Edison, His Life and Inventions

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


This room was for many years the headquarters of Edison's able
assistant, Dr. A. E. Kennelly, now professor of electrical engineering
in Harvard University to whose energetic and capable management were
intrusted many scientific investigations during his long sojourn at
the laboratory. Unfortunately, however, for the continued success of
Edison's elaborate plans, he had not been many years established in the
laboratory before a trolley road through West Orange was projected and
built, the line passing in front of the plant and within seventy-five
feet of the galvanometer-room, thus making it practically impossible to
use it for the delicate purposes for which it was originally intended.

For some time past it has been used for photography and some special
experiments on motion pictures as well as for demonstrations connected
with physical research; but some reminders of its old-time glory still
remain in evidence. In lofty and capacious glass-enclosed cabinets, in
company with numerous models of Edison's inventions, repose many of
the costly and elaborate instruments rendered useless by the ubiquitous
trolley. Instruments are all about, on walls, tables, and shelves, the
photometer is covered up; induction coils of various capacities,
with other electrical paraphernalia, lie around, almost as if the
experimenter were absent for a few days but would soon return and resume
his work.

In numbering the group of buildings, the galvanometer-room is No. 1,
while the other single-story structures are numbered respectively 2, 3,
and 4. On passing out of No. 1 and proceeding to the succeeding building
is noticed, between the two, a garage of ample dimensions and a smaller
structure, at the door of which stands a concrete-mixer. In this small
building Edison has made some of his most important experiments in the
process of working out his plans for the poured house. It is in this
little place that there was developed the remarkable mixture which is to
play so vital a part in the successful construction of these everlasting
homes for living millions.

Drawing near to building No. 2, olfactory evidence presents itself of
the immediate vicinity of a chemical laboratory. This is confirmed as
one enters the door and finds that the entire building is devoted to
chemistry. Long rows of shelves and cabinets filled with chemicals line
the room; a profusion of retorts, alembics, filters, and other chemical
apparatus on numerous tables and stands, greet the eye, while a corps
of experimenters may be seen busy in the preparation of various
combinations, some of which are boiling or otherwise cooking under their
dexterous manipulation.

It would not require many visits to discover that in this room, also,
Edison has a favorite nook. Down at the far end in a corner are a plain
little table and chair, and here he is often to be found deeply immersed
in a study of the many experiments that are being conducted. Not
infrequently he is actively engaged in the manipulation of some compound
of special intricacy, whose results might be illuminative of obscure
facts not patent to others than himself. Here, too, is a select little
library of chemical literature.

The next building, No. 3, has a double mission--the farther half being
partitioned off for a pattern-making shop, while the other half is used
as a store-room for chemicals in quantity and for chemical apparatus
and utensils. A grimly humorous incident, as related by one of the
laboratory staff, attaches to No. 3. It seems that some time ago one of
the helpers in the chemical department, an excitable foreigner,
became dissatisfied with his wages, and after making an unsuccessful
application for an increase, rushed in desperation to Edison, and said
"Eef I not get more money I go to take ze cyanide potassia." Edison gave
him one quick, searching glance and, detecting a bluff, replied in an
offhand manner: "There's a five-pound bottle in No. 3," and turned to
his work again. The foreigner did not go to get the cyanide, but gave up
his job.

The last of these original buildings, No. 4, was used for many years
in Edison's ore-concentrating experiments, and also for rough-and-ready
operations of other kinds, such as furnace work and the like. At the
present writing it is used as a general stock-room.

In the foregoing details, the reader has been afforded but a passing
glance at the great practical working equipment which constitutes the
theatre of Edison's activities, for, in taking a general view of such a
unique and comprehensive laboratory plant, its salient features only can
be touched upon to advantage. It would be but repetition to enumerate
here the practical results of the laboratory work during the past two
decades, as they appear on other pages of this work. Nor can one assume
for a moment that the history of Edison's laboratory is a closed book.
On the contrary, its territorial boundaries have been increasing step by
step with the enlargement of its labors, until now it has been obliged
to go outside its own proper domains to occupy some space in and about
the great Edison industrial buildings and space immediately adjacent. It
must be borne in mind that the laboratory is only the core of a group of
buildings devoted to production on a huge scale by hundreds of artisans.

