 CHAPTER XIII. A WORLD HUNT FOR FILMING. In writing about the old experimenting days at Menlo Park, Mr. F. R. Upton says, Edison's day is twenty-four hours long, for he has always worked whenever there was anything to do, whether day or night, and carried a force of night-workers, so that his experiments could go on continually. If he wanted material, he always made it a principle to have it at once, and never hesitated to use special messengers to get it. I remember in the early days of the electric light, he wanted a mercury pump for exhausting the lamps. He sent me to Princeton to get it. I got back to Medichin late in the day, and had to carry the pump over to the laboratory on my back that evening, set it up, and work all night in the next day getting results. This characteristic principle of obtaining desired material in the quickest and most positive way manifested itself in the search that Edison instituted for the best kind of bamboo for light-up filaments, immediately after the discovery related in a preceding chapter. It is doubtful whether, in the annals of scientific research and experiment, there is anything quite analogous to the story of this search and the various expeditions that went out from the Edison Laboratory in 1880 and subsequent years to scour the earth for materials so apparently simple as a homogenous strip of bamboo or other similar fiber. Prolonged in exhaustive experiment, microscopic examination, and an intimate knowledge of the nature of wood and plant fibers, however, had led Edison to the conclusion that bamboo or similar fiber filaments were more suitable than anything else then known for commercial incandescent lamps, and he wanted the most perfect for that purpose. Hence, the quickest way was to search the tropics until the proper material was found. The first emissary chosen for this purpose was the late William H. Moore of Broadway, New Jersey, who left New York in the summer of 1880, bound for China and Japan, these being the countries preeminently noted for the production of abundant species of bamboo. On arrival in the East, he quickly left the cities behind and proceeded into the interior, extending his search far into the more remote country districts, collecting specimens on his way, and devoting much time to the study of the bamboo, and in roughly testing the relative value of its fiber in canes of one, two, three, four, and five-year growths. Great bales of samples were sent to Edison, and after careful tests, a certain variety and growth of Japanese bamboo was determined to be the most satisfactory material for filaments that had been found. Mr. Moore, who was continuing his searches in that country, was instructed to arrange for the cultivation and shipment of regular supplies of this particular species. Arrangements to this end were accordingly made with a Japanese farmer who began to make immediate shipments, and who subsequently displayed so much ingenuity in fertilizing and cross-fertilizing that the homogeneity of the product was constantly improved. The use of this bamboo for Edison lamp filaments was continued for many years. Although Mr. Moore did not meet with the exciting adventures of some subsequent explorers, he encountered numerous difficulties and novel experiences in his many months of travel throughout the hinterland of Japan and China. The attitude toward foreigners thirty years ago was not as friendly as it has since become, but Edison, as usual, had made a happy choice of messengers, as Mr. Moore's good nature and diplomacy attested. These qualities, together with his persistence and perseverance and faculty of intelligent discrimination in the matter of fibers, helped to make his mission successful and gave to him the honor of being the one who found the bamboo which was adopted for use as filaments in commercial Edison lamps. Although Edison had satisfied himself that bamboo furnished the most desirable material thus far discovered for incandescent lamp filaments, he felt that in some part of the world there might be found a natural product of the same general character that would furnish a still more perfect and homogenous material. In his study of this subject and during the prosecution of vigorous and searching inquiries in various directions, he learned that Mr. John C. Bronner, then residing in Brooklyn, New York, had an expert knowledge of indigenous plants of the particular kind desired. During the course of a geological survey which he had made for the Brazilian government, Mr. Bronner had examined closely the various species of palms which grow plentifully in that country, and of them there was one whose fibers he thought would be just what Edison wanted. Accordingly, Mr. Bronner was sent for and dispatched to Brazil in December 1880 to search for and to send samples of this and such other palms, fibers, grasses, and canes as, in his judgment, would be suitable for the experiments then being carried on at Menlo Park. Landing at Para, he crossed over into the Amazonian province and then proceeded through the heart of the country, making his way by canoe on the rivers and their tributaries and by foot into the forests and marshes of a vast and almost untrodden wilderness. In this manner, Mr. Bronner traversed about 2,000 miles of the comparatively unknown interior of southern Brazil and procured a large variety of fiber specimens which he shipped to Edison a few months later. When these fibers arrived in the United States, they were carefully tested and a few of them found suitable but not superior to the Japanese bamboo, which was then being exclusively used in the manufacture of commercial Edison lamps. Later on, Edison sent out an expedition to explore the wilds of Cuba and Jamaica. A two-months investigation of the latter island revealed a variety of bamboo growths, of which a great number of specimens were obtained and shipped to Menlo Park. But on careful test, they were found inferior to the Japanese bamboo and hence rejected. The exploration of the glades and swamps of Florida by three men extended over a period of five months in a minute search for fibrous woods of the palmetto species. A great variety was found and over 500 boxes of specimens were shipped to the laboratory from time to time, but none of them tested out with entirely satisfactory results. The use of Japanese bamboo for carbon filaments was therefore continued in the manufacture of lamps, although an incessant search was maintained for a still more perfect material. The spirit of progress so pervasive in Edison's character led him, however, to renew his investigations further afield by sending out two other men to examine the bamboo and similar growths of those parts of South America not covered by Mr. Bronner. These two men were Frank McGowan and C. F. Hannington, both of whom had been for nearly seven years in the employ of the Edison Electric Light Company in New York. The former was a stocky, rugged Irishman, possessing the native shrewdness and buoyancy of his race, coupled with undaunted courage and determination, and the latter was a veteran of the Civil War, with some knowledge of forest and field acquired as a sportsman. They left New York in September 1887, arriving in due time at Para, preceding thence 2300 miles of the Amazon River to Iquitos. Nothing of an eventual nature happened during this trip, but on arrival at Iquitos the two men separated, Mr. McGowan to explore on foot and by canoe in Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia, while Mr. Hannington returned by the Amazon River to Para. Thence Hannington went by steamer to Montevideo and by similar conveyance up the river to La Plata and through Uruguay, Argentine, and Paraguay to the southernmost part of Brazil, collecting a large number of specimens of palms and grasses. The adventures of Mr. McGowan, after leaving Iquitos, would fill a book if related in detail. The object of the present narrative in the space that the authors disposed of, however, do not permit of more than a brief mention of his experiences. His first objective point was Quito, about 500 miles away, which he proposed to reach on foot and by means of canoeing on the Anapo River through a wild and comparatively unknown country teaming with tribes of hostile natives. The dangers of the expedition were pictured to him in glowing terms, but spurring prophecies of dire disaster he engaged some native Indians in a canoe and started on his explorations, reaching Quito in 87 days after a thorough search of the country on both sides of the Anapo River. From Quito he went to Guayaquil, from there by steamer to Buena Ventura, and then spiraled 12 miles to Cordova. From this point he set out on foot to explore the Calca Valley and the Cordilleras. Mr. McGowan found in these regions a great variety of bamboo, small and large, some species growing 75 to 100 feet in height and from 6 to 9 inches in diameter. He collected a large number of specimens which were subsequently sent to Orange for Edison's examination. After about 15 months of exploration attended by much hardship and privation, deserted sometimes by treacherous