The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-10-11
EDISON As 4 rELEeRAPHER

How the Inventor Appeared to 2
Group OF Operators Twenty Years
Ago, and How Telegraph Company
Was Provoked Into Dispensing With
His Services.
From the Ne,o York Star.
A score of years ago group Of young
men, some of whom have been factors IN
shaping various events of this world since.
were Longing in the operating room OF the
largest telegraph Office in New England,
awaiting the time, near at hand, for the
appearance of the night relief, which would
carry on the duties Of the Office until the
morning. The day messages had almost
| ceased to come, and the lull in the business,
common to all stations just before the fling
of hslf-rate kilograms and press matter.
| had given respite 10 the force, and they
were relating anecdotes and exchanging the
| gossip of the day.
This evening the talk was mainly on the
whereabouts of an operator who was on
his way from Michigan city. and from
| whom nothing had been heard
since the single message announcing
| his departure. The weather had been bit
ter cold, huge snow storm had interviewed,
still the delay was getting very unreasona-
BILE, and cnnjectures as TO where he was
were multiplying. At length the heavy
| street door swung back, and with quick
stride the young man in question walked
into the room. His appearance was worthy
| of comment. A square-jawed young man
with tall hat. which had apparently been
slept on, pushed back from high forehead;
head set forward, with good-sized feat
ures; middle-sized form, dressed in a
short frock, without overcoat, despite the
weather; rumpled collar, minus necktie;
| trousers ill-fitting and well-worn, and pair
| of ugly, coarse high-topped boots. The
whole appearance of the man was nothing
short of caricature. Those who saw him
carried for years afterward the picture i'm
pressed upon their minds. although after the
first words had dropped from his lips his APP
| pearance was temporarily forgotten, the
impression instantly prevailing that here
was man greatly unlike themselves
The man, who was Thomas A. Edison,
confidently approached the group. spoke TO
TO a friend, and without introduction of
any sort was familiar with all
Where had he beels Why, he had con-
cluded to take route that would carry
him as near to the North Pole as he could go,
had become showed in, and with his usual
improvidence, he had parted with his last
penny midway in the trip and had simply
had time of it,
Now he was ready for work. The hardest
wire in the office was assigned to him, and,
SACo as nC was, u6 SdJ uOWIl dlll1 Tile htl-
| mlr1ng glances of his newly found friends,
| and hour after hour turned off copy,
unique in its way, tut showing his great
skill as an operator in those days
Edison was a peculiar operator. His
| copy was solid print. Every letter was
| separate, and did not incline at any angle.
| His great speed in writing must have been
the result of long practice. for it had
every element of slowness In it. His men,
ory was wonderful. In long, difficult code
| messages he was often behind the trans
| mi ting operator ten or more words, feat
considered very difficult, ifnot unparalleled,
in those days. Hour after hour he would
go along this way. never opening the key,
/ sometimes casing the distant operator to
wonder whether the wire was all right, and
| to ask the question: Are you there9'
There he was, and again onward would
the messages go to Edison, no sign coming
| from him that he was weary and doubtful
about any word. He was the acme of a
| receiver.
As a sender he was poor. He never could
master the art of smoothly manipulating a
key. The operator at the other end, in
spirit of humor would often suggest to him
that if he would occasionally send with the
''other foot" a great improvement would
| be made.
His spirit of invention was strong, even
| in those days. One of his contrivances
proved boomerang for himself, and was
far-reaching in some rather disastrous re-
| suits.
In the Boston office was trick" which
to him was especially desirable. In those
days all the messages between America and
| Europe passed over a single wire between
New York and st. Johns, N. F., with a
relay station at Plaster Cove This long
stretch of circuit was very hard to maintain,
and the discipline was rigorous. In Boston :,
| the operator in charge was ordered to
give his undivided attention TO it while on
| duty.
There were three reliefs, one of which
was from o'clock to s o'clock in the morn
ing, during which time the traffic from
London on account Of the difference in
time was quite heavy. Edison in his thirst
for knowledge had found rich mine in the
Boston Public Library. 1t was full of rare
scie Atific books and as he could read Ger
man, French, Spanish and italian, he had
come to spend all his time porting over the
volumes obtainable in that institution. He
sought and obtained the morning hours on
the wire in question, but after little be
found that sitting and looking at that wire
seven hours per day was irksome, and he
believed Unnecessary. How to make it do
its own watching was the problem. Before
| O'Clock a. N. the wire was Idle as a rule,
but the discipline was so str let that each
station had to send in u signal every half
hour, indicating that everything was all
right.
Edison ingeniously rugged up a clock
work which would automatically throw
in his signal at the end of each half hour,
and it worked like charm, He then got
himself rude bed, and his coming on duty
was more of "a preparation for going to
sleep than anything else. For many weeks
this plan was a success, and Edison was
master of the situation. but unfortunately
one night the wire itself gave out. and the
whole scheme fell fiat. Every one in the
office save Edison had gone home In
order TO restore the circuit wire between
Portland and Boston had to be inserted
and the clock was not adapted to that sort
of work.
Frantic calls for Boston were made,
''cables" piled up in congested mass, ar.
bitrage brokers in three capitals were wild,
and the whole financial wo Id stood still
while our wizard snored rhythmic ,Iy, aud
perhaps dreamed at the time that those
three capitals and all the world beside
would heap honor after honor upon him,
and his fame would be sounded through
every land
For this Edison was ANONYMOUSLY dis
charged, and his days at the key fairl y
ended. He went out into the world dis