Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-05-23
THE WIZARDS CHAT.
Extraordinary Edison Unbends for a
Wonder and Tells Tales.
THE LIFE OF A SHAVING GENIUS.
Hints as to the Marvellous Future of the
Electric Fluid.
THE BENT OF HIS KEEN MIND JUST NOW

Thomas A. Edison, ''the Wizard of Menlo
Park, +" arrived in the city yesterday. He
hates lawsuits, and considers them great
bores, but he is philosopher enough to be
reconciled to his fate.
Outside of George Westinghouse, Jr., he
| is without doubt one of the hardest workers
on earth. He hasn't a head for managerial
affairs, and he leaves that to his lawyers.
| The great Edison is one of the most COM
panionable of men. His deafness has led
him into the habit of talking in Jerks, and
he laughs as merrily as though he hadn't
a care to bother him. His fund of good
humor is inexhaustible, and this is one of
the reasons why he enjoys such excellent
health.
A DISPATCH reporter had a long chat
with him at his hotel and here are some of
the things he said:
CURIOUS PERSONAL HABITS.
eyes, am hard worker. hardly ever
sleep more than four hours per day, and
could keep this up for year. Some times
sleep ten hours, but dom feel well when
I do. If I should sleep eight hours, as
most men do, I would wake up feeling
badly. My eyes would hurt me, and would
have tough time to keep awake. I inherit
this from my father. He is a remarkable old
man. eating little and sleeping less. have
often known him. when I was a boy, to sit up
all night talking politics with friend or swap
ping stories.
; II eat about pound day. and my food is
very simple, consisting of some toast, a little
AI,s--
when 1 am working on anything keep at it
night and day. sleeping few hours with my
clothes on. never take them off; don't even
wash my face; couldn't think of such thing,
and in this condition I take my meals If I
were to remove my clothes when 1 slept,
would get up feeling out of shape and with no
desire to go to work. No. g. is my den in the
laboratory, and I shut myself in there and
hustle
WITH THE BOYS.
~ sleep from 10 to 6 in the morning. and
then jump up and 60 to work again as fresh as
a bird This is all the sleep need.
''But I tell you we have lots of fun in the
laboratory. Sometime ago 1 had 42 men work.
ing with me on the incandescent lamp in a big
building. I hired German to play an organ
for US all night, and we worked by the music
About o'clock a farmer brought in our lunch
and we ate from long table. At first the boys
had some difficulty in keeping awake and
would 60 to sleep under stairways and in the
corners. We employed watchers to bring them
out and in time they. got used to it. After
awhile didn't need AZ of them, and dis
charged six of them. Well, do you know,
couldn't drive them away. They stayed there
and worked for nothing.
"Oh, we enjoy this kind of life! Every now
and then hire big schooner and we go down
the baysmy men and myself, to fish for . few
days. Then we come back and buckle down to
it again."
EDISON ON POKER.
Some one here suggested that he had proba.
bly, learned to keep awake by playing poker.
"By the way" Mr.. Edison began, ~ have
played poker once or twice. It's a fine game.
Now, since have been making little money!
can afford to play occasionally. Last summerI
went to Chicago with some Of my boys. They
got me into poker game. and little Dutch
man when we got there had made
$500. He thought We were at Phila-
delphia when the porter called out |
Chicago and the man who lost believed we
were in Omaha. Well, it Just cost me s. cents |
a mile to learn the game, but the trip to Chi
cago was soon over. We stayed up all night, |
and had our meals brought to us.
You ask me about the future of electricity. |
1t is the coming motive power. 1t will be used |
on all the railroads some day, but the point is |
to get an economical engine. My theory is to |
have immense dynamos located
ALL ALONG THE LINE
Of the road, and have the electricity conveyed |
from these stationary engines to the locomo. |
tives by wires through the rails. For example, |
/ would put two big engines between New York |
and philadelphia, and enough power could be |
furnished to whisk the limited at the rate of
100 miles per hour.
But this is the point / have been working
on for years; to convert heat directly into elec.
tricity without the intervention of boilers
steam and ali that What an enormous amount
OF expense could be saved if this could be
done. Think of putting something into the
heat of that natural gas fire and making cleo
tricity out Of 1t. 1t can be done feel 1t in
my bones, and just now have Suspicion that
am on the right track, but it is pesky prob
lem, one that can be worked out only in time
Il have been experimenting with an electric
road in New Jersey. had rails laid as they put
them down on railroads, but the machine would
run of the track ih going around the curves.
then raised the curve to an angle of 40o, and the
motor went around all right. 1t looked as if |
the engine would topple over, but didn't You
know in a centrifugal machine you can make a
car go clear around circle in the air without
leaving the track.
PERFECTING THE PHoNoGRAPH.
"At the present time the phonograph is occu-
pying my time. have been improving it, and
it is more perfect to-day than ever. In speak
ing into the phonograph it was soon found that
the sibiants were not recorded. For instance,
If were to say species, the 'sp' sound would
be lost. Well, l have about solved
the problem now, and the sound of 81 is in
scribed with the other letters. run the phono-
graph or graphophone in three ways, with
treadle, a battery or with the ordinary incan-
descent light by attaching the machine with a
wire to the lamp: Business people can have
their choice. shouldn't want to be bothered
with treadle, and 1 think the best plan is to
use the electric light since they are now SO
cummo only distributed. The battery is made to
last for month"; three months or six months
without being renewed. Let every man take
bis choice. l am making the three kinds"
Mr.. Edison said he hadn't slept more than
~ hours since Sunday. He laughed about
that joke of Crawfords, that he Edison, could
make food out of dirt. He was surprised how
some of the leading papers bit at the bait.