THOMAS A. EDISON.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2017, 26 March 1914, Page 6

THOMAS A. EDISON.

SOME FOBCASR

BY THE MOST BUSY AMERICAN

Thomas A. Edison,, who, according to the ''New York Independent," is mow leas'iag sixty-seven 3'cars of ago, was not long ago voted first among the "l'ea Mos© lfscEi.il Americans" by the readers af that joii.nio.lj which likewise states that ho might also ba termed the mosi busy American. It is incredible how he labours still and keeps ill touch, not only with the Mmptasities of Ms scientific research but with tho minutiae of a laamifactiiring business employing 5000 persons. in returning the past -year -to tlii perfection of the phonograph, which in invented thirty*six years ago, Mr.'Edison was confronted with a problem involving tho fact that a. fingerprint- on ii piece of .glass, or a misfirosws-pic bit ol dust., will make' discordant the ujusioa. note Carried by the phonographic __ diamond point needle. Thousands <?t experiments, chemical and physical, weft needed to battle with fingerpriiits, infinitesimal specks of dirt and other ah stacies iu t%e way of the perfect phono graph. What is the trend cf invention Ap plication of. electricity to all moving tilings. The most significant invention o; 1913 ? —Manufacture of ammonia fron nitrogen .and.hydrogen. What work of your own during tin past year k most important?—Perfec tiori of th§ recording of inusie by tlii new diss phonograph. "What of • setting off explosives to; wifeless-?—lt has been of. So value, ex e«pt for military murder. Is radi'iim to be harnessed ft —It's djiv ing a clock in Paris, Radium, so .far has only a scfentsfis value. No one cat predict. There are enormous jossibili tics. What of new sources of pow&P-rSui engines of considerable power..- gO' to 31 horse-power, are working ill Africa am Arizona. There are many inventor working on the problem. Burning, coa at, the inoutli of th,o mine. cofivertinj tile power into eleetririty, • and transmit tjii-j the power over long distances, ha already teen put into effect in Novs Scotia and in Biiglitttd. How soon will ships be dtwen by.nev power?— l llntil wb final a praetica method of converting combustiblo mat ter directly into electricity, jsteattiboati yvill continue to be driven by steam ant internal combusion motors. . Are not social machines displacui; individual machines - . e.g.; the pupli) Saniidry against the domestic washinf machine ?-—The iiidiviilital washing ifta chine will held its own for a while Elefltcris driven washing machinery liuitable for the small house, is rapidl; corning. into use, a ! iid the labour is .re dured almost to nothing. Does not invention follow social op pottunity and need; cannot society iifiv ordain its inventions?— Society is neves prepared to receivo any invention Every nfci,w tiling is res-is-fcedj afta ■ i' l takes years for tho inventor to get peo p.U> to listen to liim, and years Bum before >t can ho .introduced, and whet it is 'introduced our beautiful laws an< court, procedure .aw used by j)feda.to.rj cn.mmorcialism ,to ruin tho inventor They don't leave liini even enough t< start a new invention. Would you recommend that tlii United Stares -Government cstoMsli * Cabinet Department of inventions.-—, do not believe tile government slioijk do anything but regulate the. activities of its peoole, give them a'free swing and see that every man is protected ir that which he produces. Panama if an example. t In this ease tho Tjgljl man wis selected; he was giyen a .free swiiijg. Suppose the wrong hisn -hat been selected, and ho was hampered b> red tape- gnd politicians; $ten I anamo would not toe used as an oxan.iple. A Department of intention is not wanted. What is wanted is that the methods ol Coiirt procedure. he changed, and Courts realise that the man who makes inventions, by tho very nature ol things., cartnot be a business man familiar with its merciless code; ant they should tako this into considcratior and protect him. ~ "When 1 want to discover soroethnif I h»gin by reading up everything thai has been dono along that imp in tht past—that's what ail these books lr this library ar-a for. 1 seo what ha; been accomplished at great labour anc expense in tlie past. I . gather the data of many thousands of experiment? as a starting point, and then 1 make scrno thousands more. ... "There isn't- too much happiness floating around, niul tho man who.{Site nearest his rightful share of it has a character, a little bungalow in tho country, and a faimly. hat does the very rich get?He s always scheming, always suspicious of the men around him. His money M mosti y out-, invested, les, lie lives 111 house, rides in an automobile, am bc eats three meals a day when he feels able to. I defy anyone ro prove that sro gets much out of life- Money doesn't make a man a good companion, i.m going down to. "Florida, for a fistog trip, and I'd rather have pome of the men upstairs co with me than those Wall Street millionaires. things at& v.Tong enough* t<J riglit thein we need Wo remedies. One is to develop the convolutions m.man s brate; those coils inside With' which he dot's his thinfetug. We have gradually developed wlmt we have in mere, and if we could develop, about two convolutions more We would ho. able to grasp and solve our social problems. "The other remedy is education. Education of the right sort, in eari? ehiidhood. You can't do- anything with a grown man. You can't do anything or predict anything about a woman either, because she is all ittstinet and emotion. But take a child of four vears old and its mind is plastic, .and whatever vtfti put in there will always stay, Teach a child of four that tlie moon is made of. green cheese., and though you give liim a thorough scientific education afterwards, there will always be, at the bottom of his mind } a feeling that tlie moon is' somehow possibly made of green ehccse. •'See hew religious beliefs implanted ill childhood stay with tlie adult in spite of everything. iMciiessori has tho right idea. It is necessary to take them young and to teach morality and character, to fix ideas iii those plastic minds so that it- will be impossible for them to think wrong cr do wrong. ■ _ "What wi. want to do m this world is to eradicate the crooks, high and low, and to'do that we must begin early and prevent them from going crooked at Ihe start-," concluded lOdison.