guides, twice laid low by fevers, occasionally in peril from Indian attacks, wild animals and poisonous serpents, tormented by insect pests, endangered by floods, 119 days without meat, 98 days without taking off his clothes, Mr. McGowan returned to America, broken in health, but having faithfully fulfilled the commission entrusted to him. The evening sun, New York, obtained an interview with him at that time and in its issue of May 2, 1889, gave more than a page to a brief story of his interesting adventures and then commented editorially upon them as follows. A Romance of Science The narrative given elsewhere in the evening sun of the Wanderings of Edison's Missionary of Science, Mr. Frank McGowan, furnishes a new proof that the romances of real life surpass any that the imagination can frame. In pursuit of a substance that should meet the requirements of the Edison incandescent land, Mr. McGowan penetrated the wilderness of the Amazon and for a year defied its fevers, beasts, reptiles and deadly insects in his quest for a material so precious that jealous nature has hidden it in her most secret vastnesses. No hero of mythology or fable ever dared such dragons to rescue some captive goddess as did this dawnless champion of civilization. Theseus or Siegfried, or any knight of the fairy books, might envy the victories of Edison's irresistible lieutenant. As a sample story of an adventure, Mr. McGowan's narrative is a marvel fit to be classed with the historic journeyings of the greatest travelers, but it gains immensely an interest when we consider that it succeeded in its scientific purpose. The mysterious bamboo was discovered and large quantities of it were procured and brought to the wizard's laboratory, there to suffer another wondrous change and then to light up our pleasure haunts and our homes with a gentle radiance. A further, though rather sad, interest attaches to the McGowan story, or only a short time had elapsed after his return to America when he disappeared suddenly and mysteriously and in spite of long-continued and strenuous efforts to obtain some light on the subject, no clue or trace of him was ever found. He was a favorite among the Edison old-timers and his memory is still cherished for when some of the boys happen to get together as they occasionally do. Someone is almost sure to wonder what became of poor Mac. He was last seen at Monquin's famous old French restaurant on Fulton Street, New York, where he lunched with one of the authors of this book and the late Luther Starranger. He sat with them for two or three hours discussing his wonderful trip and telling some fascinating stories of adventure. Then the party separated at the Anne Street door of the restaurant after making plans to secure the narrative in more detailed form for subsequent use, and McGowan has not been seen from that hour to this. The trail of the explorer was more instantly lost in New York than in the vast recesses of the Amazon swamps. The next and last explorer who medicine sent out in search of natural fibers was Mr. James Rickleton of Maplewood, New Jersey, a school principal, a well-known traveler, and an ardent student of natural science. Mr. Rickleton's own story of his memorable expedition is so interesting as to be worthy of repetition here. A village schoolmaster is not unaccustomed to door wrappings, for the steps of belligerent mothers are often thitherward bent seeking redress for conjured wrongs to their darling boobies. It was a bewildering moment, therefore, to the Maplewood teacher when in answering a rap at the door one afternoon he found, instead of an irate mother, a messenger from the laboratory of the world's greatest inventor bearing a letter requesting an audience a few hours later. Being the teacher to whom reference is made, I am now quite willing to confess, for the remainder of that afternoon less than a problem of Euclid would have been sufficient to disqualify me for the remaining scholastic duties of the hour. I felt it, of course, to be no small honor for a humble teacher to be called to the sanctum of Thomas A. Edison. The letter, however, gave no intimation of the nature of the object for which I had been invited to appear before Mr. Edison. When I was presented to Mr. Edison, his way of setting forth the mission he had designated for me was characteristic of how a great mind conceives vast undertakings and commands great things and few words. At this time Mr. Edison had discovered that the fiber of a certain bamboo afforded a very desirable carbon for the electric lamp, and the variety of bamboo used was a product of Japan. It was his belief that in other parts of the world other and superior varieties might be found. And to that end he had dispatched explorers to bamboo regions in the valleys of the great South American rivers, where specimens were found of extraordinary quality. But the locality in which these specimens were found was lost in the limitless reaches of those great river bottoms. The great necessity for more durable carbons became a desideratum so urgent that the tireless inventor decided to commission another explorer to search the tropical jungles of the Orient. This brings me then to the first meeting of Edison. When he set forth substantially as follows, as I remember it twenty years ago, the purpose for which he had called me for my scholastic duties. With a quizzical gleam in his eye he said, I went to man to ransack all the tropical jungles of the East to find a better fiber for my lamp. I expected to be found in the palm or bamboo family. How would you like that job? Suiting my reply to his love of brevity and dispatch I said, that would suit me. Can you go tomorrow? Was his next question? Well Mr. Edison, I must first of all get a leaf of absence from my Board of Education and assist the Board to secure a substitute for the time of my absence. How long will it take Mr. Edison? How can I tell? Maybe six months and maybe five years. No matter how long, find it. He continued, I sent a man to South America to find what I want. He found it, but lost the place where I found it so we might as well never found it at all. Here I was enjoined to proceed forthwith to court the Board of Education for a leaf of absence which I did successfully. The Board considering that a call so important and honorary was entitled to their unqualified favor which they generously granted. I reported to Mr. Edison on the following day when he instructed me to come to the laboratory at once to learn all the details of drawing and carbonizing fibers which it would be necessary to do in the oriental jungles. This I did and in the meantime a set of suitable tools for this purpose had been ordered to be made in the laboratory. As soon as I learned my new trade which I accomplished in a few days, Mr. Edison directed me to the library of the laboratory to occupy a few days in studying the geography of the orient and particularly in drawing maps of the tributaries of the Ganges, the Irawati, and the Brahmaputra rivers and other regions which I expected to explore. It was well thus engaged that Mr. Edison came to me one day and said, if you will go up to the house, his palatial home not far away, and look behind the sofa in the library, you will find a joint of bamboo, a specimen of that found in South America. Bring it down and make a study of it. If you find something equal to that, I will be satisfied. At the home I was guided to the library by an Irish servant woman to whom I communicated my knowledge of the definite locality of the sample joint. She plunged her arm bare and herculean behind the aforementioned sofa and holding aloft a section of wood called out in a mood of discovery. Is that it? Replying in the affirmative, she added, under an impulse of innocent divination that whatever her wizard master laid hands upon could result in nothing short of an invention. Sure, sore, and what's he going to invent out of that? My kits of tools made, my maps drawn, my oriental geography reviewed. I came to the point when matters of immediate departure are discussed. And when I took occasion to mention to my chief that, on the subject of life insurance, underwriters refused to take any risks on an enterprise so hazardous, Mr. Edison said that if I did not place too high a valuation on my person, he would take the risk himself. I replied that I was born and bred in New York State, but now that I had become a Jersey man I did not value myself at above fifteen hundred dollars. Edison laughed and said that he would assume the risk, and another point was settled. The next matter was the financing of the trip, about which Mr. Edison asked in a tentative way about the rates to the yeast. I told him the expense of such a trip could not be determined beforehand in detail, but that I had established somewhat of a reputation for economic travel, and that I did not believe any traveler could surpass me in that respect. He desired no further assurance in that direction, and thereupon ordered a letter of credit made out with authorization to order a second when the first was exhausted. Herein, then, are set