The Social Side Of Edison -2

The Social Side Of Edison -2

 Reference has already been made to the callers upon Edison; and to give simply the

names of persons of distinction would fill many pages of this record. Some were mere

consumers of time; others were gladly welcomed, like Lord Kelvin, the greatest physicist

of the last century, with whom Edison was always in friendly communication. "The first

time I saw Lord Kelvin, he came to my laboratory at Menlo Park in 1876." (He reported

most favorably on Edison's automatic telegraph system at the Philadelphia Exposition of

1876.) "I was then experimenting with sending eight messages simultaneously over a

wire by means of synchronizing tuning-forks. I would take a wire with similar apparatus

at both ends, and would throw it over on one set of instruments, take it away, and get it

back so quickly that you would not miss it, thereby taking advantage of the rapidity of

electricity to perform operations. On my local wire I got it to work very nicely. When Sir

William Thomson (Kelvin) came in the room, he was introduced to me, and had a

number of friends with him. He said: `What have you here?' I told him briefly what it

was. He then turned around, and to my great surprise explained the whole thing to his

friends. Quite a different exhibition was given two weeks later by another well-known

Englishman, also an electrician, who came in with his friends, and I was trying for two

hours to explain it to him and failed."

After the introduction of the electric light, Edison was more than ever in demand socially,

but he shunned functions like the plague, not only because of the serious interference

with work, but because of his deafness. Some dinners he had to attend, but a man who ate

little and heard less could derive practically no pleasure from them. "George Washington

Childs was very anxious I should go down to Philadelphia to dine with him. I seldom

went to dinners. He insisted I should go--that a special car would leave New York. It was

for me to meet Mr. Joseph Chamberlain. We had the private car of Mr. Roberts, President

of the Pennsylvania Railroad. We had one of those celebrated dinners that only Mr.

Childs could give, and I heard speeches from Charles Francis Adams and dif- ferent

people. When I came back to the depot, Mr. Roberts was there, and insisted on carrying

my satchel for me. I never could understand that."

Among the more distinguished visitors of the electric- lighting period was President Diaz,

with whom Edison became quite intimate. "President Diaz, of Mexico, visited this

country with Mrs. Diaz, a highly educated and beautiful woman. She spoke very good

English. They both took a deep interest in all they saw. I don't know how it ever came

about, as it is not in my line, but I seemed to be delegated to show them around. I took

them to railroad buildings, electric-light plants, fire departments, and showed them a

great variety of things. It lasted two days." Of another visit Edison says: "Sitting Bull and

fifteen Sioux Indians came to Washington to see the Great Father, and then to New York,

and went to the Goerck Street works. We could make some very good pyrotechnics there,

so we determined to give the Indians a scare. But it didn't work. We had an arc there of a

most terrifying character, but they never moved a muscle." Another episode at Goerck

Street did not find the visitors quite so stoical. "In testing dynamos at Goerck Street we

had a long flat belt running parallel with the floor, about four inches above it, and

travelling four thousand feet a minute. One day one of the directors brought in three or

four ladies to the works to see the new electric-light system. One of the ladies had a little

poodle led by a string. The belt was running so smoothly and evenly, the poodle did not

notice the difference between it and the floor, and got into the belt before we could do

anything. The dog was whirled around forty or fifty times, and a little flat piece of leather

came out--and the ladies fainted."