 Tonight the DuPont company brings you the voice of the wizard starring Dane Clark and Donna Reed on the cavalcade of America Tonight's play is about a man who more than once heard the words young man. You're fired He was the genius Thomas Alva Edison and we'll hear more about him in just a moment But first here's Gain Whitman from the wonder world of chemistry Comes another DuPont product to make your household tasks easier DuPont paint cleaner floats dirt away quickly easily in Handi powdered form to be mixed with water for use It costs you less than one cent a gallon and saves time and elbow grease in cleaning painted surfaces linoleum tile and enamel wear DuPont paint cleaner is another of DuPont's better things for better living through chemistry and now Dane Clark is Thomas Edison and Donna Reed is Mary in the voice of the wizard on the DuPont cavalcade of America Tom Yes, it's just about time to go Tom. Are you almost why Tom? You're not even dressed you haven't started What did you say dear Tom? I've shouted to you a dozen times to hurry you did the carriage is waiting Oh, I just didn't hear you Mary I know darling whenever you want to hear people you hear marvelously, but when you don't want to you just don't hear a sound I Guess my deafness is kind of self-adjusting gives me wonderful privacy darling the dinner The banquet the people are waiting. Oh Yes, yes the banquet as a matter of fact Mary that gave me the idea for this amazing invention What on earth is it? What a weird thing. Oh, it's a fine idea. It has to do with after-dinner speeches Now Tom, you're not going to sit here working on something when you faithfully promise Mary I I Have a kind of a bad case of indigestion and I wonder if this banquet wouldn't really do you always manage to have indigestion Before a banquet, but we've used that twice this month already. Oh, we've used that twice just this month Well got to be more original than that then dear you reassured them only yesterday that you'd be there They're going to be speeches and you promise to talk yourself. I know I know it's awful That's what turned my thoughts of this contraption. It's really quite an idea. Look, I'll explain it to you in the meantime I'll get a clean shirt for you so that you can at least get started Thanks, you see I was thinking that all those speeches all that talk all that Hot air if it could only be a harness for useful work. So here's what I did Oh, thanks. Hey, this is Junior's big doll. What's this doing here? He was looking for that doll Well, that's part of the invention. You see it's fastened to this saw here on earth Well, you see, I'll show you as people talk this diaphragm will vibrate as in a telephone Yes, the diaphragm pushes here and turns this ratchet wheel The wheel connects with this mechanical dial which holds a saw and saws wood There you have it after dinner oratory converter into labor benefiting man Look, I'll practice my own speech on it Ladies and gentlemen, we are on the threshold of a new age Starting the dolly so new day is dawning upon mankind in which the dreams of centuries will be full And many realms that seem forbidden to man Hello, this is Thomas Alva Edison When I was still on earth I invented that torque harnessing machine to show how I felt about well Occasions in honor of this or that But now in 1947 when they tell me it's a hundred years since I was born and that I'm to take part in this broadcast I Well, I feel differently Because in a way a broadcast like this is the climax of things I worked at in a way I can't help being here this microphone and the tubes in your radio. I had a hand in them So when those tubes light up and bring you a voice from far off in a way, it's me talking and then Many radio programs are recorded for schools and for broadcasts overseas all ideas that I fought for Because the inventions that I cared most about with those that would bring men's voices across space and time so I'd like to tell you the story behind those inventions a few words for a new age Many people think of inventions as coming on a man all in one piece by inspiration Well, things don't happen that way much The phonograph for example was a long time coming and it came step by step For my own part. It started way back in the days of the Civil War when I was a young telegrapher in Indianapolis in those days The telegraph was beginning to bind the world closer and being an operator was one of the most exciting jobs there was Sitting in the dingy little room often with other operators side-by-side we'd receive messages from many distant places Some were for local delivery others to be relayed on to the West Often they were news dispatches that came in and dots and dashes But that immediately became for me voices of history India When a later age have sat at crystal sets to pick up Pittsburgh or Kansas City or Who during the dark days of World War two have listened by shortwave to London under Eric hack You will understand how a 17 year old boy felt sitting at his telegraph instrument in Indianapolis There was already in that room a hint of the radio age and some of us were already thinking toward the next step I remember one night when I came in reporting for work. I had just been moved to an evening shift Evening Fred. No, howdy Tom. Well, what are you up to? How's it going? What's the matter I'm I'm sorry. I don't know what I'm doing. I'm going crazy What's the trouble I can't stand it any longer. I'm going to pieces What do you mean the man on the Cincinnati line is trying to run me ragged? He's one of these speed demons. He's