The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1878-11-14
Edison at Work.

The following is from an article in
Scrib21er 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-
lutely no rest. At Newark he mounted
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.
It 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 ennobing
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 a 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 great
number in progress action of
chemicals upon various substances or
upon each other, or the phenomena of
substances subjected to the various
forces at command. Strips of ivory,
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
whiripools, changes color, or becomes
immobile. There is no use at once for
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 projections, and
then goes on carrying forward step
each of the works in progress, or be-
comes 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
part to escape them, numerous visitors
arrive. It is the Mecca of continuous
pilgrimage of scientists, reporters fol
the journals and curiosity
Yesterday troop Of ITS persons were
brought by gentleman who had asked
the privilege of presenting few friends
Tomorrow a special train of visitors
from Boston is announced He receives
all afably, submitting himself and his
Inventions to be gazed at without re-
serve. One wonders, next to his phono
graph, at his good humor.
"Still, / shall blow up somebody vet
he says, laughing. II am considering
the idea of fixing wire connecting with
a battery that knocks over everybod,
that touches the gate"
He sits down at the monograph, fixe.
a double mouth-piece to it, and sum
mons one of his assistants, while another
places himself at an organ in the corner
They sing in two parts John Browns
Body" AS the sonorous music rise.
and fills the long apartment, one gaze,
muslngly yet with secret thrill. I
is like assisting at some strange, nev
rite-a martial chant of rejoicing in tn.
greatness OF new era full of sublime
promise and the dissipation of mys
teries
EVERY ten tinkles of the Moffet bell
punch In Virginia b11y Sundav-schoo