The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1888-10-18
THE WIZARD OF MENLO PARK.
Ediston, the Inventor in Poverty and Pros.
perity.

Ediston, the Inventor in Poverty and Pros
perity.
New YORK, October 5.-The newspa.
pers have recently announced that
Thomas A. Edison, the inventor, is now
worth several million dollars, most of this
large fortune having been made out OF
his electric light interests. Every one
who knows Edison personally hopes that
the report is true, and some people won.
der whether riches have made any change
in the most unassuming of famous men
of the day. Perhaps T can best answer
the last question by describing q recent
visit made to Edison al Orange, and
contrasting his present surroundings with
his way of living ten or twelve years ago,
at the time he began work upon the in.
ventions which have chiefly helped to give
him fame and fortune-the electric light
and the dynamos which bear his name.
remember going to see Edison soon
after it was announced that he had boast
ed of having solved the electric light
problem. In his search for better
material than platinum for the loop which
gives out the light in a glow lamb, Edi.
son tried 5000 different materials, arriv-
ing finally at a kind of South American
bamboo Of remarkably close fibre. This
wood, when carbonized, gives a loop Of
great tenacity and durability For two
years the inventor worked at the glow
lamn before he dared to say that it was
commercial success. In the winter Of
1S79.80 he announced that his lamp
would last long enough to make compe-
tition with gas possible. It may be
remembered that the announcement
caused storm of ridicule. One socalled
expert, connected with a we'll known
college, declared that Edisou's lamp
could never enter into competition with
gas, but would remain. curiosity and
possibly aluxury for rich men. This was
at time when Edison was inviting peo.
pie from all over the country to see the
lamp work at his Menlo Park laboratory,
and SO angered him that be declared he
would some day erect statute to his
critic, light it up with Edison lamps, and
make the Inscription read: "This is the
man who said the Edison lamp was 3
failure"
There we're many dark days that winter.
After making one batch of lamps which
burned splendidly and lasted for weeks,
burning night and day Edison found to
his dismay that the second batch, made
in exactly the same way, 30 far as he
could find out, and Of the same materials,
failed completely. Instead of burning
for weeks, the lamps went out in less
than an hour. For three days Edison
work night and day trying in vain to find
the trouble. Then he took to his bed,
seriously i'll, while his exhausted assistant
took rest. Edison has had the good
fortune to attact and retain a number of
devoted men who for the last ten years
have shared in his trials and successes.
When the inventor believes that he is on
the track of something important he
completely forgets his meals and his
sleep. He has been known to work for
forty-eight hours at stretch, without
leaving his laboratory, and with no food
except crackers and cheese, which he ate
as he pondered over knotty point. He
cannot understand that other men need
rest, and is indignant that any one should
think of meals or sleep while the result
of some interesting experiment is in
doubt. The Edison lamp was not per-.
fected without many such incidents.
HOW EDISON GOT MARRIED.
Nothing batter illustrates Edison's
pertinacity than the incidents of his first
marriage. In 1876 his friends urged him
to marry, hoping that wife might make
him keep more regular hours, and eat his
dinner at least once day. Edison
replied that he had no time for courting,
but that if some decent girl would marry
him he had no objection. He ended by
picking out young woman in his work
shop, who readily agreed to become Mrs.
Edison. Edison's intimates say that the
counting was confined to Edison's
simple inquiry as to whether she would
marry him. She said eyes" Edison
fixed the day himself, and nothing more
was said. Upon the appointed day some
of his friends had to 60 to the laboratory
to remind him that he was to be married
at noon; he WAS hard at work, and bad
forgotten all about his marriage. After
the ceremony the bridal couple took
carriage for the station in order to make
q wedding trip of forty. eight hours.
Unfortunately, the road passed the labora.
tory. The site of the building set Edison
thinking, and before the carriage reached
the station he ordered the man to go
back, 10 order that he might give one last
word Of direction to his assistant. The
new Mrs. Edison waited for two hours in
the carriage for Edison to say his last
word. Then he sent messenger to her
to say that something important needed
his attention for few hours, and that
Mrs. Edison would do we'll to wait for
him at home. Like dutiful wife, she
went home to wait. Edison got home
the next morning after daybreak. His
assistants entreaties could not tear him
away from the experiment in hand until
it was finished. I would not like to
vouch for the truthfulness of this story,
but I have heard it upon several occa-
sions from people who ought to know,
and I have never seen it contradicted.
When such man becomes discouraged,
it means sickness, and after searching in
vain for the cause of his failure to make
second batch of lamps as good as the
first, he took to his bed.
THE TALL, GAwKY STRANGER
I have mentioned that Edison had no
time for courting. and this was strictly
true. Moreover he was never much of q
ladies' man. If it we're not for the in.
Huence of his wife and daug ghters to-day,
the great inventor would never look as if
his hair had been combed for 8 month or
his boots blacked. Even as young man
he was too intent upon serious things to
"waste" time upon his clothes or his
looks. A friend of mine, q telegrapher,
who often met Edison during the early
days of New York life, gives me this &C.
count of his personal appearance and Of
his debut in an Eastern telegraph Office.
"One day there appeared in the office
a gaunt Westerner who wanted employ.
ment. We were short of good operators,
and from his own account of himself the