Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1882-10-26
EDISON, The ELECTRICIAN.
Trials and Triumphs OF tho Wizard of McnlO
PARK,

Trials and Triumphs of tho Wizard of McnlO
PARK.
Baltimore Day.
Tom Edison, the electrician, has so
many patents in the Office at Washington
that tho examiners have set aside pOr-
tiOn Of the model room for his exclusive
benefit. There has been great deal of
every man who sprang into fame with q
bound. He was born in the state of Ohio.
His parents were very respectable people
They afterward removed to Port Huron,
Mich, where they still reside. From his in
fancy Tom displayed the greatest fondHess
for mechanics which is still a distinguishing
trait in his character. While engaged as
a newsboy on tire Grand Trunk railway he
acquired knowledge of telegraphy, with
which pursuit he was identified for num-
Der OF years. After wandering about the
country for nearly decade he finally
drifted to Boston. For tho first time in
his life he found copgenial society and be-
came associated with men who could ap-
preciate him. His telegraph confreres
never understood him. Some regarded
him as "loony," others as visionary ex-
perimenter who would die in the aims.
house, while everyone agreed that he was
q strange fellow. There was another point
upon which they agreed also. He was
phenomenalIy clever telegrapher. There
probably never was an operator in the
business who could receive ''press reports
with greater ease or copy them in more
graceful or legible style than Edison. But
he couldn't "send" at all. His ability
as an operator was purely that Of IRE.
ceiver." 1t was about this time the writer
first made his acquaintance. l think he
was the most unprelossrssipg boy l ever
saw. His appearance not only indicated
the last stages OF that terrible decay
known as "shabby gcnteel." but it went
further. One might have been pardOned
Tor thinking him a tramp. He would
wear shirt for two weeks without
change. Then he was never known to
spend a cent, and that got him into bad
odor SO finally poor Edison became a sort
of social pariah. He got his meals at cheap
restaurants and lodged in an attic. He re-
ceiyed a salary of $11O a month, but what
he did with it homo of us could imagine.
He never seemed to have q penny and
always wanted to borrow a quarter or so
until the next pay day. We boys thought
him miserly and disliked him accordingly,
asses that we were. We couldn't real
ize that he breathed a different atmos-
phere from US and lived in an ideal world
of his own creation. Meet him where you
would, he was always figuring industri
ously with pencil and paper, and gazing
into vacancy with a far-away look in his
dreamy eyes. He dressed shabbily because
in tho world where he lived appearance
went for naught and he had NO money to
spend in fashionable dissipation, for the
reason that 1t was all spent in experiments.
I have said that he went to Boston.
There he met such men as Moses G. Far
mer and other electricians of note, who
saw in the rapid unfolding of his genius
the young giant who would revolutionize
the whole system of telegraphy and he
did it. By means of his quadruplex in
strument, which quadruples the working
capacity of wire, he has enables the
Western Union telegraph company to
meet the growing demands of the country
aud at the same time to furnish better and
cheaper service by reason of less construc.
tion and all the expenses pertaining
thereto. The company pays him yearly
salary of s., 900 for tho option of having
the first bid at any new invention. But
the privilege ends there. If they wish to
purchase they must outbid all others.