The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1890-02-27

worshipers, and stopped to yell out my
news, In ten seconds there was not
soul left in the meeting. All of them,
including the parsoD. were clustered
,round ne, bidiDg against each other
or copies Of the precious paper,
You can u d rs'aud whN It struck
me then that the telegraph must be about
he best thing going, for it was the
Geographic ,tICe on the bulletin board
nat had done the trick. | determined
once to become telegrs ph operator.
But If it hadn't been for Wilbur F.
ORGY should never have apprec ate
the wonders of electrical science.
HOW HE WORKED A PLUG" CIRCUIT.
Il worked a plug circuit in the day
time at Indianapolis" he has told me,
and got a small salary for doing it.
Bul at night, with another operator nam
ed Parmley, used TO receive newspa-
PER reports just for the practice The
regular operator was man named Will.
ilams and, as he was given to copious
locations he was glad enough tn sleep
II the fleets while we did his work for
iim as well Ls we could, would sit
ip'7D for ten minutes, and take as
much as | could, from the instrument,
carrying the rest in my memory. Then
while wrote out, Parnley would serve
his turn at taking and so on. This
worked well until they put new man
un at Cincinnatia end. He was one of
the quickest despatchers in the business,
aud we soon found it was hopeless for
us to try to keep up with hlm. Then it
was that worked out my first invention
and necessity was certainly the mother
of it.
II got two old Morse registers, and ar
ranged them in such way that by run
ling a strip of paper through them, the
dots and lashes were recorded on it by
he first instrument as fast as they were
delivered from the Cincinnati end. and
we're transmitted 10 us through the other
instrument at any desired rate of speed
- slowness. They would come in one
instrument At the rate of forty words a
minute, and we would grind them out the
other al the rate of twenty-five. Then
weren't We prond ! Our copy used to be
40 clean and beautiful we hung It up on
Exhibition, and our manager used to
come and gaze at 1t silently, with puz-
zled expression. Then he would depart
shaking his head in troubled sort of
way, He could not understand il;
relther could any of the other operators;
tor we used to drag off my impromptu
utumatic recorder d hide 1t when our
ul was over. BIT the crash came when
here was a big nights wOrk-a Presi-
dental vote. l think it W s. and copy
KEEP pouring in at top rate of speed, un.
II we fell an hour and a half or two
nours behind. The newsp' pers sent in
frantic complaints; an investigation was
made, and our little scheme was dlscov-
red. We couldn't Use It any more.
1t WAS the same rude automatic re-
Corder," Edison once explained to me,
That indrec ly-yet not by accident,
nut by logical deduCliOL-led me along
terwards to invent the phOnograph.
Ill tell you how this came about. After
thlnklng over the matter great deal,
came TO the point where, IN 1877, mad
woI ked out satisfactorily an instrument
which would not only ecord kilograms
ny intending a strip of paper with dots
and dashes of the Morse code, but would
also repeat a message any number of
times at any rate of speed r. .qulred.
Edison has often been spoken of as
discoverer, and in one sense he may ap-
pear to have discovered things by reach
ing out into the realm ut what to other
may be unknown. But he himse { dis
I kps the term as applied to himself.
Discovery Is no inventiOn," he once
SAID to me, "and dislike to see the two
words crnfuuhd d. A discovery is more
or less in the nature of an accident.
II is tn much the fashion to attribute
all inventions to accident, aud great
deal of nonsense is talked on that score.
In my own case but few, and those the
least important, of my inventions owed
anything to accident. Most of them
have been hammered out after long and
patient labor, and are the result of count
! lie s experiments, all directed toward at
rarping some wtll-deiined object. All
mechanical improvement may safely be
said to be inventions and not discover
,es. The sewing machine was an inven-
| ion. So we're the steam engine and the
typewriter. Speaking of this later, did
| | ever tell you that | made the first
welve typewr ters at my old factory in
R ulroad avenue. Newark This was in
1869 or 1870; and | myself had worked
at machine of similar character, but
never found time to develop it fully"
THE ELECTRIC LIGHT HIS PRIDE.
| Not long ago asked Mr.. Edison which
of his inventions had caused him the
greatest amount of study. and required
the most elaborate experiments,
He replied, promptly: The electric
light. For although | was never myself
discouraged, or inclined to be hopeless
~ success. | cannot say the same for all
of my associates. And yet, through all
hose years of experimenting and re-
search, never once made a discovery
All my work was deducuve, and the re-
.ults | achieved were those of invention
pure and simple. | would construct a
haory and work on its lines until
ound it was untenable. Then it would
be discarded at once, ann another theory
evolved. This WAS the only possible way
i. for me to work out the problem, for tbs
, conditions under which the incandes-
cent electric light exist are peculiar and
unsatisfactory for close investigation
Just consider this We have an almost
H. finlteslmal fiamenG heated to degree
which 1t is difficult for us to cOmpre
, mend. and it is ln a vacuum, under con
y, dltIons of which we are wholly lgnor
= ant. You cannot use your eyes to hell
: YOU in the investigation. and you reallI
. know nothing of what is going on II
that tiny bulb Ispeak without exag
4 geration when / say that l have con
}, .lructed 5000 different theories in con
= nectlou with the ectric light, each on
b f them reasonsl l. and apparently ike
' " TO be true. Yet only IN two cases du
nv experiment prove the truth OF m
i heury. My chief difficulty, as perhap
p you know, was in constructing the cal
+ b N fiIament, the eincandescence OF whlc
- i the source of the light. Every quarte
of the globe was ransacked by my agentl
l. aud all sorts of the queerest OF material
= we're used, until finally the shred {
d bamboo now utilized by Us was settle
p. upon. Even now,n Mr.. E lison COZ
lnued, Il am still at work nearly ever
q day on the lamp, and quite lately haV
ievised meth"d Of supplying suthc'er
Y current to 10 lamps with one hoTs
l power. Formerly 10 lamps per hors
y power was the extreme linn t.
J. The Kansas Htion report says I'M
~ smut C n be effectuolly destroyed in Il
,e seed oars by soaking them in water. at
ID temperature of 1872 degrees, for httet
as minutes. This is considered preferab
3, to copperas water.
" All commercial Fertilizers are not Il
8 same. The principal ingredient OF ol
is nitrogen. of another is potash, and
ls a third is Dhosphoric acid, and Meth
IL riII snnnly the DlaCe of the other.