TWELVE
THE MORNING STAR, WILMINGTON, N. C, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 1 7, 1915.
THE STORY
Interesting Life of the Genius Who Gave to the World
the Electric Light, the Talking Machine and Moving
Pictures.
SUMMARY OF EDISON'S LIFE STORY
1847 Bom February 11, at Milan, Ohio.
1854 Moved to Port Huron, Mich.
1857 Started chemical laboratory in cellar of home.
1S58 Newsboy on Grand Trunk trains.
1862 .Published "The Weekly Herald" on brand Trunk trains. Saved life
of son of station agent at Mt. Commons, Mich. Boy's lather teaches
Edison telegraphy. Built amateur telegraph line and worked in rail
road statfon.
IS63 8 Worked as telegraph operator in various cities, always studying and
improving telegraph apparatus. Granted first patent for vote recording
machine. ' , , ,
IS69 Keaches New York, penniless. Happened in stock ticker office just as
apparatus breaks down, No one but Kdison could fix it. Given posi
- tion of superintendent at $300 a month. .Devises new and better stock
tickers - " v
1S90 Receiving first money, $40,000 for ticker invention. '
1S71 Helps perfect .a typewriter.
1872 Brought out many new inventions in telegraph apparatus. Opened
Menlo Park laboratory.
l877 invented telephone transmitter which made telephony commercially
possible. Invented phonograph.
1879 Invented electric lamp. Produced entire electrical system, new machin
ery, instruments, etc. -'
180 experimented with first electric railway.
1891 invented motion picture machine.
1891 1900 Produced new storage battery. Perfected concrete machinery
and concrete houses.
!90o 15 Juade many new improvements to the talking machine and the phonograph.
The man who has astonished the
world with his creative genius, who
gave us such wonderful things as the
electric light, the talking machine and
mntinn pictures . was born at Milan,
Ohio, February 11, 1847. It seems but ,
a few years ago, in tne nurnea
of time, when "Tom" Edison was sell
ing newspapers on the Grand Trunk
trains, calling out the headlines of Civil
War battles, when he was an itinerate,
pennyless telegraph operator, traveling
from city to city, always poor and
sometimes hungry. Today he is the
greatest Americans genius the foremost
Inventor, the hero of industry, the best
known and most honored man jin the
Edison, the father of Thom
as,. kept a hotel at Vienna, Canada, on
Lake Erie. He married Miss Nancy
Elliott, a school teacher, in 1828. Sam-
uel Edison took part in the revolt
against England and, because of this,
removed to Milan, Ohio, in 1842, where
Thomas Alva was born in 1847. As a
boy Edison was not strong and, there
fore, did not go to school as soon as
most boys of that day. In the mean
time the family removed to Port Hu
ron, Mich. Samuel Edison was active
in the grain and lumber business and
prospered. The family was well-to-do
and prominent in the society of the
community.
Edison Declared a Dunce.
About this time Thomas Alva start
ed bravely out to school. For three
, months he stood patiently at the foot;
of his class, then his teachers gave
him up in despair. He was sent home
and one of the instructors confided to
Edison's father that ; the boy was a
duiyje. Edison never ventured inside
a school house after this trying exper
ience. His mother took up the task of
the boy's education and how well she
succeeded has been evidenced in later
years. In the cellar of his home Edi
son installed his first "laboratory"
where he performed certain dubious
chemical experiments and tested out
the formulas encountered in his scien
ce reading. It was to secure, money
for these experiments that Edison turn
ed newsboy and in 1859 he began sell
ing papers on the trains of the Grand
Trunk between Bort Huron and De
troit. Nearly all the profits from this
enterprise went to support his labora
tory and chemical experiments. And
very soon he had installed in the bag
gage car a small laboratory where he
could experiment during the leisure
hours of the daily run. Because of an
accident in this laboratory, which set
fire, to the car, Edison was thrown off
the train and this ended his career as
a newsboy.
