Edison, His Life and Inventions

F >> Frank Lewis Dyer and Thomas Commerford Martin >> Edison, His Life and Inventions


Now, however, that he had found means for obtaining and maintaining high
vacua, Edison immediately went back to carbon, which from the first
he had conceived of as the ideal substance for a burner. His next step
proved conclusively the correctness of his old deductions. On October
21, 1879, after many patient trials, he carbonized a piece of cotton
sewing-thread bent into a loop or horseshoe form, and had it sealed
into a glass globe from which he exhausted the air until a vacuum up to
one-millionth of an atmosphere was produced. This lamp, when put on
the circuit, lighted up brightly to incandescence and maintained its
integrity for over forty hours, and lo! the practical incandescent lamp
was born. The impossible, so called, had been attained; subdivision
of the electric-light current was made practicable; the goal had
been reached; and one of the greatest inventions of the century
was completed. Up to this time Edison had spent over $40,000 in his
electric-light experiments, but the results far more than justified the
expenditure, for with this lamp he made the discovery that the FILAMENT
of carbon, under the conditions of high vacuum, was commercially
stable and would stand high temperatures without the disintegration and
oxidation that took place in all previous attempts that he knew of
for making an incandescent burner out of carbon. Besides, this lamp
possessed the characteristics of high resistance and small radiating
surface, permitting economy in the outlay for conductors, and requiring
only a small current for each unit of light--conditions that were
absolutely necessary of fulfilment in order to accomplish commercially
the subdivision of the electric-light current.

This slender, fragile, tenuous thread of brittle carbon, glowing
steadily and continuously with a soft light agreeable to the eyes,
was the tiny key that opened the door to a world revolutionized in
its interior illumination. It was a triumphant vindication of Edison's
reasoning powers, his clear perceptions, his insight into possibilities,
and his inventive faculty, all of which had already been productive of
so many startling, practical, and epoch-making inventions. And now he
had stepped over the threshold of a new art which has since become so
world-wide in its application as to be an integral part of modern human
experience. [9]


[Footnote 9: The following extract from Walker on Patents
(4th edition) will probably be of interest to the reader:

"Sec. 31a. A meritorious exception, to the rule of the last
section, is involved in the adjudicated validity of the
Edison incandescent-light patent. The carbon filament, which
constitutes the only new part of the combination of the
second claim of that patent, differs from the earlier carbon
burners of Sawyer and Man, only in having a diameter of one-
sixty-fourth of an inch or less, whereas the burners of
Sawyer and Man had a diameter of one-thirty-second of an
inch or more. But that reduction of one-half in diameter
increased the resistance of the burner FOURFOLD, and reduced
its radiating surface TWOFOLD, and thus increased eightfold,
its ratio of resistance to radiating surface. That eightfold
increase of proportion enabled the resistance of the
conductor of electricity from the generator to the burner to
be increased eightfold, without any increase of percentage
of loss of energy in that conductor, or decrease of
percentage of development of heat in the burner; and thus
enabled the area of the cross-section of that conductor to
be reduced eightfold, and thus to be made with one-eighth of
the amount of copper or other metal, which would be required
if the reduction of diameter of the burner from one-thirty-
second to one-sixty-fourth of an inch had not been made. And
that great reduction in the size and cost of conductors,
involved also a great difference in the composition of the
electric energy employed in the system; that difference
consisting in generating the necessary amount of electrical
energy with comparatively high electromotive force, and
comparatively low current, instead of contrariwise. For this
reason, the use of carbon filaments, one-sixty-fourth of an
inch in diameter or less, instead of carbon burners one-
thirty-second of an inch in diameter or more, not only
worked an enormous economy in conductors, but also
necessitated a great change in generators, and did both
according to a philosophy, which Edison was the first to
know, and which is stated in this paragraph in its simplest
form and aspect, and which lies at the foundation of the
incandescent electric lighting of the world."]


No sooner had the truth of this new principle been established than
the work to establish it firmly and commercially was carried on
more assiduously than ever. The next immediate step was a further
investigation of the possibilities of improving the quality of the
carbon filament. Edison had previously made a vast number of experiments
with carbonized paper for various electrical purposes, with such good
results that he once more turned to it and now made fine filament-like
loops of this material which were put into other lamps. These proved
even more successful (commercially considered) than the carbonized
thread--so much so that after a number of such lamps had been made and
put through severe tests, the manufacture of lamps from these paper
carbons was begun and carried on continuously. This necessitated first
the devising and making of a large number of special tools for cutting
the carbon filaments and for making and putting together the various
parts of the lamps. Meantime, great excitement had been caused in this
country and in Europe by the announcement of Edison's success. In the
Old World, scientists generally still declared the impossibility of
subdividing the electric-light current, and in the public press Mr.
Edison was denounced as a dreamer. Other names of a less complimentary
nature were applied to him, even though his lamp were actually in
use, and the principle of commercial incandescent lighting had been
established.

