chemical product which is largely used in dyeing furs black. America
had imported all her requirements from Germany, but within a few
months after the beginning of hostilities the visible supply was
exhausted and no more could be expected during war-times. Fur-dyers
were in despair. This product being also absolutely essential in the
manufacture of phonograph records, Edison worked out a process for
making it, and as his requirements were very moderate he established a
small manufacturing plant at the Orange laboratory and soon began to
produce about twenty-five pounds a day. In some way the news reached
the ears of many desperate fur-dyers, and Edison was quickly besieged
with most urgent requests for such portion of his output as could be
spared. Fortunately, a small proportion of the output was available
and was distributed daily in accordance with the necessities of those
concerned. This small quantity being merely a drop in the bucket, the
fur-dyers earnestly besought Edison to establish a larger plant and
supply them with greater quantities of paraphenylenediamine, as their
business had come almost to a standstill for lack of it. He, therefore,
designed and constructed rapidly a larger plant, which, when put into
operation, was soon producing two hundred to three hundred pounds a
day, thus saving the situation for the fur-dyers. The capacity of this
plant was gradualy increased until it turned out upward of a thousand
pounds a day, of which a goodly proportion was exported to Europe and
Japan.
Lack of space has prevented the narration of more than a mere general
outline of some of Edison's important achievements during part of
the war years along chemical and engineering lines and in furnishing
many of the industries of the country with greatly needed products
that, for a time at least, were otherwise unobtainable. Much could
be written about his work on producing myrbane, aniline salts,
acetanilid, para-nitro-acetanilid, para-amido-phenol, benzidine,
toluol, xylol, solvent naphtha, and naphthaline flakes--how his
investigations and experiments on them ran along with the others,
team fashion, so to speak, how he brought the same resourcefulness
and energy to bear on many problems, and how he eventually surmounted
numerous difficulties--but limitations of space forbid. Nor can we
make more than a mere passing mention of the assistance he gave to
the governments in the quick production of toluol and in furnishing
plans and help to construct and operate two toluol plants in Canada.
Suffice it to say that his achievements during this episode in his
career were fully in accord with the notable successes he had already
scored. It may be noted that in the three years following 1914 others
went into the business of manufacturing the above chemicals, and as
they installed and operated plants and furnished supplies needed in the
industries Edison withdrew and shut down his special plants one after
another.
Let us now take a brief glance at the patriot-inventor at work for his
government in war-times and especially during the last two years of the
Great War.
In the late summer of 1915 the Secretary of the Navy, Hon. Josephus
Daniels, communicated to Mr. Edison an idea he had conceived of
gathering together a body of men preeminent in inventive research to
form an advisory board which should come to the aid of our country
in an inventive and advisory capacity in relation to war measures.
In this communication Secretary Daniels made an appeal to Edison's
patriotism and asked him to devote some of his effort in the service
of the country and also to act as chairman of the board. Although he
was already working about eighteen hours a day, Edison signified his
consent. In the fall of 1915 the board was organized and subsequently
became known as the Naval Consulting Board of the United States. Mr.
Edison was at first chairman and subsequently became president of the
board.
The history of the work and activities of the board is too extensive
to be related here in detail and can only be hinted at. Indeed, it is
the subject of a separate volume which is being published by the Navy
Department. We shall, therefore, confine our narrative to the story of
Edison's work.
In December, 1916, Secretary Daniels expressed a desire that Mr. Edison
visit him in Washington for an important conference. At that time it
seemed almost inevitable that the United States would be drawn into the
conflict with Germany sooner or later, and at the conference Secretary
Daniels asked Edison to devote more of his time to the country by
undertaking experiments on a series of problems, a list of which was
handed to him.
Edison signified his assent, agreeing to give his whole time to
the government without charge, and returned to his laboratory. He
immediately put everything else aside, and with characteristic
enthusiasm and energy delved into the work he had undertaken. The
problems referred to covered a wide range of the sciences and arts, and
time being an essential element, he added to his laboratory staff by
gathering together from various sources a number of young men, experts
in various lines, to assist him in his investigations.
