Edison, His Life and Inventions

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


Following the incandescent lamp we must not forget an industry
exclusively arising from it and absolutely dependent upon it--namely,
that of making fixtures for such lamps, the manufacture of which gives
employment to upward of 6000 persons, who annually receive at least
$3,750,000 in compensation.

The detail devices of the incandescent electric lighting system also
contribute a large quota to the country's wealth in the millions of
dollars paid out in salaries and wages to many thousands of persons who
are engaged in their manufacture.

The electric railways of our country show even larger figures than the
lighting stations and plants, as they employ on the average over
250,000 persons, whose annual compensation amounts to not less than
$155,000,000.

In the manufacture of about $50,000,000 worth of dynamos and motors
annually, for central-station equipment, isolated plants, electric
railways, and other purposes, the manufacturers of the country employ an
average of not less than 30,000 people, whose yearly pay-roll amounts to
no less a sum than $20,000,000.

The growth of the telephone systems of the United States also furnishes
us with statistics of an analogous nature, for we find that the average
number of employees engaged in this industry is at least 140,000, whose
annual earnings aggregate a minimum of $75,000,000; besides which the
manufacturers of telephone apparatus employ over 12,000 persons, to whom
is paid annually about $5,500,000.

No attempt is made to include figures of collateral industries,
such, for instance, as copper, which is very closely allied with the
electrical arts, and the great bulk of which is refined electrically.

The 8000 or so motion-picture theatres of the country employ no fewer
than 40,000 people, whose aggregate annual income amounts to not less
than $37,000,000.

Coming now to the Orange Valley plant, we take a drop from these figures
to the comparatively modest ones which give us an average of 3600
employees and calling for an annual pay-roll of about $2,250,000. It
must be remembered, however, that the sums mentioned above represent
industries operated by great aggregations of capital, while the Orange
Valley plant, as well as the Edison Portland Cement Company, with an
average daily number of 530 employees and over $400,000 annual pay-roll,
represent in a large measure industries that are more in the nature
of closely held enterprises and practically under the direction of one
mind.

The table herewith given summarizes the figures that have just been
presented, and affords an idea of the totals affected by the genius
of this one man. It is well known that many other men and many other
inventions have been needed for the perfection of these arts; but it
is equally true that, as already noted, some of these industries are
directly the creation of Edison, while in every one of the rest his
impress has been deep and significant. Before he began inventing, only
two of them were known at all as arts--telegraphy and the manufacture
of cement. Moreover, these figures deal only with the United States, and
take no account of the development of many of the Edison inventions
in Europe or of their adoption throughout the world at large. Let it
suffice

STATISTICAL RESUME (APPROXIMATE) OF SOME OF THE INDUSTRIES
IN THE UNITED STATES DIRECTLY FOUNDED UPON OR
AFFECTED BY INVENTIONS OF THOMAS A. EDISON


Annual
Gross Rev- Number Annual
Class of Industry Investment enue or of Em- Pay-Rolls
sales
Central station lighting
and power $1,000,000,000 $125,000,000 50,000 $40,000,000
Isolated incandescent
lighting 500,000,000 -- 33,000 17,000 000
Incandescent lamps 25,000,000 20,000,000 14,000 8,000 000
Electric fixtures 8,000,000 5,000,000 6,000 3,750,000
Dynamos and motors 60,000,000 50,000,000 30,000 20,000,000
Electric railways 4,000,000,000 430,000,000 250,000 155,000,000
Telephone systems 800,000,000 175,000,000 140,000 75,000,000
Telephone apparatus 30,000,000 15,000,000 12,000 5,500,000
Phonograph and motion
pictures 10,000,000 15,000,000 5,000 6,000,000
Motion picture theatres 40,000,000 80,000,000 40,000 37,000,000
Edison Portland cement 4,000,000 2,000,000 530 400,000
Telegraphy 250,000,000 60,000,000 100,000 30,000,000
--------------------------------------------------------------------------Totals
6,727,000,000 1,077,000,000 680,530 397,650,000

that in America alone the work of Edison has been one of the most potent
factors in bringing into existence new industries now capitalized at
nearly $ 7,000,000,000, earning annually over $1,000,000,000, and giving
employment to an army of more than six hundred thousand people.

