: MPLy 5t '*d$ I! ^ ' - EDISON AND HIS INVENTIONS WITH COMPLETE ELECTRICAL DICTIONARY. EDISON AND HIS INVENTIONS INCLUDING THE MANY INCIDENTS, ANECDOTES, AND INTERESTING PARTICULARS CONNECTED WITH THE EARLY AND LATER LIFE OF THE GREAT INVENTOR. FULL EXPLANATIONS OF THE NEWLY PERFECTED PHONO- GRAPH, TELEPHONE, TASIMETER, ELECTRIC LIGHT, AND ALL HIS PRINCIPAL DISCOVERIES, WITH COPIOUS ILLUSTRATIONS. "T. A. E. never had any boy-hood days; his early amusements were steam engines and mechanical forces." SAMUEL EDISON, (concerning his son.) EDITED BY J. B. McCLURE, M. A. COPYRIGHT, RHODES & MOCLUBE PUBLISHING COMPANY, 1889. ALL BIGHTS RKSEBVED. CHICAGO. RHODES & MoOLUKE PUBLISHING COMPANY, 1889. In the fractional moment of the world's history, like its own self, Electrical Science has suddenly flashed into general utility, and is now rapidly lifting, not only the veritable darkness from the earth, but everywhere in home and office, field and mine, on land and sea, is demonstrating a scope of usefulness commensurate with the loftiest aspirations of man. Very circumscribed must be the mind, and decidedly lim- ited the vision of him who can take no interest now in both the actual and possible verities of Electricity. Its position is one of popular supremacy, from which its blessings fall upon the day, no less than the night, and from which the weary spaces and even time itself, seem to flee away. What it really is, no one knows; but what it is ac- tually doing this book clearly tells in its sketch life of Thomas Alva Edison, the self-made electric king of the nineteenth century. So numerous are his inventions in every department of this wonderful science, and so fully are they described in this volume and generally by Mr. Edi- son himself that a careful perusal leaves little or nothing else to be known of what is practical, just now, in this mar- vellously interesting field. Connected with the life o. such a person, there is always an array of incident and anecdote in which a generous pub- lic manifest a keen interest that enlightens and entertains. URL It has been our aim, also, in this volume, to present the many stories and remarkable experiences of his early and later life that make up the wonderful history of Mr. Edison. Nine years ago the first edition of this work was issued. The world was intensely expectant then as to what Edison might discover along the line of the mystic science; many doubted, some laughed, and a few scientists who should have known better, scoffed and said, " No, it is impossible." This was a period of great struggle with Mr. Edison, and yet not without hope. No one knows this better than the great inventor himself. But where are the scoffers now? And what the stupendous array of facts? Into his Electric Light alone has gone $25,000,000, with more to follow! to say nothing of his many other inventions, one of which, and the latest, his perfected Phonograph, he is said recently to have sold for a " cool million " of dollars. Verily the laborer is worthy of his reward. There can be no doubt, Electricity " has come to stay." Its mission is " business." And we shall probably yet see the " lightning all round the horizon." Mr. Edison still "has the floor." Let us listen. We retain, unchanged, the full details of Edison's early struggles with the Electric Light and Phonograph all the more interesting now and add the full particulars of his great success in these departments; also a chapter on " Menlo Park " and its noble Edisonian band of workers in days of yore has not been altered. The reader will find quite an extended Electrical Diction- ary at the close of this volume that fully explains the many newly coined words and phrases required in this new and rap- idly enlarging field, which are not found in Webster's Un- abridged, and which constitute, as a whole, an interesting and instructive epitome of practical Electricity. We acknowledge our obligations, in the preparation of this work, to Samuel Edison, Esq. father of the inventor of Port Huron, Mich.; Messrs. Edison, Batchelor, Griffin, and i other associates o^ Mr. Edison; Geo. B. Prescott's works; Thomas D. Lockwood's works; Scribner; North American Review; and the following popular, practical and progres- sive electric periodicals: THE ELECTRICAL WORLD, New York and Chicago; THE ELECTRICAL REViEW,No.l3 Park Row, New York; THE WESTERN ELECTRICIAN, Lakeside Building, Chicago; and especially to Mr. E. L. Powers, the Chicago Manager of the ELECTRICAL WORLD, Lakeside Building. Our thanks and best wishes to all these industrious workers on " the confines of the knowable." The highest honors, official and social, have been conferred upon Mr. Edison, by the great Paris Exposition of 1889, where his many exhibits form the greatest wonder of all, unless it be his personal self, whose attentions from the many thousands present exceed those of kings. Such is the merited and wide-spread compliment bestowed upon the hero of this volume. Chicago, Jan. 2nd, 1890. J. B. McCLURE. A CHAPTER OF SOME CURIOUS FEATURES IN ELECTRICITY, 264 A DESCRIPTION OF THE PHONOGRAPHIC RECORDS UNDER THE MICROSCOPE How the letters look Believed by Edison to be legible The deepest indentations made by consonants, 85 A GREAT AND WONDERFUL INSTRUMENT NOW COM- PLETED The new Phonograph as explained fully by Mr. Edison What it is, what it does, and what it may yet do, 216 A LITTLE CHAT INTERMINGLED WITH WHISPERS WITH PERSONS 210 MILES APART An innocent joke per- petrated on Mr. Firman Complete success of the Carbon Telephone, 112 A MONUMENT TO ELECTRICITY Mr. Edison's New Laboratory at Orange, N. J. - - - - 24 A STORY OF EDISON Hurrying up the Phonograph, - 231 A SERIES OF REMINISCENCES OF EDISON AS " TRAIN BOY " His success in selling apples, toys, periodi- cals, etc., on the train How he used the Telegraph He starts a Newspaper The Edison Duplex His Laboratory on wheels A great mishap Young Edison pitched off the train, - - - - -37 A VERY YOUNG ELECTRICIAN He buys a book on Elec- tricity Extemporizes a short line The Tom Cat Electrical Battery A daring feat in front of a loco- motive The young Son of Thunder getting down to business Interesting Anecdotes, - - - 47 A YOUNG OPERATOR His engagement at Port Huron Resigns Goes to Stratford Rigs an Ingenious Machine Telegraphing by Steam, - - - 53 A YOUNG INVENTOB AND OPERATOR Invents an instru- ment Tells the boys to " rush him " Fidelity re- warded Becomes a first-class operator, - - 56 .^EROPHONE An Instrument for enlarging the volume of sound Illustrated, - - - - - -140 AN ACCOUNT OF EARLY REMINISCENCES, AS GIVEN, BY EDISON'S FATHER, 46 BOSTON AND YOUNG EDISON He departs for the "Hub" Snow bound His reception Joke on the cock roaches Inventions The girls, - - - - 62 BURDETTE AND EDISON TESTING THE SPANKTROPHONE, 116 CARBON RHEOSTAT, 138 DAWDLES TRIES THE TELEPHONE, - - - - 119 DICTIONARY OP ELECTRICAL WORDS AND PHRASES, FULLY EXPLAINED (NOT FOUND IN WEBSTER) Giving an easy outline of the science of electricity, 237 DOLL BABY PHONOGRAPH, 231 DOWN IN THE GOLD MINES OUT WEST, - - -124 DYNAMO FULLY EXPLAINED A wonderful mechanism for generating electricity, 173 DYNAMO INSTRUCTIONS IN FULL DETAIL Showing how to run it properly, 179 EARLY EFFORTS ON THE PHONOGRAPH The Edison & Faber talking machines Phonographic possibilities now realized, 75 EDISON BUILDING, CHICAGO, 196 EDISON IN NEWARK, -- ....-66 8 EDISON IN NEW YORK Penniless and hungry The supreme moment Brains His great success, - 64 EDISON IN MENLO PARK AND His EARLY BAND OP INDUSTRIOUS WORKERS, 69 EDISON'S EARLY LIFE His nativity Childish amuse- ments His ancestry Mrs. Nancy Elliott Edison Edison's happy home Early education, - - 26 EDISON'S UPS AND DOWNS The Inventor vs. the Oper- ator Thunder all 'round the horizon Footing it in Tennessee Off for South America "Run" on a bank Incidents, 58 EDISON'S COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE, - - - - 67 EDISON'S FUNNY ANECDOTE OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN SCOUTS, - 125 EDISON'S BRIDGE FOR MEASURING MAGNETIC CONDUC- TIVITY, ........ 212 EDISON'S DYNAMO FOB GENERATING ELECTRICITY, - 173 EDISON'S ELECTRIC LIGHT AS EXPLAINED BY HIMSELF IN FULL DETAIL WITH ILLUSTRATIONS ; How IT is MADE, ETC., 159 EDISON'S ELECTRIC LIGHT vs. JABLOCHOFF'S et al. Sub-division of the fluid Platinum and Iridium How the light appeared to a visitor Carbon candle Early efforts, 148 EDISON'S ELECTRIC LIGHT IN THE ROOKERY BUILDING IN CHICAGO One of the largest plants in the world, - 190 EBISON'S ELECTRIC PEN, 95 EDISON'S GROUND DETECTOR FOR LIGHT CIRCUITS, - 198 EDISON'S HARMONIC ENGINE, 144 EDISON'S HIGH ECONOMY CONVERTOR, - - - - 193 EDISON'S IMPROVED PHONOPLEX FOR TELEGRAPHING SEV- ERAL MESSAGES ON THE SAME WIRE AT THE SAME TIME, 209 EDISON'S EARLY EFFORTS IN ELECTRIC LIGHT EXPERI- MENTS, 154 EDISON'S JUNCTION Box AND SAFETY CATCH, - - 208 EDISON'S METERS FOR MEASURING ELECTRICITY, - - 202 EDISON'S METHOD OF REGULATING THE CURRENT, - - 201 EDISON'S MIMEOGRAPH, 208 EDISON'S MUNICIPAL INCANDESCENT LAMP FOR OUTSIDE LIGHTING, 186 EDISON'S NEW CUT-OUT An ingenious mechanism to prevent a long line of lamps from being suddenly extinguished, - 189 EDISON'S OPINION OF THE PATENT LAW A plain, pung- ent statement for Congressmen, .... 233 EDISON'S PYRO-MAGNETIC DYNAMO A mechanism gen- erating electric energy from the heat of a storm, - 182 EDISON'S PERFECTED PHONOGRAPH, - - - - 216 EDISON'S PHONOMETER, 142 EDISON'S PRINCIPAL INVENTIONS, - - - 71 EDISON'S PET BABY, - - - - - -121 EDISON'S QUADRUPLEX, 73 EDISON'S RHEOSTAT For regulating the resistance of electricity, 138 EDISON'S SONOROUS VOLTAMETER, 123 EDISON'S TELEPHONE Full explanations Illustrated, - 98 EDISON JOKING WITH THE EARLY PHONOGRAPH, - - 94 EDISON JOKING WITH HIS FRIENDS, - - - - 123 EDISON ON STORAGE BATTERIES, ----- 185 10 ELECTRIC MOTOR, 181 ELECTRO-MOTOGRAPH A curious instrument How it works Four hundred moves in a second, - - 96 ELI PERKINS AND MR. EDISON, 117 ETHERIC FORCE A curious discovery of Mr. Edison, - 147 FUNNY SIDE OF THE PHONOGRAPH, AS SEEN BY COL. KNOX, - 229 FURTHER EXPERIMENTS PERTAINING TO LIGHTS, LAMPS, AED THE GENERATING OF ELECTRICITY, - - 159 How THE PHONOGRAPH MAN AMUSES HIMSELF, - - 91 How THE PHONOGRAPH FRIGHTENED A PREACHER, - 92 How THE PHONOGRAPH WAS DISCOVERED BY MR. EDISON, 93 How TO PUT THE DYNAMO IN OPERATION, - - - 176 LITTLE SUNS MADE FROM BURNT PAPER A great wonder, __..-_.- 159 MEGAPHONE, - - ... - - - - 122 MOSES AND THE TODDYGRAPH, - 90 MOTOGRAPH RECEIVER A curious instrument, - - 146 NEW EDISON DYNAMO, - - - - - -173 OUR AGE AND ITS HERO, 17 PERSONAL DESCRIPTION OF MR. EDISON, ETC., - - 20 PHONOGRAPH AS NEWLY PERFECTED FULLY EXPLAINED, BY MR. EDISON, - - 216 PHONOGRAPH AND Music What it can do, ... 228 PHONOGRAPH SUPREME AT HOME, ----- 88 PHONOGRAPH'S ARRIVAL OUT WEST" It visits Chi- cago Is interviewed by a reporter A modern miracle How it talked What it had to say, - 82 11 \ POSSIBILITIES OF THE PHONOGRAPH A short hand re- porter Elocutionist Opera singer Teacher of languages Its medical possibilities, - - - 80 PEESSUKE RELAY A very useful instrument, - - 136 RELATIVE CONDUCTIVITY OF SUBSTANCES, - - - 263 SEA TELEPHONE How ships may talk on the sea, - - 209 TABLES OF WEIGHT AND LINEAL MEASURE, ETC. - 263 TASIMETER OR THERMOPILE An instrument that meas- ures the heat of the stars How it is done Full account of its discovery, - - - - -126 TASIMETER AND THE STARS, 128 TESTING THE TASIMETER ON THE SUN'S CORONA "Won- derful experiments of Mr. Edison in the Rocky Mountains, - - - - - - - -129 TELEPHONE Mr. Edison's own account of his discovery of the Carbon Telephone An interesting history His explanation of the wonderful instrument Illus- trated by numerous engravings It talks over a wire 720 miles long His other telephones, - - 98 TELEPHONE AND THE DOCTORS, - - - - .119 TELEPHONOGRAPH A combination of the telephone and phonograph, - - - - - - -121 THE BASIS OF THE TASIMETER, 132 TRAIN TELEGRAPHY How a telegram may be sent or received on a rapidly moving train, - - - 204 UNCLE REMUS AND THE PHONOGRAPH, - - .89 WONDERFUL OLFACTORY POWERS OF THE TELEPHONE, - 115 Aerophone, (1) (2) 140 Amperemeters and Regulator Boxes 192 An Early Generator 171 Apparatus of the Telephone 104 Bergmanns & Go's Manufactory of Edison's Electric Ap- pliances 227 Bridge for Measuring Magnetic Conductivity 213 Carbon Rheostat (perspective,) _139 Carbon Rheostat (in section,) 139 Carbon Spiral __ _ 161 Cat Battery Experiment 49 Continental Bill__ 29 Diagram of the Phonograph 78 Different Types of the Edison Dynamo 178 Dynamo in Operation 175 Dynamo, New Edison 173 Dynamo Room in the Rookery Building, Chicago 191 Edison Building, Chicago 197 Edison "Ground" Detector 199 Edison Lamp Company's Factory, Newark, N. J 195 Edison Municipal Incandescent Lamp 187 Edison Rescuing a Child 50 13 Early Incandescent Lamp 165 Edison Telegraphing by Steam 55 Edison's Electric Generator 155 Edison's Electric Light 157 Edison's Pyro-Magnetic Dynamo 183 Electric Lamp 169 Electric Light " 153 Electric Pen __ 95 Electro-Mechanical Telephone 169 Electrophorous Telephone 108 Electro-Static Telephone __ ___109 Harmonic Engine 144 House in which Edison was Born 27 Incandescent House Lamp 194 Lever Signal 106 Local Lamp 161 Menlo Park, the Birth-place of the Incandescent Lamp.. 16 Micro-Tasimeter (perspective) _133 Micro-Tasimeter (in section) ___133 Micro-Tasimeter (entire) 133 Motograph Receiver 146 Mrs. Nancy E. Edison, Mother of the Inventor __ 31 Offices and Show Rooms of the Edison United States Manu- facturing Co., New York 236 Operator Receiving and Sending Messages on a Railway Train _ ___204 Operator's Train Telegraph Apparatus 207 14 Pendulum Signal ___ 107 Phonograph Perfected The Wonder of the World Fully Explained by Mr. Edison __217 Phonograph in Operation 75 Phonograph Records under the Microscope 87 Phonometer 142 Pressure Relay 137 Printing the " Grand Trunk Herald " on the Train 39 Quadruplex 74 Railway Car Showing How to Telegraph on a Moving Train 205 Samuel Edison, Father of the Inventor 31 Tasimeter __ __ _..128 Telephone Apparatus, with Switch 105 The Telephone (interior) __. 98 The Telephone (exterior) __ 98 The Telephonograph___ 121 Thomas Alva Edison Frontispiece Tuning Fork Signal ___ ___107 The Sea 210 Water Telephone 110 Young Edison's Mishap Car on Fire 36 Young Edison Pitched Into the River 43 Zircon Burner.. __160 15] EDISON AND HIS INVENTIONS. Our Age and Its Hero. " Of what use is it? " said the skeptic to Franklin, doubt- ing the value of his identification of lightning and electricity. " Of what use is a child? " said the philosopher, adding " It may become a man." Evidently, this " man with the kite " saw the coming pos- sibilities of the " subtle fluid," but it is hardly possible that he dreamed of its ultimate widespread general utility. " We put it now," says Professor Gray, " to all sorts of uses. We make it carry our messages, drive our engine, ring our door bell, and scare the burglar. We take it as a medicine, light our gas, see by it, hear from it, talk with it, and now we are beginning to teach it to write. If Job lived in this age, and the question was put to him as of old, Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go and say unto thee, < Here we are?" he could say, 'Yes;' and they can be made to say it in the vernacular." " A friend of mine says in verse," adds the professor: " Time was when one must hold bis ear Close to a whispering voice to hear- Like deaf men, nigh and nigher; But now from town to town he talks, And puts his nose into a box And whispers through a wire. " In olden times along the street A glimmering lantern led our feet When on a midnight stroll; But now we snatch, when night comes nigh, A piece of lightning from the sky And stick it on a pole." i8 THOMAS A. EDISON Yes, the " child has become a man," noble, honest, useful, good and great. It has had a singularly long period of in- fancy, but a decidedly brief boyhood. As Samuel Edison says of his son, the great inventor, so has it been with electricity: "T. A. E. never had any boyhood days; his early amusements were steam engines and mechanical forces." " Those of us who are just across the meridian of life," says Gray, " can remember the first telegraph wire that was strung in this country. To-day it is difficult to find a cor- ner of the earth so remote as to be out of sight of one. You will find them even in the bottom of the seas and oceans. The last twenty years have seen more advance in the science of electricity than all the 6,000 historic years preceding. More is discovered in one day now than in a thousand years of the middle ages, so that, literally, ' a day is a thousand years.' " Inventions multiply with increasing rapidity, and dis- coveries flash as lightnings over the land. We cannot, if we would, shut our eyes to the results. Intimately associated with this progress, and foremost in the ranks, is Thomas Alva Edison, the acknowledged leader in " applied electricity," a veritable " captain of industries," whose multiplied and multiplying useful electrical mechan- isms have become to men of thought, the wonder of the world. Since the first Edison dynamo was built, for the unfortu- nate steamer " Jeannette," which now lies with it in the cold depths of the Arctic Ocean, over one hundred and fifty central stations, and nearly two thousand isolated plants, with a capacity of more than one million, five hundred thousand lamps, have been installed in America alone, to sup- ply the Edison incandescent electric light, aggregating an expenditure of many millions of dollars. Other plants are to follow, one of which, the great Auditorium Building in AND HIS INVENTIONS. 19 Chicago, will be the largest isolated plant in the world, con- taining eight thousand, six hundred lights, now in process of installation. And all this, in the line of only one great pur- pose of the Edison discoveries, the electric light, involving, however, about one thousand separate patents! Verily, these facts demonstrate not only the genius, but the persistent energy and dominant determination of Mr. Edison, to subordinate the occult forces of the mystic science to his end and aims,, and also verify his remarkable words, uttered some four ve^rs ago only, concerning the " commercial evolution of electricity," amid the laughs and jeers of many, and exciting great criticism at the time, when he said: " Two years of experience proves beyond a doubt that the electric light for household purposes can be pro- duced and sold." Professor Barker may well say, as he has, of Mr. Ed- ison, that " He is a man of Herculean suggestiveness; not only the greatest inventor of the age, but a discoverer as well; for, when he cannot find material with properties he re- quires, he reaches far out into the regions of the unknown, and brings back captive the requisites for his inventions." Recently, at a concert in the Crystal Palace, London, Edi- son's new phonograph recorded perfectly a performance of Handel's music, reporting with perfect accuracy the sublime strains of the " Israel in Egypt," and which can now be repeated at any time and place with the phonogram and a " reproducer." By Edison's automatic system one thousand words per minute are possible over a single wire; by his quadruplex, four distinct and different messages pass over the wire at the same time; by his phonograph all shades of sound are pre- served and may at any time be reproduced; by his carbon telephone all shades of sound pass over the long wires to be distinctly heard many miles away; and by his electric light, 20 THOMAS A. EDISON" night, with its darkness, is disappearing from the arena of civilization. Thus the wide world, every day, by this great man, is being brought into closer proximity, with its facili- ties for communication, business, social life and pleasures, al- most infinitely augmented. Well may a leading journal of this country remark: <{ There can be no doubt that Mr. Edison, the inventor of the phono- graph, is one of the most remarkable men cf the present century. His improvements in telegraphic apparatus, and in the working of the telephone, seem almost to have exhausted the possibilities of electricity. In like manner the discov- ery of the phonograph and the application of its principles in the aerophone, by which the volume of sound is so ampli- fied and intensified as to be made audible at a distance of several miles, seem to have stretched the laws of sound to their utmost limit. We are inclined to regard him as one of the wonders of the world. While Huxley, Tyndall, Spencer and other theorists talk and speculate, he quietly produces accomplished facts, and, with his marvelous inventions, is pushing the whole world ahead in its march to the highest civilization, making life more and more enjoyable." Personal Description. OF MEDIUM SIZE FINE LOOKING, COMPANIONABLE, UNOS- TENTATIOUS GREAT ENERGY, PERSEVERANCE AN IN- TERESTING ANECDOTE. Mr. Edison is a very pleasant looking man, of the av- erage size, five feet ten inches high, fair complexion, with dark hair considerably silvered, and wonderfully piercing gray eyes. The latter are almost veritable electric lights, and when engaged in deep thought their look is intense, in- dicative of decided penetration and acute analysis. His AND HIS INVENTIONS. 21 features are well outlined in the engraving we present, and show him to be a man remarkably adapted to his line of labor. He is now forty years of age. His residence is at Llew- ellyn Park, Orange, N. J., where he has a fine home, with all the pleasant surroundings that a magnificent country seat requires. He lost his first wife several years since, the in- dulgent mother of two dear children, " Dot " and " Dash." Some two years ago he married Miss Minnie Miller, the daughter of the well known manufacturer and capitalist of that name residing at Akron, Ohio. A third child has come upon the stage, who is the " little one " of this pleasant family of five, and is the " baby " elsewhere mentioned in this volume, the record of whose varied vociferations Mr. Edison is said statedly to be recording with his wonderful phonograph, just to show it after a while when it has grown to young womanhood how it could and did, without a doubt, chirrup, cry and laugh during the infantile period. It is here, also, at Orange, that Mr. Edison has located his newest, best and very extensive laboratory, which is fully equipped with every possible convenience for turning out his many and remarkable inventions. It is in this immense es- tablishment, completed at great expense, and manned by a noble body of faithful, intelligent and competent assistants, many of whom were at Newark and Menlo Park, that Mr. Edison is quite at home and fully master of the situation. When in this vast workshop, the great inventor is too studious to care much for his dress and general make-up. On such occasions he appears, like other hard-working men, of- ten the " worse for wear," with acid-stained garments, dusty eye-brows, discolored hands and dishevelled hair. Under such circumstances he has been correctly noted by reporters as " considering time too valuable to waste on personal deco- ration," his boots often " not blackened," and his hair ap- 22 THOMAS A. EDISOK pearmg as if " cut by himself." But at the proper time and place, when a better appearance is requisite, he is always equal to the occasion, being " clean shaven," handsomely attired in the most approved style, wearing a number seven and seven-eights silk hat, and is every whit a noble-looking man. Mr. Edison is social by nature, and very companionable to those who enjoy his confidence. He loves to converse with those interested in his inventions, and particularly so if his discoveries are comprehended. His geniality has made for him a host of friends, and gathered about him a band of workers, some of whom have been with him for many years. In his family he is affectionate and generous, a kind husband and indulgent father, caring little for the ordinary manner- isms of life, and always reaching the point by the nearest road. Withal he has a well defined vein of humor that is always seen at the right time, and that not infrequently assumes the aspect of a joke. Thus he occasionally threat- ens to adjust an invention of some kind to his gate at the factory that will deter visitors from entering, perchance knock them down, but the gate yet swings harmlessly and hosts of visitors pass in and out. His personal tastes are very simple, and he is thoroughly unostentatious. When invited some time since to a dinner at Delmonico's, he satisfied himself with a piece of pie and cup of tea, greatly to the astonishment of his host, who wished to do " the handsome thing." On one occasion when tendered a public dinner, he declined, stating that " one hundred thousand dollars would not tempt him to sit through two hours of personal glorification." Personal notoriety he dislikes, and aptly says " a man is to be measured by what he does, and not by what is said of him." His habits are peculiar, consequent upon his intense devo- tion to discovery. When in the throes of invention, he scarcely sleeps at all, and is equally as irregular concerning his AND HIS INVENTIONS. 