Incidental mention has already been made of the laboratory at Edison's
winter residence in Florida, where he goes annually to spend a month or
six weeks. This is a miniature copy of the Orange laboratory, with its
machine shop, chemical-room, and general experimental department. While
it is only in use during his sojourn there, and carries no extensive
corps of assistants, the work done in it is not of a perfunctory nature,
but is a continuation of his regular activities, and serves to keep him
in touch with the progress of experiments at Orange, and enables him to
give instructions for their variation and continuance as their scope
is expanded by his own investigations made while enjoying what he calls
"vacation." What Edison in Florida speaks of as "loafing" would be for
most of us extreme and healthy activity in the cooler Far North.

A word or two may be devoted to the visitors received at the laboratory,
and to the correspondence. It might be injudicious to gauge the
greatness of a man by the number of his callers or his letters; but
they are at least an indication of the degree to which he interests
the world. In both respects, for these forty years, Edison has been a
striking example of the manner in which the sentiment of hero-worship
can manifest itself, and of the deep desire of curiosity to get
satisfaction by personal observation or contact. Edison's mail, like
that of most well-known men, is extremely large, but composed in no
small degree of letters--thousands of them yearly--that concern only the
writers, and might well go to the waste-paper basket without prolonged
consideration. The serious and important part of the mail, some personal
and some business, occupies the attention of several men; all such
letters finding their way promptly into the proper channels, often with
a pithy endorsement by Edison scribbled on the margin. What to do with
a host of others it is often difficult to decide, even when written by
"cranks," who imagine themselves subject to strange electrical ailments
from which Edison alone can relieve them. Many people write asking his
opinion as to a certain invention, or offering him an interest in it
if he will work it out. Other people abroad ask help in locating lost
relatives; and many want advice as to what they shall do with their
sons, frequently budding geniuses whose ability to wire a bell has
demonstrated unusual qualities. A great many persons want autographs,
and some would like photographs. The amazing thing about it all is
that this flood of miscellaneous letters flows on in one steady,
uninterrupted stream, year in and year out; always a curious
psychological study in its variety and volume; and ever a proof of the
fact that once a man has become established as a personality in the
public eye and mind, nothing can stop the tide of correspondence that
will deluge him.

It is generally, in the nature of things, easier to write a letter than
to make a call; and the semi-retirement of Edison at a distance of
an hour by train from New York stands as a means of protection to him
against those who would certainly present their respects in person, if
he could be got at without trouble. But it may be seriously questioned
whether in the aggregate Edison's visitors are less numerous or
less time-consuming than his epistolary besiegers. It is the common
experience of any visitor to the laboratory that there are usually
several persons ahead of him, no matter what the hour of the day, and
some whose business has been sufficiently vital to get them inside
the porter's gate, or even into the big library and lounging-room.
Celebrities of all kinds and distinguished foreigners are
numerous--princes, noblemen, ambassadors, artists, litterateurs,
scientists, financiers, women. A very large part of the visiting is done
by scientific bodies and societies; and then the whole place will be
turned over to hundreds of eager, well-dressed men and women, anxious
to see everything and to be photographed in the big courtyard around
the central hero. Nor are these groups and delegations limited to this
country, for even large parties of English, Dutch, Italian, or Japanese
visitors come from time to time, and are greeted with the same ready
hospitality, although Edison, it is easy to see, is torn between the
conflicting emotions of a desire to be courteous, and an anxiety to
guard the precious hours of work, or watch the critical stage of a new
experiment.

