The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1878-11-13
Edison at Work.

Ihe following is from an article II
ScrSbner, entitled ga night with Edi
son :" There is nowhere suoh another
ingenious mind, but there is also no.
where such worker. When in search
of some special object he allows himself
absolutely no rest. At Newark he
mounted TO the loft Of his factory with
five men, on the occasion of the appar-
ent failure of the printing he
had taken q contract to furnish, and de-
clared he would never come down till it
worked. 1t took sixty hours of continu
GUS labor, but it worked, and then he
slept for thirty. The routine of his day
is routine of grand processes and enno-
bling ideas. Nowhere else probably
would such day be possible. There
are not fortunes, if there were capacity,
to carry on the business of pure scien-
tiiic research on such scale. His whole
great establishment is occupied, not in
manufacturing, nor primarily in projects
for profitable returns-though these
follow-but in new reflections, new COM
binations, in wrestling from nature inch
by inch the domain she would have kept
hidden. He comes in the morning and
reads his letters. He overlooks his men
and the experiments of his assistants.
The element of hazard enters into these
somewhat. There are a great number
in progress-the action of chemicals
upon various substances or upon each
other, or the phenomena of substances
subjected to the various forces at COM
mand. Strips of ivory, for instance, in
a certain oil in six weeks become trans
parent. A globule of mercury in water,
then with little potassium added, takes
various shapes for the opposite poles of
the battery, retires coquettishly or is
forms in whirlpools, changes
color, or becomes immobile. There is
no use at once for these results, but they
are recorded in voluminous note books.
When the proper time comes they are
borne in mind some one of them may
form the connecting link in the chain of
an invaluable discovery. Then perhaps
he tests for the thousandth time his car
bon telephone for new perfections, and
then goes on carrying forward step
each of the works in progress, or becomes
wholly engrossed, according to his mood,
in one.
In spite OF the fact that the motive of
his retreat to Menlo Park was in good
pAIb 10 escape bueIn, numerous VlblGOrB
arrive. 1t is the Mecca of a continuous
of scientists, reporters for
the journals, and curiosity hunters.
Yesterday troop of one hundred and
seventy-fve persons brought by gen.
tleman who had asked the privilege of
presenting a few friends-to- morrow
special train of visitors from Boston is
announced. He receives all affably,
himself and his inventions
to be gazed at without reserve. One
wonders, next to his phonograph, at his
good humor.
"Still, 1 shall blow up somebody
yet" he says, laughing. "I am con-
the idea Of fixing a wire, con-
Meeting with battery, that knocks over
everybody that touches the gate"
He sits down at the phonograpb, fixes
a double mouth-piece to it and summons
one of his assistants, while another
places himself at an organ in the corner.
They sing in two parts. AS the sonor-
ous music rises and fills the long apart
nent, one gazes musingly yet with a
secret thrill. 1t is like assisting at some
strange, new rite-a martial chant of re-
oicing in the greatness of new era full
If sublime promise and tho dissipation
If mysteries.