INVENTING A COMPLETE SYSTEM OF LIGHTING
IN Berlin, on December 11, 1908, with notable eclat, the seventieth
birthday was celebrated of Emil Rathenau, the founder of the great
Allgemein Elektricitaets Gesellschaft. This distinguished German,
creator of a splendid industry, then received the congratulations of his
fellow-countrymen, headed by Emperor William, who spoke enthusiastically
of his services to electro-technics and to Germany. In his interesting
acknowledgment, Mr. Rathenau told how he went to Paris in 1881, and at
the electrical exhibition there saw the display of Edison's inventions
in electric lighting "which have met with as little proper appreciation
as his countless innovations in connection with telegraphy, telephony,
and the entire electrical industry." He saw the Edison dynamo, and he
saw the incandescent lamp, "of which millions have been manufactured
since that day without the great master being paid the tribute to his
invention." But what impressed the observant, thoroughgoing German was
the breadth with which the whole lighting art had been elaborated and
perfected, even at that early day. "The Edison system of lighting was as
beautifully conceived down to the very details, and as thoroughly worked
out as if it had been tested for decades in various towns. Neither
sockets, switches, fuses, lamp-holders, nor any of the other accessories
necessary to complete the installation were wanting; and the generating
of the current, the regulation, the wiring with distributing boxes,
house connections, meters, etc., all showed signs of astonishing skill
and incomparable genius."
Such praise on such an occasion from the man who introduced incandescent
electric lighting into Germany is significant as to the continued
appreciation abroad of Mr. Edison's work. If there is one thing modern
Germany is proud and jealous of, it is her leadership in electrical
engineering and investigation. But with characteristic insight, Mr.
Rathenau here placed his finger on the great merit that has often been
forgotten. Edison was not simply the inventor of a new lamp and a
new dynamo. They were invaluable elements, but far from all that was
necessary. His was the mighty achievement of conceiving and executing
in all its details an art and an industry absolutely new to the world.
Within two years this man completed and made that art available in its
essential, fundamental facts, which remain unchanged after thirty years
of rapid improvement and widening application.
Such a stupendous feat, whose equal is far to seek anywhere in the
history of invention, is worth studying, especially as the task will
take us over much new ground and over very little of the territory
already covered. Notwithstanding the enormous amount of thought and
labor expended on the incandescent lamp problem from the autumn of
1878 to the winter of 1879, it must not be supposed for one moment that
Edison's whole endeavor and entire inventive skill had been given to the
lamp alone, or the dynamo alone. We have sat through the long watches
of the night while Edison brooded on the real solution of the swarming
problems. We have gazed anxiously at the steady fingers of the deft and
cautious Batchelor, as one fragile filament after another refused to
stay intact until it could be sealed into its crystal prison and there
glow with light that never was before on land or sea. We have calculated
armatures and field coils for the new dynamo with Upton, and held the
stakes for Jehl and his fellows at their winding bees. We have seen the
mineral and vegetable kingdoms rifled and ransacked for substances that
would yield the best "filament." We have had the vague consciousness of
assisting at a great development whose evidences to-day on every hand
attest its magnitude. We have felt the fierce play of volcanic effort,
lifting new continents of opportunity from the infertile sea, without
any devastation of pre-existing fields of human toil and harvest. But
it still remains to elucidate the actual thing done; to reduce it to
concrete data, and in reducing, to unfold its colossal dimensions.
The lighting system that Edison contemplated in this entirely new
departure from antecedent methods included the generation of electrical
energy, or current, on a very large scale; its distribution throughout
extended areas, and its division and subdivision into small units
converted into light at innumerable points in every direction from
the source of supply, each unit to be independent of every other and
susceptible to immediate control by the user.
This was truly an altogether prodigious undertaking. We need not
wonder that Professor Tyndall, in words implying grave doubt as to the
possibility of any solution of the various problems, said publicly that
he would much rather have the matter in Edison's hands than in his own.
There were no precedents, nothing upon which to build or improve. The
problems could only be answered by the creation of new devices and
methods expressly worked out for their solution. An electric lamp
answering certain specific requirements would, indeed, be the key to the
situation, but its commercial adaptation required a multifarious variety
of apparatus and devices. The word "system" is much abused in invention,
and during the early days of electric lighting its use applied to a mere
freakish lamp or dynamo was often ludicrous. But, after all, nothing
short of a complete system could give real value to the lamp as an
invention; nothing short of a system could body forth the new art to
the public. Let us therefore set down briefly a few of the leading items
needed for perfect illumination by electricity, all of which were part
of the Edison programme:
First--To conceive a broad and fundamentally correct method of
distributing the current, satisfactory in a scientific sense and
practical commercially in its efficiency and economy. This meant, ready
made, a comprehensive plan analogous to illumination by gas, with a
network of conductors all connected together, so that in any given city
area the lights could be fed with electricity from several directions,
thus eliminating any interruption due to the disturbance on any
particular section.
