Edison's Latest Idea.

Auckland Star, Volume XVII, Issue 241, 13 October 1886, Page 4

Edison's Latest Idea.

When Thomas Edition, tho whilom " wizard " of Monlo Turk, brought his brido to his 550.000 rosidonco on the Orange mourtain about two months ago, ho also determined to bring his workship within easy access to his residence. Carrying out his purpose, tho groat electrician has been busy for a poriod of six weeks in putting up awoikmop in East Nowark, end thero ho was fo-nd the othor morning, broe«y, blueoyed, b little stouter than ho was two years ago, and a trifle more settled. " I am a workingman now," he snid, smilingly. " I bring my lunch with me in tho morning, for I cannot afford to spare tbe timo to go home to dinner. Of coureo you know I have become a Jersey man once more. I have givon up my laboratory in Now York, and everything is now at tho factory hero in East Newark."

•• Is it a permanent arrangement ?" " No ; I will build a new laboratory for myself next summer at Llewellyn Fork - the place of my residence. I have planned that it shall bo down iv ono corner of my garden." " Will it be an extonsivo ono ?" "Oh, yos, it will be a good deal bigger than my house," answered Mr Edison. '" I expect to havo within it physical and chemical laboratories, a blaoksmith shop, and other departments. I am going to have it a little more complete than any other in the country, if possible, I like Jersey. Almost all the success I over had was at Menlo Park." •' At what aro you working now ?''

" I am simply trying to cheapen the electric lamps and the carbons, I have men almost all over the United States and South America looking for a vegetable ',or mineral substance from which carbon points might be made. Professor Hodden, of Newark, a mineralogist, in travelling through tbe Southern States fai'ed to find what I wanted, but ho discovered tho ' Heddenite ' and a fortune in Korth Carolina."

" Hare you done nothing recently with electricity 1"

" You newspoper people," said Mr Edison, laughing, "think that 1 almost must have juet completed some wonderful invention which I ought to tell you about. Why don't you devour each other's fiction ? An American correspondent wrote to a Berlin paper recently a tremendous story about me having invented a wonderful shirt of gelatine, made transparent by electrical treatment. This shirt was supposed to be built in layers of almost inconceivable thinness. Each layer was whito and adhesive rfnd could be taken off whan soiled, and as there were just 365 layers, and it was calculated that each sheet would last a day, a gelatine garment would last a year. Well, this marvellous tale went the rounds of the European press, and at last it wa3 reprinted in Brazil. The gullibility of the South American may bo appreciated when it is known that soon after the shirt story met, their eyes the Brazilians bogan to send m< |lrafta and^checques for shirts, Ono idiotic diamond-dealer," added Mr Edison, mirthfully, " sent me a draft for £100 on the Bank of England. He wrote that he didn't know how much the shirts were, but he did not think thoy ought to cost over £100 apiece.

" Seriously," said he, drawing out a sheet of paper and a pencil, '• there is but one idea I am thinking of that I care to talk about. As soon as I can find time to go to Florida I am going to make some experiments with earth currents. I cannot do it here because there is too much mineral in the soil. In Florida it is all sand. There are currents of electricity passing all the timo through tho earth ; their directions, however, are unknown. I propose to arrange eight currents, radiating in as many directions from a central point. 1 will place a man at each circuit to test the power of the currents. It is well known that if any earth current crosses a wire at right angles there is but little if any appreciable effect made upon it. The greatest power is felt where tho currents run in parallel directions. In Boston I have run a wire six hours with the aurora borealis without a battery. If I had had a rod at that time running from New York to Boston, I would have had electric power enough on it to run all the machinery in Boston."

'• After you understand the earth's currents, what then ?" " Well, a knowledge of them may revolutionise telegraphy. It may revolutionise tho meteorological bureau system and make it possible to forecast the weather exactly. I have an idea that it may do something still greater, but I do not care to talk about it at present. Telegraphic wires sooner or later will be a thing of the past, I believe. They are expensive and cumbersome, and why use them if you can make an instrument that will be sensitive to the natural earth currents?"