23 eating. " Speaking of his early work in Newark," says Mr. Johnson, a co-laborer, " he averaged eighteen hours a day." Says the same gentleman: " I have worked with him for three consecutive months, all day and all night, except catching a little sleep between six and nine o'clock in the morning." At Newark, on the occasion of the apparent failure of the printing machine he had taken a contract to furnish, he went up into the loft of his factory with five assistants, and declared he would not come down till it worked. It took sixty hours of continuous labor, but it worked, and then he slept for thirty. His perseverance, patience, endur- ance, determination and industry are very remarkable, and perhaps without parallel. The routine of his day, it is well said, " is a routine of grand processes and ennobling ideas." The following story fairly illustrates the scope of Mr. Edison's labor in reaching a single point: In the develop- ment of the automatic telegraph it became necessary to have a solution that would give a chemically prepared paper upon which the characters could be recorded at a speed greater than two hundred words a minute. There were numerous solutions in French books, but none of them enabled him to exceed that rate. But he had invented a machine that would exceed it, and must have the paper to match the machine. " I came in one night," says Mr. Johnson, " and there sat Edison with a pile of chemistries and chemical books that were five feet high when they stood on the floor and laid one upon the other. He had ordered them from New York, London and Paris. He studied them night and day. He ate at his desk and slept in his chair. In six weeks he had gone through the books, written a volume of abstracts, made two thousand experiments on the formulas and had produced a solution the only one in the world that would do the very thing he wanted done, record over two hundred words a min- ute on a wire two hundred and fifty miles long. He has since succeeded in recording thirty-one hundred words a minute." 24 THOMAS A. EDISON Edison's Monument to Electricity. THE NEW LABORATORY AT LLEWELLYN PARK, ORANGE, N. J. The finest and most complete laboratory, doubtless, to be found in the world, Mr. Edison has just erected at Llewellyn Park, Orange, N. J., where he and his faithful and competent assistants now spend their time in " turning out inventions, with two one hundred and fifty horse-power engines back of them." "The Electrical Review," in describing this estab- lishment, says : " He has not merely a laboratory of unequalled extent, but he has a storehouse of everything, a perfectly equipped machine shop, capable of turning out the heaviest as well as the most delicate kinds of work, with workmen of the highest skill in every department; a veritable central station, adapted to furnish any desired current for experiments; a chemical laboratory of the most complete description; a scientific library of enormous proportions; and in short, he has a mod- ernized Aladdin's Lamp, by whose aid every wish almost can be at his bid ding converted into an accomplished fact." In the chemical department of this institution there is to be found samples of every element and compound, known and unknown, in the world, in quantities to meet the wants of the inventor for experimental purposes; even the teeth, fur, skins, etc., of animals, and leaves, grasses, wood, etc., from every clime. The library is also a magnificent affair. It is a spacious, high-ceiled room, with three tiers of alcoves and two balconies around the room, all finished elaborately in hard wood, and will hold about 100,000 volumes. Though not quite filled, it will soon be, at the rate of stocking now going on. Tables and writing desks are conveniently arranged, and any given subject can be quickly studied up in comfort- able chairs, under a strong light and the pleasant surroundings AND HIS INVENTIONS. 25 of Turkish rugs and exotic plants. Electric lamps are every- where, ready to be lighted at will, both here in the library and in every part of the buildings. The lecture room is devoted to lectures by various members of Mr. Edison's staff, and these are given on regular occasions. A raised platform, with experimental tables and blackboards for illustrations, occupies the center of one of the sides, and at the walls are the terminals from the distant dynamos and batteries ready to supply current for all sorts of experiments or demonstrations. Altogether, the laboratory has not its equal in the world. Mr. Edison has personally selected his assistants and work- men, the requirement being the highest intelligence and skill; and it may be safely said that nowhere else can be found a corps of officers and workmen combining the intellectual knowledge and mechanical expertness here drawn together. The laboratory, the fulfilment of the unexpressed hopes of the genial inventor for years past, would seem to be one of his greatest achievements; but he himself considers as his greatest work the establishment and successful operation of the great central station in Pearl street, New York City. The task was undertaken at a time when absolutely nothing had been done from which example could be taken. There were no finger posts, no beaten paths, nothing but a wilderness of darkness and obscurity. Everything had to be invented, the dynamos, regulators, indicators, distributing mains and feed- ers, house-wiring devices, meters, lamps, holders and a myriad of minor details. Yet these were all devised, put in practical form, applied, the greatnetwork switched in, brushes applied, steam raised, the engines started and thousands of lamps started into illuminated life, and, not the least extraordinary part of it, from that moment to the present, there has not been a single cessation of current in the mains. Truly it was a great work, and one which has become a conspicuous mile post on the wayside of electrical history. 9 6 THOMAS A. EDISON Edison's Early Life. His NATIVITY CHILDISH AMUSEMENTS His ANCESTRY MRS. NANCY ELLIOTT EDISON REMOVAL TO PORT HURON- EDISON'S HAPPY HOME EARLY EDUCATION. The first seven years of young Edison's early life were spent in Milan, Erie County, Ohio, where he was born February nth, 1847. At this time Milan was a young, ambitious and prosper- ous town of three thousand inhabitants, located on the Huron River, at the head of navigation, ten miles from Lake Erie. It was the center of an extensive trade in grain, cooperage, ship-building, etc., that continued prosperously until the com- pletion of the Lake Shore Railway, a few miles South, when its business rapidly declined, and Milan almost ceased to exist. Its name, however, is now immortal, for it will always be known as the birth-place of Thomas Alva Edison. It is quite befitting that America should furnish the greatest of inventors, and equally so, that a central State, like Ohio, should include his vil- lage of nativity. Edison may be said to be the "product" of a free country, and appropriately heads the longest list of great inventors that history anywhere exhibits. And we are glad to say, like the ancient Roman, who always asserted with em- phasis his Roman citizenship, that Edison, too, rejoices in the fact that he is "an American citizen." He is proud of his na- tive land. Milan, with its little river, surrounding hills and grand old forests, salubrious clime and busy industries, proved an excellent basis of physical life for young Thomas. He was fond of the ramble and young adventure, and often indulged in innocent play on the banks of the Huron. He is said to have delighted in the construction of little plank roads, the excavation of little caves, and such like original pursuits. He never lacked for subjects, thus revealing "the dominant power" very early in life. From the first, he was a chubby, rosy faced, laughing boy. He is said to have known all the songs of the canal-men before he AND HIS INVENTIONS. *9 was five years old, and "lisped in homely numbers, 'Oh, for a life on the raging canawl,' ere he had fairly learned his alphabet " But his great heritage at Milan was the love and tender solic- itude of his parents. He had a careful, watchful father and a loving mother, to whom, Thomas Edison owes much, if not nearly all, that has made him great. His ancestry on the paternal side can be traced back two hundred years, when they were extensive and prosperous millers hi Holland, In 1 730 a few members of the family emigrated to America. ceive Forty Spams milled Dollars, c Value thereof in Gold or Silver, cording to a Rej Continental Bill. Thomas Edison, great grandfather of Thomas Alva, was a prominent bank officer on Manhattan Island during the Revo- lution, and his name appears on the continental money. His signature is shown in the above engraving on a continental note, now over one hundred years old. He died in the one hundred and second year of his age. The race is remarkable for its longevity. Thomas Alva's grandfather lived to be one hundred and three yean old. jo THOMAS A. EDISON His father, Samuel Edison, is now living, aged eighty-four, in perfect health, and able to attend to all the details of an ac- tive business life. He is six feet two inches high, and in 1868 it is said, "outjumped two hundred and sixty men belonging to a regiment of soldiers stationed at Fort Gratiot, Mich." He was born August i6th, 1804, in the town of Digby, coun- ty of Annapolis, Nova Scotia. For]a short time, and when quite young, he resided at Newark, N. J., and subsequently, at the age of seven, removed to the township of of Bayham, Upper Canada. He married Miss Nancy Elliott, an accomplished la- dy of Vienna, Canada, and came west in 1837, locating at Detroit, Mich., where he resided one year, and then moved to Milan, Ohio, and afterwards returned to Michigan in 1854. In his younger days he learned the tailor's trade, but subsequently entered commercial life, engaging in an extensive lumber business and afterwards becoming a produce merchant, in all which he has been sufficiently successful to amply provide the comforts of a happy home. He has always been in good cir- cumstances and was deeply interested in the home education of his son, paying him a fixed price for every book he read to encourage him in the work. Mrs. Nancy Elliott Edison, mother of T. A. Edison, was born in Chenango County, N. Y., January roth, 1810. She was of Scotch and English parentage, and highly educated. For seve- ral years she was a succesful and popular teacher in a Canadian High School She died April gth, 1871, but her memory is stil dear to a long list of associates, many of whom speak of her as a Martha Washington. She was a fine looking, cultured, well educated lady, endowed with great social powers, and beloved by a large circle of friends. For her son Thomas she always had the most tender affection. Wm. P. Edison, a brother of Thomas A., is a prominent busi- ness man in Port Huron, Mich., where he has resided for the last thirty-five years. Samuel Edison, the father, is also a resi- dent of the same city. A sister, Mrs. Homer Page, is a resi- dent of Milan, Ohio. This is the extent of the family. Samuel Edison. Mrs. Nancy E. Edison, Parents of Thomas A. Edison. AND HIS INVENTIONS. 33 At the age of seven young Edison and his parents removed from Milan to Port Huron, Michigan, where his father still resides. He soon became reconciled to his new home, and was the same cheerful lad on the shores of the "narrow sea" that he had been on the banks of the little river. The family residence at Port Huron was among the largest and finest in that region of country, being a very roomy, good old fashioned white frame building, located in the center of an extensive grove, and at- tached to which was an observatory giving a glorious outlook over the broad river and distant hills. How far this remarkably pleasant home contributed in laying the mental and moral foun- dations of the great inventor is a matter of mere conjecture. Here, however, he lived, studying more or less for several years, at his mother's side, who by her great natural qualifications for such a work and by a mother's immeasurable love^ taught him, not only the "fundamental branches," but what is better, the love and purpose of knowledge. There existed an unusual and su- perlative affection between the mother and her son. She seemed to love his very presence, and for this reason, young Thomas was taught at home, where he might constantly add to the pa- rental pleasures. It can be easily seen how Thomas Edison" under such benign and potent influences became a well instructed, and we may add, a well educated boy; for he was taught the presence, power and possibilities of human resources, and what he himself might ultimately accomplish if "faithful to the end;" that the wide world was one great, broad field of activities, and that Nature was brimmed with law, order, the beautiful and good. His mother taught him not only "his alphabet, spelling, reading, writing and arithmetic," but also the great object of all learning. She was careful to implant the love of learning and fire the young mind with a burning desire to know more of the "great beyond. " In this she succeeded to a degree commensurate with her efforts, for at the age^ of ten, young Alva's mind was an electric thunder-storm rushing through the fields of truth. At this age he had read the "Penny Encyclopedias," "Hume's His- tory of England," "History of the Reformation," "Gibbon's 3 34 THOMAS A. EDISON Rome, " Sears' " History of the World, " several works on chem istry and other scientific books. He read them all with the ut- most fidelity, never skipping a word or formula. It is this won- derful habit of concentration, fired with the determination to reach "the point," that has led him to accomplish so many as- tonishing results. It is true that it must always remain a curious fact that such a man as Mr. Edison should never have at- tended the schools, that his name, now so great, was never en- rolled in any college calendar, and that in fact he never "went to school" more than two months in all his life. But may we not, yea, do we not, see again, for the thousandth time, the power and possibilities of a mother's love and labor,- in training the child in the way it should go? Was not his home, after all, his uni- versity? And was it not a good one, well officered, and well adapted to accomplish the real work? It is said his mother was a fine reader, and often read aloud to the family. Oh, how easy, in this way, to enkindle an interest, and impart the information that gives life to the young soul. Again we can trace the "be- ginnings" of another great life to a mother's love. This was the "main battery" that has sent out, and still sends its silent influ- ence over the long line of Edison's life. It is a divine adjust- ment, Heaven's grand discovery for man, this mother's love! Though gone these many years, it is said Mr. Edison still greatly reveres his mother's name, and delights as her child, to "rise up and call her blessed. " AND HIS INVENTIONS. 37 Edison as "Train Boy." His SUCCESS IN SELLING APPLES, TOYS, PERIODICALS, ETC., ON THK TRAIN How HE USED THE TELEGRAPH HE STARTS A NEWSPA- PERTHE EDISON DUPLEX His LABORATORY ON WHEELS A GREAT MISHAP YOUNG EDISON PITCHED OFF THE TRAIN. Young Edison began public life at the age of twelve as trail boy on the Grand Trunk Railroad, between Port Huron and Detroit, a position selected by his father, because it afforded his son an opportunity to learn many important lessons in practical life, to earn something of a livelihood, and to enjoy, still, the pleasure of spending many a pleasant evening at home, at the Port Huron end of the line. In this new vocation, young Thomas was a "decided success." He sold figs, apples, toys, magazines, newspapers, and the entire inventory of things that make up the miscellaneous merchandize of the train boy. His business rapidly increased, and in a little while he was com- pelled to employ as many as four assistants. For the purpose of enlarging his business, and thus demonstrating his early gen- ius for invention, he soon hit upon the novel plan of telegraphing in advance of his train the head-lines of the war news columns, which were properly bulletined at the stations, and which caused his papers to "go off" at almost electric speed. His periodicals were purchased principally at the Detroit end from John Lan- igan, now of Chicago, who remembers him as an "honest boy," who did a "cash business," but when "time" was desired, it was always given, and the "liabilities" were promptly met. His av- erage daily earnings during the four years in which he continued in this work were something over one dollar, aggregating the neat sum of nearly two thousand dollars, all of which he turned over to his beloved parents. His habits of study and love for reading followed him into the new field, and led him in his early visits to Detroit to unite with the library association of that place. He undertook the herculean task of reading every vol- ume in that extensive collection. Commencing at the bottom 38 THOMAS A. EDISON shelf, he actually read through a line of books fifteen feet in length, omitting no volume, nor skipping any part of a single book. The dusty list included, among others, Newton's "Prin- cipia," Ure's Scientific Dictionaries, Burton's "Anatomy of Mel- ancholy," etc. After completing fifteen feet of the mammoth project, he gave up the job and thereafter selected more conge- nial material. He was an occasional reader of poetry and fic- tion. Victor Hugo was among his favorite authors. The "Les Miserables, " he read a dozen times, and has reviewed it perhaps as many times since. He regards the "Toilers of the Sea," by the same author, as a wonderful production. His memory is remarkably retentive, and from his vast field of research he has always been able to make extensive extracts, and can usually refer direct to the book and page for any information or fact needed for experiment and research. So extensive and thorough has been his earnest reading, that it is difficult to mention any subject about which he knows nothing. While disposing of his papers it soon occurred to young Edi- son, which is another demonstration of his inventive resources, that he might as well get up a paper of his own. Attached to the train was a springless freight car having a room set apart for smoking purposes, but which was so poorly ventilated and other- wise dilapidated that passengers seldom entered it. This was selected as the head center of his first grand enterprise. Three hundred pounds of type were purchased from the Detroit Free. Press, and very soon Edison was the editor and publisher of a little paper, twelve by sixteen inches, issued weekly, entitled "The Grand Trunk Herald;" the columns of which were devoted to railway gossip, changes, accidents and general information. It was printed in the most primitive style, on one side only, the impressions being made by the pressure of the hand. It sold for three cents a copy, and reached a circulation of several hun- dred. On one occasion it came under the eye of the celebrated English engineer, George Stephenson, builder of the great tu- bular bridge at Montreal, who at once ordered an extra edition for his own use. It numbered among its contributors many Printing The Grand Trunk Herald on the Train. AND HIS INVENTIONS. 41 worthy railroad men, and became quite celebrated as the only journal in the world printed on a railway train. Among its co- temporaries in which it received favorable mention, was num- bered the London Times. Edison was highly delighted with, the new enterprise, and became in fact, a little Ben. Franklin, whose early history in this line, and ultimate success as an influential man doubtless greatly inspired the young editor of the Herald. Parallel with this novel enterprise and in the same old aban- doned freight car, Thomas Alva was prosecuting another and entirely different line of labor. From the very start he was a self-exhibition of the duplex system, which long afterwards ap- peared through his manipulations, in telegraphy. He procured a work on chemistry Freseniu's Qualitative Analysis pur- chased a supply of chemicals on the instalment plan, obtained some retort stands from the men in the railroad shops in ex- change for papers, and opened a laboratory. This was his first effort in the great world of chemical law. He saw at once the wonderful and varied attributes of material things; the endless existing affinities, and occult power and possibilities of the ele- ments. It was a new world in which he stood entranced. And from that time, on to the present, he has never ceased to delve into the subtle influence and mysteries of chemical science. The laboratory of the abandoned smoking car and the labora- tory on the hill at Menlo Park are in the same series. The real difference is simply a matter of wheels, which persisted in car. rying the former at the rate of thirty miles an hour, jostling and bumping and otherwise seriously interfering with the young chemist's experiments, while the latter stands stock-still at Menlo Park, and allows the distant whispers to jingle against the car- bon button, or permits the heat from the North Star whose light has been forty-seven years in reaching the earth at the rate of one hundred and eighty-four thousand miles per second, to quietly register itself on the scale of the tasimeter. Nevertheless, this difference of wheels ultimately proved a serious matter for young Edison. In this rudely constructed laboratory there was a bottle of phosphorus, from which one day the water had evaporated, 4 THOMAS A. EDISON and which an extra jolt of the springless car tumbled to the floor. A scene of confusion, of course, followed. The car was ignited and a conflagration was imminent. The conductor rushed hurriedly, and we may add madly, to the scene of conflict and with difficulty extinguished the flames. In his rashness, and to make it absolutely certain that such an event could not pos- sibly occur again, he unceremoniouly threw overboard, not only the chemicals of the entire laboratory, but also the printing establishment, and closed the fearful drama by soundly boxing young Edison's ears, and hurriedly ejecting him from the blazing train. What has become of this impetuous gentle- man, we do not know. Perhaps he is endeavoring to atone for his work as the gentlemanly conductor of the excursion trains, which, now and then, to accommodate scientists, friends and the curious, run from Boston to Menlo Park. Sad as was the event, it did not, however, discourage the young chemist and editor. He doubtless realized the importance of fire-proof smoking cars, and, if he had felt more amiable, at the time, towards railway officials, might have invented one, but in lieu of this, and with a better knowledge of phosphorus and human nature, he gathered up his scattered materials and located in what he deemed a much safer place, the basement of his father's residence at Port Huron. Here, as opportunity afforded, he continued his experiments in chemistry, and, in time, issued an- other petite journal entitled " Paul Pry, " which was more after the regular plan of a newspaper, and every way an improvement on the "Herald. " It had a host of contributors and a long list of subscribers. But alas for all sublunary affairs. It was not long before an ar- ticle from a contributor appeared in the columns of this news- paper which, though Edison persistently claimed was not within the bounds of the legally libelous, yet gave great offence to a subscriber who at once sought the editor in chief, and finding him on the margin of the St. Clair, deliberately picked him up and pitched him into the river. It was an unexpected and hasty plunge bath, entirely involuntary on the part of young Edison Pitched into the River. AND HIS INVENTIONS. 