Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-10-20
Continued From First Page,

covered his equilibrium sufficiently t.
GO to Gen. Lefferts, sign the contract
which he had ready and receive q
check for $4,000. This he Immediately
took to the bank and passed under the
cashiers wire, demanding payment
That individual mumbled something
which Edison, In his deafness, could
not hear, and showed the check back
at him. The inventor Immediately de-
cided that he had been cheated and, In
cold sweat from fear and anger, went
back to Gen. Lefferts.
That gentleman, after a good laugh,
explained to him that all the cashier
had asked for was an Endorsement. and
sent the inventor back TO the bank ac-
companied by young man to identify
him. Before he could get there, how
ever, the fun-loving general sent mes
sage to the teller, and as result
Edison, when he received his cash, was
handed it In punches of five and ten
dollar bills. Frantically he stuffed all
his pockets with the packages: then,
when the pockets could hold no more,
he gathered the rest UP In his arms
and fed to his rooms, where he piled
the bills on a table and stood guard
over them all night: he felt that he
had a green elephant on his back.
Opens First Bank Account.
In the morning he stuffed the I'M
accustomed wealth into suit case and
taking 1t with him, once more appealed
to Lefferts for help. The general,
realizing that his employe was at that
time a better inventor than financier,
showed him how to deposit his wealth
and open his first bank account.
Shortly afterward Edison decided to
use this capital to start up in business
for himself. so he equipped factory in
Newark, and before very long he had a
force of $50 people working for him,
paratus. He already had several inven-
tons to his credit but now he was
fairly launched on his manufacturing
career.
In 1875, having decided to adopt in
venting as q profession, he built and
equipped a laboratory at Menlo Park,
N. j., and moved there from his
Newark shop. In 1887 he made a
further expansion, buying property and
erecting laboratory and other build
ings at West Orange, which he planned
organization This West orange plant
now consists of 104 buildings and
covers % acres.
Series of Inventions Follow.
From the early Newark factory, the
Orange plant have come series of
inventions which are the basis of many
of the biggest commercial enterprises in
the country today. It has been con-
servatively estimated that the industries
dependent on Edison's inventions or
his vital improvement of the inven-
tions of others represent capitaliza-
ton, In round numbers, of So, 900 900, :
600. To destroy these enterprises or
tNn dc nF fatA
keep them going would be a greater
disaster to the country, produce q
worse panic and cause more suffering
than any war in which the United
States has ever engaged. It would set
back the clock of civilization many
decades.
One of the first of these inventions,
which Edison perfected while still at his
Newark plant, was a system of auto
matte biography, on which he had
already done good deal of work. He
invented an apparatus by which 1000
words minute were telegraphed from
New York to Washington, and 1900
words q minute from New York to
Philadelphia. He followed this with
the invention of the quadruplex, which
permitted the sending Of four separate
messages simultaneously over single
wire.
Carbon Transmitter Developed.
= One of his next important inventions,
this time from Merlo Park, was the
carbon tranSmitter for the telephone.
Alexander Graham Bell had worked
out the original plan of the telephone,
but in the form in which he made it it
could never have been commercially
successful, since the same instrument
was both transmitter and receiver. and
messages could be sent for only a
few miles. It was Edison's additions
to Bells idea that made telephony a
commercial art, statement for which
1t is not necessary to take the word
Of any individual, as it was decided
emphaticalIy by the United States
courts years ago.
Moreover, upon his invention of the
carbon transmitter and his develop
unent of 1t into the microphone depends
the whole radio broadcasting business
Of today: without the microphone your
radio set would be useless.
The next miracle to come from Menlo
Park was the machine that talked like
O man. Though not the most i'm
portant thing the wizard has done, it
Is his pet accomplishment. On q GER
tain day many years ago he gathered
few OF his associates together in his
laboratory to try out the first instru-
structed at a cost of $18. What is
It," they asked
ut is machine" he answered some
what obviously, which will take your
words and speak them back to you
The men all laughed incredulously, and
one OF them bet a box of cigars that ii
would never do the trick. Edison leaned
over and shouted into the horn, Mary
had a little lamb" Then the needle
cd %aI foil
shaft was turned, and, ghostly and
faint, voice came back to the listen
ing group, Mary had a little lamb"
Invention Amazes the World.
This invention created amazement
throughout the entire world, so utterly
different was 1t from anything that hac
ever been done before. It was instantly
recognized as so unprecedented that thu
application for patent passed through
the Patent ONCE without challenge anc
in 81 days the patent was issued.
We now come to the greatest of al
Edison's many gifts to humanity-th,
practicable incandescent lamp and cleo
trio lighting system. Those of us wht
can bark back in our memories to TIT
days OF the smoky and Pickering gas
light can realize what it has meant tt
have IN our homes our streets and ou
houses of business bright, steady ligh
which springs into being at the touch o
a button. It Is this miracle which tn,
world will celebrate tomorrow.
Day and night the inventor and hi
laboratory assistants had worked OF
models for a lamp which would GLOW
long enough to be practical. FINAL.
Edison had q model which he though
would work. The filament and the glas
bulb were constructed and then man,
hours we're spent pumping the air on
of the bulb so that the filament woult
glow In what was practically vacuum
and lacking oxygen, would not destro