Edison also established "The "Weekly
Herald," the first newspaper ever print
ed on a moving train, which he ran for
some time to augment his earnings
from the sale of newspapers. About
this time he saved from death the
young son of J. TJ. Mackenzie, the sta
tion agent at Mount Clemens, Mich.,
and in gratitude the father taught Edi
son telegraphy. Edison put up a small
telegraph line between his home and
that of a boy friend. Thus began the
long, years when Edison worked at
telegraphy and traveled all over the
- country. For five years Edison drifted
from place to place, working -at his
trade, never staying long in any one
city. Some of his experiences ire those
roving days, as related by Edison to
day, are very laughable.
In 1868 Edison drifted to Boston. He
jwas one of, the best telegraphers in
the business and being possessed of
an inventive and scientific turn of mind
it was not surprising that he should
begin to devfop new and better tele
graph apparatus. In the Boston office
of the Western Union he began his ex
periments and study necessary for per
pecting his duplex system of telegra
phy. On the 11th day pf October, 1868, he
was granted his first patent for an
electrical vote recorder. He tried to
get Congress interested in this, but
failed. From Boston he went to New
York. He did not have a cent with
which to buy breakfast. He landed in
the big city poor and in debt. An old
associate loaned him a dollar. For
days he haunted the telegraph offices
looking for work. One day he happen
ed in the offices of the Gold & Stock
Telegraph Company just When their
system broke down. For a time the
various employes of the place tried to
adjust the mechanism while the rooms
were besieged with messengers from
brokers' offices demanding that the ser
vice be restored. At last Edison volun
teered to help and soon had the system
in order. As a result of this he was
given a job as superintendent at $300
a month, more money than he had ever
received before.
Edison Sells First Invention.
Soon after this Edison went into
partnership with Franklin L. Pope as
electrical engineers and began to make
new and improved stock tickers. In
1870 the Gold & Stock Telegram Com
panymade Edison an offer for his nu
merous improvements and inventions
relating to tickers. Edison determin
ed to ask for $5,000 but quickly drop
ped to $3,000, and when the time came
he could not even name this sum and
asked the company to make him an
offer. Their first offer was for $40,000
. and Edison says he came as near faint
ing as he ever did. They gave him a
2heck for this amount but he had never
sashed a check before. Being deaf he
did not hear what the paying teller said
about an endorsement and turned away
from the window with the idea he had
been cheated. When they told him to
endorse the check, and sent a man
along to Identify him, Edison received
the money, all in small bills, which
quite filled his pockets. He then went
to his home in Newark and sat up all
night with the money for fear it might
OF EDISON
be stolen. The next day a friend show
ed him how to deposit the money in a
bank and open a check account.
Now began the years of Edison's
greatest activities when he worked 20
hours a day, stealing naps on work
benches, in corridors and wherever he
could. From 1869, the date of his first
patent, up to the summer of 1910 no
fewer than 1,328 separate patents have
been applied for in his name. The
height of the activity was in 1882
when 141 patents were appliM for. He
perfected automatic telegraphy, made
a successful typewriter, perfected a de
vice whereby four messages could be
sent over the same wire, invented the
phonograph and then spent several
years working at the new telephone
apparatus, perfecting the receiver.
Becomes Interested In Electric Lamp.
"The idea struck me all of a sud
den," said Edison when in a reminis
cent mood. "In those days there were
a few arc lamps. It was easy to see
what electric lighting needed it
wanted to be subdivided. The light
was too bright and too big. What we
wanted was little lights, and to dis
tribute them to people's houses like
gas."
This was the gigantic problem to
which Edison addressed his energy and
genius, in spite of the fact that the
greatest engineers and scientists of
the world had declared the task impos
sible. Edison's attempts were called
childish and impossible. There were
plenty who openly declare"d" that Edi
son and his associates "were trying to
make money out of the public with a
"wild cat" scheme.
Undaunted Perseverenoe.
