Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1910-07-06
new news OF YESTERDAY
First Attempts at Bookkeeping
of Thomas A. Edison.
Wizards Two Spikes for "What Is
Owed Me" and "What Owe"
Discarded When He Be-
came Rich.
BY E. j. EDWARDS.

BY E. j. EDWARDS.
Thomas A. Edison now knows the
value of money, the independence and
the sense Of power which it gives.
But there was time in his early ex-
perience when he had no other con-
ception of money than that it was
good thing to have in the pocket, so
that it could be taken out and spent
whenever any of it was needed.
Soon after Edison had perfected his
incandescent light, he found himself
in the possession of capital for the
first time in his life. That light,
within ten years after it was perfect
ed, brought him a capital of some
100000. When he told me this |
asked him if he handled his accounts
and looked after his money with the
same systematic method which char
acterized his pursuit Of science. He
smiled for a moment as though some
amusing recollection had come to
him.
WELL" he said, "I know now how
to secure competent assistants who
will look carefully and accurately
after the business end Of my under
takings. But there was a time when
I was as green about such things as
a boy who hoes corn upon pralrles
would be. That was when had re-
ceived several thousand dollars IN
part payment for my microphone
transmitter patent, which, as you
know, aided vitality the perfecting OF
the telephone.
This was the first big money SO
to speak, that I had ever possessed,
and with it | decided to establish my
own plant and laboratory and begin
work upon the other things | had in
mind. Sc / secured a place in Jersey
City, equipped it and started to work.
"I was pretty much the whole
thing about the plant | figured out
that the best way for me to keep my
accounts was the simplest; so | had
two spikes made, each about the
thickness of an ordinary telegraph
wire, sharp at one end and stuck at
the other end into leaden support
or base. Upon one of these lead
bases I pasted a strip of paper upon
which ] had linked these words:
What is owned me- Upon the other,
I pasted another slip Of paper, upon
which l had written the words: What
I owe. One stood at one side of my
desk, and the other at the opposite
corner What was owed me was at
my right hand, because that was OF
more consequence.
80, when l had done and sold
piece of work, I stuck memorandum
upon the spike to tell what was COM
ing to me. When I got any bills
against myself, stuck those upon the
other spike. I thought that at the
end of month, or certainly at the
end of year, these memoranda would
match one another, and what was left
would fill my pockets. Sometimes,
while I was filling these spikes, I got
short of actual money, and the bank
would cash my note | had learned
as much as that Then | never paid
any more attention to it, till one day
I would receive a notice saying that
my note had gone to protest
thought that was the way the bank
had of telling me that it was due, so
! would shin around and get the
money to pay the note. The bank
never made any objection. I guess
they understood me.
at the end of the first year my
methods of keeping accounts showed
me that | had made quite a good bit
of money. There wasn't any mistak-
ing the accounts. There was the rec
ord l had made the money-no
doubt of that And then it occurred
to me: Where is that money?
haven't got it; the bank hasn't got it,
and yet / have surely had it. | puz-
zled over the problem for time, then
/ became satisfied with the thought
that / had had the money and let it
go at that. But afterwards, when l
had moved to Menlo Park saw that
that way Of keeping accounts
wouldn't do. So l hired a bookkeeper
and cashier, and since then have
never bothered myself about that end
of my affairs"
Copyright 1909, by E. Edwards)