The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1883-01-04
"a TALK WITH EDISON.

4 TALK WITH EDISON. h
interesting Incidents IN tho. Life OF
. the. Inventor.
From the Boston Herald. r, ,-, =
Mr.. Edison being in; Boston superin-
tending the introduction of the electric
lights il the Bijou theater, Herald 70
porter found him Tuesday in the engine
room, personally watching all the de:
tails ofhis "p]ant' where he has been
good portion of his time during the
past sixty-six hours, having slept but
from three. to five hours during that
time, and even n9g!ectin4 to eat his
meals except when they were brought
and almost forced npon him., Mr.. Edi-
son is gentleman with a rather large
head, both the preceptive and reflective
faculties being unusually large, causing
his head above the eyes to be high and
broad. His face !. is Clearly
shaven, and. is most expressive.
His eyes are strong, and the light
in them varies with every changing
thought, an6 at all times they have a
kindly, cheerful look, as though saying;
Come along; let US have good time."y
PROFESSIONALLY, Mr.. Edison is q very
approachable man, and he seems to take
almost a childish delight in going over
old "reminiscences, his hands and body
coming into play, and his eyes sparkling
with pleasure as he lives over the scene
again. 80 !.
/ "What we're the real facts of that Bos-
ton experience you hadin fast receiving
q good many years ago?"
''Let me see; that was in 1868. had
been working in Louisville, KY, a couple
of years and went from there to Michi-
gan. "A friend named Adams got me q
place here in Boston; andI came over,
arriving here about 4:3O, and had to go
to work at $50. Although it was the
middle of winter, came into the Office
with linen buster on, for was very
poor them A fellow named Jack Wright,
who knew me out west, thought to have
some fun; SO he posted tke sotfice. and
mad New York put on an operator
named Bagley at their end of the
line with a special of 800 words TO
switched to table about the middle of
the room, near the managers desk.
Not suspecting nytl.ing, sat down and
commenced taking it. Soon Bagley
commenced to whoop 'em up and, al
though am accustomed to keep six or
eight words behind in copying, thought
best to close up, especially as he com
menced to send some awful sticky stui'
aking g of-his ms and contracting ln:
words, send imy, for instance, fol i'm.
mediately, | having to write it out in full
Happening to look up. noticed fifteen
or twenty operators grinning behind me
Then I saw it was put up job and my
blood got up and I determined would
not break. Operators in New York
asked over the wires il was getting it
and would hardly believe the replies,
When I Thought he had reached the top
Of his speed / opened my key and said
Don't 90 to sleep! Shake yourself an5S
hurry through this! The way I man:
aged it was this: I had practical all
by kind of print hand I could write
ffty-fve words per minute, and l
knew there was no man who
could keep up that speed with tele-
graph key; 80 felt safe if l. could only
read the ticking, had no fears as to
that either, as I had read all kinds of
clipped sending in the west. Anothtr
thing that was in my favor is, that ON
little deaf 80 that the hum Of an Office
does not disturb me, and l give my
whole attention to the clicking of an in
strument. There is little experience
had out in indianapolis that may inter-
est YOU, / was very ambitious to re-
ceive press report" and used to- sit up
until 2 a. m. press report listening be-
side the receiving operator, until, after
awhile could follow it very nicely, and
then l wanted to receive press myself.
N4k r I, 81
sibility of taking it, "buIled" it bad at
words per minute. ; / thought the mat
ter over, and worked out little plan to
have the "register indent some tin foil
as it came in, and then had the boy turn,
it through another instrument,
T Ma' 81 aboat ftss words per mine
ute, which read and wrote off very
easily. The only trouble was that We
got '3V good mighty from the east about
2:3O a. NJ, while it was sometimes an,
hour or more later when we gave the
last sheet to the. Newspapers They COM
menced to grow1 after awhile, and our
manager dropped in on us one morning
and discovered our little game in full
blast. By the way, there. were, several
valuable inventions wrapped up in: that
OAACo A4CA. Adlh!nS ~ tuo tlH1c! ~:
minds ME of another incident. = There
at once, in which the judges we're to lie
at St. Louis, and the fast senders thrQpgu:.
out the state weret to send from. .tlleir:re-
spective offices to the central Office in
st. Louis.-x Now, although have repu-
tati0n as receiver, 1'have jdst the OPP
posite reputation as, a sender, and when
| entered my name in the list
to = :. compete. :: there; was :, great
'hahaing' over the wires, We: were
given chapter in the Bible, to send,
and, while the othtr men were practic-
ing sending it, worked out: the chapter
on the tinfoil and fixed everything al
ready to- turn the crank. at the rate OF
about tifty.or fity-tive words q minute,
getting our boys to keep quiet about it.
For:solne reason the contest never came
off, and I did not have the pleasure Of
*Whati is the present electric; outtloo>k?,''.
swell, this theater business is a new
one to US. Now, if it was a cotton fac
tory would. feel at home; but, 4.
acknowledge I have been somewhat
anxious as to this experiment: We put
s49a sRts eo atG tsz 81 s saa
hitch , and the puolic, seemed satisfied.
The largest undertaking we have on,
hand now is TO- y carry 5000
horse power Of electricity eighteen
miles into the City of. Mexico; or the
purpose Of lighting that city and fur
nishing power for. various qurposos.
We are only making estimates as yet.
This thing Of carrying power from wa
terfalls to considerable distance is 60
ing to be done very extensively in the
future. 1t is practi able to carry 5000
horse power twenty miles if necessary.
Asto running elevated railroads by cleo
tricity, it is an accomplished fact already
have snch a railroad at Menlo Park
and run passenger engines at the rate of
thirty eight miles per hour. 1 seldom
get an idea from books, because, as q
rule, find them barren wastes; but one
experiment suggests another, and,
finally, q valuable result is obtained"
The Feeders at Washington.
Oyereating and Oyerdrinking at recon