The Laboratory At Orange And The Staff - 7

The Laboratory At Orange And The Staff - 7

 Last to be mentioned, but the first in order as one leaves the head of the stairs leading up

to this floor, is No. 12, Edison's favorite room, where he will frequently be found. Plain

of aspect, being merely a space boarded off with tongued-and-grooved planks--as all the

other rooms are--without ornament or floor covering, and containing only a few articles

of cheap furniture, this room seems to exercise a nameless charm for him. The door is

always open, and often he can be seen seated at a plain table in the centre of the room,

deeply intent on some of the numerous problems in which he is interested. The table is

usually pretty well filled with specimens or data of experimental results which have been

put there for his examination. At the time of this writing these specimens consist largely

of sections of positive elements of the storage battery, together with many samples of

nickel hydrate, to which Edison devotes deep study. Close at hand is a microscope which

is in frequent use by him in these investigations. Around the room, on shelves, are

hundreds of bottles each containing a small quantity of nickel hydrate made in as many

different ways, each labelled correspondingly. Always at hand will be found one or two

of the laboratory note-books, with frequent entries or comments in the handwriting which

once seen is never forgotten.

No. 12 is at times a chemical, a physical, or a mechanical room--occasionally a

combination of all, while sometimes it might be called a consultation- room or clinic--for

often Edison may be seen there in animated conference with a group of his assistants; but

its chief distinction lies in its being one of his favorite haunts, and in the fact that within

its walls have been settled many of the perplexing problems and momentous questions

that have brought about great changes in electrical and engineering arts during the

twenty-odd years that have elapsed since the Orange laboratory was built.

Passing now to the top floor the visitor finds himself at the head of a broad hall running

almost the entire length of the building, and lined mostly with glass-fronted cabinets

containing a multitude of experimental incandescent lamps and an immense variety of

models of phonographs, motors, telegraph and telephone apparatus, meters, and a host of

other inventions upon which Edison's energies have at one time and another been bent.

Here also are other cabinets containing old papers and records, while further along the

wall are piled up boxes of historical models and instruments. In fact, this hallway, with its

conglomerate contents, may well be considered a scientific attic. It is to be hoped that at

no distant day these Edisoniana will be assembled and arranged in a fireproof museum

for the benefit of posterity.

In the front end of the building, and extending over the library, is a large room intended

originally and used for a time as the phonograph music-hall for record-making, but now

used only as an experimental- room for phonograph work, as the growth of the industry

has necessitated a very much larger and more central place where records can be made on

a commercial scale. Even the experimental work imposes no slight burden on it. On each

side of the hallway above mentioned, rooms are partitioned off and used for experimental

work of various kinds, mostly phonographic, although on this floor are also located the

storage-battery testing-room, a chemical and physical room and Edison's private office,

where all his personal correspondence and business affairs are conducted by his personal

secretary, Mr. H. F. Miller. A visitor to this upper floor of the laboratory building cannot

but be impressed with a consciousness of the incessant efforts that are being made to

improve the reproducing qualities of the phonograph, as he hears from all sides the

sounds of vocal and instrumental music constantly varying in volume and timbre, due to

changes in the experimental devices under trial.

The traditions of the laboratory include cots placed in many of the rooms of these upper

floors, but that was in the earlier years when the strenuous scenes of Menlo Park were

repeated in the new quarters. Edison and his closest associates were accustomed to carry

their labors far into the wee sma' hours, and when physical nature demanded a respite

from work, a short rest would be obtained by going to bed on a cot. One would naturally

think that the wear and tear of this intense application, day after day and night after night,

would have tended to induce a heaviness and gravity of demeanor in these busy men; but

on the contrary, the old spirit of good- humor and prankishness was ever present, as its

fre- quent outbursts manifested from time to time. One instance will serve as an

illustration. One morning, about 2.30, the late Charles Batchelor announced that he was

tired and would go to bed. Leaving Edison and the others busily working, he went out

and returned quietly in slippered feet, with his nightgown on, the handle of a feather

duster stuck down his back with the feathers waving over his head, and his face marked.

With unearthly howls and shrieks, a l'Indien, he pranced about the room, incidentally

giving Edison a scare that made him jump up from his work. He saw the joke quickly,

however, and joined in the general merriment caused by this prank.