45 Thomas, but from which he soon emerged, safe and sound, with the conviction, however, not soon forgotten, that the life of an editor is environed with no inconsiderable degree of danger. In the former great mishap fire was the essential factor; in the latter it was water ! Thus early in life, and in a peculiar manner, was the great inventor baptized with the two great elements. Nor was it an ordinary "sprinkle" either; in both instances it was a rousing "immersion!" Mr. Edison occasionally refers to this train boy . period of his life, and always with much humor. When asked one day if he belonged to the class of train boys "who sell figs in boxes with bottoms half an inch thick?" he responded with a merry twinkle, "If I recollect right the bottoms of my boxes were a good inch." A daguerreotype of his train boy epoch is yet extant, which rep- resents the great inventor as a chubby faced boy in glazed cap and, with a bundle of papers under his arm. His lips are wreathed in smiles, and altogether he presents the appearance of a contented and happy little fellow. Such a life had, of course, its ups and downs, but after all, it was a profitable schooling for young Edison. Besides, during the four years he continued in this work he was always in daily reach of home, where his sor- rows as well as joys were promptly shared by those who could easily and gladly impart the essential lesson. The easy manner in which he disposed of his limited stock of merchandize, the use of the telegraph to aid in the disposal of his papers, the suc- cessful issuing of a weekly paper, the laboratory with its varied experiments, and the wonderful amount of solid reading that per- vaded all, clearly demonstrate that Mr. Edison at this age was not only a most extraordinary "train boy," but also aremaikable genius. The spirit of invention was upon him. The click of the "sounder" w*s audible, and the "message" of his coming greatness was on its way. 46 THOMAS A. EDISO* Early Reminiscences. Mr. Samuel Edison states that his son, T. A. E., never had any "boyhood days" in the common acceptation of that term. From the first his inclinations were in the direction of machinery, and amusements, with steam engines and various mechanisms. It is not surprising therefore to find him at an early age perfect- ing, on a small scale, a working engine. When on the Grand Trunk line he frequently rode with the engineer that he might learn something about the mysteries of a locomotive, and on one occasion, to demonstrate his proficiency, while the engineer was asleep, ran a train nearly the entire trip, with the only mishap of pumping too great a quantity of water into the boiler, which being thrown from the smoke-stack deluged the engine with filth. Occasionally, as he had opportunity, he would visit the railroad machine shops, where he always manifested the greatest interest in examining the machinery. He was always careful with his little labratory and would not allow his things to be tampered with by any one. To insure better safety he labeled every bottle in the establishment "poison." When excited, young Thomas was slow to cool down. The sequel to the dreadful cold water catastrophe, was that the name of the person J. H. B. of Port Huron who threw him into the river, was studiously kept out of the columns of Paul Pry. If Thomas had not been a good swimmer, that occasion might have been far more serious than it was. Edison's sister tells a good story of his childhood: "He tried to sit on eggs," she said. "What do you mean?" inquired the listener. "Why, he was about six years old, I should think, and he found out how the goose was sitting, and then saw what the surprising result was. One day we missed him, called, sent messengers, and couldn't find him anywhere. By and by, don't you think, father found him curled up in a nest he had made in the barn and filled with goose eggs and hen's eggs, actually sitting on the eggs and trying to hatch them. " AND HIS INVENTIONS. 47 The Young Electrician. HB BUYS A BOOK ON ELECTRICITY EXTEMPORIZES A SHORT LINE THE TOM-CAT ELECTRICAL-BATTERY A DARING FEAT IN FRONT OF A LOCOMOTIVE THE YOUNG SON OF THUNDER GET- TING DOWN TO BUSINESS ANECDOTES. Edison's interest in telegraphy dates from the time when, as train boy, he sent the head lines of the war news columns over the wires in advance of his trains to be bulletined at the stations. In this novel and sucessful plan he saw at once the great advan- tages of the telegraph system, and made up his mind that he would very soon know more about it. He immediately pur- chased a standard work on the electric telegraph, and began its careful persual. Every day led him farther out into the exciting wonders of electrical science. He was pleased, delighted and amazed. A new world was discovered, marvelous and grand. An apocryphal power silently stole out from the acidulated metals and leaped two thousand miles per second. It laughed at space and time. There were things it seemed to love and things it hated, things to which it clung and things it would not touch. Now like the light of the sun, then silent and dark, yet ever moving, and exerting its strange incomprehensible force. Easily could he see the cup, the copper, zinc and acid, and could hear the click of the sounder; but from whence and how comes this influence? That was the question. He studies the chemistries of the battery, and delves farther into his work on electricity. He concedes the wonders, but exclaims, "what I know not now, I may know hereafter. " It is under the conviction of this final exclamation that young Edison passes from the more theoretical into practical telegraphy. A short line is extemporized, connecting his new basement of- fice at home with the residence of his young assistant, James Ward, also of Port Huron. In its construction they used com- mon stove pipe wire, insulated with bottles placed on nails driven into trees, and crossed under an exposed road by means of a piece of an abandoned cable captured from the Detroit 48 THOMAS A. EDISON river. The magnets used in connection with this primitive line were made of old wire wound with rags for insulation, while a piece of spring brass formed the all important key. It is said that these two young aspiring electricians, now the proprietors of a "short line" and evidently in high glee, "were somewhat mixed as to the relative value of dynamic and static electricity for telegraphic purposes and the first attempt to generate a cur- rent was by means of a couple of huge cats rubbed vigorously at each end of the line at an appointed time. " The only suc- cess attending this novel and gigantic effort was the complete and hurried riddance of the two great cats which, under the pressure of the moment, lit out at lightning speed and were never heard of afterwards. Had the "ground wire" in this case been properly adjusted, that is wound securely about the necks of the feline batteries, this unexpected phenomenon might have been avoided, and better success, have followed. Mr. Reid in his "Memorial Volume, referring to this incident, says: "He had seen sparks emitted from a cat's back. Judging that there must be good battery where the indications were so strong, he inserted a tom-cat in the circuit, using the fore and hind feet as electrodes. The connections, after some resistance, having been duly made, he tried to start an induced current by rubbing the cat's back, the incensed feline meanwhile giving him some forced telephone lessons, and in other ways objecting to his electrocratical operations. The experiment however was not without success. A tremendous local current and perfect elec- tric arc was produced, but it would not work the line, and was abandoned. The experiment illustrated the humor of the man." Had young Thomas and James demonstrated the feasibili- ty of cats for electrical purposes they would doubtless have received the homage of mankind. Long after this amusing event, Mr. Edison was forcibly reminded of the great leap made by his cat on this occasion, when he discovered what he be- lieved then and still believes, to be a "new kind of electricity," which is capable of causing a spark "to leap twenty feet in the The Cat Battery Experiment. YounP FHison Rescuing a Child AND HIS INVENTIONS. 51 clear air" without effecting in the least manner the galvanometer. Soon after this experiment, in nowise discouraged, some old telegraph instruments and battery materials were purchased and a successful short line was established, which at that time was quite an achievement^ it being among the first of the kind ever inaugurated. In a boy-like way his aspirations seemed now crowned with success. He was not only an electrician, but had constructed a telegraph line of which he was at once Superin- tendent, proprietor and operator. Whether he posted up his "Rules and Regulations," scheduled his "rates" and forwarded night messages at halt price, etc., is not known, but it is quite likely something of this kind was done. All this however was but a high order of boyish sport; a toying with heaven's lightning, and yet beneath it is the impulse to more real and grand achievements. The quadruplex, electro-motograph, phonograph, telephone, etc., were all here in germinal form and within microscopic range. At the end of the "short line," sat the young son of thunder, with a hand upon a rustic and slow moving key, that was des- tined to fashion another and better line and mechanism that should pick up three thousand and one hundred full words in a single minute! Soon after this an event occurred that proved a turning point in Edison's life. It was a daring, but successful effort made to rescue the life of a little child. J. A. Mackenzie, station agent and operator at Mt. Clemens, near Port Huron, had a dear little boy only two years old, which one day crept on the track just in tront of a rushing train. A moment more and its mangled form would have been quivering in the dust. Young Edison saw the impending danger. He flew to the rescue and at the point of his own life, rescued the child. It was a noble deed, and out of gratitude, the father, volunteered to teach young Edison how to become an operator. This offer was gladly accepted and thereafter Thomas Alva, after reaching Port Huron would return by freight train to Mt Clemens in order to learn, at night, the lessons that were to S 2 THOMAS A. EDISON perfect him in his newly chosen and interesting employment A warm friendship existed from the first, between Mr. Mac- kenzie, the teacher, and young Edison, the pupil, which to this day continues, though we believe now, Mr. Edison is the teach- er. It was with Mr. Mackenzie and atMenlo Park that Mr. Edison, only a few day's since, perpetrated a little pleasantry. "Look here" says Edison, "I am able to send a message from New York to Boston without any wire at all. " That is impossible, says Mackenzie. Oh, no 1 says Edison. Its a new invention, Well, how is it done, All says Mack. By sealing it up and sending by Mail 1 1 The old gentleman laughed heartily at the joke. A B C D E F G H I J K L M N P Q R S T U V w X Y Z & NUMERALS. I a 3 4 5 PUNCTUATION MARKS. Period. Comma. Semi-colon. Quotation. Parenthesis. Interrogation. Italics. Paragraph. Exclamation, AND HIS INVENTIONS. 53 The Young Operator. His ENGAGEMENT AT PORT HURON RESIGNS GOES TO STRATFORD RIGS AN INGENIOUS MACHINE TELEGRAPHING BY STEAM! Edison was yet a boy, being only fifteen years of age. But in five months after he began taking lessons of Mr. Mackenzie at Mt. Clemens, he was sufficiently advanced in the art of sending messages to procure employment in the telegraph office at Port Huron. The salary was $25.00 per month, with the understanding that he should have extra pay for extra work. The office was in a jewelry store and, as usual, Edison indulged in his mechanical inclinations. He worked, however, very in- dustriously at the key, night and day, that he might improve himself as an operator. After six months of hard labor, on finding his pay for extra work, witheld, he at once resigned, and left Port Huron, for Stratford, Canada, where he engaged as night operator. Here he applied his ingenuity in a novel way, which shows at least, how fertile must have been the young operator's brain. The operators were required to report "six" every half hour to the Circuit Manager. Young Thomas instead of reporting, in person, rigged a wheel with Morse characters cut in the circum- ference in such a way that when turned by a crank it would write the figure "six" and sign his office call. The watchman turned this wheel while Edison slept. His stay at this point was brief. One night the dispatcher sent an order to hold a train. Edison repeated back the mes- sage before showing it to the conductor. When he ran out for the purpose the train had pulled off from the side-track and was gone. When the dispatcher was notified, the opposing train was beyond reach. Fortunately the two trains met on a straight track and no accident happened. The railroad Superintendent sent for Edison and so frightened him with threats of imprison- ment that, without getting his wardrobe, he started for home, and was greatly delighted to reach his native land. His ready ingenuity was shown in an early instance of facile 54 THOMAS A. EDISON adaptation of the processes of his new profession to novel circum- stances. One day an ice-jam broke trie cable between Port Huron in Michigan and Sarnia on the Canada side and stopped communications. The river is a mile and a half wide. It was impassible and no present means existed of repairing it. Young Edison jumped upon a locomotive and seized the valve con- trolling the whistle. He had an idea that the scream of the whistle might be broken into long and short notes, correspond- ing to the dots and dashes of telegraphing. The whistle sounded over the waters : Toot, toot, toot, toot toot, toooot toooooot toooooot toot-toot toot-toot. " Halloo! Sarnia! Do you get me?" "Do you hear what I say?" No answer. "Do you hear what I say, Sarnia?" A third, fourth and fifth time the message went across without response, but finally the idea was caught by an operator on the other side; answering toots came cheerfully back, and the con- nection was again established. This novel incident was a feather in young Edison's cap and his praises were sounded abroad. He spent a few weeks at Port Huron in study, but operators were in demand, and he obtained a situation at Adrian, Mich. Here he had a small shop and a few tools, where his spare time 'was used in repairing instruments and making such experiments as he had the means to accomplish. It was then a peculiarity of the Morse telegraph system that only one message at a time could be sent on a wire. On one occasion when he had some message from the Superintendent he insisted on taking the line from all comers. The Superintendent of Telegraph lived in the same town and had an instrument in his house. Hearing the tussel on the wire, he rushed to the office, pounced upon young Edison, and discharged him for violation of rules. He, however, at once found a position as night operator in Fort Wayne where he made rapid progress in his work and in two months was en- engaged at Indianapolis. Edison Telegraphing by Steam. 56 THOMAS A. EDISON The Young Inventor and Operator. INVENTS AN INSTRUMENT TELLS THE BOYS TO " RUSH HIM " FIDELITY REWARDED BECOMES A FIRST CLASS OPERATOR. While operating at Indianapolis, young Edison invented his first successful telegraph instrument It was an automatic re- peater which transferred the writing from one telegraph line into another line without the medium of a sending or receiving operator. It was considered an important achievement for one so young and is described in a recent work on telegraphy, as "probably the most simple and ingenious arrangement of connections for a repeater known, and has been found to work well in practice. It is especially good and convenient where it is necessary to fit up a repeater, in an emergency, with ordinary office instru- ments. " Edison's ambition as an operator was, like that of most opera- tors, to be able to take what is called "press report." To accom- plish this end he practiced at night incessantly and was finally awarded a trial, but finding himself making too many "breaks," or interrogations, he adjusted two more recording registers, one to receive and the other to repeat the embossed writing at -slower speed, so it could be copied. When this new arrange- ment was properly adjusted, young Edison felt very secure and at once announced to the sending operator to "rush him. " This gave him a brief reputation as a receiving operator, but, alas for the press reports, they came in too slowly, which caused com- plaint and he was suspended from the work and afterwards trans- ferred to Cincinnati. Here he worked a day wire and continued to practice at night, always "subbing" for the night men whenever he could get the privilege. His fidelity and industry were finally rewarded in this city and in the following manner. After he had been in Cincinnati three months a delegation of Cleveland operators came down to organize a branch of the Telegraphers' Union, which resulted in a great strike among AND HIS INVENTIONS. 57 the operators. They struck the office in the evening, and the whole force, with one exception, went off on a gigantic spree. Edison came round as usual to practice, and finding the office so nearly deserted took the press report to the best of his ability, and worked through the night, clearing up business. The fol- lowing day he was rewarded by an increase of salary, from $65 to $105 per month, and was given the Louisville wire, one of the most desirable in the office. Mr. R. Martin, known among the craft as " Bob Martin, " one of the fastest senders in the country, worked the Louisville end, and from the experience here acquired, Edison dates his ability as a first-class operator. Young Edison's ambition, however, was not at rest when he found that he could jingle the key as rapidly as Bob Martin. Beyond this were higher aims of which Bob never dreamed and, which so wholly absorbed Edison's mind that it not unfrequently was the cause of apparent neglect in what, to the average mind, seemed very essential. He had already invented his automatic repeater, but he saw other principles possible to be utilized and these occupied his mind. He cared little for dress and was willing to work at all hours, night or day, but he would not relin- quish his efforts to solve what appeared to his companions, utter impossibilities. These efforts were rewarded by the production of a remarkable steam engine and the discovery of his duplex transmission basis. So intensely did these points occupy his mind and so positive was he of duplex transmission and other possibilities of great importance in telegraphy, and which long ago he has made prac- tical, that his companions dubbed him with the title of "luny, " or crazy man, a name which clung to him for years. But other good men had been served in the same manner and he was not discouraged. Notwithstanding this insulting title Edison had the good will of his associates. He continued his extensive re- search and reading, and as opportunity afforded, indulged in such experiments as tended to demonstrate his convictions in electri- cal science. 5* THOMAS A. EDISON Edison's Ups and Downs. THE INVENTOR vs. THE OPERATOR THUNDER ALL ROUND THE HORIZON FOOTING IT IN TENNESSEE OFF FOR SOUTH AMERICA " RUN " ON A BANK INCIDENTS. In 1 864, .young Edison went to Memphis where he obtained a more remunerative salary. But his associates were dissolute and imposed upon his good nature to such an extent that the work he did was enormous. Abstemious himself almost to stoicism, he freely loaned his money to his companions or expended it in the purchase of books and apparatus. While here, and still but a boy of seventeen, he made and put into operation his auto- matic repeater, so that Louisville and New Orleans could work direct, thus saving the work of one operator and receiving a compliment for his ingenuity. The idea of duplex transmission had taken possession of him, and he was perpetually advocating and experimenting to ac- complish it. These efforts were looked upon with disfavor by the management, and in the changes resulting upon the transfer of the lines from the Government to the Telegraph Company Edison was dismissed. Being without money, and having transportation to Decatur only, he walked to Nashville, where William Foley, an operator in the same predicament, was found, and they traveled together to Louisville. Edison had only a linen suit, and on arriving at Louisville he found the weather extremely chilly. He hunted up a friend who loaned him money for his immediate need. Foley's reputation, it is said was too bad to obtain a situation for himself, but he recommended Edison, who obtained work. For this service Edison supported Foley till he could get employ- ment. Edison describes the Louisville office at this time as a fearful place. Rats in great numbers kept the operator company at night. The discipline was lax in all things except the quality and promptness of work. Edison was required to take reports on a line worked on the blind side of a repeater, where he had AND HIS INVENTIONS. 59 no chance to break. This required skill, and he attained to a rare perfection by the most careful study of names, markets, and general information. The line was old and in poor condition, being subject to many interruptions and changes. To assist in his work, Edison was in the habit of arranging three sets of instruments, each with a different adjustment, so that whether the circuit was strong or weak, or no matter how rapid the change, he was able to receive the signals accurately. He remained in Louisville for nearly two yeajs and then, owing to glowing reports which he had heard, made up his mind he would go to South America. Economy was now rigid, and funds sufficient, were soon amass- ed for the grand departure. In connection with two of his as- sociates, Messrs Keen & Warren, they finally started for the southern clime via New Orleans. On arriving at the latter place, the vessel upon which they were to ship had fortunately sailed. By a fortuitous circumstance, Edison fell in with a Spaniard who had traveled all around the world. He told the young adventurer that of all the countries he had ever visited, the United States was the best, having the most desirable government, institutions, climate, and people. This wholesome advice shook Edison's determination, and in connection with his disappointment, and delay, he resolved to go home. So he returned to Port Huron, via the Gulf and Atlantic States. After a pleasant visit among his relatives and friends Edison re- turned to Louisville, where he was again employed as an opera- tor. He now began work with renewed vigor and determination, saving his daily earnings to invest in additions to his library, apparatus, printing office and shop. New life was infused into all these departments and in a short time he had prepared a volume on electricity which he proposed to issue from his own office, but the undertaking was too great for his limited facilities. He went into a most elaborate series of experiments, as was his custom when investigating any subject, to determine the most rapid and best-adapted style of penmanship for an opera- 60 THOMAS A. tor's use. He finally fixed upon a slightly back-hand, with regular round characters, isolating the letters from each other, and without shading. This beautiful penmanship he became able to produce at the speed of forty-five words per minute, which is the extreme limit of a Morse operator's ability to transmit. A specimen of his penmanship is seen in Mr. Edison's autograph in the frontis-piece. Edison's description of the habits of his associate operators at this time is amusing in the extreme. Often when he went home from his work in the small hours of the morning he would find three of the boys on his bed with their boots, where they had crawled after an evening's dissipa- tion. He would gently haul them out and deposit them on the floor, while he turned in to sleep. During young Edison's stay in Louisville the telegraph office was removed to a building, fitted up with improved fixtures. The instruments, which in the old office were portable, in the new, were fastened down to tables and strict orders were issued from the proper authorities not to move a single instrument. This order not only interfered with Edison's convenience in tak- ing reports, but also seriously discommoded him in his experi- ments. He could not desist, and three sets of instruments were readjusted, so as to aid him in taking reports, and on one occasion he took every instrument out of the office for the purpose of trying an experiment. Directly beneath the new telegraph office were elegantly furnished banking rooms, the private office of which was under the batiery room. This was richly carpeted. One night in trying to abstract some sulphuric acid for experimental purposes he tipped over the whole carboy. The acid ran through the floor and ceiling and fell upon the brussels and furniture below doing great damage. This proved the climax of endurance and Edison was at once discharged. Bidding good bye to Louisville and with some regrets for the damage done the bank furniture, Mr. Edison went immediately to Cincinnati where he obtained employment as a "report" operator. This was his second visit to this point During his AND HIS INVENTIONS. 