1889 Edison and His Inventions

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EDISON AND HIS INVENTIONS WITH COMPLETE

ELECTRICAL DICTIONARY.

EDISON AND

HIS INVENTIONS INCLUDING THE MANY

INCIDENTS, ANECDOTES, AND INTERESTING PARTICULARS

CONNECTED WITH THE EARLY AND LATER LIFE OF THE GREAT INVENTOR.

FULL EXPLANATIONS OF THE NEWLY PERFECTED PHONOGRAPH, TELEPHONE, TASIMETER, ELECTRIC LIGHT, AND ALL HIS PRINCIPAL DISCOVERIES, WITH COPIOUS ILLUSTRATIONS.

had any boy-hood days; and mechanical forces."

"T. A. E. never engines

his early

SAMUEL

amusements were steam

EDISON, (concerning

his son.)

EDITED BY

J. B.

COPYRIGHT, RHODES

McCLURE, M. A.

& MOCLUBE

PUBLISHING COMPANY, BIGHTS RKSEBVED.

1889.

ALL

CHICAGO.

RHODES

&

MoOLUKE PUBLISHING COMPANY, 1889.

moment of the world's history, like its Electrical Science has suddenly flashed into general utility, and is now rapidly lifting, not only the veritable darkness from the earth, but everywhere in home and office, In the fractional

own self,

and mine, on land and sea, is demonstrating a scope of usefulness commensurate with the loftiest aspirations of man. Very circumscribed must be the mind, and decidedly limfield

ited the vision of

him who can take no

interest

now

in

both the actual and possible verities of Electricity. Its position is one of popular supremacy, from which its blessings fall upon the day, no less than the night, and from

which the weary spaces and even time itself, seem to flee away. What it really is, no one knows; but what it is actually doing this book clearly tells in its sketch life of Thomas Alva Edison, the self-made electric king of the nineteenth century. So numerous are his inventions in every department of this wonderful science, and so fully are they described in this volume and generally by Mr. Edison himself else to

that a careful perusal leaves

be known of what

is

practical, just

little

now,

or nothing in this

mar-

vellously interesting field. Connected with the life o. such a person, there is always an array of incident and anecdote in which a generous public

manifest a keen interest that enlightens and entertains.

URL been our aim, also, in this volume, to present the many and remarkable experiences of his early and later that make up the wonderful history of Mr. Edison.

It has

stories life

Nine years ago the

first

edition

of this

work was

issued.

The world was might

intensely expectant then as to what Edison discover along the line of the mystic science; many

doubted, some laughed, and a few scientists who should have known better, scoffed and said, " No, it is impossible." This was a period of great struggle with Mr. Edison, and yet not without hope. No one knows this better than the great inventor himself. But where are the scoffers now?

And what the stupendous array of facts? Into his Electric Light alone has gone $25,000,000, with more to follow! to say nothing of his many other inventions, one of which, and the latest, his perfected Phonograph, he is said recently to have sold for a " cool million " of dollars. Verily the laborer is worthy of his reward. There can be no doubt, Electricity " has come to stay." Its mission is " business." And we shall probably yet see the " lightning all round the horizon." Mr. Edison still "has the floor." Let us listen.

We

retain, unchanged, the full details of Edison's early struggles with the Electric Light and Phonograph all the more interesting now and add the full particulars of his

great success in these departments; also a chapter on " Menlo Park " and its noble Edisonian band of workers in

days of yore has not been altered. The reader will find quite an extended Electrical Dictionary at the close of this volume that fully explains the many newly coined words and phrases required in this new and rapidly enlarging field, which are not found in Webster's Unabridged, and which constitute, as a whole, an interesting and instructive epitome of practical Electricity.

We

acknowledge our obligations, in the preparation of this work, to Samuel Edison, Esq. father of the inventor of

Port Huron, Mich.; Messrs. Edison, Batchelor,

i

Griffin,

and

other associates o^ Mr. Edison; Geo. B. Prescott's works;

Thomas D. Lockwood's works;

Scribner; North American Review; and the following popular, practical and progresTHE ELECTRICAL WORLD, New sive electric periodicals: York and Chicago; THE ELECTRICAL REViEW,No.l3 Park Row, New York; THE WESTERN ELECTRICIAN, Lakeside Building, Chicago; and especially to Mr. E. L. Powers, the Chicago Manager of the ELECTRICAL WORLD, Lakeside Building. Our thanks and best wishes to all these industrious workers on " the confines of the knowable." The highest honors, official and social, have been conferred upon Mr. Edison, by the great Paris Exposition of 1889, where his many exhibits form the greatest wonder of all, unless it be his personal self, whose attentions from the many thousands present exceed those of kings. Such is the merited and wide-spread compliment bestowed upon the hero of this volume.

