The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-08-10
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START OF AN INVENTOR. =
Edison Tells Of His Early strus.
9Des and M1s Elrsf Smeeess


Edison Tells Of His Early Strug. .
sles and His First Success. .
. . . . y . . . - . y
James Creelman. In Pearson's Mara.
zine.
Turning from the sweep and glitter
OF American prosperity to the men who
have made It possible, one thinks of
Thomas Alva Edison. His is 1.-The
honest life. the useful life, the friend
ly life," that deserves earnest atten-
ton In this astonishing year of moral
incendiarism. n
I'VE are cropping on the verge of an
other great epoch in the worlds his
tory" he said to me not long ago. at
would not surprise me any morning
to wake up and learn that someone,
or some group, Of the 300, 900 scienti-
nc men who are investigating all over
the earth has seized the secret of cleo
tricity by direct process, and begun
another practical revolution of human
ahairs. 1t can be done. It will be
done. l expect to see 1t before die.
expect to see airships flying before
my death. Such discovery will make
1t possible to drive ships across che
sea by electricity at rate of 40 or
80 miles an hour-three days across
the Atlantic from shore to shore.
worked as Western Union op-
orator In Detroit, Memphis, Louisville
and Boston," said Mr.. Edison, "and
all the time studied and experimental
with electricity. The first serious
thing invented was an electrical ma
chine to count votes in congress.
had been handling press reports as an
operator, and l noticed it took long
time to count the votes after each roll
call. My machine would show the
total vote few seconds after the roll
call. thought the device was good
one, and think so now. But when
went to Washington and showed it
to the chairman Of the committee he
said: Young man. that works all
right, but it's the last thing on earth
we want here. Filibustering and q de-
lay in the count of the vote are often
the only means we have for defeating
bad legislation was sorry; but I
ought to have thought of that before.
my next practical invention was the
Quadruplex telegraph. I started in to
work it ON the Atlantic and Pacific
telegraph line between Rochester and
New York. But there was chump at
the other end Of the wire and the
demonstration ended in a fizzle. 1t
was years before the quadruplex was
adopted. Then joined hands with a
man named Callahan. and we got up
several improved types of stock-tick-
ers. These improvements were a sue
cess. When the day of settlement for
my inventions approached l began to
wonder how much money would get.
was pretty raw and knew nothing
about business. but hoped that I
migAt get $4,000. l dreamed of what
l could do with big money like that,
of the tools and other things could
buy to work out new inventions. But
knew Wall street to be pretty bad
place. and had general suspicion that
man was apt to get beat out of his
money there. So tried to keep my
hopes down; but the thought of $1,000
kept rising in my mind.
Well, one day I was sent for by the
president of the Gold & Stock Tele-
graph company to talk about settle
ment for my improvements. He was
General Marshall Lefferts, Colonel of
the Seventh Regiment l tell you, I
was trembling all over with embarass-
ment, and when l go in his presence
my vision of $4,000 began to vanish.
When he asked me how much l want