Second--To devise an electric lamp that would give about the same amount
of light as a gas jet, which custom had proven to be a suitable and
useful unit. This lamp must possess the quality of requiring only a
small investment in the copper conductors reaching it. Each lamp must
be independent of every other lamp. Each and all the lights must be
produced and operated with sufficient economy to compete on a commercial
basis with gas. The lamp must be durable, capable of being easily and
safely handled by the public, and one that would remain capable of
burning at full incandescence and candle-power a great length of time.
Third--To devise means whereby the amount of electrical energy furnished
to each and every customer could be determined, as in the case of gas,
and so that this could be done cheaply and reliably by a meter at the
customer's premises.
Fourth--To elaborate a system or network of conductors capable of being
placed underground or overhead, which would allow of being tapped at any
intervals, so that service wires could be run from the main conductors
in the street into each building. Where these mains went below
the surface of the thoroughfare, as in large cities, there must be
protective conduit or pipe for the copper conductors, and these pipes
must allow of being tapped wherever necessary. With these conductors and
pipes must also be furnished manholes, junction-boxes, connections, and
a host of varied paraphernalia insuring perfect general distribution.
Fifth--To devise means for maintaining at all points in an extended area
of distribution a practically even pressure of current, so that all
the lamps, wherever located, near or far away from the central station,
should give an equal light at all times, independent of the number that
might be turned on; and safeguarding the lamps against rupture by sudden
and violent fluctuations of current. There must also be means for thus
regulating at the point where the current was generated the quality or
pressure of the current throughout the whole lighting area, with devices
for indicating what such pressure might actually be at various points in
the area.
Sixth--To design efficient dynamos, such not being in existence at the
time, that would convert economically the steam-power of high-speed
engines into electrical energy, together with means for connecting and
disconnecting them with the exterior consumption circuits; means for
regulating, equalizing their loads, and adjusting the number of dynamos
to be used according to the fluctuating demands on the central station.
Also the arrangement of complete stations with steam and electric
apparatus and auxiliary devices for insuring their efficient and
continuous operation.
Seventh--To invent devices that would prevent the current from becoming
excessive upon any conductors, causing fire or other injury; also
switches for turning the current on and off; lamp-holders, fixtures, and
the like; also means and methods for establishing the interior circuits
that were to carry current to chandeliers and fixtures in buildings.
Here was the outline of the programme laid down in the autumn of 1878,
and pursued through all its difficulties to definite accomplishment in
about eighteen months, some of the steps being made immediately, others
being taken as the art evolved. It is not to be imagined for one moment
that Edison performed all the experiments with his own hands. The method
of working at Menlo Park has already been described in these pages
by those who participated. It would not only have been physically
impossible for one man to have done all this work himself, in view of
the time and labor required, and the endless detail; but most of the
apparatus and devices invented or suggested by him as the art took shape
required the handiwork of skilled mechanics and artisans of a high order
of ability. Toward the end of 1879 the laboratory force thus numbered at
least one hundred earnest men. In this respect of collaboration, Edison
has always adopted a policy that must in part be taken to explain his
many successes. Some inventors of the greatest ability, dealing with
ideas and conceptions of importance, have found it impossible to
organize or even to tolerate a staff of co-workers, preferring solitary
and secret toil, incapable of team work, or jealous of any intrusion
that could possibly bar them from a full and complete claim to the
result when obtained. Edison always stood shoulder to shoulder with his
associates, but no one ever questioned the leadership, nor was it ever
in doubt where the inspiration originated. The real truth is that Edison
has always been so ceaselessly fertile of ideas himself, he has had more
than his whole staff could ever do to try them all out; he has sought
co-operation, but no exterior suggestion. As a matter of fact a great
many of the "Edison men" have made notable inventions of their own, with
which their names are imperishably associated; but while they were with
Edison it was with his work that they were and must be busied.