In the face of all this adverse criti
cism, Edison pursued the even tenor
of his way, investigating and experi
menting; for, as Edison says, "Impos
sible is an impossible word." Day af
ter riay and far into the watches of the
night, he and his associates adhered to
their research, snatching hasty meals
at odd times and sleeping among th3
rr.cus t n? buckets m tco '.'oset und?r
th- sis. irs or stretched xhausted o'
s.-me lsiboratory table. Of the investi
gation that was carried on, before a
suitable lamp filament was discovered,
Edison merely said: "We s.iw that cai
boii was what we wanted. The next
quest :"cr was, what kind of carbon? I
begrn t'. try various things and finally
carters jed a strip of bimbco tvom a
Japantse fan rnd found what we were
senc nt "
From the patent records we gather a
faint idea of the stupendous propor
tions, of the investigation embraced in
Edison's remark "We tried various
things." Some of the substances exper
imented upon were electric arc light
carbon made into paste and rolled in
to threads, cotton thread,' vulcanized
fibre, carbonized flax, threads made of
lamp black and tar, soft paper, fish
line;' various combinations of paper
and tar, linen, cardboard, Celluloid, box
wood, cocoanut hair and shell shav
ings from hickory, bay wood, rose
wood, and a thousand or more other
varieties of wood,, lamp wick, punk,
cork, bamboo fibre. These are, of
course, but a few 'of the substances in
vestigated. The practical filament was
found in the fibre growing Just under
the cutside hard surface of a certain
variety of bamboo. Imagine the al
most endless search which must have
bien carried on before such an unlike
ly material could be discovered.
The Birth of the Lamp.
Of the hour of victory, the birth of
the Edison lamp on October 21, 1879.
Edison says: "We sat. and looked, and
the1, lamp continued to burn, and the
longer it burned the more fascinated
we were. None of us could , go to bed,
and ibere was no sleep, for over forty
hours We sat and just watched it
with anxiety and growing elation."
The discovery of the incandescent
lamp was but a small part of the task
wnich confronted Edison in those busy
days. It was necessary for him to pro
duce a complete lighting system with
lamps, conductors, insulators, measur
ing instruments, dynamos, switch
boar Is, etc.
There was no dynamo, or generator,
suitable for Edison's new lighting sys
tem, so the first thing he did was to
go to work and invent a new and bet
ter generator than the electricians had
ever di earned of before.. There were
ro steam engines large enough, or fast
enough to run the new generators, so
Edison helped the steam engineers to
devise and make new and better en
gines. The First Central Station.
Edison, speaking of this period, said.
"I had the central station in mind all
the time, I wanted to use 110 volts.
Now, there is no use for you to ask
me why, because I do not know, but
somehow that figure stuck in my mind,
and I had calculated that if we could
get the voltage up that high, the cop
per cost would be somewhere in sight."
In regard to installing his first cen
tral station the old Pearl Street sta
tion in New York City he said: "You
cannot imagine how hard It was. There
was nothing that we could buy or that
anybody could make for us. There
were no high-speed engines, and the
manufacturers said they were impossi
ble." Mr. Porter (of the old Porter-Allen
Engine Company) built for Edison his
first high-speed engine, of 150 horse
power and 700 revolutions per minute.
Edison says: "We set the machine up
in the old shop, and as we had" some
idea of what might happen, we tied a
chain round the trottle valve and ran
it out through a window into the wood
ed, where we stood to work it.. It
ran,- oh yes, it ran! Every time she
turned over, she shook the firmament,
and tried to lift the whole hill Vith
her. Toned down to TJoO revolutions.
she ran satisfactorily, and everybody
said, 'Why, how beautifully she runs
and how practical such an engine is.'
Now,, don't you know, I knew that they
would say that? Didn't you ever, find
out that trying to do the impossible
makes about half the impossible seem
easy?"
While this work was going on in the
shop underground mains were being
laid in New York. "During this per
iod," says Edison, "I used to sleep
nights on piles of pipe in the station."
