The Daily Alaska empire., 1931-10-19

ed.' Thereafter, he adhered strictly to that rule.
 During the greater part of his
 active life, Mir Edison devoted
 himself largely to inventions of an electrical nature, foremost of which were the incandescent lamp and
 systems for the transmission of
 electric light, heat and power; ap-
 paratus and machines to improve , systems of communication by tele- phone and telegraph; the phono- , graph and moving picture machine. ! Tn 1926 in connection with the
 filth anniversary of his invention of lthe incandescent lamp, MT. Edison
 said that his inventions that un-
 derlie the electric light and power
 industry he considered the most important of his works. Two years
 later Arthur Williams, vice-presi-
 dent of the New York Edison Com
 pany, estimated that the value of
 the enterprises which owed their
 origin, in part at least to Edison
 genius, represented five times all the money in circulation.
 Synthetic Chemistry !
 With the outbreak of the World
 War, the Edison works, among the many American industries, faced
 serious situation because of the
 cessation of imports of various
 chemicals for which the United
 States had depended upon Europe. The Wizard of Menlo Park" as
 Edison had come to be known, then
 plunged into the mysteries of sym
 thetic chemistry and evolved pro-
 cesses for the manufacture of var
 ious products that were needed in
 industry and which became essen- tial in the manufacture of muni- tions after the United States en- tered the war.
 Before that step was taken by the American government. MT Edi- son had been named by Josephus Daniels, then Secretary of the Navy, head of the Naval Consult ling Board, the membership of which included score of Americans pre- eminent in the field of inventive research. At the time Edison was working nearly 18 hours day to help overcome the handicap with which his own industries were con- ,, fronted, but he said he was not too busy to lend a hand to Uncle Sam Later when the war became an actual part of the nations busi- ness he devoted his entire time in his laboratory and aboard ves- sel provided by the Navy Depart ment to government problems of the war and continued those ac- tivities until the signing of the
 armistice.
 Yet wisil all ;siat he had con- ! tributed to the progress of life and for the benefit of mankind, MT. Edison was not content. He turned in his latter years to a new field l of endeavor, devoting great deal of his time to investigations and experiments looking toward the production of rubber from plants, shrubs and bushes in the United
 States in order to meet possible national emergency and to give the rubber trade a new miracle" to lround out his career of invention.
 Thomas Ava Edison was born at Milan; Ohio, February II, 1847 Ithe son of Samuel and Nancy FL Iliott Edison. His ancestors emil grated from Holland to the United States in l730. The family of the Inventor was noted, especially on This fathers side for longevity. His l sreat grandfather, a pro p e r o us New, york banker of Revolutionary
 times, lived to be 104 and his grandfather 102. His father was 94
 when he died.
 Commenting on that family rec lord when he was 76, MT. Edison tsaid he was only middle aged and |.I don't expect to lower the fam lily average"
 ', MT. Edison's mother, who was lborn in New England, had been a l teae e4ief fff Canadian high school i and from her he received most of his early education. It has been recorded that Edison spent not more than two months altogether E in school. At the age of l2 he had
 read number of treatsies on sci
 -A.s;n c,,tiootc as well aS Othoy