The Social Side Of Edison -7

The Social Side Of Edison -7

 But perhaps this further story is a better indication of developed humor and shrewdness:

"A man by the name of Epstein had been in the habit of buying brass chips and trimmings

from the lathes, and in some way Bergmann found out that he had been cheated. This hurt

his pride, and he determined to get even. One day Epstein appeared and said: `Goodmorning,

Mr. Bergmann, have you any chips to-day?' `No,' said Bergmann, `I have none.'

`That's strange, Mr. Bergmann; won't you look?' No, he wouldn't look; he knew he had

none. Finally Epstein was so persistent that Bergmann called an assistant and told him to

go and see if he had any chips. He returned and said they had the largest and finest lot

they ever had. Epstein went up to several boxes piled full of chips, and so heavy that he

could not lift even one end of a box. `Now, Mr. Bergmann,' said Epstein, `how much for

the lot?' `Epstein,' said Bergmann, `you have cheated me, and I will no longer sell by the

lot, but will sell only by the pound.' No amount of argument would apparently change

Bergmann's determination to sell by the pound, but finally Epstein got up to $250 for the

lot, and Bergmann, appearing as if disgusted, accepted and made him count out the

money. Then he said: `Well, Epstein, good-bye, I've got to go down to Wall Street.'

Epstein and his assistant then attempted to lift the boxes to carry them out, but couldn't;

and then discovered that cal- culations as to quantity had been thrown out because the

boxes had all been screwed down to the floor and mostly filled with boards with a veneer

of brass chips. He made such a scene that he had to be removed by the police. I met him

several days afterward and he said he had forgiven Mr. Bergmann, as he was such a smart

business man, and the scheme was so ingenious.

"One day as a joke I filled three or four sheets of foolscap paper with a jumble of figures

and told Bergmann they were calculations showing the great loss of power from blowing

the factory whistle. Bergmann thought it real, and never after that would he permit the

whistle to blow."

Another glimpse of the "social side" is afforded in the following little series of penpictures

of the same place and time: "I had my laboratory at the top of the Bergmann

works, after moving from Menlo Park. The building was six stories high. My father came

there when he was eighty years of age. The old man had powerful lungs. In fact, when I

was examined by the Mutual Life Insurance Company, in 1873, my lung expansion was

taken by the doctor, and the old gentleman was there at the time. He said to the doctor: `I

wish you would take my lung expansion, too.' The doctor took it, and his surprise was

very great, as it was one of the largest on record. I think it was five and one-half inches.

There were only three or four could beat it. Little Bergmann hadn't much lung power.

The old man said to him, one day: `Let's run up-stairs.' Bergmann agreed and ran up.

When they got there Bergmann was all done up, but my father never showed a sign of it.

There was an elevator there, and each day while it was travelling up I held the stem of my

Waterbury watch up against the column in the elevator shaft and it finished the winding

by the time I got up the six stories." This original method of reducing the amount of

physical labor involved in watch-winding brings to mind another instance of shrewdness

mentioned by Edison, with regard to his newsboy days. Being asked whether he did not

get imposed upon with bad bank-bills, he replied that he subscribed to a bank-note

detector and consulted it closely whenever a note of any size fell into his hands. He was

then less than fourteen years old.