration of the gearing question, it was decided toemploy belts instead of the friction-pulleys. " Accordingly, Edisoninstalled on the locomotive a system of belting, including anidler-pulley which was used by means of a lever to tighten the maindriving-belt, and thus power was applied to the driven axle. Thisinvolved some slipping and consequent burning of belts; also, if thebelt were prematurely tightened, the burning-out of the armature. This latter event happened a number of times, "and proved to be sucha serious annoyance that resistance-boxes were brought out from thelaboratory and placed upon the locomotive in series with the armature. This solved the difficulty. The locomotive would be started with theseresistance-boxes in circuit, and after reaching full speed the operatorcould plug the various boxes out of circuit, and in that way increasethe speed. " To stop, the armature circuit was opened by the main switchand the brake applied. 

This arrangement was generally satisfactory, but the resistance-boxesscattered about the platform and foot-rests being in the way, Edisondirected that some No. 8 B. & S. Copper wire be wound on the lower legof the motor field-magnet. "By doing this the resistance was putwhere it would take up the least room, and where it would serve as anadditional field-coil when starting the motor, and it replaced all theresistance-boxes which had heretofore been in plain sight. The boxesunder the seat were still retained in service. The coil of coarse wirewas in series with the armature, just as the resistance-boxes had been, and could be plugged in or out of circuit at the will of the locomotivedriver. The general arrangement thus secured was operated as long asthis road was in commission. "

On this short stretch of road there were many sharp curves and steepgrades, and in consequence of the high speed attained (as high asforty-two miles an hour) several derailments took place, but fortunatelywithout serious results. Three cars were in service during the entiretime of operating this 1880 railroad: one a flat-car for freight; one anopen car with two benches placed back to back; and the third a box-car, familiarly known as the "Pullman. " This latter car had an interestingadjunct in an electric braking system (covered by Edison's Patent No. 248, 430). "Each car axle had a large iron disk mounted on and revolvingwith it between the poles of a powerful horseshoe electromagnet. Thepole-pieces of the magnet were movable, and would be attracted to therevolving disk when the magnet was energized, grasping the same andacting to retard the revolution of the car axle. "

Interesting articles on Edison's first electric railroad were publishedin the technical and other papers, among which may be mentioned the NewYork Herald, May 15 and July 23, 1880; the New York Graphic, July 27, 1880; and the Scientific American, June 6, 1880. 

Edison's second electric railroad of 1882 was more pretentious asregards length, construction, and equipment. It was about three mileslong, of nearly standard gauge, and substantially constructed. Curveswere modified, and grades eliminated where possible by the erectionof numerous trestles. This road also had some features of conventionalrailroads, such as sidings, turn-tables, freight platform, andcar-house. "Current was supplied to the road by underground feedercables from the dynamo-room of the laboratory. The rails were insulatedfrom the ties by giving them two coats of japan, baking them in theoven, and then placing them on pads of tar-impregnated muslin laidon the ties. The ends of the rails were not japanned, but wereelectroplated, to give good contact surfaces for fish-plates and copperbonds. "

The following notes of Mr. Frederick A. Scheffler, who designed thepassenger locomotive for the 1882 road, throw an interesting light onits technical details:

"In May, 1881, I was engaged by Mr. M. F. Moore, who was the firstGeneral Manager of the Edison Company for Isolated Lighting, as adraftsman to undertake the work of designing and building Edison'selectric locomotive No. 2. 

"Previous to that time I had been employed in the engineering departmentof Grant Locomotive Works, Paterson, New Jersey, and the Rhode IslandLocomotive Works, Providence, Rhode Island. . . . 

"It was Mr. Edison's idea, as I understood it at that time, to build alocomotive along the general lines of steam locomotives (at least, in outward appearance), and to combine in that respect the framework, truck, and other parts known to be satisfactory in steam locomotives atthe same time. 

"This naturally required the services of a draftsman accustomed tosteam-locomotive practice. . . . Mr. Moore was a man of great railroad andlocomotive experience, and his knowledge in that direction was of greatassistance in the designing and building of this locomotive. 

"At that time I had no knowledge of electricity. . . . One could countso-called electrical engineers on his fingers then, and have somefingers left over. 

"Consequently, the ELECTRICAL equipment was designed by Mr. Edison andhis assistants. The data and parts, such as motor, rheostat, switches, etc. , were given to me, and my work was to design the supporting frame, axles, countershafts, driving mechanism, speed control, wheels andboxes, cab, running board, pilot (or 'cow-catcher'), buffers, andeven supports for the headlight. I believe I also designed a bell andsupports. From this it will be seen that the locomotive had all theessential paraphernalia to make it LOOK like a steam locomotive. 

"The principal part of the outfit was the electric motor. At thattime motors were curiosities. There were no electric motors even forstationary purposes, except freaks built for experimental uses. Thismotor was made from the parts--such as fields, armature, commutator, shaft and bearings, etc. , of an Edison 'Z, ' or 60-light dynamo. It wasthe only size of dynamo that the Edison Company had marketed at thattime. . . . As a motor, it was wound to run at maximum speed to developa torque equal to about fifteen horse-power with 220 volts. At thegenerating station at Menlo Park four Z dynamos of 110 volts were used, connected two in series, in multiple arc, giving a line voltage of 220. 

"The motor was located in the front part of the locomotive, on its side, with the armature shaft across the frames, or parallel with the drivingaxles. 

"On account of the high speed of the armature shaft it was not possibleto connect with driving-axles direct, but this was an advantage in oneway, as by introducing an intermediate counter-shaft (corresponding tothe well-known type of double-reduction motor used on trolley-cars since1885), a fairly good arrangement was obtained to regulate the speed ofthe locomotive, exclusive of resistance in the electric circuit. 

"Endless leather belting was used to transmit the power from the motorto the counter-shaft, and from the latter to the driving-wheels, whichwere the front pair. A vertical idler-pulley was mounted in a frame overthe belt from motor to counter-shaft, terminating in a vertical screwand hand-wheel for tightening the belt to increase speed, or the reverseto lower speed. This hand-wheel was located in the cab, where it waseasily accessible. . . . 

"The rough outline sketched below shows the location of motor inrelation to counter-shaft, belting, driving-wheels, idler, etc. :

"On account of both rails being used for circuits, . . . Thedriving-wheels had to be split circumferentially and completelyinsulated from the axles. This was accomplished by means of heavy woodblocks well shellacked or otherwise treated to make them water andweather proof, placed radially on the inside of the wheels, and thensubstantially bolted to the hubs and rims of the latter. 

"The weight of the locomotive was distributed over the driving-wheels inthe usual locomotive practice by means of springs and equalizers. 

"The current was taken from the rims of the driving-wheels by athree-pronged collector of brass, against which flexible copper brusheswere pressed--a simple manner of overcoming any inequalities of theroad-bed. 

"The late Mr. Charles T. Hughes was in charge of the track constructionat Menlo Park. . . . His work was excellent throughout, and the resultswere highly satisfactory so far as they could possibly be with thearrangement originally planned by Mr. Edison and his assistants. 

"Mr. Charles L. Clarke, one of the earliest electrical engineersemployed by Mr. Edison, made a number of tests on this 1882 railroad. Ibelieve that the engine driving the four Z generators at the power-houseindicated as high as seventy horse-power at the time the locomotive wasactually in service. "

The electrical features of the 1882 locomotive were very similarto those of the earlier one, already described. Shunt and seriesfield-windings were added to the motor, and the series windings couldbe plugged in and out of circuit as desired. The series winding wassupplemented by resistance-boxes, also capable of being plugged in orout of circuit. These various electrical features are diagrammaticallyshown in Fig. 2, which also illustrates the connection with thegenerating plant. 

We quote again from Mr. Hammer, who says: "The freight-locomotive hadsingle reduction gears, as is the modern practice, but the power wasapplied through a friction-clutch The passenger-locomotive was veryspeedy, and ninety passengers have been carried at a time by it; thefreight-locomotive was not so fast, but could pull heavy trains at agood speed. Many thousand people were carried on this road during 1882. "The general appearance of Edison's electric locomotive of 1882 is shownin the illustration opposite page 462 of the preceding narrative. In thepicture Mr. Edison may be seen in the cab, and Mr. Insull on the frontplatform of the passenger-car. 

XIV. TRAIN TELEGRAPHY

WHILE the one-time art of telegraphing to and from moving trains wasessentially a wireless system, and allied in some of its principles tothe art of modern wireless telegraphy through space, the two systemscannot, strictly speaking be regarded as identical, as the practice ofthe former was based entirely on the phenomenon of induction. 

Briefly described in outline, the train telegraph system consisted ofan induction circuit obtained by laying strips of metal along the top orroof of a railway-car, and the installation of a special telegraphline running parallel with the track and strung on poles of only mediumheight. The train, and also each signalling station, was equippedwith regulation telegraph apparatus, such as battery, key, relay, andsounder, together with induction-coil and condenser. In addition, therewas a special transmitting device in the shape of a musical reed, or"buzzer. " In practice, this buzzer was continuously operated at a speedof about five hundred vibrations per second by an auxiliary battery. Itsvibrations were broken by means of a telegraph key into long andshort periods, representing Morse characters, which were transmittedinductively from the train circuit to the pole line or vice versa, andreceived by the operator at the other end through a high-resistancetelephone receiver inserted in the secondary circuit of theinduction-coil. 

The accompanying diagrammatic sketch of a simple form of the system, asinstalled on a car, will probably serve to make this more clear. 

An insulated wire runs from the metallic layers on the roof of the carto switch S, which is shown open in the sketch. When a message is to bereceived on the car from a station more or less remote, the switchis thrown to the left to connect with a wire running to the telephonereceiver, T. The other wire from this receiver is run down to one ofthe axles and there permanently connected, thus making a ground. Theoperator puts the receiver to his ear and listens for the message, whichthe telephone renders audible in the Morse characters. 

If a message is to be transmitted from the car to a receiving station, near or distant, the switch, S, is thrown to the other side, thusconnecting with a wire leading to one end of the secondary ofinduction-coil C. The other end of the secondary is connected with thegrounding wire. The primary of the induction-coil is connected as shown, one end going to key K and the other to the buzzer circuit. The otherside of the key is connected to the transmitting battery, while theopposite pole of this battery is connected in the buzzer circuit. Thebuzzer, R, is maintained in rapid vibration by its independent auxiliarybattery, B. 

When the key is pressed down the circuit is closed, and current fromthe transmitting battery, B, passes through primary of the coil, C, andinduces a current of greatly increased potential in the secondary. The current as it passes into the primary, being broken up into shortimpulses by the tremendously rapid vibrations of the buzzer, inducessimilarly rapid waves of high potential in the secondary, and thesein turn pass to the roof and thence through the intervening air byinduction to the telegraph wire. By a continued lifting and depressionof the key in the regular manner, these waves are broken up into longand short periods, and are thus transmitted to the station, via thewire, in Morse characters, dots and dashes. 

The receiving stations along the line of the railway were similarlyequipped as to apparatus, and, generally speaking the operations ofsending and receiving messages were substantially the same as abovedescribed. 

The equipment of an operator on a car was quite simple consisting merelyof a small lap-board, on which were mounted the key, coil, and buzzer, leaving room for telegraph blanks. To this board were also attachedflexible conductors having spring clips, by means of which connectionscould be made quickly with conveniently placed terminals of the ground, roof, and battery wires. The telephone receiver was held on the headwith a spring, the flexible connecting wire being attached to the lapboard, thus leaving the operator with both hands free. 

The system, as shown in the sketch and elucidated by the text, represents the operation of train telegraphy in a simple form, butcombining the main essentials of the art as it was successfully andcommercially practiced for a number of years after Edison and Gillilandentered the field. They elaborated the system in various ways, making itmore complete; but it has not been deemed necessary to enlarge furtherupon the technical minutiae of the art for the purpose of this work. 

XV. KINETOGRAPH AND PROJECTING KINETOSCOPE

ALTHOUGH many of the arts in which Edison has been a pioneer have beenenriched by his numerous inventions and patents, which were subsequentto those of a fundamental nature, the (so-called) motion-picture artis an exception, as the following, together with three other additionalpatents [30] comprise all that he has taken out on this subject: UnitedStates Patent No. 589, 168, issued August 31, 1897, reissued in twoparts--namely, No. 12, 037, under date of September 30, 1902, and No. 12, 192, under date of January 12, 1904. Application filed August 24, 1891. 

 [Footnote 30: Not 491, 993, issued February 21, 1893; No. 493, 426, issued March 14, 1893; No. 772, 647, issued October 18, 1904. ]

There is nothing surprising in this, however, as the possibility ofphotographing and reproducing actual scenes of animate life are sothoroughly exemplified and rendered practicable by the apparatusand methods disclosed in the patents above cited, that these basicinventions in themselves practically constitute the art--its developmentproceeding mainly along the line of manufacturing details. That sucha view of his work is correct, the highest criterion--commercialexpediency--bears witness; for in spite of the fact that the courts havesomewhat narrowed the broad claims of Edison's patents by reason of theinvestigations of earlier experimenters, practically all the immenseamount of commercial work that is done in the motion-picture fieldto-day is accomplished through the use of apparatus and methods licensedunder the Edison patents. 

The philosophy of this invention having already been described inChapter XXI, it will be unnecessary to repeat it here. Suffice it to sayby way of reminder that it is founded upon the physiological phenomenonknown as the persistence of vision, through which a series of sequentialphotographic pictures of animate motion projected upon a screen in rapidsuccession will reproduce to the eye all the appearance of the originalmovements. 

Edison's work in this direction comprised the invention not only of aspecial form of camera for making original photographic exposures from asingle point of view with very great rapidity, and of a machine adaptedto effect the reproduction of such pictures in somewhat similar mannerbut also of the conception and invention of a continuous uniform, andevenly spaced tape-like film, so absolutely essential for both the aboveobjects. 

The mechanism of such a camera, as now used, consists of manyparts assembled in such contiguous proximity to each other that anillustration from an actual machine would not help to clearness ofexplanation to the general reader. Hence a diagram showing a sectionalview of a simple form of such a camera is presented below. 

In this diagram, A represents an outer light-tight box containing alens, C, and the other necessary mechanism for making the photographicexposures, H and H being cases for holding reels of film beforeand after exposure, F the long, tape-like film, G a sprocket whose teethengage in perforations on the edges of the film, such sprocket beingadapted to be revolved with an intermittent or step-by-step movementby hand or by motor, and B a revolving shutter having an opening andconnected by gears with G, and arranged to expose the film during theperiods of rest. A full view of this shutter is also represented, withits opening, D, in the small illustration to the right. 

In practice, the operation would be somewhat as follows, generallyspeaking: The lens would first be focussed on the animate scene to bephotographed. On turning the main shaft of the camera the sprocket, G, is moved intermittently, and its teeth, catching in the holes in thesensitized film, draws it downward, bringing a new portion of its lengthin front of the lens, the film then remaining stationary for an instant. In the mean time, through gearing connecting the main shaft with theshutter, the latter is rotated, bringing its opening, D, coincident withthe lens, and therefore exposing the film while it is stationary, afterwhich the film again moves forward. So long as the action is continuedthese movements are repeated, resulting in a succession of enormouslyrapid exposures upon the film during its progress from reel H to itsautomatic rewinding on reel H. While the film is passing through thevarious parts of the machine it is guided and kept straight by varioussets of rollers between which it runs, as indicated in the diagram. 

By an ingenious arrangement of the mechanism, the film movesintermittently so that it may have a much longer period of rest thanof motion. As in practice the pictures are taken at a rate of twenty ormore per second, it will be quite obvious that each period of rest isinfinitesimally brief, being generally one-thirtieth of a second orless. Still it is sufficient to bring the film to a momentary conditionof complete rest, and to allow for a maximum time of exposure, comparatively speaking, thus providing means for taking clearly definedpictures. The negatives so obtained are developed in the regularway, and the positive prints subsequently made from them are used forreproduction. 

