chapter06.txt

CHAPTER VI







WORK AND INVENTION IN BOSTON







MILTON ADAMS was working in the office of the



Franklin Telegraph Company in Boston when



he received Edison's appeal from Port Huron, and



with characteristic impetuosity at once made it his



business to secure a position for his friend. There



was no opening in the Franklin office, so Adams went



over to the Western Union office, and asked the manager,



Mr. George F. Milliken, if he did not want an



operator who, like young Lochinvar, came out of the



West. "What kind of copy does he make?" was the



cautious response. "I passed Edison's letter through



the window for his inspection. Milliken read it, and



a look of surprise came over his countenance as he



asked me if he could take it off the line like that. I



said he certainly could, and that there was nobody



who could stick him. Milliken said that if he was that



kind of an operator I could send for him, and I wrote



to Edison to come on, as I had a job for him in the



main office of the Western Union." Meantime Edison



had secured his pass over the Grand Trunk Railroad,



and spent four days and nights on the journey, suffering



extremes of cold and hunger. Franklin's arrival



in Philadelphia finds its parallel in the very modest



debut of Adams's friend in Boston.







It took only five minutes for Edison to get the



"job," for Superintendent Milliken, a fine type of



telegraph official, saw quickly through the superficialities,



and realized that it was no ordinary young



operator he was engaging. Edison himself tells the



story of what happened. "The manager asked me



when I was ready to go to work. `Now,' I replied



I was then told to return at 5.30 P.M., and punctually



at that hour I entered the main operating-room and



was introduced to the night manager. The weather



being cold, and being clothed poorly, my peculiar



appearance caused much mirth, and, as I afterward



learned, the night operators had consulted together



how they might `put up a job on the jay from the



woolly West.' I was given a pen and assigned to



the New York No. 1 wire. After waiting an hour,



I was told to come over to a special table and take a



special report for the Boston Herald, the conspirators



having arranged to have one of the fastest senders



in New York send the despatch and `salt' the new



man. I sat down unsuspiciously at the table, and



the New York man started slowly. Soon he increased



his speed, to which I easily adapted my



pace. This put my rival on his mettle, and he put



on his best powers, which, however, were soon reached.



At this point I happened to look up, and saw the



operators all looking over my shoulder, with their



faces shining with fun and excitement. I knew then



that they were trying to put up a job on me, but



kept my own counsel. The New York man then



commenced to slur over his words, running them together



and sticking the signals; but I had been used



to this style of telegraphy in taking report, and was



not in the least discomfited. Finally, when I thought



the fun had gone far enough, and having about completed



the special, I quietly opened the key and remarked,



telegraphically, to my New York friend:



`Say, young man, change off and send with your



other foot.' This broke the New York man all up,



and he turned the job over to another man to finish."







Edison had a distaste for taking press report, due



to the fact that it was steady, continuous work, and



interfered with the studies and investigations that



could be carried on in the intervals of ordinary



commercial telegraphy. He was not lazy in any sense.



While he had no very lively interest in the mere



routine work of a telegraph office, he had the profoundest



curiosity as to the underlying principles of



electricity that made telegraphy possible, and he



had an unflagging desire and belief in his own ability



to improve the apparatus he handled daily. The



whole intellectual atmosphere of Boston was favorable



to the development of the brooding genius in



this shy, awkward, studious youth, utterly indifferent



to clothes and personal appearance, but ready to



spend his last dollar on books and scientific



paraphernalia. It is matter of record that he did once



buy a new suit for thirty dollars in Boston, but the



following Sunday, while experimenting with acids in



his little workshop, the suit was spoiled. "That is



what I get for putting so much money in a new suit,"



was the laconic remark of the youth, who was more



than delighted to pick up a complete set of Faraday's



works about the same time. Adams says that when



Edison brought home these books at 4 A.M. he read



steadily until breakfast-time, and then he remarked,



enthusiastically: "Adams, I have got so much to do



and life is so short, I am going to hustle." And



thereupon he started on a run for breakfast. Edison



himself says: "It was in Boston I bought Faraday's



works. I think I must have tried about everything



in those books. His explanations were simple. He



used no mathematics. He was the Master Experimenter.



I don't think there were many copies of



Faraday's works sold in those days. The only people



who did anything in electricity were the



telegraphers and the opticians making simple school



apparatus to demonstrate the principles." One of



these firms was Palmer & Hall, whose catalogue of



1850 showed a miniature electric locomotive made



by Mr. Thomas Hall, and exhibited in operation the



following year at the Charitable Mechanics' Fair in



Boston. In 1852 Mr. Hall made for a Dr. A. L. Henderson,



of Buffalo, New York, a model line of railroad



with electric-motor engine, telegraph line, and electric



railroad signals, together with a figure operating the



signals at each end of the line automatically. This



was in reality the first example of railroad trains



moved by telegraph signals, a practice now so common



and universal as to attract no comment. To



show how little some fundamental methods can change



in fifty years, it may be noted that Hall conveyed the



current to his tiny car through forty feet of rail,



using the rail as conductor, just as Edison did more



than thirty years later in his historic experiments



for Villard at Menlo Park; and just as a large pro-



portion of American trolley systems do at this present



moment.







It was among such practical, investigating folk as



these that Edison was very much at home. Another



notable man of this stamp, with whom Edison was



thrown in contact, was the late Mr. Charles Williams,



who, beginning his career in the electrical field in



the forties, was at the height of activity as a maker



of apparatus when Edison arrived in the city; and



who afterward, as an associate of Alexander Graham



Bell, enjoyed the distinction of being the first



manufacturer in the world of telephones. At his Court



Street workshop Edison was a frequent visitor. Telegraph



repairs and experiments were going on constantly,



especially on the early fire-alarm telegraphs[1]



of Farmer and Gamewell, and with the aid of one of the



men there--probably George Anders--Edison worked



out into an operative model his first invention, a vote-



recorder, the first Edison patent, for which papers



were executed on October 11, 1868, and which was



taken out June 1, 1869, No. 90,646. The purpose of



this particular device was to permit a vote in the



National House of Representatives to be taken in a



minute or so, complete lists being furnished of all



members voting on the two sides of any question



Mr. Edison, in recalling the circumstances, says:



"Roberts was the telegraph operator who was the



financial backer to the extent of $100. The invention



when completed was taken to Washington. I think it



was exhibited before a committee that had something



to do with the Capitol. The chairman of the committee,



after seeing how quickly and perfectly it



worked, said: `Young man, if there is any invention



on earth that we don't want down here, it is this.



One of the greatest weapons in the hands of a minority



to prevent bad legislation is filibustering on



votes, and this instrument would prevent it.' I saw



the truth of this, because as press operator I had taken



miles of Congressional proceedings, and to this day



an enormous amount of time is wasted during each



session of the House in foolishly calling the members'



names and recording and then adding their



votes, when the whole operation could be done in



almost a moment by merely pressing a particular



button at each desk. For filibustering purposes,



however, the present methods are most admirable."



Edison determined from that time forth to devote



his inventive faculties only to things for which there



was a real, genuine demand, something that subserved



the actual necessities of humanity. This first



patent was taken out for him by the late Hon. Carroll



D. Wright, afterward U. S. Commissioner of Labor,



and a well-known publicist, then practicing patent law



in Boston. He describes Edison as uncouth in manner,



a chewer rather than a smoker of tobacco, but



full of intelligence and ideas.











[1] The general scheme of a fire-alarm telegraph system embodies



a central office to which notice can be ...