It was during this period of "inventing a system" that so much
systematic and continuous work with good results was done by Edison in
the design and perfection of dynamos. The value of his contributions
to the art of lighting comprised in this work has never been fully
understood or appreciated, having been so greatly overshadowed by
his invention of the incandescent lamp, and of a complete system of
distribution. It is a fact, however, that the principal improvements he
made in dynamo-electric generators were of a radical nature and remain
in the art. Thirty years bring about great changes, especially in a
field so notably progressive as that of the generation of electricity;
but different as are the dynamos of to-day from those of the earlier
period, they embody essential principles and elements that Edison then
marked out and elaborated as the conditions of success. There was indeed
prompt appreciation in some well-informed quarters of what Edison was
doing, evidenced by the sensation caused in the summer of 1881, when
he designed, built, and shipped to Paris for the first Electrical
Exposition ever held, the largest dynamo that had been built up to that
time. It was capable of lighting twelve hundred incandescent lamps, and
weighed with its engine twenty-seven tons, the armature alone weighing
six tons. It was then, and for a long time after, the eighth wonder of
the scientific world, and its arrival and installation in Paris were
eagerly watched by the most famous physicists and electricians of
Europe.
Edison's amusing description of his experience in shipping the dynamo to
Paris when built may appropriately be given here: "I built a very large
dynamo with the engine directly connected, which I intended for the
Paris Exposition of 1881. It was one or two sizes larger than those I
had previously built. I had only a very short period in which to get it
ready and put it on a steamer to reach the Exposition in time. After the
machine was completed we found the voltage was too low. I had to devise
a way of raising the voltage without changing the machine, which I did
by adding extra magnets. After this was done, we tested the machine, and
the crank-shaft of the engine broke and flew clear across the shop.
By working night and day a new crank-shaft was put in, and we only had
three days left from that time to get it on board the steamer; and had
also to run a test. So we made arrangements with the Tammany leader, and
through him with the police, to clear the street--one of the New York
crosstown streets--and line it with policemen, as we proposed to make a
quick passage, and didn't know how much time it would take. About four
hours before the steamer had to get it, the machine was shut down after
the test, and a schedule was made out in advance of what each man had
to do. Sixty men were put on top of the dynamo to get it ready, and each
man had written orders as to what he was to perform. We got it all taken
apart and put on trucks and started off. They drove the horses with a
fire-bell in front of them to the French pier, the policemen lining
the streets. Fifty men were ready to help the stevedores get it on the
steamer--and we were one hour ahead of time."
This Exposition brings us, indeed, to a dramatic and rather pathetic
parting of the ways. The hour had come for the old laboratory force that
had done such brilliant and memorable work to disband, never again to
assemble under like conditions for like effort, although its members all
remained active in the field, and many have ever since been associated
prominently with some department of electrical enterprise. The fact
was they had done their work so well they must now disperse to show
the world what it was, and assist in its industrial exploitation. In
reality, they were too few for the demands that reached Edison from
all parts of the world for the introduction of his system; and in the
emergency the men nearest to him and most trusted were those upon whom
he could best depend for such missionary work as was now required.
The disciples full of fire and enthusiasm, as well as of knowledge and
experience, were soon scattered to the four winds, and the rapidity
with which the Edison system was everywhere successfully introduced is
testimony to the good judgment with which their leader had originally
selected them as his colleagues. No one can say exactly just how this
process of disintegration began, but Mr. E. H. Johnson had already been
sent to England in the Edison interests, and now the question arose as
to what should be done with the French demands and the Paris Electrical
Exposition, whose importance as a point of new departure in electrical
industry was speedily recognized on both sides of the Atlantic. It is
very interesting to note that as the earlier staff broke up, Edison
became the centre of another large body, equally devoted, but more
particularly concerned with the commercial development of his ideas. Mr.
E. G. Acheson mentions in his personal notes on work at the laboratory,
that in December of 1880, while on some experimental work, he was called
to the new lamp factory started recently at Menlo Park, and there
found Edison, Johnson, Batchelor, and Upton in conference, and "Edison
informed me that Mr. Batchelor, who was in charge of the construction,
development, and operation of the lamp factory, was soon to sail
for Europe to prepare for the exhibit to be made at the Electrical
Exposition to be held in Paris during the coming summer." These
preparations overlap the reinforcement of the staff with some notable
additions, chief among them being Mr. Samuel Insull, whose interesting
narrative of events fits admirably into the story at this stage, and
gives a vivid idea of the intense activity and excitement with which the
whole atmosphere around Edison was then surcharged: "I first met Edison
on March 1, 1881. I arrived in New York on the City of Chester about
five or six in the evening, and went direct to 65 Fifth Avenue. I had
come over to act as Edison's private secretary, the position having been
obtained for me through the good offices of Mr. E. H. Johnson, whom I
had known in London, and who wrote to Mr. U. H. Painter, of Washington,
about me in the fall of 1880. Mr. Painter sent the letter on to Mr.