A single diamond, prismatically flashing from its many facets
the beauties of reflected light, comes well within the limits of
comprehension of the human mind and appeals to appreciation by the
finer sensibilities; but in viewing an exhibition of thousands of
these beautiful gems, the eye and brain are simply bewildered with the
richness of a display which tends to confuse the intellect until
the function of analysis comes into play and leads to more adequate
apprehension.

So, in presenting the mass of statistics contained in this chapter, we
fear that the result may have been the bewilderment of the reader to
some extent. Nevertheless, in writing a biography of Edison, the
main object is to present the facts as they are, and leave it to the
intelligent reader to classify, apply, and analyze them in such manner
as appeals most forcibly to his intellectual processes. If in the
foregoing pages there has appeared to be a tendency to attribute to
Edison the entire credit for the growth to which many of the above-named
great enterprises have in these latter days attained, we must especially
disclaim any intention of giving rise to such a deduction. No one who
has carefully followed the course of this narrative can deny, however,
that Edison is the father of some of the arts and industries that have
been mentioned, and that as to some of the others it was the magic of
his touch that helped make them practicable. Not only to his work and
ingenuity is due the present magnitude of these arts and industries, but
it is attributable also to the splendid work and numerous contributions
of other great inventors, such as Brush, Bell, Elihu Thomson, Weston,
Sprague, and many others, as well as to the financiers and investors who
in the past thirty years have furnished the vast sums of money that were
necessary to exploit and push forward these enterprises.

The reader may have noticed in a perusal of this chapter the lack of
autobiographical quotations, such as have appeared in other parts of
this narrative. Edison's modesty has allowed us but one remark on the
subject. This was made by him to one of the writers a short time ago,
when, after an interesting indulgence in reminiscences of old times and
early inventions, he leaned back in his chair, and with a broad smile on
his face, said, reflectively: "Say, I HAVE been mixed up in a whole lot
of things, haven't I?"



CHAPTER XXVIII

THE BLACK FLAG

THROUGHOUT the forty-odd years of his creative life, Edison has realized
by costly experience the truth of the cynical proverb that "A patent
is merely a title to a lawsuit." It is not intended, however, by this
statement to lead to any inference on the part of the reader that HE
stands peculiarly alone in any such experience, for it has been and
still is the common lot of every successful inventor, sooner or later.

To attribute dishonesty or cupidity as the root of the defence in all
patent litigation would be aiming very wide of the mark, for in no
class of suits that come before the courts are there any that present
a greater variety of complex, finely shaded questions, or that
require more delicacy of interpretation, than those that involve the
construction of patents, particularly those relating to electrical
devices. Indeed, a careful study of legal procedure of this character
could not be carried far without discovery of the fact that in numerous
instances the differences of opinion between litigants were marked by
the utmost bona fides.

On the other hand, such study would reveal many cases of undoubted
fraudulent intent, as well as many bold attempts to deprive the inventor
of the fruits of his endeavors by those who have sought to evade,
through subtle technicalities of the law, the penalty justly due them
for trickery, evasion, or open contempt of the rights of others.

In the history of science and of the arts to which the world has
owed its continued progress from year to year there is disclosed one
remarkable fact, and that is, that whenever any important discovery or
invention has been made and announced by one man, it has almost always
been disclosed later that other men--possibly widely separated and
knowing nothing of the other's work--have been following up the same
general lines of investigation, independently, with the same object in
mind. Their respective methods might be dissimilar while tending to the
same end, but it does not necessarily follow that any one of these other
experimenters might ever have achieved the result aimed at, although,
after the proclamation of success by one, it is easy to believe that
each of the other independent investigators might readily persuade
himself that he would ultimately have reached the goal in just that same
way.

