The Portland daily press., 1894-11-10
EDISON, THE TRUE WIZARD.
A Great Interview With the Greatest
Of all Electricians.

VIII be Able to Fly-InoredibIe Speed
VIII Soon be Obtained.
lCorr. Cincinnati Commercial Gazette.
New York, Oct. &c. Thomas Alva
Edison is the greatest living inventor.
More than this he is the greatest liz
ventor that ever lived. He is many
sided; man of parts. Other men have,
by individual inventions, been revol-
utlonizing powers OH single lines, but
Edison has been such factor in SO
many departments, that it is difficult to
point out the direction in which the in
fuence of his genius ceases to exist. 1T
: is mistake to call him the greatest
electrician. He does not claim that
honor. 1t belongs to Tesla, who was
written of last week, but Edison has
done it all. or nearly all, with the aid
of electricity, the development of which
science was the great opportunity which
created him. Opportunity is a great
creator. 1t created Napoleon. 1t created
Washington. 1t created Wellington,
and yet even in defiance of this Edison
stands forth, for it may be said lie
created the opportunity which created
him. The key to his personality is to
be found in one of his sayings: I'VE
don't know millionth part of one per
cent. about anything" With this idea
in mind, added to indomitable will, and
an unquenohable desire for in INVESTIGATION,
we have the man simply and clearly
defined. Above all things, he knows
himself. and that is the secret of his
success II find," he says, "that the
conceit of a man is in inverse ratio to
the square of his knowledge" An emil
nently scientific exposition of truly cpl
gramatic statement, but it is typical of
him and his method. Would you know
Edison more thoroughly than this, look
to his inventions. They clearly out
line his life. They are the best monu-
ment he could have. No man has done
more, and probably no man will do more
to better the condition of his generation
than Edison has done to better tho con-
dition of his, and yet he says the next
half century will be fully as fruitful of
results as the last has been. This, Gonaa
ing from man whoshass sncceeded III
pefpetuatings thesspeeeh of his generation.
SO that it may be heard through all
succeeding time, who has made light
withous heat. who has made one tele-
graph wire do the work. of sixteen-is
certai My interesting. 1t places him in
the position of a seer-a prophet. Such
being the case it is sill more interesting
IN I,ot 10 L
to say on the future of electrical science
in general.
He breaches IN THE WILDER
NESS.
If you would hear his sermon you
must go to the wilderness. Like the
gratest Oracle of all, he breaches from a
mountain where he has buried himself
and his ideasin great endeavor to con-
quer nature. with science. 1t is a half
days journey out of the city over slow
past fashionable watering places on a
large artificial lake, and up circuitous
mountain path to veritable Jumping
off place among the Orange hills. There
you will find him clad in long linen
buster and dilapidated straw hat, sit
ting on log, perhaps, watching his men
work and musing, for Edison contrary to
some stories about him lounges around
and takes it easy at ttimesre bosoIaroa -,
sWesIie around andste1la funny stories
he saidsuntiI an idea strikes as, e Then
we go to work to carry it our.p sssragoa
Thisgis sample of the inventor life
at Edison for that is the name of the
collection of shanties that surrounds his
works. fs.& ~
The place is a nest of red bull dings
clustered around great hole in the
mountain top. Mr.. Edison went there
three years ago to experiment with his
magnetic ore separator on the iron
strewed mountain rocks. Most of Upper
New Jersey has iron sprinkled through
the soil. 1t is too fine to be mined in the
ordinary way SO out of the brain of the
inventor came the plan for separating
the metal from it's chaff by means of
magnetism. AS an experiment it is
stupendous and if it succeeds it will add
another mark to the long list which is
already. chalked up to his favor. But
speak not of it to him: it is a tabooed
subject at present. When It is success
he will talk of it but not until then. OF
his other affairs and inventions he is
quite willing to speak and he is also
ready to predict something of what the
future of electricity will be-
THE NEXT GREAT DISCOVERY.
What will be the next great discovery
in electricity ?" he was asked.
We'll that" he replied would be lit
tie difficult to reply to. There are so
many lines and so many Of us pursuing
our Investigations on these lines that il
leaves a wide field to choose from. The
fellow who solves his particular problem
first can answer it but not until the
problem is solved. There are more posi-
bilites in some lines than in Others The
experimenters who are striving after
high speed on railroads will if they sue
caad in THAR ohiant heoo1nu raoI on.aL