The Laboratory At Orange And The Staff - 5

The Laboratory At Orange And The Staff - 5

 Directly opposite the main door is a beautiful marble statue purchased by Edison at the

Paris Exposition in 1889, on the occasion of his visit there. The statue, mounted on a base

three feet high, is an allegorical representation of the supremacy of electric light over all

other forms of illumination, carried out by the life-size figure of a youth with half-spread

wings seated upon the ruins of a street gas-lamp, holding triumphantly high above his

head an electric incandescent lamp. Grouped about his feet are a gear-wheel, voltaic pile,

telegraph key, and telephone. This work of art was executed by A. Bordiga, of Rome,

held a prominent place in the department devoted to Italian art at the Paris Exposition,

and naturally appealed to Edison as soon as he saw it.

In the middle distance, between the entrance door and this statue, has long stood a

magnificent palm, but at the present writing it has been set aside to give place to a fine

model of the first type of the Edison poured cement house, which stands in a miniature

artificial lawn upon a special table prepared for it; while on the floor at the foot of the

table are specimens of the full-size molds in which the house will be cast.

The balustrades of the galleries and all other available places are filled with portraits of

great scientists and men of achievement, as well as with pictures of historic and scientific

interest. Over the fireplace hangs a large photograph showing the Edison cement plant in

its entire length, flanked on one end of the mantel by a bust of Humboldt, and on the

other by a statuette of Sandow, the latter having been presented to Edison by the

celebrated athlete after the visit he made to Orange to pose for the motion pictures in the

earliest days of their development. On looking up under the second gallery at this end is

seen a great roll resting in sockets placed on each side of the room. This is a huge screen

or curtain which may be drawn down to the floor to provide a means of projection for

lantern slides or motion pictures, for the entertainment or instruction of Edison and his

guests. In one of the larger alcoves is a large terrestrial globe pivoted in its special stand,

together with a relief map of the United States; and here and there are handsomely

mounted specimens of underground conductors and electric welds that were made at the

Edison Machine Works at Schenectady before it was merged into the General Electric

Company. On two pedestals stand, respectively, two other mementoes of the works, one a

fifteen-light dynamo of the Edison type, and the other an elaborate electric fan--both of

them gifts from associates or employees.

In noting these various objects of interest one must not lose sight of the fact that this part

of the building is primarily a library, if indeed that fact did not at once impress itself by a

glance at the well- filled unglazed book-shelves in the alcoves of the main floor. Here

Edison's catholic taste in reading becomes apparent as one scans the titles of thousands of

volumes ranged upon the shelves, for they include astronomy, botany, chemistry,

dynamics, electricity, engineering, forestry, geology, geography, mechanics, mining,

medicine, metallurgy, magnetism, philosophy, psychology, physics, steam, steamengines,

telegraphy, telephony, and many others. Besides these there are the journals and

proceedings of numerous technical societies; encyclopaedias of various kinds; bound

series of important technical magazines; a collection of United States and foreign patents,

embracing some hundreds of volumes, together with an extensive assortment of

miscellaneous books of special and general interest. There is another big library up in the

house on the hill--in fact, there are books upon books all over the home. And wherever

they are, those books are read.

As one is about to pass out of the library attention is arrested by an incongruity in the

form of a cot, which stands in an alcove near the door. Here Edison, throwing himself

down, sometimes seeks a short rest during specially long working tours. Sleep is

practically instantaneous and profound, and he awakes in immediate and full possession

of his faculties, arising from the cot and going directly "back to the job" without a

moment's hesitation, just as a person wide awake would arise from a chair and proceed to

attend to something previously determined upon.

Immediately outside the library is the famous stock-room, about which much has been

written and invented. Its fame arose from the fact that Edison planned it to be a repository

of some quantity, great or small, of every known and possibly useful substance not

readily perishable, together with the most complete assortment of chemicals and drugs

that experience and knowledge could suggest. Always strenuous in his experimentation,

and the living embodiment of the spirit of the song, I Want What I Want When I Want It,

Edison had known for years what it was to be obliged to wait, and sometimes lack, for

some substance or chemical that he thought necessary to the success of an experiment.

Naturally impatient at any delay which interposed in his insistent and searching methods,

and realizing the necessity of maintaining the inspiration attending his work at any time,

he determined to have within his immediate reach the natural resources of the world.