Las Vegas optic., 1914-10-21

A@NAAS
they arrived she would wait until he
had gone to bed and then change all
his things over from the old suit into
the pockets of the new ones and leave
that where he had left the old suit.
He would put it on next morning and
was just as likely as not to go down
to the machine shop or elsewhere and
ger the new clothes covered with oil
or chemicals.
Previous to the opening of 65 Fifth
avenue, early in 1881, the general pub
liz did not know what an incandes-
cent lamp was. An engine and dyna-
mo had been placed in the basement,
and the house was wired and fitted
up with lamps and fixtures for the
purpose Of educating the public We
kept open house day and night for
four years. The first year we kept
open until midnight, but gradually Ia
pered down until in the fourth year
we used to close at 10 o'clock at night
| Together with some of the officers of
the company and heads Of depart
ments I was there cvery night taking
my part in educating the public
Looking back on those times. it
seems to me as if the entire popula-
tion of New York must have filtered
through 65 Fifth avenue during those
four years.
He never varied from the princi-
Iple that in granting territorial license
rights we could make the licensee
companies pay to the parent company
a certain proportion of their stock and
all increases thereof as the price of
the license, together with a little cash
Iby way of insurance that they would
proceed promptly and in good faith.
The experience of yne 80 odd years
since that time has shown the quality
of Mr.. Edison's wisdom
1t was matter of years before the
general public acquired even a rudi-
lmentary knowledge of the art of in
cendescent lighting. This ignorance
gave rise to a long list of most ludi-
crous Incidents The lamp works ship
Iped some lamps to customer, for
warding Herewith the usual memo
ralidum of shipment, which in this
case read: 100 lamps, 110 volts The
customer returned the memorandum
with this note written at the foot:
Lamps received but cannot find the
volts in the package.
Developments of the new art Of
lineandescent lighting came thick and
fast from Mr.. Edison in the early
eighties. Improvement followed i'm
Iprovement with dazzling rapidity.
making serious work for the standard
izing committee which used to meet
late at night. The manufacturing
shops and '65' were buzzing hives of
industry. Real money however, was
a scarce commodity Mr Edison had
been obliged to finance the organiza-
tlen of the shops himself, and in doing
so had to large extent mortgaged
his future. He had full faith in fu-
ture success, but his original hackers
had not. When he asked them to fin
lance his shops their pedal extremities
became frigid. AS soon as we got
down to real business there was some
fearful and wonderful financing done
when the pay rolls of the four shops
had to be provided at the week ends.
: It seems like dream, or rather night
mare, as one looks lack on it now.
Perhaps it might be likened to fleas
Oh dog-kept us busy so that the
other troubles were temporarily for
gotten.
Late one summer afternoon in 1881,
Mr. Edison was sitting in Major Ear
toms Office talking with him. was
at my desk in the same ROM Inc
door opened and in came R. F. Upton,
the manager of the lamp factory,
which was then small wooden build
ling at Menlo Park. (Mr. Upton was
the one who. about year previous
to this time. had gone from Menlo
Park to New York having on his arm
market basket containing all the
incandescent lamps in the worldly
Hello! Upton said Mr.. Edison,
How are you making out?'
Fine replied Mr.. Upton exult
antly we finished thousand lamps
! today
'Mr Edison said nothing but seized
] a pad of paper and figured for a few
minutes. Then looking up, he said
! In IS years you'll be making forty
thousand day suppose our in
E credulity showed on our faces, bu
: Mr. Edison merely smiled and sait
syou'll see.' AS a matter of fact ths