The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1878-11-14


of operators; the New York man was one
Of the fastest senders in the country, de-
lighted in victims, and in this instance sat
at his instrument with grim satisfaction,
waiting to open on the new man" and
chuckling with his Boston comrades over
their expected fun. They commenced,
and the New York man crowded his send
ilg-speed TO the utmost, with never q
break" by the new man receiving. At
the end of the message, the astonished and
exhausted New York operator adds, "Who
the deuce are you anyhowG" to which the
new man at Boston promptly re plies, Il M
Tom Edison-slake hands,
We can make hut brief mention of
few of the many incidents connected with
Mr.. Edison's history In the Boston
Office one of his first efforts was at inter
nal imrrnvosnart-'' Tho ofioo in
tested with cockroaches. He set up an
apparatus for their automatic destruction.
Mr.. Edison's forte is automatic contriY-
ances He arranged strips of metal
around the bottom of the walls in the
room, and connected them with the oppo-
site poles of a battery, so that when the
the bugs stepped from one to the other,
thev closed the circuit and their lives at
one operation, and made room for others.
In Boston Mr.. Edison fixed up small
shop and continued his experiments, which
he put into such practical shape that he
saw more money in them than in his sal
ary. He worked out the idea of his du-
plex telegraph, and went to Rochester in
1870 to test it between that place and
Boston. The effort failed, though Mr..
Edison says it ought to have succeeded.
He then came to New York, scarcely
knowing what to do next. lie hung
around the Office of the Gold Indicator
Company, studying their cumbersome ap-
paratus. One day some part OF it failed
in q time of excitement; Mr.. Edison of
fered to remedy it; he was laughed at
lncredulously; but the Case gas desper-
ate, and he was allowed to Try lie sue
ceeded; and the managers, ready to per-
ceive the value of such man, made him
Superintendent. He introduced improved
apparatus, invented the gold printer, put
up a private line, and finally sold it to the
Gold and Stock Company, together with
his services, or the privilege of having the
first option 10 buy his Geographic inven-
tons. He was now fully launched On tho
tide of success. To furnish his instru-
ments, he established factory in New
ark, New Jersey, employing three hum
dred men. As q manufacturer hewas not
q success. If he had an order for any of
his inyentioIs, ond, after having made
part or all Of them, he invented aI i4l-
provement, nothing would do but he must
incorporate it, even though at his own
expense. At last, finding that the close
attention demanded by his manulactur-
ing business was incompatible with the
freedom demanded for invention, he aban-
doned it, and, two years ago, bought
site for an experiment shop at Menlo
Park, Oh The Pennsylvania Railroad, twen-
ty-four miles from New York, a mere flag
fta2R St. 5T YiSaa xiii qR}9Qt h}s d27eq h"s4 "
On the crOs2n Of knoll, and looking,
for all the world, like country meeting
house, minus the steeple, and with the
addition of porch, is a long twO-story
white frame building, in the middle Of a
little lot, surrounded by white picket
fence This Is Mr. Edison's shop. On
the ground-foor, as you enter, is little
front office, trom which q small library is
paytitioncd off. Next is large square
room with glass cases filed with models
of his inventions. In the rear of this is
the machinc-shOp, completely equipped,
and run with ten-horse-poWer engine.
The upper story occupies the length and
breadth of the building 100X25 feet, is
lighted by windows on every side, and is
occupied as a laboratory. The walls are
covered with shelves full of bottles con-
tanning all sorts of chemicals. Scattered
through the room are tables covered with
electrical instruments, telephones, phono-
graphs, microscopes, spectroscopeS, etc.
In the center of the room is a rack full OF
gaivanic batteries. On one Of the tables
is a phonograph run by steam power, with
a belt through the floor to the machine
shop, and beside it copy Of Poe's poems.
In the rear of the room is a fine pipe
organ, with an open Moody and Sankey
book on it. At the opposite end of the
room stands Mr.. Edison, telling the writer
that there is no philosopher like Herbert
Spencer, no writer like Victor Hugo, and
no poet like Edgar A. Poe.
The Associated Press wires run through
his laboratory, and anon he picks up his
telephone, and chats with Philadelphia,
Or with Prof. Barker, at the University CT
PENNSYLVANIA, When visitors call to see
him, they are most likely to inquire for
Mr. Edison from the man himself-a
5oyish face, an unostehtatious manner, 2
careless dress, and, in fact, the unchanged
i,nl hot ,arl,- ,nn4 i,,o 90
as the new man at the Boston office. The
crowd Of farpl-boys that come over to see
the wonderful talking find him
as ready to crafty their curiosity as the
more pretentious professor" While car
rying on his manufacturing at Newark, he
married, and-well, Dot and Dash are the
nicknames of the little girl and boy that
come every once in while TO "see the
wheels 60 round.n
We cannot here speak at length of his
numerous inventions. He owns one hun
dred and fifty patents, but Of these only
about a dozen are of real value; the others
are taken out to guard all approaches to
the valuable patents. Among his pet
patents are his quadruplex telegraphy, by
NAAN
same time over the same wire; his electric
pen, for multiplying copies of letters OF
drawings and which consists of a tubular
pen in which a needle plays with sew
| ing-machine- like motion driven by cleo
| tricity, which perforates the lines drawn
with it, the perforated sheet being after
wards linked and used in press; the ink
is pressed through the minute pertora-
/ tons and leaves on another sheet finely
dotted tracing like the original. His car
bon telephone and the phonograph are,
| perhaps, the most marvellous of his inven-
/ tions.
When Mr.. Gray brought out his musi-
cal telephone, which set students to ex-
pe.imenting in that direction, Mr. Edison
wa trying to improve the Reuss telephone,
I the invention Of German. Mr.. Grav's
apparatus gave promise of furnishing a
method of multiplex telegraphy-a SUI
| ject in which Mr.. Edison, as VIC have seeu
| was interested. Between Mr.. GRAY and
] NJ E1;cCp On r,r6n-Stap1 iprr Voc orr,,-.