Batchelor, who turned it over to Edison. Johnson returned to America
late in the fall of 1880, and in January, 1881, cabled to me to come
to this country. At the time he cabled for me Edison was still at Menlo
Park, but when I arrived in New York the famous offices of the Edison
Electric Light Company had been opened at '65' Fifth Avenue, and Edison
had moved into New York with the idea of assisting in the exploitation
of the Light Company's business.
"I was taken by Johnson direct from the Inman Steamship pier to 65 Fifth
Avenue, and met Edison for the first time. There were three rooms on
the ground floor at that time. The front one was used as a kind of
reception-room; the room immediately behind it was used as the office of
the president of the Edison Electric Light Company, Major S. B. Eaton.
The rear room, which was directly back of the front entrance hall, was
Edison's office, and there I first saw him. There was very little in
the room except a couple of walnut roller-top desks--which were very
generally used in American offices at that time. Edison received me with
great cordiality. I think he was possibly disappointed at my being so
young a man; I had only just turned twenty-one, and had a very boyish
appearance. The picture of Edison is as vivid to me now as if the
incident occurred yesterday, although it is now more than twenty-nine
years since that first meeting. I had been connected with Edison's
affairs in England as private secretary to his London agent for about
two years; and had been taught by Johnson to look on Edison as the
greatest electrical inventor of the day--a view of him, by-the-way,
which has been greatly strengthened as the years have rolled by. Owing
to this, and to the fact that I felt highly flattered at the appointment
as his private secretary, I was naturally prepared to accept him as a
hero. With my strict English ideas as to the class of clothes to be worn
by a prominent man, there was nothing in Edison's dress to impress me.
He wore a rather seedy black diagonal Prince Albert coat and waistcoat,
with trousers of a dark material, and a white silk handkerchief around
his neck, tied in a careless knot falling over the stiff bosom of a
white shirt somewhat the worse for wear. He had a large wide-awake
hat of the sombrero pattern then generally used in this country, and a
rough, brown overcoat, cut somewhat similarly to his Prince Albert
coat. His hair was worn quite long, and hanging carelessly over his fine
forehead. His face was at that time, as it is now, clean shaven. He was
full in face and figure, although by no means as stout as he has grown
in recent years. What struck me above everything else was the wonderful
intelligence and magnetism of his expression, and the extreme brightness
of his eyes. He was far more modest than in my youthful picture of him.
I had expected to find a man of distinction. His appearance, as a whole,
was not what you would call 'slovenly,' it is best expressed by the word
'careless.'"
Mr. Insull supplements this pen-picture by another, bearing upon the
hustle and bustle of the moment: "After a short conversation Johnson
hurried me off to meet his family, and later in the evening, about
eight o'clock, he and I returned to Edison's office; and I found myself
launched without further ceremony into Edison's business affairs.
Johnson had already explained to me that he was sailing the next
morning, March 2d, on the S.S. Arizona, and that Mr. Edison wanted to
spend the evening discussing matters in connection with his European
affairs. It was assumed, inasmuch as I had just arrived from London,
that I would be able to give more or less information on this subject.
As Johnson was to sail the next morning at five o'clock, Edison
explained that it would be necessary for him to have an understanding
of European matters. Edison started out by drawing from his desk a
check-book and stating how much money he had in the bank; and he wanted
to know what European telephone securities were most salable, as
he wished to raise the necessary funds to put on their feet the
incandescent lamp factory, the Electric Tube works, and the necessary
shops to build dynamos. All through the interview I was tremendously
impressed with Edison's wonderful resourcefulness and grasp, and his
immediate appreciation of any suggestion of consequence bearing on the
subject under discussion.
"He spoke with very great enthusiasm of the work before him--namely, the
development of his electric-lighting system; and his one idea seemed to
be to raise all the money he could with the object of pouring it
into the manufacturing side of the lighting business. I remember how
extraordinarily I was impressed with him on this account, as I had
just come from a circle of people in London who not only questioned the
possibility of the success of Edison's invention, but often expressed
doubt as to whether the work he had done could be called an invention at
all. After discussing affairs with Johnson--who was receiving his final
instructions from Edison--far into the night, and going down to the
steamer to see Johnson aboard, I finished my first night's business
with Edison somewhere between four and five in the morning, feeling
thoroughly imbued with the idea that I had met one of the great master
minds of the world. You must allow for my youthful enthusiasm, but you
must also bear in mind Edison's peculiar gift of magnetism, which has
enabled him during his career to attach so many men to him. I fell a
victim to the spell at the first interview."