Chicago, Jan. 2nd, 1890.

J.

B.

McCLURE.

A CHAPTER OF SOME CURIOUS FEATURES IN ELECTRICITY, A DESCRIPTION OF THE PHONOGRAPHIC RECORDS UNDER

A

THE MICROSCOPE How the letters look Believed by Edison to be legible The deepest indentations made by consonants, GREAT AND WONDERFUL INSTRUMENT NOW COM-

264

85

PLETED The new Phonograph as explained fully by Mr. Edison What it is, what it does, and what it

may yet

216

do,

A

LITTLE CHAT INTERMINGLED WITH WHISPERS WITH PERSONS 210 MILES APART An innocent joke perpetrated on Mr. Firman Complete success of the

A

MONUMENT TO ELECTRICITY

Carbon Telephone, Laboratory at Orange, N.

A A

STORY OF EDISON

112

J.

Mr.

New

Edison's -

-

-

Hurrying up the Phonograph,

-

24

-

231

SERIES OF REMINISCENCES OF EDISON AS " TRAIN

BOY

"

His success in selling apples, toys, periodion the train How he used the Telegraph He starts a Newspaper The Edison Duplex His Laboratory on wheels A great mishap Young Edison pitched off the train, -37 cals, etc.,

A VERY YOUNG

ELECTRICIAN He buys a book on ElecExtemporizes a short line The Tom Cat Electrical Battery A daring feat in front of a locomotive The young Son of Thunder getting down tricity

to business

Interesting Anecdotes,

-

-

-

47

A YOUNG

OPERATOR His engagement at Port Huron Goes to Stratford Rigs an Ingenious

Resigns

Machine

-

Telegraphing by Steam,

A YOUNG INVENTOB

AND OPERATOR

-

-

53

Invents an instru-

ment Tells the boys to " rush him " Fidelity warded Becomes a first-class operator,

re-

56

.^EROPHONE An Instrument for enlarging the volume -140 of sound Illustrated,

AN ACCOUNT

OF EARLY REMINISCENCES, AS GIVEN, BY 46

EDISON'S FATHER,

BOSTON AND YOUNG EDISON He departs for the "Hub" Snow bound His reception Joke on the cock roaches Inventions The girls,

62

BURDETTE AND EDISON TESTING THE SPANKTROPHONE, 116

CARBON RHEOSTAT,

138

DAWDLES TRIES THE TELEPHONE,

-

-

-

-

119

DICTIONARY OP ELECTRICAL WORDS AND PHRASES, FULLY EXPLAINED (NOT FOUND IN WEBSTER) Giving an easy outline of the science of

electricity,

237

231 DOLL BABY PHONOGRAPH, -124 DOWN IN THE GOLD MINES OUT WEST, DYNAMO FULLY EXPLAINED A wonderful mechanism 173

for generating electricity,

DYNAMO INSTRUCTIONS to run

it

IN

FULL DETAIL

179

properly,

EARLY EFFORTS ON THE PHONOGRAPH Faber talking machines

now

Showing how

Phonographic

&

possibilities

75

realized,

EDISON BUILDING, CHICAGO, EDISON IN NEWARK,

The Edison

196

-8

....-66

NEW YORK

Penniless and hungry

The

His great success,

-

64

EDISON IN MENLO PARK AND His EARLY BAND OP INDUSTRIOUS WORKERS,

69

EDISON IN

supreme moment

Brains

EDISON'S EARLY LIFE

His nativity Childish amuseHis ancestry Mrs. Nancy Elliott Edison

ments

Edison's happy

DOWNS

EDISON'S UPS AND ator

home

Thunder

all

The Inventor

'round the horizon

Tennessee Off for South America bank Incidents, in

EDISON'S COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE, EDISON'S

26

the OperFooting it "Run" on a

vs.

58

-

-

-

-

67

FUNNY ANECDOTE OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN -

SCOUTS,

125

........

EDISON'S BRIDGE FOR MEASURING MAGNETIC TIVITY,

EDISON'S

-

-

Early education,

DYNAMO FOB GENERATING

CONDUC-

-

ELECTRICITY,

212 173

EDISON'S ELECTRIC LIGHT AS EXPLAINED BY HIMSELF IN

FULL DETAIL WITH ILLUSTRATIONS MADE, ETC., EDISON'S ELECTRIC LIGHT

;

How

IT

is

159

JABLOCHOFF'S et al. Sub-division of the fluid Platinum and Iridium How the light appeared to a visitor Carbon candle Early

vs.

