Memories Of Menlo Park - 3

Memories Of Menlo Park - 3

Between the machine-shop and the laboratory was a small building of wood used as a

carpenter-shop, where Tom Logan plied his art. Nearby was the gasoline plant. Before

the incandescent lamp was perfected, the only illumination was from gasoline gas; and

that was used later for incandescent-lamp glass-blowing, which was done in another

small building on one side of the laboratory. Apparently little or no lighting service was

obtained from the Wallace- Farmer arc lamps secured from Ansonia, Connecticut. The

dynamo was probably needed for Edison's own experiments.

On the outskirts of the property was a small building in which lampblack was crudely but

carefully manufactured and pressed into very small cakes, for use in the Edison carbon

transmitters of that time. The night-watchman, Alfred Swanson, took care of this curious

plant, which consisted of a battery of petroleum lamps that were forced to burn to the

sooting point. During his rounds in the night Swanson would find time to collect from the

chimneys the soot that the lamps gave. It was then weighed out into very small portions,

which were pressed into cakes or buttons by means of a hand-press. These little cakes

were delicately packed away between layers of cotton in small, light boxes and shipped

to Bergmann in New York, by whom the telephone transmitters were being made. A little

later the Edison electric railway was built on the confines of the property out through the

woods, at first only a third of a mile in length, but reaching ultimately to Pumptown,

almost three miles away.

Mr. Edison's own words may be quoted as to the men with whom he surrounded himself

here and upon whose services he depended principally for help in the accomplishment of

his aims. In an autobiographical article in the Electrical World of March 5, 1904, he says:

"It is interesting to note that in addition to those mentioned above (Charles Batchelor and

Frank Upton), I had around me other men who ever since have remained active in the

field, such as Messrs. Francis Jehl, William J. Hammer, Martin Force, Ludwig K.

Boehm, not forgetting that good friend and co-worker, the late John Kruesi. They found

plenty to do in the various developments of the art, and as I now look back I sometimes

wonder how we did so much in so short a time." Mr. Jehl in his reminiscences adds

another name to the above --namely, that of John W. Lawson, and then goes on to say:

"These are the names of the pioneers of incandescent lighting, who were continuously at

the side of Edison day and night for some years, and who, under his guidance, worked

upon the carbon-filament lamp from its birth to ripe maturity. These men all had

complete faith in his ability and stood by him as on a rock, guarding their work with the

secretiveness of a burglar-proof safe. Whenever it leaked out in the world that Edison

was succeeding in his work on the electric light, spies and others came to the Park; so it

was of the utmost importance that the experiments and their results should be kept a

secret until Edison had secured the protection of the Patent Office." With this staff was

associated from the first Mr. E. H. Johnson, whose work with Mr. Edison lay chiefly,

however, outside the laboratory, taking him to all parts of the country and to Europe.

There were also to be regarded as detached members of it the Bergmann brothers,

manufacturing for Mr. Edison in New York, and incessantly experimenting for him. In

addition there must be included Mr. Samuel Insull, whose activities for many years as

private secretary and financial manager were devoted solely to Mr. Edison's interests,

with Menlo Park as a centre and main source of anxiety as to pay-rolls and other

constantly recurring obligations. The names of yet other associates occur from time to

time in this narrative--"Edison men" who have been very proud of their close relationship

to the inventor and his work at old Menlo. "There was also Mr. Charles L. Clarke, who

devoted himself mainly to engineering matters, and later on acted as chief engineer of the

Edison Electric Light Company for some years. Then there were William Holzer and

James Hipple, both of whom took an active part in the practical development of the glassblowing

department of the laboratory, and, subsequently, at the first Edison lamp factory

at Menlo Park. Later on Messrs. Jehl, Hipple, and Force assisted Mr. Batchelor to install

the lamp-works of the French Edison Company at Ivry-sur-Seine. Then there were

Messrs. Charles T. Hughes, Samuel D. Mott, and Charles T. Mott, who devoted their

time chiefly to commercial affairs. Mr. Hughes conducted most of this work, and later on

took a prominent part in Edison's electric-railway experiments. His business ability was

on a high level, while his personal character endeared him to us all.