The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-07-27
Thomas A. Edison in the Circle.

Thomas A. Edison in the Circle.
 | WAS still doing my work news boy on the Grand Trunk when the \ train stopped one day at the Mount Clemens station for freight. AS it usually stayed for half an hour I had improved my time by making several acquaintances in the neighborhood of the depot On this occasion I was strolling about the sta- ton when I noticed Jemmy, the little 9 year-old son or J. U. Mackenzie, the sta tionmaster. Jemmy and I were great friends. He was bright little fellow and we used to enjoy some lively romps to- gether. was about to call to him when I saw that the train had begun switch ing. Some of the cars were left at the northern end of the track while the mainder, some 12 or 15. with the engine were backed on to the freight house siding. Here a large baggage car was standing, filled with freight of various descriptions and waiting to be coupled on to the train. The engineers purpose was to give this car a sufficient push to send it down the track by It's own mo- mentum until it reached the other section on the northern end.
 Of course, Jemmy was unaware of the situation, and when glanced toward him again, just as the baggage car was started forward, I saw to my horror that he was sitting between the rails. directly in it's path. It was too late to shout to him. Before he could be warned of his danger he would be crushed under the heavy wheels With the little fellows bright, sunny smile before me made desperate resolve. Running down the platform l sprang on to the track before the rum bling car and jerked the boy from under its wheels just in time to save his life. It was so sudden that I didn't realize my own danger and, of course, I didn't take any especial credit for the exploit, for l think that almost any one with any heart
 would have done the same thing But 1t
 made the father very grateful and he be-
 gan to think of way to show his appre-
 ciation. He was poor man and could
 not give me money. What could he do?
 Then he remembered my fondness for
 telegram phy, and, to my great surprise and delight, offered to teach me how to be- come an operator. At last the dream of my boyhood was to be realized You
 may believe that I worked hard those
 days, still keeping on with my duties as
 newsboy during the regular run and com ing back in the evening to take my lesson
 in telegraphy.
 From the very first think the idea of improving the telegraph was before me. The telegraph line of that period was rather crude and cumbersome The du
 plex telegraph was just in its infancy and ouadruplex telegraphy was still dream. | Of course, with my youthful enthusiasm soon mastered the rudiments of the key | and began to make satisfactory progress l in the work of operator. Before I was IT | was fullfedged telegrapher and talk l ing as much pleasure in my work, think, 1 as the average boy of that age gets out Of baseball or football. Of course. this kind of life stimulated my mechanical faculties.
 so that I began to absorb every fact I could find in relation to electricity. 1 But my love for chemistry would not
 put into retorts and test tubes and | chemicals.
 l My first invention-that is, the first that ! brought mo to the patent office-was an
 electrical vote recorder, which my boyish
 dream imagined would revolutionize the 1 parliamentary procedure of Congress. It | was a rather simple contrivance. When the apparatus was installed in the House I of Representatives each member of Con- gross would find two buttons on his desk,
 one labeled "aye' and the other nay" On the desk of the speaker there would
 be a square frame containing two dials. One was for the affirmative votes, the other for the negative, and below each heading were spaces in which the number 1 of ballots would be indicated For in-
 stance, when congressman voted nay if he were the fifth man. tho number '5' appeared on the indicator. If he voted aye a similar result appeared on the other dial Thus 1t was possible to