Introduction Of The Edison Electric Light - 6
As it was, not only Edison, but all the company's directors, officers, and employees, were
kept busy exhibiting and explaining the light. To the public of that day, when the highest
known form of house illuminant was gas, the incandescent lamp, with its ability to burn
in any position, its lack of heat so that you could put your hand on the brilliant glass
globe; the absence of any vitiating effect on the atmosphere, the obvious safety from fire;
the curious fact that you needed no matches to light it, and that it was under absolute
control from a distance-- these and many other features came as a distinct revelation and
marvel, while promising so much additional comfort, convenience, and beauty in the
home, that inspection was almost invariably followed by a request for installation.
The camaraderie that existed at this time was very democratic, for all were workers in a
common cause; all were enthusiastic believers in the doctrine they proclaimed, and hoped
to profit by the opening up of the new art. Often at night, in the small hours, all would
adjourn for refreshments to a famous resort nearby, to discuss the events of to-day and tomorrow,
full of incident and excitement. The easy relationship of the time is neatly
sketched by Edison in a humorous complaint as to his inability to keep his own cigars:
"When at `65' I used to have in my desk a box of cigars. I would go to the box four or
five times to get a cigar, but after it got circulated about the building, everybody would
come to get my cigars, so that the box would only last about a day and a half. I was
telling a gentleman one day that I could not keep a cigar. Even if I locked them up in my
desk they would break it open. He suggested to me that he had a friend over on Eighth
Avenue who made a superior grade of cigars, and who would show them a trick. He said
he would have some of them made up with hair and old paper, and I could put them in
without a word and see the result. I thought no more about the matter. He came in two or
three months after, and said: `How did that cigar business work?' I didn't remember
anything about it. On coming to investigate, it appeared that the box of cigars had been
delivered and had been put in my desk, and I had smoked them all! I was too busy on
other things to notice."
It was no uncommon sight to see in the parlors in the evening John Pierpont Morgan,
Norvin Green, Grosvenor P. Lowrey, Henry Villard, Robert L. Cutting, Edward D.
Adams, J. Hood Wright, E. G. Fabbri, R. M. Galloway, and other men prominent in city
life, many of them stock-holders and directors; all interested in doing this educational
work. Thousands of persons thus came--bankers, brokers, lawyers, editors, and reporters,
prominent business men, electricians, insurance experts, under whose searching and
intelligent inquiries the facts were elicited, and general admiration was soon won for the
system, which in advance had solved so many new problems. Edison himself was in
universal request and the subject of much adulation, but altogether too busy and modest
to be spoiled by it. Once in a while he felt it his duty to go over the ground with scientific
visitors, many of whom were from abroad, and discuss questions which were not simply
those of technique, but related to newer phenomena, such as the action of carbon, the
nature and effects of high vacua; the principles of electrical subdivision; the value of
insulation, and many others which, unfortu- nate to say, remain as esoteric now as they
were then, ever fruitful themes of controversy.
Speaking of those days or nights, Edison says: "Years ago one of the great violinists was
Remenyi. After his performances were over he used to come down to `65' and talk
economics, philosophy, moral science, and everything else. He was highly educated and
had great mental capacity. He would talk with me, but I never asked him to bring his
violin. One night he came with his violin, about twelve o'clock. I had a library at the top
of the house, and Remenyi came up there. He was in a genial humor, and played the
violin for me for about two hours--$2000 worth. The front doors were closed, and he
walked up and down the room as he played. After that, every time he came to New York
he used to call at `65' late at night with his violin. If we were not there, he could come
down to the slums at Goerck Street, and would play for an hour or two and talk
philosophy. I would talk for the benefit of his music. Henry E. Dixey, then at the height
of his `Adonis' popularity, would come in in those days, after theatre hours, and would
entertain us with stories--1882-84. Another visitor who used to give us a good deal of
amusement and pleasure was Captain Shaw, the head of the London Fire Brigade. He was
good company. He would go out among the fire-laddies and have a great time. One time
Robert Lincoln and Anson Stager, of the Western Union, interested in the electric light,
came on to make some arrangement with Major Eaton, President of the Edison Electric
Light Company. They came to `65' in the afternoon, and Lincoln com- menced telling
stories--like his father. They told stories all the afternoon, and that night they left for
Chicago. When they got to Cleveland, it dawned upon them that they had not done any
business, so they had to come back on the next train to New York to transact it. They
were interested in the Chicago Edison Company, now one of the largest of the systems in
the world. Speaking of telling stories, I once got telling a man stories at the Harrison
lamp factory, in the yard, as he was leaving. It was winter, and he was all in furs. I had
nothing on to protect me against the cold. I told him one story after the other--six of
them. Then I got pleurisy, and had to be shipped to Florida for cure."
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