Birmingham age-herald., 1894-10-28

which IS 1eetihg, might have . differ. ent GQpneetsop thap what the poet gavaaI be colored, q course, but after the fact, fer the ihventQr hos pot yet e1-i psrimented 6n coiored phot6graphs, and has no intention, So far, of doing So. Gan such and such a thing be done, MT. Edison?' you may ask him. d0ne,S he viii fepiy, when q map says that, he simply means that he car,- not do it. We are not infa1lible." i
 He is unaffected by the theories which have come from France regard ing New York state's system of "Eleo- trocution.' p'Arsenyal, the French scientist, thinks, or intimates, that men are not killed by high currents such as are used at Sing Sing. Edison, the American scientist, thinks they are killed. D'Arsenyal speaks of men who have been resuscitated after being heavily shocked by the current. Edi-, son points to the list of men who have been killed by it through accident. The 'llSb lS IOuk uOW dlio OI0 DIcCtutub Co- abolished is strong. However, he says that the way for the Frenchmen to prove their theories is for them to take the man who is first shocked to a hos pital and make test of reviving him. If he recovers they will prove their point. As to the statement that the "electrocuted" men may really have fbeen killed by the post mortem knife and not by the current. he thinks it absurd. This ought to comfort those physicians who have performed autop- sies on the electrocuted men.
 "There are enough young doctors, hanging around the hospitals to make, a thorough test of it," said he. Near ly all the men who have been killed by electricity have received the current through their hands. All the marks on them after the current have been a little white spot on each hand. When, the first men were electrocuted ad-i vised them to put electrodes on the hands and feet. They had all the ex- perience they needed from the acci- dents that had occurred. But no, they must put them on the back of the neck because cluster of nerves centered in that region. They burnt the men and now I see they have come down to adopting the suggestion made. Prac-, tical experience is better than theory every time.
 ''My'frst invention, The replied, when asked about it, "was vote recorder. had witnessed the frauds that went lon at political meetings and thought if I could do away with some of it I would be doing mankind favor. I went to work and invented system by means of which each member of g legislative body could, by moving a switch on his desk to right or left, register his name on sheet of paper under.the ayes or nays The paper in the machine would of course be out of reach, but in full view of the audi .enoe. took it to convention and to some politicians. We'll, they would not even look at it, and far from con- sidering it benefit to the country, they said it would become curse; for it would take away the only power. the minority would have In a meeting. The majority would always rule, that settled it. I made up my mind never, to invent anything the public did not want and I have held strictly to that rule ever since''
 MT. Edison's face lit up as he said this reminded him of funny story which he proceeded to tell with many gestures and general facial contortion which wonderfully added to the point of the tale; but as it concerned several public officials he said it must not be printed. From this he ranged to dis, cussion on long distance transmission of electricity. Then he branched off into discussion of the commercial possibilities of the utilization of Mag ara falls as power for producing elec-, tricity. Meanwhile messengers came. from various parts of the works to re. ceive directions, or perhaps one of the. company's officials would ask him to settle dispute. Then he would show how we'll he understood the manage ment of men by the diplomatic man- der in which he received and settled the complaint. e
 And now what of the man? We have seen the inventor, the electrician, the scientist, but what of the man himself? In spite of his "eighty-two years" of experimentation, Thomas Ava Edison was born in 1S47. He is therefore forty-seven years old. He is mainly of Dutch descent and traces his ancestors back to the men who fought and bled on Manhattan island when it was a wilderness. His father was Samuel Edison, his mother was Mary Elliott. Their great son first saw the light in the little town of Milan, o. Itcan be located on the map as lying. on the thin line which indicates the Milan canal. The latter was the scene of much traf- fc until the Lake Shore road came and