A Great Mind

Radio Record, Volume I, Issue 30, 10 February 1928, Page 5

A Great Mind

LIFE OF INSPIRATION Than Thomas Alya Edison there is no more striking instance of a man commencing life with no prospects (so far as money is concerned), and yet achieving world fame. I'rom the time he was 11 years of age he has workedtwenty, forty, sixty, eighty-and at 81 years he is still working. He was a very young man when, quick to perceive the field which electricity opened up, he said as he rushed off to breakfast after an all-niglit poring over technical hooks, I have got so much to do, and life is so short, that I am going to hustle.’ It was Thomas A. Iidison who said, "Genius is 2 per cent. inspiration and 98 per cent. perspiration." What las been accomplished by such a phenomenal worker as Mr. KHdison in his long life? Born of Canadian parents, who had taken up their residence in U.S.A., Thomas Alya Edison inherited nothing but a tireless constitution, In his flight from Canadian territory, because of having taken too active a part in the Papineau rebellion, his father walked 182 imiles without sleep, for his powers of endurance were no less remarkable than those which have characterised his son. An Early Start. At eleven years of age Iidison went to work of his own will to augment the family exchequer, He became news: boy on a train, and was very enterprising, The Civil War was on at the time, and when the news of battles caine through he telegraphed down the line and had posters put up. When the train arrived at the stations the papers sold like hot cakes, When he was fifteen he was editing, printing, and publishing a small news sheet of his own. On the train there was a compartment which he used for a printing office and a laboratory, In it were atored jars of chemicals to make elec- . trical currents, telegraph instruments,

-" a printing press, some type, and a couple of ink rollers. A friend of Edi-_ son’s boyhood says: "Ilis mother kept him supplied with clean shirts, and he always washed his face and hands, but I think in those days he did uot often comb his hair. He would buy a cheap suit of clothes and wear them until they were worn out, when he would buy another suit. He never by any chance blacked his boots.’ His career as newsagent and newspaper proprietor on the train came to an abrupt termination owing to an accident in the laboratory setting the carriage on fire. The conductor, a stalwart Scotsman, after putting out the fire, threw the boy, printing press, bottles, books, and papers out of the carriage. After that the boy set up his laboratory at home with some crude telegraph instruments, wire, etc., and was soon more deeply absorbed in his scientific studies than ever,

Skill in Telegraphy. As a telegraphist Editor’s life was full of vicissitudes. At fifteen he was very proficient in the sending and receiving of telegraph messages, apd after his ejection from the railway car~ riage he had no difficulty in securing other employment, But he had difficulty; in keeping his positions. ‘ He was so absorbed in his experimental tests im regard to electricity that he encroached on his employers’ time, both for sleeping and working. He found him« self frequently looking for a new billet, but such was his reputation as an expert telegraphist that he usually had little difficulty in securing one. Itt spite of his*inattention to duty, Edi+ son had given evidence over and ‘o¥ér again of his wonderful skill and‘quick- — ness in grappling with difficulties, First 40,000 Dollars. sae Iidison’s first successful invention was in regard to ‘ticker’? machines used by brokerage firms. He was about to ask for 5000 dollars, but was offered and accepted 40,000. The duplex was Edison’s first important invention connected with electrical telegrapliy, and embodied a method of multiple transmission, which doubled the capacity of a single wire. He sold this patent outright to the Western Union, and turned his attention to the now familiar duplex, which he devised in 1874. ‘This made possible the simultaneous transmission of two messages each way. For this invention Edison received 30,000 dollars, the whole of which he spent trying to invent a wire which would carry six messages. Ancther important invention was im connection with the. automatic telegraph. Edison was now pouring im applications for patents for one thing and another, and public attention all over the country was being directed on him. He turned his attention to the telephone, for he saw that, if perfected, the telephone would be of colossal use in business. Very soon after taking the matter in hand he invented the carbon telephone transmitter-a device which made telephony practical, and without which Bell’s invention was useless. There was a great contest hbetween the two men, but a compromise was at last effected. .

, The Carbon Filament. In 1879 Iidison discovered the carbott filament for electric lamps and revolutionised lighting. He sat and watched his first lamp for 45 hours to see how long it would burn. In his researches and experiments for an incandescesé electric lamp, Edison went long periods of days and nights without sleep. Electric lighting opened up a vast field for ‘Iidison’s inventive genius, and he became known as the "Wizard of Menlo ~Park.’’ The phonograph was the result of pure reason based upon a happy inspiration, resulting from his early work with automatic telegraphs ‘The first model was made by a mechanic, John Krusei, after 80 hours’ sleepless toil, for the assistants at Menlo Park, as well as Edison, were accustomed to work long spells. ‘This first plionograph is now in South Kensington Museum. ‘The first application for @ phonograph patent was filed in 1877.

Tremendous Field Covered. Mr. Ifdison’s work as an inventor extends over a most varied field. In addition to his better-known patents, granted in connection with the electric light, the phonograph, the telephone, ore milling machinery, storage batteries, his inventions include typewriters, electric pens, megophones, vocal engines, addressing machines, methods of preserving fruit, cast iron manufacture, wire @Qrawing, electric locomotives, moving picture machines, the making of plateglass, compressei-air apparatus, and many other things. As far back as 1885 Iidison applied for a patent covering wireless telegraphy, and was allowed one in 1891, but he did not pursue his investigations in this direction witl',lis customary zeal. He was content to give way to Marconi, for whom he had a very sincere admiration £