6x former stay he built an ingenious little steam engine and arranged his first duplex instruments. His second stay in Cincinnati was less popular on account of his continued experiments. He would get excused from duty, and take a bee-line to the Mech- anics' Library, where his entire day and evening would be spent reading the most ponderous electrical and scientific works. He remained in Cincinnati only a short time, and returned home to Port Huron. Thus young Edison went the "grand rounds." a It would be gratuitously malicious," sure enough, "to note so many queer mishaps, if they were thought to show a want of conscientious- ness. They seem to have been the result of an uncontrollable impulse. His inventions were calling him with a sort of siren voice and under the charm he was deaf and semi-callous to every- thing else," 61 THOMAS A. EDISON Young Edison in Boston. DEPARTS FOR THE " HUB" SNOW BOUND His RECEPTION JOKE ON THE COCKROACHES INVENTIONS THE GIRLS Sooner or later "coming greatness" is apt to touch at Boston. Boston is a great city the hub etc. Moody went to Boston. It was there he received that celebrated letter from his sister, charging him to beware of pickpockets, when, alas, he hadn't a nickel in the world. Of course young Edison went to Boston. He had a warm personal friend in the telegraph office -in that city, M. F. Adams, who was anxions he should come and was ready to receive him. An expert was wanted in the Boston office to work a heavy New York wire. Several candidates had failed as the New York end was worked by the "York and Erie" operators, who, as a class, had the reputation of writing anything but the "Morse" alphabet. G. F. Milliken, the manager, offered the situation to Edison by telegraph, and he accepted. He started via the Grand Trunk, but the train was snowed in for two days near the bluffs of the St. Lawrence by a violent storm. The passengers nearly perished with cold and hunger. All resources for fuel and food were exhausted; a delegation was sent out to hunt for relief. They were gone so long another expedition was about starting in search of them, when they returned and reported a hotel not far distant where cigars were one cent apiece, and whiskey three cents a glass, and board fifty cents a day. A shout of relief went up from the crowded cars, and they were soon comfortably housed till the storm was over. Edison finally reached Boston all right. His reception at the telegraph office by the young operators was not as cordial as it might have been, owing, no doubt, to jealousy. The table at which he had been placed was in the centre of the room, located there, it is said, for the better enjoyment of his discomfiture. He noticed the arrangement, and says he would have died rathei than make a break. He arrived in Boston in 1868, and in the person of Mr. Milli- ken found the first superior officer who could appreciate hi* AND HIS INVENTIONS. 63 character. Mr. Milliken was an accomplished gentleman, a thorough master of his profession, and an inventor of merit. He proved a faithful friend of Mr. Edison and in the secret excitement under which he seemed to labor, recognized the fire of genius. Edison's stay in Boston was congenial. There is a vein of humor running through his character, and he played a practical joke on the cockroaches which infested the office in great numbers. He placed some narrow strips of tin-foil on the wall connect- ing them with the wires from a powerful battery. Then he placed food on them in an attractive manner to tempt them. When these clammy individuals passed from one foil to the other they completed the battery connection, and with a flash were crema- ted, to the delight of the spectators. Edison started a shop in Boston, and gave all his spare time to it. He invented a dial instrument for private line use, and put several into practical op- eration. He made a chemical vote recording apparatus, but failed to get it adopted by a Massachusetts Legislature. He commenced his experiments on vibratory telegraph apparatus, and made trial tests between Boston and Portland. He matured his first private line printer, and put eight into practical opera- tion. From lack of means to pay for quotations his venture was not successful, and he sold out This patent subsequently came into possession of the Gold and Stock Telegraph Compa- ny, and was considered to have a base or foundation value upon which many subsequent improvements were built. At one time he was invited to explain the operation of the telegraph to what he supposed was a girl's school. He forgot the appointment, and when found was putting up a line on a house- top. He went directly from his work, and was much abashed to find himself ushered into the presence of a room full of finely dressed young ladies. He was actually timid in ladies' presence, but his subject was understood, and the occasion passed pleasant- ly. He was introduced to a number of young ladies, who always recognized him on the street, much to the astonishment of his fel- low-operators not in the secret. THOMAS A. EDISOk Edison in New York. PBNNILESS AND HUNGRY THK SUPREME MOMENT BRAINS His GREAT SUCCESS. Before his arrival in New York, in 1870, Mr. Edison, assisted by Mr. F. L. Pope, patent adviser of the Western Union Tele- graph Company, made a trial experiment of his duplex system, which though not fully satisfactory, was sufficiently convincing to engender absolute faith in its ultimate success. He then went to New York. The story of his arrival, remarkable ex- perience, and the supreme moment of final success, in this city, is narrated by one of his most intimate friends as follows : When Mr. Edison arrived in New York from Boston, where he was employed as an operator in the Western Union Telegraph office, he was absolutely penniless. He was unsuccessful in pro curing work in any of the Tetegraph offices, and there is no doubt he suffered not only for food, but for clothes while he tramped the streets on the look out for a job. After three weeks of unavailing effort, he by chance stepped into the office of the "Laws Gold Reporting Telegraph Co." The instrument which reported the gold market was out of order, and Mr. Laws the inventor of the system (George Laws, now of St. Louis, Mo.) was in despair, when Mr. Edison told him he thought he could make it work, and was given an opportunity. In a few moments, the instrument was working as usual, and Mr. Edison had a situ- ation. This, it may may be said, was the start towards the name which he has since earned. From that time to the present date he has made by his own efforts and expended, the sum of nearly five hundred thousand dollars. The Indicator Company at once employed Mr. Edison to fill a responsible position and his discouragements were at an end. He immediately began the work of improving the Indicator and very soon invented his Gold Printer. His next advance was a co-partnership with Messrs Pope & Ashley and the introduction of the Pope & Edison Printer. A private line system was put AND HIS INVENTIONS. 65 in active operation, but was soon disposed of to the Gold and Stock Company. From this time on, T. A. Edison has been known and apprecia- ted. His success was like the opening of a flower, the result of long and stupendous preparations, but blooming, at last, in a single day. For many years he has been retained in the service of the Gold and Stock Company and the Western Union Tele- graph Company at a large salary, they having the first option to purchase his inventions pertaining to telegraphy at prices agreed upon in each case. His inventions pertaining to the Gold and Stock Telegraph room replaced the old apparatus, and that system is interwoven with his inventions and improvements. Mr. Edison's final triumph is a matter of general congratula- tion, not only because his patient labors and long and dubious industries merited reward, but for the grand field it opened from which the world has received some of its best inventions. It has also its distinctive and impressive lessons. Perseverance conquers. Indomitable will is power. Ideas are everything. Deaf to all derision, determined, though often disappointed, decided, though often discharged, Edison went "right along" until the glad hours came. 66 THOMAS A. EDISON Edison in Newark. Soon after the intimate relationship was formed between Mr. Edison and the Gold and Stock Company he removed to New- ark, New Jersey, where he established an immense electrical manufacturing establishment in which he employed over three hundred men. It was divided into three large shops and two laboratories. Electrical experiments were now the order of the day and Mr. Edison, at this time, claimed to be the busiest man in America. It was his grand opportunity. There was nothing to impede. Everything urged him on. His inventions multiplied, and soon he was described by the United States pat. ent commissioner as "the young man who kept the path to the Patent Office hot with his footsteps. " At one time he had forty- five distinct inventions and improvements under way. An idea of his determination and persistence can be gained from the following incident : He had been given an order for $30,000 worth of improved printers. The sample instrument had worked an experimental circuit, but the first instruments for practical use proved a failure. In vain he sought to remedy the defect, till finally, taking four or five of his best men, he went to the top floor of his factory, remarking that they would never come down till the printer worked. They labored continuously for sixty hours, and he was so fortunate as to discover the fault, and made the printers operate perfectly at an expense of $5,000. Such severe and protracted labors are common with him. He says after going without sleep more than the ordinary hours he becomes nervous, and the ideas flow in upon him with great rapidity. His sleep after these efforts is correspondingly long, sometimes lasting thirty to thirty-six hours. He knows no such division as day and night in his labors, and, when the in- spiration is upon him, pursues the investigation and experiment to the end. It is doubtful whether there has ever lived just such anothe r character as Mr, Edison, whose time and energies have been given so devotedly and successfully to the discovery of practical inventions. AND HIS INVENTIONS. 67 Edison's Courtship and Marriage. Edison was now master of the situation. He was the king of inventors, and far removed from dangers originating with su- perintendents, conductors, and such like dignitaries. Yet it cannot be said that he was "perfectly secure." In another direc- tion, entirely different, new influences were silently operating that soon demonstrated the young inventor to be not wholly invulnerable. It was trivial at first, but gradually became a serious matter. He was evidently within the influence of a pe- culiar magnetic battery, which he could not fully control. To get beyond the magic power was impossible. The sequel to all this was his marriage in 1873 to Miss Mary Still well, of New- ark, N. J. The medallion on the new silver dollar is pronounced an excellent profile likeness of Mrs. Edison. The story of his love and marriage is briefly told as follows: When he was experimenting, some years ago, with the little automatic telegraph system, he perfected a contrivance for pro- ducing perforations in paper by means of a key-board. Among the young women whom he employed to manipulate these ma- chines, with a view to testing their capacity for speed, was a rather demure young person who attended to her work and never raised her eyes to the incipient genius. One day Edison stood observing her as she drove down one key after another with her plump fingers, until, growing nervous under his prolonged stare, she dropped her hands idly in her lap, and looked up helplessly into his face. A genial smile overspread Edison's face, and he presently inquired rather abruptly: "What do you think of me, little girl? Do you like me?" "Why, Mr. Edison, you frighten me. I that is I " "Don't be in any hurry about telling me. It doesn't matter much, unless you would like to marry me. " The young woman was disposed to laugh, but Edison went on : "Oh, I mean it. Don t be in a rush, though. Think it over; talk to your mother about it, and let me know soon as conven- ient Tuesday say. How will Tuesday suit you, next week Tuesday, I mean?" 68 THOMAS A. EDISON Edison's shop was at Newark in those days, and one night a friend of his, employed in the main office of the Western Union Telegraph Company, hi New York, returning home by the last train, saw a light in Edison's private laboratory, and climbed the stairs to find his friend in one of his characteristic stupors, half awake and half dozing over some intricate point in electri- cal science which was baffling him. "Halloo Tom?" cried the visitor cheerily, "what are you doing here this late? Aren't you going home?" "What time is it?" inquired Edison, sleepily rubbing his eyes and stretching like a lion suddenly aroused. "Midnight easy enough. Come along." "Is that so?" returned Edison in a dreamy sort of a way. "By George. I must go home, then. I was married to-day." Marriage was an old story with him he had been wedded to electrical hobbies for years. But, in spite of his seeming indif- ference on "the most eventful day" in his life, he makes a good husband, and the pretty little woman of the perforating machine smilingly rules domestic destinies at Menlo Park, and proudly looks across the fields where chimneys rise and her husband still works on the problems that made him a truant on his wedding day. A swarm of children pluck her gown to share then* mother's smile, and lay in wait to climb into their father's lap and muss his hair with as great a relish as if he were not the greatest genius of his time. The pet names of two of these little ones are "Dot" and "Dash, " after the characters in the Morse alphabet and a third, only three months old, is called William Leslie. Dot's real name is Mary Estelle, and Dash's, Thomas Alva Edi- son, Jr. AND HIS INVENTIONS. 69 In Menlo Park. In his arduous labors at Newark, Mr. Edison was subject to constant annoyance arising from the great tax upon his powers, curiosity seekers, etc., which finally causd him to dispose of his expensive machinery and seek a more retired spot, where he could quietly put into practical shape, his grand ideas connected with various mechanisms. He accordingly removed with his family, in 1876, to Menlo Park, a retired place, on the line of the New York & Philadelphia railroad, two miles north of Metuchin and twenty-four miles from New York. At this point Mr. Edison then erected and fitted up the most extensive labora- tory in the world. Mr. Reid in his Memorial Volume pronoun- ces it "one of the amplest laboratories and the finest array of assisting machinery to be found in connection with scientific inquiry. " Mr. Edison has very recently enlarged his facilities for his line of business by completing a workshop one hundred by thirty-five feet about the same size of the old one which is fitted up in the best possible manner with appropriate machinery. The engine in the new building is an eighty horse power, built by Charles Browne and Co., and said to be one of the finest and best made engines in the United States. The boiler is of the latest pattern, sectional, while the lathes, punches, drills, planers, milling machines, etc., are from the best makers. The experimental apparatus is the very finest and has been obtained by Mr. Edison at an expense of $100,000,00. The facilities for " getting out an invention" are far superior to any other laboratory in the world. It is not an uncommon thing for Mr. Edison to make an invention in the morning, and before night receive the working model for the same, from the hands of his chief assistant. It is in this stupendous and splendid labora- tory that the great professional inventor is jjnow at work, day and night, astonishing the civilized world by the character and number of his discoveries. The interior of this wonderful es- fo THOMAS A. JEJDIS02V tablishment is described in detail in an earlier chapter of this volume. In every well regulated institution of this character there are always a number of faithful co-workers who merit the highest commendations. Mr. Charles Batchelor, who is Mr. Edison's chief assistant, has been with him for the last nine years and has helped him to perfect all his inventions. He is a gentleman of superior ability and integrity. Under his supervision, Mr. Edison keeps eleven of the most skillful machinists and instrument makers to be found in the country some of whom have been employed for years and a corps of laboratory assistants. Professor Mclntyre, an accomplished scholar and noted chemist, with two assistants are kept constantly engaged on original research under Mr. Edison's own special direction. The inventor's extensive correspondence is attended to by Mr. L. S. Griffin, his private secretary, a life long friend and former tele- graph manager. He also attends to financial and confidential matters. William Carman is book-keeper, and Mr. John Kreuzi master machinist. To all of these faithful co-laborers Mr. Edison pays stated wages in the usual manner, except Mr. Batchelor, to whom he gives an interest in the inventions when perfected. The analysis of labor is so perfect that the whole establishment moves along like clock-work. Each workman is interested in the success of every important invention and, it is said, does not care so much for the exact hours of his labors, as is generally done in extensive manufactories. Edison is seen frequently among his men, genial and jovial, but moving through all as the grand master spirit, which he is. AND HIS INV-ENTIONS. 71 Edison's Principal Inventions. In his new and extensive factory at Llewellyn Pane, Orange County, N. J., Mr. Edison, with a large corps of com- petent assistants, is constantly busy in " turning out inven- tions," as was done in Newark and Menlo Park. Among the principal inventions in the catalogue are the following: The new and perfected Phonograph, including the Re- ceiver and Reproducer. New Edison Dynamo. Incandescent House Lamp. Incandescent Municipal Lamp. Pyro-Magnetic Dynamo. Ground Detector. Junction Box and Safety Catch. Train Telegraphic Apparatus. Mimeograph. Improved Phonoplex. Sea Telephone. Button Repeater. Gold and Stock Printer. Private Line Printer. Automatic Telegraph. Etheric Force (a new discovery.) Electric Pen and Press. Duplex Telegraph. Domestic Telegraph System. Electro-Holograph (a new discovery.) The Acoustic Telegraph. The Carbon Speaking Telephone. The Pressure Relay (a new discovery.) The Msgophone. The Aerophone. The Tasimeter, or "Minute Heat Measure." 72 THOMAS A. EDISON Harmonic Engine. Multiplying Copying Ink. Vocal Engine. The Sonorous Voltameter. Subdivision of the Electric Light. Mining' Apparatus for Separating Ores, Etc., Etc. At present he is improving the Phonograph; Electric Light; process for separating gold and silver from ores; the Telephone, etc., etc. A single invention is sometimes covered by from fifteen to twenty or more patents, the patent laws not allowing one patent to cover all the essential points. Edison's stock tele- graph instrument is covered by forty patents; his quadruplex telegraph by eleven; and his automatic system of telegraphy by forty-six. Mr. Edison's electric light system alone is operated under about one thousand patents! Mr. Edison patents his inventions in Europe as well as in this country. The following story from him illustrates how quickly it may be done: "I made a discovery at four o'clock in the afternoon. I got a wire from here (Menlo Park) to Plainfield, where my solicitor lives, and brought him into the telegraph office at that place. I wired him my discovery. He drew up the specifications on the spot, and about nine o'clock that night cabled an application for a patent to London. Before I was out of bed the next morning I received word from London that my application had been filed in the English patent office. The application was filed at noon, and I received my information about seven in the morning, five hours before the filing. The difference between London and New York time explains the thing." AND HIS INVENTIONS. 73 The Quadruplex. A WONDERFUL INVENTION FOUR DIFFERENT MESSAGES SENT AT SAMB TIME OVER A SINGLE WIRE How IT Is DONB. If we were writing a volume on science, under this caption we should give a page to the wonders of electricity. But this is not our aim^and therefore the reader must simply accept it as a won- derful fact that by Edison's quadruplex system, four separate and distinct messages, two in each direction, may pass simultaneously over a single wire. Mr. Reid well remarks in his "Memorial Volume," that "the chief product of Mr. Edison's genius has been the quadruplex system of telegraphy, by which already the equivalent of fifty thousand miles of wire have been. added to the capacity of the lines of the Western Union Telegraph Company. '' If Mr. Edison had perfected no other mechanism, this alone would rank him among the greatest of public bene- factors. It was during the summer of 1874, at Newark, N. J., while engaged in conjunction with Mr. Prescott, of New York, in ex- perimenting upon Stearns' duplex apparatus with a view of in- troducing certain modifications that Mr. Edison discovered the basis of the quadruplex system. The distinguishing feature of this method of telegraphy con- sists in combining at two terminal stations, two distinct and un- like methods of single transmission, in such a manner that they may be carried on independently upon the same wire, and at the same time, without interfering with each other. One of these methods of single transmission is known as the double current system, and the other is the single current or open circuit system. In the double current system the battery remains constantly in connection with the line at the sending stations, its polarity being completely reversed at the beginning, and at the end of every signal, without breaking the circuit. The receiving relay is provided with a polarized or permanently magnetic armature, but has no adjusting spring, and its action depends solely upon 74 THOMAS A. EDISON the reversal or polarity upon the line, without reference to the strength of the current In the single current system, the transmission is effected by increasing and decreasing the current, while the relay may have a neutral soft iron armature, provided with a retracting spring. A more desirable form, however, for long circuits, is that of the polarized relay, especially adopted to prevent interferences from the reversals sent into the line to operate the double current system. The action, therefore in this system, depends solely upon the strength of the current, its polarity being a matter of indifference. By making use of these two methods, viz., polarity and strength, combined with the duplex principle of simultaneous transmission in opposite directions, four sets of instruments may be operated at the same time, on the same wire. Z.//V& The Ouadruplex. D T, Double Transmitter; S T, Second or Single Transmitter; P, Polar- ised Relay; C R, Common Relay; C, Condenser; G, Ground, x , and 3 Batteries. AND HIS INVENTIONS. Phonograph in Operation. The Phonograph. THB EDISON AND FABER "TALKING MACHINES" PHONOGRAPH FULLY EXPLAINED ITS FIDELITY IN RE-PRODUCING SOUND WHAT WE MAY EXPECT FROM IT. No invention in the world's history has engendered more curi- osity than the Phonograph. And yet of all, it may be considered among the most simple as well as singular. Efforts were made long ago to produce a " talk ing machine, " but they were attended with no great degree of success. The organs of speech were well imitated by excellent mechanisms and vibrations were pro- duced which gave out a sound similar to the human voice, but it was after all only a species of the pipe organ, and too compli- cated and expensive to be of any practical value. By an entirely different principle, in which the vibrations of the voice are com- municated at once upon a mctalic surface, becoming thereby 76 THOMAS A. EDISON fixed, as so many indentations representing exactly the words spo- ken, Mr. Edison has developed a simple mechanism that repro- duces with wonderful exactness the human voice in all its possible variations. Professor Faber, in developing his machine, worked at the source of articulate sounds, and built up an artificial organ of speech, whose parts, as nearly as possible, perform the same functions as corresponding organs in our vocal apparatus. A vi- brating ivory reed, of variable pitch, forms its vocal chords. There is an oral cavity whose size and shape can be rapidly changed by depressing the keys on a key-board. A rubber tongue and lips make the consonants; a little windmill, turning in its throat, rolls the letter r, and a tube is attached to its nose when it. speaks French. This is the anatomy of Faber's won- derful piece of mechanism. Faber attacked the problem on its physiological side. Quite differently works Mr. Edison : he attacks the problem, not at the source of origin of the vibrations which make articulate speech: but considering these vibrations as already made, it matters not how, he makes these vibrations impress themselves on a sheet of metallic foil, and then reproduces from these im- pressions the sonorous vibrations which made them. Faber solved the problem by reproducing the mechanical causes of the vibrations making voice and speech; Edison solved it by taking the mechanical effects of these vibrations. Faber reproduced the movements of our vocal organs; Edison reproduced the motions which the drum-skin of the ear has when this organ is acted on by the vibrations caused by the movements of the vocal organs. The simplicity of Mr. Edison's mechanism and its fidelity in reproducing sound, enthrone the phonograph as king in the realm of wonderful inventions. Geo. B. Prescott, a friend of Mr. Edi- son, and electrician of the Western Union Telegraph Company at New York says that "certainly, within a dozen years, some of the great singers will be induced to sing into the ear of the phonograph, and the stereotyped cylinders thence obtained will AND HIS INVENTIONS. 