Events moved rapidly in those days. The next morning, Tuesday, Edison
took his new fidus Achates with him to a conference with John Roach, the
famous old ship-builder, and at it agreed to take the AEtna Iron works,
where Roach had laid the foundations of his fame and fortune. These
works were not in use at the time. They were situated on Goerck Street,
New York, north of Grand Street, on the east side of the city,
and there, very soon after, was established the first Edison
dynamo-manufacturing establishment, known for many years as the Edison
Machine Works. The same night Insull made his first visit to Menlo Park.
Up to that time he had seen very little incandescent lighting, for the
simple reason that there was very little to see. Johnson had had a
few Edison lamps in London, lit up from primary batteries, as a
demonstration; and in the summer of 1880 Swan had had a few series
lamps burning in London. In New York a small gas-engine plant was being
started at the Edison offices on Fifth Avenue. But out at Menlo Park
there was the first actual electric-lighting central station, supplying
distributed incandescent lamps and some electric motors by means of
underground conductors imbedded in asphaltum and surrounded by a wooden
box. Mr. Insull says: "The system employed was naturally the two-wire,
as at that time the three-wire had not been thought of. The lamps
were partly of the horseshoe filament paper-carbon type, and partly
bamboo-filament lamps, and were of an efficiency of 95 to 100 watts per
16 c.p. I can never forget the impression that this first view of the
electric-lighting industry produced on me. Menlo Park must always be
looked upon as the birthplace of the electric light and power industry.
At that time it was the only place where could be seen an electric
light and power multiple arc distribution system, the operation of which
seemed as successful to my youthful mind as the operation of one of the
large metropolitan systems to-day. I well remember about ten o'clock
that night going down to the Menlo Park depot and getting the station
agent, who was also the telegraph operator, to send some cable messages
for me to my London friends, announcing that I had seen Edison's
incandescent lighting system in actual operation, and that so far as I
could tell it was an accomplished fact. A few weeks afterward I received
a letter from one of my London friends, who was a doubting Thomas,
upbraiding me for coming so soon under the spell of the 'Yankee
inventor.'"
It was to confront and deal with just this element of doubt in London
and in Europe generally, that the dispatch of Johnson to England and of
Batchelor to France was intended. Throughout the Edison staff there
was a mingled feeling of pride in the work, resentment at the doubts
expressed about it, and keen desire to show how excellent it was.
Batchelor left for Paris in July, 1881--on his second trip to Europe
that year--and the exhibit was made which brought such an instantaneous
recognition of the incalculable value of Edison's lighting inventions,
as evidenced by the awards and rewards immediately bestowed upon him. He
was made an officer of the Legion of Honor, and Prof. George F. Barker
cabled as follows from Paris, announcing the decision of the expert jury
which passed upon the exhibits: "Accept my congratulations. You have
distanced all competitors and obtained a diploma of honor, the highest
award given in the Exposition. No person in any class in which you were
an exhibitor received a like reward."
Nor was this all. Eminent men in science who had previously expressed
their disbelief in the statements made as to the Edison system were now
foremost in generous praise of his notable achievements, and accorded
him full credit for its completion. A typical instance was M. Du Moncel,
a distinguished electrician, who had written cynically about Edison's
work and denied its practicability. He now recanted publicly in this
language, which in itself shows the state of the art when Edison came
to the front: "All these experiments achieved but moderate success, and
when, in 1879, the new Edison incandescent carbon lamp was announced,
many of the scientists, and I, particularly, doubted the accuracy of
the reports which came from America. This horseshoe of carbonized
paper seemed incapable to resist mechanical shocks and to maintain
incandescence for any considerable length of time. Nevertheless, Mr.
Edison was not discouraged, and despite the active opposition made to
his lamp, despite the polemic acerbity of which he was the object, he
did not cease to perfect it; and he succeeded in producing the lamps
which we now behold exhibited at the Exposition, and are admired by all
for their perfect steadiness."
The competitive lamps exhibited and tested at this time comprised those
of Edison, Maxim, Swan, and Lane-Fox. The demonstration of Edison's
success stimulated the faith of his French supporters, and rendered
easier the completion of plans for the Societe Edison Continental, of
Paris, formed to operate the Edison patents on the Continent of Europe.
Mr. Batchelor, with Messrs. Acheson and Hipple, and one or two other
assistants, at the close of the Exposition transferred their energies
to the construction and equipment of machine-shops and lamp factories
at Ivry-sur-Seine for the company, and in a very short time the
installation of plants began in various countries--France, Italy,
Holland, Belgium, etc.