forth in briefest space the preliminaries of a circuit of the globe in quest of fiber. It so happened that the day on which I set out fell on Washington's birthday, and I suggested to my boys and girls at school that they make a line across the station platform near the school at Maplewood, and from this line I should start eastward around the world, and if good fortune should bring me back I would meet them from the westward at the same line, as I often made them tow the scratch, for once they were only too well pleased to have me tow the line for them. This was done, and I sailed via England and the Suez Canal to Ceylon, that fair isle to which Sinbad the sailor made his sixth voyage, picturesquely referred to in history as the brightest gem in the British colonial crown. I knew Ceylon to be eminently tropical. I knew it to be rich in many varieties of the bamboo family, which has been called the king of the grasses, and in this family had I most hope of finding the desired fiber. Weeks were spent in this paradisiacal island. Every part was visited. Native wood craftsmen were offered a premium on every new species brought in, and in this way nearly a hundred species were tested, a greater number than was found in any other country. One of the best specimens tested during the entire trip around the world was found first in Ceylon, although later in Burma, it being indigenous to the latter country. It is a gigantic tree grass or reed growing in clumps of from one to two hundred, often twelve inches in diameter and one hundred and fifty feet high, and known as the giant bamboo, bamboosa gigantia. This giant grass stood the highest test as a carbon, and on account of its extraordinary size and qualities, I extended this special mention. With others who have given much attention to this remarkable reed, I believe that in its manifold uses the bamboo is the world's greatest dendral benefactor. From Ceylon I proceeded to India, touching the great peninsula at first to Cape Comarin, and proceeding northward by way of Pondicherry, Madhura and Madras, and thence to the table land of Bangalore and the western gout, testing many kinds of woods at every point, but particularly the palm and bamboo families. From the range of the western gout, I went to Bombay and then north by the way of Delhi to Simla, the summer capital of the Himalayas. Thence again northward to the headwaters of the Sutledge River, testing everywhere on my way everything likely to afford the desired carbon. On returning from the mountains I followed the valleys of the Jumna and the Ganges to Calcutta. Once I again ascended the sub-Himalayas to Darjeeling, where the numerous river bottoms were sprinkled plentifully with many varieties of bamboo, from the larger sizes to dwarfed species covering the mountain slopes and not longer than the graphs of meadows. Again descending to the plains I passed eastward to the Brahmaputra River, which I ascended to the foothills of Nassam, but finding nothing of superior quality in all this northern region, I returned to Calcutta and sailed thence to Rangoon in Burma, and there finding no samples giving more excellent tests in the lower regions of the Irawati. I ascended that river in Mandalay, where through Burmese bamboo wise acres, I gathered in from roundabout and tested all that the unusually rich Burmese flora could furnish. In Burma the giant bamboo, as already mentioned, is found indigenous, but beside it no superior varieties were found. Samples tested at several points on the Malay Peninsula show no new species, except at a point north of Singapore, where I found a species large and heavy, which gave a test nearly equal to that of the giant bamboo in Ceylon. After completing the Malay Peninsula I had planned to visit Java and Borneo, but having found in the Malay Peninsula and in Ceylon a bamboo fiber which averaged a test from one to two hundred percent better than that in use of the lamp factory, I decided it was unnecessary to visit these countries, or New Guinea, as my Eureka had already been established, and that I would therefore set forth the return hemisphere, searching China and Japan on the way. The rivers in southern China brought down to Canton, bamboos of many species, where this wonderfully utilitarian reed enters very largely into the industrial life of that people, and not merely into the industrial life, but even into the culinary arts, for bamboo sprouts are a universal vegetable in China. But among all the bamboos of China I found none of super excellence in carbonizing qualities. Japan came next in the succession of countries to be explored, but there the work was much simplified from the fact that the Tokyo Museum contains a complete, classified collection of all the different species in the Empire, and their samples could be obtained and tested. Now the last of the important bamboo producing countries in the globe circuit had been done, and the homelab was in order. The broad Pacific was spanned in fourteen days, May Nail Continent in six, and on the 22nd of February, on the same day, at the same hour, at the same minute, one year to a second. Little Maud, a sweet maid of the school, led me across the line which completed the circuit of the globe, and where I was greeted by the cheers of my boys and girls. I once reported to Mr. Edison, whose manner of greeting my return was as characteristic of the man is his summary and matter-effect manner of my dispatch. His little catechism of curious inquiry was embraced in four small and intensely Anglo-Saxon words. With his usual pleasant smile, he extended his hand and said, Did you get it? This was surely a summing of a year's exploration not less laconic than Caesar's review of his Gaelic campaign. When I replied that he had, but that he must be the final judge of what I had found, he said that during my absence he had succeeded in making an artificial carbon, which was meeting the requirements satisfactorily, so well indeed that I believe no practical use was ever made of the bamboo fibers thereafter. I have hearing given a very brief resume of my search for fiber through the Orient, and during my connection with that mission I was at all times not less astonished at Mr. Edison's quick perceptions of conditions and his instant decision and his bigness of conceptions than I had always been with his prodigious industry and his inventive genius. Thinking persons know that blatant men never accomplish much and Edison's marvelous brevity of speech, along with his miraculous achievements, should do much to put boars and garrulity out of fashion. Although Edison had instituted such a costly and exhaustive search throughout the world for the most perfect of natural fibers, he did not necessarily feel committed for all time to the exclusive use of that material for his lamp filaments. While these explorations were in progress, as indeed long before, he had given much thought to the production of some artificial compound that would embrace not only the required homogeneity, but also many other qualifications necessary for the manufacture of an improved type of lamp, which had become desirable by reason of the rapid adoption of his lighting system. At the very time Mr. McGowan was making his explorations deep in South America and Mr. McGowan's research around the world, Edison, after much investigation and experiment, had produced a compound which promised better results than bamboo fibers. After some changes dictated by experience, this artificial filament was adopted in the manufacture of lamps. No radical change was immediately made, however, but the product of the lamp factory was gradually changed over, during the course of a few years, from the use of bamboo to the squirted called. An artificial compound of one kind or another has indeed been universally adopted for the purpose by all manufacturers, hence the incandescent conductors in all carbon filament lamps of the present day are made in that way. The fact remains, however, that from nearly nine years all Edison lamps, many millions in the aggregate, were made with bamboo filaments, and many of them for several years after that, until bamboo was finally abandoned in the early 1990s, except for use in a few special types, which were so made until about the end of 1908. The last few years have witnessed a remarkable advance in the manufacture of incandescent lamps in the substitution of metallic filaments for those of carbon. It will be remembered that many of the earlier experiments were based on the use of strips of platinum, while other rare metals were the subject of casual trial. No real success and for many years, the carbon filament lamp range supreme. During the last four or five years, lamps with filaments made from tantalum and tungsten have been produced and placed on the market with great success and are now largely used. Their price is still very high, however, as compared with that of the carbon lamp, which has been vastly improved in methods of construction and whose average price of fifteen cents is only one tenth of what it was when Edison first brought it out. With the close of Mr. McGowan's and Mr. Ricklton's expeditions, there ended the historic world hunt for natural fibers. From start to finish, the investigations and searches made by Edison himself and carried on by others under his direction were remarkable not only from the fact that they entailed a total expenditure of about $100,000, dispersed under his supervision by Mr. Upton, but also because of their unique inception and openness, they illustrate one of the strongest traits of his character an invincible determination to leave no stone unturned to acquire that which he believes to be in existence and which, when found, will answer the purpose that he has in mind. End of Chapter 13 Recording by Melissa. