When Edison Wagered.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 6 November 1914, Page 2

When Edison Wagered.

Betting is usually foolish, but it was a wager that set Thomas Alva Edison on the road to fame and fortune. When he was a telegraph operator much annoyqnee was caused by cockroaches getting into the tin cans in which the boys carried their lunches. Various methods of getting rid of them were tried, but without success, and then Edison made a bet that he would exterminate the foe. The next day the dinner-cans were piled in a heal), n»d the wizard surrounded them with a circle of tinfoil ribbon about an inch wide. About a quarter of an inch away he placed a similar circle, both ribbons being upright, and then connected them with a battery. Along came the cockroaches. To surmount the obstacles they had to place their hind legs on the outer ribbon and their forelegs on the inner one. The moment they did so, the circuit was completed, and they toppled over dead. Edison's success made him talked about, and was his real start as an inventor.