Finally, the great day for trying out
the" system arrived. "We started one
engine and all. was well, and we had 500
ohms resistance. Then we started an
other engine, and threw them in paral
lel. Of all the circuses since Adam
was born, we had the worst then. One
engine would stop and the other would
run up to about 1,000 resolutions. Then
they would see-saw. When the circus
began, the gang bolted, and kept run
ning for a couple of blocks. What was
the matter? Why it was those darn
Porter governors." By connecting all
the governors together, the engines
were finally made to behave.
Once, when a heavy load was unex
pectedly thrown on, Edison called up
his station and Inquired "How is it at
the station?" The reply came back,
"Oh, bully! Everything is red hot, and
the ammeter has made two revolu
tions!" Lack of Instruments.
Of switchboard instruments there
were none. In his early work, Edison
said, "We used to hang up a shingle
nail tied it alongside of a feeder, and
that was our heavy current ammeter.
It worked all right. When the nail
came close to the feeder, we screwed
up the rheostat a little, and 'kept the
lamps in the station looking about
right."
While Edison was building his first
electric lighting plant in New York
City, another and smaller plant was
being completed in Appleton, Wis. This
was a small plant, the generator being
driven by water power from a turbine
aaeoaaoaooflopanaj-jtw ta
Since
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W. D. MacMillan, Jr.
IB
1 ."im
LUMBERTON'S NEW BANK
A STRONG INSTITUTION
(Continued From Page 'Eight.)
Mr. Stephens was well advanced in
age, having for many years been a
minister of the gospel. The funeral
was conducted from Mt. Elam church
this morning at 11 o'clock.
Mr. W. s. Britt will leave Mon
day for Kershaw, S. C, where on Wed
nesday, he will be married. After an
extended bridal trip North, Mr. and
Mrs. Britt will be at home to their
friends in Lumberton.
.Mr", and Mrs. S. F. Caldwell left
Wednesday night for Pulaski, Va., Mrs.
Caldwell's former home. She will
spend, some time with relatives, but
Mr. Caldwell will return next week.
Cotton has been coming in freely all
the week, the price causing many farm
ers to sell without waiting and taking
chances.
Fresh eggs, old eggs, stale eggs,
eggs of any kind are now selling here
for 30 cents a dozen. Few are to be
had at any price.
Mr. Fred T. Skipper, of Wilmington,
arrived this morning to spend two or
three days with relatives. Mr. Skipper
is a nephew of the late Mrs. Ellen
iiinkhaw, and had not been here since
he attended her funeral several years
ago. He finds great improvement.
Mr. Marcus Jacobi, of Wilmington,
was here last night. He has many
friends here who are always glad to see
him.
Congressman Godwin was here for a
few hours yesterday evening.
A class of children from the Ox
ford Orphanage will give an entertain
ment in the opera house next Tuesday
wheel. The plant furnished current
for but a few incandescent lamps but
it has the honor of being the first com
mercial incandescent lighting installa
tion in the world.
the Announcement
of the
there has been a tremendous
advance in the cost of most of
our raw materials, especially
leather, aluminum, high grades
of steeL, tc. We cannot continue
present prices except at a loss.
It is, of course, out of the question
to compromise Packard quality which
has been maintained steadfastly for six
teen years. Consequently we have
adopted the only alternative and ad
vanced the prices by the amount of the
increase in the cost of materials.
These new prices for Packard Twin
Six cars cannot and will not be reduced
during the current season. They are as
follows :
Seven-Passenger Touring Car -Seven-Passenger
Salon Touring Car
Six-Passenger'Salon Touring Car
Five-Passenger Phaeton -Five-Passenger
Salon Phaeton -Two-Passenger
Runabout -Seven-Passenger
Imperial Limousine
Seven-Passenger Salon Limousine -Seven-Passenger
Limousine with Cab Sides . ,
Seven-Passenger Limousine without Cab Sides
Seven-Passenger Landaulet with Cab Sides
Six-Passenger Limousine without Cab Sides
Six-Passenger Landaulet without Cab Sides
Four-Passenger Brougham -Three-Passenger
.Coupe - -
Chassis Only
PACKARD MOTOR CAR COMPANY
Wilmington, N. C.