The reproducing machine, or, as it is called in practice, the ProjectingKinetoscope, is quite similar so far as its general operations inhandling the film are concerned. In appearance it is somewhat different;indeed, it is in two parts, the one containing the lighting arrangementsand condensing lens, and the other embracing the mechanism and objectivelens. The "taking" camera must have its parts enclosed in a light-tightbox, because of the undeveloped, sensitized film, but the projectingkinetoscope, using only a fully developed positive film, may, and, for purposes of convenient operation, must be accessibly open. Theillustration (Fig. 2) will show the projecting apparatus as used inpractice. 

The philosophy of reproduction is very simple, and is illustrateddiagrammatically in Fig. 3, reference letters being the same as in Fig. 1. As to the additional reference letters, I is a condenser J the sourceof light, and K a reflector. 

The positive film is moved intermittently but swiftly throughout itslength between the objective lens and a beam of light coming through thecondenser, being exposed by the shutter during the periods of rest. Thisresults in a projection of the photographs upon a screen in such rapidsuccession as to present an apparently continuous photograph of thesuccessive positions of the moving objects, which, therefore, appear tothe human eye to be in motion. 

The first claim of Reissue Patent No. 12, 192 describes the film. Itreads as follows:

"An unbroken transparent or translucent tape-like photographic filmhaving thereon uniform, sharply defined, equidistant photographs ofsuccessive positions of an object in motion as observed from a singlepoint of view at rapidly recurring intervals of time, such photographsbeing arranged in a continuous straight-line sequence, unlimited innumber save by the length of the film, and sufficient in number torepresent the movements of the object throughout an extended period oftime. "

XVI. EDISON'S ORE-MILLING INVENTIONS

THE wide range of Edison's activities in this department of the arts iswell represented in the diversity of the numerous patents that have beenissued to him from time to time. These patents are between fifty andsixty in number, and include magnetic ore separators of ten distincttypes; also breaking, crushing, and grinding rolls, conveyors, dust-proof bearings, screens, driers, mixers, bricking apparatus andmachines, ovens, and processes of various kinds. 

A description of the many devices in each of these divisions wouldrequire more space than is available; hence, we shall confine ourselvesto a few items of predominating importance, already referred to in thenarrative, commencing with the fundamental magnetic ore separator, whichwas covered by United States Patent No. 228, 329, issued June 1, 1880. 

The illustration here presented is copied from the drawing forming partof this patent. A hopper with adjustable feed is supported several feetabove a bin having a central partition. Almost midway between the hopperand the bin is placed an electromagnet whose polar extension is soarranged as to be a little to one side of a stream of material fallingfrom the hopper. Normally, a stream of finely divided ore falling fromthe hopper would fall into that portion of the bin lying to the leftof the partition. If, however, the magnet is energized from a source ofcurrent, the magnetic particles in the falling stream are attractedby and move toward the magnet, which is so placed with relation tothe falling material that the magnetic particles cannot be attractedentirely to the magnet before gravity has carried them past. Hence, their trajectory is altered, and they fall on the right-hand side ofthe partition in the bin, while the non-magnetic portion of the streamcontinues in a straight line and falls on the other side, thus effectinga complete separation. 

This simple but effective principle was the one employed by Edisonin his great concentrating plant already described. In practice, thenumerous hoppers, magnets, and bins were many feet in length; and theywere arranged in batteries of varied magnetic strength, in orderthat the intermingled mass of crushed rock and iron ore might bemore thoroughly separated by being passed through magnetic fields ofsuccessively increasing degrees of attracting power. Altogether therewere about four hundred and eighty of these immense magnets in theplant, distributed in various buildings in batteries as above mentioned, the crushed rock containing the iron ore being delivered to them byconveyors, and the gangue and ore being taken away after separation bytwo other conveyors and delivered elsewhere. The magnetic separators atfirst used by Edison at this plant were of the same generality as theones employed some years previously in the separation of sea-shore sand, but greatly enlarged and improved. The varied experiences gained inthe concentration of vast quantities of ore led naturally to a greaterdevelopment, and several new types and arrangements of magneticseparators were evolved and elaborated by him from first to last, duringthe progress of the work at the concentrating plant. 

The magnetic separation of iron from its ore being the foundation ideaof the inventions now under discussion, a consideration of the separatorhas naturally taken precedence over those of collateral but inseparableinterest. The ore-bearing rock, however, must first be ground to powderbefore it can be separated; hence, we will now begin at the root ofthis operation and consider the "giant rolls, " which Edison devisedfor breaking huge masses of rock. In his application for United StatesPatent No. 672, 616, issued April 23, 1901, applied for on July 16, 1897, he says: "The object of my invention is to produce a method for thebreaking of rock which will be simple and effective, will not requirethe hand-sledging or blasting of the rock down to pieces of moderatesize, and will involve the consumption of a small amount of power. "

While this quotation refers to the method as "simple, " the patent underconsideration covers one of the most bold and daring projects thatEdison has ever evolved. He proposed to eliminate the slow and expensivemethod of breaking large boulders manually, and to substitute thereformomentum and kinetic energy applied through the medium of massivemachinery, which, in a few seconds, would break into small pieces a rockas big as an ordinary upright cottage piano, and weighing as much as sixtons. Engineers to whom Edison communicated his ideas were unanimousin declaring the thing an impossibility; it was like driving twoexpress-trains into each other at full speed to crack a great rockplaced between them; that no practical machinery could be built tostand the terrific impact and strains. Edison's convictions werestrong, however, and he persisted. The experiments were of heroic size, physically and financially, but after a struggle of several years andan expenditure of about $100, 000, he realized the correctness andpracticability of his plans in the success of the giant rolls, whichwere the outcome of his labors. 

The giant rolls consist of a pair of iron cylinders of massive size andweight, with removable wearing plates having irregular surfaces formedby projecting knobs. These rolls are mounted side by side in a veryheavy frame (leaving a gap of about fourteen inches between them), andare so belted up with the source of power that they run in oppositedirections. The giant rolls described by Edison in the above-namedpatent as having been built and operated by him had a combined weight of167, 000 pounds, including all moving parts, which of themselves weighedabout seventy tons, each roll being six feet in diameter and five feetlong. A top view of the rolls is shown in the sketch, one roll and oneof its bearings being shown in section. 

In Fig. 2 the rolls are illustrated diagrammatically. As a sketch ofthis nature, even if given with a definite scale, does not always carryan adequate idea of relative dimensions to a non-technical reader, we present in Fig. 3 a perspective illustration of the giant rolls asinstalled in the concentrating plant. 

In practice, a small amount of power is applied to run the giant rollsgradually up to a surface speed of several thousand feet a minute. Whenthis high speed is attained, masses of rock weighing several tons in oneor more pieces are dumped into a hopper which guides them into the gapbetween the rapidly revolving rolls. The effect is to partially arrestthe swift motion of the rolls instantaneously, and thereby develop andexpend an enormous amount of kinetic energy, which with pile-drivereffect cracks the rocks and breaks them into pieces small enough topass through the fourteen-inch gap. As the power is applied to the rollsthrough slipping friction-clutches, the speed of the driving-pulleys isnot materially reduced; hence the rolls may again be quickly speeded upto their highest velocity while another load of rock is being hoistedin position to be dumped into the hopper. It will be obvious from theforegoing that if it were attempted to supply the great energy necessaryfor this operation by direct application of steam-power, an engine ofenormous horse-power would be required, and even then it is doubtfulif one could be constructed of sufficient strength to withstand theterrific strains that would ensue. But the work is done by the greatmomentum and kinetic energy obtained by speeding up these tremendousmasses of metal, and then suddenly opposing their progress, theengine being relieved of all strain through the medium of the slippingfriction-clutches. Thus, this cyclopean operation may be continuouslyconducted with an amount of power prodigiously inferior, in proportion, to the results accomplished. 

The sketch (Fig. 4) showing a large boulder being dumped into thehopper, or roll-pit, will serve to illustrate the method of feedingthese great masses of rock to the rolls, and will also enable the readerto form an idea of the rapidity of the breaking operation, when it isstated that a boulder of the size represented would be reduced bythe giant rolls to pieces a trifle larger than a man's head in a fewseconds. 

After leaving the giant rolls the broken rock passed on through othercrushing-rolls of somewhat similar construction. These also wereinvented by Edison, but antedated those previously described; beingcovered by Patent No. 567, 187, issued September 8, 1896. These rollswere intended for the reducing of "one-man-size" rocks to small pieces, which at the time of their original inception was about the standardsize of similar machines. At the Edison concentrating plant the brokenrock, after passing through these rolls, was further reduced in size byother rolls, and was then ready to be crushed to a fine powder throughthe medium of another remarkable machine devised by Edison to meet hisever-recurring and well-defined ideas of the utmost economy andefficiency. 

NOTE. --Figs. 3 and 4 are reproduced from similar sketches on pages 84and 85 of McClure's Magazine for November, 1897, by permission of S. S. McClure Co. 

The best fine grinding-machines that it was then possible to obtain wereso inefficient as to involve a loss of 82 per cent. Of the powerapplied. The thought of such an enormous loss was unbearable, and he didnot rest until he had invented and put into use an entirely newgrinding-machine, which was called the "three-high" rolls. The devicewas covered by a patent issued to him on November 21, 1899, No. 637, 327. It was a most noteworthy invention, for it brought into the art not onlya greater efficiency of grinding than had ever been dreamed of before, but also a tremendous economy by the saving of power; for whereas theprevious efficiency had been 18 per cent. And the loss 82 per cent. , Edison reversed these figures, and in his three-high rolls produced aworking efficiency of 84 per cent. , thus reducing the loss of power byfriction to 16 per cent. A diagrammatic sketch of this remarkablemachine is shown in Fig. 5, which shows a front elevation with thecasings, hopper, etc. , removed, and also shows above the rolls the ropeand pulleys, the supports for which are also removed for the sake ofclearness in the illustration. 

For the convenience of the reader, in referring to Fig. 5, we willrepeat the description of the three-high rolls, which is given on pages487 and 488 of the preceding narrative. 

In the two end-pieces of a heavy iron frame were set three rolls, orcylinders--one in the centre, another below, and the other above--allthree being in a vertical line. These rolls were about three feet indiameter, made of cast-iron, and had face-plates of chilled-iron. [31]The lowest roll was set in a fixed bearing at the bottom of the frame, and, therefore, could only turn around on its axis. The middle and toprolls were free to move up or down from and toward the lower roll, andthe shafts of the middle and upper rolls were set in a loose bearingwhich could slip up and down in the iron frame. It will be apparent, therefore, that any material which passed in between the top and themiddle rolls, and the middle and bottom rolls, could be ground as fineas might be desired, depending entirely upon the amount of pressureapplied to the loose rolls. In operation the material passed firstthrough the upper and middle rolls, and then between the middle andlowest rolls. 

 [Footnote 31: The faces of these rolls were smooth, but as three-high rolls came into use later in Edison's Portland cement operations the faces were corrugated so as to fit into each other, gear-fashion, to provide for a high rate of feed]

This pressure was applied in a most ingenious manner. On the ends of theshafts of the bottom and top rolls there were cylindrical sleeves, orbearings, having seven sheaves in which was run a half-inch endless wirerope. This rope was wound seven times over the sheaves as above, and ledupward and over a single-groove sheave, which was operated by the pistonof an air-cylinder, and in this manner the pressure was applied to therolls. It will be seen, therefore that the system consisted in a singlerope passed over sheaves and so arranged that it could be variedin length, thus providing for elasticity in exerting pressure andregulating it as desired. The efficiency of this system was incomparablygreater than that of any other known crusher or grinder, for while apressure of one hundred and twenty-five thousand pounds could be exertedby these rolls, friction was almost entirely eliminated, because theupper and lower roll bearings turned with the rolls and revolved in thewire rope, which constituted the bearing proper. 

Several other important patents have been issued to Edison for crushingand grinding rolls, some of them being for elaborations and improvementsof those above described but all covering methods of greater economy andeffectiveness in rock-grinding. 

Edison's work on conveyors during the period of his ore-concentratinglabors was distinctively original, ingenious and far in advance ofthe times. His conception of the concentrating problem was broad andembraced an entire system, of which a principal item was the continuoustransfer of enormous quantities of material from place to place atthe lowest possible cost. As he contemplated the concentration of sixthousand tons daily, the expense of manual labor to move such an immensequantity of rock, sand, and ore would be absolutely prohibitive. Hence, it became necessary to invent a system of conveyors that would becapable of transferring this mass of material from one place to another. And not only must these conveyors be capable of carrying the material, but they must also be devised so that they would automatically receiveand discharge their respective loads at appointed places. Edison'singenuity, engineering ability, and inventive skill were equal to thetask, however, and were displayed in a system and variety of conveyorsthat in practice seemed to act with almost human discrimination. Whenfully installed throughout the plant, they automatically transferreddaily a mass of material equal to about one hundred thousand cubic feet, from mill to mill, covering about a mile in the transit. Up and down, winding in and out, turning corners, delivering material from one toanother, making a number of loops in the drying-oven, filling up binsand passing on to the next when they were full, these conveyors inautomatic action seemingly played their part with human intelligence, which was in reality the reflection of the intelligence and ingenuitythat had originally devised them and set them in motion. 

Six of Edison's patents on conveyors include a variety of devices thathave since came into broad general use for similar work, and have beenthe means of effecting great economies in numerous industries of widelyvarying kinds. Interesting as they are, however, we shall not attempt todescribe them in detail, as the space required would be too great. Theyare specified in the list of patents following this Appendix, and may beexamined in detail by any interested student. 

In the same list will also be found a large number of Edison's patentson apparatus and methods of screening, drying, mixing, and briquetting, as well as for dust-proof bearings, and various types and groupingsof separators, all of which were called forth by the exigencies andmagnitude of his great undertaking, and without which he could notpossibly have attained the successful physical results that crowned hislabors. Edison's persistence in reducing the cost of his operations isnoteworthy in connection with his screening and drying inventions, inwhich the utmost advantage is taken of the law of gravitation. Withits assistance, which cost nothing, these operations were performedperfectly. It was only necessary to deliver the material at the top ofthe chambers, and during its natural descent it was screened or dried asthe case might be. 

All these inventions and devices, as well as those described in detailabove (except magnetic separators and mixing and briquetting machines), are being used by him to-day in the manufacture of Portland cement, asthat industry presents many of the identical problems which presentedthemselves in relation to the concentration of iron ore. 

XVII. THE LONG CEMENT KILN

IN this remarkable invention, which has brought about a strikinginnovation in a long-established business, we see another characteristicinstance of Edison's incisive reasoning and boldness of conceptioncarried into practical effect in face of universal opinions to thecontrary. 

For the information of those unacquainted with the process ofmanufacturing Portland cement, it may be stated that the materialconsists preliminarily of an intimate mixture of cement rock andlimestone, ground to a very fine powder. This powder is technicallyknown in the trade as "chalk, " and is fed into rotary kilns and"burned"; that is to say, it is subjected to a high degree of heatobtained by the combustion of pulverized coal, which is injectedinto the interior of the kiln. This combustion effects a chemicaldecomposition of the chalk, and causes it to assume a plasticconsistency and to collect together in the form of small sphericalballs, which are known as "clinker. " Kilns are usually arranged witha slight incline, at the upper end of which the chalk is fed in andgradually works its way down to the interior flame of burning fuel atthe other end. When it arrives at the lower end, the material has been"burned, " and the clinker drops out into a receiving chamber below. Theoperation is continuous, a constant supply of chalk passing in at oneend of the kiln and a continuous dribble of clinker-balls droppingout at the other. After cooling, the clinker is ground into very finepowder, which is the Portland cement of commerce. 

