The true northerner., 1878-11-15
Edison mt Work.

The following is from an article in
ScriJner for November, entitled A
Night with Edison
There is nowhere such another in
genious mind, but there is also nowhere
such worker. When in search of some
special object he allows himself abso-
to the loft of his factory with five men,
on the occasion of the apparent failure
of the printing machine he had taken a
contract to furnish, and declared he
would never come down till it worked
1t took sixty hours of continuous labor,
but it worked, and then he slept for
thirty. The routine of his day is rou
tine of grand processes and ennobling
ideas. Nowhere else, probably, would
such day be possible. There are not
fortunes, if there were capacity, to carry
on the business of pure scientific re-
search 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 assist
ants. The element of hazard enters
into these somewhat. There are q great
number in progress-the action of
chemicals upon various substances or
upon each other, or the phenomena of
substances subjected to the various
- 49,, -
for instance, in certain oil in six weeks
become transparent. A globule of mer-
curry in water, then with little potas-
SUM added, takes various shapes for the
opposite poles of the battery, retires
coquettishly or is attracted, forms in
whirlpools, changes color, or becomes
immobile. There is no use mt once foI
these results, but they are recorded in
voluminous notebooks. When the
proper time comes they are borne in
mind some one of them may form the
connecting link in the chain of an in
valuable discovery. Then perhaps he
tests for the thousandth time his car
bon telephone for new perfections, an6
then goes on carrying forward ster
each of the works in progress, or be
comes wholly engrossed, according t.
his mood, in one.
In spite of the fact that the motive o
, his retreat to Menlo Park was in goot
part to escape them, numerous visitor
arrive. 1t is the Mecca Of continuou
pilgrimage of scientists, reporters TO
the journals and curiosity-hunters
Yesterday troop of 175 persons wer,
brought by gentleman who had aske,
the privilege of presenting few friend
tomorrow special train of visitor
from Boston is announced. He receive
all affably, submitting himself and hi
inventions to be gazed at without re
serve. One wonders, next to his phono
graph, at his good humor
| Still, shall blow up somebody yet,
, he says, laughing. am considerin
the idea of fixing wire connecting wit
battery that knocks over everybod
> that touches the gate"
He sits down at the phonograph, fixe
r a double mouth-piece to it, and sum
mons one of his assistants, while anothe
places himself Mt an organ in the corner
They sing in two parts "John Brown
Body" As the sonorous music rise
and fills the long apartment, one gaze
musingly yet with secret thrill.
: is like assisting at some strange, ne
rite-a martial chant of rejoicing in th
greatness of a new era full of sublim
promise and the dissipation of my,
teries.