The Big Stone Gap post. [volume] (Big Stone Gap, Wise County, Va.) 1892-1928, 1893-03-02

Eof those operations which are called
financing, That he wants never more TO be
associated with them Thus his friend
l.said TO me.
i found that Mr. Edison was not mis-
representcd. he has changed his methods
rrcompletely. Unless lie loses all that he
possesses and is compelled to seek assist-
ance, he will never again offer All inven-
I.lion.of his to capitalists, nor will he take
into association with him any persons
who might control his discoveries.
Edison is not an acqaisitive man in the
sense of being money-grabber, but he
feels that he has passed the time when, as
he. says, other people may take the cream
and he the skim-milk What ever his in
ventions bring in the markets that he
wants for himself.
He is liberal spcnder,t however, gen.
erous to fault, a gracious and sympa-
thetic employer, and seems to have kind
ness for all the world excepting for men
who have, as lie SAYS, done funny business
and PLAYED sort of three-card-moate
financial game With the children of his
brain.
THE WIZARD iNExf STEP.
AS soon as Edison solves the problem
,,non which he is now working and gets
his mining plant into good running order
SO that his employees can care for it, it is
his purpose to take up subject to which
his attention was called some fifteen years
ago. He said to me the other day that he
might work perhaps ten years upon the
Investigations which this mighty idea
would make necessary, and then again it
might he necessary to spend only few
months upon it.
In 1877, when Edison was at work upon
his earlier phonograph, work which he
laid aside to take up the incandescent
lamp. he said to me that some day when
he could afford the time and expense he
might set himself to work upon the prob
lem of securing directly the energy which
is stored up in coal. That purpose has
never forsaken him.
Occasionally, when he has been at work
upon other matters, suggestion that
NAV affect this problem has come to him,
and he has set it down in his notebooks.
He has now considerable amount OF
material which would provide him with
hints of Importance in the solution of this
mighty mystery.
With cppital and with opportunity, Edi-
son feels that within the next two or
three years he may he free to take up this
matter which, if solved, is simply going to
revolutionize civilization. He believes
that it can be done, that it probably will
be done in the next century, even it he is
unable to do it.
To state the problem is to set forth 4
proposition so simple that child can
understand it, The conversion of the
energy which is in coal into power availa-
Bile to turn machinery entails a wasteage of
about 90 per cent; in other words, only
one-tcnth of the energy which is in coal
serves to create steam power. the rest of
the energy goes off in heat and in develop
ing the latent heat in water.
The problem is simple this, to save this
90 per cent. wasteage. That means that
$50 pounds of coal will do the work re-
uuired now of one ton; so cents worth of
coal will do the work which now requires
SIS 60 worth of coal A small bin of coal
will furnish power enough to propel an
ocean steamehip at high rate of speed
across the sea. A bucket of coal would
drive an engine from New York to Phila-
delphia.
The enormous cheapcning of everything
which would result from the solution Of
this problem would bring about changes
in civilization Edison thinks almost i'm.
possible to conceive Of. Steam power he
believes would be tradition. Electric
motors would take IFS place, the electric
current being developed directly from the
the energy which is in coal being liberated
without loss. Of course, to the lay mind
it is impossible to understand what meth
DDS might he employed and how to bring
this about, but Mr.. Edison says that he is
already convinced that he has the right
idea about the method and that the prob
lem he will have to solve is it's manner.
He was in exactly the same quandary
when studying the problem of iucandes-
cent lamps. Satisfied that carbon filnment
OF practically resistance was the proper
agency, his problem then was to discover
the best material for producing the fla
ment.
WILL K EEP TIA SECRET
Tt is probable that Dir. Edison will, if
he discovers this process, protect it by
secrecy ratherstlan by application to the
Patent Office, just as he proposes to pro-
tect his method of extracting magnetic
iron ore.and when he was asked whether
it would be possible for one mario carry
in his brain secreto such mighty i'm
port and consequence as this. tue wizard
replied that it would be easier to do SO
than to keep between ones lips the neigh
borhood gossip.
Edison is 46 years of age, and although