77 be put into the hand organs of the streets, and we shall hear the actual voice of Christine Nilsson or Miss Gary ground out at every corner. In public exhibitions, also, we shall have re- productions of the sounds of nature, and of noises familiar and unfamiliar. Nothing will be easier than to catch the sounds of the waves on the beach, the roar of Niagara, the discords of the street, the voice of animals, the puffing and rush of the rail- road, the rolling thunder, or even the tumult of a battle. " "In its simplest form, the speaking phonograph" says Mr. Prescott, "consists of a mounted diaphragm, so arranged as to operate a small steel stylus or needle point, placed just below and opposite its center, and a brass cylinder, six or more inches long by three or four in diameter, which is mounted on a horizontal axis extending each way beyond its ends for a distance about equal to its own length. A spiral groove is cut in the circumference of the cylinder, from one end to the other, each spiral of the groove being separated from its neighbor by about one-tenth of an inch. The shaft or axis is also cut by a screw thread corresponding to the spiral groove of the cylinder, and works in screw bearings, consequently when the cylinder is caused to revolve, by means of a crank that is fitted to the axis for this purpose, it receives a forward or backward movement of about one-tenth of an inch for every turn of the same, the di- rection, of course, depending upon the way the crank is turned. The diaphragm is supported by an upright casting capable of ad justment, and so arranged that it may be removed altogethei when necessary. When in use, however, it is clamped in a fixec position above or in front of the cylinder, thus bringing the stylus always opposite the groove as the cylinder is turned. .A small, flat spring attached to the casting extends underneath the diaphragm as far as its center and carries the stylus, and between the diaphragm and spring a small piece of india rubber is placed to modify the action, it having been found that better results art obtained by this means than when the stylus is rigidly attached to the diaphragm itself. The action of the apparatus will now be readily understood f8 THOMAS A. EDISON from what follows. The cylinder is first very smoothly covered with tin-foil, and the diaphragm securely fastened in place by clamping its support to the base of the instrument. When this has been properly done, the stylus should lightly press against that part of the foil over the groove. The crank is now turned, while, at the same time, some one speaks into the mouth-piece of the instrument, which will cause the diaphragm to vibrate, and as the vibrations of the latter correspond with the move- ments of the air producing them, the soft and yielding foil will The Phonograph. become marked along the line of the groove by a series of in- dentations of different depths, varying with the amplitude of the vibrations of the diaphragm; or, in other words, with the in- flections or modulations of the speaker's voice. These inflec- tions may therefore be looked upon as a sort of visible speech, which, in fact, they really are. If now the diaphragm is re- moved, by loosening the clamp, and the cylinder then turned back to the starting point, we have only to replace the dia- phragm and turn in the same direction as at first, to hear re- peated all that has been spoken into the mouth-piece of the apparatus; the stylus, by this means, being caused to traverse its former path, and consequently, rising and falling with the de- pressions in the foil, its motion is communicated to the dia- phragm, and thence through the intervening air to the ear, where the sensation of sound is produced. AND HIS INVENTIONS. 79 As the faithful reproduction of a sound is in reality nothing more than a reproduction of similar aucoustic vibrations in a given time, it at once becomes evident that the cylinder should be made to revolve with absolute uniformity at all times, other- wise a difference more or less marked between the original sound -nd the reproduction will become manifest. To secure this uni- formity of motion, and produce a practically working machine for recording speeches, vocal and instrumental music, and per- fectly reproducing the same, the inventor has devised an appa- ratus in which a plate replaces the cylinder. This plate which is ten inches in diameter, has a volute spiral groove cut in its sur- face on both sides from its center to within one inch of its outer edge; an arm guided by the spiral upon the under side of the plate carries a diaphragm and mouthpiece at its extreme end. If the arm be placed near the center of the plate and the latter rotated, the motion will cause the arm to follow the spiral out- ward to the edge. A spring and train of wheel-work regulated by a friction governor serves to give uniform motion to the plate. The sheet upon which the record is made is of tin-foil. This is fastened to a' paper frame, made by cutting a nine-inch disk from a square piece of paper of the same dimensions as the plate. Four pins upon the plate pass through corresponding eyelet-holes punched in the four corners of the paper, when the latter is laid upon it, and thus secure accurate registration while a clamping-frame hinged to the plate, fastens the foil and its paper frame securely to the latter. The mechanism is so ar- ranged that the plate may be started and stopped instantly or its motion reversed at will, thus giving the greatest convenience to both speaker and copyist. The sheet of tin-foil or other plastic material receiving the impressions of sound, may be stereotyped or electrotyped so as to be multiplied and made durable; or the cylinder may be made of material plastic when used, and hardening afterward. Thin sheets of papier mache, or of various substances which soften by heat would be of this character. Having provided thus for the durability of the phonograph plate, it will be very easy to make 8o THOMAS A. EDISON it separable from the cylinder producing it, and attaching it to a corresponding cylinder anywhere and at any time. There will doubtless be a standard of diameter and pitch of screw for pho- nograph cylinders. Friends at a distance will then send to each other phonograph letters, which will talk at any time in the friend's voice when put upon the instrument. How startling also it will be to reproduce and hear at pleasure the voice of the dead ! All of these things are to be common, every-day expe- riences within a few years. Possibilities of the Phonograph. A SHORT HAND REPORTER ELOCUTIONIST OPERA SINGER TEACHER OF LANGUAGES ITS MEDICAL POSSIBILITIES. In speaking of the various purposes for which the phonograph may be utilized, Mr. Edison says : u First. For dictating it will take the place of short-hand re- porters, as thus : A man who has many letters to write will talk them to the phonograph, and send the sheets directly to his cor- respondents, who will lay them on the phonograph and hear what they have to say. Such letters as go to people who have no phonographs will be copied from the machine by the office boy. u Second. For reading. A first-class elocutionist will read one of Dickens' novels into the phonograph. It can all be printed on a sheet ten inches square, and these can be multi- plied by the million copies by a cheap process of electrotyping. These sheets will be sold for, say, twenty-five cents. A man is tired, and his wife's eyes are failing, and so they sit around and hear the phonograph read from this sheet the whole novel with all the expression of a first-class reader. See? A company for printing these is already organized in New York. " Third. It will sing in the very voice of Patti and Kellogg, so that every family can have an opera any evening. "Fourth. It may be used as a musical composer. When singing some favorite airs backward it hits some lovely airs, and AND HIS INVENTIONS. 81 I believe a musician could get one popular melody every day by experimenting in that way. u Fifth. It may be used to read to inmates of blind asylums, or to the ignorant, who have never learned to read. u Sixth. It may be used to teach languages, and I have al- ready sold the right to use it to teach children the alphabet. Suppose Stanley had had one and thus obtained for the world all the dialects of Central Africa! "Seventh. It will be used to make toys talk. A company has already organized to make speaking dolls. They will speak in a little girl's voice and will never lose the gift any more than a little girl. u Eighth. It will be used by actors to learn the right readings of passages. In fact, its utility will be endless. " A leading medical journal asserts that the phonograph opens up a vista of medical possibilities delightful to contemplate: Who can fail to make the nice distinctions between every form of bronchial and pulmonary rale, percussion, succussion, and friction sounds, surgical crepitus, faetal and placental murmurs, and arterial and aneurismal bruit,. when each can be produced at will, amplified to any desired extent, in the study, the ampi- theatre, the office, and the hospital ? The lecturer of the future will teach more effectively with this instrument than by the mouth. The phonograph will record the frequency and charc- teristics of respiratory and muscular movements, decide as to the age and sex of the faetus in utero, and differentiate pneu- monia from phthisis. It will reproduce the sob of hysteria, the sigh of melancholia, the singultus of collapse, the cry of the puerperal women in the different stages of labor. It will inter- pret for the speechless infant, the moans and cries of tubercular meningitis, ear-ache, and intestinal colic. It will furnish the ring of whooping-cough and the hack of the consumptive. It will be an expert in insanity, distinguishing between the laugh of the maniac and the drivel of the idiot. It will classify dys- phasic derangements, such as ataxic, amnesic, paraphasic and phataphasic aphasia. 6 82 THOMAS A. EDISON It will recount, in the voice and words of the patient, the ago- nies of neuralgia and renal calculus, and the horrors of delirium tremens. It will give the burden of the story of the old lady who recounts all the ills of her ancestors before proceeding to the era of her own. More than this, it will accomplish this feat in the ante-room, while the physician is supposed to be busying himself with his last patient. Last, but not least, it will simultaneously furnish to the med- ical philosopher the grateful praises and promises of him who is convalescent from dangerous illness, together with the chilling accents, in which, later, the doctor is told that he must wait for his remuneration till the butcher and the baker have been paid. The Phonograph's Arrival "Out West." IT VISITS CHICAGO Is INTERVIEWED BY A REPORTER A MODERN MIRACLE How IT TALKED WHAT IT HAD To SAY. While the phonograph is a great traveler, and has already vis- ited most of the civilized world, conversing with kings and queens, and attending great expositions, etc., yet its trip out West will always remain among the most remarkable of its ear- liest adventures. Wherever exhibited, it proved an object of the greatest interest. Its arrival in Chicago was heralded as the "Modern Miracle," and the whole occasion is described by an intelligent spectator as follows: The phonograph has come. It was interviewed this morning. The creature was found screwed up in a box and manifested no unruly tendencies. It does not stand on its hind legs at the sight of visitors, and is apparently perfectly safe for children to approach and even handle, but there is no denying that it does perform some most remarkable capers. At these the Western pub- lic will soon be accorded the privilege of wondering with open- mouthed amazement. The instrument, or instruments for there are three of them are in the possession of Mr. Geo. H. Bliss, General Manager of the Western Electric Manufacturing AND HIS INVENTIONS. 83 Company, a friend of Edison, the inventor, who has been awarded the privilege of exhibiting the modern miracle in Illinois. They arrived yesterday afternoon, and were enclosed in an apartment of the Methodist Church Block, from which it was deemed prob- able that they would be unable to effect an escape. They are the very first of their genus that have ever been brought to this part of the country, and, of course, their keeper is very careful of them. This morning, when the cover was carefully removed from the box, the reporter drew near and cautiously looked in, but imme- diately started back, expecting the thing to jump. "Don't be afraid," said Mr. Bliss; "it won't bite." Whereupon Mr. Chase, a friend of Mr. Bliss, and the reporter were sufficiently re-assured to allow Mr. Bliss to remove the ma- chine from its lair, and place it on the table. An inspection of it, conducted with increasing boldness, as it was observed to be entirely harmless, served to show that it consisted of an iron cylinder, about five inches in diameter and six in length, into which was cut an ordinary screw-thread, running from end to end. This cylinder was swung on an axle, projecting at each end about the length of the cylinder, and also circled by a screw thread corresponding to that on the cylinder. To the end of the axle was attached a small crank, by means of which the cyl- inder could be revolved, so as to work end-for-end on the axle- supports. The mouth-piece is a small round disk of thin tin, having a concave surface calculated to catch the sound, sup- ported by a moveable rest, so that it can be swung close to or away from the cylinder. Fixed to the under side of this mouth- piece, by means of cement, is a minute chisel-shaped needle which, when the rest is brought close to the cylinder, would im- pinge into the screw-thread thereon. This was the simple con- trivance. Now in order to make it speak, all that was necessary was to wind the cylinder with a piece of smooth tin foil, fasten- ing the ends of the sheet with cement The crank is then turned so that the cylinder is run clear to one end of the frame, and the mouth-piece is brought close to the cylinder, the little 84 THOMAS A. EDISON needle being very nicely adjusted against the tin foil. Then, as the words are spoken into the mouth-piece, the cylinder is slowly revolved; the plate to which the needle is attached vi- brates to correspond with the voices and the needle gently in- dents the tin foil, striking each indentation into the groove of the screw so that it is clear cut and visible, though very small. The speaking having been concluded, the mouth-piece is swung away, and the cylinder is screwed back to where it began. A large tin funnel is then attached to the mouth-piece, which is swung back to the cylinder. This funnel is designed to garner and send out the sounds as they come from the instrument; the crank is turned, and, as the cylinder moves back over its former course, the little needle strikes into the indentations first made, thus vibrating the tin plate of the mouth-piece precisely as it was vibrated by the voice and lo and behold, the creature speaks ! That is all there is to it. Its voice is a little metallic, but a listener can recognize a friend's eccentricity of speech. The instrument receives a tenor or treble voice much more readily than a bass. Last evening the instrument, interviewed this morning, was put into operation in the auditorium of the First Methodist Church. " Hurrah for Grant ! " screamed Mr. Bliss, forgetful of the an- tiquity of that sentiment. "Hurrah for Grant!" returned the instrument: but somebody had laughed at Mr. Bliss' patriotic exclamation. So the machine laughed while getting out the sentence, in such a manner as would not have sounded really flattering to the ex-President It repeated with the real spirit and twang such expressions as "What d'ye soye?" "Does yer mother know yer out?" and num- berless other Americanisms, and, at length, after the company had been speaking very loud, under the irripression that the thing had to be very emphatically addressed, the little daughter of the sexton of the church was brought into requisition. As it happened, she was bashful and could only be gotten to speak very low. But she repeated " Mary Had a Little Lamb, " and presently the instrument ground out the familiar lines. The AND HIS INVENTIONS. 85 poem being encored, Mr. Bliss' clerk essayed to say it, but the man at the crank turned the cylinder with increasing speed, so that when the verses were returned, the tones went scaling up in rapidly ascending pitch, until at last, like Elaine's waitings, it "scaled high on the last line" awful high. In the frequent repetitions of this idyl, it was not observed that the instrument ever once attempted any of the numerous parodies which have been perpetrated, but every time adhered to the true words and meter, from which it may be inferred that it will be a truthful recorder. Phonographic Records under the Microscope. How THE LETTERS LOOK BELIEVED BY EDISON TO BE LEG THE DEEPEST INDENTATIONS MADE BY CONSONANTS. Microscopic examination of the indentations made in the tin foil by the phonograph when spoken to, shows that each letter has a definite form, though there is a great variation, resulting from the intensity and difference of voice. Long E (or ay) on the tin foil looks like two indian clubs with the handles together. The same general resemblance is observed in E short except that as in A short, the volume of sound being less, the intensity is less, or (what is the measure of intensity) the path of the needle- point is shorter, and it seldom entirely clears the foil, the conse- quence being a continuous groove of irregular, but normally ir- regular width. I long and I short are much alike in general form, as also are O long and O short, the coupling of the pairs of the latter being the most striking feature. U long and U short best show the difference in shape produced by less intensities, the short being drawn out, and more acicular. OI is very interesting. The dipthong consists of short O and short I, and the very molds which characterize their sounds are to be observed. OW presents a composite character, but its derivation has not 86 THOMAS A. EDISON yet been made out. Evidently each letter has a definite form. It has been a question of serious consideration and one of great importance with Mr. Edison whether the indentations in the tin foil could be read with the eye. Want of time has kept him from making extensive experiments, but he is of the opinion that careful study will enable experts to decipher the characters. Profs. Fleming Jenkin and M. Ewing, of the University of Glas- gow, Scotland, have spent much time in examining the phono- graphic records, and have been partially successful in their attempts to read them. The method employed by the Pro- fessors was to repeat each of the vowel and consonant sounds a number of times, and then examine the record to determine if the indentation had any regular or characteristic shapes which would serve to identify the sounds. The result shows that the record of any single sound repeated is very irregular one series of indentation differing widely from another. It was claimed, however, that despite this irregularity the record of any one sound could be distinguished from that of another sound. Mr. Edison has repeated some of the experiments made by Profs. Jenkin and Ewing. Knowing beforehand what sounds had produced the records, he could tell the sounds by the inden- tations and also count the number of times a sound had been repeated. He found it impossible, however, to recognize similar sounds which had been repeated to the phonograph by another person. The shapes of the indentations were found by experi- ments to differ for the same sound, according to the speed with which the cylinder of the phonograph was turned, the force with which the sound was uttered, and the distance of the mouth from the diaphragm. Even by placing his hand against his cheek while repeating the sound, Mr. Edison says he can change the shape of the phonetic characters. The depest indentations are made by consonant sounds, on account of the explosive force with which these sounds are uttered. Words beginning with P can be recognized more easily than any others by the deep in- dentations which begin the records. One difficulty in recog- nizing records of words is found in the length of these records. AND HIS INVENTIONS. 87 The clearness of the phonograph's articulation, Mr. Edison says, depends considerable upon the size and shape of the open- ing in the mouth-piece. When words are spoken against the whole diaphragm, the hissing sounds, as in shall, fleece, etc., are tost. These sounds are rendered clearly, when the hole is small and provided with sharp edges, or when made in the form of a slot surrounded by artificial teeth. Besides tinfoil, other metals have been used. Impressions have been made upon sheets of copper, and even upon soft iron. With the copper foil the instrument spoke with sufficient force to be heard at a distance of two hundred and seventy-five feet in the open air. Phonographic Records under the Microscope. In the above engraving, the dotted line A, represents the ap- pearance to the eye of the impressions made on the foil when the sound of a in bat is sung against the iron plate of the phono- graph. B, is a magnified profile of these impressions on smoked glass obtained by using a form of pantagraph. C, gives the appearance of Konig"s flame when the same sound is sung quite close to its membrane. It will be seen that the profile of the impressions made on the phonograph, and the contours of the flames of Konig, when vibrated by the same compound sound bear a close resemblance. 88 THOMAS A. EDISON The Phonograph Supreme at Home. A Western journal jocosely remarks that the phonograph will be a source of comfort and consolation to long suffering wives whose husbands are in the habit of staying out late at night and returning in the small hours to wrestle with the key-hole, and eventually go to bed with their boots on. To get even with these wretches, the poor woman has to sit up and await their coming in order to more effectually free her mind. Having her phonograph, she can speak a vigorous lecture into it, and, fixing the clock-work so that it will go off at the time she knows he will return, she can compose herself to sleep, confident that her representative will do her work with the necessary vigor and em- phasis, and that the victim will have to endure it. He may raise the window and pitch the phonograph into the street, but the machine will none the less have its say out, and in this case will have the immediate neighbors for listeners. For the curtain lec- ture business the phonograph will be of great advantage, as it can be set to go off at any specified time, like an alarm clock. A woman specially gifted in invective and sarcasm, and having a good flow of speech, could do a thriving business by supplying plates to those of her sex less gifted in the science of combing down recreant spouses and reducing them to a state of pliability and won't-do-so-any-more. Many family jars might be pleasant- ly adjusted by the phonograph. The husband and wife could scold it out into their instruments, and leave them on the bureau for the housemaid to take out into the back-yard, where they could splutter at each other without doing any harm. Right at this point, however, there is a startling possibility. Mr. Edison's aerophone is only a colossal telephone that conveys sound for ten miles. The alarming capabilities of such an instrument are apparent when the reader contemplates an irate woman, whose husband is out later than he ought to be, in possession of a voice ten miles long and as big as a small clap of thunder. The clock strikes twelve, one, two; the whole city is wrapped in silence, when suddenly a voice cries through the startled air, awakening AND HIS INVENTIONS. 