Page 583 : EDMONDTON — EDMUND'S
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At 21 Edison went to Boston, a rapid operator. In another year he was in New York, when accident led him to repairing a ticker in a broker’s office and to a salary of $300 a month. Then he invented an improved apparatus for which he got $40,000. The Western Union took an option on his future inventions, and the young genius started a factory in Newark, New Jersey, with 300 employes. It was the most remarkable establishment in the world, where everybody worked from sheer enthusiasm, with irregular hours and no book-keeper. But Edison literally coined his inventive brain into money. He had 50 inventions at various stages at one time, wired instructions to his patent-attorney every day, and cabled applications for patents to London. Before he was 30 the factory was sold, and Edison built the laboratory at Menlo Park to devote his time entirely to invention. There he worked out the problems of the telephone, the incandescent electric light, the phonograph and other great discoveries
Ah, what a workshop that was! One hundred feet long it was, with a maze of wheels and flying belts, lathes, drills, planers and milling-machines.
His method of working.
Above were a chemical laboratory and a library; and skilled workmen and scholarly experimenters, a private secretary and even a book-keeper. A big workshop and a small house suited Edison exactly. He went about in shabby work-clothes and acid-stained hands. Most of the time his wife and children dined alone, for the Wizard was never to be disturbed. He ate when he was hungry and rested when he was tired and had as much fun in his work as a boy at a ball game.
Not all of his inventions were made easily. Some he worked on for years and spent thousands of dollars in perfecting. One rule he has always kept: “Be sure a thing is needed or wanted, then go ahead.” The phonograph, telephone transmitter, electric light and power system, megaphone, quadruplex, tasimeter for measuring the heat of the stars, kinetoscope, anyone of a dozen big inventions would have won fame for the man, but they are not usually identified as belonging to him in the multitude that bear his name. The electric light made him rich, but cost him years and vast expense to perfect. Men were sent around the world to find material for the filament.
The first electric light.
It was in 1880 that Menlo Park was first illuminated with the electric light. Special trains were run out for the event from New York City, and there was as much excitement as when the first steamboat was launched on the Hudson. In 1886 Menlo Park was outgrown, and an immense plant built at Orange, New Jersey. Wealth and fame, however, have not brought leisure to the inventor. His highest pleasure is his work, and he gives the world his best in his inventions, he says: So why should he give his society? But the world insists that the best of any man always is himself, and is disappointed that Edison continues to seclude himself in his shop. The few who are privileged to know him testify to his personal charm. He is philosophical, enthusiastic, cheerful; loves a good story or a joke; enjoys music and books and children, and takes occasional trips abroad with his family. He apparently knows as little what time of life it is with him, as what time of day. Life has not lost its zest nor work its charm.
Edmonton, the capital of Alberta, population 16,000, on the [[../Saskatchewan (river)|Saskatchewan River]], is 180 miles north of Calgary. Valuable coal-fields surround it. The trade of the great [[../Mackenzie River|Mackenzie]] basin is attracted to it. It is the center of an immense and rich agricultural tract, and was an important point in connection with the fur-trade. In early days it was a point of departure on the Edmonton route for the Klondike. A railway-center, served alike by the [[../Canadian Northern Railway, The|Canadian Northern]], the [[../Canadian Pacific Railway, The|Canadian Pacific]] and the Grand Trunk Pacific, Edmonton is growing rapidly and promises to be a considerable city.
Ed′mund, for his bravery surnamed Ironside, king of England for seven months in 1016, was son of Ethelred the Unready and half-brother of Edward the Confessor. He is said to have been born in 989. He was chosen king by the Londoners, while Canute was chosen by the witan or council. Edmund entered the struggle with great energy. He gathered an army and defeated Canute in two hard-fought battles. He then raised the siege of London, and again was defeated in Essex, and this forced him to agree with Canute to a division of the kingdom, Canute taking the north side, while Edmund took the south. It also was agreed that, in case one of the kings should die, the other should become king of the whole of England. A few weeks after this agreement Edmund was murdered in 1016.
Edmunds, George Franklin, an American statesman, was born at Richmond, Vermont, Feb. 1, 1828. He was admitted to the bar in 1849, and sat in the state legislature from 1854 to 1859 and in the state senate from 1861 to 1862. In 1866 he was elected to the senate of the United States, where he served on many important committees, and was president pro tempore
Image: GEORGE P. EDMUNDS.