148

efforts,

ROOKERY BUILDING

IN

of the largest plants in the world,

-

190

-

198

-

193

EDISON'S ELECTRIC LIGHT IN THE

CHICAGO

One

EBISON'S ELECTRIC PEN, EDISON'S

GROUND DETECTOR FOR LIGHT

95

CIRCUITS,

EDISON'S HARMONIC ENGINE,

EDISON'S HIGH

ECONOMY CONVERTOR,

144 -

-

-

EDISON'S IMPROVED PHONOPLEX FOR TELEGRAPHING SEV-

ERAL MESSAGES ON THE SAME WIRE AT THE SAME 209

TIME, EDISON'S EARLY EFFORTS IN ELECTRIC LIGHT EXPERI-

154

MENTS, EDISON'S JUNCTION

Box AND SAFETY CATCH,

EDISON'S METERS FOR MEASURING ELECTRICITY,

EDISON'S

METHOD OF REGULATING THE CURRENT,

-

-

208

-

-

202

-

-

201

EDISON'S MIMEOGRAPH,

208

EDISON'S MUNICIPAL INCANDESCENT

LAMP FOR OUTSIDE 186

LIGHTING, EDISON'S

NEW

prevent a long line

An

ingenious mechanism to of lamps from being suddenly

CUT-OUT

189

-

extinguished,

EDISON'S OPINION OF THE PATENT

LAW A

ent statement for Congressmen, EDISON'S PYRO-MAGNETIC DYNAMO

....

A

plain,

pung-

erating electric energy from the heat of a storm,

EDISON'S PERFECTED PHONOGRAPH,

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

EDISON'S PET BABY,

-

-

-

-

-

-

71

-121

EDISON'S QUADRUPLEX,

73

For regulating the

resistance of

138

electricity,

EDISON'S SONOROUS VOLTAMETER,

EDISON'S TELEPHONE

182

216 142

EDISON'S PHONOMETER, EDISON'S PRINCIPAL INVENTIONS,

EDISON'S RHEOSTAT

233

mechanism gen-

123

Full explanations

Illustrated,

EDISON JOKING WITH THE EARLY PHONOGRAPH,

-

EDISON JOKING WITH HIS FRIENDS,

-

EDISON ON STORAGE BATTERIES, 10

-

98

-

94

-----

123

-

-

-

185

ELECTRIC MOTOR,

181

ELECTRO-MOTOGRAPH A curious instrument works Four hundred moves in a second,

How

it -

-

ELI PERKINS AND MR. EDISON,

ETHERIC FORCE

FUNNY

A

96

117

curious discovery of Mr. Edison,

-

147

SIDE OF THE PHONOGRAPH, AS SEEN BY COL. -

KNOX,

229

FURTHER EXPERIMENTS PERTAINING TO LIGHTS, LAMPS, - 159 AED THE GENERATING OF ELECTRICITY,

How How How

THE PHONOGRAPH

MAN AMUSES

HIMSELF,

-

THE PHONOGRAPH FRIGHTENED A PREACHER, THE PHONOGRAPH WAS DISCOVERED

-

91

-

92

BY MR. 93

EDISON,

How

TO PUT THE DYNAMO IN OPERATION,

-

176

__..-_....

159

-

SUNS MADE FROM BURNT PAPER

LITTLE

wonder,

MEGAPHONE,

-

-

-

-

-

A

great

-

MOSES AND THE TODDYGRAPH,

A curious instrument,

MOTOGRAPH RECEIVER

NEW EDISON DYNAMO, OUR AGE AND

ITS

-

-

-

122

-

90

146

-

-

-

-

-173

ETC.,

-

-

-

17

HERO,

PERSONAL DESCRIPTION OF MR. EDISON,

20

PHONOGRAPH AS NEWLY PERFECTED FULLY EXPLAINED, BY MR. EDISON,

What

PHONOGRAPH SUPREME AT HOME, PHONOGRAPH'S ARRIVAL cago

Is

miracle

216

-----

228

it

can do,

OUT WEST"

...

