The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1893-02-23

I'LL, eeAu uluu tuIuk any more dUOu
it. By and by would get notice from
the bank saying my note had gone tt
protest. and there would be $1.50 or s:
fees to pay. Well, that didn't bother
me; | thought that was their way of no
tifying me that the time had come fol-
me to pay the note. So would go Out
and skirmish around to get the money
pay the note, fees and all, and was per
fectly happy. For years Idon't suppose
ever paid note that hadn't already
gone to protest. Still, everybody was
willing to take my note. Sometimes
some importunate fellow would get a
little anxious, and that meant only pay
ing the Sheriff $5 day to stand around
in the factory"
Again Mr.. Edison laughed as he re-
called these earlier financial experiences.
When he stopped laughing said to him
'But now" and I looked at the incan-
descent lamp, the luxurious home and
the evidence of wealth, and cast my eye
toward the laboratory which of itself
represents fortune.
Mr.. Edison understood my meaning;
he simply nodded his head and said, "Of
course, y meaning by that that a man
who has created hundreds of millions for
himself and others must abandon prim-
tive methods of financiering and be
controlled by business habits.
Returning to the subject of his cam
paigns, Mr.. Edison said
''After the quadruplex telegraph idea
l began my telephone campaign, and l
worked very, very hard upon that" He
did not refer to the fact that, unbe-
known to him, Mr.. Bell had already ac-
quired the right of precedence, nor to
the further fact that by reason of the
tions for the use of the telephone the
Edison and Bell interests were practi-
cally harmonized. 1t was not necessary
since that is a matter of history.
81 invented the earlier phonograph
about this time and saw the possibilities
of its commercial development, but l
did not take up that campaign until
afterward, putting it aside to begin my
electric light campaign. That was be-
gun, think, in 1878, and it lasted for
more than two years. The work l put
into this was as much as could possibly
do day in and day out. Some of the
difficulties were enormous"
"You have waited a long time for the
determination of the Supreme Court
confirming to you the patent. 1t must
have been something of an agggrava
ton. not only to have to put up with
the protracted litigation, but to see
what the Supreme Court now calls in
Engagements of your patents SO generally
used" I suggested.
just at this moment Mr.. Edison's
youngest child, a little girl, perhaps of
three, with golden curls and fair blue
eyes, came running up to her father and
made known some childish wish. He
put his hand softly upon her head, not
otherwise indicating that he knew that
she was near him. The recollections of
the litigations extending for ten years,
and terminated now when the life of the
original patent is near expiration, caused
him to speak with much seriousness and
something like pathos in his tone. He
said:
I'm all the litigations brought by me
requiring defense of my patents l have
meyer won a single one but this one,
which affirms my right to the incandes-
cent light patent. have taken out a
great many patents and filed many APP
plications. 1t has cost me 100000 to
defend my rights and most of that money
represents dead loss. / am therefore
somewhat out of favor with this patent
business. do not find that it gives a
man protection. do not think l shall
have anything more to do with the
Patent Office. l shall protect my mechan-
ical ideas in another way, and | am not
the only one who has been subjected to
great losses, great delays and most vex-
atious embarrassments through our
patent system. l do not find that it
gives any man any certainty of protec-
tion."
''After your incandescent light cam
paign, as you speak of it, was ended,
you began another?''
''Oh, yes. l then took up the phono-
graph, perfected it, made it of CONNER
cial availability, but that was simply
finishing a postponed campaign. My
first new work after the incandescent
light was finished was with what was
called the ore concentration, and / am
still engaged in this campaign You
know the New Jersey mountains to the
west of here contain practically mex
haustible stores of magnetic iron. This
iron is unlike any other iron ore. 1t
takes four tons of the ore to produce one
| ton of iron, but saw long while ago
| that if some method of extracting this
ore could be devised which would put
| the iron upon the market, an enormous
worked now for seven years upon this
problem: / have been able by my meth
DDS and machinery to extract this mag
netic ore, but l have recently deter
mined to abandon all the methods which
have heretofore been used, and to I'M
dertake an entirely different system
There were ten principal details to bt
mastered, and have already discovered
the methods to be adopted with eight o
them Two-tenths of this problem now
remain to be solved, and l have aban
doned my winter trip to Florida, ant
have been spending weeks in the Arctic
like atmosphere of these mountains up
on this campaign, and shall continue i
until have won it. Oh, know it cal
be done; it is just as certain OF beinl
solved as was the problem of the electro
light. When it is, its commercial posi-
bilities are enormous"
When his work is done and the prob
lem solved, he will be able to erect
plant in the Jersey mountains whicl
will be capable of handling 10000 ton
of ore day with two shifts of men, fiv
in shift.
HIS NEXT EFFORTS.
ssYou speak as though this campaig