Stories of Great Inventors Part 31

From this time on there were better times for him.

After this the world soon sang his praises; and, in the next ten years, Fortune poured into his lap half a million dollars.

This was the result of his thinking.

The man who was in charge of the United States Patent Office called him "the young man who keeps the pathway to the Patent Office hot with his footsteps."

Mr. Edison believed that two messages could be sent over the same wire at the same time.

Of course the world laughed at the idea.

But soon our inventor managed to send four messages over the same wire at the same time.

Then the world stopped laughing.

People said, "This young man is the greatest inventor of his age, and a discoverer as well."

The Grand Trunk train-boy had proved a genius.

When twenty-six years of age, he married a young lady of Newark, Miss Mary Stillwell.

Three years later he moved to Menlo Park.

This was twenty-four miles from New York.

It was not a pleasant place, but he hoped to work there in quiet.

He had so many visitors that he could not work.

He said, "I think I shall fix a wire to my gate, and connect it with a battery so that it will knock everybody over that touches it."

But he was really kind.

He would smile pleasantly, and explain patiently to anyone who wished to know about his inventions.

At Menlo Park he built a great laboratory.

This was filled with batteries and machinery.

Here all the world came to see his wonderful talking machine.

It is called a phonograph.

What do you think Mr. Edison called this machine?

He said, "I have invented a great many machines, but this is my baby, and I expect it to grow up and support me in my old age."

Would you like to know the names of some of his inventions.

One is the carbon telephone.

The tasimeter measures the heat even of the far away stars.

The electric pen multiplies copies of letters and drawings.

Over sixty thousand are now in use in this country.

The automatic telegraph permits the sending of several thousand words over the same wire in one minute.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

There are many others.

Do you wonder that he is called "The Wizard of Menlo Park?"

But his crowning discovery is the electric light.

Some gentlemen of New York put one hundred thousand dollars into Mr.

Edison's hands.

They told him to experiment until he could make a light which every one would be glad to use.

Many had tried to do this and had not succeeded.

It is said that he tried two thousand substances for the arch in his gla.s.s globe before he found one which suited him.

Do you know what he chose at last?

Do you remember the plant which the boys and girls of India, China, and j.a.pan know so well?

It is the bamboo.

And it was bamboo which Mr. Edison chose.

Oh, how glad this light made many people!

In ten cotton factories in one town were men, women, and children working.

They worked in rooms where gas was used.

The gas injured their eyes and health.

Now in those same factories there are sixty thousand electric lights.

The bamboo burns six hundred hours before it has to be replaced.

Would you like a picture of Mr. Edison?

Close your eyes then and think of him like this.