Heroes of Science

HEROES OF SCIENCE By Pres. F. S. Harris and N. I. Butt OF THE BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY 12. — Edison Edison says, "Genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration" and a study of his life very markedly indicates this to be true in his case. Although there have been taken out over 1000 patents in his name in a period of 55 years, or at a rate of about 20 a year, it should not be supposed that he does not work hard to secure each one. Before he completes some of his devices to his own satisfaction he and his assistants often spend many years of strenuous toil. He thinks nothing of spending five, six or seven years in solving a worthy problem. On more than one he has worked over 25 years, performing thousands of experiments, and still he has not come to the satisfactory solution, he some day hopes to secure. "Every man has something he can do better than anyone else," is one of Edison's favorite sayings. He thinks the reason he is accom- plishing more than many other people is because he did not jump into the first job that came in his way but investigated and studied himself until he was sure he was entering a life work in which he could suc- ceed. A brief review of his life will show that he always tried to keep his thinking apparatus in active use so that it never became rusty with lack of activity as sometimes happens. At the age of 77 he still is energetically planning new experiments in many lines of endeavor. Very early in life Edison showed an exceptional curiosity for un- solved mysteries. Eleven years after his birth which occurred in 1847, a year well known in Utah history, he had converted the cellar of the family home into a chemical laboratory where he studied the curious reactions of various substances. Two years later when he became a newsboy and "candy butcher" on a passenger train he fixed up as a laboratory one corner of the car allotted to him. There he performed experiments in spare moments. Another diversion at which he kept himself busy on the train was printing the first newspaper ever issued from a moving train. He rustled the news both on the train and at the stations where the train stopped. This career lasted until 1862. About this time Edison saved the life of a telegraph operator's son from an approaching train. In appreciation of this act Edison, now sixteen years of age, was delighted to be offered the opportunity to learn telegraphy. He threw his whole self into mastering this art and very soon was an expert operator. The following year he was given a position as night telegrapher which he held for some time, al- though his greatest interest appeared to be in experiments in his lab- oratory at home.

HEROES OF SCIENCE 751 For the five years following the time he left the first position as telegrapher he wandered from city to city easily finding work as a telegrapher wherever he went, because of his exceptional ability as an operator. However, the work did not give Edison the proper sort of mental activity to keep him from thinking about other things, so he was never satisfied until he left this field and began to invent. Edison's first experience as an inventor was exceedingly discourag- ing. He made a vote-recording machine for which there was no de- mand and the only purpose it served was to remind the young in- ventor to "look before you leap." His first success as an inventor came from improvements he made on the device he knew best — the telegraph. He performed the experi- ments leading up to these improvements in a private laboratory where he worked after his regular work was done. So interested was he in trying to create new devices that often he worked at the experiments all night, utterly indifferent to sleep. As in later years, he conceived a desired improvement, and then thought, and planned and tested un- til finally he succeeded in what he was trying to do. In 1870 for a successful improvement in telegraph tickers he was given $40,000. This large sum of money gave him the opportunity he desired, — to devote his whole efforts to experimentation. He opened up laboratories in Newark, hired some mechanics to help him, and began the career which he followed the rest of his life. Although he was making little discoveries which helped toward the larger goals all the time, it was not until 1876 that Edison made the next important discovery. By this time he had spent all of the money from the former invention and was in fear lest he should lose his laboratory and machinery. Just when trouble began to pile up thick, however, he received $30,000 for the quadruplex telegraphic device which made it possible to send two messages each way over a single wire. While the money received for this invention seems a large sum to most of us, experimental laboratories and expert assistants cost much, and Edison soon spent all he had on a new device for which he received hardly anything. The telephone was patented in 1876 but it was an imperfect de- vice. Edison decided to try to perfect the transmitter which was not at all satisfactory. In less than a year he and his assistants had per- fected the transmitter which, with later improvements, is still in use. For this he secured $100,000 and this together with about three times this amount received a little later for the same device made it possible to experiment on the large scale he desired. The action of the diaphragm of the telephone suggested to Edison the use of a diaphragm to record the vibrations of the voice on metal. The result was the phonograph which he patented in 1877 shortly after the telephone transmitter was perfected. Edison loves music and so has been greatly interested in the phonograph ever since its invention.

752 IMPROVEMENT ERA He doesn't consider it to be perfected yet, and very often turns his mind to its improvement. A further discussion of the inventions of this wonder worker is unnecessary. Nearly everyone knows that he invented the first suc- cessful incandescent light, improved the devices for generating and dis- tributing electricity, made perfections which brought the motion pic- ture into popular use, invented an electric storage battery which is re- garded as the best in the world, and has made hundreds of other valu- able improvements. If we inquire as to why Edison has had so much success whereas most inventors seem to get nowhere, we learn that it is because he is thorough and systematic. He does not waste a lot of time and money discovering facts which are already known as the average inventor does, but he and his assistants search books and technical journals for every- thing which might help them. Then commences a period of thinking and planning which precedes the actual experiments. Edison tries to surround himself with helpers whose minds are active like his own so that they will desire to know all the facts and to be on the lookout for anything leading toward success. Surrounded with such men he spares no effort to keep his laboratories well equipped, because he knows that to win depends upon the thoroughness with which every phase of a subject is searched. Edison never gives up after a half hearted trial, very few important investigations ever being abandoned after once be- gun. Thoroughness and hard thinking are his watchwords. Provo, Utah Fountains of Happiness Fountains of true happiness that make a perfect home, The perpetual developments that to its inmates come: The perpetual courtship that parents shall keep youth, The perpetual seeking for the light of truth. The perpetual patience to keep one's temper cool! Oh! what is this earth life but a continual school? A perpetual yielding to each other's will, The perpetual desires life's duties to fulfil. A perpetual counsel to discourse and advise, A perpetual school that with knowledge we may rise. Perpetual confidence, no secrets keep apart From the pure flowing fountains of homemate and of heart. Perpetual counselling on problems to be solved, With interests in common, ne'er to be dissolved. Perpetual faith in God, at first, at last, alwav. To keep the inmates' footsteps from wand'ring far astray. ahtand, California. ANNIE G. LAURITZEN.