The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-02-10
INVENTOR aRAY's METHODS.
His Work Enriched other Men Than
Himself.


Prof. Elisha Gray, the inventor of the
telephone and the owner of a brain which
was the means of making millionaires OF
twenty men. one of the greatest inven-
tors of the century, found himself q
poor man at sixty-five. and in the very
shadow of the palaces of some of the
men who had feasted from the products
of his brains he lived in humble house.
the half of whose rooms and tables we're
shared by day boarders, who pay the
regulation price of the weekly meal tick
ct. He could sit In his place in High
land Park. ILL.,, and call the names of a
score Of powers in the world of finance
who have caught him in a corner. found
him without penny, and fooled him into
selling his patents for a song. The pitifui
lament of his latter days is that he did
not have a conservator appointed when
he had money.
Prof. Gray knew his failing better than
anyone else. He made fortunes and spent
them. He never had any considerable
amount of money that he did not think it
was enough to last forever. It never oc-
CURED to him to be a scientist for money.
He never looked for any return save the
fame. He once spent year in deysing a
plan for an improvement in the work OF
the telephone. The improvement was
caught up on sight. 1t brought him a
check for $4,000. He thought this was
enough to last him the balance OF his life.
He ordered his wife and family to pack the
trunks. They sailed for Europe the next
week. There was nothing too good or
expensive for them to buy. They brought
home pictures, statuary, and art treas
ures. and the home was decorated like a
palace.
This season of extravaganza was follow
ed by one OF reduced circumstances. The
professor became filled with an idea that
1T would be practicable to send an auto
graph messages by telegraph. The plan
took so much of his time that he forgot
to pay the grocer and the butcher. The
barn on his homee;e ID became his study.
He borrowed all the money he could get
his friends to loan him. This went for
wires, batteries, and machinery. He be-
came so filled with the scheme on his
mind that time and again he was carried
by his station in his trips 10 Chicago for
material. He lived like a man in a per-
petual dream. The men who knew him
knew that something great was to trans
pire. They waited.
THE time to deal with Gray Is when be
is dreadfully hard up" said the president
of one of the Geographic companies. 1T
is never good business to make him an
offer when he has money. He has now on
the string an invention which is going to
revolutiOnize telegraphy. He wants q big
price for his idea. which is in practical
working order. His figures are away up.
The thing to do is to wait until his bills
get away up. He Will then sell fcr
song"
The professor spent a year In lmproy-
ing a bicycle lamp. The improvement
was quickly gobbled up by a man who had
money and paid cash-the smallest posi-
bic fraction of its actual worth. This
trait, possibly more than his greatness,
made him one of the most sought after
men in Chicago. His neighbors were most
solicitous about him. Men of money had
been keeping the tabs on his habits for
a quarter of century. He said that he
had more friends after a long season of
and study than at other
times. He thought he was watched like
vultures watch a feeding ground. His
friends increased as the evidences Of his
increased.
There were two years in which he was
working over the telautograph that he
did not have 4 caller. The moment he
put the thing to an actual test his house
was thronged with people who were so
intensely interested in him that he could
find no time for his reLearch. company
was organized. A majority of the stock
was sold in New York. His little share
has since disappeared. The company
which now controls the invention has
about brought 1t to actual perfection, and
Prof. Gray got nothing.
This sort of thing has been going on so
long that he came to expect it. He first
met hard luck in 1875. He had spent years
in his laboratory improving his plan of
the speaking telephone. He had the thing
perfected and sent the caveat to Washing
ton. There was a leak in the Patent Office
A man who had filed his application some
months before called and withdrew it, He
said he wanted to make some notifications
In his specifications. The very plans in
Prof Grays papers were Incorporated in
his own. lawsuit followed between the
despite the best he could do. All he got /
was right to collect royalty on certain !
parts. He profited by this for a time and
was then fooled out Of 1t.
His recent plan OF invention embraced |
conviction that electricity can be produced !
without eXtraneous aid, such as steam. He |
insisted that the energy obtained from |
,oal through steam will be turned direct |
" into electricity He claimed that too |
much of the latent energy is lost in the /
transformation, and that tho |
iirect results will be sooner or later OBJ
aimed without the waste Of force.
Time and time again he tried to utilize
he electrical currents in the air. He |
lbandoned that theory. He said that the |
'orce manifested in the air is the result |
II n conflict OF natural force, and exists /
N the air as a form OF energy. 1t may |
nave been light or heat before 1t was
hanged to electricity. He did not think |
t could ever be turned back into electrici-
y for the generation OF power.
His wiser Attitude.
,Er,p, fhc pbiIadeIni,is press