LITTLE BIOGRAPHIES.—

have tried two thousand substances before decid-
ing upon fibres of bamboo for the arch in the
vacuum of his glass globe. As the United States
has four hundred million dollars invested in gas,
and England five hundred million, the wealth in
this light of the future will be seen readily. In
ten cotton factories in Fall River, Mass., forty-five
hundred Edison lights are used, much to the joy
of the workers, where gas-heated rooms formally
injured sight and health. Over sixty thousand
lamps are now in use, burning six hundred hours
before the bamboo is replaced by a new one.

Perhaps most interesting of all is Mr. Edison
himself, who has been called the Wizard of Menlo
Park. Five feet ten inches high, with boyish but
earnest face, light gray eyes, his dark hair slightly
gray falling over his forehead, his hat tipped to
the back of his head, as he goes ardently to his
work, which has averaged eighteen hours a day
for ten years, he is indeed a pleasant man to see,
You perceive he is not the man to be daunted by
obstacles. When one of his inventions failed —a
. printing machine —he took five men into the loft
of his factory, declaring he would never come down
till it worked satisfactorily. For two days, and
nights and twelve hours — sixty hours in all, he
worked continuously without sleep, until he. had
conquered the difficulty; and then he slept for
thirty hours. He often works all night, thinking
best, he says, when the rest of the world sleeps.

He is the very embodiment of concentration and
perseverance. When developing his automatic tele-
graph, says his friend:

Edison sat with a pile of chemistries and chemical books
that were five feet high when they stood on the floor, and
laid one upon the other. He had ordered them from New
York and London and Paris. He studied them night and
day. He ate at the desk and slept in the chair. In six
weeks he had gone through the books, written a volume of
abstracts, made two thousand experiments on the formulas,
and had produced a solution — the only one in the world —
that would do the very thing he wanted done — record over

two hundred words a minute ona wire two hundred and fifty

HOW SUCCESS IS WON. 307

miles long. He has since succeeded in recording thirty-one
hundred words a minute.

Yet, with all this devotion to work, he greatly
enjoys fun, He said one day to his old friend of
whom he learned telegraphing, Mr. Mackensie,
“Look here —I am able to send a message from
New York to Boston without any wire at all.”

“ That is impossible.”

“Oh! no, It’s a new invention.”

“Well, how is it done?” asked Mr. Mackensie.

“ By sealing it up and sending by mail,” was the
comical answer.

He cares nothing for display, and when tendered
a public dinner, declined, saying, that, “ one hun-
dred thousand dollars would not tempt him to sit
through two hours of personal glorification,” In
his home, he finds his recreation, with his wife and
‘children, to whom he is devotedly attached; one
child, Mary Estelle, is nicknamed “Dot,” and an-
other, Thomas Alva Edison, jr., “‘ Dash.”

But this modest man has received honors from
all the world. At the great Electrical Exposition
at Paris in 1881, two salons were devoted to his
inventions ; these halls were lighted, as well as
several others, by his beautiful lamps. The Royal
Society of London has exhibited his works with
pride. Union College has made him Doctor of
Philosophy. From scientists he receives over one
hundred and fifty letters daily, in French, German,
Italian, Spanish, Russian and Turkish.

Already he has taken out several hundred
patents and is as enthusiastic, as absorbed, in his
work asever. Only thirty-seven, his life seems but
just ripening into its wonderful fruitage. Electric ©
engines are much in his thought. He said re-
cently, “Anything is possible with electricity. A
new discovery may be made any day.”

That Mr. Edison has genius nobody will deny ;
but probably he would have accomplished little
without his broad reading, and well nigh unpar-
alleled devotion to work.

LITTLE BIOGRAPHIES.—HOW SUCCESS IS WON.

By Sarau K. Bo.ton.

 

XI.
DR. WM. T. G. MORTON.

HEN William Murdock, of Birmingham,
invented lighting by gas, he was ridi-

culed all England over. After using gas satisfac-
torily in his own house and shop, the lighting of a
town was suggested, but Sir Humphrey Davy scorn-

\

fully inquired whether it was intended “to take the
dome of St. Paul for a gas-holder!” And when
the subject was brought before Parliament, one of
the members exclaimed, “ Do you mean to tell me
that it will be possible to have a light wethout a
wick?”

“ Ves, I do, indeed,” said Murdock.

“ Ah, my friend,” replied the educated legislator,
“ you are trying to prove too much!”