Introduction Of The Edison Electric Light - 8

Introduction Of The Edison Electric Light - 8

This was the man of whom Edison had necessarily to make a confidant and adviser, and

who supplied other things besides the legal direction and financial alliance, by his

knowledge of the world and of affairs. There were many vital things to be done in the

exploitation of the system that Edison simply could not and would not do; but in

Lowrey's savoir faire, ready wit and humor, chivalry of devotion, graceful eloquence, and

admirable equipoise of judgment were all the qualities that the occasion demanded and

that met the exigencies.

We are indebted to Mr. Insull for a graphic sketch of Edison at this period, and of the

conditions under which work was done and progress was made: "I do not think I had any

understanding with Edison when I first went with him as to my duties. I did whatever he

told me, and looked after all kinds of affairs, from buying his clothes to financing his

business. I used to open the correspondence and answer it all, sometimes signing Edison's

name with my initial, and sometimes signing my own name. If the latter course was

pursued, and I was addressing a stranger, I would sign as Edison's private secretary. I

held his power of attorney, and signed his checks. It was seldom that Edison signed a

letter or check at this time. If he wanted personally to send a communication to anybody,

if it was one of his close associates, it would probably be a pencil memorandum signed

`Edison.' I was a shorthand writer, but seldom took down from Edison's dictation, unless

it was on some technical subject that I did not understand. I would go over the

correspondence with Edison, sometimes making a marginal note in shorthand, and

sometimes Edison would make his own notes on letters, and I would be expected to clean

up the correspondence with Edison's laconic comments as a guide as to the character of

answer to make. It was a very common thing for Edison to write the words `Yes' or `No,'

and this would be all I had on which to base my answer. Edison marginalized documents

extensively. He had a wonderful ability in pointing out the weak points of an agreement

or a balance-sheet, all the while protesting he was no lawyer or accountant; and his views

were expressed in very few words, but in a characteristic and emphatic manner.

"The first few months I was with Edison he spent most of the time in the office at 65

Fifth Avenue. Then there was a great deal of trouble with the life of the lamps there, and

he disappeared from the office and spent his time largely at Menlo Park. At another time

there was a great deal of trouble with some of the details of construction of the dynamos,

and Edison spent a lot of time at Goerck Street, which had been rapidly equipped with the

idea of turning out bi-polar dynamo-electric machines, direct-connected to the engine, the

first of which went to Paris and London, while the next were installed in the old Pearl

Street station of the Edison Electric Illuminating Company of New York, just south of

Fulton Street, on the west side of the street. Edison devoted a great deal of his time to the

engineering work in connection with the laying out of the first incandescent electriclighting

system in New York. Apparently at that time--between the end of 1881 and

spring of 1882--the most serious work was the manufacture and installation of

underground conductors in this territory. These conductors were manufactured by the

Electric Tube Company, which Edison controlled in a shop at 65 Washington Street, run

by John Kruesi. Half-round copper conductors were used, kept in place relatively to each

other and in the tube, first of all by a heavy piece of cardboard, and later on by a rope;

and then put in a twenty-foot iron pipe; and a combination of asphaltum and linseed oil

was forced into the pipe for the insulation. I remember as a coincidence that the building

was only twenty feet wide. These lengths of conductors were twenty feet six inches long,

as the half-round coppers extended three inches beyond the drag-ends of the lengths of

pipe; and in one of the operations we used to take the length of tubing out of the window

in order to turn it around. I was elected secretary of the Electric Tube Company, and was

expected to look after its finance; and it was in this position that my long intimacy with

John Kruesi started."