Between October 21, 1879, and December 21, 1879, some hundreds of these
paper-carbon lamps had been made and put into actual use, not only in
the laboratory, but in the streets and several residences at Menlo Park,
New Jersey, causing great excitement and bringing many visitors from
far and near. On the latter date a full-page article appeared in the
New York Herald which so intensified the excited feeling that Mr. Edison
deemed it advisable to make a public exhibition. On New Year's Eve,
1879, special trains were run to Menlo Park by the Pennsylvania
Railroad, and over three thousand persons took advantage of the
opportunity to go out there and witness this demonstration for
themselves. In this great crowd were many public officials and men of
prominence in all walks of life, who were enthusiastic in their praises.

In the mean time, the mind that conceived and made practical this
invention could not rest content with anything less than perfection,
so far as it could be realized. Edison was not satisfied with paper
carbons. They were not fully up to the ideal that he had in mind. What
he sought was a perfectly uniform and homogeneous carbon, one like the
"One-Hoss Shay," that had no weak spots to break down at inopportune
times. He began to carbonize everything in nature that he could lay
hands on. In his laboratory note-books are innumerable jottings of the
things that were carbonized and tried, such as tissue-paper, soft paper,
all kinds of cardboards, drawing-paper of all grades, paper saturated
with tar, all kinds of threads, fish-line, threads rubbed with tarred
lampblack, fine threads plaited together in strands, cotton soaked in
boiling tar, lamp-wick, twine, tar and lampblack mixed with a proportion
of lime, vulcanized fibre, celluloid, boxwood, cocoanut hair and shell,
spruce, hickory, baywood, cedar and maple shavings, rosewood, punk,
cork, bagging, flax, and a host of other things. He also extended his
searches far into the realms of nature in the line of grasses, plants,
canes, and similar products, and in these experiments at that time
and later he carbonized, made into lamps, and tested no fewer than six
thousand different species of vegetable growths.

The reasons for such prodigious research are not apparent on the face of
the subject, nor is this the occasion to enter into an explanation, as
that alone would be sufficient to fill a fair-sized book. Suffice it
to say that Edison's omnivorous reading, keen observation, power of
assimilating facts and natural phenomena, and skill in applying the
knowledge thus attained to whatever was in hand, now came into full play
in determining that the results he desired could only be obtained in
certain directions.

At this time he was investigating everything with a microscope, and one
day in the early part of 1880 he noticed upon a table in the laboratory
an ordinary palm-leaf fan. He picked it up and, looking it over,
observed that it had a binding rim made of bamboo, cut from the outer
edge of the cane; a very long strip. He examined this, and then gave it
to one of his assistants, telling him to cut it up and get out of it
all the filaments he could, carbonize them, put them into lamps, and try
them. The results of this trial were exceedingly successful, far better
than with anything else thus far used; indeed, so much so, that after
further experiments and microscopic examinations Edison was convinced
that he was now on the right track for making a thoroughly stable,
commercial lamp; and shortly afterward he sent a man to Japan to procure
further supplies of bamboo. The fascinating story of the bamboo hunt
will be told later; but even this bamboo lamp was only one item of
a complete system to be devised--a system that has since completely
revolutionized the art of interior illumination.

Reference has been made in this chapter to the preliminary study that
Edison brought to bear on the development of the gas art and industry.
This study was so exhaustive that one can only compare it to the careful
investigation made in advance by any competent war staff of the elements
of strength and weakness, on both sides, in a possible campaign. A
popular idea of Edison that dies hard, pictures a breezy, slap-dash,
energetic inventor arriving at new results by luck and intuition, making
boastful assertions and then winning out by mere chance. The native
simplicity of the man, the absence of pose and ceremony, do much to
strengthen this notion; but the real truth is that while gifted with
unusual imagination, Edison's march to the goal of a new invention is
positively humdrum and monotonous in its steady progress. No one ever
saw Edison in a hurry; no one ever saw him lazy; and that which he did
with slow, careful scrutiny six months ago, he will be doing with just
as much calm deliberation of research six months hence--and six years
hence if necessary. If, for instance, he were asked to find the most
perfect pebble on the Atlantic shore of New Jersey, instead of hunting
here, there, and everywhere for the desired object, we would no doubt
find him patiently screening the entire beach, sifting out the most
perfect stones and eventually, by gradual exclusion, reaching the
long-sought-for pebble; and the mere fact that in this search years
might be taken, would not lessen his enthusiasm to the slightest extent.