been sending around 40 words a minute and I can't keep up with him. I Broke three times in the last hour. I don't know what to do news dispatches. Yeah Say you have got some nasty gaps in this copy here. Well, can't you fill them in somehow? I don't know. There's been a little lull and I've been trying to figure it out Something about a battle at a place called Spotsylvania. I got most of it only I don't know who lost or won It's worrying me sick. I got a pass on something. I see. I don't know what to do You seem to be able to stand the pace, but I'm almost cracking up. This is my first job And if I get fired, I don't know what I'll do. Mr. Goodley was bawling me out only yesterday I get errors and gaps in all my stuff. Yours is always perfect Gosh, I don't know well Fred lucky thing for you that I'm working with you tonight I wanted so much to be a telegrapher. I got something here that might help you. Huh? Where'll I get this locker open? By the way, Fred, do you enjoy reading the encyclopedia? I talked the library to let me take a couple of volumes overnight It's good reading of studies and herbs. When would I find time to read that speed demon and Cincinnati will be at it again A few minutes trying to trip me up. Don't worry about him. We've got him licked already Huh? There we are What's all that? It's a little contrivance of mine. You see this moving band of paper well As a telegraph clicks it punches dots and dashes in this paper. Oh say that's fine And then you've got a record to check. I've heard about that idea. Wait, wait That's not all when you hook it up with the sending set and run the paper through again Yeah, the set repeats the dots and dashes. Hey, then the stuff that has to be relayed out west All we have to do is hook it up Why do you think I brought this reading matter no use wasting a whole evening might as well relax over an encyclopedia And what about messages for local delivery? Oh, we just record those two playing back to ourselves at a lower speed when things are quiet Oh something starting now hook it up right here. I'll show you like this. Well, I feel like a new man already Which volume of the encyclopedia do you want egg to fub or put a ramp? Whichever you don't want This is gonna be the life sure why not Boy, I was all set to retire to a sanitarium for the rest of my life. I felt I had me down You want a sandwich sandwich you think of everything listen There's so much to be done so much to be learned in this world that a man's a fool a slave over something a machine can take Off his hand. So put your feet up Fred. Let's get some good reading done. Well, I guess you talked me into it Oh Hello, mr. Gridley. Oh, huh, mr. Ridley. Oh taking it easy. Yes, sir. You see sir I've been working out this machine that automatically record automatically. I thought as much. What do you mean, sir? I've been wondering why your copy was so perfect Edison and now I've caught you right in the act What happened the message has been going through mr. Gridley. Never mind about the messages The point is I've been swindled swindled. How so I pay you a big salary $70 a month to receive and transmit messages But you said you said you said you sit here and read the encyclopedia. Mr. Gridley I pay you $70 a month to read the encyclopedia I don't see why it isn't all right for you 70 dollars to sit here with your feet up eating sandwiches Now look here sir. I have to support a reading society, but mr. Gridley I thought through Edison what through fired fired fire Yes fired and now get out Yes, stranger it may seem My first improvement cost me a job But that idea automatic recording and transmitting was in the air Many were working on it and before long it was an accomplished fact and we were ready for the next step For me the next step came years later when at last I had my own laboratory in New Jersey I'd meanwhile been to Boston and New York Invented a stock ticker Improved the telephone and worked on the typewriter And now I was ready for an idea that kept buzzing in my ear an idea that carried on from that indianapolis experiment I I had with me at that time a laboratory worker named Mary still will I hired her because Well, I liked her but one thing I could always understand what she said Mary what? What are you humming Mary? Why it's Well, I don't know what it is. Where'd you hear it? Well, let's see How silly of me it's what you hum all the time mr. Edison evening star from tonhoi is it one of my favorite I like it too Mary Come help me with this experiment. Will you of course, what do you want me to do? I'll show you You see I've got a telephone mouthpiece here with a needle fastened to the diaphragm And when someone talks the needle of course vibrates with the diaphragm Now i'm trying to find out if those vibrations can be caught on a strip of paper so they can be repeated Like in an automatic telegraph repeater. Yes, that's what gave me the idea You'd be surprised how much this needle moves now. I'll show you I'll hold the needle against my thumb And you say something into the phone here. Yeah, that's it now up close Hello. Oh, I'm sorry How that vibrated so much a jet went into my thumb. Oh, it's bleeding bleeding awfully. Let me bandage it for you No, it's nothing. I've got a clean handkerchief. I'm so sorry. It's all right, Mary Just a moment now hold still It's very kind of you. It's really nothing. I'll just tie it with a small knot like like this Oh, that's good. Is that all right? Sure Now if we'd only preserve those vibrations on a strip of paper instead of my skin We could pass on to history