One distinct group of visitors has always been constituted by the
"newspaper men." Hardly a day goes by that the journals do not contain
some reference to Edison's work or remarks; and the items are generally
based on an interview. The reporters are never away from the laboratory
very long; for if they have no actual mission of inquiry, there is
always the chance of a good story being secured offhand; and the easy,
inveterate good-nature of Edison toward reporters is proverbial in
the craft. Indeed, it must be stated here that once in a while this
confidence has been abused; that stories have been published utterly
without foundation; that interviews have been printed which never took
place; that articles with Edison's name as author have been widely
circulated, although he never saw them; and that in such ways he has
suffered directly. But such occasional incidents tend in no wise to
lessen Edison's warm admiration of the press or his readiness to avail
himself of it whenever a representative goes over to Orange to get the
truth or the real facts in regard to any matter of public importance. As
for the newspaper clippings containing such articles, or others in which
Edison's name appears--they are literally like sands of the sea-shore
for number; and the archives of the laboratory that preserve only a very
minute percentage of them are a further demonstration of what publicity
means, where a figure like Edison is concerned.




CHAPTER XXVI

EDISON IN COMMERCE AND MANUFACTURE

AN applicant for membership in the Engineers' Club of Philadelphia is
required to give a brief statement of the professional work he has
done. Some years ago a certain application was made, and contained the
following terse and modest sentence:


"I have designed a concentrating plant and built a machine shop, etc.,
etc. THOMAS A. EDISON."


Although in the foregoing pages the reader has been made acquainted
with the tremendous import of the actualities lying behind those "etc.,
etc.," the narrative up to this point has revealed Edison chiefly in the
light of inventor, experimenter, and investigator. There have been
some side glimpses of the industries he has set on foot, and of their
financial aspects, and a later chapter will endeavor to sum up the
intrinsic value of Edison's work to the world. But there are some other
interesting points that may be touched on now in regard to a few of
Edison's financial and commercial ventures not generally known or
appreciated.

It is a popular idea founded on experience that an inventor is not
usually a business man. One of the exceptions proving the rule may
perhaps be met in Edison, though all depends on the point of view. All
his life he has had a great deal to do with finance and commerce, and
as one looks at the magnitude of the vast industries he has helped to
create, it would not be at all unreasonable to expect him to be among
the multi-millionaires. That he is not is due to the absence of certain
qualities, the lack of which Edison is himself the first to admit.
Those qualities may not be amiable, but great wealth is hardly ever
accumulated without them. If he had not been so intent on inventing he
would have made more of his great opportunities for getting rich. If
this utter detachment from any love of money for its own sake has not
already been illustrated in some of the incidents narrated, one or two
stories are available to emphasize the point. They do not involve any
want of the higher business acumen that goes to the proper conduct of
affairs. It was said of Gladstone that he was the greatest Chancellor of
the Exchequer England ever saw, but that as a retail merchant he would
soon have ruined himself by his bookkeeping.

Edison confesses that he has never made a cent out of his patents in
electric light and power--in fact, that they have been an expense
to him, and thus a free gift to the world. [18] This was true of the
European patents as well as the American. "I endeavored to sell my
lighting patents in different countries of Europe, and made a contract
with a couple of men. On account of their poor business capacity and
lack of practicality, they conveyed under the patents all rights to
different corporations but in such a way and with such confused wording
of the contracts that I never got a cent. One of the companies
started was the German Edison, now the great Allgemeine Elektricitaets
Gesellschaft. The English company I never got anything for, because a
lawyer had originally advised Drexel, Morgan & Co. as to the signing of
a certain document, and said it was all right for me to sign. I signed,
and I never got a cent because there was a clause in it which prevented
me from ever getting anything." A certain easy-going belief in human
nature, and even a certain carelessness of attitude toward business
affairs, are here revealed. We have already pointed out two instances
where in his dealings with the Western Union Company he stipulated that
payments of $6000 per year for seventeen years were to be made instead
of $100,000 in cash, evidently forgetful of the fact that the annual sum
so received was nothing more than legal interest, which could have been
earned indefinitely if the capital had been only insisted upon. In later
life Edison has been more circumspect, but throughout his early career
he was constantly getting into some kind of scrape. Of one experience he
says:

[Footnote 18: Edison received some stock from the parent
lighting company, but as the capital stock of that company
was increased from time to time, his proportion grew
smaller, and he ultimately used it to obtain ready money
with which to create and finance the various "shops" in
which were manufactured the various items of electric-
lighting apparatus necessary to exploit his system. Besides,
he was obliged to raise additional large sums of money from
other sources for this purpose. He thus became a
manufacturer with capital raised by himself, and the stock
that he received later, on the formation of the General
Electric Company, was not for his electric-light patents,
but was in payment for his manufacturing establishments,
which had then grown to be of great commercial importance.]