This peculiar coincidence of simultaneous but separate work not only
comes to light on the bringing out of great and important discoveries
or inventions, but becomes more apparent if a new art is disclosed, for
then the imagination of previous experimenters is stimulated through
wide dissemination of the tidings, sometimes resulting in more or less
effort to enter the newly opened field with devices or methods that
resemble closely the original and fundamental ones in principle and
application. In this and other ways there arises constantly in the
United States Patent Office a large number of contested cases, called
"Interferences," where applications for patents covering the invention
of a similar device have been independently filed by two or even more
persons. In such cases only one patent can be issued, and that to
the inventor who on the taking of testimony shows priority in date of
invention. [20]

[Footnote 20: A most remarkable instance of contemporaneous
invention and without a parallel in the annals of the United
States Patent Office, occurred when, on the same day,
February 15, 1876, two separate descriptions were filed in
that office, one a complete application and the other a
caveat, but each covering an invention for "transmitting
vocal sounds telegraphically." The application was made by
Alexander Graham Bell, of Salem, Massachusetts, and the
caveat by Elisha Gray, of Chicago, Illinois. On examination
of the two papers it was found that both of them covered
practically the same ground, hence, as only one patent could
be granted, it became necessary to ascertain the precise
hour at which the documents were respectively filed, and put
the parties in interference. This was done, with the result
that the patent was ultimately awarded to Bell.]

In the opening up and development of any new art based upon a
fundamental discovery or invention, there ensues naturally an era of
supplemental or collateral inventive activity--the legitimate outcome
of the basic original ideas. Part of this development may be due to
the inventive skill and knowledge of the original inventor and his
associates, who, by reason of prior investigation, would be in better
position to follow up the art in its earliest details than others,
who might be regarded as mere outsiders. Thus a new enterprise may be
presented before the world by its promoters in the belief that they are
strongly fortified by patent rights which will protect them in a degree
commensurate with the risks they have assumed.

Supplemental inventions, however, in any art, new or old, are not
limited to those which emanate from the original workers, for the
ingenuity of man, influenced by the spirit of the times, seizes upon any
novel line of action and seeks to improve or enlarge upon it, or, at
any rate, to produce more or less variation of its phases. Consequently,
there is a constant endeavor on the part of a countless host of men
possessing some degree of technical skill and inventive ability, to win
fame and money by entering into the already opened fields of endeavor
with devices and methods of their own, for which subsidiary patents may
be obtainable. Some of such patents may prove to be valuable, while
it is quite certain that in the natural order of things others will
be commercially worthless, but none may be entirely disregarded in the
history and development of the art.

It will be quite obvious, therefore, that the advent of any useful
invention or discovery, great or small, is followed by a clashing of
many interests which become complex in their interpretation by reason of
the many conflicting claims that cluster around the main principle. Nor
is the confusion less confounded through efforts made on the part of
dishonest persons, who, like vultures, follow closely on the trail
of successful inventors and (sometimes through information derived
by underhand methods) obtain patents on alleged inventions, closely
approximating the real ones, solely for the purpose of harassing the
original patentee until they are bought up, or else, with the intent
of competing boldly in the new business, trust in the delays of legal
proceedings to obtain a sure foothold in their questionable enterprise.

Then again there are still others who, having no patent rights, but
waving aside all compunction and in downright fraud, simply enter the
commercial field against the whole world, using ruthlessly whatever
inventive skill and knowledge the original patentee may have disclosed,
and trusting to the power of money, rapid movement, and mendacious
advertising to build up a business which shall presently assume such
formidable proportions as to force a compromise, or stave off an
injunction until the patent has expired. In nine cases out of ten such
a course can be followed with relative impunity; and guided by skilful
experts who may suggest really trivial changes here and there over the
patented structure, and with the aid of keen and able counsel, hardly a
patent exists that could not be invaded by such infringers. Such is
the condition of our laws and practice that the patentee in seeking to
enforce his rights labors under a terrible handicap.

