The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1885-06-14
EDIsoN's LATEST IDEAS.
Experiments for Telegraphing Between
Shfps at Sea.


1t was rather weird experience,
meeting him there in the great gloomy
building, where there are but two men
besides himself, at night. Ho was
chiefly engaged with his new idea of
telegrapning from railroad trains in
motion. This is not to be done by a
cable laid along the track, on the
Phelps plan, but by throwing the cleo
trio current, by induction, to one Of the
wires alongside the railroad. His ex-
periments have already shown that the
spark can be thrown 1870 feet. The reg.
ular Morse instrument, with certain APP
planes, will be used. The battery is
to be grounded in the wheels ofthe car,
and on top of he car there will be con-
densers Of tin foil spread upon long
strips of wood Arrangements are also
progressing for an experiment in tele.
graphing by the same method from one
ship to another at sea.
"But is that possible" l asked. "How
far do you think you can throw the cur
rent over the wator?"
81 am afraid to say how far" was the
answer. "From the data already OBJ
uN II
we can throw IL "A miles. Possibly we
can throw it moro than that"
Then Edison rapidly sketched on pa
per a map Of the two continents and the
Atlantic, and illustrated his plan of tele-
| graphing from ship to ship so as to
| establish certain communication be-
| tween the shore and any part of the
| frequented seas. Not content with this
projected miracle, which seems to be
near its ful6llment, he is ais o busy upon
| improvements In submarine biography.
| The method now generally in vogue Of
reckoning words through the cable by
the flicker of q flame thrown upon a
mirror is amazingly insufficient, as Is
shown on diagram which Edison dis
| played. The number of dots indicating
letters often has to be judged by opera
| tors from the length of time that the
| flame hesitates. Even the siphon re-
oeiver, invented by Sir William
| Thompson and used by one or two of
the new cables, is not quite satisfactory,
although it marks the dots pretty nearly.
! Edison is trying to devise some means
OF attaining higher and better regulat-
ed rate of speed so that the record may
be made clearer. But "it's tough job,o
he says.
Perhaps the most interesting thing he
! ton for "new force" AT present he
! calls it simply xyZ. He does not pre-
tend to know what it is. But he SAYS
there are many phenomena that are not
explained by any force yet recognized,
| and il is these which he is going to in
vestigate. Vibrations of matter at the
rate Of 10000 second produce the high
est sound we can hear. Between these
and the vibrations which, at the rate o!
millions per second, cause the sensa.
tion of heat, there is large gap; and be.
tween these and the vibrations that give
sensations Of color there Is another gap.
These gaps, Edison believes, are filed
by vibrations as yet unmeasured, which
constitute tho new or unnamed force
which he is in search OF. He brought
out from a drawer sundry
loose sheets on which he had
sketched q number OF machines he had
projected, which respond to some influ-
ence still underlined. al ot these down
as they occur to me-" he said, "and
when get enough of them together |
shall have the machines made and try
to generalize my observations"
Think OF II! A man in this skeptical
century who dares believe in a discoy-
cry beyond all discoveries. Here is a
student Of nature who is not afraid TO
now Viz Splilb vi ~ bdlllltO Ut u hGDlNr
or an Isaac Newton. Perhaps we shall
learn from him that in returning TO faith
and insight, aided by bold and patient
expert mont, we may 90 forward by
going backward. "What do you think
as to the nature of matt,r2" / asked
unscrupulously. The answer was
prompt: II do not believe that matter Is
inert, acted upon by ali outside force.
10 me 1t seems that every atom'is pos
sessed of a certain amount of primitive
intelligence Look at tho thou sand
ways in which atoms of hydrogen COM
bine with those of other clements, form
ing the most diverse substances. Do
you mean TO say that they do this with.
out intelligence? When they get to-
| gether in certain forms they make ami.
mails OF the lower orders. Finally they
combine in man, who represents the
total intelligence of all the atoms.n
But where does this intelligence
come from originallyw
From some power greater than our
"Do you believe In an intelligent Gre.
ator, personal GOdw was the next
question.
Certainly" said Mr.. Edison. "The
existence OF such God, in my mind,
can almost be proved from chemistry
Lucretius thought that all atoms we're
moved by feelings of love or hate
what we call attraction or repulsion.
Edis0n's idea Is far more subtle, since
he allows the atoms only germ of in
telllgence. IL also seems to bo quite in
Keeping with the doctrine OF evolution,
while IL contains nothing that Is not in
harmony with the idealism of the Pla.
tonists. And so we discover down on
Avenue b, In the prosaic city of New
York, philosopher who be-
lieves In a personal God, and is
NJ the same time the foremost
exponent of applied science, Curious
that he should be- at work here, night
aitor night, In the midst OF a million
people, only few hundred OF whom
know how he is employed during the
nocturnal hoursl As usual thing no
works until or 0 o'clock iu the morn.
ing his supper basket remaining un-
touched beside him; and sometimes 10 IN
y O'Clock of the next day before he
leaves. the bench or the labratory, 81
can't think out anything" he says, tex.
cept when Pm experimenting. have
a library OF 5000 scientific works, but
somehow | can't find what | want I'm
books. How do l make calculations?
Well, don't know exactly, can't do
IL ON paper. have to be moving
|
So there he goes, moving around
thinking and working with his hands,
in the big sombre building while
the city is asleep, He is the con-
trolling power o. several largo fac.
tories, a millionaire, "A man OF business,
a marvellous inventor; yet he Is as sim
pie and happy as q child, when WRAP
ped in an old seersucker dressing gown,
he can manipulate at will without in
corruption the mysterious forces and
properties of nature, In meeting him
Thought OF him more as n poet or mu-
sioian that a mAchlnist and electrician,
Like the Brohmin / saw last week, he
deals with occult powers, in quite a dif-
ferent way, but perhaps TO the same
end, OF pertecting mans control over
the elements that shape life. II was
significant that we climed dark stair
way TO reach his topmost place of light
and Intelligence. Americans are prac-
| teal and aEanifnal n.uht 80 n,.,,,...