The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-10-19
MONDAY, OCTOBER 1s, 1881
Thomas A. Edison

If ever regret was universal It IS today as not merely the United States but the entire civilized world mourns the death ot Thomas Alva Edison. While his demise was expected the last two weeks or more still there was that undereurrent of feeling, akin to hope, that the aged inventor might pull through the complications of ail- ments that had beset him. However, one cannot expect the powerful engine, that was Edson's to keep functioning when other organs cannot do their part. The end came perhaps when Edison might least have ex- peeted it, on Sunday morn. Perhaps after all Edison's atheistic tendencies were not as pronounced as many would have us believe.
 Thomas Edison was born in Milan, Ohio, in l847. He was of Dutch and Scottish ancestry. Americans, proud of this native genius, cannot know how he might have developed in either Scotland or Holland, though it is quite probable that Edison would have been the genius he proved to be WneIeNeI nc lOunu IlS "oulu iiasS transcendcd his surroundings. In the United States, however. he grew up pretty much on his own without any formal schooling. He was train newsboy at the age of l 2 and telegraph operator at IS.
 Whatever he was working at as job he was always pursuing his interest in chemis try and electricity with constant reading, studying, and experimenting. In his later Tiff. he made up for the deficiencies of his tctns by applied methods of his own choice. Just think what this world of ours might be had Edison never lived. It was his gen. jus that bottled electricity and produced li,ht that reproduced the human voice on WAX cylinder. Before he was II and while still interested in telegraphy (inasmueh as he was earning his living by it) he invented an automatic repeater by means of which telegraph message could be transferred from one wire to another without the aid of an operator. Eventually this duplex system was developed into the sextuple transmission.
 His inventions included articles of scien- tific importance but the public probably knew him best for the phonograph, the mo- ticn picture. and the improved incandescent electric lamp. So great and numerous were his contributions to human pleasure and efficiency that the French government in 1878 made him chevaer in the Legion of Honor. Edison is certainly a model for American youth. His life shows what can be accomplished by hard work. Even until recently Edison devoted good many hours of each day to his laboratory at Menlo Park, New Jersey.
 Edison did not hesitate to express opin- ions about, matters outside his special fields. Current educational methods came in for some severe criticism from this man who had achieved great success without their aid. For years he has been distinctive person. ality in American life. It must be remem- bered, though that Edison was primarily an inventor. On that his fame rests. That his inventions were such as to focus attention upon him was perhaps an indication of his desire to help his fellow man. He was humanitarian if anybody was. His death. even at the advanced age of 84, will be con- sidered untimely. Certainly his place in our life will never be filled.