"In the early days I was experimenting with metallic filaments for the
incandescent light, and sent a certain man out to California in search
of platinum. He found a considerable quantity in the sluice-boxes of
the Cherokee Valley Mining Company; but just then he found also that
fruit-gardening was the thing, and dropped the subject. He then came to
me and said that if he could raise $4000 he could go into some kind of
orchard arrangement out there, and would give me half the profits. I
was unwilling to do it, not having very much money just then, but his
persistence was such that I raised the money and gave it to him. He went
back to California, and got into mining claims and into fruit-growing,
and became one of the politicians of the Coast, and, I believe, was on
the staff of the Governor of the State. A couple of years ago he wounded
his daughter and shot himself because he had become ruined financially.
I never heard from him after he got the money."

Edison tells of another similar episode. "I had two men working for
me--one a German, the other a Jew. They wanted me to put up a little
money and start them in a shop in New York to make repairs, etc. I
put up $800, and was to get half of the profits, and each of them
one-quarter. I never got anything for it. A few years afterward I went
to see them, and asked what they were doing, and said I would like
to sell my interest. They said: 'Sell out what?' 'Why,' I said, 'my
interest in the machinery.' They said: 'You don't own this machinery.
This is our machinery. You have no papers to show anything. You had
better get out.' I am inclined to think that the percentage of crooked
people was smaller when I was young. It has been steadily rising, and
has got up to a very respectable figure now. I hope it will never reach
par." To which lugubrious episode so provocative of cynicism, Edison
adds: "When I was a young fellow the first thing I did when I went to
a town was to put something into the savings-bank and start an account.
When I came to New York I put $30 into a savings-bank under the New York
Sun office. After the money had been in about two weeks the bank busted.
That was in 1870. In 1909 I got back $6.40, with a charge for $1.75 for
law expenses. That shows the beauty of New York receiverships."

It is hardly to be wondered at that Edison is rather frank and unsparing
in some of his criticisms of shady modern business methods, and the
mention of the following incident always provokes him to a fine scorn.
"I had an interview with one of the wealthiest men in New York. He
wanted me to sell out my associates in the electric lighting business,
and offered me all I was going to get and $100,000 besides. Of course I
would not do it. I found out that the reason for this offer was that he
had had trouble with Mr. Morgan, and wanted to get even with him." Wall
Street is, in fact, a frequent object of rather sarcastic reference,
applying even to its regular and probably correct methods of banking.
"When I was running my ore-mine," he says, "and got up to the point of
making shipments to John Fritz, I didn't have capital enough to carry
the ore, so I went to J. P. Morgan & Co. and said I wanted them to give
me a letter to the City Bank. I wanted to raise some money. I got a
letter to Mr. Stillman; and went over and told him I wanted to open an
account and get some loans and discounts. He turned me down, and would
not do it. 'Well,' I said, 'isn't it banking to help a man in this way?'
He said: 'What you want is a partner.' I felt very much crestfallen.
I went over to a bank in Newark--the Merchants'--and told them what
I wanted. They said: 'Certainly, you can have the money.' I made my
deposit, and they pulled me through all right. My idea of Wall Street
banking has been very poor since that time. Merchant banking seems to be
different."