and invent this cry of pain Mr. Edison this work you do it's so exciting so fine I'm glad you feel that way mary. Oh, I do because I want you to be a part of it. I want to be Oh, what kind of paper are you trying to record these vibrations on? Oh, I'm trying out all kinds in this automatic telegraph here Here's some paper covered with paraffin that might work Leaves a nice sharp impression. See won't it be too soft for playing it again? Maybe I'll try it with the needle later on you want to help me. Oh, yes, surely um Mary I Yes Ever since you've come here To the laboratory to work. I am You what mr. Edison Let me tell you something As you know, mary since I've been a kid. I've been kind of deaf I hardly notice it. Well, I I can understand some people easily you for instance others. I can't at all And and that's not good mary. It shuts you off in people But that's made me think Almost everyone in the world is really shut off. We don't hear each other. We don't even know each other That's true. Yes. There are barriers between people and countries mary that we almost never break down now these things I'm working on mary. Therefore breaking down barriers talking machines loud speaking telephones talking photography We'll have them all machines that talk across space and time But do you see what I mean mary? Oh, yes. Yes, I do and this This may be the beginning of it this telegraph key. I see Yes mary Yes Do you know the morse code? Oh, yes. I've studied it hard. I want to know all about these things Then listen mary Listen carefully. Do you get it? Well Don't tease me mr. Edison. Oh not mr. Edison Well, what's your answer mary? Do you really mean it? Of course Well, I'm not sure I got the message right. Oh, I think you did will you mary? You were listening to dane clark as thomas Edison and donna reed as mary in the voice of the wizard on the Cavalcade of america sponsored by the dupont company maker of better things for better living through chemistry After a laboratory romance and a proposal in morse code Mary and I were married We had a girl and we called her dot Then we had a boy and we nicknamed them dash And so the cause of telegraphy moved ahead at home and in the laboratory Then I invented the loudspeaker for telephones improvements for telegraphy and a mimeo graphing system And I kept working on that vibrating needle and a problem of recording its vibrations In this I had the help of john cruzy a swiss mechanic who lived nearby Well, is that instrument you want it? Whatever it is Just finished it this afternoon as I promised. Oh fine john fine. That means I owe you um 18 dollars, right? Yeah, that is correct. You'll get it right now. Uh, george. Yeah Make out a check for john cruzy 18 dollars run away. Uh, now that I have made it for you Would you please tell me what it is? I wondered all the time I was making it A turning cylinder two needles that poke well you stick around and we'll see if it works It's supposed to be a machine that talks john A machine that talks you mean I make a machine that talks. I don't believe it You see we wrap this sheet of tinfoil around the cylinder. Yeah that way gotta be very careful about this I bet you two dollars it don't work. Well, I can't spend two more dollars on it john, but I'll I'll bet you a barrel of apples Me make a talking machine No, no, no now you look That's it now We turn the crank and we talk into the mouthpiece Mary had a little lamb its fleece was white as snow And everywhere that Mary went her lamb was sure to go What's the Edison laboratory is coming down to now we're going to take up singing nursery rhymes for relaxation. Mr Edison, you'll see george stick around have you got that checked mr cruisy? Yeah, yeah here is mr cruisy. Oh, thank you Uh, this is supposed to be a talking machine george. Huh? That little thing. Yeah, and I make it now. Let's see if it's any good. I'll move it back and I'll crank it again Yeah Now I've seen everything. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute I don't trust something that works the first time There must be something wrong with it. I'm scared this machine Would it talk also for me mr. Edison? Well, let's try it. I'll move needle over a little more and start cranking Now go ahead john. Uh, what will I say bend over a little closer? Yeah, that's it now sing that little song go ahead Mary had a little lamb its fleece was white as snow Oh I can't go on I am too moved I make this machine all right now. Let's see what it sounds like. Oh tom tom your husband's in here. Mrs. Edison. Hello everybody. Hello, tom Hello, dear. Hello, mrs. Edison. I was sure you'll be working late tonight tom So I thought I'd bring supper over for all of you. Oh, that's wonderful. Mary wonderful my look at that spread. Thank you, mrs. Edison Thanks, dear. Thanks very much. I guess we will be working later I knew this would be an important evening. Is the machine finished? Does it work? Listen Now wait a minute. There's something wrong here I can believe all right that a machine can talk but a machine can't talk with an accent in it It doesn't seem quite right does it? Oh, you don't think so. Well, listen then And that was the beginning of the hardest work yet Now came the years of the midnight sufferers the sleepless nights the catmaps on top of the desk We had made a machine that could give us Mary had a little lamb But could it talk with the richness of the human voice? And could it play evening star from tan heuser with the beauty of a fine orchestra Until it could Had my work even begun And so we recorded who worked who worked