The Washington herald., 1916-02-11
EDISON 65 TODAY.
Great Inventor Lightly Touched by
Passage of Years.

Great Inventor Lightly Touched by
Passage of Years.
Thomas Alva Edison will reach the
sixty-ninth milestone of his life on Feb
ruary II. The years seem TO rest lightly
on the great inventor. He is still hale,
hearty and active and as deeply inter-
ested in what the coming year has in
store as a youth with all of life ahead.
The future means as much to me at
SO as 1t does 10 YOU at twenty-five. young
man." said Mr.. Edison to young friend
not long ago.
In other words Edison is still going
strong" at So. Not a day passes that he
does not spend from twelve to eighteen
hours in his laboratory He shows no
signs of slowing up the pace he has
held for fifty years. He is alert and
not a detail OF the business around him
escapes his eye and attentian. To those
who are associated with him in business
he is Our Old Man" Edison. white
haired. stepping briskly. is a familiar
figure in every corner Of his vast labora-
tories at Orange, New Jersey.
Mr.. Edison's new recording laboratory
Is a place to which visitors are not ad-
mitted. but from all accounts is a GU
rously constructed place. built accord
ing to the inventors specifications to
overcome certain problems OF acoustics
in recording large orchestras.
! II think am going to be able to give
you records OF the great symphonies be-
fore the year is out Mr.. Edison said.
I'VE already have a record on which they
can be recorded and a phonograph and
reproducer that will re-create them. II
is now merely a problem of recording
the large number OF instruments used in a
symphony concert, 1 believe we can do
this In the new recording laboratory"
Edison was born at Milan, Ohio. on
February Il, 1s47. He early evinced a
love for chemistry and its kindred sub
jects. Few men have ever run at
swifter pace up the stepping stones to
fame. His first employment was as a
newsboy on the Grand Trunk Railway
where he started a small weekly paper
which at one time had four hundred paid
subscribers He next took up telegraphy
and soon became an expert telegrapher.
After FIVE years of telegraphy he came
to New York where after short time
he sold his first invention for about $40,
O0 Then he plunged into the realm OF
invention where his genius seemed to
run riot. Take his major inventions as
| they come:
The Duplex and Quadruplex TeleGraphs
and the Electromotograph, which revolu-
tionized telegraphy: the cylinder phono-
graph in 1877, now the Diamond Amberola
Phonograph: in 1879 the electric light
which needs no words to tell its wonders;
] in 1891 the moving picture. which today
as the movies" are furnishing amuse-
ment to thousands upon thousands; a
method OF crushing ore, by which rocks
weighing as much as ten tons each are
reduced to bits in a few seconds; the
storage battery; then his last and IA
vorite invention, the Diamond Disc
Phonograph. From 1859 to the present
time Edison has filed more than LOO
applications for patents.
Just a few years ago Edison resumeed
his research in acoustics where he left
of when he invented the cylinder phon-
ograph He was dissatisfied with the ef-
forts OF other inventors in this field. He
set before him the goal Of absolute re-
creation of music. After countless ex-
periments and the expenditure of nearly
two millions OF dollars in experiments
alone, Edison announced that he had
succeeded in re-creating the human
voice. He said that he had found the
| Itouchstone of acoustics. The Edison Dia-
mond Disc Phonograph was given to the
world as the instrument OF muscs re-
creation.
It has since been proved on numberless
occasions that Edison's recreation of
the human voice cannot be distinguished
from the original. For the purpose OF
! demonstrating this Edison has given
tone tests all over the United States,
in which the artist sings with his or her
records. 1t being actually impossible to
distinguish between the living voice and
its recreation by the Diamond Disc
Phonograph.