In the "prospectus book" among the series of famous note-books, all the
references and data apply to gas. The book is numbered 184, falls into
the period now dealt with, and runs along casually with items spread
out over two or three years. All these notes refer specifically to
"Electricity vs. Gas as General Illuminants," and cover an astounding
range of inquiry and comment. One of the very first notes tells the
whole story: "Object, Edison to effect exact imitation of all done by
gas, so as to replace lighting by gas by lighting by electricity. To
improve the illumination to such an extent as to meet all requirements
of natural, artificial, and commercial conditions." A large programme,
but fully executed! The notes, it will be understood, are all in
Edison's handwriting. They go on to observe that "a general system of
distribution is the only possible means of economical illumination," and
they dismiss isolated-plant lighting as in mills and factories as of so
little importance to the public--"we shall leave the consideration of
this out of this book." The shrewd prophecy is made that gas will be
manufactured less for lighting, as the result of electrical competition,
and more and more for heating, etc., thus enlarging its market and
increasing its income. Comment is made on kerosene and its cost, and all
kinds of general statistics are jotted down as desirable. Data are to be
obtained on lamp and dynamo efficiency, and "Another review of the whole
thing as worked out upon pure science principles by Rowland, Young,
Trowbridge; also Rowland on the possibilities and probabilities of
cheaper production by better manufacture--higher incandescence without
decrease of life of lamps." Notes are also made on meters and motors.
"It doesn't matter if electricity is used for light or for power";
while small motors, it is observed, can be used night or day, and small
steam-engines are inconvenient. Again the shrewd comment: "Generally
poorest district for light, best for power, thus evening up whole
city--the effect of this on investment."

It is pointed out that "Previous inventions failed--necessities
for commercial success and accomplishment by Edison. Edison's great
effort--not to make a large light or a blinding light, but a small light
having the mildness of gas." Curves are then called for of iron
and copper investment--also energy line--curves of candle-power and
electromotive force; curves on motors; graphic representation of
the consumption of gas January to December; tables and formulae;
representations graphically of what one dollar will buy in different
kinds of light; "table, weight of copper required different distance,
100-ohm lamp, 16 candles"; table with curves showing increased
economy by larger engine, higher power, etc. There is not much that is
dilettante about all this. Note is made of an article in April, 1879,
putting the total amount of gas investment in the whole world at that
time at $1,500,000,000; which is now (1910) about the amount of the
electric-lighting investment in the United States. Incidentally a note
remarks: "So unpleasant is the effect of the products of gas that in the
new Madison Square Theatre every gas jet is ventilated by special tubes
to carry away the products of combustion." In short, there is no aspect
of the new problem to which Edison failed to apply his acutest powers;
and the speed with which the new system was worked out and introduced
was simply due to his initial mastery of all the factors in the older
art. Luther Stieringer, an expert gas engineer and inventor, whose
services were early enlisted, once said that Edison knew more about gas
than any other man he had ever met. The remark is an evidence of the
kind of preparation Edison gave himself for his new task.



CHAPTER XII

MEMORIES OF MENLO PARK

FROM the spring of 1876 to 1886 Edison lived and did his work at Menlo
Park; and at this stage of the narrative, midway in that interesting and
eventful period, it is appropriate to offer a few notes and jottings on
the place itself, around which tradition is already weaving its fancies,
just as at the time the outpouring of new inventions from it invested
the name with sudden prominence and with the glamour of romance.
"In 1876 I moved," says Edison, "to Menlo Park, New Jersey, on the
Pennsylvania Railroad, several miles below Elizabeth. The move was due
to trouble I had about rent. I had rented a small shop in Newark, on the
top floor of a padlock factory, by the month. I gave notice that I
would give it up at the end of the month, paid the rent, moved out,
and delivered the keys. Shortly afterward I was served with a paper,
probably a judgment, wherein I was to pay nine months' rent. There was
some law, it seems, that made a monthly renter liable for a year. This
seemed so unjust that I determined to get out of a place that permitted
such injustice." For several Sundays he walked through different parts
of New Jersey with two of his assistants before he decided on Menlo
Park. The change was a fortunate one, for the inventor had married Miss
Mary E. Stillwell, and was now able to establish himself comfortably
with his wife and family while enjoying immediate access to the new
laboratory. Every moment thus saved was valuable.

