Thomas Alva Edison an intimate record

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Foreword

HIS Foreword is in the nature of a confession. Thomas Alva Edison has always possessed a great fascination for me. Even when a boy in an English school I read everything concerning him that I could find. On the wall of my bedroom was placed that striking picture of him by Outcault (I think) which showed the “Wizard” listening to his first phonograph. I saw that portrait long before I ever had an opportunity of listening to a “talking machine,” and visualised the inventor as a mortal who lived somewhere on earth, perhaps, but who was seen only by the elect. I thought of him as her Indian subjects are said to have thought of Queen Victoria! When as a very young man I got my first engagement on a London magazine, and was given an assignment to write an article on Edison, the editor went to some little trouble to tell me who he was. He advised me to look him up in the Metropolitan Library or, better still, to consult the “morgue” of the London Times. I had no need, to do either. The article was written without consulting any reference whatever, and the editor was kind enough to say that I “might have been personally acquainted with the inventor.”

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Vili ‘ FOREWORD

A couple of years later the publishing firm with which I was associated decided to send a man to America to write articles on this country for the delectation of English readers. I was offered the position. For many reasons I was not very enthusiastic about it, but the thought flashed through my mind: perhaps I shall see Edison! This factor helped me to decide. I hesitated no longer but packed my trunk and took ship for New York.

About a month after my arrival I wrote to Mr. Edison asking for an interview in behalf of my magazine. I did not get an immediate reply and had almost made up my mind that the inventor really was some supernatural being, when a pleasant note came saying that Mr. Edison would be pleased to see me at such and such a time. I remember it was a beautiful spring morning when I arrived in Orange and the apple and pear trees were full of bloom. Everything was so sunny and bright that I felt satisfied that the great event of my life was to take place. I reached the Laboratory about eleven o’clock and knocked at the little office just outside the gates. A workman let me in, and presently Mr. Randolph, the great man’s Secretary, appeared and ushered me into the library where he said Mr. Edison would meet me in a few moments.

Left alone I felt what the French call “a great emotion.” I know that when the inventor made his appearance at the door my knees knocked together. But he hurried forward with such a genial

FOREWORD ix!

smile on his face, such a kindly look in his eyes, such a welcome in his outstretched hand, that all my nervousness vanished. I felt as though I were greeting an old friend. We sat and talked for an hour. When the interview was over, he told me that I might come whenever I wished, and that any information he or his associates could give me would be at my service.

That was the first of many visits and each visit increased my admiration for this wonderful man. One cannot speak to Edison for five minutes without realizing that he is in the presence of a very unusual personality—a man who is already among the immortals. And yet he laughs and tells amusing stories in a way that is very human and wholly delightful. |/Born of these intimate talks came a great desire to depict Edison as I knew him for others; and one day I asked him if he would have any objection to my publishing the results of my many interviews in book form. He had none. In fact he gave me full permission to consult everything there was concerning him in the Library and put at my disposal a mass of valuable material. I set to work at once and for many weeks occupied a desk in the Edison library where I was left undisturbed and free to use anything that might prove useful.

I have made this frank personal confession in the first person, to explain why it was that I wrote a Life of Edison. It has been penned because of my intense admiration for him and as a modest

2 FOREWORD tribute to the man who must be regarded as the greatest inventive genius of all times.

The first edition of this biography appeared in 1907, with the subtitle, “Sixty Years of an Inventor’s Life.’ Sixty years seems a long record for any life, but the succeeding years, now approaching the four-score prove that Edison, among other achievements, has defied the ravages of time. After running through several editions, this life story was found to contain certain facts and statements necessarily out of date. The new printing with the date line of 1924 represents an entire resetting of the original work with revisions and additional chapters which again make it a portrait of the Edison of To-day.

peta September 1, 1924.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS received, and here acknowledges, the inval-

uable co-operation of many persons who knew Mr. Edison in his younger days, and who so cheerfully placed at his service the results of their acquaintance and association with the inventor.

To the Press generally he is indebted for much valued assistance in the permission so generously given to quote from the various authenticated interviews with Mr. Edison, individual acknowledgment of which is made in the body of the book.

To the inventor himself the writer is grateful for the many hours he spent away from his experimental laboratory to give, with his accustomed goodnature, much of the personal history here recorded. To Mrs. Edison acknowledgment should be made for the loan of various portraits of her distinguished husband taken in his younger days and for a copy of the paper—the only one believed to be in existence—which Edison printed and published on the train at the age of fourteen.

And finally, the author is very greatly indebted to Mr. J. Walker McSpadden, the well-known writer, for much valued assistance in the matter of xi

|: the preparation of this book the author has xi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS research work, for a revision of the text, and for his help in bringing this biography, which originally appeared in 1907, up-to-date, by the addition of later material.

EAS

September 1, 1924.

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Contents

BIRTHPLACE AND Earty LIFE .

BoyHoop AND YOUTH

News AGENT AND TELEGRAPHER .