It is self-evident that an ideal kiln would be one that produced themaximum quantity of thoroughly clinkered material with a minimum amountof fuel, labor, and investment. When Edison was preparing to go intothe cement business, he looked the ground over thoroughly, and, afterconsiderable investigation and experiment, came to the conclusion thatprevailing conditions as to kilns were far from ideal. 

The standard kilns then in use were about sixty feet in length, with aninternal diameter of about five feet. In all rotary kilns for burningcement, the true clinkering operation takes place only within a limitedportion of their total length, where the heat is greatest; hence theinterior of the kiln may be considered as being divided longitudinallyinto two parts or zones--namely, the combustion, or clinkering, zone, and the zone of oncoming raw material. In the sixty-foot kiln the lengthof the combustion zone was about ten feet, extending from a point six oreight feet from the lower, or discharge, end to a point about eighteenfeet from that end. Consequently, beyond that point there was a zone ofonly about forty feet, through which the heated gases passed and camein contact with the oncoming material, which was in movement down towardthe clinkering zone. Since the bulk of oncoming material was small, the gases were not called upon to part with much of their heat, andtherefore passed on up the stack at very high temperatures, ranging from1500 degrees to 1800 degrees Fahr. Obviously, this heat was entirelylost. 

An additional loss of efficiency arose from the fact that the materialmoved so rapidly toward the combustion zone that it had not given upall its carbon dioxide on reaching there; and by the giving off oflarge quantities of that gas within the combustion zone, perfect andeconomical combustion of coal could not be effected. 

The comparatively short length of the sixty-foot kiln not only limitedthe amount of material that could be fed into it, but the limitation inlength of the combustion zone militated against a thorough clinkering ofthe material, this operation being one in which the elements of time andproper heat are prime considerations. Thus the quantity of good clinkerobtainable was unfavorably affected. By reason of these and otherlimitations and losses, it had been possible, in practice, to obtainonly about two hundred and fifty barrels of clinker per day oftwenty-four hours; and that with an expenditure for coal proportionatelyequal to about 29 to 33 per cent. Of the quantity of clinker produced, even assuming that all the clinker was of good quality. 

Edison realized that the secret of greater commercial efficiency andimprovement of quality lay in the ability to handle larger quantitiesof material within a given time, and to produce a more perfect productwithout increasing cost or investment in proportion. His reasoning ledhim to the conclusion that this result could only be obtained throughthe use of a kiln of comparatively great length, and his investigationsand experiments enabled him to decide upon a length of one hundred andfifty feet, but with an increase in diameter of only six inches to afoot over that of the sixty-foot kiln. 

The principal considerations that influenced Edison in making thisradical innovation may be briefly stated as follows:

First. The ability to maintain in the kiln a load from five to seventimes greater than ordinarily employed, thereby tending to a moreeconomical output. 

Second. The combustion of a vastly increased bulk of pulverized coaland a greatly enlarged combustion zone, extending about forty feetlongitudinally into the kiln--thus providing an area within whichthe material might be maintained in a clinkering temperature for asufficiently long period to insure its being thoroughly clinkered fromperiphery to centre. 

Third. By reason of such a greatly extended length of the zone ofoncoming material (and consequently much greater bulk), the gases andother products of combustion would be cooled sufficiently between thecombustion zone and the stack so as to leave the kiln at a comparativelylow temperature. Besides, the oncoming material would thus be graduallyraised in temperature instead of being heated abruptly, as in theshorter kilns. 

Fourth. The material having thus been greatly raised in temperaturebefore reaching the combustion zone would have parted with substantiallyall its carbon dioxide, and therefore would not introduce into thecombustion zone sufficient of that gas to disturb the perfect characterof the combustion. 

Fifth. On account of the great weight of the heavy load in a long kiln, there would result the formation of a continuous plastic coating on thatportion of the inner surface of the kiln where temperatures arehighest. This would effectively protect the fire-brick lining from thedestructive effects of the heat. 

Such, in brief, were the essential principles upon which Edison basedhis conception and invention of the long kiln, which has since become sowell known in the cement business. 

Many other considerations of a minor and mechanical nature, but whichwere important factors in his solution of this difficult problem, areworthy of study by those intimately associated with or interested in theart. Not the least of the mechanical questions was settled by Edison'sdecision to make this tremendously long kiln in sections of cast-iron, with flanges, bolted together, and supported on rollers rotated byelectric motors. Longitudinal expansion and thrust were also importantfactors to be provided for, as well as special devices to prevent thepacking of the mass of material as it passed in and out of the kiln. Special provision was also made for injecting streams of pulverized coalin such manner as to create the largely extended zone of combustion. Asto the details of these and many other ingenious devices, we must referthe curious reader to the patents, as it is merely intended in thesepages to indicate in a brief manner the main principles of Edison'snotable inventions. The principal United States patent on the long kilnwas issued October 24, 1905, No. 802, 631. 

That his reasonings and deductions were correct in this case have beenindubitably proven by some years of experience with the long kiln in itsability to produce from eight hundred to one thousand barrels ofgood clinker every twenty-four hours, with an expenditure for coalproportionately equal to about only 20 per cent. Of the quantity ofclinker produced. 

To illustrate the long cement kiln by diagram would convey but littleto the lay mind, and we therefore present an illustration (Fig. 1) ofactual kilns in perspective, from which sense of their proportions maybe gathered. 

XVIII. EDISON'S NEW STORAGE BATTERY

GENERICALLY considered, a "battery" is a device which generates electriccurrent. There are two distinct species of battery, one being known as"primary, " and the other as "storage, " although the latter is sometimesreferred to as a "secondary battery" or "accumulator. " Every type ofeach of these two species is essentially alike in its general make-up;that is to say, every cell of battery of any kind contains at leasttwo elements of different nature immersed in a more or less liquidelectrolyte of chemical character. On closing the circuit of a primarybattery an electric current is generated by reason of the chemicalaction which is set up between the electrolyte and the elements. This involves a gradual consumption of one of the elements and acorresponding exhaustion of the active properties of the electrolyte. Byreason of this, both the element and the electrolyte that have been usedup must be renewed from time to time, in order to obtain a continuedsupply of electric current. 

The storage battery also generates electric current through chemicalaction, but without involving the constant repriming with activematerials to replace those consumed and exhausted as above mentioned. The term "storage, " as applied to this species of battery, is, however, a misnomer, and has been the cause of much misunderstandingto nontechnical persons. To the lay mind a "storage" battery presentsitself in the aspect of a device in which electric energy is STORED, just as compressed air is stored or accumulated in a tank. This view, however, is not in accordance with facts. It is exactly like the primarybattery in the fundamental circumstance that its ability for generatingelectric current depends upon chemical action. In strict terminology itis a "reversible" battery, as will be quite obvious if we glance brieflyat its philosophy. When a storage battery is "charged, " by having anelectric current passed through it, the electric energy produces achemical effect, adding oxygen to the positive plate, and taking oxygenaway from the negative plate. Thus, the positive plate becomes oxidized, and the negative plate reduced. After the charging operation isconcluded the battery is ready for use, and upon its circuit beingclosed through a translating device, such as a lamp or motor, areversion ("discharge") takes place, the positive plate giving up itsoxygen, and the negative plate being oxidized. These chemical actionsresult in the generation of an electric current as in a primary battery. As a matter of fact, the chemical actions and reactions in a storagebattery are much more complex, but the above will serve to afford thelay reader a rather simple idea of the general result arrived at throughthe chemical activity referred to. 

The storage battery, as a commercial article, was introduced into themarket in the year 1881. At that time, and all through the succeedingyears, until about 1905, there was only one type that was recognized ascommercially practicable--namely, that known as the lead-sulphuric-acidcell, consisting of lead plates immersed in an electrolyte of dilutesulphuric acid. In the year last named Edison first brought out his newform of nickel-iron cell with alkaline electrolyte, as we have relatedin the preceding narrative. Early in the eighties, at Menlo Park, he hadgiven much thought to the lead type of storage battery, and during thecourse of three years had made a prodigious number of experiments in thedirection of improving it, probably performing more experiments in thattime than the aggregate of those of all other investigators. Evenin those early days he arrived at the conclusion that thelead-sulphuric-acid combination was intrinsically wrong, and did notembrace the elements of a permanent commercial device. He did not atthat time, however, engage in a serious search for another form ofstorage battery, being tremendously occupied with his lighting systemand other matters. 

It may here be noted, for the information of the lay reader, that thelead-acid type of storage battery consists of two or more lead platesimmersed in dilute sulphuric acid and contained in a receptacle ofglass, hard rubber, or other special material not acted upon by acid. The plates are prepared and "formed" in various ways, and the chemicalactions are similar to those above stated, the positive plate beingoxidized and the negative reduced during "charge, " and reversed during"discharge. " This type of cell, however, has many serious disadvantagesinherent to its very nature. We will name a few of them briefly. Constant dropping of fine particles of active material often causesshort-circuiting of the plates, and always necessitates occasionalwashing out of cells; deterioration through "sulphation" if dischargeis continued too far or if recharging is not commenced quickly enough;destruction of adjacent metalwork by the corrosive fumes given outduring charge and discharge; the tendency of lead plates to "buckle"under certain conditions; the limitation to the use of glass, hardrubber, or similar containers on account of the action of the acid; andthe immense weight for electrical capacity. The tremendously complexnature of the chemical reactions which take place in the lead-acidstorage battery also renders it an easy prey to many troublesomediseases. 

In the year 1900, when Edison undertook to invent a storage battery, hedeclared it should be a new type into which neither sulphuric norany other acid should enter. He said that the intimate and continuedcompanionship of an acid and a metal was unnatural, and incompatiblewith the idea of durability and simplicity. He furthermore stated thatlead was an unmechanical metal for a battery, being heavy and lackingstability and elasticity, and that as most metals were unaffected byalkaline solutions, he was going to experiment in that direction. Thesoundness of his reasoning is amply justified by the perfection ofresults obtained in the new type of storage battery bearing his name, and now to be described. 

The essential technical details of this battery are fully describedin an article written by one of Edison's laboratory staff, WalterE. Holland, who for many years has been closely identified with theinventor's work on this cell The article was published in the ElectricalWorld, New York, April 28, 1910; and the following extracts therefromwill afford an intelligent comprehension of this invention:

"The 'A' type Edison cell is the outcome of nine years of costlyexperimentation and persistent toil on the part of its inventor and hisassociates. . . . 

"The Edison invention involves the use of an entirely newvoltaic combination in an alkaline electrolyte, in place of thelead-lead-peroxide combination and acid electrolyte, characteristic ofall other commercial storage batteries. Experience has proven thatthis not only secures durability and greater output per unit-weight ofbattery, but in addition there is eliminated a long list of troubles anddiseases inherent in the lead-acid combination. . . . 

"The principle on which the action of this new battery is based isthe oxidation and reduction of metals in an electrolyte which does notcombine with, and will not dissolve, either the metals or their oxides;and an electrolyte, furthermore, which, although decomposed by theaction of the battery, is immediately re-formed in equal quantity; andtherefore in effect is a CONSTANT element, not changing in density or inconductivity. 

"A battery embodying this basic principle will have features of greatvalue where lightness and durability are desiderata. For instance, theelectrolyte, being a constant factor, as explained, is not required inany fixed and large amount, as is the case with sulphuric acid in thelead battery; thus the cell may be designed with minimum distancing ofplates and with the greatest economy of space that is consistent withsafe insulation and good mechanical design. Again, the active materialsof the electrodes being insoluble in, and absolutely unaffected by, theelectrolyte, are not liable to any sort of chemical deterioration byaction of the electrolyte--no matter how long continued. . . . 

"The electrolyte of the Edison battery is a 21 per cent. Solution ofpotassium hydrate having, in addition, a small amount of lithiumhydrate. The active metals of the electrodes--which will oxidize andreduce in this electrolyte without dissolution or chemicaldeterioration--are nickel and iron. These active elements are not put inthe plates AS METALS; but one, nickel, in the form of a hydrate, and theother, iron, as an oxide. 

"The containing cases of both kinds of active material (Fig. 1), andtheir supporting grids (Fig. 2), as well as the bolts, washers, and nutsused in assembling (Fig. 3), and even the retaining can and its cover(Fig. 4), are all made of nickel-plated steel--a material in whichlightness, durability and mechanical strength are most happilycombined, and a material beyond suspicion as to corrosion in an alkalineelectrolyte. . . . 

"An essential part of Edison's discovery of active masetials foran alkaline storage battery was the PREPARATION of these materials. Metallic powder of iron and nickel, or even oxides of these metals, prepared in the ordinary way, are not chemically active in a sufficientdegree to work in a battery. It is only when specially prepared ironoxide of exceeding fineness, and nickel hydrate conforming to certainphysical, as well as chemical, standards can be made that the alkalinebattery is practicable. Needless to say, the working out of theconditions and processes of manufacture of the materials has involvedgreat ingenuity and endless experimentation. "

The article then treats of Edison's investigations into means forsupporting and making electrical connection with the active materials, showing some of the difficulties encountered and the various discoveriesmade in developing the perfected cell, after which the writer continueshis description of the "A" type cell, as follows:

"It will be seen at once that the construction of the two kinds of plateis radically different. The negative or iron plate (Fig. 5) has thefamiliar flat-pocket construction. Each negative contains twenty-fourpockets--a pocket being 1/2 inch wide by 3 inches long, and having amaximum thickness of a little more than 1/8 inch. The positive or nickelplate (Fig. 6) is seen to consist of two rows of round rods or pencils, thirty in number, held in a vertical position by a steel support-frame. The pencils have flat flanges at the ends (formed by closing in themetal case), by which they are supported and electrical connection ismade. The frame is slit at the inner horizontal edges, and then foldedin such a way as to make individual clamping-jaws for each end-flange. The clamping-in is done at great pressure, and the resultant plate hasgreat rigidity and strength. 

"The perforated tubes into which the nickel active material is loadedare made of nickel-plated steel of high quality. They are put togetherwith a double-lapped spiral seam to give expansion-resisting qualities, and as an additional precaution small metal rings are slipped on theoutside. Each tube is 1/4 inch in diameter by 4 1/8 inches long, add haseight of the reinforcing rings. 

"It will be seen that the 'A' positive plate has been given thetheoretically best design to prevent expansion and overcome trouble fromthat cause. Actual tests, long continued under very severe conditions, have shown that the construction is right, and fulfils the most sanguineexpectations. "

Mr. Holland in his article then goes on to explain the development ofthe nickel flakes as the conducting factor in the positive element, butas this has already been described in Chapter XXII, we shall pass on toa later point, where he says:

"An idea of the conditions inside a loaded tube can best be had bymicroscopic examination. Fig. 7 shows a magnified section of a regularlyloaded tube which has been sawed lengthwise. The vertical bounding wallsare edges of the perforated metal containing tube; the dark horizontallines are layers of nickel flake, while the light-colored thicker layersrepresent the nickel hydrate. It should be noted that the layers offlake nickel extend practically unbroken across the tube and makecontact with the metal wall at both sides. These metal layers conductcurrent to or from the active nickel hydrate in all parts of the tubevery efficiently. There are about three hundred and fifty layers ofeach kind of material in a 4 1/8-inch tube, each layer of nickel hydratebeing about 0. 01 inch thick; so it will be seen that the current doesnot have to penetrate very far into the nickel hydrate--one-half alayer's thickness being the maximum distance. The perforations ofthe containing tube, through which the electrolyte reaches the activematerial, are also shown in Fig. 7. "

In conclusion, the article enumerates the chief characteristics of theEdison storage battery which fit it preeminently for transportationservice, as follows: 1. No loss of active material, hence nosediment short-circuits. 2. No jar breakage. 3. Possibility of quickdisconnection or replacement of any cell without employment of skilledlabor. 4. Impossibility of "buckling" and harmlessness of a deadshort-circuit. 5. Simplicity of care required. 6. Durability ofmaterials and construction. 7. Impossibility of "sulphation. " 8. Entireabsence of corrosive fumes. 9. Commercial advantages of light weight. 10. Duration on account of its dependability. 11. Its high practicalefficiency. 