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Heidi Preuss. Edison, His Life and Inventions by Frank Louis Dyer and Thomas Comerford Martin. Chapter 14 Inventing a Complete System of Lighting In Berlin, on December 11, 1908, with notable a clot, the 70th birthday was celebrated of Emile Ratnau, the founder of the great Allgemein Electricitätsgesellschaft. This distinguished German creator of a splendid industry then received the congratulations of his fellow countrymen headed by Emperor William who spoke enthusiastically of his services to electrotechniques and to Germany. In his interesting acknowledgement Mr. Ratnau told how he went to Paris in 1881 and at the electrical exhibition there saw the display of Edison's inventions in electric lighting which have met with as little proper appreciation as his countless innovations in the connection with telegraphy and telephony and the entire electrical industry. He saw the Edison Dynamo and he saw the incandescent lamp of which millions have been manufactured since that day without the great master being paid the tribute to his invention. But what impressed the observant, thoroughgoing German was the breadth with which the whole lighting art had been elaborated and perfected even at that early day. The Edison system of lighting was as beautifully conceived down to the very details and as thoroughly worked out as if it had been tested for decades in various towns. Neither sockets, switches, fuses, lamp holders, nor any of the other accessories necessary to complete the installation were wanting. And the generating of current, the regulation, the wiring with distributing boxes, house connections, meters, etc. all showed signs of astonishing skill and incomparable genius. Such praise, on such an occasion, from the man who introduced incandescent electric lighting to Germany is significant as to the continued appreciation abroad of Mr. Edison's work. If there is one thing modern, Germany is proud and jealous of. It is her leadership in electrical engineering and investigation. But with characteristic insight Mr. Rottenau here placed his finger on the great merit that has often been forgotten. Edison was not simply the inventor of a new lamp and a new dynamo. They were invaluable elements, but far from all that was necessary. His was the mighty achievement of conceiving and executing in all its details and art and an industry absolutely new to the world. Within two years this man completed and made that art available in its essential fundamental facts which remain unchanged after 30 years of rapid improvement and widening application. Such a stupendous feat whose equal is far to seek anywhere in history of invention is worth studying especially as the task will take us over much new ground and over very little of the territory already covered. Notwithstanding the enormous amount of thought and labor expended on the incandescent lamp problem from the autumn of 1878 to the winter of 1879. It must not be supposed for one moment that Edison's whole endeavor and entire inventive skill had been given to the lamp alone or the dynamo alone. We have sat through the long watches of the night while looking at the swarming problems. We have gazed anxiously at the steady fingers of the deft and cautious betelor as one fragile filament after another refused to stay intact until it could be sealed into its crystal prison and their glow with light that never was before on land or sea. We have calculated armatures and field coils for the new dynamo with Upton and held the wax for jail and his fellows at the winding bees. We have seen the mineral and vegetable kingdoms rifled and ransacked for substances that would yield the best filament. We have had the vague consciousness of assisting at the great development whose evidence is today on every hand attest its magnitude. We have felt the fierce play of volcanic effort lifting new continents of opportunity from the infertile sea without any devastation of pre-existing fields of human toil and harvest. But it still remains to elucidate the actual thing done to reduce it to concrete data and in reducing to unfold its colossal dimensions. The lighting system that Edison contemplated in this entirely new departure from antecedent methods included the generation of electrical energy or current on a very large scale, its distribution throughout extended areas and its division and subdivision into small units converted into light at innumerable points in every direction from the source of supply each unit to be independent of every other and susceptible to immediate control by the user. This was truly an altogether prodigious undertaking. We need not wonder that Professor Tindall, in words implying grave doubt as to the possibility of any solution of the various problems, said publicly that he would much rather have the matter in Edison's hands than in his own. There were no precedents nothing upon which to build or improve. The problems could only be answered by the creation of new devices methods expressly worked out for their solution. An electric lamp answering certain specific requirements would indeed be the key to the situation, but its commercial adaptation required a multifarious variety of apparatus and devices. The word system is much abused in invention and during the early days of electric lighting its use applied to a mere freakish lamp or dynamo was often ludicrous. But after all nothing short of a complete system could give real value to the lamp as an invention. Nothing short of a system could body forth the new art to the public. Let us therefore set down briefly a few of the leading items needed for perfect illumination by electricity all of which were part of the Edison program. First to conceive a broad and fundamentally correct method of distributing the current satisfactory in a scientific sense and practical commercially in its efficiency and economy. This meant ready made a comprehensive plan analogous to illumination by gas with a network of conductors all connected together so that in any given city area the lights could be fed with electricity from several directions thus eliminating any interruption due to the disturbance of any particular section. Second to devise an electric lamp that would give about the same amount of light as a gas jet which custom had proven to be a suitable and useful unit. This lamp must possess the quality of requiring only a small investment in the copper conductors reaching it. Each lamp must be independent of every other lamp. Each in all the lights must be produced and operated with sufficient economy to compete on a commercial basis with gas. The lamp must be durable, capable of being easily and safely handled by the public, and one that would remain capable of burning at full incandescence and candle power a great length of time. Third to devise means whereby the amount of electrical energy furnished to each and every customer could be determined as in the case of gas and so that this could be done cheaply and reliably by a meter at the customer's premises. Fourth to elaborate a system or network of conductors capable of being placed underground or overhead which would allow of being tapped at any intervals so that surface wires could be run from the main conductors in the street into each building. Where these mains went below the surface of the thoroughfare as in large cities there must be protective conduit or pipe for the copper conductors and these pipes must allow of being tapped wherever necessary. With these conductors and pipes must also be furnished manholes, junction boxes, connections, and a host of varied paraphernalia ensuring perfect general distribution. Fifth to devise means for maintaining at all points in an extended area of distribution a practically even pressure of current so that all the lamps wherever located near or far away from the central station should give an equal light at all times independent of the number that might be turned on and safeguarding the lamps against rupture by sudden and violent fluctuations of current. There must also be means for thus regulating at the point where the current was generated the quality or pressure of the current throughout the whole lighting area with devices for indicating what such pressure might actually be at various points in the area. Sixth to design efficient dynamos such not being in existence at the time that