Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1903-01-01
Mr., EDISON ON 1903 0
Tells Dispatch Correspon-
dent What May be Ac-
complished This Year.

NEW YORK, December 1.-(Special.)-
Thomas A. Edison, the great inventor
made the following statement to the Dis
patch correspondent to-day:
81 look for a wonderful year. There is
more activity in science than there mas
ever been before. more men are working
on big problems, and great discoveries
would be only natural.
For myself, my storage battery, on
which I have worked for four years.
will be put on the market In January.
It solves the traction problem, and its
introduction means the horse will have
to go.
81 expect to give up practical inven-
ton for two years. l am going to expert
ment-going to delve into some problems
that | have put by for an idle time. and,
for once, am going to work without nav
ing the production of a commercial COM
modify in view.
II am going into the byways Of science
l prefer not to say what my experiments
will be. Yes. trying to get electricity
direct from coal is one of them.
wireless telegraphy l assuredly expect
to see perfected for commercial purposes
if not fully SO in 1903. at least advanced
toward that end. The right kind Of a
earnest man, and I have confidence In
him.
81 am not interested in the flying ma
chine. I could never see any commercial
use for it. have never had time to
read much about it.
81 expect to see electricity supplant
steam as a motive power. In fifteen years
electricity will be the railway motive
power-1903 will advance it in that di-
rection.
nineteen hundred and three will bring
great advances in surgery, in the study
Of bacteria, in knowledge of the cause
and prevention of diseases.
..Med1cine is played out. Every new dis
coverys of bacteria shows US all more con-
vincingly that we nave been wrong ano
that million tons of stuff we have taken
was all useless.
~ hey may even discover the germ OF
old age. don't predict it, but 1t might
be by the sacrifice of animal life that
human life could be prolonged.
E 1.-THE doctor of the future will give no
medicine, but will instruct his patient
in the care Of the human frame, in diet
and in the cause and prevention of dis
eases.
The great problems of the year are the
problems of fighting bacteria, of getting
power from the elements cheaply, and
in many uses Of electricity in manufac-
lures.
Newspapers are among the great
agents that will grow better in 1903 and
in the years to come. They are the grea,
school, They are getting better, they are
printing more science. and paying more
attention to things that benefit and i'm
prove humanity.
There will be few more wars. The
world seems to be tending to peace. We
should have a great navy, one three
times as large as at present-not to fight
but to have ready in case there should
be a fight. A great navy is one of the
greatest stimulants to science.
Eve are only in the infancy of electric
ity. It's possibilities no man can dream
any more than man fifty years ago.
could have foretold what we have to-
day. Little discoveries like Roetgen anc
Bacquerei rays and similar things, viii
lead to great things-wllat, cannot be
told Just now.
Books of to-day are more to my liking
than the old books. It is SO with paint
ing. 1t is great time, great things are
being done and it is impossible to pro-
phesy. Better health, greater enlight-.
eminent, better facilities for living are be-
ing placed in our reach with every day."