Edison's Home Life.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 419, 19 October 1889, Page 6

Edison's Home Life.

Thomas A. Edison, while in Pittsburg recenuly attending to his patent suit with Weatinghouse, was interviewed by a * Dispatch ' reporter, to whom he revealed some of the characteristics of hi? mode of living : — Yes ; lam a hard worker. I hardly ever sleep more than four hours per day, and I could keep this up for a year Sometimes I sleep ten hours, bub I don't feel well when I do. If I could sleep eight hours, as most men do, I would wake up feeling badly. My eye? would hurt me, and I would have a tough time to keep awake. I inherit this from my cousin. He is a remarkable old man, eating little and sleeping less. I have often known him, when 1 was a boy, to sit up all night talking poli tics with a friend or swapping stories. [ eat about a pound a day, and my food is very simple, consisting of some toast, a little potato, or something ot that kind. You know when I am working on anything I keep at it night and day, sleeping a few hours with my clothes on. I never take them otf ; don'fc even wash my face ; couldn't think of such a thing, and in this condition I take my meals. It I were to remove my clothes when I slept, I would get up feeling out of shape, and with no desire to go to work. ' No. 6'is my den in the laboratory, and I shut myself in there and hustle. I sleep from 1 to 6 in the morning, and then Igo to work again as fresh as a bird. This is all the sleep I need. But I tell you we have lots of fun in the laboratory. Some time ago T had 42 aien wo: king with me on the incandescent lamp in a big building. I hired a German to play an organ for us all night, and we woiked by the music. About one o'clock a farmer brought in our lunch, and we ate from a long table. At first the boys had some difficulty in keeping awake, and would go to sleep under stairways and in the corners. We employed watchers to bring them out, and in time they got used to it. After a while I didn't need 42 of them. Well, do you know, I couldn't drive them away. They stayed there and worked for nothing. Oh, we enjoy this kind of life ! Every now and then I hire a big schooner, and we go down the bay, my men and myself, to h'sh tor a few days. Then we come back and bucklo down to it again.