Memories Of Menlo Park - 5

Memories Of Menlo Park - 5

"Mr. Kruesi was the superintendent, a Swiss trained in the best Swiss ideas of accuracy.

He was a splendid mechanic with a vigorous temper, and wonderful ability to work

continuously and to get work out of men. It was an ideal combination, that of Edison,

Batchelor, and Kruesi. Mr. Edison with his wonderful flow of ideas which were sharply

defined in his mind, as can be seen by any of the sketches that he made, as he evidently

always thinks in three dimensions; Mr. Kruesi, willing to take the ideas, and capable of

comprehending them, would distribute the work so as to get it done with marvellous

quickness and great accuracy. Mr. Batchelor was always ready for any special fine

experimenting or observa- tion, and could hold to whatever he was at as long as Mr.

Edison wished; and always brought to bear on what he was at the greatest skill."

While Edison depended upon Upton for his mathematical work, he was wont to check it

up in a very practical manner, as evidenced by the following incident described by Mr.

Jehl: "I was once with Mr. Upton calculating some tables which he had put me on, when

Mr. Edison appeared with a glass bulb having a pear-shaped appearance in his hand. It

was the kind that we were going to use for our lamp experiments; and Mr. Edison asked

Mr. Upton to please calculate for him its cubic contents in centimetres. Now Mr. Upton

was a very able mathematician, who, after he finished his studies at Princeton, went to

Germany and got his final gloss under that great master, Helmholtz. Whatever he did and

worked on was executed in a pure mathematical manner, and any wrangler at Oxford

would have been delighted to see him juggle with integral and differential equations, with

a dexterity that was surprising. He drew the shape of the bulb exactly on paper, and got

the equation of its lines with which he was going to calculate its contents, when Mr.

Edison again appeared and asked him what it was. He showed Edison the work he had

already done on the subject, and told him that he would very soon finish calculating it.

`Why,' said Edison, `I would simply take that bulb and fill it with mercury and weigh it;

and from the weight of the mercury and its specific gravity I'll get it in five minutes, and

use less mental energy than is necessary in such a fatiguing operation.' "

Menlo Park became ultimately the centre of Edison's business life as it was of his

inventing. After the short distasteful period during the introduction of his lighting system,

when he spent a large part of his time at the offices at 65 Fifth Avenue, New York, or on

the actual work connected with the New York Edison installation, he settled back again

in Menlo Park altogether. Mr. Samuel Insull describes the business methods which

prevailed throughout the earlier Menlo Park days of "storm and stress," and the curious

conditions with which he had to deal as private secretary: "I never attempted to

systematize Edison's business life. Edison's whole method of work would upset the

system of any office. He was just as likely to be at work in his laboratory at midnight as

midday. He cared not for the hours of the day or the days of the week. If he was

exhausted he might more likely be asleep in the middle of the day than in the middle of

the night, as most of his work in the way of inventions was done at night. I used to run his

office on as close business methods as my experience admitted; and I would get at him

whenever it suited his convenience. Sometimes he would not go over his mail for days at

a time; but other times he would go regularly to his office in the morning. At other times

my engagements used to be with him to go over his business affairs at Menlo Park at

night, if I was occupied in New York during the day. In fact, as a matter of convenience I

used more often to get at him at night, as it left my days free to transact his affairs, and

enabled me, probably at a midnight luncheon, to get a few minutes of his time to look

over his correspondence and get his directions as to what I should do in some particular

negotiation or matter of finance. While it was a matter of suiting Edison's convenience as

to when I should transact business with him, it also suited my own ideas, as it enabled me

after getting through my business with him to enjoy the privilege of watching him at his

work, and to learn something about the technical side of matters. Whatever knowledge I

may have of the electric light and power industry I feel I owe it to the tuition of Edison.

He was about the most willing tutor, and I must confess that he had to be a patient one."