All through 1881 Johnson was very busy, for his part, in England. The
first "Jumbo" Edison dynamo had gone to Paris; the second and third
went to London, where they were installed in 1881 by Mr. Johnson and his
assistant, Mr. W. J. Hammer, in the three-thousand-light central station
on Holborn Viaduct, the plant going into operation on January 12,
1882. Outside of Menlo Park this was the first regular station for
incandescent lighting in the world, as the Pearl Street station in New
York did not go into operation until September of the same year. This
historic plant was hurriedly thrown together on Crown land, and would
doubtless have been the nucleus of a great system but for the passage of
the English electric lighting act of 1882, which at once throttled the
industry by its absurd restrictive provisions, and which, though
greatly modified, has left England ever since in a condition of serious
inferiority as to development in electric light and power. The streets
and bridges of Holborn Viaduct were lighted by lamps turned on and
off from the station, as well as the famous City Temple of Dr. Joseph
Parker, the first church in the world to be lighted by incandescent
lamps--indeed, so far as can be ascertained, the first church to be
illuminated by electricity in any form. Mr. W. J. Hammer, who supplies
some very interesting notes on the installation, says: "I well remember
the astonishment of Doctor Parker and his associates when they noted the
difference of temperature as compared with gas. I was informed that the
people would not go in the gallery in warm weather, owing to the great
heat caused by the many gas jets, whereas on the introduction of the
incandescent lamp there was no complaint." The telegraph operating-room
of the General Post-Office, at St. Martin's-Le Grand and Newgate Street
nearby, was supplied with four hundred lamps through the instrumentality
of Mr. (Sir) W. H. Preece, who, having been seriously sceptical as to
Mr. Edison's results, became one of his most ardent advocates, and did
much to facilitate the introduction of the light. This station supplied
its customers by a network of feeders and mains of the standard
underground two-wire Edison tubing-conductors in sections of iron
pipe--such as was used subsequently in New York, Milan, and other
cities. It also had a measuring system for the current, employing the
Edison electrolytic meter. Arc lamps were operated from its circuits,
and one of the first sets of practicable storage batteries was used
experimentally at the station. In connection with these batteries
Mr. Hammer tells a characteristic anecdote of Edison: "A careless boy
passing through the station whistling a tune and swinging carelessly a
hammer in his hand, rapped a carboy of sulphuric acid which happened to
be on the floor above a 'Jumbo' dynamo. The blow broke the glass carboy,
and the acid ran down upon the field magnets of the dynamo, destroying
the windings of one of the twelve magnets. This accident happened while
I was taking a vacation in Germany, and a prominent scientific man
connected with the company cabled Mr. Edison to know whether the machine
would work if the coil was cut out. Mr. Edison sent the laconic reply:
'Why doesn't he try it and see?' Mr. E. H. Johnson was kept busy not
only with the cares and responsibilities of this pioneer English
plant, but by negotiations as to company formations, hearings before
Parliamentary committees, and particularly by distinguished visitors,
including all the foremost scientific men in England, and a great
many well-known members of the peerage. Edison was fortunate in being
represented by a man with so much address, intimate knowledge of the
subject, and powers of explanation. As one of the leading English papers
said at the time, with equal humor and truth: 'There is but one Edison,
and Johnson is his prophet.'"
As the plant continued in operation, various details and ideas of
improvement emerged, and Mr. Hammer says: "Up to the time of the
construction of this plant it had been customary to place a single-pole
switch on one wire and a safety fuse on the other; and the practice of
putting fuses on both sides of a lighting circuit was first used here.
Some of the first, if not the very first, of the insulated fixtures were
used in this plant, and many of the fixtures were equipped with ball
insulating joints, enabling the chandeliers--or 'electroliers'--to be
turned around, as was common with the gas chandeliers. This particular
device was invented by Mr. John B. Verity, whose firm built many of
the fixtures for the Edison Company, and constructed the notable
electroliers shown at the Crystal Palace Exposition of 1882."
We have made a swift survey of developments from the time when the
system of lighting was ready for use, and when the staff scattered to
introduce it. It will be readily understood that Edison did not sit
with folded hands or drop into complacent satisfaction the moment he
had reached the practical stage of commercial exploitation. He was not
willing to say "Let us rest and be thankful," as was one of England's
great Liberal leaders after a long period of reform. On the contrary, he
was never more active than immediately after the work we have summed
up at the beginning of this chapter. While he had been pursuing his
investigations of the generator in conjunction with the experiments
on the incandescent lamp, he gave much thought to the question of
distribution of the current over large areas, revolving in his mind
various plans for the accomplishment of this purpose, and keeping his
mathematicians very busy working on the various schemes that suggested
themselves from time to time. The idea of a complete system had been in
his mind in broad outline for a long time, but did not crystallize into
commercial form until the incandescent lamp was an accomplished fact.