To-day the place and region have gone back to the insignificance from
which Edison's genius lifted them so startlingly. A glance from the
car windows reveals only a gently rolling landscape dotted with modest
residences and unpretentious barns; and there is nothing in sight by way
of memorial to suggest that for nearly a decade this spot was the scene
of the most concentrated and fruitful inventive activity the world has
ever known. Close to the Menlo Park railway station is a group of
gaunt and deserted buildings, shelter of the casual tramp, and slowly
crumbling away when not destroyed by the carelessness of some ragged
smoker. This silent group of buildings comprises the famous old
laboratory and workshops of Mr. Edison, historic as being the birthplace
of the carbon transmitter, the phonograph, the incandescent lamp,
and the spot where Edison also worked out his systems of electrical
distribution, his commercial dynamo, his electric railway, his
megaphone, his tasimeter, and many other inventions of greater or lesser
degree. Here he continued, moreover, his earlier work on the quadruplex,
sextuplex, multiplex, and automatic telegraphs, and did his notable
pioneer work in wireless telegraphy. As the reader knows, it had been a
master passion with Edison from boyhood up to possess a laboratory,
in which with free use of his own time and powers, and with command of
abundant material resources, he could wrestle with Nature and probe her
closest secrets. Thus, from the little cellar at Port Huron, from the
scant shelves in a baggage car, from the nooks and corners of dingy
telegraph offices, and the grimy little shops in New York and Newark,
he had now come to the proud ownership of an establishment to which
his favorite word "laboratory" might justly be applied. Here he could
experiment to his heart's content and invent on a larger, bolder scale
than ever--and he did!

Menlo Park was the merest hamlet. Omitting the laboratory structures, it
had only about seven houses, the best looking of which Edison lived in,
a place that had a windmill pumping water into a reservoir. One of the
stories of the day was that Edison had his front gate so connected with
the pumping plant that every visitor as he opened or closed the gate
added involuntarily to the supply in the reservoir. Two or three of the
houses were occupied by the families of members of the staff; in the
others boarders were taken, the laboratory, of course, furnishing all
the patrons. Near the railway station was a small saloon kept by an old
Scotchman named Davis, where billiards were played in idle moments,
and where in the long winter evenings the hot stove was a centre of
attraction to loungers and story-tellers. The truth is that there
was very little social life of any kind possible under the strenuous
conditions prevailing at the laboratory, where, if anywhere, relaxation
was enjoyed at odd intervals of fatigue and waiting.

The main laboratory was a spacious wooden building of two floors. The
office was in this building at first, until removed to the brick library
when that was finished. There S. L. Griffin, an old telegraph friend
of Edison, acted as his secretary and had charge of a voluminous and
amazing correspondence. The office employees were the Carman brothers
and the late John F. Randolph, afterwards secretary. According to Mr.
Francis Jehl, of Budapest, then one of the staff, to whom the writers
are indebted for a great deal of valuable data on this period: "It
was on the upper story of this laboratory that the most important
experiments were executed, and where the incandescent lamp was born.
This floor consisted of a large hall containing several long tables,
upon which could be found all the various instruments, scientific and
chemical apparatus that the arts at that time could produce. Books
lay promiscuously about, while here and there long lines of
bichromate-of-potash cells could be seen, together with experimental
models of ideas that Edison or his assistants were engaged upon. The
side walls of this hall were lined with shelves filled with bottles,
phials, and other receptacles containing every imaginable chemical and
other material that could be obtained, while at the end of this hall,
and near the organ which stood in the rear, was a large glass case
containing the world's most precious metals in sheet and wire form,
together with very rare and costly chemicals. When evening came on, and
the last rays of the setting sun penetrated through the side windows,
this hall looked like a veritable Faust laboratory.

"On the ground floor we had our testing-table, which stood on two large
pillars of brick built deep into the earth in order to get rid of all
vibrations on account of the sensitive instruments that were upon it.
There was the Thomson reflecting mirror galvanometer and electrometer,
while nearby were the standard cells by which the galvanometers were
adjusted and standardized. This testing-table was connected by means
of wires with all parts of the laboratory and machine-shop, so that
measurements could be conveniently made from a distance, as in those
days we had no portable and direct-reading instruments, such as now
exist. Opposite this table we installed, later on, our photometrical
chamber, which was constructed on the Bunsen principle. A little way
from this table, and separated by a partition, we had the chemical
laboratory with its furnaces and stink-chambers. Later on another
chemical laboratory was installed near the photometer-room, and this Dr.
A. Haid had charge of."

