Introduction Of The Edison Electric Light - 11

Introduction Of The Edison Electric Light - 11

 This epochal story will be told in the next chapter. Most interesting are the Bulletin notes

from England, especially in regard to the brilliant exhibition given by Mr. E. H. Johnson

at the Crystal Palace, Sydenham, visited by the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, twice

by the Dukes of Westminster and Sutherland, by three hundred members of the Gas

Institute, and by innumerable delegations from cities, boroughs, etc. Describing this

before the Royal Society of Arts, Sir W. H. Preece, F.R.S., remarked: "Many unkind

things have been said of Mr. Edison and his promises; perhaps no one has been severer in

this direction than myself. It is some gratification for me to announce my belief that he

has at last solved the problem he set himself to solve, and to be able to describe to the

Society the way in which he has solved it." Before the exhibition closed it was visited by

the Prince and Princess of Wales--now the deceased Edward VII. and the Dowager

Queen Alexandra--and the Princess received from Mr. Johnson as a souvenir a tiny

electric chandelier fashioned like a bouquet of fern leaves and flowers, the buds being

some of the first miniature incandescent lamps ever made.

The first item in the first Bulletin dealt with the "Fire Question," and all through the

successive issues runs a series of significant items on the same subject. Many of them are

aimed at gas, and there are several grim summaries of death and fires due to gas- leaks or

explosions. A tendency existed at the time to assume that electricity was altogether safe,

while its opponents, predicating their attacks on arc-lighting casualties, insisted it was

most dangerous. Edison's problem in educating the public was rather difficult, for while

his low-pressure, direct-current system has always been absolutely without danger to life,

there has also been the undeniable fact that escaping electricity might cause a fire just as

a leaky water- pipe can flood a house. The important question had arisen, therefore, of

satisfying the fire underwriters as to the safety of the system. He had foreseen that there

would be an absolute necessity for special devices to prevent fires from occurring by

reason of any excess of current flowing in any circuit; and several of his earliest detail

lighting inventions deal with this subject. The insurance underwriters of New York and

other parts of the country gave a great deal of time and study to the question through their

most expert representatives, with the aid of Edison and his associates, other electric-light

companies cooperating; and the knowledge thus gained was embodied in insurance rules

to govern wiring for electric lights, formulated during the latter part of 1881, adopted by

the New York Board of Fire Underwriters, January 12, 1882, and subsequently endorsed

by other boards in the various insurance districts. Under temporary rulings, however, a

vast amount of work had already been done, but it was obvious that as the industry grew

there would be less and less possibility of supervision except through such regulations,

insisting upon the use of the best devices and methods. Indeed, the direct superintendence

soon became unnecessary, owing to the increasing knowledge and greater skill acquired

by the installing staff; and this system of education was notably improved by a manual

written by Mr. Edison himself. Copies of this brochure are as scarce to-day as First Folio

Shakespeares, and command prices equal to those of other American first editions. The

little book is the only known incursion of its author into literature, if we except the brief

articles he has written for technical papers and for the magazines. It contained what was

at once a full, elaborate, and terse explanation of a complete isolated plant, with diagrams

of various methods of connection and operation, and a carefully detailed description of

every individual part, its functions and its characteristics. The remarkable success of

those early years was indeed only achieved by following up with Chinese exactness the

minute and intimate methods insisted upon by Edison as to the use of the apparatus and

devices employed. It was a curious example of establishing standard practice while

changing with kaleidoscopic rapidity all the elements involved. He was true to an ideal as

to the pole-star, but was incessantly making improvements in every direction. With an

iconoclasm that has often seemed ruthless and brutal he did not hesitate to sacrifice older

devices the moment a new one came in sight that embodied a real advance in securing

effective results. The process is heroic but costly. Nobody ever had a bigger scrap-heap

than Edison; but who dare proclaim the process intrinsically wasteful if the losses occur

in the initial stages, and the economies in all the later ones?