XIX. EDISON'S POURED CEMENT HOUSE

THE inventions that have been thus far described fall into twoclasses--first, those that were fundamental in the great arts andindustries which have been founded and established upon them, and, second, those that have entered into and enlarged other arts that werepreviously in existence. On coming to consider the subject now underdiscussion, however, we find ourselves, at this writing, on thethreshold of an entirely new and undeveloped art of such boundlesspossibilities that its ultimate extent can only be a matter ofconjecture. 

Edison's concrete house, however, involves two main considerations, first of which was the conception or creation of the IDEA--vast andcomprehensive--of providing imperishable and sanitary homes forthe wage-earner by molding an entire house in one piece in a singleoperation, so to speak, and so simply that extensive groups of suchdwellings could be constructed rapidly and at very reasonable cost. Withthis idea suggested, one might suppose that it would be a simple matterto make molds and pour in a concrete mixture. Not so, however. And herethe second consideration presents itself. An ordinary cement mixture iscomposed of crushed stone, sand, cement, and water. If such a mixturebe poured into deep molds the heavy stone and sand settle to the bottom. Should the mixture be poured into a horizontal mold, like the floor ofa house, the stone and sand settle, forming an ununiform mass. It wasat this point that invention commenced, in order to produce a concretemixture which would overcome this crucial difficulty. Edison, withcharacteristic thoroughness, took up a line of investigation, and aftera prolonged series of experiments succeeded in inventing a mixture thatupon hardening remained uniform throughout its mass. In the beginningof his experimentation he had made the conditions of test very severe bythe construction of forms similar to that shown in the sketch below. 

This consisted of a hollow wooden form of the dimensions indicated. The mixture was to be poured into the hopper until the entire form wasfilled, such mixture flowing down and along the horizontal legs and upthe vertical members. It was to be left until the mixture was hard, andthe requirement of the test was that there should be absolute uniformityof mixture and mass throughout. This was finally accomplished, andfurther invention then proceeded along engineering lines looking towardthe devising of a system of molds with which practicable dwellings mightbe cast. 

Edison's boldness and breadth of conception are well illustrated in hisidea of a poured house, in which he displays his accustomed tendencyto reverse accepted methods. In fact, it is this very reversal of usualprocedure that renders it difficult for the average mind to instantlygrasp the full significance of the principles involved and the resultsattained. 

Up to this time we have been accustomed to see the erection of a housebegun at the foundation and built up slowly, piece by piece, of solidmaterials: first the outer frame, then the floors and inner walls, followed by the stairways, and so on up to the putting on of the roof. Hence, it requires a complete rearrangement of mental conceptions toappreciate Edison's proposal to build a house FROM THE TOP DOWNWARD, ina few hours, with a freely flowing material poured into molds, and ina few days to take away the molds and find a complete indestructiblesanitary house, including foundation, frame, floors, walls, stairways, chimneys, sanitary arrangements, and roof, with artistic ornamentationinside and out, all in one solid piece, as if it were graven or boredout of a rock. 

To bring about the accomplishment of a project so extraordinarily broadinvolves engineering and mechanical conceptions of a high order, and, aswe have seen, these have been brought to bear on the subject by Edison, together with an intimate knowledge of compounded materials. 

The main features of this invention are easily comprehensible with theaid of the following diagrammatic sectional sketch:

It should be first understood that the above sketch is in broad outline, without elaboration, merely to illustrate the working principle; andwhile the upright structure on the right is intended to represent aset of molds in position to form a three-story house, with cellar, noregular details of such a building (such as windows, doors, stairways, etc. ) are here shown, as they would only tend to complicate anexplanation. 

It will be noted that there are really two sets of molds, an inside andan outside set, leaving a space between them throughout. Although notshown in the sketch, there is in practice a number of bolts passingthrough these two sets of molds at various places to hold them togetherin their relative positions. In the open space between the molds thereare placed steel rods for the purpose of reinforcement; while allthrough the entire structure provision is made for water and steampipes, gas-pipes and electric-light wires being placed in appropriatepositions as the molds are assembled. 

At the centre of the roof there will be noted a funnel-shaped opening. Into this there is delivered by the endless chain of buckets shown onthe left a continuous stream of a special free-flowing concrete mixture. This mixture descends by gravity, and gradually fills the entirespace between the two sets of molds. The delivery of the material--or"pouring, " as it is called--is continued until every part of thespace is filled and the mixture is even with the tip of the roof, thus completing the pouring, or casting, of the house. In a few daysafterward the concrete will have hardened sufficiently to allow themolds to be taken away leaving an entire house, from cellar floor to thepeak of the roof, complete in all its parts, even to mantels and picturemolding, and requiring only windows and doors, plumbing, heating, andlighting fixtures to make it ready for habitation. 

In the above sketch the concrete mixers, A, B, are driven by theelectric motor, C. As the material is mixed it descends into the tank, D, and flows through a trough into a lower tank, E, in which it isconstantly stirred, and from which it is taken by the endless chainof buckets and dumped into the funnel-shaped opening at the top of themolds, as above described. 

The molds are made of cast-iron in sections of such size and weight aswill be most convenient for handling, mostly in pieces not exceeding twoby four feet in rectangular dimensions. The subjoined sketch showsan exterior view of several of these molds as they appear when boltedtogether, the intersecting central portions representing ribs, which areincluded as part of the casting for purposes of strength and rigidity. 

The molds represented above are those for straight work, such as wallsand floors. Those intended for stairways, eaves, cornices, windows, doorways, etc. , are much more complicated in design, although the samegeneral principles are employed in their construction. 

While the philosophy of pouring or casting a complete house in itsentirety is apparently quite simple, the development of the engineeringand mechanical questions involves the solution of a vast number of mostintricate and complicated problems covering not only the building asa whole, but its numerous parts, down to the minutest detail. Safety, convenience, duration, and the practical impossibility of alteringa one-piece solid dwelling are questions that must be met before itsconstruction, and therefore Edison has proceeded calmly on his waytoward the goal he has ever had clearly in mind, with utter indifferenceto the criticisms and jeers of those who, as "experts, " have professedpositive knowledge of the impossibility of his carrying out this daringscheme. 

LIST OF UNITED STATES PATENTS

List of United States patents granted to Thomas A. Edison, arrangedaccording to dates of execution of applications for such patents. Thislist shows the inventions as Mr. Edison has worked upon them from yearto year

 1868

 NO. TITLE OF PATENT DATE EXECUTED DATE EXECUTED 90, 646, Electrographic Vote Recorder . . . . . Oct. 13, 1868

 1869

 91, 527 Printing Telegraph (reissued October 25, 1870, numbered 4166, and August 5, 1873, numbered 5519). . . . . . . . Jan. 25, 1869 96, 567 Apparatus for Printing Telegraph (reissued February 1, 1870, numbered 3820). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 17, 1869 96, 681 Electrical Switch for Telegraph Apparatus Aug. 27, 1869 102, 320 Printing Telegraph--Pope and Edison (reissued April 17, 1877, numbered 7621, and December 9, 1884, numbered 10, 542). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sept. 16, 1869 103, 924 Printing Telegraphs--Pope and Edison (reissued August 5, 1873)

 1870

 103, 035 Electromotor Escapement. . . . . . . . Feb. 5, 1870 128, 608 Printing Telegraph Instruments . . . . . May 4, 1870 114, 656 Telegraph Transmitting Instruments . . June 22, 1870 114, 658 Electro Magnets for Telegraph Instruments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . June 22, 1870 114, 657 Relay Magnets for Telegraph Instruments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sept. 6, 1870 111, 112 Electric Motor Governors . . . . . . . June 29, 1870 113, 033 Printing Telegraph Apparatus . . . . . Nov. 17, 1870

 1871

 113, 034 Printing Telegraph Apparatus . . . . . Jan. 10, 1871 123, 005 Telegraph Apparatus. . . . . . . . . . July 26, 1871 123, 006 Printing Telegraph . . . . . . . . . . July 26, 1871 123, 984 Telegraph Apparatus. . . . . . . . . . July 26, 1871 124, 800 Telegraphic Recording Instruments. . . Aug. 12, 1871 121, 601 Machinery for Perforating Paper for Telegraph Purposes . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 16, 1871 126, 535 Printing Telegraphs. . . . . . . . . . Nov. 13, 1871 133, 841 Typewriting Machine. . . . . . . . . . Nov. 13, 1871

 1872 126, 532 Printing Telegraphs. . . . . . . . . . . Jan. 3 1872 126, 531 Printing Telegraphs. . . . . . . . . . Jan. 17, 1872 126, 534 Printing Telegraphs. . . . . . . . . . Jan. 17, 1872 126, 528 Type Wheels for Printing Telegraphs. . Jan. 23, 1872 126, 529 Type Wheels for Printing Telegraphs. . Jan. 23, 1872 126, 530 Printing Telegraphs. . . . . . . . . . Feb. 14, 1872 126, 533 Printing Telegraphs. . . . . . . . . . Feb. 14, 1872 132, 456 Apparatus for Perforating Paper for Telegraphic Use. . . . . . . . . . . March 15, 1872 132, 455 Improvement in Paper for Chemical Telegraphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . April 10, 1872 133, 019 Electrical Printing Machine. . . . . April 18, 1872 128, 131 Printing Telegraphs. . . . . . . . . April 26, 1872 128, 604 Printing Telegraphs. . . . . . . . . April 26, 1872 128, 605 Printing Telegraphs. . . . . . . . . April 26, 1872 128, 606 Printing Telegraphs. . . . . . . . . April 26, 1872 128, 607 Printing Telegraphs. . . . . . . . . April 26, 1872 131, 334 Rheotomes or Circuit Directors . . . . . May 6, 1872 134, 867 Automatic Telegraph Instruments. . . . . May 8, 1872 134, 868 Electro Magnetic Adjusters . . . . . . . May 8, 1872 130, 795 Electro Magnets. . . . . . . . . . . . . May 9, 1872 131, 342 Printing Telegraphs. . . . . . . . . . . May 9, 1872 131, 341 Printing Telegraphs. . . . . . . . . . May 28, 1872 131, 337 Printing Telegraphs. . . . . . . . . . June 10, 1872 131, 340 Printing Telegraphs. . . . . . . . . . June 10, 1872 131, 343 Transmitters and Circuits for Printing Telegraph. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . June 10, 1872 131, 335 Printing Telegraphs. . . . . . . . . . June 15, 1872 131, 336 Printing Telegraphs. . . . . . . . . . June 15, 1872 131, 338 Printing Telegraphs. . . . . . . . . . June 29, 1872 131, 339 Printing Telegraphs. . . . . . . . . . June 29, 1872 131, 344 Unison Stops for Printing Telegraphs . June 29, 1872 134, 866 Printing and Telegraph Instruments . . Oct. 16, 1872 138, 869 Printing Telegraphs. . . . . . . . . . Oct. 16, 1872 142, 999 Galvanic Batteries . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 31, 1872 141, 772 Automatic or Chemical Telegraphs . . . Nov. 5, 1872 135, 531 Circuits for Chemical Telegraphs . . . Nov. 9, 1872 146, 812 Telegraph Signal Boxes . . . . . . . . Nov. 26, 1872 141, 773 Circuits for Automatic Telegraphs. . . Dec. 12, 1872 141, 776 Circuits for Automatic Telegraphs. . . Dec. 12, 1872 150, 848 Chemical or Automatic Telegraphs . . . Dec. 12, 1872

 1873

 139, 128 Printing Telegraphs. . . . . . . . . . Jan. 21, 1873 139, 129 Printing Telegraphs. . . . . . . . . . Feb. 13, 1873 140, 487 Printing Telegraphs. . . . . . . . . . Feb. 13, 1873 140, 489 Printing Telegraphs. . . . . . . . . . Feb. 13, 1873 138, 870 Printing Telegraphs. . . . . . . . . . March 7, 1873 141, 774 Chemical Telegraphs. . . . . . . . . . March 7, 1873 141, 775 Perforator for Automatic Telegraphs. . March 7, 1873 141, 777 Relay Magnets. . . . . . . . . . . . . March 7, 1873 142, 688 Electric Regulators for Transmitting Instruments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . March 7, 1873 156, 843 Duplex Chemical Telegraphs . . . . . . March 7, 1873 147, 312 Perforators for Automatic Telegraphy March 24, 1873 147, 314 Circuits for Chemical Telegraphs . . March 24, 1873 150, 847 Receiving Instruments for Chemical Telegraphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . March 24, 1873 140, 488 Printing Telegraphs. . . . . . . . . April 23, 1873 147, 311 Electric Telegraphs. . . . . . . . . April 23, 1873 147, 313 Chemical Telegraphs. . . . . . . . . April 23, 1873 147, 917 Duplex Telegraphs. . . . . . . . . . April 23, 1873 150, 846 Telegraph Relays . . . . . . . . . . April 23, 1873 160, 405 Adjustable Electro Magnets for Relays, etc. . . . . . . . . . . . . April 23, 1873 162, 633 Duplex Telegraphs. . . . . . . . . . April 22, 1873 151, 209 Automatic Telegraphy and Perforators Therefor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 25, 1873 160, 402 Solutions for Chemical Telegraph PaperSept. 29, 1873 160, 404 Solutions for Chemical Telegraph PaperSept. 29, 1873 160, 580 Solutions for Chemical Telegraph PaperOct. 14, 1873 160, 403 Solutions for Chemical Telegraph PaperOct. 29, 1873

 1874

 154, 788 District Telegraph Signal Box. . . . . April 2, 1874 168, 004 Printing Telegraph . . . . . . . . . . May 22, 1874 166, 859 Chemical Telegraphy. . . . . . . . . . June 1, 1874 166, 860 Chemical Telegraphy. . . . . . . . . . June 1, 1874 166, 861 Chemical Telegraphy. . . . . . . . . . June 1, 1874 158, 787 Telegraph Apparatus. . . . . . . . . . Aug. 7, 1874 172, 305 Automatic Roman Character Telegraph. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 7, 1874 173, 718 Automatic Telegraphy . . . . . . . . . Aug. 7, 1874 178, 221 Duplex Telegraphs. . . . . . . . Aug. 19, 1874 178, 222 Duplex Telegraphs. . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 19, 1874 178, 223 Duplex Telegraphs. . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 19, 1874 180, 858 Duplex Telegraphs. . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 19, 1874 207, 723 Duplex Telegraphs. . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 19, 1874 480, 567 Duplex Telegraphs. . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 19, 1874 207, 724 Duplex Telegraphs. . . . . . . . . . . Dec. 14, 1874

 1875

 168, 242 Transmitter and Receiver for Automatic Telegraph. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jan. 18, 1875 168, 243 Automatic Telegraphs . . . . . . . . . Jan. 18, 1875 168, 385 Duplex Telegraphs. . . . . . . . . . . Jan. 18, 1875 168, 466 Solution for Chemical Telegraphs . . . Jan. 18, 1875 168, 467 Recording Point for Chemical Telegraph Jan. 18, 1875 195, 751 Automatic Telegraphs . . . . . . . . . Jan. 18 1875 195, 752 Automatic Telegraphs . . . . . . . . . Jan. 19, 1875 171, 273 Telegraph Apparatus. . . . . . . . . . Feb 11, 1875 169, 972 Electric Signalling Instrument . . . . Feb 24, 1875 209, 241 Quadruplex Telegraph Repeaters (reissued September 23, 1879, numbered 8906). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb 24, 1875

