The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1925-02-11

Veteran Inventor, Contrary to
His Usual Custom, Is Not
Busy on Birthday
BY M. A. DA PARMA,
International News Service.

International News Service.
NEW YORK, Feb. 11.-"Seven-
ty-nine and still going strongi"
Thomas Alva Edison, the genial
old "Wizard" of electrical science,
may well adopt this war-cry.
Today Edison witnessed the
dawning of his seventy-ninth
birthday; and anyone doubling
that the '.seventy-nine" and the
"stiH going strong" should 60 to-.
gsther must be placed in the
category of those who see little
Of the men about them.
Laughs at Time.
For the inventor of many of the
electrical devices which contribute
% the worlds progress has high
contempt for time. He laughs at
clocks. and just as surely must he
laugh at the years. When he feels
IKE working he sets himself TO the
lob, and from that moment on
there are no such things as hours
and days. The end of the work
marks period of time TO Edison.
That seventy-nine years of his
lie have slipped by means nothing
TO the indefatigable White-haired
nan. As he has repeated so often.
II don't even want to retire.
When the doctors bring in the
oxygen cylinder IN know then it's
time to quit
In the past each one of his
birthdays has been just another
cay for him. Everyone connected
with him celebrated. He didn't.
While his factories shut down and
his friends gave luncheOns in his
honor. Thomas Edison could he
found In his laboratory, hard at
work on some new idea.
Spends Birthday IN South.
This birthday Edison Is spending
under the warm sun Of Florida.
The penetrating dampness OF the
North in winter may be having its
effect on Edlson's body: Dut il
would be safe to wager much that
the. indofnintable spirit within him
keeps moving restlessly onward
At his home in Orange, N. j..
the Wizard" keeps a large bound
album In this veritable Book of
Deeds Edison keeps the records
a. all his inventions and Of all the
accomplishments he deems worthy
Of mention.
The book is large, and well may
Il be So For. besides the remark
able inventions for which he is di-
rectIy responsible. in this Golden
Book could be placed some OF the
thought. Edison's brain is not
limited to electricity.
Ideas Cover Wide Field.
Just as clearly as he thought
About an idea to preserve the hui
man voice on rubberoid discs. he
has thought about monetary values,
International trade affairs. educa-
ton, economics, wartime methods,
peace plans. and a hundred other
topics with which the popular
notion of inventors is not con-
nected.
( To say Thomas Edison startled
the world with ftis inventions is to
utter a .truism. But it is only half
the story When the Edison Cues
tionnaire for College Men" APP
peared, the academic world had its
turn at sitting up and taking
notice And Edison's method was
not gentle. He took the graduates
by the neck and shook the dust of
ages from their caps and gowns.
Was Like a Child With Money.
Like most inventors, however,
Edison has been known to have
distinct disregard for money in
collected and tangible form illus
trating this trait. which convinces
the skeptics that he really is an
inventor, Edward Box. publisher,
tells the following story lin his
new book, Twice Thirty'O about