89 every one from sleep, "John Henry Jones, you come home right off, or you'll catch it." Such developments of the domestic discipline are among the alarming possibilities of Mr. Edison's inventions. "Uncle Remus" and the Phonograph. "Unc. Remus," asked a tall, awkward looking negro who was one of a crowd surrounding the old man in front of James' Bank, "Wat's dis 'ere wat dey calls de fongraf dis 'ere inst'u- ment wa't kin holler 'roun like little chillum in de back yard?" "I ain't seed um," said Uncle Remus, feeling in his pocket for a fresh chew of tobacco. "I ain't seed um, but I hear talk on um. Miss Sally wuz a readin' in de papers las' Chuesday, an' she say dat it's a mighty big whatyoumaycallem. " "A mighty big which?" asked one of the crowd. "A mighty big whatshisname," answered Uncle Remus. "I wuzzent up dar close to whar Miss Sa'ah was reedin'but I kinder geddered it in dat it wuz one er dese 'ere whathisnamzes Vat holler inter one year an' it comes out at de odder. Hit's mighty funny unto me how dese folks kin go an' prognosticate dere ekoes intu one er dese yer i'on boxes, an' dar hit'll stay ontwell de man comes 'long an' turns de handle an' lets de fuss come pilin' out, Bimeby dey'll get ter makin' shore-nuff people, an' den dere'll be a racket 'roun here. Dey tells me dat it goes off like one er dese 'ere torpedoes. " "You hear dat, don't you?" said said one or two of the younger negroes* "Dat's w'at dey tells me," continued Uncle Remus. "Dat's w*at dey sez. Hit's one er dese yer kinder Vatsiznames dat sasses back when you hollers at it" "Wat dey fix um up for den?" asked one of the practical negroes. "Dat's w'at I want er know," said Uncle Remus contempla- tively. "But dat's w'at Miss Sally was reedin' in de paper. All 90 THOMAS A. EDISON you gotter do is holler at de box, an' dar*s no remarks. Dey goes in, an' dar dey are tooken, an' dar dey hangs on twell you shake de box, an' den dey drops out des er dese yere fishes w*at you git from Savannah, an' you ain't got time fer ter look at dere gills needer." Moses and the Toddygraph. "Officer Warlow bring up Moses in the 'bulrushes," said Jus- tice Bixby. The officer brought up a seed-cucumbery looking individual, and placed him at the railing. "The officer found you last night, " said the Judge, lying in the bullrushes round the Union Square fountain, dead drunk. What have you to sav?" Well, Judge, I'll tell you how it was," said the prisoner, I'm an inventor. " "Of what?" asked his honor. "Of thetoddygraph." "What's that?" "Why, you wind a cylinder with tinfoil,'' said the prisoner, "and drop into a liquor-saloon and take a drink. You have the cylinder under your coat, and when the bar-keeper ain't looking, you breathe on the tinfoil; when you get out you turn a crank, and repeat the drink as often as you please. " "A very dangerous invention, " said his honor. "By no means," said the prisoner, "for it ruins the landlord's business. One drink will last a week. " "Yes," said his Honor, "but it kills the imbiber." "But if there were no landlords there would be no imbibers," said the prisoner. "That may be so; but what has all this to do with your being found drunk in a public park?" Til tell you. Last night I was testing a new machine, and I think I won't be positive but I think I turned the crank just once too often" AND HIS INVENTIONS. 91 "Very well," said his Honor, "I will send you up for ten days. " As you tarry in classic Blackwell, I advise you to turn your inventive genius to something more useful. Invent a din- nergraph, for instance, so that a poor man can repeat a square meal often. Millions yet unborn will bless you, and* your name will go down to posterity along with Peter Cooper and Florence Nightingale. * How the "Phonograph Man" is said to Amuse Himself. A Cincinnati gentleman is responsible for the following: Edison, the phonograph man, is wretched unless he invents half a dozen things every day. He does it just for amusement when regular business isn't pressing. The other day he went out for a little stroll and he thought out a plan for walking on one leg so as to rest the other, before he had gone a square. He hailed a milk-wagon and told the driver of a little inven- tion that had popped through his head just that moment for delivering milk without getting out of his wagon or even stopping his horses. A simple force-pump, with hose attached, worked by the foot, would do the business. Milk-men who dislike to halt for anything in their mad career, because it prevents them running over as many children as they might otherwise do, would appreciate this improvement. Edison isn't sure but that sausage and pig's feet could be delivered in the same way. He stepped into a hotel office, and, observing the humiliations which guests encountered in seeking to obtain information from the high-toned clerk, he sat down in the reading-room, and in five minutes had invented a hotel clerk to work by machinery, warranted to stand behind the counter any length of time de- sired, and answer all questions with promptness, correctness, and suavity diamond pin, and hair parted in the middle, if desired. Lounging into the billiard-room, he was struck with the need- 9 2 THOMAS A. EDISON less amout of cushions required to each table. Quick as lighfning he thought of a better and more economical plan cushion the balls ! He immediately pulled out a postal card and wrote to Washington applying for a patent When Edison started to go out he had to pass the barber-shop of the hotel, and, as he did so, he sighed to think that, with all his genius and creative imagination, he could never hope to equal the knight of the razor as a talking machine. This saddened him so that he went home and invented no more that day. How the Phonograph Frightened a Preacher. One of the most amusing anecdotes in relation to Mr. Edison and the phonograph is told in connection with a well known divine who was very skeptical concerning the capabilities of the wonderful instrument and who, it seems, had a vague suspicion that either Mr. Edison or some one of his assistants, was palm- ing off some first class ventiiloquism under the assumed name of the marvelous. Such a remarkable case as this one was likely to be, Mr. Edison thought demanded special attention and so a plate of tin foil was properly doctored for the divine, to suit the emergency. Sure enough his incredulity was manifested at the proper time. He wanted to talk into the mouthpiece himself and see if his own words would be recorded and repeated. So down he sat and gravely repeated a verse of scripture to the phonograph. The readjusment was made and to his utter astonishment it came back from the instrument as follows: He that cometh from above is above all; (who are you, anyhow?) he that is of the earth (Oh, pshaw, give us a rest,) is earthly, and speaketh of the (Look here, you can't preach, go home) earth, etc. The startled divine was lost in amazement, but repeated experiments convinced him that the phonograph was all right AND HIS INVENTIONS. 93 How the Phonograph was Discovered by Mr. Edison. The phonograph was discovered to use Mr. Edison's lan- guage "by the merest accident." "I was singing," says he, "to the mouthpiece of a telephone, when the vibrations of the wire sent the fine steel point into my finger. That set me to thinking. If I could record the actions of the point, and then send the point over the same surface afterwards, I saw no reason why the thing would not talk. I tried the experiment, first on a strip of telegraph paper, and found that the point made an alphabet. I shouted the word "Halloo! Halloo!" into the mouthpiece, ran the^paper back over the steel point and heard a faint Halloo! Halloo! in return ! I determined to make a machine that would work accurately, and gave my assistants instructions, telling them what I had dis- covered. They laughed at me. I bet fifteen cigars with one of my assistants, Mr. Adams, that the thing would work the first time without a break, and won them. That's the whole story. The discovery came through the pricking of a finger. " Mr. Edison related this story of the phonograph's origin to a company of interested listeners at Menlo Park, as given above, and then turning to the instrument he shouted out in the mouth- piece : " Nineteen years in the Bastile 1 I scratched a name upon the wall, And that name was Robert Landry. Parlez vous Francais ? Si habla Espanol, Sprechen sic Deutsch ?" And the words were repeated, followed by the air of "Old Uncle Ned, " which he had sung. 94 THOMAS A. EDISON Edison Joking with the Phonograph. The matrix, after having been used to record one conversa- tion or poem as the case may be, will also admit of another being superinduced, but they will, of course, be reported in a very jumbling manner. In this way Mr. Edison and his assist- ants frequently created much amusement for the listeners. On one occasion the affecting words of the first verse of "Bin- gen on the Rhine" were made by the phonograph to be reported as follows: A soldier of the legion lay dying in algiers, "Oh, shut up!" "Oh, bag your headl" There was lack of woman's nursing, there was "Oh, give us a rest 1" lack of woman's tears. "Dry up!, But a comrade stood beside him while his life "Oh, what are you giving us!" "Oh, blood ebbed away, cheese it!" And bent with pitying glances to hear what he "Oh, you can't read poetry 1" "Let might say. up!" The dying soldier faltered, and he took that com "Policel Policel" "Po- rade's hand, lice!" And he said, "I shall never see my own, my "Oh, put him outl" "Oh cork native land. " yourself! " It is impossible to describe the ludicrousness of the effect Mr. Edison himself laughed like a boy. AND HTS INVENTIONS. 95 Edison's Electric Pen. Mr. Edison has taught the lightning to write in more ways than by chemistry. Perhaps his most simple, and still very ingen- ious, method is by means of the electric pen, over sixty thousand of which are now in use throughout the country. The electrici- ty in this case causes a perforating needle point to move up and down within a pencil shaped holder at very great rapidity. This holder is manipulated the same as if it were a pen or pen- cil, and as it moves rapidly over the surface of the paper the needle point, by its intensely rapid movement perforates the pa- 's Electric Pen. per sufficiently to produce a perfect stencil of what has been writ- ten. When the electric writing is completed, the sheet of paper is put into a duplicating press and copies made therefrom in any numbers required. The perforations are so numerous and so nearly together, that when the ink is pressed through them upon the surface of the duplicate sheet, they seem to form a contin- uous line making the writing easily legible, provided of course, the electric instrument which makes the stencil is guided by a good penman. The battery, line, pen, and working principle of this novel invention are shown in the engraving here given. 96 THOMAS A. EDISON The Electro-Motograph. A CURIOUS INSTRUMENT How IT WORKS FOUR HUNDRED MOVES IN ONE SECOND ! Among the most singular of Mr. Edison's discoveries is the fact that certain chemical salts lose their functional properties when subjected to the action of an electric current. On this as a basis of action he has devised a telegraphic system in which the ordinary relay magnet is wholly unnecessary. This he called the Electro-motograph. In the language of Mr. Prescott, "it was the substitution of friction and ante friction for the presence of magnetism in the relay. It was remarkable also, in that it could be worked by an almost infinitessimal current. " Its ra- pidity of action is more than ten-fold greater than any magnet hitherto constructed, which renders it the only known apparatus that can repeat or translate, from one circuit to another, the signals of high speed telegraph systems. The working principle of the instrument is explained as fol- lows : A drum, rotated by clock work, carries slowly forward a slip of paper moistened with a solution of potassic hydrate. Immediately over this drum is a circuit closing lever which moves freely upward and sideways. Upon the extreme end of the lever is a screw having a lead point, which is held firmly against the surface of the chemical paper by the tension of a spring. Near the end of the lever is a platina pointed extension projecting upwards, its extreme end playing between a limiting screw and a platina-pointing screw opposite. The local connec- tions, or second line wire are made in the usual manner. There is also a sounder and a local battery. The zinc pole of the main battery is connected with the lead point screw, while the other pole is connected through the . key to the drum. The action is as follows : The pressure with which the lead point is held upon the chemical paper causes great friction and locks the point, as it were, to the paper, and the rotating drum carries the lever forward to the limiting screw, the local circuit and main line being broken. If one or two turns only be given the spring AND HIS INVENTIONS. 97 which draws the lever back, the friction will still be sufficient to detain the lever in contact with the drum, but the moment the key is closed, the passage of the current produces an unknown and peculiar action upon the lead point and chemical paper, and the almost total annihilation of the normal friction, when, of course, the spring draws the lever back and closes the local cir- cuit or second main line as the case may be, and continues there as long as the current passes; but when the current is broken by the key the normal friction returns instantaneously, and the continuously moving drum and paper carries the lever forward again to the limiting screw, or stop, breaking the sec- ondary circuit. The genius of the instrument is in the chemical paper, which in some strange manner loses its frictional properties when sub- jected to a current of electricity. By means of signals trans- mitted from perforated paper, Mr. Edison succeeded in applying it as a repeater, and transmitted fourteen hundred words from one circuit into another in one minute, which requires at least four hundred full and perfect movements of the lever each second! Modifications of this apparatus have been devised by the in- ventor, which enables it to work with positive and negative cur- rents, thus dispensing with the adjusting springs. From the fact that this instrument requires but small battery power and is remarkably sensitive to feeble currents, and can be used to record very delicate signals without electro-magnets, it is extremely probable that it will be the basis of new discoveries, among which is the solution of the problem of fast working through long sub-marine cables. "Important results," says Mr. Prescott "are to follow this discovery." THOMAS A. EDISON Fig. i. Fig. . Tig. i. Carbon Telephone Interior. A A, Iron Diaphragm ; B, India Rubber ; C, Ivory ;D < Platina Plate ; E, Carbon Disk ; G, Platina Screw. Fig. . Exterior View of Edison'i Telephone. The Telephone. EDISON'S OWN ACCOUNT OF His DISCOVERY OF THE CARBON TELEPHONE AN INTERESTING HISTORY His EXPLANATION OF THE WONDER- FUL INSTRUMENT ILLUSTRATED BY NUMEROUS ENGRAV- INGS IT TALKS OVER A WIRE 720 MILES LONG His OTHER TELEPHONES. "My first attempt at constructing an articulating telephone," says Mr. Edison, ''was made with the Reiss transmitter and one of my resonant receivers, and my experiments in this direction, which continued until the production of my present carbon tel- ephone, cover many thousand pages of manuscript. I shall, however, describe here only a few of the more important ones. In one of the first experiments I included a simplified Reiss transmitter, having a platinum screw facing the diaphragm, in a circuit containing twenty cells of battery and the resonant re- AND HIS INVENTIONS. 99 ceiver, and then placed a drop of water between the points; the results, however, when the apparatus was in action, were unsatis- factory rapid decomposition of the water took place and a deposit of sediment was left on the platinum. I afterwards used disks attached both to the diaphragm and to the screw, with sev- eral drops of water placed between and held there by capillary attraction, but rapid decomposition of the water, which was impure, continued, and the words came out at the receiver very much confused. Various acidulated solutions were then tried) but the confused sounds and decompositions were the only results obtained. With distilled water I could get nothing, probably because, at that time, I used very thick iron diaphragms, as I have since obtained good results; or, possibly, it was because the ear was not yet educated for this duty, and therefore I did not know what to look for. If this was the case, it furnishes a good illus- tration of the fact observed by Professor Mayer, that we often fail to distinguish weak sounds in certain cases when we do not know what to expect. Sponge, paper and felting, saturated with various solutions, were also used between the disks, and knife edges were substi- tuted for the latter with no better results. Points immersed in electrolytic cells were also tried, and the experiments with various solutions, devices, etc., continued until February, 1876, when I abandoned the decomposable fluids and endeavored to vary the resistance of the circuit proportionately with the am- plitude of vibration of the diaphragm by the use of a multipli- city of platinum points, springs and resistance coils all of which were designed to be controlled by the movements of the dia- phragm, but none of the devices were successful. In the spring of 1876, and during the ensuing summer, I en- deavored to utilize the great resistance of thin films of plumbago and white Arkansas oil stone, on ground glass, and it was here that I first succeeded in conveying over wires many articulated sentences. Springs attached to the diaphragm and numerous other devices were made to cut in and out of circuit more or less ioo THOMAS A. EDISON of the plumbago film, but the disturbances which the devices themselves caused in the true vibrations of the diaphragm pre- vented the realization of any practical results. One of my as- sistants, however, continued the experiments without interruption until January, 1877, when I applied the peculiar property which semi-conductors have of varying their resistance with pressure, a fact discovered by myself in 1873, wnu2 THOMAS A. EDISON The Megaphone. This is among Mr. Edison's latest discoveries, and has a curi- ous origin. "Strange as it may seem," says Mr. Edison, "it came to life through the mistake of a reporter. " To use his own words, "a reporter came to see my phonograph and went back and got it mixed up in his paper. He stated that I had got up a ma- chine to make partially deaf people hear. The item was exten- sively copied, but I thought nothing more of it until after a while I found myself receiving letters from all over the country asking about it I answered some, saying it was a mistake, but they kept piling in upon me until I was getting them at the rate of twenty and thirty a day. Then I began thinking about the mat- ter and began experimenting. One day while at work on it I heard some one loudly singing ' Mary Had a Little Lamb.' I looked around, nobody was near me and nobody was singing. Then I discovered that the singer was one of my young men, who, in a distant corner of the room, was softly singing to him- self. The instrument had magnified the sound, and I heard it distinctly, although I'm pretty deaf, while others in the room had not heard a whisper. That was the first of the megaphone. " No electricity is used in this instrument. It is a peculiarly constructed ear trumpet. For use in the open air it is made very large and consists of two great ear-trumpets and a speaking trumpet; mounted together upon a tripod. Two persons pro- vided with this instrument are enabled to converse in the ordina- ry tones of voice some miles apart A smaller instrument is made for deaf persons, which is porta- ble and adjustable, similar to an opera glass, by means of which a whisper is heard through the largest hall While on a recent visit to Chicago, Mr. Edison, in view of his own deafness, face- tiously remarked to a friend that he ought to have had one of these instruments with him, and in the same strain described the trumpet as one that was unnecessary to "bawl into!" Mr. Edison is now improving the megaphone, and states that he will use electricity in its construction which will require a small battery. It will doubtless prove a blessing to deaf persons. AND HIS INVENTIONS. 123 The Sonorous Voltameter. This high-sounding-titled instrument is amusingly described by Mr. Edison, to a friend, as follows : "Have you seen the Sonorous Voltameter yet?" said Mr. E. to his friend. The friend admitted that the sonorus voltameter was as yet outside the pale of his scientific education, and asked for light on the subject. Mr. Edison doffed his hat; and by a dexterous throw landed it on a table several feet away. Then he took paper and pencil and drew a sonorous voltameter. "There she is," he exclaimed, joyfully, as he put on the fin- ishing touches to a complex arrangement of wires, batteries, tubes, and funnels. "What is she good for, " inquired the friend, adopting the in- ventor's metaphor and gazing on the unintelligible combination. "First-class arrangement. Tells of the strength of telegraph batteries right to a dot. It makes you hear their strength. This end of the wire, you see, makes the oxygen, and this end hydro- gen. The bubbles rise and make a noise, which is magnified by the funnel. These glass tubes indicate the intensity of the current by degrees, and the funnel indicates the same by sound. You take your watch and count the number of ticks caused by the bubbles per second. Thus you know how strong your battery is. Just try it some time. The astonished companion promised that the first time he found a battery lying around without any owner he would clap on a sonorous voltameter and find out all about it. Edison Joking his Friends. Mr. Edison is fond of joking with his intimate friends. In the presence of a company of these one day at Melno Park, and just as they were drawing on their great coats preparatory to de- i*4 THOMAS A. EDISON parture, Mr. Edison astounded the party by gravely announcing as follows : "Gentlemen, I am now about to tell you something that will astonish all the electricians in the world. I am prepared to send a current of electricity from here to Philadelphia without any wire. Down came the great coats in a hurry. "Why Al, (his second name is Alva, and many of his friend? call him Al,) that's impossible, " said a friend, who was an old telegraph operator. "Oh, no," answered Mr. Edison. "It can be done, and I know it It is the result of a recent discovery. " " How, " inquired several at once. "Store it up in a condenser and send it there by express," was the reply. "Now don't give it away to the newspaper men." Ha, Ha, Ho, Ho, just so, you're right, said his friend. Down in the Gold Mines. During his trip to the Rocky Mountains Mr. Edison visited a number of the gold mines. It was soon reported that he had discovered a method of finding gold without digging for it. Tins, he pronounced a misstatement, and says: What I did get up was a simple contrivance for ascertaining the quantity of ore in any given place once gold is struck. It is a very simple thing and absolutely reliable. "The ore is surrounded by a bed or bank of conducting ma- terial. For instance, in the mines which I examined that material was clay. The quantity of clay is an indication of the quantity of ore. When ore is struck thousands are often ex- pended in drilling for more, when in reality the vein is completely exhausted. The contrivance I suggested enables the miner to know whether or not the vein is exhausted. I simply make a ground connection and run a wire through a battery and in- strument Now, I take the other end of the wire down the AND HIS INVENTIONS. 