 1876

 180, 857 Autographic Printing . . . . . . . . . March 7, 1876 198, 088 Telephonic Telegraphs. . . . . . . . . April 3, 1876 198, 089 Telephonic or Electro Harmonic Telegraphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . April 3, 1876 182, 996 Acoustic Telegraphs. . . . . . . . . . . May 9, 1876 186, 330 Acoustic Electric Telegraphs . . . . . . May 9, 1876 186, 548 Telegraph Alarm and Signal Apparatus . . May 9, 1876 198, 087 Telephonic Telegraphs. . . . . . . . . . May 9, 1876 185, 507 Electro Harmonic Multiplex Telegraph . Aug. 16, 1876 200, 993 Acoustic Telegraph . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 26, 1876 235, 142 Acoustic Telegraph . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 26, 1876 200, 032 Synchronous Movements for Electric Telegraphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 30, 1876 200, 994 Automatic Telegraph Perforator and Transmitter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 30, 1876

 1877 205, 370 Pneumatic Stencil Pens . . . . . . . . Feb. 3, 1877 213, 554 Automatic Telegraphs . . . . . . . . . Feb. 3, 1877 196, 747 Stencil Pens . . . . . . . . . . . . April 18, 1877 203, 329 Perforating Pens . . . . . . . . . . April 18, 1877 474, 230 Speaking Telegraph . . . . . . . . . April 18, 1877 217, 781 Sextuplex Telegraph. . . . . . . . . . . May 8, 1877 230, 621 Addressing Machine . . . . . . . . . . . May 8, 1877 377, 374 Telegraphy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . May 8, 1877 453, 601 Sextuplex Telegraph. . . . . . . . . . May 31, 1877 452, 913 Sextuplex Telegraph. . . . . . . . . . May 31, 1877 512, 872 Sextuplex Telegraph. . . . . . . . . . May 31, 1877 474, 231 Speaking Telegraph . . . . . . . . . . July 9, 1877 203, 014 Speaking Telegraph . . . . . . . . . . July 16, 1877 208, 299 Speaking Telegraph . . . . . . . . . . July 16, 1877 203, 015 Speaking Telegraph . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 16, 1877 420, 594 Quadruplex Telegraph . . . . . . . . . Aug. 16, 1877 492, 789 Speaking Telegraph . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 31, 1877 203, 013 Speaking Telegraph . . . . . . . . . . Dec. 8, 1877 203 018 Telephone or Speaking Telegraph. . . . Dec. 8, 1877 200 521 Phonograph or Speaking Machine . . . . Dec. 15, 1877

 1878

 203, 019 Circuit for Acoustic or Telephonic Telegraphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 13, 1878 201, 760 Speaking Machines. . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 28, 1878 203, 016 Speaking Machines. . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 28, 1878 203, 017 Telephone Call Signals . . . . . . . . Feb. 28, 1878 214, 636 Electric Lights. . . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 5, 1878 222, 390 Carbon Telephones. . . . . . . . . . . Nov. 8, 1878 217, 782 Duplex Telegraphs. . . . . . . . . . . Nov. 11, 1878 214, 637 Thermal Regulator for Electric Lights. Nov. 14, 1878 210, 767 Vocal Engines. . . . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 31, 1878 218, 166 Magneto Electric Machines. . . . . . . Dec. 3, 1878 218, 866 Electric Lighting Apparatus. . . . . . Dec. 3, 1878 219, 628 Electric Lights. . . . . . . . . . . . Dec. 3, 1878 295, 990 Typewriter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dec. 4, 1878 218, 167 Electric Lights. . . . . . . . . . . . Dec. 31, 1878

 1879

 224, 329 Electric Lighting Apparatus. . . . . . Jan. 23, 1879 227, 229 Electric Lights. . . . . . . . . . . . Jan. 28, 1879 227, 227 Electric Lights. . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 6, 1879 224. 665 Autographic Stencils for Printing. . March 10, 1879 227. 679 Phonograph . . . . . . . . . . . . . March 19, 1879 221, 957 Telephone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . March 24, 1879 227, 229 Electric Lights. . . . . . . . . . . April 12, 1879 264, 643 Magneto Electric Machines. . . . . . April 21, 1879 219, 393 Dynamo Electric Machines . . . . . . . July 7, 1879 231, 704 Electro Chemical Receiving Telephone . July 17, 1879 266, 022 Telephone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 1, 1879 252, 442 Telephone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 4, 1879 222, 881 Magneto Electric Machines. . . . . . . Sept. 4, 1879 223, 898 Electric Lamp. . . . . . . . . . . . . Nov. 1, 1879

 1880

 230, 255 Electric Lamps . . . . . . . . . . . . Jan. 28, 1880 248, 425 Apparatus for Producing High Vacuums Jan. 28 1880 265, 311 Electric Lamp and Holder for Same. . . Jan. 28 1880 369, 280 System of Electrical Distribution. . . Jan. 28, 1880 227, 226 Safety Conductor for Electric Lights . March 10, 1880 228, 617 Brake for Electro Magnetic Motors. . March 10, 1880 251, 545 Electric Meter . . . . . . . . . . . March 10, 1880 525, 888 Manufacture of Carbons for Electric Lamps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . March 10, 1880 264, 649 Dynamo or Magneto Electric Machines. March 11, 1880 228, 329 Magnetic Ore Separator . . . . . . . . April 3, 1880 238, 868 Manufacture of Carbons for Incandescent Electric Lamps . . . . . . . . . . . April 25, 1880 237, 732 Electric Light . . . . . . . . . . . . June 15, 1880 248, 417 Manufacturing Carbons for Electric Lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . June 15, 1880 298, 679 Treating Carbons for Electric Lights . June 15, 1880 248, 430 Electro Magnetic Brake . . . . . . . . July 2, 1880 265, 778 Electro Magnetic Railway Engine. . . . July 3, 1880 248, 432 Magnetic Separator . . . . . . . . . . July 26, 1880 239, 150 Electric Lamp. . . . . . . . . . . . . July 27, 1880 239, 372 Testing Electric Light Carbons--Edison and Batchelor. . . . . . . . . . . . . July 28, 1880 251, 540 Carbon Electric Lamps. . . . . . . . . July 28, 1880 263, 139 Manufacture of Carbons for Electric Lamps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . July 28, 1880 434, 585 Telegraph Relay. . . . . . . . . . . . July 29, 1880 248 423 Carbonizer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . July 30, 1880 263 140 Dynamo Electric Machines . . . . . . . July 30, 1880 248, 434 Governor for Electric Engines. . . . . July 31, 1880 239, 147 System of Electric Lighting. . . . . . July 31, 1880 264, 642 Electric Distribution and Translation System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 4, 1880 293, 433 Insulation of Railroad Tracks used for Electric Circuits. . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 6, 1880 239, 373 Electric Lamp. . . . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 7, 1880 239, 745 Electric Lamp. . . . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 7, 1880 263, 135 Electric Lamp. . . . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 7, 1880 251, 546 Electric Lamp. . . . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 10, 1880 239, 153 Electric Lamp. . . . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 11, 1880 351, 855 Electric Lamp. . . . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 11, 1880 248, 435 Utilizing Electricity as Motive Power. Aug. 12, 1880 263, 132 Electro Magnetic Roller. . . . . . . . Aug. 14, 1880 264, 645 System of Conductors for the Distribution of Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . Sept. 1, 1880 240, 678 Webermeter . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sept. 22, 1880 239, 152 System of Electric Lighting. . . . . . Oct. 14, 1880 239, 148 Treating Carbons for Electric Lights . Oct. 15, 1880 238, 098 Magneto Signalling Apparatus--Edison and Johnson. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 21, 1880 242, 900 Manufacturing Carbons for Electric Lamps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 21, 1880 251, 556 Regulator for Magneto or Dynamo Electric Machines. . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 21, 1880 248, 426 Apparatus for Treating Carbons for Electric Lamps . . . . . . . . . . . . Nov. 5, 1880 239, 151 Forming Enlarged Ends on Carbon Filaments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nov. 19, 1880 12, 631 Design Patent--Incandescent Electric Lamp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nov. 23, 1880 239, 149 Incandescing Electric Lamp . . . . . . Dec. 3, 1880 242, 896 Incandescent Electric Lamp . . . . . . Dec. 3, 1880 242, 897 Incandescent Electric Lamp . . . . . . Dec. 3, 1880 248, 565 Webermeter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dec. 3, 1880 263, 878 Electric Lamp. . . . . . . . . . . . . Dec. 3, 1880 239, 154 Relay for Telegraphs . . . . . . . . . Dec. 11, 1880 242, 898 Dynamo Electric Machine. . . . . . . . Dec. 11, 1880 248, 431 Preserving Fruit . . . . . . . . . . . Dec. 11, 1880 265, 777 Treating Carbons for Electric Lamps. . Dec. 11, 1880 239, 374 Regulating the Generation of Electric Currents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dec. 16, 1880 248, 428 Manufacture of Incandescent Electric Lamps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dec. 16, 1880 248, 427 Apparatus for Treating Carbons for Electric Lamps . . . . . . . . . . . . Dec. 21, 1880 248, 437 Apparatus for Treating Carbons for Electric Lamps . . . . . . . . . . . . Dec. 21, 1880 248, 416 Manufacture of Carbons for Electric Lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dec. 30, 1880

 1881

 242, 899 Electric Lighting. . . . . . . . . . . Jan. 19, 1881 248, 418 Electric Lamp. . . . . . . . . . . . . Jan. 19 1881 248, 433 Vacuum Apparatus . . . . . . . . . . . Jan. 19 1881 251, 548 Incandescent Electric Lamps. . . . . . Jan. 19, 1881 406, 824 Electric Meter . . . . . . . . . . . . Jan. 19, 1881 248, 422 System of Electric Lighting. . . . . . Jan. 20, 1881 431, 018 Dynamo or Magneto Electric Machine . . Feb. 3, 1881 242, 901 Electric Motor . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 24, 1881 248, 429 Electric Motor . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 24, 1881 248, 421 Current Regulator for Dynamo Electric Machine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 25, 1881 251, 550 Magneto or Dynamo Electric Machines. . Feb. 26, 1881 251, 555 Regulator for Dynamo Electric Machines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 26, 1881 482, 549 Means for Controlling Electric Generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . March 2, 1881 248, 420 Fixture and Attachment for Electric Lamps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . March 7, 1881 251, 553 Electric Chandeliers . . . . . . . . . March 7, 1881 251, 554 Electric Lamp and Socket or Holder . . March 7, 1881 248, 424 Fitting and Fixtures for Electric Lamps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . March 8, 1881 248, 419 Electric Lamp. . . . . . . . . . . . March 30, 1881 251, 542 System of Electric Light . . . . . . April 19, 1881 263, 145 Making Incandescents . . . . . . . . April 19, 1881 266, 447 Electric Incandescent Lamp . . . . . April 21, 1881 251, 552 Underground Conductors . . . . . . . April 22, 1881 476, 531 Electric Lighting System . . . . . . April 22, 1881 248, 436 Depositing Cell for Plating the Connections of Electric Lamps. . . . . . . . . . . May 17, 1881 251, 539 Electric Lamp. . . . . . . . . . . . . May 17, 1881 263, 136 Regulator for Dynamo or Magneto Electric Machine . . . . . . . . . . . May 17, 1881 251, 557 Webermeter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . May 19, 1881 263, 134 Regulator for Magneto Electric Machine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . May 19, 1881 251, 541 Electro Magnetic Motor . . . . . . . . May 20, 1881 251, 544 Manufacture of Electric Lamps. . . . . May 20, 1881 251, 549 Electric Lamp and the Manufacture thereof. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . May 20, 1881 251, 558 Webermeter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . May 20, 1881 341, 644 Incandescent Electric Lamp . . . . . . May 20, 1881 251, 551 System of Electric Lighting. . . . . . May 21, 1881 263, 137 Electric Chandelier. . . . . . . . . . May 21, 1881 263, 141 Straightening Carbons for Incandescent Lamps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . May 21, 1881 264, 657 Incandescent Electric Lamps. . . . . . May 21, 1881 251, 543 Electric Lamp. . . . . . . . . . . . . May 24, 1881 251, 538 Electric Light . . . . . . . . . . . . May 27, 1881 425, 760 Measurement of Electricity in Distribution System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . May 3 1, 1881 251, 547 Electrical Governor. . . . . . . . . . June 2, 1881 263, 150 Magneto or Dynamo Electric Machines. June 3, 1881 263, 131 Magnetic Ore Separator . . . . . . . . June 4, 1881 435, 687 Means for Charging and Using Secondary Batteries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . June 21, 1881 263, 143 Magneto or Dynamo Electric Machines. . June 24, 1881 251, 537 Dynamo Electric Machine. . . . . . . . June 25, 1881 263, 147 Vacuum Apparatus . . . . . . . . . . . July 1, 188 1 439, 389 Electric Lighting System . . . . . . . July 1, 1881 263, 149 Commutator for Dynamo or Magneto Electric Machines. . . . . . . . . . . July 22, 1881 479, 184 Facsimile Telegraph--Edison and Kenny. July 26, 1881 400, 317 Ore Separator. . . . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 11, 1881 425, 763 Commutator for Dynamo Electric Machines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 20, 1881 263, 133 Dynamo or Magneto Electric Machine . . Aug. 24, 1881 263, 142 Electrical Distribution System . . . . Aug. 24, 1881 264, 647 Dynamo or Magneto Electric Machines. . Aug. 24, 1881 404, 902 Electrical Distribution System . . . . Aug. 24, 1881 257, 677 Telephone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sept. 7, 1881 266, 021 Telephone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sept. 7, 1881 263, 144 Mold for Carbonizing Incandescents . Sept. 19, 1881 265, 774 Maintaining Temperatures in Webermeters. . . . . . . . . . . . . Sept. 21, 1881 264, 648 Dynamo or Magneto Electric Machines. Sept. 23, 1881 265, 776 Electric Lighting System . . . . . . Sept. 27, 1881 524, 136 Regulator for Dynamo Electrical Machines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sept. 27, 1881 273, 715 Malleableizing Iron. . . . . . . . . . Oct. 4, 1881 281, 352 Webermeter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 5, 1881 446, 667 Locomotives for Electric Railways. . . Oct. 11, 1881 288, 318 Regulator for Dynamo or Magneto Electric Machines. . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 17, 1881 263, 148 Dynamo or Magneto Electric Machines. Oct. 25, 1881 264, 646 Dynamo or Magneto Electric Machines. Oct. 25, 1881 251, 559 Electrical Drop Light. . . . . . . . . Oct. 25, 1881 266, 793 Electric Distribution System . . . . . Oct. 25, 1881 358, 599 Incandescent Electric Lamp . . . . . . Oct. 29, 1881 264, 673 Regulator for Dynamo Electric Machine. Nov. 3, 1881 263, 138 Electric Arc Light . . . . . . . . . . Nov. 7, 1881 265, 775 Electric Arc Light . . . . . . . . . . . Nov. 7 1881 297, 580 Electric Arc Light . . . . . . . . . . . Nov. 7 1881 263, 146 Dynamo Magneto Electric Machines . . . Nov. 22, 1881 266, 588 Vacuum Apparatus . . . . . . . . . . . Nov. 25, 1881 251, 536 Vacuum Pump. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dec. 5, 1881 264, 650 Manufacturing Incandescent Electric Lamps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dec. 5, 1881 264, 660 Regulator for Dynamo Electric Machines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dec. 5, 1881 379, 770 Incandescent Electric Lamp . . . . . . Dec. 5, 1881 293, 434 Incandescent Electric Lamp . . . . . . Dec. 5, 1881 439, 391 Junction Box for Electric Wires. . . . Dec. 5, 1881 454, 558 Incandescent Electric Lamp . . . . . . Dec. 5, 1881 264, 653 Incandescent Electric Lamp . . . . . . Dec. 13, 1881 358, 600 Incandescing Electric Lamp . . . . . . Dec. 13, 1881 264, 652 Incandescent Electric Lamp . . . . . . Dec. 15, 1881 278, 419 Dynamo Electric Machines . . . . . . . Dec. 15, 1881