And, finally, in this recital of perplexing conditions confronting the
inventor, there must not be forgotten the commercial "shark," whose
predatory instincts are ever keenly alert for tender victims. In the
wake of every newly developed art of world-wide importance there is
sure to follow a number of unscrupulous adventurers, who hasten to take
advantage of general public ignorance of the true inwardness of affairs.
Basing their operations on this lack of knowledge, and upon the tendency
of human nature to give credence to widely advertised and high-sounding
descriptions and specious promises of vast profits, these men find
little difficulty in conjuring money out of the pockets of the
unsophisticated and gullible, who rush to become stockholders in
concerns that have "airy nothings" for a foundation, and that collapse
quickly when the bubble is pricked. [21]

[Footnote 21: A notable instance of the fleecing of
unsuspecting and credulous persons occurred in the early
eighties, during the furor occasioned by the introduction of
Mr. Edison's electric-light system. A corporation claiming
to have a self-generating dynamo (practically perpetual
motion) advertised its preposterous claims extensively, and
actually succeeded in selling a large amount of stock,
which, of course, proved to be absolutely worthless.]

To one who is unacquainted with the trying circumstances attending
the introduction and marketing of patented devices, it might seem
unnecessary that an inventor and his business associates should be
obliged to take into account the unlawful or ostensible competition of
pirates or schemers, who, in the absence of legal decision, may run a
free course for a long time. Nevertheless, as public patronage is the
element vitally requisite for commercial success, and as the public is
not usually in full possession of all the facts and therefore cannot
discriminate between the genuine and the false, the legitimate inventor
must avail himself of every possible means of proclaiming and asserting
his rights if he desires to derive any benefit from the results of his
skill and labor. Not only must he be prepared to fight in the Patent
Office and pursue a regular course of patent litigation against those
who may honestly deem themselves to be protected by other inventions
or patents of similar character, and also proceed against more palpable
infringers who are openly, defiantly, and illegitimately engaged in
competitive business operations, but he must, as well, endeavor to
protect himself against the assaults of impudent fraud by educating the
public mind to a point of intelligent apprehension of the true status of
his invention and the conflicting claims involved.

When the nature of a patent right is considered it is difficult to see
why this should be so. The inventor creates a new thing--an invention of
utility--and the people, represented by the Federal Government, say to
him in effect: "Disclose your invention to us in a patent so that we may
know how to practice it, and we will agree to give you a monopoly for
seventeen years, after which we shall be free to use it. If the right
thus granted is invaded, apply to a Federal Court and the infringer will
be enjoined and required to settle in damages." Fair and false promise!
Is it generally realized that no matter how flagrant the infringement
nor how barefaced and impudent the infringer, no Federal Court will
grant an injunction UNTIL THE PATENT SHALL HAVE BEEN FIRST LITIGATED TO
FINAL HEARING AND SUSTAINED? A procedure, it may be stated, requiring
years of time and thousands of dollars, during which other infringers
have generally entered the field, and all have grown fat.

Thus Edison and his business associates have been forced into a
veritable maelstrom of litigation during the major part of the last
forty years, in the effort to procure for themselves a small measure
of protection for their interests under the numerous inventions of note
that he has made at various times in that period. The earlier years of
his inventive activity, while productive of many important contributions
to electrical industries, such as stock tickers and printers, duplex,
quadruplex, and automatic telegraphs, were not marked by the turmoil
of interminable legal conflicts that arose after the beginning of the
telephone and electric-light epochs. In fact, his inventions; up to
and including his telephone improvements (which entered into already
existing arts), had been mostly purchased by the Western Union and other
companies, and while there was more or less contesting of his claims
(especially in respect of the telephone), the extent of such litigation
was not so conspicuously great as that which centred subsequently around
his patents covering incandescent electric lighting and power systems.

