The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1878-04-19
THOMAS ALvA EDISON.
Interview by w. A. Croffut. Editor q
the New York Graphic.


two of us, to see Edison and his won
derful invention and make some dis
coveries and sketches for the Graphic
MEMO Park Is not park. 1t is not q
city. It is not a town. It is not In
any way related to Mungo Park, the
great Scotch African. Although It Is or
the Pennsylvania Railroad dust be-
yond Rahway,) it is not even a stop
ping place, except when the station
agent flags the train TO take on wait
Ing passengers. 1t is composed wholly
of Edison 3 laboratory and half dozen
houses where his employees live. 1t is,
In short, Edisonia, and nothing else
just Worth of the track Is a long,
plain, white wooden building full OF
windows and two stories high; this Il
the laboratory of the Jersey Columbus
whose name has suddenly become IA
nous. Many telegraph wires are tes-
TONED from 1t. The first floor Is occu-
pied by scribes and book-keepers In
one end, and at the other some ten OF
twelve skillful workers in iron, who, al
anvil and forge, lathe and drill, are
noisily engaged in making patterns
and models for the genius of the estab-
lishment. His iron ideas, in tangled
shapes, are scattered and piled every
where; turning lathes are thickly set
on the floor, and the room is filled with
the screech of the tortured metal.
Up stairs we climb-to a room the
size of the building, with twenty win
dows on sides and ends. It Is walled
with shelves of bottles, like an apOth-
ecary shop-thOusands OF bottles of all
sizes and colors. In the corner is q
cabinet organ. On benches and ia
bles are batteries of all descriptions,
microscopes, magnifying glasses, cru
cibIes, retorts an ash covered forge,
and all the apparatus Of a chemist. At
table sit two earnest men each hold
ing alternately to mouth and ear the
mOuthpiece OF telephone.
In the middle of a room is a man
about FIVE feet ten inches high, with q
thin face, high cheek bones, and a long,
lean neck. He would not be picked
out in crowd as a man of more than
ordinary Intelligence, he is the person
whom banco steerer would be likely
TO take into his confidence. Time he
evidently considers too valuable to
waste on personal decoration, for his
boots have not been blackened this
week, and, although he Is ostensibly
whiskerless, his beard has had about a
five days growth. His hair is of q
chestnut brown, and Judge he cuts 1t
himself, for 1t stands up in an anxious
way all over his head, with a striking
tendency forward, and at the crown II
stiffly radiates like the thorny top OF a
pineapple There is quid of tobacco
In his cheek. His mouth is sensitive
the blue veins show on his hands, and
the fingers flutter as if each had an in
telligent purpose; but the only feature
that would Immediately attract the at
tention of a stranger as worth a second
look, is his keen, deep, eager gray eye,
which reveals the intensity of the man.
This Is Thomas Alva Edison.
You have turned out a good many
inventions, Mr.. Edison
Yes > he answers, with a percepti-
BILE Western twang in his speech, 'I've
made some machines, out this is my
graph and taking chair before It.
'and expect it to grow up to be big
fellow and support me in my old age.
Edison showed us his dismantled ae.
rophone. Some of it started for Eu
rope last week. said he, 'and 1 cam
show you how 1t sounds. But here
you see. Is the same tympanum that we
use In the telephone and phonogTaph
we speak against this and its vibra.
tions, instead of prIcking a sheet o
Lin-foil, opens and closes valve to the
steam pipe, and thus gives to the whis-
tie the articulations of the human
voice. 1t is much simpler than the
phonograph, and its audible speech
can be heard four miles, or even more
1 will guarantee that IL shall read the
Declaration of Independence so tina
every word will be distinctly heard BY
every citizen of Manhattan Island. Il
will call out all the stations on a rail
hA TWrn mil ars
through the county talking whatever
the engineer thinks it necessary to say
Steamers can converse at sea. Ligh
houses can warn a ship in a storm
Fire districts can be shouted; also, in
formation whether a fire is spreading
or is being mastered
Il Will have on exhibition at Paris,
said Edison, Eight telephones, beside
my photograph and aerophOne.'
TO what use do you expect the pho
nograph to be put?' he was asked
Several he replied.
Il. F)r debating 1t will take tn
place of short hand reporters, ant
thus a man who has many letters Il
write will talk them to the monograph
and send the sheets directly to his cor
respondents, who will lay them on tn
photograph and hear what they hav
to say. Such letters as go to peopl
who have no monographs will be cop
led by the Office boy
q. For reading. A first class elocu
ZIONIST will read one of Dickens nov
els into the photograph. 1t can all b
printed on q sheet ten inches square
and these can be multiplied by the mil
lion copies by q cheap process of cleo
trotypinR. These sheets will be sol
for, say, % cents. A man is tired, an
his wife's eyes are failing, and so the
sit around and hear the telephone rea
from this sheet the whole novel wit
all the expression of first class read
er. See? A company for printin
these is already organized in Ne'
York
s'3. 1t will sing in the very voice c
Patti and Kellogg, so that every fami
" can have an opera any evening.
al. 1t may be used as musicI
composer. When singing some fay
orite airs backward it hits some Lowell
airs, and believe a musician coul
get one popular melody every day b
experimenting in that way.
"5. It may be used to read to inmate
OF blind asylums, or to the ignoran
who have never learned to read.
''6. 1t may be used 20 teach Ian
,guages, and have already sold tn
right to use IL to teach children the al
phabet. Suppose Stanley had had on
and thus obtained for the world all tn
dialects of Central Africa!
az. 1t will be used to make toy
talk. A company has already bee
organized to make speaking dolli
They will speak In little girls voict
and will never lose the gift any NOR
than little girl.
''S. 1t will be used by actors to lear
the right reading of passages. In fac
its utility will be endless"
"What will the phonograph Sc
FORE"
ave shall charge 800 for machine
This will limit the sale for the pres
.ent."
in politics Mr.. Edison Is not q par
'tizan, but he generally votes the Re
publican ticket, while his father wa
and Is q Democrat of the extrem
type.
allow about religion, Mr.. Edison
HsTnat Is q matter have studio
somewhat, but haven't been able
get the first clew to any first cause, Q
any hereafter. / do not dogmatiZ
about it, because do not know. BU
i may add that am strongly incline
TO think that nobody knows any MOI
about IL than / do. I have neve
found that guess work paid"
Here Is q story characteristic of hi
methods: In the develo pment OF tn
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