Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-08-28
EDISON'S WONDERS.


From the Courier des Flats Unis
The reporter asked Mr.. Edison If il was true
that he had invented a machine by the aid
Of which a man in New York would be able
to see everything that his wife was doing in
Paris.
II don't know" said Mr.. Edison laughing,
''that that would be a real benefit to humanity
The women certainly would protest But,
speaking seriously, am at work on an inven
ton which will allow man in Wall street not
only to telephone to friend in the Central
Park but to see that friend while he is chatting
telephonically with him. This invention would
be useful and practical and zee no reason why
it should not soon become reality, and one of
the first things that shall do when get back
to America will be to set up this contrivance
between my laboratory and my telephone work
shops. Moreover, l have already obtained
satisfactory results in reproducing images at
that distance, which is only about 600 feet
1t would be ridiculous to dream Of seeing any
one between New York and Paris. The round
form of the earth. if there were no other diff
Guilty in the way, would make the thing impos-
sible"
Speaking Of the phonograph, the reporter
asked il it had reached its highest degree Of
perfection.
Almost. I think" said Mr.. Edison, lin the
last instruments turned out of my workshops
employed in commerce does not begin to COM
pare with the latest machines that use in my
private experiments. With the latter can OBJ
| tain a sound powerful enough to reproduce
phrases of speech that can be heard perfectly
by q large audience. My last ameliorations
were with the aspirate sounds, which are the
weak point Of the graphophone. For seven
months l worked from eighteen to twenty
hours q day upon the single sound specia'
| would say to the instrument 'specia and it
would always say pecia," and couldn't make
it say anything else 1t was enough to make
! me crazy. But stuck to it until succeeded,
and now you can read thousand words of a
newspaper at the rate of one hundred and fifty
words a minute, ana the instrument will re-
! peat them to you without an omission. You can
| imagine the difficulty Of the task that &C
| complished when tell you that the impress
sions made upon the cylinder are not more
than one millionth part Of an inch in depth
are completely invisible even with the aid Of q
| microscope"
Reporter-"And what new discoveries will be
| made in electricity?'
Mr. Edison-"Ah. that would be difficult to
| say. We may some day come upon one Of the
great secrets of nature I am always ON the
| lookout for something which will help me to
| solve the problem of navigating the air.
have worked hard upon this subject, but am
| very much discouraged. We may find some
thing new before that comes, but that will
come"
| Mr.. Edison further said that the great de-
| velopment of electricity will come when we
| find more economical method of producing
it. During his trip across the ocean he re-
| NAMED for hours on deck looking at the waves.
and he says that it made him wild when he
| saw SO much force going to waste. "But one
Of these days." he continued, I'VE will chain
all that-the falls of Niagara as we'll as the
Withstand that will be the millennium OF
electricity"