Thus in January, 1880, his first patent application for a "System of
Electrical Distribution" was signed. It was filed in the Patent Office a
few days later, but was not issued as a patent until August 30, 1887. It
covered, fundamentally, multiple arc distribution, how broadly will
be understood from the following extracts from the New York Electrical
Review of September 10, 1887: "It would appear as if the entire field
of multiple distribution were now in the hands of the owners of this
patent.... The patent is about as broad as a patent can be, being
regardless of specific devices, and laying a powerful grasp on the
fundamental idea of multiple distribution from a number of generators
throughout a metallic circuit."
Mr. Edison made a number of other applications for patents on electrical
distribution during the year 1880. Among these was the one covering the
celebrated "Feeder" invention, which has been of very great commercial
importance in the art, its object being to obviate the "drop" in
pressure, rendering lights dim in those portions of an electric-light
system that were remote from the central station. [10]
[Footnote 10: For further explanation of "Feeder" patent,
see Appendix.]
From these two patents alone, which were absolutely basic and
fundamental in effect, and both of which were, and still are, put into
actual use wherever central-station lighting is practiced, the reader
will see that Mr. Edison's patient and thorough study, aided by his keen
foresight and unerring judgment, had enabled him to grasp in advance
with a master hand the chief and underlying principles of a true
system--that system which has since been put into practical use all over
the world, and whose elements do not need the touch or change of more
modern scientific knowledge.
These patents were not by any means all that he applied for in the
year 1880, which it will be remembered was the year in which he was
perfecting the incandescent electric lamp and methods, to put into the
market for competition with gas. It was an extraordinarily busy year for
Mr. Edison and his whole force, which from time to time was increased
in number. Improvement upon improvement was the order of the day. That
which was considered good to-day was superseded by something better and
more serviceable to-morrow. Device after device, relating to some
part of the entire system, was designed, built, and tried, only to
be rejected ruthlessly as being unsuitable; but the pursuit was not
abandoned. It was renewed over and over again in innumerable ways until
success had been attained.
During the year 1880 Edison had made application for sixty patents, of
which thirty-two were in relation to incandescent lamps; seven covered
inventions relating to distributing systems (including the two above
particularized); five had reference to inventions of parts, such
as motors, sockets, etc.; six covered inventions relating to
dynamo-electric machines; three related to electric railways, and seven
to miscellaneous apparatus, such as telegraph relays, magnetic ore
separators, magneto signalling apparatus, etc.
The list of Mr. Edison's patents (see Appendices) is not only a monument
to his life's work, but serves to show what subjects he has worked on
from year to year since 1868. The reader will see from an examination
of this list that the years 1880, 1881, 1882, and 1883 were the most
prolific periods of invention. It is worth while to scrutinize this list
closely to appreciate the wide range of his activities. Not that his
patents cover his entire range of work by any means, for his note-books
reveal a great number of major and minor inventions for which he has
not seen fit to take out patents. Moreover, at the period now described
Edison was the victim of a dishonest patent solicitor, who deprived him
of a number of patents in the following manner:
"Around 1881-82 I had several solicitors attending to different classes
of work. One of these did me a most serious injury. It was during
the time that I was developing my electric-lighting system, and I was
working and thinking very hard in order to cover all the numerous parts,
in order that it would be complete in every detail. I filed a great many
applications for patents at that time, but there were seventy-eight of
the inventions I made in that period that were entirely lost to me
and my company by reason of the dishonesty of this patent solicitor.
Specifications had been drawn, and I had signed and sworn to the
application for patents for these seventy-eight inventions, and
naturally I supposed they had been filed in the regular way.
"As time passed I was looking for some action of the Patent Office, as
usual, but none came. I thought it very strange, but had no suspicions
until I began to see my inventions recorded in the Patent Office Gazette
as being patented by others. Of course I ordered an investigation, and
found that the patent solicitor had drawn from the company the fees for
filing all these applications, but had never filed them. All the papers
had disappeared, however, and what he had evidently done was to sell
them to others, who had signed new applications and proceeded to take
out patents themselves on my inventions. I afterward found that he
had been previously mixed up with a somewhat similar crooked job in
connection with telephone patents.
"I am free to confess that the loss of these seventy-eight inventions
has left a sore spot in me that has never healed. They were important,
useful, and valuable, and represented a whole lot of tremendous work
and mental effort, and I had had a feeling of pride in having overcome
through them a great many serious obstacles, One of these inventions
covered the multipolar dynamo. It was an elaborated form of the type
covered by my patent No. 219,393 which had a ring armature. I modified
and improved on this form and had a number of pole pieces placed all
around the ring, with a modified form of armature winding. I built
one of these machines and ran it successfully in our early days at the
Goerck Street shop.
