Birmingham age-herald., 1894-10-28
GREATEST OF INVENTORS
A Most Important Interview with
 Thomas A. Edison.
The Future of Electric1ty-The ssWizard of hIenio Park" Turns Prophet Wonderful Things to Come
 The BHaryels He Predicts.
looPYRrcHT, Ise4.l

lCoPYRrcHT, 1Se4l
 Thomas Alva Edison is the greatest living inventor. More than this, he Is the greatest inventor that ever lived. He is many sided; man of parts. Other men have, by individual inven- tions, been revolutionizing powers on single lines, but Edison has been such factor in so many departments that 1t is difficult to point out the direction in which the influence of his genius ceases to exist. It is a mistake to call him the greatest electrician. He does not claim that honor It belongs to Tesla, who was written of last week, but Edison has done it all, or nearly all, with the aid of electricity, the develop ment of which science was the great opportunity which created him. Op- portunity is great creator. It created Napoleon. It created Washington. It created Wellington, and yet even in defiance of this, Edison stands forth, for it may be said that he created the opportunity which created him. The key to his personality is to be found in one of his sayings: ''We don't know millionth part of one per cent. about anything" With this idea in mind added to indomitable will, and an un- quenchable desire for investigation, we have the man simply and clearly de- fined. Above all things, he knows himself and that is the secret of his success. 'I fnd," he says, "that the conceit of man is in inverse ratio to the square of his knowledge" An emil nently scientific exposition of truly epigrammatic statement but it is typi- cal of him and his method.
 Would you know Edison more thor oughly than this, look to his inven- tions They clearly outline his life. They are the best monument 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 the condition of his, and yet he says the next half century will be fully as fruitful of re- suits as the last has been. This, com ing from man who has succeeded in perpetuating the speech of his genera tion so that 1t may be heard through all succeeding time; who has made light without heat; who has made one telegraph wire do the work of sixteen is certainly interesting. It places him in the position of a seer-a prophet. Such being the case it is still more in- teresting to learn what such an oracle would have to say on the future of electrical science in general.
 If you would hear his sermon you must go to the wilderness. Like the greatest Oracle of all, he breaches from mountain where he has buried him. self and his ideas in great endeavor to conquer nature with science. 1t is half days journey out of the city over slow-going railroads, along inland k waterways, past fashiss4s6le watering Iplacasua1n Artificial lake, and up ous mountain path to verita- ping off place among the Ills. There you will find him \g linen duster and dilapi- " hat, sitting on a log, per ling his men work, and r Edison, contrary to some
 him, lounges around and Rt times.
 round and tell funny
 Es, "until an idea strikes
 Io to work and carry it
 le of the inventors life
 hat is the name of the
 nties that surrounds
 est of red buildings
 great hole in the
 Edison went there
 Eperiment with his
 etor on the iron
 rocks. Most of
 s iron sprinkled
 Is too fine to be
 way, so out of
 tor came the
 metal from its
 etism- As an
 pus, and if it
 her mark to
 ldy chaliked
 not of it to
 t present.
 ak of it,
 er affairs
 Hing to
 predict
 1f cleo
 aiscov-
 be
 re so
 .ing
 it
 he