chapter04.txt

CHAPTER IV







THE YOUNG TELEGRAPH OPERATOR







"WHILE a newsboy on the railroad," says Edison,



"I got very much interested in electricity,



probably from visiting telegraph offices with a chum



who had tastes similar to mine." It will also have



been noted that he used the telegraph to get items



for his little journal, and to bulletin his special news



of the Civil War along the line. The next step was



natural, and having with his knowledge of chemistry



no trouble about "setting up" his batteries, the



difficulties of securing apparatus were chiefly those



connected with the circuits and the instruments.



American youths to-day are given, if of a mechanical



turn of mind, to amateur telegraphy or telephony,



but seldom, if ever, have to make any part of the



system constructed. In Edison's boyish days it was



quite different, and telegraphic supplies were hard to



obtain. But he and his "chum" had a line between



their homes, built of common stove-pipe wire. The insulators



were bottles set on nails driven into trees and



short poles. The magnet wire was wound with rags for



insulation, and pieces of spring brass were used for



keys. With an idea of securing current cheaply,



Edison applied the little that he knew about static



electricity, and actually experimented with cats,



which he treated vigorously as frictional machines



until the animals fled in dismay, and Edison had



learned his first great lesson in the relative value of



sources of electrical energy. The line was made to



work, however, and additional to the messages that



the boys interchanged, Edison secured practice in an



ingenious manner. His father insisted on 11.30 as



proper bedtime, which left but a short interval after



the long day on the train. But each evening, when



the boy went home with a bundle of papers that had



not been sold in the town, his father would sit up



reading the "returnables." Edison, therefore, on



some excuse, left the papers with his friend, but



suggested that he could get the news from him by



telegraph, bit by bit. The scheme interested his



father, and was put into effect, the messages being



written down and handed over for perusal. This



yielded good practice nightly, lasting until 12 and 1



o'clock, and was maintained for some time until Mr.



Edison became willing that his son should stay up



for a reasonable time. The papers were then brought



home again, and the boys amused themselves to their



hearts' content until the line was pulled down by a



stray cow wandering through the orchard. Meantime



better instruments had been secured, and the



rudiments of telegraphy had been fairly mastered.







The mixed train on which Edison was employed as



newsboy did the way-freight work and shunting at



the Mount Clemens station, about half an hour being



usually spent in the work. One August morning, in



1862, while the shunting was in progress, and a laden



box-car had been pushed out of a siding, Edison, who



was loitering about the platform, saw the little son



of the station agent, Mr. J. U. Mackenzie, playing



with the gravel on the main track along which the



car without a brakeman was rapidly approaching.



Edison dropped his papers and his glazed cap, and



made a dash for the child, whom he picked up and



lifted to safety without a second to spare, as the wheel



of the car struck his heel; and both were cut about the



face and hands by the gravel ballast on which they



fell. The two boys were picked up by the train-hands



and carried to the platform, and the grateful father



at once offered to teach the rescuer, whom he knew



and liked, the art of train telegraphy and to make



an operator of him. It is needless to say that the



proposal was eagerly accepted.







Edison found time for his new studies by letting



one of his friends look after the newsboy work on the



train for part of the trip, reserving to himself the run



between Port Huron and Mount Clemens. That he



was already well qualified as a beginner is evident



from the fact that he had mastered the Morse code



of the telegraphic alphabet, and was able to take to



the station a neat little set of instruments he had



just finished with his own hands at a gun-shop in



Detroit. This was probably a unique achievement



in itself among railway operators of that day or of



later times. The drill of the student involved chiefly



the acquisition of the special signals employed in



railway work, including the numerals and abbreviations



applied to save time. Some of these have passed



into the slang of the day, "73" being well known as



a telegrapher's expression of compliments or good



wishes, while "23" is an accident or death message,



and has been given broader popular significance as



a general synonym for "hoodoo." All of this came



easily to Edison, who had, moreover, as his Herald



showed, an unusual familiarity with train movement



along that portion of the Grand Trunk road.







Three or four months were spent pleasantly and



profitably by the youth in this course of study, and



Edison took to it enthusiastically, giving it no less



than eighteen hours a day. He then put up a little



telegraph line from the station to the village, a distance



of about a mile, and opened an office in a drug



store; but the business was naturally very small.



The telegraph operator at Port Huron knowing of his



proficiency, and wanting to get into the United States



Military Telegraph Corps, where the pay in those days



of the Civil War was high, succeeded in convincing



his brother-in-law, Mr. M. Walker, that young Edison



could fill the position. Edison was, of course, well



acquainted with the operators along the road and at



the southern terminal, and took up his new duties



very easily. The office was located in a jewelry store,



where newspapers and periodicals were also sold.



Edison was to be found at the office both day and



night, sleeping there. "I became quite valuable to



Mr. Walker. After working all day I worked at the



office nights as well, for the reason that `press report'



came over one of the wires until 3 A.M., and I would



cut in and copy it as well as I could, to become more



rapidly proficient. The goal of the rural telegraph



operator was to be able to take press. Mr. Walker



tried to get my father to apprentice me at $20 per



month, but they could not agree. I then applied for



a job on the Grand Trunk Railroad as a railway



operator, and was given a place, nights, at Stratford



Junction, Canada." Apparently his friend Mackenzie



helped him in the matter. The position carried



a salary of $25 per month. No serious objections



were raised by his family, for the distance from Port



Huron was not great, and Stratford was near Bayfield,



the old home from which the Edisons had come,



so that there were doubtless friends or even relatives



in the vicinity. This was in 1863.







Mr. Walker was an observant man, who has since



that time installed a number of waterworks systems



and obtained several patents of his own. He describes



the boy of sixteen as engrossed intensely in



his experiments and scientific reading, and somewhat



indifferent, for this reason, to his duties as operator.



This office was not particularly busy, taking from



$50 to $75 a month, but even the messages taken



in would remain unsent on the hook while Edison



was in the cellar below trying to solve some chemical



problem. The manager would see him studying



sometimes an article in such a paper as the Scientific



American, and then disappearing to buy a few sundries



for experiments. Returning from the drug



store with his chemicals, he would not be seen again



until required by his duties, or until he had found out



for himself, if possible, in this offhand manner,



whether what he had read was correct or not. When



he had completed his experiment all interest in it



was lost, and the jars and wires would be left to any



fate that might befall them. In like manner Edison



would make free use of the watchmaker's tools that



lay on the little table in the front window, and would



take the wire pliers there without much thought as



to their value as distinguished from a lineman's



tools. The one idea was to do quickly what he



wanted to do; and the same swift, almost headlong



trial of anything that comes to hand, while the fervor



of a new experiment is felt, has been noted at all



stages of the inventor's career. One is reminded of



Palissy's recklessness, when in his efforts to make the



enamel melt on his pottery he used the very furniture



of his home for firewood.







Mr. Edison remarks the fact that there was very



little difference between the telegraph of that time



and of to-day, except the general use of the old Morse



register with the dots and dashes recorded by indenting



paper strips that could be read and checked



later at leisure if necessary. He says: "The telegraph



men couldn't explain how it worked, and I



was always trying to get them to do so. I think they



couldn't. I remember the best explanation I got



was from an old Scotch line repairer employed by the



Montreal Telegraph Company, which operated the



railroad wires. He said that if you had a dog like



a dachshund, long enough to reach from Edi...