The Portland daily press., 1895-12-31
EDlsoN's FIRST BIG CHECK.
So Large That He Thought 1t Couldn't Be
Good.

Among the many inventions that
A. Edison was the instrument generally
known as the ticker-the little clicking
glass covered affair that one sees nova
days reeling off Its yards and yards of
paper ribbon bearing on the surface in
clear letters the baseball score, the re-
oughbre of the Eastern tracks and
much importanJ news.
1t is only within recent years that we
have had this development of the ma
chine that was originally intended to
give to speculators in stock markets a
line on how their money was going and
coming.
MIR. Edison, however, isn't collecting
royalties on the tickers turned out by
the manufacturers, and to few persons
is the fact known that the man who
evolved the electric light, the telephone,
the kaleidoscope and numerous other
wonders of the century is identical with
the inventor of the original ticker. This
comparatively insignificant work of the
Wizard was the means by which he OBJ
| tanned the first money beyond his salary
as telegraph operator. To Larty of
his friends who entertained him one
evening recently in the rooms Of the
Arion Society, Mr.. Edison related how
he sold the patent rights.
"When came to New York to sell my
invention, Mr.. Edison said. ST was
largely in doubt as to its value. knew
it was useful oontriyance, but it was
with some difidence that I entered til 9
I opened negotiations for it's disposal
AS boy had often longed to possess
| SIS, ZOO. and had a good mind to hold
out for that much money, though I felt
secretly that would be doing we'll to
get 50, 600. So when the manufacturer
patent rights, I stammered and asked
how much he was willing to pay.
| g Come around In the morning. he
said, and ] went home to dream about
that S., 600 was going to geJ-perhaps
| When l saw him in the morning he said
with a take -that-or- nothing air Of deter
mil.ation:
we have decided to pay you $40, 900
not cent more.
81 almost tainted, but in less than five
minutes stuck my name to a contract
and was out in the street looking in a
half dazed way at a check in my hand
Payable to the order Of Thomas A. Edi-
son forty Thousand dollars ($4O, O,000).'
Then began to think, and the $40, 600
seemed like $40, 100000, and said to my
self: Tom, you've been swindled. The
check is not good And when I went
to the bank-I had never been inside of
one to do any business-and presented
the check I was not surprised when the
teller scrutinized 1t, glanced at me and
pushed it back with shake of the head
and remark that was too excited to
understand. but concluded that my fears
were confirmed. So l stuffed it IN my
pocket and went to see friend, to whom
1 related my experience.
Let's see the check he said. why,
that's all right. You must be identified, ,
and we went back to the bank. The
cashier knew my friend and the money
| was soon counted out. Still wasn't
sure was awake until I began to feel
and hear the snap Of the new bank notes.
1t was big bundle of money, and 1
stuck some of it in every pocket, SO that
almost everywhere put my hand l could
feel it bullying out
''When went to the hotel that night
do you tnink took my clothes off? Not
much. l slept in them, so / wouldn't
wake up and find that it was all cruel
DIRE am. New York Press