The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1890-01-16
WONDERFUL EDISON.
He Tells Of Yet More Wonderful Things
That He L. to bring Forth.

He Tells Of Yet More Wonderful Things
That He L. to Bring Forth.
The reporter asked MIR. Edison II 1t
was true that he had invented machine
by the aid Of which n man in New York
would be able to see everything that his
wife was doing in Paris.
Il don't know, sail Mr.. Edison, laugh
ing, that that would be real benefit to
humanity. The women certainly would
protest. But. speaking seriously, am
at work on an invention which will al
low man in Wall street not only to
telephone to friend in the Central park,
but to sec that friend while he is chat
ting alphabetically with him. This in
vention would be useful and practical,
and I see no reason why it should not
soon become a reality, and ono of the
first things that l shall do when ! get
back to America will be to set up this
Contrivance between my laboratory and
my telephone workshops. Moreover, ]
have already obtained satisfactory re-
suits III reproducing images at that dis
lance, which is only about 900 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 difficulty in the way, would
make the thing impossible"
Speaking of the photograph, the re
porter asked If it had reached its highest
degree Of perfection.
Almost, think" said Mr.. Edison,
lin the last instruments turned out of
81,
tho ordinary phonograph employed in
| commerce does not begin to compare
with the latest machines that | use in nv
! private experiments. With the latter
can obtain a sound powerful enough to
| reproduce phrases Of a speech that can
be heard perfectly 10y n large audience.
My last authorizations were with the as
pirate 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
couldn't make it say anything else. II
was enough to make me crazy. But
stuck to it until | succeeded, and now
| you can read a thousand words of a
newspaper at the rate of $50 words a
minute, and the instrument will repeat
them to you without an omission. You
can imagine the difficulty of the task
that accomplished when tell you that
the impressions made upon the cylinder
are not more than one milliOnth part OF
an inch i'll depth, and are completely in.
visible even with the aid of q micro
( scope"
RepOrter-And what new discoveries
will be made in electricity?
Mr.. Edison-Ah, that would be diff
cult to say. We may some day come
Ipon one Of the great secrets of nature
am always on the look out for some,
t4ing which will help me to solve the
problem of navigating the air. l have
worked hard upon this subject. but | an
very much discouraged. We may f1nC
something new before that comes, but
that will come.
Mr.. Edison further said that the great
development of electricity will come
when we find 4 moro economical method
of producing it. During his trip acros:
the ocean h! remained for hours on decb
looking at the waves, and he says that il
made him wild when he saw so mucl
force going to waste. But one of these
days" he continued, "~e will chain al
that-the falls of Niagara as we'll as thu
Withstand that will be the millennium
of electricity. "-Courrier dcs Etats- Unis