The Portland daily press., 1893-09-21
EDISON TALKS.
Tells of His Inventions and His Tribula-
tions.

ttObS.
Wizard" Edison is at the fair He
was found eating sandwich in thesagri-
cultural building today, and gave this
very interesting interview:
Il arrived in Chicago Monday night
l came in quietly, not wishing to let
anyone know of my arrival. When ]
was in Paris in 1889 was awfully bored.
There is always lot of people who
want to show me something that don't
want to see. For the last twenty years
/ have been making exhibitions at fairs.
have displayed my inventions III Cape
Town, Rio Janeiro, Turin, Natal, Rus
STA, France, Germany, Cincinnati, New
Orleans, London and every place that
has ever boosted of an exposition. |
have made no show at the Worlds Fair.
originally intended to, and worked
on the kinetograph, an entirely new
thing, day and night for long time
My chief assistant was taken i'll, and
finally determined to save myself even
if I made no exhibit Then l was tired
of it. I had no time for recreation when
/ visited an exposition. | needed rest
this year, and determined to see this great
show at my ease. So far have sue
ceeded very well. / have not been within
10 feet of any portion of the electricity
building, and / have no intention OF go
ing there. The first splace went to was
the Mines and Mining building. | have
given up experimenting in electricity,
and my whole time is now devoted to
metalurgy, not that think electricity
is exhausted as a source of invention;
no, not by any means; but I am not go
ing to have anything to do again with
anything that have to get patent Oh.
Pioneering in any line of Invention does
not pay. There is no protection for the
inventor in the courts of the United
States; that is why have been fghtin
for thirty or forty patents that / own
In all these have been sustained in
but two The rest will probably be sus-
tanned ten OF. fifteen years after the. patent
rights expire. 1t is not that the patent
laws are not right; it is because the
inventor can get no stisfaction except
by some defendant paying the inventor
by sheer accident. The inventing bust
ness is poor trade anyhow. If he gets
money it goes in litigation. The CAPT.
talists he has to fight have money enough
to hold out for years, where he can
stand the expense for days only. Then
vention into practical use and paid the
inventor in the corporations stock al
ways slice from his share when they get
into litigation on the score of patents,
until finally his stock is all gone, and
either one set of capitalists or the other
have got the advantage of his mental
toll and years of hard labor.
this country deluded with the idea that
the patent protects, but the best linven-
tors, those who really have accomplished
something are going out of business.
The same energy he expends in his
laboratory and work shop applied else
where will net him much larger gains.
For long time tried to obtain cleo
tricity from coal. got very good results
Tor awhile and felt very much satisfied.
I saw, however, that it would require
several more years of experiment, and
gave up. I was thoroughly tired of
this sand-bagging by infringers and
want of protection in the, courts, and
ended my experiments then and there,
and have since devoted my time to the
metals. When way is found to get
electricity direct from coal then will
mark new era in the advancement of
mankind.
6" have new model monograph
that will be brought out in a short
while An invention that is entirely
new, and on which am just putting
the finishing touches is the kinetograph.
This is to the eye what the phonograph
is to the ear By this machine figures
can be perfectly reproduced. To make
this machine 1 had to take 46 pictures
a second This is equal to the capacity
of the eye. Ten or twenty. or even thirty
pictures a second would snow the move
ments of the arm, for instance, in jerks,
but with 46 photographs second the
arm is seen to rise just as the human
eve sees it and with the same speed.
"a com bination of the phonograph and
the kinetograph, which I shall probably
call the phono-kinetograp have also
in course of construction. This will
show mans every motion and the like
ness will speak l have always used
great many sapphires in the manufac-
fure of monographs. They are very
expensive and sometimes very hard to
procure at all / analysed the chemical
composition of the sapphire, and find
ing out what it was, started to make
sapphires.. I now make all that use.
I can make rubies for S. a pound that In
beauty far exceed the genuine
I look at the fair from this standpoint.
No man who makes a living by his in.
tellect can afford to stay away from it.
I put it on a business basis. find new
ideas of motion and many other things
in everything see. 1t is all study Tor
me- "-Chicago Special to St. Louis Globe
Democrat.