BB P OH Q BflflBOBHOHaH ,
night, 19th, and as usual will be greet
ed by a full house.
I Mrs. Lizzie Proctor and daughter,
Mrs. K. rt. a-riyie, nave returned irom
San Antonio," Texas.
Miss Lillian Ferguson delightfully
entertained a number of her young
friends last night. . W. S. W.
UNFORTUNATES SEE CIRCUS.
Students of Caswell Training School
Attend Performance at Kinston.
(Special Star Correspondence.)
Kinston, N. C, Oct. 16. There sat in
a reserved section at a circus here
Thursday a lot of folks for whom the
occasion was an epoch. The manager,
hearing from Postmaster LaRoque. of
the Caswell Training school, the State,
institution for the feeble minded near
here, invited the unfortunates there
mostly children to see a performance
as the management's guests. Superin
tendent McNairy gladly accepted the
invitation for the little ones and the
attendants escorted them to the tent.
Many of them had never seen a circus
before. Somfe of them did not Under
stand all that they saw. But it seemed
as though Providence had contrived
for each little face and every quaint
little mind a smile and appreciation.
Al Goldsboro the day before the or
phans from the Odd Fellows' home
were similarly entertained.
BUD FISHER COMING.
To Spend a Few Days at Havelock, N.
C, Before Long.
(Special Star Correspondence.)
Kinston, N. C, Oct. 16. "Bud" Fish
er, originator of "Mutt and Jeff", is
expected to spend a few days at the
Havelock hunting camp in Craven
county before long. Fisher visited the
camp several years ago.
Hazel Dawn
In "The Heart of Jennifer," (Para
mount) Royal tomorrow.
(Advertisement.)
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2r
Dress Up !
By LIVY S. RICHARD
Very wise was Shakespeare. You remember he wrote: "The
apparel oft proclaims the man."
Judge for yourself if this isn't true. How do YOU "size up"
a man the first time you see him?
Not by his Brains. It takes time for them to come to a show
down.
Not by his Character. Character can't be snap shotted.
You judge him, you have to judge him, first off, by his Appear
ance and that means more than the hang of his jaw or the
n cut of his hair; it also means whether his clothes fit and
whether he dresses in good taste.
Rockefeller, Wilson, Edison, any man whose money or reputa.
u tion is made, can wear any old thing and folks will either
not notice the slouchiness because of thinking of what they
know be has done or they will charge it up to the "whims
of genius."
Incidentally, Wilson and Rockefeller are both good dressers.
iBut YOU, Mr. Average Man, haven't got the "genius" excuse.
YOUR renown has yet to be accumulated. So it's very
i
decidedly wise for you to put' your best foot foremost.
I was in a great department store the other day watching the
waiting line at the employment office. Dozens of eager
youth longed to plant their feet on the first rungs of a ca
reer that would ladder them up among the.Wanamakers,
Marshall Fields, Pilenes.
Who do you suppose lost out? .
In every instance the fellow who Jooked shabby and dress-careless.
The employment manager told me afterward he didn't judge
applicants' clothing by its quality.
"It may be cheap, because when a fellow's poor he, of course,
can't buy broadcloth," he said. "But, it's got to be neat,
clean and indicative of good . taste. I can't take chances
on a youngster who doesn't- think enough of appearances
to take pains not to look mussy."
So take a friendly tip, dear sir and brother.
DRESS UP J
Copyright, 1915, by LAvy S. Richard
NEW FALL STYLES
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Following out the "Rotary" idea, Mr. Moore and hi committee insist
that the money that stays In Wilmington la the only money that really
help, build the city. That beta the cue. patronize the
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The Only OU Company In the City mow Money Remains In Wllming
Roger Moore's
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