Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1878-04-19
EDISON.
Review of the Life of This Famous Elee-
trician.
Philadelphia Ledger.

Review of the Life of This Famous Elec-
trician.
Philadelphia Ledger.
At last nights meeting of the phonct-
ic section of the Franklin Institute, DR..
Cleland. of Chicago. Thomas \. Edison's
co-laborer and intimate friend, deliver
ed a lecture, in which he reviewed the
life and achievements Of that we'll
known electrician and inventor.
Mr.. Edison, said the speaker, is an
American. and about 81 years old. His
life had been full of adventure. De
prived of the benefits Of a school, he ap-
piled himself to study at his own home,
and at the age of II was pretty well
verscd in chemistry, physics, engineer
ing. history, and other branches Of
knowledge. Then he became a news
boy on the Grand Trunk Railroad, be
tween Detroit and Port Huron, and
while attending to his duties in that ca
pacity was constantly reading and in
vestigating. and at odd hours, in the De
troit Free Press office, then owned by
Mr.. Storey, now proprietor OF the Chi
cago Times, he learned to set type. lie
erected a cease" in the baggage car of
his train, and with Il small supply of
type, which he had gathered together
did the composition for a littlc paper
which he published and which soon at
tanned a circulation Of 800 copies, Ed
ison subsequently fixed up a sort Of lab
oratory in the smoking ear and LAID the
foundation for the j~ustly-carned rcpu-
tation which he has to-day. of being one
of the best chemists IN the country.
About this time. Edison. at the risk Of
his own life. saved the child Of a tele-
graph operator, named McKinSey, from
being run oyer by an engine. Mckln-
sey wanted to reward the boy, but be
ing poor he could only reward him by
teaching him telegraphy. In six months
Edison was an expert operator, and now
has no superior in the business. He
got a position in Canada as station OPP
orator on the Grand Trunk Road, and
there, at the age Of II, studied out his
first invention. which was an apparatus
by which the night watchman. while
Edison slept, could send over the wires
the half-hourly AL right" report as
cleverly as Edison could do it himself.
He made some Of these machines for
his brother operators along the line, and
they worked very well until the officers
of the road discovered that nearly all
the telegraphers were asleep at night,
and the telegraphing was being done by
machinery, when the apparatus was dis.
continued, as was also the services Of
the genius who invented it.
Edison then came to the United
States. and here invented Il register
which would take a message at good
speed and pass to another register which
would deliver it very much slower than
the first. Next he went to Memphis,
and from there to indianapolis. and
then to Boston. There he invented the
gold and stock telegraph printer, and at
his home at Maulo Park, New Jersey,
he has turned out many other valuable
inventions, including the duplex, the
quadruplex. the telephone and the pho
nograph. He has secured patents in the
United States for l12 of his inventions,
and is now applying for 30 additional
patents, and has been granted as many
more by foreign countries. This was
up to 6 o'clock tonight" said the speak
err, but" he added, "he has probably
iuyented something else by this time,