The Monmouth inquirer., 1926-09-09
The Worlds Greatest Inventor.

Edison is acclaimed as the worlds
greatest inventor. After he had
achieved success as an inventor and
manufacturer, he dropped everything
else and adopted invention for his
life work. in 1876. After that he sim
ply HAD to make good or become a
laughing-stock. Edison made good.
He is also the worlds greatest exper
lmenter. He tries thousands and thou
sands of ways to do thing, and new
Ter quits until he has either found
way or proved to his satisfaction that
1t cannot be done,
Edison has worked harder and slept
less than any other great man in his
tory he once worked continuously,
without q moments sleep, for five
days and nights, while perfecting the
phonograph. He has conducted more
experiments than any other human
being. He has taken out upwards of
100 patents in one year and has Sc.
cured a grand total Of over 1000 pat
ents, a record unapproached by any
other individual in this country or
abroad
He has tasted the bitterest defeats
and lost all his money time and again.
He spent five solid years and over 81
100000 creating a plan and plant to
extract ores by magnets from powder
ed rock, only to find that the discov-
cry of unlimited quantities of rich
Mesaga ore rendered his whole pro-
cess profitless and it had to be aban-
doned, leaving him grievously in debt
but undaunted in spirit.
Difficulties which would drive nor
NAL mortals to despair only light up
Edison's enthusiasm and stimulate his
determination to triumph. If a thing
won't work one way. he tries it anoth.
er way-5,0 900 other ways, 10000 other
ways, 10000 other ways, if necessary.
He has sent botanists. mineralogists,
chemists. biologists, and others into
the most remote uncivilized hooks Of
the earth in search of some fiber or
other elusive material which the indie
fatigable experimenter calculated
nigh prove the missing link in a
chain Of experiments one expert cir
cumscribed the globe in search Of a
species Of bamboo which Edison figur-
ed might supply just the right fla
ment for his matchmaking incandes-
cent lamp. while other explorers
combed the Businesses of South Amer
lea for fiber which might still better
serve the purpose.
With Edison inventing is the result
Of successful experimenting on def
mite lines. His greatest achievements
have not been in originating ideas for
new achievements, but in carrying to
fruition what others have dreamed Of
accomplishing but failed to attain, Ed
ison is doer rather than dreamer,
He too, of course. has dreamed. but
his fame rests less upon his dreams
than upon what he has done.
He did not originate the telegraph
or the telephone he was not the in
verltor Of electric lighting; the cleo
trio railway was not first thought Of
by him; others had made moving pio-
| lures kind; the recording OF the
human voice for reproduction was not
IN idea born il his brain; nor was he
the first to think Of storing electric
energy in a battery
But without Edison the world would
not be enjoying these adjuncts Of pro-
gress as It is today. He has been the
master mind. his the master hand in
bringing them to flower and fruition.
Where others had failed, he has sue
seeded. Where others brought forth
! only ideas, be has created actualities.
--LesIies'.