 1882

 265, 779 Regulator for Dynamo Electric Machines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jan. 17, 1882 264, 654 Incandescent Electric Lamps. . . . . . Feb. 10, 1882 264, 661 Regulator for Dynamo Electric Machines Feb. 10, 1882 264, 664 Regulator for Dynamo Electric Machines Feb. 10, 1882 264, 668 Regulator for Dynamo Electric Machines Feb. 10, 1882 264, 669 Regulator for Dynamo Electric Machines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 10, 1882 264, 671 Regulator for Dynamo Electric Machines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 10, 1882 275, 613 Incandescing Electric Lamp . . . . . . Feb. 10, 1882 401, 646 Incandescing Electric Lamp . . . . . . Feb. 10, 1882 264, 658 Regulator for Dynamo Electric Machines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 28, 1882 264, 659 Regulator for Dynamo Electric Machines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 28, 1882 265, 780 Regulator for Dynamo Electric Machines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 28, 1882 265, 781 Regulator for Dynamo Electric Machines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 28, 1882 278, 416 Manufacture of Incandescent Electric Lamps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 28, 1882 379, 771 Regulator for Dynamo Electric Machines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 28, 1882 272, 034 Telephone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . March 30, 1882 274, 576 Transmitting Telephone . . . . . . . March 30, 1882 274, 577 Telephone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . March 30, 1882 264, 662 Regulator for Dynamo Electric Machines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . May 1, 1882 264, 663 Regulator for Dynamo Electric Machines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . May 1, 1882 264, 665 Regulator for Dynamo Electric Machines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . May 1, 1882 264, 666 Regulator for Dynamo Electric Machines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . May 1, 1882 268, 205 Dynamo or Magneto Electric Machine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . May 1, 1882 273, 488 Regulator for Dynamo Electric Machines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . May 1, 1882 273, 492 Secondary Battery. . . . . . . . . . . May 19, 1882 460, 122 Process of and Apparatus for Generating Electricity . . . . . . . . May 19, 1882 466, 460 Electrolytic Decomposition . . . . . . May 19, . 1882 264, 672 Regulator for Dynamo Electric Machines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . May 22, 1882 264, 667 Regulator for Dynamo Electric Machines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . May 22, 1882 265, 786 Apparatus for Electrical Transmission of Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . May 22, 1882 273, 828 System of Underground Conductors of Electric Distribution. . . . . . . . . May 22, 1882 379, 772 System of Electrical Distribution. . . May 22, 1882 274, 292 Secondary Battery. . . . . . . . . . . June 3, 1882 281, 353 Dynamo or Magneto Electric Machine . . June 3, 1882 287, 523 Dynamo or Magneto Electric Machine . . June 3, 1882 365, 509 Filament for Incandescent Electric Lamps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . June 3 1882 446, 668 Electric Are Light . . . . . . . . . . . June 3 1882 543, 985 Incandescent Conductor for Electric Lamps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . June 3, 1882 264, 651 Incandescent Electric Lamps. . . . . . June 9, 1882 264, 655 Incandescing Electric Lamps. . . . . . June 9, 1882 264, 670 Regulator for Dynamo Electric Machines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . June 9, 1882 273, 489 Turn-Table for Electric Railway. . . . June 9, 1882 273, 490 Electro Magnetic Railway System. . . . June 9, 1882 401, 486 System of Electric Lighting. . . . . . June 12, 1882 476, 527 System of Electric Lighting. . . . . . June 12, 1882 439, 390 Electric Lighting System . . . . . . . June 19, 1882 446, 666 System of Electric Lighting. . . . . . June 19, 1882 464, 822 System of Distributing Electricity . . June 19, 1882 304, 082 Electrical Meter . . . . . . . . . . . June 24, 1882 274, 296 Manufacture of Incandescents . . . . . July 5, 1882 264, 656 Incandescent Electric Lamp . . . . . . July 7, 1882 265, 782 Regulator for Dynamo Electric Machines July 7, 1882 265, 783 Regulator for Dynamo Electric Machines July 7, 1882 265, 784 Regulator for Dynamo Electric Machines July 7, 1882 265, 785 Dynamo Electric Machine. . . . . . . . July 7, 1882 273, 494 Electrical Railroad. . . . . . . . . . July 7, 1882 278, 418 Translating Electric Currents from High to Low Tension . . . . . . . . . . . . July 7, 1882 293, 435 Electrical Meter . . . . . . . . . . . July 7, 1882 334, 853 Mold for Carbonizing . . . . . . . . . July 7, 1882 339, 278 Electric Railway . . . . . . . . . . . July 7, 1882 273, 714 Magnetic Electric Signalling Apparatus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 5, 1882 282, 287 Magnetic Electric Signalling Apparatus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 5, 1882 448, 778 Electric Railway . . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 5, 1882 439, 392 Electric Lighting System . . . . . . . Aug. 12, 1882 271, 613 Manufacture of Incandescent Electric Lamps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 25, 1882 287, 518 Manufacture of Incandescent Electric Lamps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 25, 1882 406, 825 Electric Meter . . . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 25, 1882 439, 393 Carbonizing Chamber. . . . . . . . . . Aug. 25, 1882 273, 487 Regulator for Dynamo Electric Machines Sept. 12, 1882 297, 581 Incandescent Electric Lamp . . . . . Sept. 12, 1882 395, 962 Manufacturing Electric Lamps . . . . Sept. 16, 1882 287, 525 Regulator for Systems of Electrical Distribution--Edison and C. L. Clarke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 4, 1882 365, 465 Valve Gear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 5, 1882 317, 631 Incandescent Electric Lamp . . . . . . Oct. 7, 1882 307, 029 Filament for Incandescent Lamp . . . . Oct. 9, 1882 268, 206 Incandescing Electric Lamp . . . . . . Oct. 10, 1882 273, 486 Incandescing Electric Lamp . . . . . . Oct. 12, 1882 274, 293 Electric Lamp. . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 14, 1882 275, 612 Manufacture of Incandescent Electric Lamps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 14, 1882 430, 932 Manufacture of Incandescent Electric Lamps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 14, 1882 271, 616 Regulator for Dynamo Electric Machines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 16, 1882 543, 986 Process for Treating Products Derived from Vegetable Fibres. . . . . . . . . Oct. 17, 1882 543, 987 Filament for Incandescent Lamps. . . . Oct. 17, 1882 271, 614 Shafting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 19, 1882 271, 615 Governor for Dynamo Electric Machines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 19, 1882 273, 491 Regulator for Driving Engines of Electrical Generators. . . . . . . . . Oct. 19, 1882 273, 493 Valve Gear for Electrical Generator Engines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 19, 1882 411, 016 Manufacturing Carbon Filaments . . . . Oct. 19, 1882 492, 150 Coating Conductors for Incandescent Lamps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 19, 1882 273, 485 Incandescent Electric Lamps. . . . . . Oct. 26, 1882 317, 632 Incandescent Electric Lamps. . . . . . Oct. 26, 1882 317, 633 Incandescent Electric Lamps. . . . . . Oct. 26, 1882 287, 520 Incandescing Conductor for Electric Lamps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nov. 3, 1882 353, 783 Incandescent Electric Lamp . . . . . . Nov. 3, 1882 430, 933 Filament for Incandescent Lamps. . . . Nov. 3, 1882 274, 294 Incandescent Electric Lamp . . . . . . Nov. 13, 1882 281, 350 Regulator for Dynamo Electric Machines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nov. 13, 1882 274, 295 Incandescent Electric Lamp . . . . . . Nov. 14, 1882 276, 233 Electrical Generator and Motor . . . . Nov. 14, 1882 274, 290 System of Electrical Distribution. . . Nov. 20, 1882 274, 291 Mold for Carbonizer. . . . . . . . . . Nov. 28, 1882 278, 413 Regulator for Dynamo Electric MachinesNov. 28, 1882 278, 414 Regulator for Dynamo Electric Machines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nov. 28, 1882 287, 519 Manufacturing Incandescing Electric Lamps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nov. 28, 1882 287, 524 Regulator for Dynamo Electric Machines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nov. 28, 1882 438, 298 Manufacture of Incandescent Electric Lamps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nov. 28, 1882 276, 232 Operating and Regulating Electrical Generators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dec. 20, 1882

 1883

 278, 415 Manufacture of Incandescent Electric Lamps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jan. 13, 1883 278, 417 Manufacture of Incandescent Electric Lamps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jan. 13, 1883 281, 349 Regulator for Dynamo Electric Machines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jan. 13, 1883 283, 985 System of Electrical Distribution. . . Jan. 13 1883 283, 986 System o' Electrical Distribution. . . Jan. 13 1883 459, 835 Manufacture of Incandescent Electric Lamps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jan. 13, 1883 13, 940 Design Patent--Incandescing Electric Lamp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 13 1883 280, 727 System of Electrical Distribution. . . Feb. 13 1883 395, 123 Circuit Controller for Dynamo Machine. Feb. 13, 1883 287, 521 Dynamo or Magneto Electric Machine . . Feb. 17, 1883 287, 522 Molds for Carbonizing. . . . . . . . . Feb. 17, 1883 438, 299 Manufacture of Carbon Filaments. . . . Feb. 17, 1883 446, 669 Manufacture of Filaments for Incandescent Electric Lamps . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 17, 1883 476, 528 Incandescent Electric Lamp . . . . . . Feb. 17, 1883 281, 351 Electrical Generator . . . . . . . . . March 5, 1883 283, 984 System of Electrical Distribution. . . March 5, 1883 287, 517 System of Electrical Distribution. . . March 14, 1883 283, 983 System of Electrical Distribution. . . April 5, 1883 354, 310 Manufacture of Carbon Conductors . . . April 6, 1883 370, 123 Electric Meter . . . . . . . . . . . . April 6, 1883 411, 017 Carbonizing Flask. . . . . . . . . . . April 6, 1883 370, 124 Manufacture of Filament for Incandescing Electric Lamp. . . . . . . . . . . . April 12, 1883 287, 516 System of Electrical Distribution. . . . May 8, 1883 341, 839 Incandescent Electric Lamp . . . . . . . May 8, 1883 398, 774 Incandescent Electric Lamp . . . . . . . May 8, 1883 370, 125 Electrical Transmission of Power . . . June 1, 1883 370, 126 Electrical Transmission of Power . . . June 1, 1883 370, 127 Electrical Transmission of Power . . . June 1, 1883 370, 128 Electrical Transmission of Power . . . June 1, 1883 370, 129 Electrical Transmission of Power . . . June 1, 1883 370, 130 Electrical Transmission of Power . . . June 1, 1883 370, 131 Electrical Transmission of Power . . . June 1, 1883 438, 300 Gauge for Testing Fibres for Incandescent Lamp Carbons. . . . . . . June 1, 1883 287, 511 Electric Regulator . . . . . . . . . . June 25, 1883 287, 512 Dynamo Electric Machine. . . . . . . . June 25, 1883 287, 513 Dynamo Electric Machine. . . . . . . . June 25, 1883 287, 514 Dynamo Electric Machine. . . . . . . . June 25, 1883 287, 515 System of Electrical Distribution. . . June 25, 1883 297, 582 Dynamo Electric Machine. . . . . . . . June 25, 1883 328, 572 Commutator for Dynamo Electric Machines June 25, 1883 430, 934 Electric Lighting System . . . . . . . June 25, 1883 438, 301 System of Electric Lighting. . . . . . June 25, 1883 297, 583 Dynamo Electric Machines . . . . . . . July 27, 1883 304, 083 Dynamo Electric Machines . . . . . . . July 27; 1883 304, 084 Device for Protecting Electric Light Systems from Lightning . . . . . . . . July 27, 1883 438, 302 Commutator for Dynamo Electric Machine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . July 27, 1883 476, 529 System of Electrical Distribution. . . July 27, 1883 297, 584 Dynamo Electric Machine. . . . . . . . Aug. 8, 1883 307, 030 Electrical Meter . . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 8, 1883 297, 585 Incandescing Conductor for Electric Lamps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sept. 14, 1883 297, 586 Electrical Conductor . . . . . . . . Sept. 14, 1883 435, 688 Process and Apparatus for Generating Electricity. . . . . . . . . . . . . Sept. 14, 1883 470, 922 Manufacture of Filaments for Incandescent Lamps . . . . . . . . . Sept. 14, 1883 490, 953 Generating Electricity . . . . . . . . Oct. 9, 1883 293, 432 Electrical Generator or Motor. . . . . Oct. 17, 1883 307, 031 Electrical Indicator . . . . . . . . . Nov. 2, 1883 337, 254 Telephone--Edison and Bergmann . . . . Nov. 10, 1883 297, 587 Dynamo Electric Machine. . . . . . . . Nov. 16, 1883 298, 954 Dynamo Electric Machine. . . . . . . . Nov. 15, 1883 298, 955 Dynamo Electric Machine. . . . . . . . Nov. 15, 1883 304, 085 System of Electrical Distribution. . . Nov. 15, 1883 509, 517 System of Electrical Distribution. . . Nov. 15, 1883 425, 761 Incandescent Lamp. . . . . . . . . . . Nov. 20, 1883 304, 086 Incandescent Electric Lamp . . . . . . Dec. 15, 1883

 1884

 298, 956 Operating Dynamo Electric Machine. . . Jan. 5, 1884 304, 087 Electrical Conductor . . . . . . . . . Jan. 12, 1884 395, 963 Incandescent Lamp Filament . . . . . . Jan. 22, 1884 526, 147 Plating One Material with Another. . . Jan. 22, 1884 339, 279 System of Electrical Distribution. . . Feb. 8, 1884 314, 115 Chemical Stock Quotation Telegraph-- Edison and Kenny . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 9, 1884 436, 968 Method and Apparatus for Drawing Wire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . June 2, 1884 436, 969 Apparatus for Drawing Wire . . . . . . June 2, 1884 438, 303 Arc Lamp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . June 2, 1884 343, 017 System of Electrical Distribution. . . June 27, 1884 391, 595 System of Electric Lighting. . . . . . July 16, 1884 328, 573 System of Electric Lighting. . . . . Sept. 12, 1884 328, 574 System of Electric Lighting. . . . . Sept. 12, 1884 328, 575 System of Electric Lighting. . . . . Sept. 12, 1884 391, 596 Incandescent Electric Lamp . . . . . Sept. 24, 1884 438, 304 Electric Signalling Apparatus. . . . Sept. 24, 1884 422, 577 Apparatus for Speaking Telephones-- Edison and Gilliland . . . . . . . . . Oct. 21, 1884 329, 030 Telephone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dec. 3, 1884 422, 578 Telephone Repeater . . . . . . . . . . Dec. 9, 1884 422, 579 Telephone Repeater . . . . . . . . . . Dec. 9, 1884 340, 707 Telephonic Repeater. . . . . . . . . . Dec. 9, 1884 340, 708 Electrical Signalling Apparatus. . . . Dec. 19, 1884 347, 097 Electrical Signalling Apparatus. . . . Dec. 19, 1884 478, 743 Telephone Repeater . . . . . . . . . . Dec. 31, 1884

