Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1911-03-09

experiments. Edison at that une mao
not made any of his wonderful inven-
ions but he was regarded as a coming
nan in biography. nevertheless. His
first successful invention showed his
quick and facile genius. He was very
deaf and n had to speak quite loud
to maxi him hear conversation yet his
ear detected the Manifest metallic click.
All the telegraph companies used the
same sounder-the Page sounder. 1t had
been invented by a man who had died
some time previously and the patent,
which was in the name of his wife, was
controlled by the Western Union.
One day, in the midst of business. and
when brokers' messages and general tele-
grams, including the usual line of press
/ dispatches, We're on the hooks. the OPPOSE
ton companies were served Simultaneous
~ with an Injunction, obtained from a
judge of the supreme court In New York.
restraining them absolutely from using the
Page sounder. The blow fell like a thun-
derbolt from a clear sky. The keys We're
Silenced and in the great operating rooms
there was nothing doing"
The managers Were in consultation over
the dilemma when Edison sauntered into
the operating room. Mr.. Maury Smith,
one of the managers. acquainted him With
the situation.
Edison grinned and sat down at an in
strument. He reached out for q sheet of
>''. M GU NSIN AtSCS III Ibi iIISiIIl-
fold copies" and called for a stout pair of
scissors. From one of his po~ckets-which
were always bullying with wire and other
appliances of his craft-he took a pair of
pliers. First he detached the Page sound
err from the instrument, an intensely in
terested crowd watching his every move
ment. Then. with the scissors. he cut a
section of the thin sheet of tin about three
inches wide and possibly four or five inch
es in length. He then sliced it at either
end, making two points through each of
which he bored a hole. He then curved
1t lengthwise, doubled up the ends and
htted them to the instrument precisely
where the Page Sounder had been pre-
vlously connected and tapped the key.
The clicking-and it was a joyful sound
could be heard all over the room. There
was a general chorus of surprise and adj
miration at the ready skill of Edison.
He's got it! He's got it, was the ex-
clamation and. sure enough. the respon-
sive answer from the other end of the
lne:-'Did YOU get me?" 20 X! O Ky"
Within an hour. every Instrument in the
room was equipped with the improvised
sounder and business was resumed. The
injunction was completely obviated and
the officials of the rival companies broad
~ smiled. Edison's star was in the as
cendant. He had won a brilliant victory
with scarcely an effort. Similar saunders
were improvised all over the various cir
cults and business went on as usual. all
though the operating rooms. as some re-
marked, We're somewhat like small-sized
boiler shops for noise. In a few days.
under Ed.son's instructions. the factory of
the allied companies was turning out hun
dredS of Well-made saunders of the new
model.
tIdison's patents now number nearly a
thousand. but none of them brought him
greater fame than this.
Edlson genius deals almost eyclu-
sively with material problems. He is
a natural scientist: but If one were to ask
him to define electricity. or to describe. in
terms the current which lows from one
sy~nchronlzed point to another over the
wireless he would smile but would not
attempt a definition. His training has
peen practical rather than theoretical, and
MS experience does not go beyond visible
causes and effects. When he undertakes
10 speak OF the human brain, it is soon APP
parent 10 the average student of the SUBJ
1ect that he does not understand the prob
lem. DR.. w. H. Thomson, in the recent
discussion raised by Edison's observations
on Immortality, showed that the inventor
did not even know that the brain was a
dual organism with two lobes. His oppor-
%tunities for the study of such subjects
must necessarily nave been meager.
1t is not the purpose of the writer to
criticize Mr.. Edison as a scientist, for, as
mas been stated. he is an apt student on all
lines OF practical science: but in the fields
OF speculative science he shows inapti-
tude. The remarks on mmortality-that
ne could find no evidence of a soul in the
human body-are on a level with those of
the surgeon who, in cutting up a cadaver,
might observe that he had not found eth
err in the brain or the heart or
else the slightest evidence of an immortal
principle: the life had gone out with the
cessation of the hearts function. and there
was nothing more.
The existence of the soul and the proof
of Immortality are not demonstrable by
any known scientific process. One must
have advanced far beyond Edison and pen
etrated into the realms of faith and spir-
itual life, before he can apprehend the
mystery of mans spirit and it's divine
longings. Nor does one need to be a sci
countless multituGes who nave entered on
them of the truth of Faul's saying that
Jesus Christ brought life and immortal
ity to light"
There are analogies in the material and
spiritual world which At together and
which 1t would be we'll for scientists to
study. Who among then. can tell the
wonders of natures chemistry, which
draws the wonderful filaments Of the seed
up through the ground, aye even through
the crevices of .he rock itself. toward the
sunlight? Who can explain the telepathy