The Washington times., 1931-10-22
True to Type
HABITS OF INVENTION
SAME IN AMERICA
SINCE 1889
By GILBERT SEI.DES-


myself that he was, indeed, entirely Jerseyman
was wrong The body of Edison returns to his birth
place l have learned something of American history
in the years since used to look eagerly out of the
windows as our train passed Menlo Park hoping that
Edison himself might be tagging the express might
sit in our car, might notice two children who were'
suppose the least inventive the worst at handling tool
chest in the whole world. In those days the happy
encounter we dreamed of was always with Edison or
Teddy Roosevelt or little shyly, with Alice Roosevelt
The WhittIers at Work
The thing learned about America which has bearing
on Edsons is that in his first 20 years the
whole of the country east of the Mississippi was full
of inventors 1t began with the Yankees who long
winter nights in Vermont busy whiting to more
purpose than the whittlers at the country store who
made models of everything which could be useful and
took out patents Foreign observers impressed by
the patent which was in every active mans mind if it
wasn't already certified in Washington And the amaz-
ing thing about these inventions is that substantially,
they anticipated the industry of the Twentieth century,
The system of largescale production, which we think
of peculiarly Fordian, not theory, it was in
action before 1900.
"A Real Tradition
Because America has had no dynastes land few
ruling famies) have the impression that everything
has happened by accident which leads critics to that
America has no background, continuity. And each
generation feels European generation feels that
the world only began with its BIRTH CAS- pure fact this
complaint about Americas lack of background is itself
part of the background Of America; James Fenimore
Cooper made it, and all the painters who to Italy
because there was nothing to paint in the American
backwoods So they forgotten and Currier & Ives
remain)
But at least the American way of making machinery is
continuous enough In 1889 Eli Whitney contracted to
supply 10000 stand of arms to the Federal Government
and said that he used machinery instead of hand
labor "any article belonging to one OF the muskets
will equally well fit any (other) of them" hundred
years later they were calling this the uniformity sys
tenn Forty years after that know it as the system
of interchangeable parts.
Inventor and Promoter
Edison was the link between the lone wolf inventor
and the combining minds which now sit at the head OF
the researchers table in the laboratories of great indus
trial Many of his inventions are OF things
which duplicate and multiply especially those in teleg
raphy the movies and the phonograph; and generally
he saw that multiplication the essence Of commercial
success In the movies he resouey refused to this
When the quarrel priority of invention is settled
(as think Terry Rasaye has effectualy settled it in
Edisons favor in his Million and One NightsO there
remains the incredible obstinacy of Edison in fighting
against the SCREEN favor of the peep show The
show movie was in the stage of the phonograph with
single set of eartubes Of the radio with headphones
only; and Edison wanted to let it rest there 1t
one occasion when his business was utterly wrong
because it was,at variance with his inventive
Einstein or Edison
Two commentaries on Edison's death deserve to be
placed close together One is the impersonal estimate
that the value of his inventions the world is $155OO
100000. The other comes from Albert Einstein:
Thankfully accept his legacy. .as a mission
placed in hands. For to the generation falls
the task of finding the way for the right of the
gift given to use Only if it solves this task will the
generation be worthy Of its Inheritance and be-.
come really happier than the former generation"
What Ensten says is peculiarly Interesting because
he has recently repeated his remark that comfort and
happiness not the goal of science In that he stood
at the other end of the world from Edison. Use mme
diate effect increase in the Of living, motvated
Edison all the time When ne found the Edison effect
the basis of the vacuum tube used in hundred
different ways from radio to gerrncides he saw no
instant application and put it away, returning to his
work on the electric light. He put things together
he manipulated objects he developed the work of other
men-and at the time he invented the things that
were needed. In all this he was as the world feels
typicaly American It suitable that he should
have been born in the center of America.
Capone in 1888
An ontmiStic CHICAGO +hot A