chapter23.txt

CHAPTER XXIII







MISCELLANEOUS INVENTIONS







IT has been the endeavor in this narrative to group



Edison's inventions and patents so that his work in



the different fields can be studied independently and



separately. The history of his career has therefore



fallen naturally into a series of chapters, each aiming



to describe some particular development or art; and,



in a way, the plan has been helpful to the writers while



probably useful to the readers. It happens, however,



that the process has left a vast mass of discovery and



invention wholly untouched, and relegates to a



concluding brief chapter some of the most interesting



episodes of a fruitful life. Any one who will turn to the



list of Edison patents at the end of the book will find



a large number of things of which not even casual



mention has been made, but which at the time occupied



no small amount of the inventor's time and attention,



and many of which are now part and parcel of modern



civilization. Edison has, indeed, touched nothing



that he did not in some way improve. As Thoreau



said: "The laws of the Universe are not indifferent,



but are forever on the side of the most sensitive," and



there never was any one more sensitive to the defects



of every art and appliance, nor any one more active in



applying the law of evolution. It is perhaps this



many-sidedness of Edison that has impressed the multitude,



and that in the "popular vote" taken a couple



of years ago by the New York Herald placed his name



at the head of the list of ten greatest living Americans.



It is curious and pertinent to note that a similar



plebiscite taken by a technical journal among its expert



readers had exactly the same result. Evidently the



public does not agree with the opinion expressed by



the eccentric artist Blake in his "Marriage of Heaven



and Hell," when he said: "Improvement makes



strange roads; but the crooked roads without improvements



are roads of Genius."







The product of Edison's brain may be divided into



three classes. The first embraces such arts and industries,



or such apparatus, as have already been treated.



The second includes devices like the tasimeter, phonomotor,



odoroscope, etc., and others now to be noted.



The third embraces a number of projected inventions,



partially completed investigations, inventions in use



but not patented, and a great many caveats filed in



the Patent Office at various times during the last forty



years for the purpose of protecting his ideas pending



their contemplated realization in practice. These



caveats served their purpose thoroughly in many



instances, but there have remained a great variety of



projects upon which no definite action was ever taken.



One ought to add the contents of an unfinished piece



of extraordinary fiction based wholly on new inventions



and devices utterly unknown to mankind. Some



day the novel may be finished, but Edison has no



inclination to go back to it, and says he cannot under-



stand how any man is able to make a speech or write



a book, for he simply can't do it.







After what has been said in previous chapters, it



will not seem so strange that Edison should have



hundreds of dormant inventions on his hands. There



are human limitations even for such a tireless worker



as he is. While the preparation of data for this chapter



was going on, one of the writers in discussing with



him the vast array of unexploited things said: "Don't



you feel a sense of regret in being obliged to leave so



many things uncompleted?" To which he replied:



"What's the use? One lifetime is too short, and I am



busy every day improving essential parts of my established



industries." It must suffice to speak briefly of



a few leading inventions that have been worked out,



and to dismiss with scant mention all the rest, taking



just a few items, as typical and suggestive,



especially when Edison can himself be quoted as to



them. Incidentally it may be noted that things, not



words, are referred to; for Edison, in addition to



inventing the apparatus, has often had to coin the word



to describe it. A large number of the words and



phrases in modern electrical parlance owe their origin



to him. Even the "call-word" of the telephone,



"Hello!" sent tingling over the wire a few million



times daily was taken from Menlo Park by men installing



telephones in different parts of the world, men



who had just learned it at the laboratory, and thus



made it a universal sesame for telephonic conversation.







It is hard to determine where to begin with Edison's



miscellaneous inventions, but perhaps telegraphy has



the "right of line," and Edison's work in that field



puts him abreast of the latest wireless developments



that fill the world with wonder. "I perfected a system



of train telegraphy between stations and trains



in motion whereby messages could be sent from the



moving train to the central office; and this was the



forerunner of wireless telegraphy. This system was



used for a number of years on the Lehigh Valley Railroad



on their construction trains. The electric wave



passed from a piece of metal on top of the car across



the air to the telegraph wires; and then proceeded to



the despatcher's office. In my first experiments with



this system I tried it on the Staten Island Railroad,



and employed an operator named King to do the



experimenting. He reported results every day, and



received instructions by mail; but for some reason he



could send messages all right when the train went in



one direction, but could not make it go in the contrary



direction. I made suggestions of every kind to get



around this phenomenon. Finally I telegraphed King



to find out if he had any suggestions himself; and I



received a reply that the only way he could propose



to get around the difficulty was to put the island on



a pivot so it could be turned around! I found the



trouble finally, and the practical introduction on the



Lehigh Valley road was the result. The system was



sold to a very wealthy man, and he would never sell



any rights or answer letters. He became a spiritualist



subsequently, which probably explains it." It is



interesting to note that Edison became greatly interested



in the later developments by Marconi, and is an admiring



friend and adviser of that well-known inventor.







The earlier experiments with wireless telegraphy at



Menlo Park were made at a time when Edison was



greatly occupied with his electric-light interests, and



it was not until the beginning of 1886 that he was able



to spare the time to make a public demonstration of



the system as applied to moving trains. Ezra T.



Gilliland, of Boston, had become associated with him



in his experiments, and they took out several joint



patents subsequently. The first practical use of the



system took place on a thirteen-mile stretch of the



Staten Island Railroad with the results mentioned



by Edison above.







A little later, Edison and Gilliland joined forces with



Lucius J. Phelps, another investigator, who had been



experimenting along the same lines and had taken



out several patents. The various interests were combined



in a corporation under whose auspices the system



was installed on the Lehigh Valley Railroad,



where it was used for several years. The official



demonstration trip on this road took place on October



6, 1887, on a six-car train running to Easton, Pennsylvania,



a distance of fifty-four miles. A great many



telegrams were sent and received while the train was



at full speed, including a despatch to the "cable king,"



John Pender. London, England, and a reply from



him.[17]











[17] Broadly described in outline, the system consisted of an induction



circuit obtained by laying strips of tin along the top or



roof of a railway car, and the installation of a special telegraph



line running parallel with the track and strung on poles of only



medium height. The train and also each signalling station were



equipped with regulation telegraphic apparatus, such as battery,



key, relay, and sounder, together with induction-coil and condenser.



In addition, there was a transmitting device in the shape of a



musical reed, or buzzer. In practice, this buzzer was continuously



operated at high speed by a battery. Its vibrations were broken



by means of a key into long and short periods, representing Morse



characters, which were transmitted inductively from the train



circuit to the pole line, or vice versa, and received by the operator



at the other end through a high-resistance telephone receiver



inserted in the secondary circuit of the induction-coil.











Although the space between the cars and the pole



line was probably not more than about fifty feet, it is



interesting to note that in Edison's early experiments



at Menlo Park he succeeded in transmitting messages



through the air at a distance of 580 feet. Speaking of



this and of his other experiments with induction



telegraphy by means of kites, communicating from one to



the other and thus from the kites to instruments on



the earth, Edison said recently: "We only transmitted



about two and one-half miles through the kites.



What has always puzzled me since is that I did not



think of using the result...