1*5 shaft and connect it with the clay or other conducting material surrounding the ore. If the clay bank is extensive the connec- tion is a good one, and the current of electricity flows freely; but if the clay bank is small in area a poor connection is formed. By adopting a unit of measurement the area can be told almost to the square foot Edison's Anecdote of the Rocky Mountain Scouts. Mr. Edison made an extensive trip to the Mocky Mountains in July, 1878, to test his tasimeter on the sun's corona during a total eclipse of that luminary. While there, he went off buf- falo hunting, which gave occurrence to the following little story, in the presence of a few friends, after his return to Menlo Park : "That Western country is a great country, " his face beaming as he thought of his recent vacation. "Those scouts out there are wonderful fellows. One of them tracked us on one occasion over a distance of eighty miles, and all that he had to guide him was tobacco juice. " "Tobacco juice! How in the world could tobacco juice guide a man?" asked one of his friends. "It happened in this way. A cable dispatch came for me at Rawlins, but I had gone out hunting with a party of thirteen, some of whom were old Western hunters. Word was cabled back that the message could not be delivered, as our whereabouts were unknown. Soon an answer came to send out a scout in search of us. The scout traveled for three days over the wildest sort of country, with nothing to guide him but tobacco juice, which the hunters of our party, who were inveterate chewers, left behind. Once he lost the trail and was for hours in doubt, but he again got it. Sharp fellows, those scouts." i26 THOMAS A. EDISON- The Tasimeter or Thermopile. AN INSTRUMENT THAT MEASURES THE HEAT OF THE STARS How IT is DONE FULL ACCOUNT OF ITS DISCOVERY. This is a new invention by Mr. Edison for measuring to an astonishing exactness a very low degree of heat It is so sen- sitive in its operating facilities that it registers the heat from the fixed stars and will no doubt, from this fact, prove a great ad- junct in the science of astronomy. It also registers with equal precision the presence of moisture. It ranks among the most wonderful of Mr. Edison's many inventions and is described in his own language as follows: "It consists of a carbon button placed between two metalic plates. A current of electricity is passed through one plate, then through the carbon, and through the other plate. A piece of hard rubber or of gelatine is so supported as to press against these plates. The whole is then placed in connection with a gal- vanometer and an electric battery. Heat causes the strip of hard rubber to expand and press the plates closer together on the carbon, allows more current to pass through, and deflects the needle of the galvanometer. Cold decreases the pressure. Moisture near the strip of the gelatine can be measured in the same way by increasing or decreasing the pressure and accord- ingly deflecting the needle. By means of this apparatus or one combined with sensitive electrical galvanometers it is possible to measure the millionth part of a degree Fahrenheit. Infinitesi- imal changes in the moisture of the atmosphere can be indicated in the same way, changes which are a hundred thousand times less in quantity than those that can be indicated by the present barometer. It will thus foretell a storm much more readily. The carbon button I have in this instrument is of lampblack burned from rigolene. I discovered about two years ago that carbon of various forms, such as plumbago, graphite, gas retort carbon, and lampblack, when molded in buttons, decreased the resistance to the passage of the electrical current by pressure. AND HIS INVENTIONS. 127 This is part of the apparatus of the carbon telephone and micro- phone. The Tasimeter was discovered by Mr. Edison in the following manner : During his investigations, which resulted in the inven- tion of his carbon telephone, Mr. Edison found that carbon was subject to expansion and contraction under conditions of elec- tric influence and pressure that made it the most sensitive sub- stance within reach of the scientist. Applying this discovery to the measurement of heat, he found that by using even an or- dinary electronemer, the pressure on the carbon disk caused by the expansion of any substance acted on by even the lowest degree of heat reacted so as to govern the movements of the balanced needle over a finely graduated scale. This invention he has been long engaged in perfecting. He was invited by Prof. Langley, of Pittsburg, to adapt it for measuring the heat of stellar spectra. This he has succeeded in accomplishing, with such wonderful success that he is now able to measure the heat of even the telescopic stars. By focussing the heat rays of these distant bodies so as to concentrate them on the substance press- ing on the carbon button, he is enabled to measure accurately their relative and actual heats. In this way it is not improbable astronomical researches as to the distance of the stars from the earth, may be measured by their degrees of heat acting on the thermopile. The condition of moisture can also be determined by its effect on a bar of gelatine substituted for the hard rubber used for measuring heat. Indeed so sensitive to the influence of moisture is this delicate instrument, that a little water spilled on the ground in the same room with the instrument, or even, as Mr. Edison asserts, spitting on the floor will be indicated by the the movement of the the balanced-needle. 128 THOMAS A. EDISON The Tasimeter and the Stars. EXPLANATION TEST THE HEAT OF ARCTURUS REGISTERED. The value of the tasimeter lies in its ability to detect the smallest variation in temperature. This is accomplished indi- rectly. The change of temperature causes expansion or con- traction of a rod of vulcanite, which changes the resistance of an electric circuit by varying the pressure it exerts upon a carbon-button included in the circuit.' During the eclipse of July 29, 1878, it was thoroughly tested by Mr. Edison, and dern- demonstrated the existence of heat in the corona. The Tasimeter. The instrument, as used on that occasion by Mr. Edison is shown in section in the engraving, which affoids an insight into its construction and mode of operation. The subtance where expansion is to be measured is shown at A. It is firmly clamped at B, its lower end fitting into a slot in the metal plate M, which rests upon the carbon-button, C. The latter is in an electric circuit, which includes a delicate galvanometer. Any variation in the length of the rod changes the pressure upon the carbon, and alters the resistance of the circuit. This causes a deflec- tion of the galvanometer-needle a movement in one direction AND HIS INVENTIONS. 129 denoting expansion of A, while an opposite motion signifies con- traction. To avoid any deflection which might arise from change in strength of battery, the tasimeter is inserted in an arm of the Wheatstone bridge. In order to ascertain the exact amount of expansion in deci- mals of an inch, the screw, S, seen in front of the dial, is turned until the deflection previoucly caused by the change of tempera- ture is reproduced. This screw works a second screw, causing the rod to ascend or descend, and the exact distance through which the rod moves is indicated by the needle, N, on the dial. This novel instrument was completed only two days before Mr. Edison went West in July, 1878, to experiment on the sun's corona. It was set up immediately on his arrival at Rawlins, but he found great difficulty in fully adjusting so delicate an in- strument. This, he however, finally effected by new and ingen- ious devices, which he designates "fractional balancing." In order to form some idea of the delicacy of the apparatus when thus adjusted to measure the smallest amount of heat, "the tasi- meter," says Mr. Edison, "being attached to the telescope, the image of the star Arcturus was brought on the vulcanized rubber. The spot of light from the galvanometer moved to the side of heatr After some minor adjustments, five uniform and successful de. flections were obtained with the instrument, as the light of the star was allowed to fall on the vulcanite to produce the deflec- tion, or was screened off to allow of a return to zero. " The tasimeter on this occasion was placed in a double tin case, with water at the temperature of the air between each case. This case was secured to a Dollond telescope of four inches aperture. Testing the Tasimeter on the Sun's Corona. This wonderful invention was tested by Mr. Edison at Raw- lins, Wyoming Territory, on the sun's corona during the total eclipse of July 29th. 1878. Though attended with much labor 9 *3 THOMAS A. EDISON and difficulties the demonstration was successful A graphic description of the first great trial of the tasimeter appeared at the time in a New York journal, from which we give the fol- lowing extract : But a new evil soon became manifest. A strong wind began blowing the frail pine structures used for observatories. These commenced to rock. Edison's observatory, which, in its normal condition, is a hen-house, was particularly susceptible. He hurried toward it only to find his sensitively-adjusted apparatus in an extreme state of commotion. Every vibration threw the tasimeter into a new condition of adjustment To remedy the evil was far from easy, as the time was then so short and precious it was too late to remove the apparatus, and seemingly impossi- ble to break the force of the wind, which was gradually increas- into a tornado. Hatless and coatless he ran to a neighboring lumber-yard, and in a moment a dozen stalwart men were car- rying boards with which to prop up the structure and erect a temporary fence at its side. This completed, the chronometer indicated half-past one o'clock. At thirteen minutes past 2 the moon began to make her first appearance between the sun and earth. Again Edison adjusted his tasimeter, but only to find that the gale continued to sway his projecting telescope so violently that a satisfactory result was almost impossible. A rigging of wire and ropes soon partially overcame the difficulty, and once more the instruments were ready for work. In a few moments there came Dr. Draper and the announcement, "There she goes," and the crowd of specta- tors immediately leveled their smoked glasses at the sun. The moon had just made her appearance. At half-past i p. m. one quarter of the sun's disc was darkened with slow but steady pace. The progress of the moon continued. In the observatory of Dr. Draper the fall of a pin could be heard; outside almost equal quiet reigned. The only place of disorder was in that frail structure of Edison's. Notwithstand- ing his efforts the wind continued to give him trouble. In vain he adjusted and readjusted. At 3 o'clock three-quarters ot the AND HIS INVENTIONS. 131 sun's disc was obscured, and darkness began to fall upon the surrounding region. The hills around were all alive with people watching for the moment of totality. In Dr. Draper's observa- tory everything was proceeding excellently. The force of the wind had been broken. Edison's difficulty seemed to increase as the precious moments of total eclipse drew near. At five minutes past 3 o'clock, the sun's disc was seven-eighths covered, and the country around was shrouded in a pale grayish light, resembling early dawn. At a quarter past 3 darkness was upon the face of the earth. The few moments for which the astronomers had traveled thou* sands of miles had arrived. Still Edison's tasimeter was out of adjustment. All the other instruments were in excellent working order. Totality had brought with it a marked cessation in the force of the wind. Edison worked assiduously, but the tasimeter would not come to a proper condition. At last, just as the chronometer indicated that but one minute remained of total eclipse, he succeeded in concentrating the light from the corona upon the small opening of the instrument. Instantly the fire ray of light on his graduating scale swept along to the right, clear- ing its boundaries. Edison was overjoyed. The experiment has shown the existence of about fifteen times more heat in the corona than that obtained from the star Arcturus the previous night. Edison's tasimeter showed its power to measure the corona's heat. It, however, was adjusted ten times too sensitively. Never having used it before for a similar purpose, he had no means of telling the degree of sensitiveness necessary. The heat from the corona threw the ray of light entirely off the scale, and before he could make the second test the eclipse had passed away. The experiment demonstrated that, compared to some of the fixed stars, the corona's heat was much greater. xj 2 THOMAS A. EDISON Basis of the Tasimeter. The tasimeter is a modification of the micro-tasimeter which is the outcome of Mr. Edison's experiments with his carbon telephone. Having experimented with diaphragms of various thicknesses, he ascertained that the best results were secured by using the thicker diaphragms. At this stage he experienced a new difficulty. So sensitive was the carbon button to the changes of condition, that the expansion of the rubber telephone handle rendered the instrument inarticulate, and finally inopera- tive. Iron handles were substituted with a similar result, but with the additional feature of musical and creaky tones distinct- ly audible in the receiving instrument. These sounds Mr. Edison attributes to the movement of the molecules of iron among themselves during expansion. He calls them "molecular music." To avoid these disturbances in the telephone, the handle was dispensed with; but it had done a great ser- vice in revealing the extreme sensitiveness of the carbon button, and this discovery opened the way for the invention of this new and wonderful instrument. The micro-tasimeter is represented in perspective in fig, 12, in section in fig. 13, and the plan upon which it is arranged in the electric circuit is shown in fig. 14. The instrument consists essentially in a rigid iron frame for holding the carbon button, which is placed between two plati- num surfaces, one of which is fired and the other moveable, and in a device for holding the object to be tested, so that the pres- sure resulting from the expansion of the object acts upon the carbon button. Two stout posts A, B, project from the rigid base piece, c. A vulcanite disc D, is secured to the post A, by the platinum-headed screw E, the head of which rests in the bottom of a shallow circular cavity in the centre of the disc. In this cavity, and in contact with the head of the screw E, the carbon button F, is placed. Upon the outer face of the button there is a disc of platinum foil, which is in electrical communication with the AND HIS INVENTIONS. 133 battery. A metalic cup G, is placed in contact with the platinum disc to receive one end of the strip of whatever material is em- ployed to operate the instrument. The post B, is about four inches from the post A, and contains Fig 13. Fig. 14. a screw-acted follower H, that carries a cup i, between which and the cup G, is placed a strip of any substance whose expansi- bility it is desired to exhibit. The post A, is in electrical com- munication with a galvanometer, and the galvanometer is xj4 THOMAS A. EDISON connected with the battery. The strip of the substance to be tested is put under a small initial pressure, which deflects the galvanometer needle a few degrees from the needle point. When the needle comes to rest, its position is noted. The slightest subsequent expansion or contraction of the strip will be indicated by the movement of the galvanometer needle. A thin strip of hard rubber, placed in the instrument, exhibits extreme sensi- tiveness, being expanded by heat from the hand, so as to move through several degrees the needle of a very ordinary galvanom- eter, which is not effected in the slightest degree by a thermopile facing and near a red hot iron. The hand, in this experiment, is held a few inches from the rubber strip. A strip of mica is sensibly affected by the heat of the hand, and a strip of gelatin, placed in the instrument, is instantly expanded by moisture from a dampened piece of paper held two or three inches away. For these experiments the instrument is arranged as in fig. 1 2, but for more delicate operations it is connected with a Thom- son's reflecting galvanometer, and the current is regulated by a Wheatstone's bridge and a rheostat, so that the reistance on both sides of the galvanometer is equal, and the light-pencil from the reflector falls on o of the scale. The principle of this arrangement is illustrated by the diagram, fig. 14. Here the galvanometer is at g, and the instrument which is at i, is ad- justed, say, for example, to ten ohms resistance. At a, b, and c, the resistance is the same. An increase or diminution of the pressure on the carbon button by an infinitesimal expansion or contraction of the substance under test is indicated on the scale of the galvanometer. The carbon button may be compared to a valve, for, when it is compressed in the slightest degree, its electrical conductivity is increased, and when it is allowed to expand it partly loses its conducting power. For measuring the heat of the stars, etc., this instrument is slightly modified so as to admit the light or heat at G, to the car- bon button F. Mr. Edison proposes to apply the principle of this instrument to delicate thermometers, barometers, hygrom- eters, etc., and ultimately to weigh the light of the sun. 136 THOMAS A. EDISON Pressure Relay. In this novel and useful instrument Mr. Edison takes the ad- 7 ant age of the remarkable property which plumbago possesses of decreasing its resistance enormously under slight pressure. Thin discs of plumbago are placed upon the cupped poles of an electro-magnet as shown in Fig. 15; p. 135 the coils of which have several hundred ohms resistance. Upon the discs of plum- bago is laid the armature which is provided with a binding post for clamping the local battery ware. The core of the magnet, the plumbago discs, and the arma- ture are included in a local circuit, which also contains an ordi- nary sounder and several cells of bichromate ba'tery. The relay magnet is inserted in the main line in the usual man- ner. The operation is as follows : When the main circuit is opened the attraction for the armature ceases, and the only pres- sure upon the plumbago discs is due to the weight of the arma- ture itself. With this pressure only the resistance of the plumbago to the passage of the local current amounts to several hundred ohms; with this resistance in the local circuit the sounder remains open. If now the main circuit be closed, a powerful attraction is set up between the poles of the relay magnet and its armature, causing a great increase in the pressure upon the plumbago discs, and reducing its resistance from several hundred to several ohms, consequently the sounder closes. So far the result differs but little from the ordinary relay and sounder. But the great differ- ence between this relay and those in common use, and its value, rests upon the fact that it repeats or translates from one circuit into another, the relative strengths of the first circuit. For in- stance, if a weak current circulates upon the line in which the relay magnet is inserted, the attraction for its armature will be small, the pressure upon the plumbago discs will be light, conse- quently a weak current will circulate within the second circuit; and on the contrary, if the current in the first circuit be strong, the pressure upon the plumbago discs will be increased, and in proportion will the current in the second circuit be increased AND HIS INVENTIONS. 137 No adjustment is ever required. It is probably the only device yet invented which will allow of the translation of signals of variable strengths, from one circuit into another, by the use of batteries in the ordinary manner. This apparatus was designed by Mr. Edison for repeating the acoustical vibrations of vari- able strengths in his speaking telegraph. Fig- *5 ' Pressure Relay. ijg THOMAS A. EDISON The Carbon Rheostat. A NEW AND VALUABLE INSTRUMENT BALANCING THE ELECTRICAL CURRENT How IT is DONE. In quadruplex telegraphy it is vital to the working of the sys- tem to perfectly balance the electrical current. The common method of doing this is to employ a rheostat containing a great length of resistance wire, more or less of which may be thrown into or cut out of the electrical circuit by in- serting or withdrawing plugs or keys. This operation often requires thirty minutes or more of time that is or might be very valuable. To remedy this difficulty Mr. Edison has devised the instru- ment represented in the engraving, Fig. 16 being a perspective view and Fig. 1 7 a vertical section. A hollow vulcanite cylinder, A, is screwed on a boss on the brass plate, B. Fifty discs cut from a piece of silk that has been saturated with sizing and well filled with fine plumbago and dried are placed upon the boss of the plate, B, and are sur- mounted by a plate, C, having a central conical cavity in its upper surface. A pointed screw, D, passes through the cap, E, at the top of the cylinder, A, and projects into the conical cavity in the plate C. The screw is provided with a disc, F, having a knife edge periphery, which extends to the scale, and serves as an index to show the degree of compression to which the silk discs are subjected. The instrument is placed in the circuit by connecting the cap, E, with one end of the battery wire and the plate, B, with the other end. The principle of the instrument is identical with Mr. Edison's carbon telephone. The compression of the series of discs in- creases conductivity: a diminution of pressure increases the resistance. Any degree of resistance within the scope of the in- strument may be had hy turning the screw one way or the other. In this instrument the resistance may be varied from 400 to 6,000 ohms, and any amount of resistance may be had by in- creasing the number of silk discs. 140 THOMAS A. EDISON The Aerophone. The great object of this instrument is to increase the loudness of spoken words, without impairing the distinctness of articula- tion. The working of the mechanism is as follows : The magnified sound proceeds from a large diaphragm, which Fig. 18; Aerophone, (i.) is vibrated by steam or condensed air. The source of power is controlled by the motion of a second diaphragm, vibrating undev the influence of the sound to be magnified. There are, there fore, three distinct parts to the instrument : First, a source of power steam or compressed air; second, an instrument to control the power; and third, a diaphragm vibrating under the Fig. 19; Aerophone, (2.) influence of the power. The first of these is usually compressed air, supplied from a tank. It is necessary that it should be of constant pressure. The second is shown in section in Fig. 18, and consists of a diaphragm and mouth-piece, like those used in the telephone. AND HIS INVENTIONS. 141 A hollow cylinder is attached by a rod to the center of the dia- phragm. The cylinder, and its chamber, E, will therefore, vibrate with the diaphragm. A downward movement lets the chamber communicate with the outlet, H, an upward movement with the outlet, G. The compressed ah- enters at A, and fills the cham- ber, which, in its normal position, has no outlet. Every down- ward vibration of the diaphragm will thus condense the air in the pipe, C, at the same time allowing the air in B to escape via F. An upward movement condenses the air in C, but opens I. The third and last part is shown in Fig. 19. It consists of a cylinder, and piston, P, like that employed hi an ordinary engine. The piston-rod is attached to the center of a large diaphragm D. The pipes C and B, are continuations of those designated in Fig. 1 8, by the same letters. The pipe C, communicates with one chamber of the cylinder, and B with the other. The piston, moving under the influence of the compresssed air, moves also the diaphragm, its vibrations being, in number and duration, identical with those of the diaphragm in the mouth-piece. The loudness of the sound emitted through the directing tube, F, is dependent on the size of the diaphragm and the power which moves it. The former of them is made very large, and the latter can be increased to many hundred pounds' pressure. With this instrument a locomotive may be made to call out the stations; steamships can converse at sea; light-houses may thunder the notes of danger far over the deep, and by a single machine, as Mr. Edison says, "the Declaration of Independence may be read so that every citizen in any one of our large cities may hear it" 142 THOMAS A. EDISON Edison's Phonometer. SOUND POWER A MECHANISM RUN BY THE HUMAN VOICE How DISCOVERED AND HOW IT is DONE. This is a very ingenious and novel piece of mechanism, noted for the singular fact, that when spoken or sung at, (or into,) res. ponds immediately by causing a wheel to revolve, but is deaf to all other influences. No amount of blowing will start the wheel; The Phonometer. only by the aid of sound can it be set in motion. In his tele- phone and phonograph researches Mr. Edison discovered that the vibrations of the vocal chords were capable of producing considerable dynamic effect. Acting on this hint, he began ex- periments on a phonometer, or instrument for measuring the mechanical force of sound waves produced by the human voice. AND HIS INVENTIONS. 