On February 11th, 1845, was born at Milan, Ohio, Thomas A. Edison, now a
little over 42 years of age, and to-day enjoying a reputation as an
inventor that is without a parallel in history.
At eight or nine years of age he began to earn his own living, selling
papers. When twelve years old his enterprise, pushed by ambition,
secured him a position as newsboy on the Grand Trunk Railroad. Here his
inventive genius manifested itself. Arranging with station agents along
the line, he caused the headings of news to be telegraphed ahead, the
agents posting the same in some conspicuous place. By this means the
profits of his business were greatly augmented. He next fitted up a
small printing press in one corner of a car, and when not busy in his
regular work as newsboy, successfully published a small paper. The
subject-matter was contributed by employes on the road, and young Edison
was the proprietor, editor, publisher and selling agent. He also carried
on electrical experiments in one corner of the car.
Finally, he entered one of the offices on the road, and here he learned
the art of telegraphy. The next few years he was engaged as an operator
in several of the largest cities throughout the Union, such as
Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Louisville, Boston, New York, Memphis, and
Port Huron. He not only became one of the most expert operators in the
country, but his office was a labratory for electrical experiment. All
day long he attended to the duties of his office, and at night one would
find him busy at experiments tending toward the development of the use
of the telegraph.
Hard work and frequent wanderings at last found him developing his ideas
in Boston. He brought out duplex telegraphy and suggested a printing
telegraph for the use of gold and stock quotations. His ability becoming
so apparent he was retained by wealthy men in New York at a high salary.
In 1876 he removed to Menlo Park, New Jersey, where he fitted up an
extensive labratory for the prosecution and development of his
enterprise.
Here he has won his world-wide fame, keeping two continents in a fevered
state of expectancy. Indeed, some of his inventions have been so
wonderful that he might be accredited with supernatural powers. By
improvement he brought the telephone of Gray, Bell, etc., from a mere
toy to an instrument of great commercial worth. Ten years ago hardly a
telephone was in use; now the business of our country would hardly know
how to do without it. Of all modern inventions connected with the
transmission of electrical sound the telephone has excited, perhaps, the
most interest. An instrument which not only transmits intelligible
signals great distances, but also the tones of the voice, so that the
voice shall be as certainly recognized when heard hundreds of miles away
as if the owner was speaking in the same room. No great skill is
required of the operator, and if a business man desires to speak with
another person he has but to step to an instrument in his own office,
ring a bell, and thus, through a central office, connect himself with
the instrument of the desired party, when a conversation can take place.
In its mechanism the telephone consists of a steel cylindrical magnet,
perhaps five inches long and one-half of an inch thick, encircled at one
end by a short bobbin of ebonite, on which is wound a quantity of fine
insulated copper wire. The two ends of the coil are soldered to thicker
pieces of copper wire which traverse the wooden envelop from end to end,
and terminate in the screws of its extremity. Immediately in front is a
thin circular plate of iron; this is kept in place by being jammed
between the main portion of the wooden case and the cap, which carries
the mouth or ear trumpet, which are screwed together. Such is the
instrument invented by Bell and Edison.
The means to produce light by electricity next occupied his attention,
and the Edison-Electric Light was the result. The electric current for
this light is generated by means of large magneto-electric machines,
which are driven by some motive power. It is the only light known to
science which can be compared to the rays of the sun. Especially is this
light useful in lighthouses, on board ships and for lighting streets in
cities. It is, however, used in factories, work-shops, large halls,
etc., and in the very near future will doubtless become a light in
private dwellings.
But, possibly, the most wonderful invention which has been the result of
the inventive conception of Mr. Edison is the phonograph, a simple
apparatus consisting in its original mechanism of a simple cylinder of
hollow brass, mounted upon a shaft, at one end of which is a crank for
turning it, and at the other a balance-wheel, the whole being supported
by two iron uprights. There is a mouth-piece, as in the telephone, which
has a vibrating membrane similar to the drum of a person's ear. To the
other side of this membrane there is a light metal point or stylus,
which touches the tin-foil which is placed around the cylinder. The
operator turns the crank, at the same time talking into the mouth-piece;
the membrane vibrates under the impulses of the voice, and the stylus
marks the tin-foil in a manner to correspond with the vibrations of the
membrane. When the speaking is finished the machine is set back to where
it started on the tin-foil, and by once more turning the crank precisely
the same vibrations are repeated by the machines. These vibrations
effect the air, and this again the ear, and the listener hears the same
words come forth that were talked into the instrument. The tin-foil can
be removed, and, if uninjured, the sounds can be reproduced at any
future date.
Different languages can be reproduced at once, and the instrument can be
made to talk and sing at once without confusion. Indeed, so wonderful is
this piece of mechanism, that one must see it to be convinced. Even the
tone of voice is retained; and it will sneeze, whistle, echo, cough,
sing, etc., etc.
Improvements are in progress, notably among which is an apparatus to
impel it by clock work instead of a crank. The phonograph as yet has
never come into extended use, but its utility is obvious when its
mechanism is complete; business men can use it for dictating purposes,
as it is possible to put forty thousand words on a tin-foil sheet ten
inches square.
The invention of any one of the foregoing must have made for Mr. Edison
a world-wide fame, but when it is remembered that he has already taken
out over two hundred patents, one realizes something of the fertility of
his imagination. Many other inventions are worthy of note, which have
originated at the Menlo Park labratory, but space forbids, although it
is safe to predict that more startling inventions may yet be in store
for an expectant world.
[Illustration: ANXIOUS THOUGHTS.]
[Illustration: WHY SOME SUCCEED While Others Fail.]
WHY SOME SUCCEED While Others Fail.