would convert economically the steam power of high speed engines and electrical energy together with means for connecting and disconnecting them with the exterior consumption circuits means for regulating equalizing their loads and adjusting the number of dynamos to be used according to the fluctuating demands on the electrical station. Also the arrangement of complete stations with steam and electric apparatus and auxiliary devices for ensuring their efficient continuous operation. Seventh to invent devices that would prevent the current from becoming excessive upon any conductors causing fire or other injuries also switches for turning the current on and off lamp holders, fixtures and the like also means and methods for establishing the interior circuits that were to carry current to chandeliers and fixtures in buildings. It was the outline of the program laid down in the autumn of 1878 and pursued through all its difficulties to definite accomplishment in about 18 months. Some of the steps being made immediately others being taken as the art evolved. It is not to be imagined for one moment that Edison performed all the experiments with his own hands. The method of working at Menlo Park has already been described in these pages and participated. It would not only have been physically impossible for one man to have done all this work himself in view of the time and labor required and the endless detail but most of the apparatus and devices invented or suggested by him as the art took shape required the handiwork of skilled mechanics and artisans of a high order and ability. Toward the end of 1879 the laboratory force thus numbered at least 100 earnest men. In this respect of collaboration Edison has always adopted a policy that must in part be taken to explain his many successes. Some inventors of the greatest abilities dealing with ideas and conceptions of importance have found it impossible to organize or even to tolerate a staff of co-workers doing solitary and secret toil incapable of teamwork or jealous of any intrusion that could possibly bar them from a full and complete claim to the results one obtained. Edison always stood shoulder to shoulder with his associates but no one ever questioned the leadership nor was it ever in doubt where the inspiration originated. The real truth is that Edison has always been so ceaselessly fertile with ideas himself he has had more than his whole staff could ever do to try them all out. He has thought cooperation but no exterior suggestion. As a matter of fact a great many of the Edison men have made notable inventions of their own which their names are imperishably associated but while they were with Edison it was with his work that they were and must be busied. It was during this period of inventing a system that so much of systematic and continuous work with good results was done by Edison in the design and perfection of Dynamos. The value of his contributions to the art of lighting comprised in this work has never been fully understood or appreciated having been so greatly overshadowed by his invention of the incandescent lamp and of a complete system of distribution. It is a fact however that the principal improvements he made in Dynamo electric generators were of a radical nature and remain in the art. Thirty years bring about great changes especially in a field so notably progressive as that of the generation of electricity but different as are the Dynamos of today from those of the earlier period they embody essential principles and elements that Edison then marked out and elaborated as the conditions of success. There was indeed prompt appreciation in some well informed quarters of what Edison was doing evidenced by the sensation caused in the summer of 1881 when he designed built and shipped to Paris for the first electrical exposition ever held by the largest Dynamo that had been built up to that time. It was capable of lighting 1200 incandescent lamps and weighed with its engine 27 tons the armature alone weighing 6 tons. It was then and for a long time after the 8th wonder of the scientific world and its arrival and installation in Paris of the first non-electricians of Europe. Edison's amusing description of his experience in shipping the Dynamo to Paris when built may appropriately be given here. I built a very large Dynamo with the engine directly connected which I intended for the Paris exposition of 1881. It was one or two sizes larger than those I had previously built. I had only a very short period in which to get it ready and put it on a steamer to reach the exposition in time. After the machine was completed we found the voltage was too low. I had to devise a way of raising the voltage without changing the machine which I did by adding extra magnets. After this was done we test the machine and the crankshaft of the engine broke and flew clear across the shop. By working night and day a new crankshaft was put in and we only had three days left from that time to get it on board the steamer and had also to run a test. So we made arrangements with the Timnani leader and threw him with the police to clear the streets one of the New York Crosstown streets and line it with policemen as we proposed to make a quick passage and didn't know how much time it would take. About four hours before the steamer had to get it the machine was shut down after the test and a schedule was made out in advance of what each man had to do. Sixty men were put on top of the dynamo to get it ready and each man had written orders as to what he was to perform. We got it all taken apart and put on trucks and started off. They drove the horses and firebell in front of them to the French pier the policemen lining the streets. Fifty men were ready to help the stevedores get it on the steamer and we were one hour ahead of time. This exposition brings us indeed to a dramatic and rather pathetic parting of ways. The hour had come for the old laboratory force that had done such brilliant and memorable work to disband and again to assemble under light conditions for like effort. Although its members all remained active in the field and many have ever since become associated prominently with some department of electrical enterprise the fact was they had done their work so well they must now disperse to show the world what it was and assist in its industrial exploitation. In reality they were too few lands that reached Edison from all parts of the world for the introduction of his system and in the emergency the men nearest to him and most trusted were those upon whom he could best depend for such missionary work as was now required. The disciples full of fire and enthusiasm as well as of knowledge and experience were soon scattered into the four winds and the rapidity with which the Edison system was everywhere successfully introduced is testimony to the good judgment with which their leader had originally selected them as his colleagues. No one can say exactly just how this process of disintegration began but Mr. E. H. Johnson had already been sent to England in the Edison interests and now the question arose as to what should be done with the French demands and the Paris Electrical Exposition whose importance as a point of new departure in electrical industry was speedily recognized on both sides of the Atlantic. It is very interesting to note that as the earlier staff broke up Edison became the center of another large body equally devoted but more particularly concerned with the commercial development of his ideas. Mr. E. G. Acheson mentions in his personal notes on work at the laboratory that in December of 1880 while on some experimental work he was called to the new Lamp Factory started recently at Menlo Park and there found Edison, Johnson and Bachelor and Upton in conference. And Edison informed me that Mr. Bachelor who was in charge of the construction development and operation of the Lamp Factory was soon to sail to Europe to prepare for the exhibit to be made at the Electrical Exposition to be held in Paris during the coming summer. These preparations overlap the reinforcement of the staff with some notable additions chief among them being Mr. Samuel Insel whose interesting narrative of events fits admirably into the story at this stage and gives a vivid idea of intense activity and excitement with which the whole atmosphere around Edison was then surcharged. I first met Edison on March 1, 1881. I arrived in New York on the city of Chester about five or six in the evening and went direct to 65 Fifth Avenue. I had come over to act as Edison's private secretary the position having been obtained for me through the good services of Mr. E. H. Johnson whom I had known in London and who wrote to Mr. U. H. Painter of Washington about me in the fall of 1880. Mr. Painter sent the letter on to Mr. Batchelor who turned it over to Edison. Johnson returned to America late in the fall of 1880 and in January 1881 cabled me to come to this country. At the time he cabled for me Edison was still at Menlo Park but when I arrived in New York the famous offices of the Edison Electric Light Company