As a general thing, Edison has had no trouble in raising money when he
needed it, the reason being that people have faith in him as soon
as they come to know him. A little incident bears on this point. "In
operating the Schenectady works Mr. Insull and I had a terrible burden.
We had enormous orders and little money, and had great difficulty to
meet our payrolls and buy supplies. At one time we had so many orders on
hand we wanted $200,000 worth of copper, and didn't have a cent to buy
it. We went down to the Ansonia Brass and Copper Company, and told Mr.
Cowles just how we stood. He said: 'I will see what I can do. Will you
let my bookkeeper look at your books?' We said: 'Come right up and look
them over.' He sent his man up and found we had the orders and were all
right, although we didn't have the money. He said: 'I will let you have
the copper.' And for years he trusted us for all the copper we wanted,
even if we didn't have the money to pay for it."

It is not generally known that Edison, in addition to being a newsboy
and a contributor to the technical press, has also been a backer and
an "angel" for various publications. This is perhaps the right place at
which to refer to the matter, as it belongs in the list of his financial
or commercial enterprises. Edison sums up this chapter of his life very
pithily. "I was interested, as a telegrapher, in journalism, and started
the Telegraph Journal, and got out about a dozen numbers when it was
taken over by W. J. Johnston, who afterward founded the Electrical World
on it as an offshoot from the Operator. I also started Science, and ran
it for a year and a half. It cost me too much money to maintain, and I
sold it to Gardiner Hubbard, the father-in-law of Alexander Graham
Bell. He carried it along for years." Both these papers are still
in prosperous existence, particularly the Electrical World, as the
recognized exponent of electrical development in America, where now
the public spends as much annually for electricity as it does for daily
bread.

From all that has been said above it will be understood that Edison's
real and remarkable capacity for business does not lie in ability to
"take care of himself," nor in the direction of routine office practice,
nor even in ordinary administrative affairs. In short, he would and does
regard it as a foolish waste of his time to give attention to the mere
occupancy of a desk.

His commercial strength manifests itself rather in the outlining of
matters relating to organization and broad policy with a sagacity
arising from a shrewd perception and appreciation of general business
requirements and conditions, to which should be added his intensely
comprehensive grasp of manufacturing possibilities and details, and
an unceasing vigilance in devising means of improving the quality of
products and increasing the economy of their manufacture.

Like other successful commanders, Edison also possesses the happy
faculty of choosing suitable lieutenants to carry out his policies and
to manage the industries he has created, such, for instance, as those
with which this chapter has to deal--namely, the phonograph, motion
picture, primary battery, and storage battery enterprises.

The Portland cement business has already been dealt with separately, and
although the above remarks are appropriate to it also, Edison being
its head and informing spirit, the following pages are intended to be
devoted to those industries that are grouped around the laboratory at
Orange, and that may be taken as typical of Edison's methods on the
manufacturing side.

Within a few months after establishing himself at the present
laboratory, in 1887, Edison entered upon one of those intensely active
periods of work that have been so characteristic of his methods in
commercializing his other inventions. In this case his labors were
directed toward improving the phonograph so as to put it into thoroughly
practicable form, capable of ordinary use by the public at large. The
net result of this work was the general type of machine of which the
well-known phonograph of today is a refinement evolved through many
years of sustained experiment and improvement.

After a considerable period of strenuous activity in the eighties, the
phonograph and its wax records were developed to a sufficient degree of
perfection to warrant him in making arrangements for their manufacture
and commercial introduction. At this time the surroundings of the Orange
laboratory were distinctly rural in character. Immediately adjacent
to the main building and the four smaller structures, constituting
the laboratory plant, were grass meadows that stretched away for some
considerable distance in all directions, and at its back door, so to
speak, ducks paddled around and quacked in a pond undisturbed. Being now
ready for manufacturing, but requiring more facilities, Edison increased
his real-estate holdings by purchasing a large tract of land lying
contiguous to what he already owned. At one end of the newly acquired
land two unpretentious brick structures were erected, equipped
with first-class machinery, and put into commission as shops for
manufacturing phonographs and their record blanks; while the capacious
hall forming the third story of the laboratory, over the library, was
fitted up and used as a music-room where records were made.