The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-12-09
THE SON OF HIS FATHER.
Young Edison Is Already Making HE
Mark as an Inventor.
Philadelphia Press.

Thomas A Edison, jr., has entered the
field as an electrician, and will in future
devote himself to the study of the great
force. Young Edison has spent much OF
his time in the laboratory of his father Tor
several years past, and it is said that he has
played on important part in the expert
Edison has startled the world.
Last August the young man started cur
in the worlds noisy traffic. To-day he has
an Office in a big Broadway building, ana
the big electrical manufacturing companies
with the long titles and the capital or many
millions are studying this young man with
great care, while pretending that they are
not aware of his existence.
This is a very hollow pretense, however,
for he has attacked them In their own
strongholds. He has invented device
which. he says. Is only the first of q series
of improved appliances In various lines OK
electrical work 1t is an incandescent lamp.
similar to the one now in use to the inex-
perienced eye, but possessing, 1t is said,
many advantages He calls II the Edison
Junior" with conscious pride and claims
for It superiority over all others In the I'M
portant details of vacuum and flament.
To achieve these results the young man
designed his own pump, and says that with
1t he can exhaust ten lamps to q nigh de-
gree of perfection In less time :han is re-
quired by the ordinary vacuum pumps gem
orally used to exhaust one lamp. The MIA
ment is his own invention also-a chemical
combination carbonized at 1900 degrees
Fahrenheit, making it as near absolutely
pure carbon as 1t is possible TO obtain.
CurlOuSly enough, neither the pump nor luo
flament has been patented.
my fathers experience has taught me
to steer clear OF the Patent Office. He
has taken out scores of patents but he
has spent as much money and time fight
ing to uphold them. / guess, as they are
worth. I'm going to keep my ideas to my
a patent any time"
Undoubtedly young Edison believes in
secrecy The ideas f9 this lamp b came ne
quietly stored them up against a rainy
to excellent use. He told me he had shown
was completed and on the market
Young Edison is highly gratiied with
the, result Of his business venture His
ing to do with this lamp, yet it Is be-
ing manufactured and sold in large
quantities The young man de, declined to
from. but as he speaks Of travellers on their
way to South America, of Pacific coast
agencies and of the japanese and Chinese
trade, it is to be presumed that large
amounts are interested and the big COM
panies employing his respected father must
"As soon as this lamp is fairly start
ed in a business way, he said,- IT am
going to work on several ideas which
startling, I think. You see, 1 spent
nearly nine years with my father, and
it would be funny If 1 hadn't picked up
a few things that may result in some
The young man was with his father when
the cabied news reached him of the discov-
cry of the x rays, and when for nnety-six
hours without a break, they experimental
with the new force. He was concerned in
the subsequent work in this line taking
part in many of the !, 500 tests which fixed
upon tungstate or calcium as the chemical
for the microscope.
The Edison iron-mining process, which
has recently been exploited, also took much
of the young mans time He followed each
step in the evolution of the perfected ma
chinery which extracts ore by magnetism,
and spent many weeks at the plant now in
operation in New Jersey.