 1885

 340, 709 Telephone Circuit--Edison and Gilliland. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jan. 2, 1885 378, 044 Telephone Transmitter. . . . . . . . . Jan. 9, 1885 348, 114 Electrode for Telephone Transmitters . Jan. 12, 1885 438, 305 Fuse Block . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jan. 14, 1885 350, 234 System of Railway Signalling--Edison and Gilliland. . . . . . . . . . . . . March 27, 1885 486, 634 System of Railway Signalling--Edison and Gilliland. . . . . . . . . . . . . March 27, 1885 333, 289 Telegraphy . . . . . . . . . . . . . April 27, 1885 333, 290 Duplex Telegraphy. . . . . . . . . . April 30, 1885 333, 291 Way Station Quadruplex Telegraph . . . . May 6, 1885 465, 971 Means for Transmitting Signals Electrically May 14, 1885 422 072 Telegraphy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 7, 1885 437 422 Telegraphy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 7, 1885 422, 073 Telegraphy . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nov. I 2, 1885 422, 074 Telegraphy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nov. 24, 1885 435, 689 Telegraphy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nov. 30, 1885 438, 306 Telephone - Edison and Gilliland . . . Dec. 22, 1885 350, 235 Railway Telegraphy--Edison and Gilliland. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dec. 28, 1885

 1886

 406, 567 Telephone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jan. 28, 1886 474, 232 Speaking Telegraph . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 17, 1886 370 132 Telegraphy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . May 11, 1886 411, 018 Manufacture of Incandescent Lamps. . . July 15, 1886 438, 307 Manufacture of Incandescent Electric Lamps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . July I 5, 1886 448, 779 Telegraph. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . July IS, 1886 411, 019 Manufacture of Incandescent Electric Lamps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . July 20, 1886 406, 130 Manufacture of Incandescent Electric Lamps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 6, 1886 351, 856 Incandescent Electric Lamp . . . . . Sept. 30, 1886 454, 262 Incandescent Lamp Filaments. . . . . . Oct. 26, 1886 466, 400 Cut-Out for Incandescent Lamps--Edison and J. F. Ott. . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 26, 1886 484, 184 Manufacture of Carbon Filaments. . . . Oct. 26, 1886 490, 954 Manufacture of Carbon Filaments for Electric Lamps . . . . . . . . . . . . Nov. 2, 1886 438, 308 System of Electrical Distribution. . . Nov. 9, 1886 524, 378 System of Electrical Distribution. . . Nov. 9, 1886 365, 978 System of Electrical Distribution. . . Nov. 22, 1886 369 439 System of Electrical Distribution. . . Nov. 22, 1886 384 830 Railway Signalling--Edison and Gilliland Nov. 24, 1886 379, 944 Commutator for Dynamo Electric MachinesNov. 26, 1886 411, 020 Manufacture of Carbon Filaments. . . . Nov. 26, 1886 485, 616 Manufacture of Carbon Filaments. . . . . Dec 6, 1886 485, 615 Manufacture of Carbon Filaments. . . . . Dec 6, 1886 525, 007 Manufacture of Carbon Filaments. . . . Dec. 6, 1886 369, 441 System of Electrical Distribution. . . Dec. 10, 1886 369, 442 System of Electrical Distribution. . . Dec. 16, 1886 369, 443 System of Electrical Distribution. . . Dec. 16, 1886 484, 185 Manufacture of Carbon Filaments. . . . Dec. 20, 1886 534, 207 Manufacture of Carbon Filaments. . . . Dec. 20, 1886 373, 584 Dynamo Electric Machine. . . . . . . . Dec. 21, 1886

 1887

 468, 949 Converter System for Electric Railways . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 7, 1887 380, 100 Pyromagnetic Motor . . . . . . . . . . May 24, 1887 476, 983 Pyromagnetic Generator . . . . . . . . . May 24 1887 476, 530 Incandescent Electric Lamp . . . . . . June 1, 1887 377, 518 Magnetic Separator . . . . . . . . . . June 30, 1887 470, 923 Railway Signalling . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 9, 1887 545, 405 System of Electrical Distribution. . . Aug. 26, 1887 380, 101 System of Electrical Distribution. . . Sept. 13 1887 380, 102 System of Electrical Distribution. . . Sept. 14 1887 470, 924 Electric Conductor . . . . . . . . . Sept. 26, 1887 563, 462 Method of and Apparatus for Drawing Wire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 17, 1887 385, 173 System of Electrical Distribution. . . Nov. 5, 1887 506, 215 Making Plate Glass . . . . . . . . . . Nov. 9, 1887 382, 414 Burnishing Attachments for PhonographsNov. 22, 1887 386, 974 Phonograph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nov. 22, 1887 430, 570 Phonogram Blank. . . . . . . . . . . . Nov. 22, 1887 382, 416 Feed and Return Mechanism for PhonographsNov. 29, 1887 382, 415 System of Electrical Distribution. . . Dec. 4, 1887 382, 462 Phonogram Blanks . . . . . . . . . . . Dec. 5, 1887

 1888

 484, 582 Duplicating Phonograms . . . . . . . . Jan. 17, 1888 434, 586 Electric Generator . . . . . . . . . . Jan. 21, 1888 434, 587 Thermo Electric Battery. . . . . . . . Jan. 21, 1888 382, 417 Making Phonogram Blanks. . . . . . . . Jan. 30, 1888 389, 369 Incandescing Electric Lamp . . . . . . Feb. 2, 1888 382, 418 Phonogram Blank. . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 20, 1888 390, 462 Making Carbon Filaments. . . . . . . . Feb. 20, 1888 394, 105 Phonograph Recorder. . . . . . . . . . Feb. 20, 1888 394, 106 Phonograph Reproducer. . . . . . . . . Feb. 20, 1888 382, 419 Duplicating Phonograms . . . . . . . . March 3, 1888 425, 762 Cut-Out for Incandescent Lamps . . . . March 3, 1888 396, 356 Magnetic Separator . . . . . . . . . . March 19, 1888 393, 462 Making Phonogram Blanks. . . . . . . April 28, 1888 393, 463 Machine for Making Phonogram Blanks. April 28, 1888 393, 464 Machine for Making Phonogram Blanks. April 28, 1888 534, 208 Induction Converter. . . . . . . . . . . May 7, 1888 476, 991 Method of and Apparatus for Separating Ores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . May 9, 1888 400, 646 Phonograph Recorder and Reproducer . . May 22, 1888 488, 190 Phonograph Reproducer. . . . . . . . . May 22, 1888 488, 189 Phonograph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . May 26, 1888 470, 925 Manufacture of Filaments for Incandescent Electric Lamps . . . . . . . . . . . . June 21, 1888 393, 465 Preparing Phonograph Recording Surfaces June 30, 1888 400, 647 Phonograph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . June 30, 1888 448, 780 Device for Turning Off Phonogram Blanks June 30, 1888 393, 466 Phonograph Recorder. . . . . . . . . . July 14, 1888 393, 966 Recording and Reproducing Sounds . . . July 14, 1888 393, 967 Recording and Reproducing Sounds . . . July 14, 1888 430, 274 Phonogram Blank. . . . . . . . . . . . July 14, 1888 437, 423 Phonograph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . July 14, 1888 450, 740 Phonograph Recorder. . . . . . . . . . July 14, 1888 485, 617 Incandescent Lamp Filament . . . . . . July 14, 1888 448, 781 Turning-Off Device for Phonographs . . July 16, 1888 400, 648 Phonogram Blank. . . . . . . . . . . . July 27, 1888 499, 879 Phonograph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . July 27, 1888 397, 705 Winding Field Magnets. . . . . . . . . Aug. 31, 1888 435, 690 Making Armatures for Dynamo Electric Machines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 31, 1888 430, 275 Magnetic Separator . . . . . . . . . Sept. 12, 1888 474, 591 Extracting Gold from Sulphide Ores . Sept. 12, 1888 397, 280 Phonograph Recorder and Reproducer . Sept. 19, 1888 397, 706 Phonograph . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sept. 29, 1888 400, 649 Making Phonogram Blanks. . . . . . . Sept. 29, 1888 400, 650 Making Phonogram Blanks. . . . . . . . Oct. 15, 1888 406, 568 Phonograph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 15, 1888 437, 424 Phonograph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 15, 1888 393, 968 Phonograph Recorder. . . . . . . . . . Oct. 31, 1888

 1889

 406, 569 Phonogram Blank. . . . . . . . . . . . Jan. 10, 1889 488, 191 Phonogram Blank. . . . . . . . . . . . Jan. 10, 1889 430, 276 Phonograph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jan. 12, 1889 406, 570 Phonograph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 1, 1889 406, 571 Treating Phonogram Blanks. . . . . . . Feb. 1, 1889 406, 572 Automatic Determining Device for Phonographs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 1, 1889 406, 573 Automatic Determining Device for Phonographs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 1, 1889 406, 574 Automatic Determining Device for Phonographs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 1, 1889 406, 575 Automatic Determining Device for Phonographs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 1, 1889 406, 576 Phonogram Blank. . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 1, 1889 430, 277 Automatic Determining Device for Phonographs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 1, 1889 437, 425 Phonograph Recorder. . . . . . . . . . Feb. 1, 1889 414, 759 Phonogram Blanks . . . . . . . . . . March 22, 1889 414, 760 Phonograph . . . . . . . . . . . . . March 22, 1889 462, 540 Incandescent Electric Lamps. . . . . March 22, 1889 430, 278 Phonograph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . April 8, 1889 438, 309 Insulating Electrical Conductors . . April 25, 1889 423, 039 Phonograph Doll or Other Toys. . . . . June 15, 1889 426, 527 Automatic Determining Device for Phonographs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . June 15, 1889 430, 279 Voltaic Battery. . . . . . . . . . . . June 15, 1889 506, 216 Apparatus for Making Glass . . . . . . June 29, 1889 414, 761 Phonogram Blanks . . . . . . . . . . . July 16, 1889 430, 280 Magnetic Separator . . . . . . . . . . July 20, 1889 437, 426 Phonograph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . July 20, 1889 465, 972 Phonograph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nov. 14, 1889 443, 507 Phonograph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dec. 11 1889 513, 095 Phonograph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dec. 11 1889

 1890

 434, 588 Magnetic Ore Separator--Edison and W. K. L. Dickson . . . . . . . . . . . Jan. 16, 1890 437, 427 Making Phonogram Blanks. . . . . . . . Feb. 8, 1890 465, 250 Extracting Copper Pyrites. . . . . . . Feb. 8, 1890 434, 589 Propelling Mechanism for Electric Vehicles Feb. 14, 1890 438, 310 Lamp Base. . . . . . . . . . . . . . April 25, 1890 437, 428 Propelling Device for Electric Cars. April 29, 1890 437, 429 Phonogram Blank. . . . . . . . . . . April 29, 1890 454, 941 Phonograph Recorder and Reproducer . . . May 6, 1890 436, 127 Electric Motor . . . . . . . . . . . . May 17, 1890 484, 583 Phonograph Cutting Tool. . . . . . . . May 24, 1890 484, 584 Phonograph Reproducer. . . . . . . . . May 24, 1890 436, 970 Apparatus for Transmitting Power . . . June 2, 1890 453, 741 Phonograph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . July 5, 1890 454, 942 Phonograph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . July 5, 1890 456, 301 Phonograph Doll. . . . . . . . . . . . July 5, 1890 484, 585 Phonograph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . July 5, 1890 456, 302 Phonograph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 4, 1890 476, 984 Expansible Pulley. . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 9, 1890 493, 858 Transmission of Power. . . . . . . . . Aug. 9, 1890 457, 343 Magnetic Belting . . . . . . . . . . . Sept. 6, 1890 444, 530 Leading-in Wires for Incandescent Electric Lamps (reissued October 10, 1905, No. 12, 393). . . . . . . . . . . . . Sept. 12, 1890 534 209 Incandescent Electric Lamp . . . . . Sept. 13, 1890 476 985 Trolley for Electric Railways. . . . . Oct. 27, 1890 500, 280 Phonograph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 27, 1890 541, 923 Phonograph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 27, 1890 457, 344 Smoothing Tool for Phonogram Blanks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nov. 17, 1890 460, 123 Phonogram Blank Carrier. . . . . . . . Nov. 17, 1890 500, 281 Phonograph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nov. 17, 1890 541, 924 Phonograph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nov. 17, 1890 500, 282 Phonograph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dec. 1, 1890 575, 151 Phonograph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dec. 1, 1890 605, 667 Phonograph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dec. 1, 1890 610, 706 Phonograph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dec. 1, 1890 622, 843 Phonograph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dec. 1, 1890 609, 268 Phonograph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dec. 6, 1890 493, 425 Electric Locomotive. . . . . . . . . . Dec. 20, 1890

 1891

 476, 992 Incandescent Electric Lamp . . . . . . Jan. 20, 1891 470, 926 Dynamo Electric Machine or Motor . . . Feb. 4, 1891 496, 191 Phonograph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 4, 1891 476, 986 Means for Propelling Electric Cars . . Feb. 24, 1891 476, 987 Electric Locomotive. . . . . . . . . . Feb. 24, 1891 465, 973 Armatures for Dynamos or Motors. . . . March 4, 1891 470, 927 Driving Mechanism for Cars . . . . . . March 4, 1891 465, 970 Armature Connection for Motors or Generators . . . . . . . . . . . . . March 20, 1891 468, 950 Commutator Brush for Electric Motors and Dynamos. . . . . . . . . . . . . March 20, 1891 475, 491 Electric Locomotive. . . . . . . . . . June 3, 1891 475, 492 Electric Locomotive. . . . . . . . . . June 3, 1891 475, 493 Electric Locomotive. . . . . . . . . . June 3, 1891 475, 494 Electric Railway . . . . . . . . . . . June 3, 1891 463, 251 Bricking Fine Ores . . . . . . . . . . July 31, 1891 470, 928 Alternating Current Generator. . . . . July 31, 1891 476, 988 Lightning Arrester . . . . . . . . . . July 31, 1891 476, 989 Conductor for Electric Railways. . . . July 31, 1891 476, 990 Electric Meter . . . . . . . . . . . . July 31, 1891 476, 993 Electric Arc . . . . . . . . . . . . . July 31, 1891 484, 183 Electrical Depositing Meter. . . . . . July 31, 1891 485, 840 Bricking Fine Iron Ores. . . . . . . . July 31, 1891 493, 426 Apparatus for Exhibiting Photographs of Moving Objects. . . . . . . . . . . July 31, 1891 509, 518 Electric Railway . . . . . . . . . . . July 31, 1891 589, 168 Kinetographic Camera (reissued September 30, 1902, numbered 12, 037 and 12, 038, and January 12, 1904, numbered 12, 192) . . . . . . . . . . . July 31, 1891 470, 929 Magnetic Separator . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 28, 1891 471, 268 Ore Conveyor and Method of Arranging Ore Thereon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 28, 1891 472, 288 Dust-Proof Bearings for Shafts . . . . Aug. 28, 1891 472, 752 Dust-Proof Journal Bearings. . . . . . Aug. 28, 1891 472, 753 Ore-Screening Apparatus. . . . . . . . Aug. 28, 1891 474, 592 Ore-Conveying Apparatus. . . . . . . . Aug. 28, 1891 474, 593 Dust-Proof Swivel Shaft Bearing. . . . Aug. 28, 1891 498, 385 Rollers for Ore-Crushing or Other Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 28, 1891 470, 930 Dynamo Electric Machine. . . . . . . . . Oct 8, 1891 476, 532 Ore-Screening Apparatus. . . . . . . . . Oct 8, 1891 491, 992 Cut-Out for Incandescent Electric Lamps Nov. 10, 1891

 1892

 491, 993 Stop Device. . . . . . . . . . . . . . April 5 1892 564, 423 Separating Ores. . . . . . . . . . . . June 2;, 1892 485, 842 Magnetic Ore Separation. . . . . . . . July 9, 1892 485, 841 Mechanically Separating Ores . . . . . July 9, 1892 513, 096 Method of and Apparatus for Mixing Materials. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 24, 1892

 1893

 509, 428 Composition Brick and Making Same. . March 15, 1893 513, 097 Phonograph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . May 22, 1893 567, 187 Crushing Rolls . . . . . . . . . . . . Dec. 13, 1893 602 064 Conveyor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dec. 13, 1893 534 206 Filament for Incandescent Lamps. . . . Dec. 15, 1893

