Inventing A Complete System Of Lighting - 5
This Exposition brings us, indeed, to a dramatic and rather pathetic parting of the ways.
The hour had come for the old laboratory force that had done such brilliant and
memorable work to disband, never again to assemble under like conditions for like effort,
although its members all remained active in the field, and many have ever since been
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 for the demands 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 to 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. John- son 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 centre 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, Batchelor, and Upton in conference, and "Edison informed me that Mr.
Batchelor, who was in charge of the construction, development, and operation of the
lamp factory, was soon to sail for 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 Insull, whose interesting narrative of events fits admirably into the
story at this stage, and gives a vivid idea of the 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 offices 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 to 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's
business.
"I was taken by Johnson direct from the Inman 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 office 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 roller-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 so young a man; I had only just turned twenty-one, 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 twenty-nine years since that first meeting. I had
been connected with Edison's affairs in England as 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 a
prominent man, 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 falling over the stiff
bosom of a white shirt somewhat the worse for wear. He had a large wide-awake hat of
the sombrero pattern then generally used in this country, and a rough, brown overcoat,
cut 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 is best expressed
by the word `careless.' "
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