"It is of no practical use to mention the man's name. I believe he is
dead, but he may have left a family. The occurrence is a matter of the
old Edison Company's records."
It will be seen from an examination of the list of patents in the
Appendix that Mr. Edison has continued year after year adding to
his contributions to the art of electric lighting, and in the last
twenty-eight years--1880-1908--has taken out no fewer than three hundred
and seventy-five patents in this branch of industry alone. These patents
may be roughly tabulated as follows:
Incandescent lamps and their manufacture....................149
Distributing systems and their control and regulation....... 77
Dynamo-electric machines and accessories....................106
Minor parts, such as sockets, switches, safety catches,
meters, underground conductors and parts, etc............... 43
Quite naturally most of these patents cover inventions that are in
the nature of improvements or based upon devices which he had already
created; but there are a number that relate to inventions absolutely
fundamental and original in their nature. Some of these have already
been alluded to; but among the others there is one which is worthy
of special mention in connection with the present consideration of a
complete system. This is patent No. 274,290, applied for November 27,
1882, and is known as the "Three-wire" patent. It is described more
fully in the Appendix.
The great importance of the "Feeder" and "Three-wire" inventions will be
apparent when it is realized that without them it is a question whether
electric light could be sold to compete with low-priced gas, on account
of the large investment in conductors that would be necessary. If a
large city area were to be lighted from a central station by means
of copper conductors running directly therefrom to all parts of the
district, it would be necessary to install large conductors, or suffer
such a drop of pressure at the ends most remote from the station as
to cause the lights there to burn with a noticeable diminution of
candle-power. The Feeder invention overcame this trouble, and made it
possible to use conductors ONLY ONE-EIGHTH THE SIZE that would otherwise
have been necessary to produce the same results.
A still further economy in cost of conductors was effected by the
"Three-wire" invention, by the use of which the already diminished
conductors could be still further reduced TO ONE-THIRD of this smaller
size, and at the same time allow of the successful operation of the
station with far better results than if it were operated exactly as at
first conceived. The Feeder and Three-wire systems are at this day used
in all parts of the world, not only in central-station work, but in the
installation and operation of isolated electric-light plants in
large buildings. No sensible or efficient station manager or electric
contractor would ever think of an installation made upon any other plan.
Thus Mr. Edison's early conceptions of the necessities of a complete
system, one of them made even in advance of practice, have stood firm,
unimproved, and unchanged during the past twenty-eight years, a period
of time which has witnessed more wonderful and rapid progress in
electrical science and art than has been known during any similar art or
period of time since the world began.
It must be remembered that the complete system in all its parts is not
comprised in the few of Mr. Edison's patents, of which specific mention
is here made. In order to comprehend the magnitude and extent of his
work and the quality of his genius, it is necessary to examine minutely
the list of patents issued for the various elements which go to make up
such a system. To attempt any relation in detail of the conception and
working-out of each part or element; to enter into any description of
the almost innumerable experiments and investigations that were
made would entail the writing of several volumes, for Mr. Edison's
close-written note-books covering these subjects number nearly two
hundred.
It is believed that enough evidence has been given in this chapter
to lead to an appreciation of the assiduous work and practical skill
involved in "inventing a system" of lighting that would surpass, and to
a great extent, in one single quarter of a century, supersede all the
other methods of illumination developed during long centuries. But it
will be appropriate before passing on to note that on January 17, 1908,
while this biography was being written, Mr. Edison became the fourth
recipient of the John Fritz gold medal for achievement in industrial
progress. This medal was founded in 1902 by the professional friends
and associates of the veteran American ironmaster and metallurgical
inventor, in honor of his eightieth birthday. Awards are made by a board
of sixteen engineers appointed in equal numbers from the four great
national engineering societies--the American Society of Civil
Engineers, the American Institute of Mining Engineers, the American
Society of Mechanical Engineers, and the American Institute of
Electrical Engineers, whose membership embraces the very pick and flower
of professional engineering talent in America. Up to the time of the
Edison award, three others had been made. The first was to Lord Kelvin,
the Nestor of physics in Europe, for his work in submarine-cable
telegraphy and other scientific achievement. The second was to George
Westinghouse for the air-brake. The third was to Alexander Graham Bell
for the invention and introduction of the telephone. The award to Edison
was not only for his inventions in duplex and quadruplex telegraphy, and
for the phonograph, but for the development of a commercially practical
incandescent lamp, and the development of a complete system of electric
lighting, including dynamos, regulating devices, underground system,
protective devices, and meters. Great as has been the genius brought
to bear on electrical development, there is no other man to whom such a
comprehensive tribute could be paid.