had been opened at 65 Fifth Avenue and Edison had moved into New York with the idea of assisting in the exploitation of the light company business. I was taken by Johnson direct from the Inmun Steamship Pier to 65 Fifth Avenue and met Edison for the first time. There were three rooms on the ground floor at that time. The front one was used as a kind of reception room. The room immediately behind it was used as the offices of the president of the Edison Electric Light Company Major S.B. Eaton. The rear room which was directly back of the front entrance hall was Edison's office and there I first saw him. There was very little in the room except a couple of walnut total or top desks which were very generally used in American offices at that time. Edison received me with great cordiality. I think he was possibly disappointed at my being such a young man. I had only just turned 21 and had a very boyish appearance. The picture of Edison is as vivid to me now as if the incident occurred yesterday although it is now more than 29 years since that first meeting. I had been connected with Edison's affairs in England as a private secretary to his London agent for about two years and had been taught by Johnson to look on Edison as the greatest electrical inventor of the day. A view of him by the way which has been greatly strengthened as the years have rolled by. Owing to this and to the fact that I felt highly flattered at the appointment as his private secretary I was naturally prepared to accept him as a hero. With my strict English ideas as to the class of clothes to be worn by prominent men there was nothing in Edison's dress to impress me. He wore a rather seedy black diagonal Prince Albert coat and waistcoat with trousers of a dark material and a white silk handkerchief around his neck tied in a careless knot somewhat the worst for wear. He had a large wide-awake hat of the sombrero pattern then generally used in this country and a rough brown overcoat could somewhat similarly to his Prince Albert coat. His hair was worn quite long and hanging carelessly over his fine forehead. His face was at that time as it is now clean shaven. He was full in face and figure although by no means as stout as he has grown in recent years. What struck me above everything else was the wonderful intelligence and magnetism of his expression and the extreme brightness of his eyes. He was far more modest than in my youthful picture of him. I had expected to find a man of distinction. His appearance as a whole was not what you would call slovenly. It was best expressed by the word careless. Mr. Insul supplements this pen picture by another bearing upon the hustle and bustle of the moment. After a short conversation Johnson hurried me off to meet his family and later in the evening about eight o'clock he and I returned to Edison's office and I found myself launched Johnson had already explained to me that he was sailing the next morning March 2nd on the SS Arizona and that Mr. Edison wanted to spend the evening discussing matters in connection with his European affairs. It was assumed in as much as I had just arrived from London that I would be able to give more or less information on this subject. As Johnson was to sail the next morning at five o'clock Edison explained that it would be necessary for him to have an understanding of European matters. Edison started out by drawing from his desk a checkbook and stating how much money he had in the bank and he wanted to know what European telephone securities were most saleable as he wished to raise the necessary funds to put on their feet the incandescent lamp factory the electric tube works and the necessary shops to build dynamos. Through the interview I was tremendously impressed with Edison's wonderful resourcefulness and grasp and his immediate appreciation of any suggestion of consequence bearing on this subject under discussion. He spoke with very great enthusiasm of the work before him namely the development of his electric lighting system and his one idea seemed to be to raise all the money he could with the object of pouring it into the manufacturing side of the lighting business. I remember how extraordinarily I was impressed with him on this account as I had just come from a circle of people in London who not only questioned the possibility of the success of Edison's invention but often expressed doubt as to whether the work he had done could be called an invention at all. After discussing affairs with Johnson who was receiving his final instructions from Edison, far into the night and going down to the steamer to see Johnson aboard I finished my first night's business with Edison somewhere between four and five in the morning feeling thoroughly imbued with the idea that I had met one of the great masterminds of the world. You must allow for my youthful enthusiasm but you must also bear in mind Edison's particular gift of magnetism which has enabled him his career to attach so many men to him. I fell a victim to the spell at the first interview. Events moved rapidly in those days. The next morning, Tuesday Edison took his new fetus achates with him to a conference with John Roach the famous old shipbuilder and added a greed to take the etna iron works where Roach had laid the foundations of his fame and fortune. These works were not in use at the time. They were situated on Gerrick Street, New York north of Grand Street on the east side of the city and there, very soon after was established the first Edison Dynamo manufacturing establishment known for many years as the Edison machine works. The same night Insul made his first visit to Menlo Park. Up to that time he had seen fluorescent lighting for the simple reason that there was very little to see. Johnson had had a few Edison lamps in London lit up from primary batteries as a demonstration and in the summer of 1880 Swan had had a few series of lamps burning in London. In New York a small gas engine plant was being started at the Edison offices on Fifth Avenue and in New York there was the first actual electric lighting central station supplying distributed incandescent lamps and some electric motors by means of underground conductors embedded in asphalt and surrounded by a wooden box. Mr. Insul says the system employed was naturally the two wire as at that time the three wire had not been thought of. The lamps were partly of vapor carbon type and partly bamboo filament lamps and were of an efficiency of 95 to 100 watts per 16 CP. I can never forget the impression that this first view of the electric lighting industry produced on me. Menlo Park must always be looked upon as the birthplace of the electric light and power industry. At that time it was the only place where could be seen an electric light from multiple arc distribution system the operation of which seemed such successful to my youthful mind as the operation of one of the large metropolitan systems today. I well remember about ten o'clock that night going down to the Menlo Park Depot and getting the station agent who was also the telegraph operator to send some cable messages for me to my London friends announcing that I had seen Johnston's incandescent lighting system in actual operation and that so far as I could tell it wasn't accomplished fact. A few weeks afterwards I received a letter from one of my London friends who was a doubting Thomas abrading me for coming so soon under the spell of the Yankee inventor. It was to confront and deal with just this element of doubt in London and in Europe generally this batch of Johnson to England and a bachelor to France was intended. Throughout the Edison staff there was a mingled feeling of pride in the work resentment at the doubts expressed about it and keen desire to show how excellent it was. Bachelor left for Paris in July 1881 on his second trip to Europe that year and the exhibit was made which brought such an instantaneous recognition of the incalculable value of Edison's lighting inventions as evidenced by the awards and rewards immediately bestowed upon him. He was made an officer of the Legion of Honor and Professor George F. Barker cabled as follows from Paris announcing the decision of the expert jury which passed upon the exhibits. Except my congratulations you have distanced all competitors and obtained a Diploma of Honor the highest award given in the exposition no person in any class in which you were an exhibitor received a like award nor was this all imminent men in science who had previously expressed their disbelief in the statements made as to the Edison system were now foremost in generous praise of his notable achievements and accorded him full credit for his completion. A typical instance was Mr. Du Mansard a distinguished electrician who had written cynically about Edison's work and denied its practibility. He now recanted publicly in this language which in itself shows the state of the art when Edison came to the front. All these experiments achieved but moderate success and when in 1879 the new Edison incandescent carbon lamp was announced many of the scientists and I particularly doubted the