The Washington herald., 1918-02-11
Edison II Years Of Age,
But Is Not an Old Man
Wizards Mind as Fertile as 1t Has Ever Been.
Value to Government Beyond Estimate
Now Resting in Florida.

retaining his faculties for wrestling
with the laws Of the universe-servIng
his country in one OF the most Inn
portant capacities.
Thomas Alva Edison is II years old
| today-but though he has reached his
| three-score and ten, Edison has not
yet become an old man. He Is still
hale and vigorous. and the world Is
counting upon him as 1t never has be-
fore In It's great hour OF need OF
genius. And Edison Is not disappoint-
ing. His mind is as fertile as II has
J ever been. He Is applying himself as
closely to his work as need be, and
his value to the government cannot be
oyerestimated. Mr.. Edison Is spend
Ing several weeks at Tampa. Fla, se-
curing a much-needed rest,
l. The First Laboratory.
Edison is known tho world over.
Practically everyone is acquainted
with his late achievements and his
general life. Everybody knows
about the marvellous Edison plant at
Orange. New Jersey. But every
body does not know about Edison's
first laboratory-an old discarded
baggage car which he fitted up and
used as printshop. laboratory and
depository for the various kinds of
junk he accumulated as a boy. This
was the first moving newspaper Of
flee in history-and perhaps the last
Edison was q news butch" at the
time and the train managers very
kindly let him use the old car as
he saw Mt.
And there are many other things
in the life of the great inventor of
which people in general know lit
tie.
Edison was born at Milan, a small
canal town in Erie. Pa, on Febru-
ary IL. 1S47. His father was of
Dutch descent. while his mother
was a Scotch Canadian. Like most
great men, Edison began work as
a newsboy-the trade where a lit
tie fellow can always break In. He
was quite small, only years of
age, when he began the time-old
struggle for existence. A wide
spread financial depression had
caused his father to become virtual
ly penniless. and the family remov-
ed to Port Huron. Michigan. where
Edison began his career as a news
boy on the Grand Trunk Railway,
running into Detroit.
Has Sunny Disposition.
During his early childhood Thomas
\ Edison showed his love for trying
! things in many unique ways. For
instance the great inventors sister
\ once found little Thomas sitting
| patiently on a nest of goose and
| chicken eggs. The little fellow ex-
| MI kof hn kaA oh That
when the Edison goose sat on q nest
\ Of eggs, goslings were the ultimate
| outcome-and being very fond Of the
cunning goslings Thomas saw no rea-
son why he should not have quite as
1 fine success as Mrs. Goose.
Edison was always blessed with a
| sunny disposition and he won friends
! wherever he went, even as a little
| fellow. He became very popular on
the road in a short time and had
! unusual success as -newsboy. He
was always thoughtful of his parents
and family and, no matter how small
his earnings. as long as they needed
! help, he always turned over to his
mother q considerable portion of his
( wages.
He early developed the habit OF
reading. In Detroit he went to the
public library and becoming over
whelmed by the sight of so many
| books, decided, quite scientifically,
that the best way to do would be to
take the books as they came and
read the whole library. He actually
read fifteen feet of books before some
friends discovered what he was doing
and stopped him from his promiscu-
| Gus assimilation of literature. The
| hooks the little newsboy read at this
time included Burton's Anatomy
of Melancholy" Ure's Dictionary of
the Sciences" and Newton's ''Princi-
/! pla"-and many other almost impos-
sible for the average educated adult
to say nothing Of small newsboys.
Domestic Telegraph Line.
Edison was always experimenting in
! his spare time. He accumulated no
end of junk, which his mother allowed
| him to store in a basement room OF
| their home. Once a neighbor asked
her why she permitted her premises
to be Uttered with Thomas rubbish,
and Mrs. Edison replied: '"The world
will hear from him some day."
With some stovepipe wire and two
! neighborhood cats, Edison and a
neighbor boy once succeeded in estab-
| fishing a perfect electric current be-
| tween their respective back yard tele-
graph stations. AS the cats refused
\ to stick to the job and be rubbed
| vigorously enough to produce the cur
rent. the enterprise was abandoned.
Edison's. interest in the telegraph
was first aroused when he hit upon
! the idea of telegraphing ahead to the
stations on his road that his papers
| that day contained news of the battle
OF Pittsburgh Landing. This was an ems
| tirely new idea, all Edison's own. He
| persuaded an operator-after promis-
| ing to supply him with newspapers
and periodicals. for six months-to
wire the station masters to chalk the
results of the battle on the train board,
which they did, with the result that at
\ every station Edison was swamped.
! Quite a business man, he Immediately
raised the price of his papers, in one
instance to 25 cents apiece, and reaped
what was to him a small fortune.
Edison never forgot what the tele-
| graph did for him on that occasion.
andihe soon began to study telegraphy
in his spare time.
While working as a newsboy on the
Grand Trunk Line, Edison got hold
of an old set of newspaper type and
set up his newspaper office in the old
baggage car. He called his tiny jour
nal the Grand Trunk Herald, and II
achieved no small measure of success,
having more than 400 subscribers.
.PauI Pry" Suppressed.
Encouraged by his success as an
editor. the boy later went in part
nership with another boy and to-