The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1878-11-14
The Man Who Invents Every
thing.

= moving spiri, OF this place ~
DAY II night Is best described aS an
oSergrown s~choolboy. Ills face Is pale
anu oea dIess. Ills lose and chin are
Wen shaped and prominent his mouth
IN n MS forehead full and
out mol nigh his hair Is dark chestnut
brown, and silvered with gray. The
hioot striking feature of his face Is bis
eyes which arc blue-gray. deep-set.
intense, and penetrating. HIS smile j
ooylsh and pleasant, and his maun, :
somewhat shy
Edison Is an inventor by sheer dint
of native genius. His scientific knovl-
edge OF electric " Is by no meas
thorough mathematics are repulsiye
TO him. As soon as his mind lights
upon any new or peculiar fac AT rpce
he conceives an application of it.
The monograph was discovered in
the following name He had invent
ed an apparatus for recording ordinary
telegraph signals by a stylus on yield
ing material. so that the record could
serve TO retransmit the message auto
matically. One day. while expert
menting with a vibrating telephone
diaphram to which apricker was fixed.
ANA@1d iIAo AA>t ~ lilt
force of the vibrations, and drew
blood. In an instant there flashed into
his mind the idea Of the phonograph.
tie saw that the Voice had power 70
cause a similar pricker TO indent its
vibrations III a sheet of tinfoil, so that
they could be automatically repro
duced. As proof of his power Of work.
1t may be further said that the idea of
the photograph occurred u him one
Wednesday afternoon, and he worked
on ali Wednesday night, Thursday.
Thursday night, Friday, and Friday
night, TIL Saturday morning. BY that
time he had constructed a completely
successful monograph then he went
to bed, and slept with hardly a break
till Monday morning.
Edison has been described by the
United States Commissioner of Patents
as the young man who has kept the
path to the Patent-Of1ce hot with his
footsteps. During the last ten years
he has taken out 157 patents, and APP
piled for seventy-Seven more. OF
these, however. only fifteen or twenty
are important inventions, the rest being
obtained to fence them round.
His yearly income from his patents
is now over $50, 900, and he has realized
in all over 800, 600 from them. THIS
sum has been sunk, as 500 as it was
earned on books and experiments
AS for the monograph, his faith in
it is boundless. In future, he believes,
letters will be talked, books read, ser
mons preached, languages and music
taught, p~arlor operas played,
made, and reporting done by
photograph. Voice-albums will be
come the fashion, and the memorable
words of great men will be treasured
in museums.
There was a fortune in the Pope's
last blessing says Edison, somewhat
irreverently 1.-The photograph record
of it, multiplied by electrotyping, would
have sold for five dollars apiece east
ly."
1t is said that Dore is suggestions
for profiles from the shadow ola piece
of crumpled tissue-paper thrown on
the sunlit ground and so will the pho
nograph, driven backward. hint all
manner CT new musical combinations
to the musician.
Edison is now making one with a
sapphire point, which will record even
a whisper, and contain a complete
novel of Dickens-5O, 900 wOrds-on a
sheet of tinfoil 10 inches square.