143 In the course of these experiments he constructed the machine shown in the accompanying engraving, which exhibits the dy- namic force of the voice. The machine has a diaphragm and mouth-piece similar to a phonograph. A spring which is secured to the bed piece rests on a piece of rubber tubing placed against the diaphragm. This spring carries a pawl L, that acts on a ratchet or roughened wheel R, on the fly-wheel shaft. A sound made in the mouth-piece cre- ates vibrations in the diaphragm; the vibrations of the dia- phragm move the spring and pawl with the same impulses, and as the pawl thus moves back and forth on the ratchet wheel, it is made to revolve. It revolves with considerable power : for it requires a surprising amount of pressure on the fly-wheel shaft to stop the machine while a continuous sound is made in the mouth- piece. Mr. Edison says there is no difficulty in making the ma- chine bore a hole through a board. The various purposes which this exeedingly ingenious and novel instrument may yet be called upon to accomplish, of course are mere conjectures, but if confined to the measurement of sound force only, it is a valauble discovery, for in this depar- ment it may find many important applications. 144 THOMAS A. EDISON Edison's Harmonic Engine. PUMPING WATER WITH A TUNING FORK A SINGULAR MACHINE- HOW IT WORKS. Until recently, electricity as a motive power has been a comparative failure as ninety per cent, of the battery was Fig. 20; Harmonic Engine. wasted. Mr. Edison has devised a novel electrical machine which he calls the Harmonic Engine, in which ninety per cent of the power is realized. With two small electro-magnets and AND HIS INVENTIONS. 145 three or four small battery cells, sufficient power is generated to drive a sewing machine or pump water for household purposes. This engine, which is shown in Fig. 20, consists of a fork which is two feet and a half long, made of two inch square steel. The curved part of the fork is firmly keyed in a solid casting which is bolted to a suitable foundation, and to each arm of the fork is secured a thirty-five pound weight. Outside of and near the end of each arm is placed a very small electro- magnet. These magnets are connected with each other, and with a commutator that is operated by one of the arms. The arms make thirty-five vibrations per second, the amplitude of which is one-eighth of an inch. Small arms extend from the fork arms into a box containing a miniature pump having two pistons, one piston being attached to each arm. Each stroke of the pump raises a very small quantity of water, but this is compensated for by the rapidity of the strokes. Mr. Edison proposes to compress air with the harmonic engine, and use it as a motive agent for propelling sewing machines and other light machinery. The power must be taken from the fork arms so as not to affect the synchronism of their vibrations, otherwise this novel engine will not operate. It appears to be consider- ably in advance of other electric engines, and through its agency electricity may yet become a valuable motive power. When we remember that this engine is capable of causing the arms to make seventy or more combined strokes per second, and that each stroke can be made to pump a few drops of water, it is readily seen that as now constructed, the harmonic engine is of no inconsiderable value. 146 THOMAS A. EDISON Edison's Motograph Receiver. Mr. Edison has quite recently applied to his telephone, the principle of his electro-motograph. It is called the "Motograph Receiver, " and is described as follows : The Motograph Receiver. A diaphragm of mica four inches in diameter is held in a suitable framework. A hand crank or screw at A, rotates a chalk cyl- inder D, (previously impregnated with the chemical solution,) with a continuous forward motion directly outward from the face of the diaphragm. One end of a metal bar is fastened to the center of the diaphragm and the other end rests upon the chalk cylinder, being held down very firmly by a spring. The circuit is made from this metal bar, through the chalk cylinder to the base. As the cylinder is rotated either by hand or other power the friction between the metal bar and the chalk cylinder is very considerable, and the dhphragm is drawn or bowed outward toward the cylinder. This operation is purely mechanical and local. When the electric waves are transmitted from the distant station by the speaker (who uses Edison's carbon transmitter) over the wire to the receiver, each wave as it passes through the chalk cyilinder effects by electro-chemical decomposition more or less neutralization of the friction between the bar and the cylinder, according as the wave may be a strong or weak one. The resultant effect of each wave is the freeing of the diaphragm, permitting it to gain its normal position. Thus a series of elec- tric waves, with the alternate space between, effects a vibration of the diaphragm in perfect accord with the voice of the speaker. AND HIS INVENTIONS. 147 Etheric Force. Sometime since Mr. Edison and his assistants were experi- menting with a vibrator magnet, consisting of a bar of Stubb's steel, fastened at one end and made to vibrate by means of a magnet, when they noticed a spark coming from the core of the magnet. They had often noticed the same phenomenon in con- nection with telegraphic relays and other electrical instruments, and had always supposed it to be due to inductive electricity. On this occasion the spark was so bright that they suspected something more than mere induction. On testing the apparatus they found that, by touching any portion of the vibrator or magnet with a piece of metal, they got "the spark!" They then connected a wire to the end of the vibrating rod the wire leading nowhere and got a spark by touching the wire with a piece of iron. Still more remarkable, a spark was got on turning the wire back on itself and touching any point of the wire with its free end ! These strange phenomena, in which the sparks as exhibited seem to antagonize the known laws of elec- trical science, led Mr. Edison to believe he had discovered a new force. He accordingly, after repeated experimentation, named his discovery "Etheric Force." It differs from electricity, especially inductive electricity, to which its sparks were at first attributed in that its sparks are different in appearance and effect. They scintillate, and require actual contact of the points at which they appear. It differs from electricity in general in its entire independence of polarity. It does not require insulation. It will not charge a Leyden jar. It has no effect upon electroscopes or galvanometers. It fails to affect chemical compounds which are extremely sensitive to electricity. This discovery called forth considerable criticism. Edison says : I suggest that as I have freely laid myself open to criticism by presuming to believe in the capacity of Nature to supply a new form of energy, which presumption rests upon ex- periment, it is but fair that my critics should back up their as- sertions by experiment, and give me an equal chance as a critic. " U8 THOMAS A. EDISON The Electric Light. TH AGES SLOW TO LEARN EDISON'S LIGHT vs. JABLOCHKOFF'S, KT XL- SUBDIVISION OF THE FLUID PLATINUM AND IRIDIUM ESSEN- TIAL FACTORS How THE LIGHT APPEARED TO A VISITOR CARBON CANDLE. Electric light, though it has been flashing from the clouds from the remotest ages of creation, and is in fact older than the hills, has not until within a recent date been considered of any prac- tical utility. Job, and Ben. Franklin, each in his day, saw this light, but they never dreamed that it was ultimately to illumine great cities. Like almost every other real good in the physical realm, this, too, has had its long period of in appreciation and non- comprehension. One would have supposed that the rousing thun- ders, Heaven's great aerophone, that accompanies every exhibi- bition of this light, would have long ago, awakened the world itself to a realization of the fact that the electric light might be utilized. But it has not been so. Coal, even to say nothing of coal gas is a modern discovery. So are potatoes and "love apples, " so far as their essential values are concerned. The ages are slow to learn. And even now there are sage philosophers who stoutly aver that Mr. Edison will never succeed with his electric light. Probably it is better to exercise even this much thought about a new subject and so assert, than not to think anything whatever about the matter. So they thought and as- serted about the quadruplex, and other of his inventions, and yet they came along. It will be seen in another part of this volume that Mr. Edison, while engaged on duplex transmission, was called a lunatic, and yet this came out all right, and he now talks of a sextuplex. His quadruplex system, says the President of the Western Union Telegraph Company in his last report, "saved the Company five hundred thousand dollars yearly in construction. " Splendid insanity this, which can accomplish such stupendous results financially from a single invention ! The general public wish Mr. Edison all possible success in this new line of investigation, and doubtless believe it is only a ques- AND HIS INVENTIONS. 149 tion of time when the electric light will be no longer confined to flashes in the clouds. The logical position is one of confident expectation. We must wait and see. As a matter of fact, Mr. Edison, thus far, has comprehended the subject of electricity sufficiently to introduce into this country more telegraphic instru- ments than any other man, and there are more of them earning money to-day than of any other man's inventions. All this is encouraging, to say the least. But Mr. Edison has already accomplished very much of what is to be done in securing the electric light. The "subdivision" is a virtual fact. Only the details necessary to render it easily and safely manipulated remain. And to these points he is giving his patient attention and energy. So far as he has gone in the great work, it should be noted, that his method radically differs from all others. While Jablochkoff, Sawyer, Werdermann, Wal- lace, Jenkins, and others consume carbon, more or less, in their methods of electrical illumination, Mr. Edison's is one of incan- descence. They use the carbon candle, which has not, thus far, allowed the subdivision of the electric fluid to any great extent; he uses a metalic compound which admits of almost an infinite subdivision, and which is not consumed. When an electrical current from a battery meets with resis- tance to its passage, the electricity is directly converted into heat. If a thin wire be placed in the circuit the temperature of the wire rapidly rises; and it has long been known that the amount of heat thus generated is directly proportional to the electric resistance of the wire. Now the resistance depends, among other things, on the nature of the metal; those metals which are good conductors, such as silver, offering much less re- sistance than those which are bad conductors such as platinum, which from its low electric conductivity, or what amounts to the same thing, from its high resistance is peculiarly fitted for exhibiting incandescence. A chain made of alternate links of platinum and silver, when placed in a circuit would show the platinum links in a state of white heat. The resistance which a platinum or other wire offers to the current is related i 5 o THOMAS A. EDISON not only to the nature of the metal, but also to the thickness of the wire. Reduce the thickness and the resistance is immediately increased. Again, the heating effect is closely connected with the strength of the current. Hence a powerful current sent through a thin platinum wire immediately renders it incan- descent (white heat.) Mr. Edison's electric light is produced by incandescence. The conductor, which is made incandescent by the electrical current passing through it, is a small, curiously shaped apparatus, consisting of a high alloy of platinum and iridium, which can- not be melted at 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit. A sufficient quantity of this metal is placed in each burner to give a light equal to that of a gas jet. Devices of exceeding simplicity, and, as repeated experiments have proved, of equal reliability, are con- nected with the lamp. They surmount the apparent impossibility of regulating the strength of the light. This lamp, when placed in the electric circuit in which a strong current circulates, is absolutely independent of the strength of the current. This Mr. Edison considers one of the vital features of the invention. Thus, if the regulator is set so that the light gives only, say, ten candle power, no increase in the strenth of the current will increase its brilliancy. Each light is independent of all others in the circuit. A thousand may be fed from the same conductor, and the extin- guishing of all but one will have on that one Mr. Edison claims, no perceptible effect. Each lamp in the circuit, by means of the regulator a description of which latter the inventor for the present withholds is allowed to draw from the central station just sufficient current to supply itself. In lighting by incandes- cence the light is obtained by the resistance which the conduqtor in the lamp offers to the passage of the electric current. Hence any other resistance exterior to the lamp used therewith to reg- ulate it requires a current in proportion to its resistance although it gives no light. One of the main features of Edison's invention consists in having all the resistance outside of the main conductor produce light, consequently there is maximum economy. The AND HIS INVENTIONS. 151 lamp devised by Mr. Edison is not merely a coil of incandescent metal, but a very peculiar arrangement of such metal whereby (by means of a discovery of his in connection with radiant en- ergy) a much weaker current is made to generate a given light than if a given spiral were used, and the considerable loss due to the division of the light is compensated for. In the Jablokoff method of electrical illumination, now used to a limited extent in Europe, the carbon candle, so called, consists of two rods or needles of carbon placed side by side, and kept insulated from each other, by a layer of plaster paris. They are each one-eighth of an inch in diameter and ten inches long, and are firmly fixed into metal sockets, to which wires are led and the conductor of the machine is made. When new, the tops of the two sticks only are joined by a small bit of carbon. One of these will ordinarily burn from an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half. Four of them are usually adjusted together under a large opal glass globe which subdues the dazzling brill- iancy of the light, though at a loss of about one half of the illu- minating power of the naked candle. As one of these candles burns down, the current is shifted to the next, and so on until the four are consumed. So that, at the outside, the lamps would continue burning six hours, when the set of four candles has to be replaced by others. By sending the current of electricity alternately through the two rods, thereby changing the poles, the carbons are kept uniform in length and the light more steady. It has been acknowledged by nearly all electricians that lighting by incandescence, especially incandescence of a metalic wire, offers less obstacles to the division of the electric light than by any other method, and Mr. Edison believes it to be the only reliable method, because the light-giving metal is an electrical "constant" whose resistance can always be known and depended upon, a condition which is exceedingly essential when many hundreds of lights must be supplied from one conductor. In the case of the electric are between carbon rods, the resistance varies at every instant, not only from changes in the strength of the current, but from impurities in the carbon, from air-currents, 152 THOMAS A. EDISON and from many other causes. On this account Mr. Edison claims that factors so variable coming in play in hundreds of lamps make it impossible to calculate the strength of the current or size of the conductors. It would be as difficult supplying gas from one main where each burner varied from excessive limits with the rapidity of lightning. Besides in the case of carbon points many hundreds reacting on each other cause such an un- steadiness in the light as to be unbearable. Lighting by incan- descence Mr. Edison claims is free from any of these defects. In the course of his experiments on the electric light Mr. Edison made the discovery that he could, by a certain combination in the form of the metal used in his lamp secure sufficient light from the electricity generated from a one cell battery to enable him to-read by. The cell used was an ordinary one of Daniell's battery. To his surprise for he hardly expected such a result the metal soon became a dull red, and, after several other chan- ges, he succeeded in obtaining a glow which made it not at all difficult to read by the room being kept dark. Several of the labratory hands examined the phenomenon with curiosity. It served to demonstrate to Mr. Edison that he had hit upon the form of metal to produce the best result. Another new feature in the system of the light as a whole is his improvement on dynamo machine specifications, for a patent for which Mr. Edison has only just applied. A visitor at Menlo Park describes this light as follows: Mr. Edison exhibited an electric generating machine. It was what is known as the Wallace Machine. A knot of magnets ran around the cylinder, facing each other, and wires were attached to it. The great inventor slipped a belt over the machine, and the engine used in his manufactory began to turn the cylinder. He touched the point of the wire on a small piece of metal near the window casing, and there was a flash of blinding white light. It was repeated at each touch. "There is your steam power turned into an electric light," he said, There was the light, clear, cold and beautiful. The intense brightness was gone, and there was nothing irritating to the eye. The mechanism was so AND HIS INVENTIONS. 153 simple and perfect that it explained itself. The strip of plati- num that acted as a burner did not burn. It was incandescent. It threw off a light pure and white, and it was set in a gallows- like frame; but it glowed with the phosphorescent effulgence of the star Altair. You could trace the veins in your hands and the spots and lines upon your finger nails by its brightness. All the surplns electricity had been turned off, and the platinum shone with a mellow radiance through the small glass globe that surrounded it. A turn of the screw and its brightness became dazzling, or reduced itself to the faintest glimmer of a glow- worm. It seemed perfect i54 THOMAS A. EDISON Edison's Explanation of His Electric Light. How THE ELECTRICITY is GENERATED How THE LIGHT is PRODUCED- The electro-magnetic machine for producing the electricity for Edison's electric light, is described by the great inventor in his specifications, as follows : "It has long been known that if two electro-magnets, or an electro-magnet and a permanent magnet, be drawn apart or caused to pass by each other, electric currents will be set up in the helix of the electro-magnet. It has also been known that vibrating bodies, such as a tuning-fork or a reed, can be kept in vibration by the exercise of but little power. I avail of these two known forces, and combine them in such a manner as to obtain a powerful electric current by the expenditure of a small mechanical force. In Fig. 23 of the drawing, a tuning fork, 02, is represented as firmly attached to a stand, bz. This fork is pre- ferably of two prongs, but only one might be employed upon the principle of a musical reed. The vibrating bar or fork may be two meters long, more or less, and heavy in proportion. It has its regular rate of vibration like a tuning fork, and the mechan- ism that keeps it in vibration is to move in harmony. A crank and revolving shaft, or other suitable mechanism, may be em- ployed, but I prefer a small air, gas, or water engine, applied to each end of the fork. The cylinder ai contains a piston and a rod, hi, that is connected to the end of the bar, and steam, gas, water or other fluid under pressure acts within the cylinder, being admitted first to one side of the piston and then the other by a suitable valve; the valve and directing rod, ^2, are shown for this purpose. The bar of fork, #2, may be a permanent magnet or an electro-magnet, or else it is provided with permanent or electro-magnets. I have shown an electro-magnet, ri, upon each prong of the fork there may be two or more on each and opposed to these are the cores of the electro-magnets d. Hence as the fork is vibrated a current is set up in the helix of each electro magnet, d, in one direction as the cores approach each other, and in the opposite direction as they recede. This 156 THOMAS A. EDISON alternate current is available for electric lights, but if it is desired to convert the current into one of continuity in the same direction a commutator is employed, operated by the vibrations of the fork to change the circuit connections each vibration, and thereby make the pulsation continuous on the line of one polarity. A ponion of the current thus generated may pass through the helixes of the electro-magnets, ci, to intensify the same to the maximum power and the remainder of the current is employed for any desired electrical operation wherever available. I, however, use the same, especially with my electric lights, but I remark that elec- tricity for such lights may be developed by any suitable appara- tus. I have represented commutator springs or levers, c$, ^4, operated by rods that slide through the levers, rj, ^4. and by friction move them. When the prongs, 02, 02, are moving from each other the contact of levers, ^3, ^4, will be with the screws, 40, 41, and the current will be from line i, through c\ to c, thence to ^3 to 41, 43, and to circuit of electro-magnets, d d, and from d dby 42 to 40 ^4, and line as indicated by the arrows. When the prongs, 02, 02, are vibrating towards each other the circuit will be through fi,t, ^3, 42, in the reverse direction through the circuit and magnets, d d, back to 43, and by c^ to line. " Fig. 24 shows the Edison lamp, which is thus described by the inventor: "Platinum and other materials that can only be fused at a very high temperature have been employed in electric lights; but there is risk of such light-giving substance melting under the electric energy. This portion of my invention relates to the regulation of the electric current, so as to prevent the same be- coming so intense as to injure the incandescent material. The current regulation is primarily effected by the heat itself, and is automatic. In Fig. 24 I have shown the light producing body as a spiral, a, connected to the posts, b c, and within the glass cyl- inder, g. This cylinder has a cap, /, and stands upon a base, m, and for convenience a colum, n, and a stand, of any suitable character may be employed. I remark further, it is preferable to have the light within a case AND HIS INVENTIONS. 157 or globe, and that various materials may be employed, such as alum water, between concentric cylinders, to lessen radiation, retain the heat, and lessen the electric energy required; or color- ed or opalescent glass, or solutions that reduce the refrangibility Fig. 24; Edison's Electric Light. of the light, such as sulphate of quinine, may be employed to moderate the light, and the light may either be in the atmosphere pr in a vacuum. 158 THOMAS A. EDISON The electric circuit, Fig. 24, passes by line i to the lever, / thence by a wire or rod, k, cap /, wire, ^, to post, t, through the double spiral, a, to the post, If, and by a metallic connection or wire to line 4, and so on through the electric circuit (Lines i and 4, are the same in both figures.) The light is developed at a. The rod, k, will expand in proportion to the heat of the coil, or in proportion to the heat developed by the passage of the cur- rent through the fine wire, k, and, if the heat becomes danger- ously high, injury to the apparatus is prevented by the expansion of rod, k, moving the lever, /, to close the circuit at * and short circuit or shunt a portion of the current from the coil,