Through these inventions there came into being an entirely new art,
complete in its practicability evolved by Edison after protracted
experiments founded upon most patient, thorough, and original methods
of investigation extending over several years. Long before attaining
the goal, he had realized with characteristic insight the underlying
principles of the great and comprehensive problem he had started out
to solve, and plodded steadily along the path that he had marked out,
ignoring the almost universal scientific disbelief in his ultimate
success. "Dreamer," "fool," "boaster" were among the appellations
bestowed upon him by unbelieving critics. Ridicule was heaped upon
him in the public prints, and mathematics were called into service
by learned men to settle the point forever that he was attempting the
utterly impossible.

But, presto! no sooner had he accomplished the task and shown concrete
results to the world than he found himself in the anomalous position
of being at once surrounded by the conditions which inevitably confront
every inventor. The path through the trackless forest had been blazed,
and now every one could find the way. At the end of the road was a rich
prize belonging rightfully to the man who had opened a way to it, but
the struggles of others to reach it by more or less honest methods now
began and continued for many years. If, as a former commissioner once
said, "Edison was the man who kept the path to the Patent Office
hot with his footsteps," there were other great inventors abreast or
immediately on his heels, some, to be sure, with legitimate, original
methods and vital improvements representing independent work; while
there were also those who did not trouble to invent, but simply helped
themselves to whatever ideas were available, and coming from any source.

Possibly events might have happened differently had Edison been able to
prevent the announcement of his electric-light inventions until he
was entirely prepared to bring out the system as a whole, ready for
commercial exploitation, but the news of his production of a practical
and successful incandescent lamp became known and spread like wild-fire
to all corners of the globe. It took more than a year after the
evolution of the lamp for Edison to get into position to do actual
business, and during that time his laboratory was the natural Mecca of
every inquiring person. Small wonder, then, that when he was prepared to
market his invention he should find others entering that market, at
home and abroad, at the same time, and with substantially similar
merchandise.

Edison narrates two incidents that may be taken as characteristic of
a good deal that had to be contended with, coming in the shape of
nefarious attack. "In the early days of my electric light," he says,
"curiosity and interest brought a great many people to Menlo Park to see
it. Some of them did not come with the best of intentions. I remember
the visit of one expert, a well-known electrician, a graduate of Johns
Hopkins University, and who then represented a Baltimore gas company. We
had the lamps exhibited in a large room, and so arranged on a table as
to illustrate the regular layout of circuits for houses and streets.
Sixty of the men employed at the laboratory were used as watchers, each
to keep an eye on a certain section of the exhibit, and see there was
no monkeying with it. This man had a length of insulated No. 10 wire
passing through his sleeves and around his back, so that his hands would
conceal the ends and no one would know he had it. His idea, of course,
was to put this wire across the ends of the supplying circuits, and
short-circuit the whole thing--put it all out of business without being
detected. Then he could report how easily the electric light went out,
and a false impression would be conveyed to the public. He did not know
that we had already worked out the safety-fuse, and that every group
of lights was thus protected independently. He put this jumper slyly in
contact with the wires--and just four lamps went out on the section he
tampered with. The watchers saw him do it, however, and got hold of him
and just led him out of the place with language that made the recording
angels jump for their typewriters."

The other incident is as follows: "Soon after I had got out the
incandescent light I had an interference in the Patent Office with a man
from Wisconsin. He filed an application for a patent and entered into a
conspiracy to 'swear back' of the date of my invention, so as to
deprive me of it. Detectives were put on the case, and we found he was a
'faker,' and we took means to break the thing up. Eugene Lewis, of Eaton
& Lewis, had this in hand for me. Several years later this same man
attempted to defraud a leading firm of manufacturing chemists in New
York, and was sent to State prison. A short time after that a syndicate
took up a man named Goebel and tried to do the same thing, but again our
detective-work was too much for them. This was along the same line as
the attempt of Drawbaugh to deprive Bell of his telephone. Whenever
an invention of large prospective value comes out, these cases always
occur. The lamp patent was sustained in the New York Federal Court. I
thought that was final and would end the matter, but another Federal
judge out in St. Louis did not sustain it. The result is I have never
enjoyed any benefits from my lamp patents, although I fought for many
years." The Goebel case will be referred to later in this chapter.