The music squeaked away at us out of a long paper cone And we lengthened the cone and we shortened the cone And the music still squeaked We tried different ways of recording on tin foil No good Still no good We tried it on paraffin paper Sounds off from this, Dennis We tried it on wax A little better Shall we try that again? We recorded on cylinders And years later we gave that up and recorded on discs We changed the needles and tried a hundred different shapes We needed a motor to turn the machine at even speed and so we worked on that Once years later we didn't go to bed for five nights in a row And all that time little by little the music got better A little clearer A little richer And at last it began to sound like evening star Now these things happened over a period of many years and during quite a few of those years people kept asking me questions Oh endless questions Questions like Mr. Edison, do you think mankind will ever catch up spiritually with the implications of his own inventions? Of course I do, he always has Oh Mr. Edison, what are your views on world peace? I'm all for it, a hundred percent naturally Mr. Edison, what are your views on education? I'm in favor of it, we need more of that so all that's what will solve our problems Thank you Mr. Edison Thank you Mr. Edison Questions like that, especially on my birthdays And I guess those questions still hold And the key to that education is in these things I helped to work on Talking machines Films Radio That's how people can learn the truth The truth that will set them free But it can't be done in a day After all We've only just begun to scratch the surface And while Edison was right Wiley had just begun to scratch the surface Still Edison's genius on this the eve of his 100th anniversary lights the world today Provides music for the world and motion pictures for everybody's entertainment Yet for all his genius Edison was a typical American Typical because he was a plain honor sort of man who never left his own pasture But dug as hard as he knew how in it Perhaps Edison's greatest asset was that he was born in America And had the freedom of opportunity to develop his ideas without restriction or interference Edison's inventions are not the only American inventions to make life easier for people everywhere But the sum of Edison's ideas can be expressed as the American idea And the whole world is better off because there is an American idea Gain Whitman speaking for DuPont Men like Thomas Alba Edison practical experimenters and inventors In friendly cooperation with theoretical scientists Have done much to give us a better world To them as originators we owe the fact that the united states today has more than 30 million uses of electricity More than half of all the telephones in the world The electric motor driving a power tool for a farmer The ignition coil that touches off the gas in an automobile or airplane engine The electronic tube that wings a radio program across hill and valley Are only a few of the marvels and comforts we owe to electricity And these represent only a beginning There are few if any countries Which do not have a source of power of one kind or another Which can be made to generate electricity Some day men everywhere Will light their nights will lighten their days with a mysterious power that flows through wires To bring the electrical industry to its present state of development Electrical engineers have had to solve many difficult problems Chemistry often helps to provide them with their solutions Take insulation The electrical wires in your house are insulated covered In industry where higher voltages are used along with greater quantities of current This insulation presents many problems Neoprene synthetic rubber and two of the plastics manufactured by the DuPont company Nylon and polythene are helping the electrical industry solve difficult problems Neoprene long used as an outer jacket for cable and cord Resists heat weather and abrasion Nylon, which is unusually light and extremely tough Is used as a protective sheathing Polythene when used in television cables is one of the best plastic insulating elements so far known to science Neoprene nylon and polythene Are three of the DuPont companies better things for better living through chemistry Next week the DuPont cavalcade brings you Chester Morris and Man Against the Mountain The dramatic story of the conquest of Mount Whitney The story of Gustav Marsh who determined to blaze a trail up the eastern slope and build an observatory at the summit The person who helped him most was the woman who had predicted his failure Be sure and listen next Monday to Man Against the Mountain The story of Gustav Marsh's fight against superstition Starring Chester Morris on the cavalcade of america Dane Clark who played Thomas Edison on tonight's cavalcade will soon be starred in the Warner Brothers production that way with women And Donna Reed appears by arrangement with metro golden mayor producers of the new murder mystery lady in the lake In the cast with Dane Clark and Donna Reed where Alan Hewitt as the manager Robert Dryden as cruisy jack Manning as Fred John Sylvester as George and Chester Stratton as the reporter The music for tonight's DuPont cavalcade was composed by Arden Cornwell Conducted by Donald Borey Our cavalcade play was written by Eric Barnall This is Ted Pearson inviting you to listen next week to Chester Morris In Man Against the Mountain on the cavalcade of america brought to you by the DuPont Company of Wilmington, Delaware This is NBC the National Broadcaptain Company