Newark evening star and Newark advertiser., 1914-12-11
EDISON AT WORK
AGAIN, READY TO
REBUILD PLANT
Wizard Estimates Loss in West
Orange Fire Amounts to
100000.
AS OPTIMISTIC AS EVER,
LEARNS SEVERAL LESSONS
His Chief Concern Now Is to
Have Employees Busy
Again.

With loss Of $2,OO0,0O0 staring him
In the face in the destruction by fire
of part Of his great plant in West
Orange, Thomas A. Edison is op-
timism personified. His chief CON-
Germ is the employment of the 1850
or more workers affected by the fire.
Part of this force has already been
i. put to work; some in the office, some
removing the d bris of the burned
buildings and others In various de-
partments of the plant in Silver Lake.
Without waiting for the burning
embers to cool the men were put at
Il work yesterday under the direction
of the Meyer Construction Company,
of Brooklyn. This concern does all
the building work for the Edison in
terests and will have the task of re-
building. The ruins are still smould-
\ ering. and neither the Edison officials
nor the Meyer company can tell when
all the debris can be removed and the
work of reconstruction started.
Miller r. Hutchinson, chief engi-
neer of the Edison interests. believes
4 The plant will be running full power
in three months. This same view is
held by other officials of the COM
pany.
Edison Back at Work.
Mr.. Edisoa was at work in his old
laboratory at $3.50 o'clock this morn
ing. The building had been put IN
sach shape that there was no indi-
cation of a fire in its vicinity. In
fact, the Office help had gotten things
in such shape in the laboratory yes
terday that il Mr.. Edison cared to do
so he could have resumed his work
then. His assistants. however, in
sisted upon him remaining at his
home.
Mr.. Edison was in conference all
morning today with the heads of the
various departments and Horace /.
Meyer. head of the Meyer Construc-
ton Company. Plans for rebuilding
were discussed.
1t was arranged to have the regular
for.e of employees put to work on
phonogTaph records.
Because it was feared that the
building housing the old machine
shop In Lakeside avenue was in a
dangerous condition from the fire and
water, part of the street was roped
off and a, squad of police was on
guard. A crowd of people is gathered
in the vicinity of the burned build
ings today.
Wizard Advised BY Ford.
Henry Ford. the automobile manu-
facturer, called at the Edison home
yesterday afternoon to offer his SYM
pathy. He described to Mr.. Edison
how his lre-proof plant in Detroit
was CONSTRUCTED. He convinced Mr..
Edison of several necessary features
--steel window sashes and wired glass
for the windows
az have had many experiences in my
life's work" Mr.. Edison said last night
''but this is the costliest one in all,
considering the time it took. have
perfect faith left in concrete build
ings, but the fire of last night proved
that in all concrete buildings steel
window sashes and mesh glass, the
kind that is wired, will have to be
used My friend Ford tells me that
he uses those kind of window trim
mings in all of his factories and I'm
convinced it's the thing"
Fixes Loss at s2,0O0.OO0.
eThe estimate ] would put on the
loss would be $2,000,000 and | do not
carry any insurance, although we
nave a plan of self-insurance. The
reason l steer clear of insurance
companies dates back for many
years. | once owned an abandoned
mill and wanted to insure it. The
insurance company stated finally
attached and refused the insurance.
1t was so palpabIy evident that the
;nsinuation was they feared ] might
fire the mill that I made up my mind
they (the insurance companieS)
would never get any of my money.
THE material for rebuilding that
part of the plant which was burned
will be ordered tomorrow and we
will split the workers up in various
plants, so that / do not believe any
man will be long out of work. AL
ready the workers are clearing up
the debris and the new buildings
will soon be up.
This was an expensive thing, but
I had a similar experience once. I
sank 81, 900 in a plant at Edisonia
once and that did not take the heart
out of me-" Mr.. Edison did not tell
just how the loss was oceasioned, but
continued by saying: Look at the
buildings. The one where l spend
my money (his private laboratory is
all right, and the ones where l make
money are gone"
As an example of the way the work
is being rushed it was pointed out
that all of the mass of books and
records showing all of Mr. Edison's
operations and experiments since he
became an inventor were back on the
shelves in the library by 9 o'clock
Yesterday morning. Each was in its
proper place and the inventor is
ready to begin at once the working
out of unfinished ideas or new ones.
News of the fire attracted a number
of construction engineers from diff
ferent cities to the scene yesterday,
and all testified that the concrete
stood up wonderfully weAi. Where