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Show Photos by American Press Association. iBy CHARLES N. LURIE. president of the United States, If j the serious illness of no other fc Ann rlcnn could attract so Buch genuine notice as tl.r.t of Thomas Alva Edison. "Edison 111." the wires aid. and the world ILxtf-ned and waited wait-ed for news. 'ijt alohM Anur, -i j evinced interest and aked for d. . WWfrever civilization lias set its foot between the poles there the namo of J Edison Is known. His fame Is not 1 merely that of a groat scientist, a great ' ' experimenter: It stands for a world force, entering Into everv man s life. i i rot a Ren-rat. on m n have h -n reading read-ing and thinking about Edison, not as L man, hut as an embodiment of men-Hhl men-Hhl power, an Indispensable element in I the world's progress. He has been an Idea, a cone, ;. , I to abstraction He has been as llxed 4 1 In our thoughts ns the law of supply I ted demand, the theory of the con- ervaUon of force and owrnv. as certain cer-tain and unchancrlng as the multlpli a-tion a-tion taMe. Ho has boon an elemental fact It Is hard to think of the hr;iln i of Edison as becoming stilled, of his i tireless cr.orgy at re-t It was not surprising to road of phy-llcians phy-llcians telling him that he must pive Up resting and go back to work u I.. nted to keep on living. It was as though the tides had "laid off" f r a a time. And this In Ellison's sixty-r-rv-j ealh -ar. after be had been hard at II WOTk for half a century! He Could Not Rost. Of course wo all knew of his twenty hours of toll In laboratory and engine room In every twenty-four, of his often I 1. Mr. Edison and his f jmily. 2 and 4. Recent photographs of Mr. Edison. 3. An early photograph. 5. Running car equipped with his storage battery. 6. Rathonau medal awarded to Mr. Ed ison. 7 and 3. Edison home and works in West Orange, N. J. repeated contempt for the need of temporary tem-porary or permanent cessation from toll. These things have been a commonplace com-monplace of newspaper reading for a score of years, but wo were shocked to learn that when Edison did finally decide on a two weeks' vacation he simply could not rest The engine would not stop and being badly governed gov-erned by the enforced nap of Its driver, threatened to rack Itself to pieces. The fuel was being consumed in the Intense, unremitting working of the great mind, but the steam lacking Its wonted outlet, threatened to burst the boiler, so EdLson went back to work. Work, the application of theories and principles to practical results, la the keynote of the life of Edison. "In considering his life and work the distinction dis-tinction must be made between the pure scientist with mathematical and philosophical knowledge and the ingenious in-genious Inventor who can apply a scientific sci-entific truth lo a practical end. Of this latter class Edison stands at tho head As an Inventor he stands unique among those men who lntve nppll-d scientific discoveries to the ordinary us-s of man " So says ono recent commentator on his life and work. First Improved the Telegraph. It was as an Inventor of improvements improve-ments on tho telegraph that Edison first acquired fame and wealth. His earliest Important discovery was a repeating re-peating telegraph Instrument, which enabled a message to be transmitted automatically on a second lino without the presence of an operator. Next camo the "ticker." whereby messages are printed simultaneously an Indefinite number of times Tho automatic telegraph tele-graph system and tho duplex, quadruples quadru-ples and sextuplex telegraphs followed follow-ed In order. Whllo Edison was laboring over th-.se aiiKinciited uses of the telegraph his active brain found opportunities to branch out. Some of the results were ili... microphone and carbon transmitter transmit-ter for the telephone, the phonograph, the megaphone and the moving picture machine. He lighted tho world with his incandescent lamp, tho fruit of many years- study and experiment. In recent days his talking moving pictures, pic-tures, the Improvement of tho storage battery and the wider use of concrete for house building have engaged much of Edison s time Recognition and fame were accorded to Edison In such measuro that for mahy ycar3 now his namo has Invariably In-variably been included In tho lists of the greatest Americans and of the world's greatest men. With them lues como weal tli, for the "wizard" Is not wanting In business sense, tho lack of which murks so maDy of hla fellow inventors. in-ventors. Foreign governments havo honored the American. Last January ho received re-ceived from tho American Museum of Safety, in New York, a gold medal for tho Invention of a safety electric mine lamp. It was tho museum's first award of the Rathenail medal, a German sign of approval of the best devlco or process proc-ess In tho electric industry for tho safeguarding of the life and health of workeri It la characteristic of Edison that he would not appear In person to recelvo tho Rathenau medal, but sent his wife In his stead. Ho was too busy in his laboratory, ho said. Before the world was shocked recently re-cently upon learning that Edison was ill few such reports had come to Its ears It Beemed as though one simply could not Imagine Edison III. Every previous report anei "story" about htm bad him working always working at somo new thing or improvement of old. How Edison Became Deaf. Possibly the story of his deafness may be new to somo readers It happened hap-pened when ho was qu!to young and was a '"train butcher," or newsboy, on a train of tho Grand Trunk railway in Michigan, Ho had a friend In the man In charge of the baggago car, and this man permitted him to uso a corner of j tho car as a laboratory for expert-mentl expert-mentl In chemistry', but one day young ! Edison upset somo chemicals and set the car on fire. His friend tho baggage bag-gage man became his enemy and not only threw the chemicals off the train, but boxed tho boy's ears, Tho oar-druniK oar-druniK were ruptured. But this did not keep Edison from further experiments. In later years he said often that h- did not regret his deafness, since It kept him from hearing hear-ing a great deal of nonsense Of all men whom this world has kneiwn. ho has probably had least time of any to listen to nonsense. He said once. "By a carefully conducted series of experiments experi-ments I havo discovered that the gray matter of tho average person frazzles out bofcro his voice does." Edison's sixty-sixth birthday was celebrated at his homo In Llewellyn Park, a residential section of West OranRe, N. J., rn Eeb. 11 of this year. Hundreds of congratulatory letters and telegrams were received at the Edison home and works. The latter are also In West Orange. Included among the senders of tho messages of good will or the united states, turope, China and Japan. Edison Bpent the day, ae usual. In hard labor. Ho had been In II his laboratory, according to his habit until l o'clock in the morning and left aHl It for a sleep of four hours. H Well Liked by Employees. More than 6,000 employees at tho & Edison works surprised their chief IF when tho 7 o'clock whistle blew by wearing in their coat lapels blue but- j tons with the numerals "66" in gold- This pleased the "old man," as he is known about tho wjorks, greatly. "Isn't H -jH It strange they havo all thought about me in the same way?" When he was asked how old ho felt he replied: "About twenty-five. My ) nrferie-i are good, and as long as my B -M locomotion keeps moving without any J trouble I will bo able to keep working." work-ing." He was asked about his inter- J est in the advancement of aviation and I ropneo. l never carea to go up in tno it Tho commonly accepted Idea that Edlson'3 early years were spent in poverty is a mistake, according to Prank Lewis Dyer and Thomas Com- ! merford Martin, tho biographers of tho jl inventor. These two men have been I assoclate'd with Edison In business and j have had opportunities not gUen to 9 Others to know th-ir subject In their j book, "Edison His LIfo and Inven- j tions," they say that ho w,xs a member f of a family In comfortable circum- ' H stances In Port Huron, Mich., to which J place the Edison family moved from H Milan. Oh when ho was young. But fj H they agree with others in saying that j the regular school experience of Edl- 1 son was short, only three months in all. His mother educated him at home 1 until ho was twelve, when he began JH his business career as a train boy. He - la not a great mathematician, as might be inferred from his work. He said onco to a friend. "I can alwaya hire mathematicians, but they can't hire ,J |
