The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1893-02-23
The Valley Virginian.
CLIFTON FORGE, VA.
TAYLOR 4 EICHELBERGER, Editors and Propr's.
THURSDAY. FEBRUARY 90, 1898.
EDISON TELLS OF HIS WORK.
What He has Done and What He
Proposes to do.

What He has Done and What He
Proposes to do.
HEAT FROM COAL DIRECT.
This is One of the Three Big Thinge the
Wizard is Planning Soon to
Begin Work On.
Thomas A. Edison does not measure
age by years, but being a man of unus
ual methods of thought and singular in
his purposes and views of life, has a
standard which is unlike that adopted
by the majority of men to describe their
age. Mr.. Edison was 46 years old Sat,
urday, for he was born February nth,
1877. He declares that he is nearly twice
as old as that by one estimate, and not
anywhere near as old by another
II am, let me see, "a years of age" he
said few days ago, when his approach
ing birthday was referred to, and there
came whimsical look into his eyes
one which those who have known him
long are familiar with and delight to
see, and which tells of the love of humor
which is the safety valve with him.
Eyes, l am 81. Ever since I was twenty
years of age, perhaps before that, have
been working on the average, and pretty
hard, for eighteen hours a day. Not
eighteen hours every day, because there
have been a good many days when l
have worked from dawn to dawn; but
eighteen hours on the average.
sNow. that is about twice as much
work as the majority of men put into a
day"
But there is another estimate which
Mr.. Edison makes. and is perhaps his
favorite one. He fixes the passage of
the years with him by epochs in his life,
rather than by the coming of the births
days. He was sitting in the family
room in the home of luxury which he
has been able to create for himself upon
the edge of Llewellyn Park, N j., when
he made the humorous reckoning of his
age. He was SURF ounded by every COM
fort and luxury which money could buy.
This room, like the others in his house,
contained no garish suggestions of great
wealth. Its decorations and it's furni>
ture were not obstrusive but pleasing to
the eye. 1t was a room where tired
man could go and feel that he could be
there at rest. A great fire of hickory
logs, not little blocks, but huge faggots
just as they came off the cord, was burn
ing upon a hospitable hearth. Mr.. Eds
son wore smoking jacket, comfortable
slippers, and from his seat in the bay
window looked out upon prospect
which was glorious, although zero frost
was beginning to paint with its finger
the window.
had not seen Mr.. Edison since he had
established the commercial availability
of the incandescent lamps. When he
first came into public notice he was
called 1.-the wizard''
I asked Edison what he regarded as
the most important invention or discov-
cry of this generation, outside of those
which had been made in electricity.
He put his hand to his head, pulled
his hair, which is now very gray, down
over his forehead, half closed his eyes
and said as though speaking to himself;
'The most important invention-let
me see. Oh, there is no doubt that the
Bessemer steel process is the most i'm
portant-no doubt whatever. And Bes>
semer did not know any more about iron
or steel when he was undertaking his
work than did about electricity"
"Than you did about electricity?'' I
inquired, with surprise.
Eyes" I didn't know anything about
it then and don't know now; nobody
does. All that we know is that it is
vibration. Bessemer had to work for
his victory, tell you, for when he~went
to the steelmakers and offered them lis
censes for a process of making steel by
blowing air through molten iron, to
speak in general way, they laughed at
him, and he actually had to procure his
steel at first by stealthy or secret meth
DDS. Even the workmen themselves did
not know what they were doing. But
by and by it began to be found that
there was better steel on the market
at very much cheaper price, and then
Bessemer was on top. Why, heard the
other day that the royalties from his
process had amounted to $4,000, OOO."
"Now, as to your inventive career,
Mr.. Edison
"Oh, that has been a series of cam
paigns My first campaign was in de-
veloping the ticker; that was short
one, and that was followed by the quad
ruplex idea of telegraphing. l have
never allowed myself to go off on pleas
ure excursions, SO to speak, in my work
My idea has been to work only upor
something which gives the promise O
commercial development
"Yet the early impression of you use(
to be that you had no fondness for mon
ey, no acquisitive passion
Here Edison threw back his head and
laughed very heartily. A recollection
which caused him humorous joy had
come to him, and he said: "Why, I didn'
use to know anything about money o
about finances or that sort of thing.
l had what l needed, was satisfied
When started out for myself | had
factory in Newark, and I, of course
hired bookkeeper, because everybod.
said that was the thing to do. At TIL
end of the year the bookkeeper made VI
a statement and showed it to me. Ac
cording to it we had made $4,000 prof
that year, and felt SO happy that l in
vited all hands to come out and have
dinner, and blew them off splendidly
Then | began to think about it. ]
didn't seem to me that it was quite RICH
about that $4,000. did not know wher
it was. So went to work looking owe
those books; and l got somebody VIII
knew about such things to help me, an
when we got it Strengthened out foun
that instead of $4,000 profit there ha
been $1,000 loss.
& Here Mr.. Edison leaned back again
bis chair and la,,ohad with e,loo tho we