accuracy of the reports which came from America. This horseshoe of carbonized paper seemed incapable to resist mechanical shocks and to maintain incandescence for any considerable length of time. Nevertheless Mr. Edison was not discouraged and despite the active opposition made to his lamp despite the pulmic acerbity of which he was the object he did not cease to perfect it and he succeeded in producing the lamps which we now behold exhibited at the exposition and are admired by all for their perfect steadiness. The competitive lamps exhibited and tested at this time comprised those of Edison, Maxim, Swan, and Lane Fox. The demonstration of Edison's success stimulated the faith of his French supporters and rendered easier the completion of plans for the society Edison continental of Paris formed to operate the Edison patents on the continent of Europe. Mr. Bachelore with Messieurs Acheson and Hipple and one or two other assistants at the close of the exposition transferred their energies to the construction and equipment of machine shops and lamp factories at Ivers-sur-Seine for the company and in a very short time the installation of plants began in various countries France, Italy, Holland, and Belgium, etc. All through 1881 Johnson was very busy for his part in England The first Jumbo Edison Dynamo had gone to Paris The second and third went to London where they were installed in 1881 by Mr. Johnson and his assistant Mr. W. J. Hammer in the 3000 light central station on Hallborn Viaduct the plant going into operation on January 12, 1882 Outside of Menlo Park this was the first regular station for incandescent lighting in the world as the Pearl Street Station in New York did not go into operation until September of the same year This historic plant was hurriedly thrown together on Crownland and would doubtless have been the nucleus of a great system but for the passage of the English Electric Lighting Act of 1882 which at once throttled the industry by its absurd restrictive provisions and which though greatly modified has left England ever since in a condition of serious inferiority as to the development in electric light and power The streets and bridges of Hallborn Viaduct were lighted by lamps turned on and off from the station as well as the famous city temple of Dr. Joseph Parker the first church in the world to be lighted by incandescent lamps Indeed so far as can be ascertained the first church to be illuminated by electricity in any form Mr. W. J. Hammer who supplies some very interesting notes on the insulation says I well remember the astonishment of Dr. Parker and his associates when they noted the difference of temperature as compared with gas I was informed that the people would not go into the gallery with warm weather owing to the great heat caused by the many gas jets whereas on the introduction of the incandescent lamp there was no complaint The telegraph operating room of the general post office at St. Martin Lagrand and Newgate Street nearby was supplied with 400 lamps through the instrumentality of Mr. Sir W. H. Priest who having been skeptical as to Mr. Edison's results became one of his most ardent advocates and did much to facilitate the introduction of the light This station supplied its customers by a network of feeders and mains of the standard underground two wire Edison tubing conductors in sections of iron pipes such as was used subsequently in New York Milan and other cities It also had a measuring system for the current employing the Edison electrolyic meter arc lamps were operated from its circuits and one of the first sets of practical storage batteries was used experimentally at this station In connection with these batteries Mr. Hammer tells a characteristic incident of Edison A careless boy passing through the station whistling a tune and swinging a hammer in his hand wrapped a car boy of sulfuric acid which happened to be on the floor above the Jumbo Dynamo the blow broke the glass car boy and the acid ran down upon the field magnet of the dynamo destroying the windings of one of the 12 magnets This accident happened while I was taking a vacation in Germany and a prominent scientific man connected with the company Mr. Edison to know whether the machine would work if the coil was cut out Mr. Edison sent the laconic reply Why doesn't he try it and see Mr. E. H. Johnson was kept busy not only with the cares and responsibilities of his pioneer English plant but by negotiations as to company formations hearings before parliamentary committees and particularly by distinguished visitors including all the foremost scientific men in England and a great many well known members of the peerage Edison was fortunate in being represented by a man with so much address intimate knowledge of the subject and powers of explanation as one of the leading English papers said at the time with equal humor and truth there is but one Edison and Johnson is his prophet as the plant continued in operation various details and ideas of improvement emerged and Mr. Hammer says up to the time of the construction of this plant it had been customary to place a single pole switch on one wire and a safety fuse on the other and the practice of putting fuses on both sides of a lighting circuit was first used here some of the first not the very first of the insulated fixtures were used in this plant and many of the fixtures were equipped with ball insulating joints enabling chandeliers or electroliers to be turned around as was common with the gas chandeliers this particular device was invented by Mr. John B. Verity whose firm built many of the fixtures for the Edison company with notable electroliers shown at this crystal palace exposition of 1882 we have made a swift survey of developments from the time when the system of lighting was ready for use and when the staff scattered to introduce it it will be readily understood that Edison did not sit with folded hands or drop into complacent satisfaction the moment he had reached his final exploitation he was not willing to say let us rest and be thankful as was one of England's great liberal leaders after a long period of reform on the contrary he was never more active than immediately after the work we have summed up at the beginning of this chapter while he had been pursuing his investigations of the generator in conjunction with the experiments incandescent lamp he gave much thought to the question of distribution of the current over large areas revolving in his mind various plans for the accomplishment of this purpose and keeping his mathematicians very busy working on this various schemes that suggested themselves from time to time the idea of a complete system had been in his mind in broad outline for a long time but it did not crystallize into commercial form until the incandescent lamp was an accomplished fact thus in January 1880 his first patent application for a system of electrical distribution was signed it was filed in the patent office a few days later but was not issued as a patent until August 30, 1887 it covered fundamentally multiple arc distribution how broadly will be understood from the following extracts from the New York electrical review of September 10, 1887 it would appear as if the entire field of multiple distribution were now in the hands of the owners of this patent the patent is about as broad as a patent can be being regardless of specific devices and laying a powerful grasp on the fundamental idea of multiple distribution from a number of generators throughout metallic circuit Mr. Addison made a number of other applications for patents on electrical distribution during the year 1880 among these was the one covering the celebrated feeder invention which has been a very great commercial importance in the art to create the drop in pressure rendering lights dim in those portions of an electric light system that were remote from the central station footnote 10 for further explanation of feeder patent see appendix from these two patents alone which were absolutely basic and fundamental in effect and both of which were and still are in the middle station lighting is practiced the reader will see that Mr. Addison's patient and thorough study aided by his keen foresight and unerring judgment had enabled him to grasp in advance with a master hand the chief and underlying principles of a true system that system which has since been put into practical use with more modern scientific knowledge these patents were not by any means all he applied for in the year 1880 which it will be remembered was the year in which he was perfecting the incandescent electric lamp and methods to put into market for competition with gas it was an extraordinarily busy year for Mr. Addison and his whole force which from time to time was increased to remember improvement upon improvement was the order of the day that which was considered good today was superseded by something better and more serviceable tomorrow device after device relating to some part of the entire system was designed, built, and tried only to be rejected ruthlessly as being unsuitable but the pursuit