The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1878-04-11

fected it that he worked it quite sue
cessfully between New York and Bos-
ton. But to accomplish this he spent
every dollar he earned for material for
his experiments, and when the grand
secret was discovered hadn't money
enough to pay for filing q caveat for a
patent"
Stewart says that many persons wit
messed Toms experiments. Among
others he mentions James G. Stearns,
then President of the Franklin Telc-
graph Company. He appears to have
dropped upon Toms secret. and he had
money enough to carry out Toms ideas.
At all events he got patent ahead of
Tom, and reaped large proportion of
the benefits. To-day his instrument is
used extensively in this country and in
| Europe, and he is worth hundreds of
thousands of dollars Tom, however,
got full credit for the invention of the
duplex system through the news and ed
itorial columns of the Ielegrapher, a
newspaper devoted to the electric
science, edited by j. NJ. Ashley, now of
the Journal of the Teleg aph. 1t WIS
TOMS first newspaper notoriety and he
was greatly elated. He fiourished a
dozen copies of the paper over his head,
and announced his intention of mailing
them to Coleman, "to show him that
the - fool had actually succeeded in
sending messages both ways at the same
time on the same wire"
But Tom jumped from one invention
to another, apparently utterly regard
| IF
while he was in the Boston Office that
he invented the gold and stock telegraph
indicator now in general use. In this
case he pursued his experiment private
ly, and had money enough to get the
invention patented. To-day it returns
him handsome royalty
Fattie Stewart tells many amusing
stories of Toms career in the Boston
office. His strange ideas ard odd ex-
pressions gave the boys an inexhaustible
fund of nIerriment. Pat Burns, now
dead, was working nights in the Boston
office, and attending Harvard law school
in the day time. Burns was magnifi-
cent operator, and was awarded Prof.
Morse's gold key in the telegraphic con-
test years ago. He was a brilliant con-
versationalist, and passionately fond Of
argument. For the sake of it he was
eternally getting up disputes with the
boys in the office. Edison admired
Burns's gift of CAB, and when Burns was
in the heat of an argument was wild to
hear him talk As Tom was quite deaf
he couldn't catch the conversation at a
distance. At such times he would dis
able his wire. His favorite method was
to ''ground" it under his table. While
the chief operator was cursing and
swearing and testing for the aground, -
Tom would be off pulling at his upper
lip and listening to Burns. The argu-
ment concluded, he would return to his
table, take off the ground - that the
chief operator had failed to find, and in
nocently announce that the wire had
come 60 K''
The Boston office was overrun with
cockroaches, and Tom was much an
noyed by them. With ready ingenuity
he conceived and carried out plan for
their determination. He tackled several
zinc strips to the wall, at intervals of
an eighth of an inch. He then applied
the positive and negative poles of bat
terry alternately to the strips. He next
smeared the wall above the strips with
molasses. The reaches came up in
platoons, very much after the manner
of the British troops at Breeds Hill. As
they stepped from strip to strip they
"elosed the circuit,' received the full
benefit of the electric shock, and drop
ped dead by scores. Tom used to catch
their bodies in a WATERFALL, and it is
said that the bucket has been filled in a
single night.
"Tom was naturally speculative in
his IDEAS said Stewart, "and the No
wire kept him so closely employed
during working that he hadn',
any time for dreaming. One night he
got into discussion with the operator
who worked the wire that connected
with the old Atlantic cable at Plaster
Cove. There was mighty little cable
business in Boston, and Tom jeered the
operator ON his soft snap' All he had
to do was tend repeater thai
was used only when the state OF
the atmosphere interfered with the
working for the regular wire. The mar
+ was first-class operator, and as he haC
got little out of practice he thought 3
months dash at Toms wire would dc
him good. o,with Milliken's consent
they changed tricks Tom thus tool
the early trick, from l to a. m., anc
the cable operator took his place on No
l. Tom found it more of change thar
he had anticipated, for he was fond O.
lively company, and between the hour.
, of l and 8 in the morning there were
very few operators at work, and the of
flee was as silent as the grave. So b,
went to dreaming in earnest. I can seq
him roxxr citfinIr hi, ioalr ,,a,u;r, q,