 1896

 865, 367 Fluorescent Electric Lamp. . . . . . . May 16, 1896

 1897

 604. 740 Governor for Motors. . . . . . . . . . Jan. 25, 1897 607, 588 Phonograph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jan. 25, 1897 637, 327 Rolls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . May 14, 1897 672, 616 Breaking Rock. . . . . . . . . . . . . May 14, 1897 675, 056 Magnetic Separator . . . . . . . . . . May 14, 1897 676, 618 Magnetic Separator . . . . . . . . . . May 14, 1897 605, 475 Drying Apparatus . . . . . . . . . . . June 10, 1897 605, 668 Mixer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . June 10, 1897 667, 201 Flight Conveyor. . . . . . . . . . . . June 10, 1897 671, 314 Lubricating Journal Bearings . . . . . June 10, 1897 671, 315 Conveyor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . June 10, 1897 675, 057 Screening Pulverized Material. . . . . June 10, 1897

 1898

 713, 209 Duplicating Phonograms . . . . . . . . Feb. 21, 1898 703, 774 Reproducer for Phonographs . . . . . March 21, 1898 626, 460 Filament for Incandescent Lamps and Manufacturing Same . . . . . . . . . . March 29, 1898 648, 933 Dryer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . April 11, 1898 661, 238 Machine for Forming Pulverized Material in Briquettes . . . . . . . April 11, 1898 674, 057 Crushing Rolls . . . . . . . . . . . April 11, 1898 703, 562 Apparatus for Bricking Pulverized Material April 11, 1898 704, 010 Apparatus for Concentrating Magnetic Iron Ores. . . . . . . . . . . . . . April 11, 1898 659, 389 Electric Meter . . . . . . . . . . . Sept. 19, 1898

 1899

 648, 934 Screening or Sizing Very Fine Materials Feb. 6, 1899 663, 015 Electric Meter . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 6, 1899 688, 610 Phonographic Recording Apparatus . . . Feb. 10, 1899 643, 764 Reheating Compressed Air for Industrial Purposes. . . . . . . . . . Feb. 24, 1899 660, 293 Electric Meter . . . . . . . . . . . . March 23, 1899 641, 281 Expanding Pulley--Edison and Johnson . March 28, 1899 727, 116 Grinding Rolls . . . . . . . . . . . . June 15, 1899 652, 457 Phonograph (reissued September 25, 1900, numbered 11, 857) . . . . . . . Sept. 12, 1899 648, 935 Apparatus for Duplicating Phonograph Records. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 27, 1899 685, 911 Apparatus for Reheating Compressed Air for Industrial Purposes. . . . . . Nov. 24, 1899 657, 922 Apparatus for Reheating Compressed Air for Industrial Purposes. . . . . . Dec. 9, 1899

 1900

 676, 840 Magnetic Separating Apparatus. . . . . Jan. 3, 1900 660, 845 Apparatus for Sampling, Averaging, Mixing, and Storing Materials in Bulk Jan. 9, 1900 662, 063 Process of Sampling, Averaging, Mixing, and Storing Materials in Bulk. . . . . Jan. 9, 1900 679, 500 Apparatus for Screening Fine Materials Jan. 24, 1900 671, 316 Apparatus for Screening Fine Materials Feb. 23, 1900 671, 317 Apparatus for Screening Fine Materials March 28, 1900 759, 356 Burning Portland Cement Clinker, etc April 10, 1900 759, 357 Apparatus for Burning Portland Cement Clinker, etc . . . . . . . . . . . . . April 10 1900 655, 480 Phonographic Reproducing Device. . . . April 30 1900 657, 527 Making Metallic Phonograph Records . April 30, 1900 667, 202 Duplicating Phonograph Records . . . April 30, 1900 667, 662 Duplicating Phonograph Records . . . April 30, 1900 713, 863 Coating Phonograph Records . . . . . . May IS, 1900 676, 841 Magnetic Separating Apparatus. . . . . June 11 1900 759, 358 Magnetic Separating Apparatus. . . . . June 11 1900 680, 520 Phonograph Records . . . . . . . . . . July 23, 1900 672, 617 Apparatus for Breaking Rock. . . . . . Aug. 1, 1900 676, 225 Phonographic Recording Apparatus . . . Aug. 10, 1900 703, 051 Electric Meter . . . . . . . . . . . Sept. 28, 1900 684, 204 Reversible Galvanic Battery. . . . . . Oct. IS 1900 871, 214 Reversible Galvanic Battery. . . . . . Oct. IS 1900 704, 303 Reversible Galvanic Battery. . . . . . Dec. 22, 1900

 1901

 700, 136 Reversible Galvanic Battery. . . . . . Feb. 18 1901 700, 137 Reversible Galvanic Battery. . . . . . Feb. 23 1901 704, 304 Reversible Galvanic Battery. . . . . . Feb. 23, 1901 704, 305 Reversible Galvanic Battery. . . . . . May 10, 1901 678, 722 Reversible Galvanic Battery. . . . . . June 17, 1901 684, 205 Reversible Galvanic Battery. . . . . . June 17, 1901 692, 507 Reversible Galvanic Battery. . . . . . June 17, 1901 701, 804 Reversible Galvanic Battery. . . . . . June 17, 1901 704, 306 Reversible Galvanic Battery. . . . . . June 17, 1901 705, 829 Reproducer for Sound Records . . . . . Oct. 24, 1901 831, 606 Sound Recording Apparatus. . . . . . . Oct. 24, 1901 827, 089 Calcining Furnaces . . . . . . . . . . Dec. 24, 1901

 1902

 734, 522 Process of Nickel-Plating. . . . . . . Feb. 11, 1902 727, 117 Reversible Galvanic Battery. . . . . Sept. 29, 1902

 727, 118 Manufacturing Electrolytically Active Finely Divided Iron. . . . . . . . . . Oct. 13, 1902 721, 682 Reversible Galvanic Battery. . . . . . Nov. 13, 1902 721, 870 Funnel for Filling Storage Battery Jars Nov. 13, 1902 723, 449 Electrode for Storage Batteries. . . . Nov. 13, 1902 723, 450 Reversible Galvanic Battery. . . . . . Nov. 13, 1902 754, 755 Compressing Dies . . . . . . . . . . . Nov. 13, 1902 754, 858 Storage Battery Tray . . . . . . . . . Nov. 13, 1902 754, 859 Reversible Galvanic Battery. . . . . . Nov. 13, 1902 764, 183 Separating Mechanically Entrained Globules from Gases. . . . . . . . . . Nov. 13, 1902 802, 631 Apparatus for Burning Portland Cement Clinker. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nov. 13, 1902 852, 424 Secondary Batteries. . . . . . . . . . Nov. 13, 1902 722, 502 Handling Cable Drawn Cars on Inclines. Dec. 18, 1902 724, 089 Operating Motors in Dust Laden Atmospheres. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dec. 18, 1902 750, 102 Electrical Automobile. . . . . . . . . Dec. 18, 1902 758, 432 Stock House Conveyor . . . . . . . . . Dec. 18, 1902 873, 219 Feed Regulators for Grinding Machines. Dec. 18, 1902 832, 046 Automatic Weighing and Mixing Apparatus Dec. 18, 1902

 1903

 772, 647 Photographic Film for Moving Picture Machine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jan. 13, 1903 841, 677 Apparatus for Separating and Grinding Fine Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . Jan. 22, 1903 790, 351 Duplicating Phonograph Records . . . . Jan. 30. 1903 831, 269 Storage Battery Electrode Plate. . . . Jan. 30, 1903 775, 965 Dry Separator. . . . . . . . . . . . April 27, 1903 754, 756 Process of Treating Ores from Magnetic Gangue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . May 25, 1903 775, 600 Rotary Cement Kilns. . . . . . . . . . July 20, 1903 767, 216 Apparatus for Vacuously Depositing Metals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . July 30 1903 796, 629 Lamp Guard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . July 30 1903 772, 648 Vehicle Wheel. . . . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 25, 1903 850, 912 Making Articles by Electro-Plating . . . Oct 3, 1903 857, 041 Can or Receptacle for Storage Batteries. Oct 3, 1903 766, 815 Primary Battery. . . . . . . . . . . . Nov. 16, 1903 943, 664 Sound Recording Apparatus. . . . . . . Nov. 16, 1903 873, 220 Reversible Galvanic Battery. . . . . . Nov. 20, 1903 898, 633 Filling Apparatus for Storage Battery Jars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dec. 8, 1903

 1904

 767, 554 Rendering Storage Battery Gases Non- Explosive. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . June 8, 1904 861, 241 Portland Cement and Manufacturing Same June 20, 1904 800, 800 Phonograph Records and Making Same . . June 24, 1904 821, 622 Cleaning Metallic Surfaces . . . . . . June 24, 1904 879, 612 Alkaline Storage Batteries . . . . . . June 24, 1904 880, 484 Process of Producing Very Thin Sheet Metal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . June 24, 1904 827, 297 Alkaline Batteries . . . . . . . . . . July 12, 1904 797, 845 Sheet Metal for Perforated Pockets of Storage Batteries. . . . . . . . . . . July 12, 1904 847, 746 Electrical Welding Apparatus . . . . . July 12, 1904 821, 032 Storage Battery. . . . . . . . . . . . Aug 10, 1904 861, 242 Can or Receptacle for Storage Battery. Aug 10, 1904 970, 615 Methods and Apparatus for Making Sound Records. . . . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 23, 1904 817, 162 Treating Alkaline Storage Batteries. Sept. 26, 1904 948, 542 Method of Treating Cans of Alkaline Storage Batteries. . . . . . . . . . Sept. 28, 1904 813, 490 Cement Kiln. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct 29, 1904 821, 625 Treating Alkaline Storage Batteries. . Oct 29, 1904 821, 623 Storage Battery Filling Apparatus. . . Nov. 1, 1904 821, 624 Gas Separator for Storage Battery. . . Oct. 29, 1904

 1905

 879, 859 Apparatus for Producing Very Thin Sheet Metal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 16, 1905 804, 799 Apparatus for Perforating Sheet Metal March 17, 1905 870, 024 Apparatus for Producing Perforated Strips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . March 23, 1905 882, 144 Secondary Battery Electrodes . . . . March 29, 1905 821, 626 Process of Making Metallic Films or Flakes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . March 29, 1905 821, 627 Making Metallic Flakes or Scales . . . March 29, 1905 827, 717 Making Composite Metal . . . . . . . . March 29, 1905 839, 371 Coating Active Material with Flake-like Conducting Material. . . . . . . . . . March 29, 1905 854, 200 Making Storage Battery Electrodes. . . March 29, 1905 857, 929 Storage Battery Electrodes . . . . . March 29, 1905 860, 195 Storage Battery Electrodes . . . . . April 26, 1905 862, 145 Process of Making Seamless Tubular Pockets or Receptacles for Storage Battery Electrodes . . . . . . . . . April 26, 1905 839, 372 Phonograph Records or Blanks . . . . April 28, 1905 813, 491 Pocket Filling Machine . . . . . . . . May 15, 1905 821, 628 Making Conducting Films. . . . . . . . May 20, 1905 943, 663 Horns for Talking Machines . . . . . . May 20, 1905 950 226 Phonograph Recording Apparatus . . . . May 20, 1905 785 297 Gas Separator for Storage Batteries. . July 18, 1905 950, 227 Apparatus for Making Metallic Films or Flakes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 10, 1905 936, 433 Tube Filling and Tamping Machine . . . Oct. 12, 1905 967, 178 Tube Forming Machines--Edison and John F. Ott. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 16, 1905 880, 978 Electrode Elements for Storage Batteries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 31, 1905 880, 979 Method of Making Storage Battery Electrodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 31, 1905 850, 913 Secondary Batteries. . . . . . . . . . Dec. 6, 1905 914, 342 Storage Battery. . . . . . . . . . . . Dec. 6, 1905

 1906

 858, 862 Primary and Secondary Batteries. . . . Jan. 9, 1906 850, 881 Composite Metal. . . . . . . . . . . . Jan. 19, 1906 964, 096 Processes of Electro-Plating . . . . . Feb. 24, 1906 914, 372 Making Thin Metallic Flakes. . . . . . July 13, 1906 962, 822 Crushing Rolls . . . . . . . . . . . . Sept. 4, 1906 923, 633 Shaft Coupling . . . . . . . . . . . Sept. 11, 1906 962, 823 Crushing Rolls . . . . . . . . . . . Sept. 11, 1906 930, 946 Apparatus for Burning Portland Cement. Oct. 22, 1906 898 404 Making Articles by Electro-Plating . . Nov. 2, 1906 930, 948 Apparatus for Burning Portland Cement. Nov. 16, 1906 930, 949 Apparatus for Burning Portland Cement. Nov. 26 1906 890, 625 Apparatus for Grinding Coal. . . . . . Nov, 33 1906 948, 558 Storage Battery Electrodes . . . . . . Nov. 28, 1906 964, 221 Sound Records. . . . . . . . . . . . . Dec. 28, 1906

 1907

 865, 688 Making Metallic Films or Flakes. . . . Jan. 11, 1907 936, 267 Feed Mechanism for Phonographs and Other Machines . . . . . . . . . . . . Jan. 11, 1907 936, 525 Making Metallic Films or Flakes. . . . Jan. 17, 1907 865, 687 Making Nickel Films. . . . . . . . . . Jan. 18, 1907 939, 817 Cement Kiln. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 8, 1907 855, 562 Diaphragm for Talking Machines . . . . Feb. 23, 1907 939, 992 Phonographic Recording and Reproducing Machine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 25, 1907 941, 630 Process and Apparatus for Artificially Aging or Seasoning Portland Cement . . Feb. 25, 1907 876, 445 Electrolyte for Alkaline Storage Batteries May 8, 1907 914, 343 Making Storage Battery Electrodes. . . May 15, 1907 861, 819 Discharging Apparatus for Belt Conveyors June 11, 1907 954, 789 Sprocket Chain Drives. . . . . . . . . June 11, 1907 909, 877 Telegraphy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . June 18, 1907

 1908

 896, 811 Metallic Film for Use with Storage Batteries and Process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 4, 1908 940, 635 Electrode Element for Storage Batteries Feb. 4, 1908 909, 167 Water-Proofing Paint for Portland Cement Buildings . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 4, 1908 896, 812 Storage Batteries. . . . . . . . . . March 13, 1908 944, 481 Processes and Apparatus for Artificially Aging or Seasoning Portland Cement. March 13, 1908 947, 806 Automobiles. . . . . . . . . . . . . March 13, -1908 909, 168 Water-Proofing Fibres and Fabrics. . . May 27, 1908 909, 169 Water-Proofing Paint for Portland Cement Structures. . . . . . . . . . . May 27, 1908 970, 616 Flying Machines. . . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 20, 1908

 1909 930, 947 Gas Purifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 15, 1909 40, 527 Design Patent for Phonograph Cabinet. Sept. 13, 1909

 FOREIGN PATENTS

 In addition to the United States patents issued to Edison, as above enumerated, there have been granted to him (up to October, 1910) by foreign governments 1239 patents, as follows:

 Argentine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Australia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Austria. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Belgium. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Brazil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Cape of Good Hope. . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Ceylon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Cuba . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Denmark. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 France . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Germany. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 Great Britain. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 Hungary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 India. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Italy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Japan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Mexico . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Natal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 New South Wales. . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 New Zealand. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Norway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Orange Free State. . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Portugal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Queensland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Russia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 South African Republic . . . . . . . . . . 4 South Australia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Spain. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Sweden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Switzerland. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Tasmania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Victoria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 West Australia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

 Total of Edison's Foreign Patents. . . 1239