Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1907-03-13

Wicity eventually Will take the place or
used.
Since he began his experiments in his
modest laboratory close TO half a century
ago Mr.. Edison has not stopped even for
moment. He has gone ON at mad pace
which we wonder any mortal could hold
He has been tireless and unfagging. Hun
dreds of disappointments have stopped him
for the moment, but they never stunned
him; they never set him back. They but
made him stronger and more determined
to gain the object he had In view. Each
failure added fuel TO his genius, for he
ever has kept uppermost the thought Of
try, try again Had not this thought
been dominant perhaps even yet we might
not have known the comforts and the bless
ings of the electric railroad, the kineto-
scope, the phonograph, the quadruplex stele
railroad. a
1t is a matter of history that the phono-
graph was given the world as a complete
ana thrilling success only after failure
In all cases only his almost incredible
working powers and an equally wonderful
for the world to float In cas- and comfort
upon those wonderful things which he has
given to the people fortunate enough to
live In the present century.
PHoNoGRAPH is HIS PET.
While the qnadruplex telegraph is one of
Edison's greatest inventions, so far as
money value is concerned the photograph
is bis pet because he knows what fund
giving the world and also because il is the
greatest scientific wonder of all. 1t makes
the union of sound, motion and matter.
person talks, band plays, or somebody
sings and the sound waves, the moving
air makes tiny waves on the record so that
the same sounds can be reproduced over
ana over again days or years afterward!
The working model of the first. Edison
phonograph is in the laboratory of the
wizard at Llewellyn Park, and only by COM
pairing this with the amazingly perfect ma
chine OF today can one realize the years
OF labor that Mr.. Edison gave to this one
instrument.
Mr.. Edison knew that his general plan
was right, that machine could be made
TO reproduce the vibrations of the human
voice and the tones of musical Instruments
How firm were his beliefs and how strong
were the foundations for them can best be
shown by an Edison photograph, which
stands today among the most marvellous
seen. On the following page, is an illus
tration OF the modernized Ellison phono-
graph; which, however, gives you only a
faint idea OF the instrument as Ii really Is
III you have never seen nor heard one of
these wonderful machines you owe it to
yourself to do so.
MR.. EDISON STILL A HARD WORKER.
Mr.. Edison although go years old, has
not stopped trying yet, nor will he stop
until IL Is physically and mentally impossi-
Bile for him TO go further. The wizard still
bubbles with enthusiasm over his projects
and his plans, which are as yet In their
infancy. Day after day he works with un-
ceasing energy on his new electric storage
battery, which presently Is to reyolutlonize
the wheeled traffic of cities. MIR. Edison
Is working also to produce electric power
directly from coal. When that discovery
Is made the steam engine and boiler will
be driven out of use. 1t will then be pos
sible to have airships, and Mr.. Edison says
he expects to see them flying before his
death, Such discovery will make 1t pos
slbie TO drive great ocean greyhounds across
the sea at the rate of fifty miles an hour
three days across the Atlantic from shore
to shore.
If these things are given to the world
they will come, In part at least, through
the power of Mr.. Edisons brain concentra-
ton, and his ability to 60 daysp without
sleep and almost without food.
SHOUTS "sPEzIA" ron DAYS.
One of Mr.. Edisons assistants tells the
story that In working out the .phonograph
the inventor has spent from fifteen to
twenty hours day for six or seven months
against the wax cylinders In his effort to
have the silibants distinctly reproduced.
The intense and prolonged labor which re-
suited n his new photograph scarcely can
be realized. Let the man who has phono-
graph make record of his own voice re-
producing the word "Spezia' in the ma
chine and he will see at once how success
crowned the efforts of the determined
genius.
Mr. Edison has an amazing memory, but
even great and far reaching as Ii Is he never
is without his note book and he never fails
to jot down Immediately every idea that
hits him, no matter where he may be at
the time IL strikes. He attributes much
of his success to his notes, all of which
he has preserved. He builds his ideas up
one after the other like stone wall, n
note ON one particular subject here on
one page and another on another page being
two necessary steps In his Inventions. De-
casioDaly one finds In running through his
note books the single word "Hurrah," hand
printed clear across the page. This vocifer-
Gus exclamation appears directly under a
minute record of the various stages of prog
ress in the quadruplex system of telegraphy
and the incandescent electric light.
MANY IDEAS THROWN AWAY.
At the bottom of a notation, however,
one sees frequently the talismanc letters