88

It visits Chi-

A

modern interviewed by a reporter it talked What it had to say,

How

11 \

-

-

PHONOGRAPH AND Music

82

POSSIBILITIES OF THE

PHONOGRAPH

Elocutionist

porter

Its

languages

short

medical possibilities,

A very useful

PEESSUKE RELAY

A

Opera singer

of

-

-

instrument,

How ships may talk on An

ures the heat of the stars

account of

its

-

-

136

-

-

263

the sea,

-

-

209

-

263

instrument that meas-

How -

discovery,

80

-

TABLES OF WEIGHT AND LINEAL MEASURE, ETC. TASIMETER OR THERMOPILE

re-

-

RELATIVE CONDUCTIVITY OF SUBSTANCES, SEA TELEPHONE

hand

Teacher

it is

-

done -

Full

-126

-

TASIMETER AND THE STARS,

128

TESTING THE TASIMETER ON THE SUN'S CORONA "Wonderful experiments of Mr. Edison in the Rocky Mountains,

TELEPHONE

-

-

-

-

-

-

-129

-

Mr. Edison's own account of his discovery

of the Carbon Telephone An interesting history His explanation of the wonderful instrument Illustrated

by numerous engravings It talks over a wire His other telephones,

720 miles long

TELEPHONE AND THE DOCTORS, TELEPHONOGRAPH phonograph,

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

.119

-

A combination of the telephone

and

-

-121

THE BASIS OF THE TASIMETER, TRAIN TELEGRAPHY

How a

telegram

132

may be

received on a rapidly moving train,

UNCLE REMUS AND THE PHONOGRAPH,

98

sent or

-

-

-

-

WONDERFUL OLFACTORY POWERS OF THE TELEPHONE,

-

204

.89 -

115

Aerophone, (1) (2)

140

Amperemeters and Regulator Boxes

192

An

171

Early Generator

104

Apparatus of the Telephone

Bergmanns

&

Go's Manufactory of Edison's Electric Ap-

227

pliances

213

Bridge for Measuring Magnetic Conductivity

Carbon Rheostat (perspective,)

Carbon Rheostat (in

_139 139

section,)

Carbon Spiral

__

_

161

Cat Battery Experiment

49

Continental Bill__

29

Diagram of the Phonograph

78

Different Types of the Edison

Dynamo

178

Dynamo

175

in Operation

Dynamo, New Edison

Dynamo Room

in the

173

Rookery Building, Chicago

Edison Building, Chicago

Edison "Ground" Detector Edison

Lamp Company's

191

197

199

Factory, Newark, N.

Edison Municipal Incandescent

Edison Rescuing a Child

Lamp

J

195

187

50 13

Early Incandescent

165

Lamp

Edison Telegraphing by Steam

55

Edison's Electric Generator

155

Edison's Electric Light

157

Edison's Pyro-Magnetic Electric

183

Dynamo

169

Lamp "

153

Electric Light Electric

Pen

95

__

169

Electro-Mechanical Telephone

108

Electrophorous Telephone Electro-Static Telephone

__

___109

Harmonic Engine

House

in

144

which Edison was Born

Incandescent House

27

194

Lamp

Lever Signal

106

Local

161

Lamp

Menlo Park, the Birth-place of the Incandescent Lamp.. 16 Micro-Tasimeter (perspective) Micro-Tasimeter

_133

___133

(in section)

Micro-Tasimeter (entire)

133

Motograph Receiver

146

Mrs. Nancy E. Edison, Mother of the Inventor Offices

__ 31

and Show Rooms of the Edison United States Manu-

facturing Co.,

New York

236

Operator Receiving and Sending Messages on a Railway

Train

___204

_

Operator's Train Telegraph Apparatus

14

207

Pendulum Signal

107

___

The Wonder of the World

Phonograph Perfected

Explained by Mr. Edison

Phonograph

Fully

__217 75

in Operation

Phonograph Records under the Microscope

87

Phonometer

142

Pressure Relay " " Printing the Grand Trunk Herald on the Train

137 39 74

Quadruplex

Railway Car Showing

How

to

Telegraph on a Moving 205

Train

Samuel Edison, Father of the Inventor Tasimeter

__

Telephone Apparatus, with Switch

The Telephone (interior) The Telephone (exterior)

__

Edison's Mishap

98 121

___

___107

210

Water Telephone

Young Edison Pitched

105

Frontispiece

The Sea

Young

_..128

__. 98

The Telephonograph___ Thomas Alva Edison Tuning Fork Signal

31 __

110

Car on Fire

36

Into the River

43

Zircon Burner..

__160

15]

EDISON AND HIS INVENTIONS. Our Age and "

Of what use

Its

Hero.

"

said the skeptic to Franklin, doubting the value of his identification of lightning and electricity. " Of what use is a child? " said the philosopher, adding is it?

