Edison Talks.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIIC, Issue 14238, 2 July 1910, Page 4 (Supplement)

Edison Talks.

ANT) TELLS IT IS DREAM.-!. • A correspondent of ihe Auckland "Herald" bad a talk with Tbonin.« Alva. Edison a. few weeks ago, and ho reports some of- the inventor's remarks. 1 knew him to he very deaf, but. I wondered what manner of man he was otherwise. Then the door opened, and Edison stood before me, medium-sized, thick-set, full clean face, and sparse gray hair. He asked me to take a seat and tell him all about Australia and New Jealand. But I tohl him I would rather talk about himself; I had to shout it into his ear.

"I started life as a telegraph hoy," he said, "and got seized with ideas at an early age. Got to work on 'cm, and hero I am still at 'em. Tell you. what it is in a nut-shell; we're working too hard in this world; we'll have to tako things easier; no use making old iron of ourselves. Going to change it, too. Wc'ro in the machine age, and we're going to be in it for quite a little while. We're getting: to see what fools we are for not making machines do our work for lis. 'Tisu't a.s if it's hard on the machine l ?, cither, they don't feel it. Oil 'em well and they'll run along nil smooth and pleasant. Ridiculous to keep on going as we are. Human nature can't stand it." '"And what is the machine ago going

to give np next, IVfr. Hdison P" "Everything. Flying machines—Toole at 'em —only just feeling their foot. Automobiles for tho masses —electric storage battery—cheap affair; anybody "will ho able to take his wife and family out for a ride Sundays. Houses made while you wait." He showed me.a model house, such as lie says can lie erected in a day or two. It was a house of two storeys, modern and ornamental. The cement is poured into the moulds, and when it is dry in four or fivo days' time the moulds nvo removed, and the house is left standing. in Edison's words, "a strong and up-to-date structure." The buying of the moulds is. of course, a matter for the builder, the initial cost beim r a big item; but the moulds aro so ma da that they are capable of being used in various ways so as to alter the design and ornamentation. It is estimated that people will be able to buy houses of this [ description for £250, and the inventor claims that they will bo far superior to

houses that at present cost- more then twice thnt sum. But noli in g is to he done in the way of putting: the roottlOfl on the market until a real linu?e lias been erected by this means; and that will not be for some time to come, as the making of tho moulds has not yet been completed.

"You see," said Edison, "I have so many tilings on my hands, and then I am always getting new ideas and working on them. It isn't as if I kept nt one thing mid got it out of the way before starting on another. I can't work that way. I'm always chopping about from one thing to another as tho mood seizes me. Maybe I'll bo working on some phonograph improvement in the morning, and in tho afternoon I'll get into my chemist shop and start taking some kind of solution or get dabbling in mathematics. Can't help it; born that way, very erratic." Then he took mo through his\ laboratory, chatting as we went along. In the laboratory alone 140 men aro employed. In the big workshops close by there are 5000 when trade is brisk. '"Just now," he said, "it's dull, and we've had -to put some off." Then we passed into the draughtsmen's room, where 20 or 30 men were at work. '"Lots of work to he done here. T put these men'to work on my id-ens, and if any of the men srets nil idea of his own which promises to improve a bit of my machinery I encourage him to work on it and give him all j i-lv- x : -m hf> n-in+R. and if it's a, success ho gets an interest in it. ! thev fail,- but sometimes they sue- | ceed."

In another room testing experiments

were going on in connection with the electric storage batter?. "We've pot it in pretty fine shape already." said the inventor, "bnt we're always improving. This is a mechanical, an electrical, nil automatic age. No piece of machinery made is more than 10 per cent, perfect. As time goes on this will he inrnrovod noon enormously; more automatic machines will he devised, and nriicle? of comfort and luxury will ha produced in Such numbers, and at such small cns+. that all classes will he able to benefit by th«m. "Take the matter of automatic stores, which is niy latest proposition • A. man was telling me the other day about a visit he made to an up-to-date enndy factory. In one room there were three larpe vats, a machine and a num. In one vat there was surxar, in another flour, and in the third chocolate. The man turned 'a lever, the machine moved, and at the end of a snout perfect chocolate drops pormed out faster than be could count. The same machine wrapped each chocolate drop in a piece of paper, and packed them in layers jn boxes. That shows tou what mnchinerv

is< doing— doing what 10 years ago it would have taken a room full of workera to do. An automatic store lies along the same road. It. pimply means an extension of the nickel-in-the-slot. principle—a few electric magnets contro!1 inn; chutes and hoppers, and the thing is done. In on automatic store one man could do the work which it now takes 50 grocers to do. I have designed this store to meet the needs of the poor, working man. who has to support himself and family on H dollars a day. These people buy their coal and wood in five cent, lots, and because they can only afford to buy in small ouantifcios they pay a lot more in the long run than people who buy in large lo~is. T want to beln them ; but. of course,' if there should he a demand for an extension of the plan, automatic shops re-

tailing goods in 10-ceni., quarter, or half-dollar lots could be equipped. "There will ho no shopkeepers, bo clerks, no hoy to wrap up packages, no cnumers, no scales, w; shelves lined wii 'U goods. 110 show cases. It? tho walls of the- shop there will he downs and dos-.ens of lit tie openings, and abor« every nooning there will bo a. small sign : this sign will toll in half a. dozen different, languages what particular artieio thai, opening '""ill deliver. Suppose a man wants beans : b© will look for the sign with 'beans' on it, and drop a nickel in tlio slot, getting in return a neatly-tied packet containing five cents' worth of beans, which will drop through the opening. It will not bs necessary to put up the legend, "No credit given here, since it will ke impossible to secure anything without the money." It would bo imnossible in the space of a, s'-iigle article to give an adequate description of tlio wonders of Edison's laboratory and the adjacent workshops, but no man can sec it all without admiration for tlio guiding hand and genius of this greatest of the world's inventors —a, rough diamond to look at, working as hard as any man in his cmploy, rarely going to theatres or other places of amusement, always excusing himself from attendance at important banauer" and other public functions, devoting himself, heart and soul avid all the f-inie. ta the practical expression oi tlio wonderful idea.s that take shape in his mind.

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