Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 November 1878 — Edison at Work. [ARTICLE]

Edison at Work.

The following is from an article in Scribner for November, entitled “A Night with Etlison There is nowhere such another ingenious mind, but there is also nowhere such a worker. When in search of some special object lie allows himself absolutely no rest. At Newark he mounted to the loft of his factory with five men, on the occasion of. the apparent failure of the printing machine he had taken a contract to furnish, and declared he would never come down till it worked. It took sixty hours of continuous labor, but it worked, and then he slept for thirty. The routine of his day is a routine of grand processes and ennobling ideas. Nowhere else, probably, would such a day be possible. There are not fortunes, if there were capacity, to carry on the business of pure scientific research on such a scale. His whole great establishment is occupied not in manufacturing, nor primarily in projects for profitable returns—though theso follow' —but in new reflections, new combinations, in wrestling from nature, inch by inch, the domain she w r ould have kept hidden. He comes in the morning and reads liis letters. He overlooks his men and the experiments of Iris assistants. The element of hazard enters into these somewhat. There are a great number in progress—the action of chemicals upon various substances or upon each other, or the phenomena of substances subjected to' the various forces at command. Strips of ivory, for instance, in a certain oil in six weeks become transparent. A globule of mercury in water, then with a little potassium added, takes various shapes for the opposite poles of the battery, retires coquettishly or is attracted, forms in whirlpools, changes color, or becomes immobile. There is no use at once for these results, but they are recorded in voluminous note-books. When the proper time comes they are borne in mind; some V>ne of them may form the connecting link in the chain of an invaluable discovery. Then perhaps he tests for the thousandth time his carbon telephone for new perfections, and then goes on carrying forward a step each of the works in progress, or becomes wholly engrossed, according to his mood, in one.

In spite of the fact that the motive of his retreat to Menlo Park w r as in good part to escape them, numerous visitors arrive. It is the Mecca of a continuous pilgrimage of scientists, reporters for the journals and curiosity-hunters. Yesterday a troop of 175 persons were brought by a gentleman who had asked the privilege of presenting a few friends —to-morrow' a special train of visitors from Boston is announced. He receives all affably, submitting himself and his inventions to be gazed at without reserve. One wonders, next to his phonograph, at his good humor. “ Still, I shall blow' up somebody yet,” he says, laughing. “ I am considering the idea of fixing a wire connecting with a battery that knocks over everybody that touches the gate.” He sits down at the phonograph, fixes a double mouth-piece to it, and summons one of his assistants, w'liile another places himself at an organ in the corner. They sing in two parts “John Brown’s Body.” As the sonorous music rises and fills the long apartment, one gazes musingly yet with a secret thrill. It is like assisting at some strange, new rite —a martial chant of rejoicing in the greatness of a new era full of sublime promise and the dissipation of mysteries.