EDISON, THE ELECTRICIAN.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 450, 1 March 1890, Page 3

EDISON, THE ELECTRICIAN.

His Habits and Daily Work. v

‘ Tom’ Edison’s first occupation, as a boy, was that of selling peanuts to the passengers on a Michigan railway train. He soon afterward became a telegraph operator; and this was the small beginning of his remarkable discoveries. He is now 45 years old, and, after all he has accomplished, declares he is still standing upon the threshold only of electrical invention. Two years ago, Edison took’up his residence at Lleweylln Park, about a mile away from the town of Orange, in the State of Jersey. His Laboratory is a large red brick building, three storeys high ; the entrances being inclosed from the road behind high rails. The presiding, genius of this place is a strange figure in his long checked gingham, which buttons up under his chin, and extends to his heels. This is pub on to protect his ordinary clothing from the dust, acids, oils, and edged tools of which the laboratory is full. lie has A La kgb Head, with straggling hair just beginning to .turn grey. The face is expansive; the mouth being ample. But, as the smile is genial in proportion with the size of the lips, the fault is readily condoned. He is broad of shoulder, and deep of chest. But his face wears the pallor of the student who reads late into the night, and cares nothing for the regularity of meals. Over fifty men are engaged in experimenting in the laboratory; each essay being conducted in a separate room. Edison has the results minutely reported to him, and never confuses one experiment with another, but holds a precise remembrance of all. He is himself rather like electricity, being quick, mercurial, and rather impatient, especially with slow deliberate workmen. When he is deeply interested in an ex-

periment he expects his men to share his enthusiasm, and to work as hard as he does. At times he Labours Night and Day with hardly any sleep, and only such food as he can eat while at work. He can sleep almost at wiil, and is thus able to recuperate the heavy drains ho makes upon his system. After three or four days and nights of close application, with half-an-hour’s sleep thrown in here and there at irregular Intervals, the inventor, released by the conclusion of the experiment-, goes home, and sleeps soundly till all arrears due to the drowsy go.i are made up. Ho has been known to sleep twenty-four hours at a stretch.

Edison is Very Deaf. He will not use an ear trumpet, but puts his hand behind his least defective aural member, and screws his face into a concentrated effort of listening. The reporter has elicited many of bis opinions on men and things There is considerable breadth in his religious creed. All scientific men know that there is a Supreme Being, he says. As for ritual and minutite of doctrine. he never worries over them, considering them immaterial. Being asked what he regards as Tiie Essentials for Success,

he replied: ‘A good imagination, coupled with a lot of sound sense, great application, and absolute determination never to be discouraged.’