The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-07-23
THE ELECTRICAL WIZARD.
Something of the Methods and Opin-
ions of Thomas A. Edison.

AO1S u AlO4AAeNS n 1SNAlbOAs
c. D. Lanier In the Review of Reviews
His genius comes near to iustifying that
definition of the word which makes 1t an
infinite capacity for taking pains. care
your discoveries often brilliantintuitions
DO they come to you while you are lying
awake nightsN" ! asked him.
II never did anything worth doing by
accident" he replied, NOR did any of my
inventions come indirectly through acct
dent, except the monograph. No when
l have fully decided that result is worth
getting, 20 ahead on it and make trial
after trial until it comes
II have always kept continued Mr..
Edison, "strictly within the lines of com
mercially useful inventions Ihave never,
had any time to put on electrical wonders,
valuable simply as novelties to catch the
popular fancy And he named in dis
tinction some noted electricians who had
made their regulations through the py-
rotechnics Of the profession.
MIR. EDISON HATES A TELEPHONE.
''What makes you work." I asked with
real curiosity. "What impels you to this
constant, tireless struggle You have
shown that you care comparatively moth
ing for the money il makes, and you have
no particular enthusiasm in the attending
fame"
II like it ." he answered, after moment
of puzzled expression, and then he repeat
ed his reply several times as if mine was
proposition that had not occurred to
him before. Il like it. l don't know any
other reason. You know some people
like to collect stamps Anything | have
begun is always on my mind, and / am
not easy while away from it until it is
finished And then / hate it,.
- I 4 Ii
phatic tones
yes" he affirmed "when is is all
done and is a success, ! can't bear the
sight of it. ] haven't used a telephone in
ten years, and ! would 20 out of my way
any day to miss an incandescent light"
HIS PLACE AMONG THE woRLD's SCIENTISTS.
1t might seem an infelicitous place for
such a heading-in the midst Ola discus
sion of his business relations, but his
achievements cannot be separated from
commerce. He is an inventor, not dis
coverer of underlying laws and mathe-
NAUTICAL formulas. The keynote of his
work is commercial utility. He is willing
to make mathematics, pure science, his
servant: but as an end in itself, he has
no taste for it, He sees in every idea that
ever taxed his brain a direct, immediate
worth to the people about him, though it
may not be within the limits of human
imagination to comprehend the extent of
that worth. The masses of his fellows
and their needs are regarded in every test
in every experiment, in the most daring
new conception and in the most homely
Improvement alike. He asks himself
when a new idea is suggested: "Will
this be valuable from the industrial point
of view? viii it do some important thing
better than existing methods N'1And then,
if the answer is clearly affirmative, Can
/ carry it out}" He is not so much a seeker
CINE after truth as he is mighty engine
for the application of scientific truths
through unexpected and marvellous chan
nels, to the fight we are making lin the
patient modern way" He is an
inventor purely, and the greatest Of
his race. One might call him the demo-
crat of science.
PRACTICAL SPEED On RAILWAYS.
The possible speed is to be limited only
by the problems of the cohesion of steel
in the rails and engines. / asked Mr. Ed
ison what, in his opinion, was the practi-
cal speed limit on the horizon of electri-
cal locomotion and he answered, per
haps $50 miles an hour" He made at
MeulO Park one Of the first important ex-
periments in electrical railways, exhibit
ing one in 1882 that carried cars 40 miles
per hour But before we come to moving
heavy trains by electricity, to which
there are serious, though not0insuperable,
obstacles, he believes that we shall shoot
our mail though the country by some
electrical device, of telpherage construc-
ton possibly.