Next to the laboratory in importance was the machine-shop, a large and
well-lighted building of brick, at one end of which there was the boiler
and engine-room. This shop contained light and heavy lathes, boring and
drilling machines, all kinds of planing machines; in fact, tools of all
descriptions, so that any apparatus, however delicate or heavy, could be
made and built as might be required by Edison in experimenting. Mr. John
Kruesi had charge of this shop, and was assisted by a number of skilled
mechanics, notably John Ott, whose deft fingers and quick intuitive
grasp of the master's ideas are still in demand under the more recent
conditions at the Llewellyn Park laboratory in Orange.

Between the machine-shop and the laboratory was a small building of wood
used as a carpenter-shop, where Tom Logan plied his art. Nearby was the
gasoline plant. Before the incandescent lamp was perfected, the
only illumination was from gasoline gas; and that was used later
for incandescent-lamp glass-blowing, which was done in another small
building on one side of the laboratory. Apparently little or no lighting
service was obtained from the Wallace-Farmer arc lamps secured from
Ansonia, Connecticut. The dynamo was probably needed for Edison's own
experiments.

On the outskirts of the property was a small building in which lampblack
was crudely but carefully manufactured and pressed into very small
cakes, for use in the Edison carbon transmitters of that time. The
night-watchman, Alfred Swanson, took care of this curious plant, which
consisted of a battery of petroleum lamps that were forced to burn to
the sooting point. During his rounds in the night Swanson would find
time to collect from the chimneys the soot that the lamps gave. It was
then weighed out into very small portions, which were pressed into cakes
or buttons by means of a hand-press. These little cakes were delicately
packed away between layers of cotton in small, light boxes and shipped
to Bergmann in New York, by whom the telephone transmitters were being
made. A little later the Edison electric railway was built on the
confines of the property out through the woods, at first only a third
of a mile in length, but reaching ultimately to Pumptown, almost three
miles away.

Mr. Edison's own words may be quoted as to the men with whom he
surrounded himself here and upon whose services he depended principally
for help in the accomplishment of his aims. In an autobiographical
article in the Electrical World of March 5, 1904, he says: "It is
interesting to note that in addition to those mentioned above (Charles
Batchelor and Frank Upton), I had around me other men who ever since
have remained active in the field, such as Messrs. Francis Jehl, William
J. Hammer, Martin Force, Ludwig K. Boehm, not forgetting that good
friend and co-worker, the late John Kruesi. They found plenty to do in
the various developments of the art, and as I now look back I sometimes
wonder how we did so much in so short a time." Mr. Jehl in his
reminiscences adds another name to the above--namely, that of John W.
Lawson, and then goes on to say: "These are the names of the pioneers of
incandescent lighting, who were continuously at the side of Edison day
and night for some years, and who, under his guidance, worked upon the
carbon-filament lamp from its birth to ripe maturity. These men all had
complete faith in his ability and stood by him as on a rock, guarding
their work with the secretiveness of a burglar-proof safe. Whenever it
leaked out in the world that Edison was succeeding in his work on the
electric light, spies and others came to the Park; so it was of the
utmost importance that the experiments and their results should be kept
a secret until Edison had secured the protection of the Patent Office."
With this staff was associated from the first Mr. E. H. Johnson, whose
work with Mr. Edison lay chiefly, however, outside the laboratory,
taking him to all parts of the country and to Europe. There were also
to be regarded as detached members of it the Bergmann brothers,
manufacturing for Mr. Edison in New York, and incessantly experimenting
for him. In addition there must be included Mr. Samuel Insull, whose
activities for many years as private secretary and financial manager
were devoted solely to Mr. Edison's interests, with Menlo Park as a
centre and main source of anxiety as to pay-rolls and other constantly
recurring obligations. The names of yet other associates occur from
time to time in this narrative--"Edison men" who have been very proud
of their close relationship to the inventor and his work at old Menlo.
"There was also Mr. Charles L. Clarke, who devoted himself mainly to
engineering matters, and later on acted as chief engineer of the Edison
Electric Light Company for some years. Then there were William Holzer
and James Hipple, both of whom took an active part in the practical
development of the glass-blowing department of the laboratory, and,
subsequently, at the first Edison lamp factory at Menlo Park. Later on
Messrs. Jehl, Hipple, and Force assisted Mr. Batchelor to install the
lamp-works of the French Edison Company at Ivry-sur-Seine. Then there
were Messrs. Charles T. Hughes, Samuel D. Mott, and Charles T. Mott, who
devoted their time chiefly to commercial affairs. Mr. Hughes conducted
most of this work, and later on took a prominent part in Edison's
electric-railway experiments. His business ability was on a high level,
while his personal character endeared him to us all."