Inasmuch as Edison's war work for the government occupied his entire
time for upward of two years, it is manifestly out of the question to
narrate the details within the limits of a chapter. We must, therefore,
be content to itemize the principal problems upon which he occupied
himself and assistants and as to which he reported definite results to
Washington. The items are as follows:
1. Locating position of guns by sound-ranging.
2. Detecting submarines by sound from moving vessels.
3. Detecting on moving vessels the discharge of torpedoes by submarines.
4. Quick turning of ships.
5. Strategic plans for saving cargo boats from submarines.
6. Collision mats.
7. Taking merchant-ships out of mined harbors.
8. Oleum cloud shells.
9. Camouflaging ships and burning anthracite.
10. More power for torpedoes.
11. Coast patrol by submarine buoys.
12. Destroying periscopes with machine-guns.
13. Cartridge for taking soundings.
14. Sailing-lights for convoys.
15. Smudging sky-line.
16. Obstructing torpedoes with nets.
17. Under-water search-light.
18. High-speed signaling with search-lights.
19. Water-penetrating projectile.
20. Airplane detection.
21. Observing periscopes in silhouette.
22. Steamship decoys.
23. Zigzagging.
24. Reducing rolling of warships.
25. Obtaining nitrogen from the air.
26. Stability of submerged submarines.
27. Hydrogen detector for submarines.
28. Induction balance for submarine detection.
29. Turbine head for projectile.
30. Protecting observers from smoke-stack gas.
31. Mining Zeebrugge harbor.
32. Blinding submarines and periscopes.
33. Mirror-reflection system for warships.
34. Device for look-out men.
35. Extinguishing fires in coal bunkers.
36. Telephone system on ships.
37. Extension ladder for spotting-top.
38. Preserving submarine and other guns from rust.
39. Freeing range-finder from spray.
40. Smudging periscopes.
41. Night glass.
42. Re-acting shell.
It will be seen that Mr. Edison's inventive imagination was permitted
a wide scope. He fairly reveled in the opportunity of attacking so
many difficult problems and worked through the days and nights writh
unflagging enthusiasm. He committed his business interests to the
care of his associates, and during the two years of his work for the
government kept in touch with his great business interests only by
means of reports which were condensed to the utmost. In addition, for
two successive winters, he gave up his regular winter vacation on his
Florida estate, usually a source of great enjoyment to him. But it was
all done willingly and without a word of regret or dissatisfaction so
far as the writer's knowledge goes.
Although we cannot take space to discuss the above items in detail, the
reader will probably have a desire to know something of Edison's work
in regard to the submarines.
In view of the vast destruction of shipping, perhaps it is not an
overstatement to say that the most vital problem of the late war was
to overcome the menace of the submarine. Undoubtedly there was more
universal study and experiment on means and devices for locating and
destroying submarines than on any other single problem.
The class of apparatus most favored by investigators comprised various
forms of listening devices by means of which it was hoped to detect and
locate by sound the movement of an entirely submerged submarine. The
difficulties in obtaining accurate results were very great even when
the observing vessel was motionless, but were enormously enhanced on
using listening devices on a vessel under way, on account of the noises
of the vessel itself, the rushing of the water, and so on.
Edison's earliest efforts were confined to the induction balance, but
after two months of intensive experimenting on that line he gave it up
and entered upon a long series of experiments with listening devices,
employing telephones, audions, towing devices, resonators, etc. The
Secretary of the Navy provided Edison with a 200-foot vessel for his
experiments, and in the summer and fall of 1917 they had progressed
sufficiently to enable him to detect sounds of moving vessels as far
distant as five thousand yards. This, however, was when the observing
vessel was at anchor. The results with the vessel under way, at full
speed, were not poor.
