Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 January 1889 — TOM EDISON’S EARLY DAYS. [ARTICLE]

TOM EDISON’S EARLY DAYS.

The Funny Figure He Out During His First Hours in Boston. “I don’t think,” said a friend 'of Thomas A. Edison, some days ago to a groups seated in the rear room of one of the most comfortable hostleries of Orange, “that you have ever heard the story of how the Wizard first came East. He was only a you jg man, careless, generous, jovial and totally ignorant of the value of a dollar. He had been knocking round in Western towns in various small telegraph offices until the reputation of his wonderful swiftness as an operator got him into the central office of a Western city. From there he was ordered to report to Boston to fill a vacancy. It was warm weather for the season when he started East, and he donned trousers and a ouster. By the time he reached Boston the weather had got cold, raw and stormy. He didn’t care, and reported just as he was. Linen trousers and duster, topped by a slouchy, broad-brimmed bat, weren’t the fashion in Boston in the first of winter, and on a raw day a man with a limp, wet duster on and wet linen trousers sticking to his legs was something to prevoke a smile. He walked into the superintendent’s room and said: “ ‘Here I am.’ “The superintendent eyed him from head and foot and said: “ ‘Who are you?’ “‘Tom Edison?’ “ ‘Who the devil’s Tom Edison’ “The young operator explained that he had been ordered to report for duty, and ther superintendent told him to sit down in the operating room. His advent here created maeli merriment, and the operators guyed him loud enough for him to near them. He didn’t care, though. Several, hours later a New York sender noted for his swiftness called the office and there was no one to take him. “ ‘Well, let that new fellow try him, anyway, said the superintendent. Young Ed’son sat down and for four hours and a half wrote out messages in a •sloar round hand, stuck a date and number on them, and threw them on the floor for the office boy to pick up. The time he took in numbering and ■dating were the only moments he was not writing out transmitted words. Faster and faster ticked the instrument, and faster and faster moved Edison’s fingers, till the rapidity with which the messages came tumbling out and on the floor attracted the attention of other operators, who, when their work was dong, gathered around to witness the spectacle. At the close of four hours and a half, and the New York business, there flashed from New York the salutation: “‘Hello!’ - a. J “ ‘Hello yourself,’ ticked back Edison. “ ‘Who the Hell ere you?’ rattled into the office with a big H. “ ‘Tom Edison,’ was ticked back. “ ‘Shake, Tom Edison,’ came over the wires. “ ‘With all my heart,’ was the reply. “ ‘You are the first man in the country,’ said the instrument, ‘that could take me at my fastest, and tbe only one who could ever sit at the other end of my wire for more than two hours and a half. I’m proud to know you.” “Mr. Edison had been experimenting and studying and improving telegraphy ever since he was 19 years old. He patented some of his inventions. He left the Boston office to try and sell his multiplex system to the Western Union. He was a careless looking young fellow when he walked into the office one day in New York and asked them if they wanted to buy a patent. “ ‘ What is it?’they asked. “ ‘Why, a means of sending two messages over the same wire in different directions at the same time,’ said the young inventor. “The Western Union officials lay back in their chairs and shouted in merriment “Don’t bother us with such nonsense ast hat,’ said one at last. ' “Mr. Edison tried to sell it to one of the rival companies that existed at‘the time. They also laughed to scorn the idea of doing such a feat. “ ‘Well,’ remarked the inventor as he turned carelessly away, *if you ever get anything the matter with your plant that you can’t straighten out* .yourselves, send around for me.’ “He took a little office and announced himself an electrical and telegraphic expert. Some time later the company had trouble with its Albany wire. The wire wasn’t broken, but wouldn’t work, and several days’ investigation on the part of the company’s electricians only served to puzzle them the more. As a forlorn hope they sent sos young Edison. “ ‘How long will you give me?” he asked.

“The managers laughed. “ ‘Six hours?’ asked Edison. “The manager laughed louder and told him he’d need longer time than that Edison sat down at the instrument, established communication with Albany by way of Pittsburgh, told the Albany office to put their best man at the instrument, and began a careful and rapid series of tests with all currents of all intensities. He had his Pittsburg circuit instrument by his side and directed the Albany operator i? each movement from his end. The steps were simultaneous, and the Albany man telegraphed the results of each test. Edison compared them, made calcula-

*■ ’ 0 tions, and fat two hours and a half told the officials that the trouble existed at a certain point he named on the line, and told them what it was. The officials telegraphed the office nearest this point, aha an hour later messages were hipping gayly between New York and Albany. The company made him their superintendent immediately. Now he was in a position to command respect and attention. He induced the companies to test his patents, and sold them rapidly. He much improved his multiplux system, and sold that to the Western Union at ten times what he would have taken for it at the time they laughed at hie first proposition. He simply informs the Western Union now when he has invented something new in telegraphy. Does it work? It works. How much? Hundred thousand. Chek. That’s the way he sells all his’ inventions nowadays. : , “The public doesn’t know it, bpt there are in the safes of the Wastern Union patents which, if applied, would nearly double the efficiency us the telegraph in the interests of public convenience. They are not used because it costs money to put them into use, and there is no competition to compel] the Western Union to do the best it knows how to do. The company buys Mr. Adison’s inventions, partly because they may want to use them some day, but chiefly because they don’t want them to get into the hands of people Twho might by these means become dangerous competitors. They have to pay a fortune for each invention, and don’t expect to use it when they get it, but the retention of their secure monopoly makes the policy a paying one.”