" It

may become a man." " " Evidently, this man with the kite saw the coming possibilities of the " subtle fluid," but it is hardly possible that he dreamed of its ultimate widespread general utility. " " put it now," says Professor Gray, to all sorts of uses.

We We

make

it

carry our messages, drive our engine, ring our door take it as a medicine, light

and scare the burglar. our gas, see by it, hear from

bell,

We

it, talk with it, and now we are beginning to teach it to write. If Job lived in this age, and the question was put to him as of old, Canst thou Here send lightnings, that they may go and say unto thee, we are?" he could say, 'Yes;' and they can be made to <

A

" friend of mine says in verse," say it in the vernacular." adds the professor: " Time was when one must hold bis ear Close to a whispering voice to

hear-

Like deaf men, nigh and nigher; But now from town to town he talks, And puts his nose into a box

And

whispers through a wire.

" In olden times along the street glimmering lantern led our feet

A

When

on a midnight

But now we

A piece of And

snatch,

stroll;

when night comes

lightning from the sky stick it on a pole."

nigh,

THOMAS

i8

" Yes, the child has

good and

great.

A.

EDISON

become a man," noble, honest, useful, had a singularly long period of in-

It has

As Samuel Edison fancy, but a decidedly brief boyhood. says of his son, the great inventor, so has it been with "T. A. E. never had any boyhood days; his electricity: amusements were steam engines and mechanical forces." " Those of us who are just across the meridian of life," " says Gray, can remember the first telegraph wire that was strung in this country. To-day it is difficult to find a corearly

ner of the earth so remote as to be out of sight of one. will find them even in the bottom of the seas and

You

The last twenty years have seen more advance in the science of electricity than all the 6,000 historic years preceding. More is discovered in one day now than in a oceans.

thousand years of the middle ages, so that, " is a thousand years.'

'

literally,

a day

Inventions multiply with increasing rapidity, and discoveries flash as lightnings over the land. cannot, if we would, shut our eyes to the results.

We

Intimately associated with this progress, and foremost in the ranks, is Thomas Alva Edison, the acknowledged leader in " applied electricity," a veritable " captain of industries,"

whose multiplied and multiplying useful electrical mechanisms have become to men of thought, the wonder of the world.

Since the first Edison dynamo was built, for the unfortunate steamer " Jeannette," which now lies with it in the cold depths of the Arctic Ocean, over one hundred and fifty central stations, and nearly two thousand isolated plants, with a capacity of more than one million, five hundred thousand lamps, have been installed in America alone, to supply the Edison incandescent electric light, aggregating an

expenditure of

many

Other plants are Auditorium Building in

millions of dollars.

to follow, one of which, the great

AND HIS INVENTIONS. Chicago, will

19

be the largest isolated plant in the world, con-

taining eight thousand, six hundred lights, now in process of And all this, in the line of only one great purpose of the Edison discoveries, the electric light, involving, installation.

however, about one thousand separate patents! Verily, these facts demonstrate not only the genius, but the persistent energy and dominant determination of Mr. Edison, to

subordinate

the

occult

forces of the

mystic

science to his end and aims,, and also verify his remarkable words, uttered some four ve^rs ago only, concerning the " commercial evolution of amid the and

laughs electricity," jeers of many, and exciting great criticism at the time, when he said: " Two years of experience proves beyond a doubt that the electric light for duced and sold."

Professor Barker " ison, that

He

is

a

household purposes can be pro-

may well say, as he has, of Mr. Edman of Herculean suggestiveness; not

only the greatest inventor of the age, but a discoverer as when he cannot find material with properties he re-

well; for,

he reaches far out into the regions of the unknown, and brings back captive the requisites for his inventions." Recently, at a concert in the Crystal Palace, London, Ediquires,

son's new phonograph recorded perfectly a performance of Handel's music, reporting with perfect accuracy the sublime strains of the " Israel in Egypt," and which can now be

repeated at any time and place with the phonogram and a " reproducer." By Edison's automatic system one thousand words per

minute are possible over a single wire; by his quadruplex, four distinct and different messages pass over the wire at the same time; by his phonograph all shades of sound are preserved and may at any time be reproduced; by his carbon telephone all shades of sound pass over the long wires to be distinctly heard many miles away; and by his electric light,

THOMAS

20 night, with

its

is

EDISON"

disappearing from the arena of

Thus the wide world, every day, by

civilization.

this great

being brought into closer proximity, with its facilifor communication, business, social life and pleasures, al-

man, ties

darkness,

A.

is

most infinitely augmented. Well may a leading journal of this country remark: