Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 February 1919 — Ideas Worth Fortunes Are at the Disposal of Those of Inventive Turn of Mind [ARTICLE]

Ideas Worth Fortunes Are at the Disposal of Those of Inventive Turn of Mind

A soldier was once tramping along a country road on his way to rejoin his unit. Hearing that his luck was rather down, a casual friend put him up for the night at an inn, and on parting with him in the morning gave him some tobacco. To show his gratitude, the soldier parted with the only thing he had which he thought would be of servic'e to his benefactor, the recipe for making bootblacking. Out of that simple recipe was born a great polish firm. “I was singing to the mouthpiece of a telephone," said Edison, “when the vibrations of my voice caused a fine steel point to pierce one of my fingers. That set me to thinking, If I could record the motions of the point and send it over the same surface afterward, I saw no reason why the thing should not talk. That’s the story." 12 was only an idea, but out of that simple notion sprang the phonograph. It was a passing idea which gave the world the discovery of galvanic electricity, so useful in transmitting vocal and written language. Mme. Galvani simply happened to notice the contraction of the muscles of a skinned frog accidentally touched at the moment her husband took a spark from an electric machine. That was the whole thing.