Having pushed the possibilities along this line to their reasonable
limit, Edison was of the opinion that this plan would not be practical
and he turned his thoughts to another solution of the problem--namely,
to circumvent the destructive operation of the submarine and avoid the
loss of ships. He had discovered in his experimenting that the noise
made by a torpedo in its swift passage through the water was very
marked and easily distinguishable from any other sound.
With this fact as a basis, Edison, therefore, evolved a new plan,
which had two parts: first, to provide merchant-ships with a listening
apparatus that would enable them, while going at full speed, to hear
the sound of a torpedo as soon as it was launched from a submarine;
and, second, to provide the merchant-ships with means for quickly
changing their course to another course at right angles. Thus, the
torpedo would miss its mark and the merchantship would be saved. If
another torpedo should be launched, the same tactics could be repeated.
His further investigations were conducted along this line. After
much experimenting he developed a listening device in the form of an
outrigger suspended from the bowsprit. This device was so arranged that
it hung partly in the water and would always be from 10 to 20 feet
ahead of the vessel, but could be swung inboard at any time. The device
was about 20 feet long and about 16 inches in width and was made of
brass and rubber. It contained brass tubes, with a phonograph diaphragm
at the end which hung in the water. The listening apparatus was placed
in a small room in the bow of the vessel. There were no batteries used.
With this listening apparatus, and while the vessel was going full
speed, moving boats 1,000 yards away could be easily heard in rough
seas. This meant that torpedoes could be heard 3,000 yards away, as
they are by far the noisiest craft that "sail" the ocean.
The second step in Edison's plan--namely, the quick changing of a
ship's course, was accomplished with the "sea anchor." This device
consists of a strong canvas bag which is attached to a ship by long
ropes. When thrown overboard the bag opens, fills with water, and acts
as a drag on a ship under way. Edison's plan was to use four or more
sea anchors simultaneously. In a trial made with a steamship 325 feet
long, draught 19 feet 6 inches, laden with 4,200 tons of coal, by the
use of four sea anchors, the vessel going at full speed, was turned at
right angles to her previous course with an advance of only 200 feet,
or less than her own length. This means that if an enemy submarine
had launched a torpedo against the ship while she was on her original
course it would have passed by without harming her, thus making
submarine torpedo attack of no avail. It may be noted parenthetically
that this apparatus has its uses in the merchant-marine in peacetimes.
For instance, should the look-out on a steamship running at full speed
sight an iceberg 300 or 400 feet ahead this device could be instantly
put into use and the ship could be turned quickly enough to avoid a
collision.
[Illustration: EDISON AT WORK ON RUBBER EXPERIMENTS. FROM A MOVING
PICTURE TAKEN DECEMBER, 1928]
There is only space for a passing mention of the immense amount of
data which Edison gathered, tabulated, and charted in his study and
evolution of strategical plans suggested by him to the government in
the line of lessening the destruction by submarines. He spent day and
night for several months with a number of assistants working out these
plans. It is not possible to make more specific mention of them here,
as they are too voluminous for these pages.
With this tremendous amount of work pressing on him he retained his
accustomed good health and buoyancy, due, undoubtedly, to his cheerful
spirit, philosophical nature, and abstemious living. Soon after the
armistice was signed his experimental work for the government came to
an end, and he then switched back to the general supervision of his
business interests and to his ceaseless experiments through which he
is continually making improvements and refinements in the products of
the large industries which he established and in which he is so greatly
interested.
Mention should also be made of another extensive project he has
undertaken, and that is the production of rubber from plants, weeds,
bushes, shrubs, etc., grown in the United States. This he speaks of as
"emergency" rubber, to be resorted to in case our country should ever
be embarrassed in obtaining a supply of rubber from present sources.
This is a tremendous problem, but he is applying to its solution the
same resourceful powers that have characterized his previous endeavors.
Herein, and in the development of new ideas, lies Edison's daily work
and pleasure, and although he is in his eighties at this writing, with
still boundless energy, it may be said of him
"Age cannot wither him, nor custom stale
His infinite variety."
End of Project Gutenberg's The boys' life of Edison, by William Meadowcroft