The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1931-02-13

times comes the wish that there were in the world more true.
wise and guileless men like him to be our nayigators. Today
again Looked at him and was glad to reprint this interesting
comment and review of his career from the Montana Record
Herald.-Th Editor)
This date, Feb. II, is an important birthday. Thomas Alva
Edison is "a years old, still working and still determined to keep
up the family average for longevity His great grandfather
died at 1O4, his grandfather at 102 and his father at 81,
The life OF Edison has been one of achievement and there
no few authorities who will question btS riobt 70 designation
as the most distinguished American. For more than half a
century Edison has conceived ideas and then turned out de
vices founded upon them. An invention has been born of the
Edison brain on the average of one about every two weeks, and
his registration of some 1200 patents at Washington makes him
the most prolific inventor of his time.
Son of a New England mother who had been a school teach
er, Thomas A. Edison received most of his early education from
her and it is said that the time he spent in regular school
classes would not total more than two months. He was a SER
ious and constant reader and with a fine memory his educa-
ton was acquired largely from books. AT the age of II he had
read a number Of treatises on scientific subjects Is well as 9TH
er works including Gibbons Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire"
About that time he engaged in a number of business enter
prises. including newsboy on the Grand Trunk railway pro
prietor of a newsstand, a bookstore and vegetable market in
which he employed as assistants eleven boys of his own age. 1t
was while he was a newsboy that ne snatched n young son
of a station agent at Mount Clemens, Mich, from in front of d
train The grateful father of the lad taught Edison telegraphy
and when he became proficient as a n operator his natural ap-
petite for scientific work was whetted.
Holding down the job of operator for the Grand Trunk at
a Canadian station, Edison constructed what probably was his
first invention. His superior, fearing the young operator would
fall alseep at his lonely post, ordered him to tick off the signal
six" every half hour. This order did not fit in with the
youths idea, s. he rugged up a wheel that automatically licked
off the signal Later Edison left his job in haste and without
Formally Of resigning when he permitted a train he was direct
ed to stop to pass Taking time to reply to the order he found
upon reaching the station platform that the train already had
gone. The engineers of the two approaching trains saw each
other in time to avert a disaster. That put an end to Edisons
railway career.
He soon settled down to the business of invention in earnest
and perfected the Universal stock ticker, which brought him
$4,000 and set him up in his first manufacturing enterprise.
MI. Edison has devoted himself largely to inventions of an cleo
trical nature, foremost of which are the incandescent lamp and
for the transmission of electric light, heat and power;
apparatus and machines to improve systems Of communication
by telephone and telegraphs; the monographs and moving
picture machines.
When the United States made its entrance into the World
War Mr.. Edison and his vast corps of assistants turned atten-
lion to problems Of national defense and the government at
was greatly aided by their work. The findings and
investigations and suggestions made during the war period have
been carefully preserved for possible future use. h
Mr.. Edison has scant faith in the genius who works by in e
spiration. To a man who expressed the idea that a genius work O
I'd only when the spirit moved him, Mr.. Edison gave his cpl a
answer: Genius Is 2 per cent inspiration and SO s
Der cent perspiration." o
No finer tribute can be paid to Mr.. Edison than to repeat f
he words of President Coolidge when, in presenting the gold
of the congress of the United States in October, 1928, he h
aluted the venerable and renowned inventor thus: Noble, $
indy servant Of the United States and benefactor of mankind" v
Upon the reverse side of the medal presented upon that v
appears this inscription: HE illuminated the path b
II progress by his Inventions. "