Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1889-09-20
THE MAGICIAN EDISON.
lie Tells or " oairrfni ThIngs He IL
to Bring Forth.

to bring Forth.
The reporter of Paris paper asked
Mr.. Edison il it 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 would De a real ben
eft TO humanity. The women would
certainly protest. But, speaking
seriously, ] am at wark on an inven
ton which will allow man in Wall
street not only TO telephone to n
friend in Central park, but to see
that friend while he is chatting tele-
phonically with him. This invention
would be useful and practical, and |
see no reason why it should not soon
become a reality, aud one OF the first
things that | shall do when get back
10 America will be TO set up this con
trivance between my laboratory and
my telephone workshops. Moreover,
| have already obtained satisfactory
results IN reproducing images at that
distance, which is OILY about 1000
feet. 1t would be ridiculous to dream
of seeing anyone between New York
aud Paris. The round form of the
earth, il there were no other difficulty
in the way, would make the thing
impossible"
Speaking of the monograph the
reporter asked il it had reached its
highest degree OF perfection.
"Almost, think" said Mr.. Edison,
ain the last instruments turned out of
my work shops. You must know that
the ordinary phonograph employed
in commerce does not begin to com.
pare with the latest machines that
use in my private experiments. With
the latter can obtain sound pow
ertul enough to reproduce phrases OF
a speech that can be heard perfectly
by large audience. My last ameli-
ofations were with the aspirate sounds,
which are the weak point of the
graphophone. For seven months |
worked from eighteen to twenty hours
day upon the single sound 'specia.
| would say to the instrument 'specia,
and it would always say 'pecia, and
l could not make 1t say anything else
1t was enough 10 make me crazy
But | stuck to it until succeeded
and now you can read thousand
words of a newspaper at the rate OF
$50 words minute and the instru-
ment will repeat them to you without
All omission. You can imagine the
difficulty of the task that accom-
plished when | tell you that the i'm
pressions made upon the cylinder are
not more than one milIionth part Of
an inch in depth and are completely
invisible even with the aid Of micro
scope
Reporter-"And what new discov.
cries will be made in electricity"
"Ah, that would be difficult to say
We may soma day como upon one Of
the great secrets OF nature. am al
ways on the lookout for something
that will help me to solve the prob
lem of navigating the air. have
worked hard upon this subject, but |
am very much discouraged. We may
find something new before that comes;
hut that will come
Mr. Edison further said that the
great Development of electricity will
come when we find more eoonomi-
cal method of producing it. During
his trip across the ocean he remained
for hours on deck looking at the
waves, and he says that it made him
wild when he saw so much force GO
ing to waste. "But one of these days,
he continued, "we will chain all shat
the falls of Niagara as we'll as the
winds and that will be the millen-
mum of electricity"