was not abandoned it was renewed over again in innumerable ways until success had been attained during the year 1880 Addison had made application for 60 patents of which 32 were in relation to incandescent lamps 7 covered inventions relating to distributing systems including the two above particularized 5 had reference to inventions of parts such as motors 6 covered inventions relating to dynamo-electric machines 3 related to electric railways and 7 to miscellaneous apparatus such as telegraph relays, magnetic ore separators magneto signaling apparatus etc. the list of Mr. Addison's patents see appendices is not only a monument to his lice work but serves to show what subjects he was working on from year to year since 1868 the reader will see from an examination of this list that the years 1880 1881 1882 and 1883 were the most prolific periods of invention it is worthwhile to scrutinize this list closely to appreciate the wide range of his activities not that his patents cover the range of work by any means for his notebooks reveal a great number of major and minor inventions for which he is not seen fit to take out patents moreover at the period now described Addison was the victim of a dishonest patent solicitor who deprived him of a number of patents in the following manner around 1881-82 I had several solicitors attending to different classes of work one of these gave me most serious injury it was during the time that I was developing my electric lighting system and I was working and thinking very hard in order to cover all the numerous parts in order that it would be complete in every detail I filed a great many applications for patents at that time but there were 78 of the inventions I made in that period that were entirely lost to me and my company by reason was the majesty of this patent solicitor specifications had been drawn and I had signed and sworn to the application for the patents for these 78 inventions and naturally I supposed they had been filed in the regular way as time passed I was looking for some action of the patent office as usual but none came I thought it very strange but had no suspicions I recorded in the patent office Gazette as being patented by others of course I ordered an investigation and found that the patent solicitor had drawn from the company the fees for filing all these applications but had never filed them all the papers had disappeared however and what he had evidently done was to sell them to others who had signed new applications and proceeded to take out patents themselves on my inventions I afterwards found that he had been previously mixed up with a somewhat similar crooked job in connection with telephone patents I am free to confess that the loss of these 78 inventions has left a sore spot in me that has never healed they were important, useful and valuable and represented a whole lot of tremendous work and mental effort and I had had a feeling of pride in having overcome through them a great many serious obstacles one of these inventions covered the multipolar dynamo it was an elaborated form of the type covered by my patent number 219393 which had a ring armature I modified and improved on this form and had a number of pole pieces placed all around the ring with a modified form of armature winding I built one of these machines and ran it successfully in our early days at the Gerrick Street Shop it is of no practical use to mention the man's name I believe he is dead but he may have left a family the occurrence is a matter of the old Edison Company records it will be seen from an examination of the list of patents that Mr. Edison has continued year after year adding to his contributions to the art of electric lighting and in the last 28 years 1880 through 1908 has taken out no fewer than 375 patents in this branch of industry alone these patents may be roughly tabulated as follows incandescent lamps and their manufacturer 149 distributing systems and their control and regulation 77 dynamo electric machines and accessories 106 minor parts such as sockets switches safety catches meters underground conductors and parts etc 43 quite naturally most of these patents cover inventions that are in the nature of improvements or based upon devices which he had already created but there are a number that relate to inventions absolutely fundamental and original in their nature some of these have already been alluded to but among the others there is one which is worthy of special mention in connection with the present consideration of a complete system this is patent number 274 290 applied for November 27 1882 it is known as the 3-wire patent it is described more fully in the appendix the great importance of the feeder and the 3-wire inventions will be apparent when it is realized that without them it is a question whether electric light could be sold to compete with low priced gas on account of the large investment in conductors that would be necessary if a large city area were to be lighted from a central lighting station by means of copper conductors running directly there from to all parts of the district it would be necessary to install large conductors or suffer such a drop of pressure at the ends most remote from the station as to cause the lights there to burn with a noticeable diminution of candle power the feeder invention overcame this trouble and made it possible to use conductors only one eighth the size that would otherwise have been necessary to produce the same results still further economy in cost of conductors was affected by the 3-wire invention by the use of which the already diminished conductors could still further be reduced to one third of this smaller size and at the same time allow for the successful operation of the station with far better results than if it were operated exactly as at first conceived the feeder and 3-wire systems are at this day used in all parts of the world not only in central station work but in the installation and operation of isolated electric light plants in large buildings no sensible or efficient station manager or electric contractor would ever think of an installation made upon any other plan thus Mr. Edison's early conceptions of the necessities of a complete system one of them made even in advance of practice have stood firm, unimproved and unchanged during the past 28 years a period of time which has witnessed more wonderful and rapid progress in electrical science and art than has been known during any similar art or period of time since the world began it must be remembered that the complete system in all its parts is not comprised in the few of Mr. Edison's patents of which specific mention is here made in order to comprehend the magnitude and extent of his work and the quality of his genius it is necessary to examine the list of patents issued for the various elements which go to make up such a system to attempt any relation in detail of the conception and working out of each part or element to enter into any description of the almost innumerable experiments and investigations that were made would entail the writing of several volumes for Mr. Edison's close written notebooks covering these subjects numbered nearly two hundred it is believed that enough evidence has been given in this chapter to lead to an appreciation of the assiduous work and practical skill involved in inventing a system of lighting that would surpass and to great extent in one single quarter of a century supersede all the other methods of illumination developed during long centuries but it will be appropriate before Mr. Edison to note that on January 17, 1908 while this biography was being written Mr. Edison became the fourth recipient of the John Fritz gold medal for achievement in industrial progress this medal was founded in 1902 by the professional friends and associates of the veteran American iron master and meteorological inventor in honor of his 80th birthday awards are made by a board of 16 engineers appointed an equal number from the four great national engineering societies the American society of civil engineers the American institute of mining engineers the American society of mechanical engineers and the American institute of electrical engineers whose membership embraces the very pick and flower of professional engineering talent in America up to the time of the Edison award three others had been made the first was to Lord Kelvin the nester of physics in Europe for his work in submarine cable telegraphy and other scientific achievement the second was to George Westinghouse for the airbreak the third was to Alexander Graham Bell for the invention and introduction of the telephone the fourth to Edison was not only for his inventions in duplex and quadruplex telegraphy and for the phonograph but for the development of a commercially practical incandescent lamp and the developments of a complete system of electric lighting including dynamos regulating devices underground system protective devices and meters great has been the genius on electrical development there is no other man to whom such a comprehensive tribute could be paid