The Stock Ticker - 3

The Stock Ticker - 3

It was at this juncture that Edison reached New York, and according to his own statement

found shelter at night in the battery-room of the Gold Indicator Company, having

meantime applied for a position as operator with the Western Union. He had to wait a

few days, and during this time he seized the opportunity to study the indicators and the

complicated general transmitter in the office, controlled from the keyboard of the

operator on the floor of the Gold Exchange. What happened next has been the basis of

many inaccurate stories, but is dramatic enough as told in Mr. Edison's own version: "On

the third day of my arrival and while sitting in the office, the complicated general

instrument for sending on all the lines, and which made a very great noise, suddenly

came to a stop with a crash. Within two minutes over three hundred boys--a boy from

every broker in the street--rushed up-stairs and crowded the long aisle and office, that

hardly had room for one hundred, all yelling that such and such a broker's wire was out of

order and to fix it at once. It was pandemonium, and the man in charge became so excited

that he lost control of all the knowledge he ever had. I went to the indicator, and, having

studied it thoroughly, knew where the trouble ought to be, and found it. One of the

innumerable contact springs had broken off and had fallen down between the two gear

wheels and stopped the instrument; but it was not very noticeable. As I went out to tell

the man in charge what the matter was, Doctor Laws appeared on the scene, the most

excited person I had seen. He demanded of the man the cause of the trouble, but the man

was speechless. I ventured to say that I knew what the trouble was, and he said, `Fix it!

Fix it! Be quick!' I removed the spring and set the contact wheels at zero; and the line,

battery, and inspecting men all scattered through the financial district to set the

instruments. In about two hours things were working again. Doctor Laws came in to ask

my name and what I was doing. I told him, and he asked me to come to his private office

the following day. His office was filled with stacks of books all relating to metaphysics

and kindred matters. He asked me a great many questions about the instruments and his

system, and I showed him how he could simplify things generally. He then requested that

I should call next day. On arrival, he stated at once that he had decided to put me in

charge of the whole plant, and that my salary would be $300 per month! This was such a

violent jump from anything I had ever seen before, that it rather paralyzed me for a while,

I thought it was too much to be lasting, but I determined to try and live up to that salary if

twenty hours a day of hard work would do it. I kept this position, made many

improvements, devised several stock tickers, until the Gold & Stock Telegraph Company

consolidated with the Gold Indicator Company." Certainly few changes in fortune have

been more sudden and dramatic in any notable career than this which thus placed an illclad,

unkempt, half-starved, eager lad in a position of such responsibility in days when

the fluctuations in the price of gold at every instant meant fortune or ruin to thousands.

Edison, barely twenty-one years old, was a keen observer of the stirring events around

him. "Wall Street" is at any time an interesting study, but it was never at a more agitated

and sensational period of its history than at this time. Edison's arrival in New York

coincided with an active speculation in gold which may, indeed, be said to have provided

him with occupation; and was soon followed by the attempt of Mr. Jay Gould and his

associates to corner the gold market, precipitating the panic of Black Friday, September

24, 1869. Securing its import duties in the precious metal and thus assisting to create an

artificial stringency in the gold market, the Government had made it a practice to relieve

the situation by selling a million of gold each month. The metal was thus restored to

circulation. In some manner, President Grant was persuaded that general conditions and

the movement of the crops would be helped if the sale of gold were suspended for a time;

and, this put into effect, he went to visit an old friend in Pennsylvania remote from

railroads and telegraphs. The Gould pool had acquired control of $10,000,000 in gold,

and drove the price upward rapidly from 144 toward their goal of 200. On Black Friday

they purchased another $28,000,000 at 160, and still the price went up. The financial and

commercial interests of the country were in panic; but the pool persevered in its effort to

corner gold, with a profit of many millions contingent on success. Yielding to frantic

requests, President Grant, who returned to Washington, caused Secretary Boutwell, of the

Treasury, to throw $4,000,000 of gold into the market. Relief was instantaneous, the

corner was broken, but the harm had been done. Edison's remarks shed a vivid side-light

on this extraordinary episode: "On Black Friday," he says, "we had a very exciting time

with the indicators. The Gould and Fisk crowd had cornered gold, and had run the

quotations up faster than the indicator could follow. The indicator was composed of

several wheels; on the circumference of each wheel were the numerals; and one wheel

had fractions. It worked in the same way as an ordinary counter; one wheel made ten

revolutions, and at the tenth it advanced the adjacent wheel; and this in its turn having

gone ten revolutions, advanced the next wheel, and so on. On the morning of Black

Friday the indicator was quoting 150 premium, whereas the bids by Gould's agents in the

Gold Room were 165 for five millions or any part. We had a paper-weight at the

transmitter (to speed it up), and by one o'clock reached the right quotation. The

excitement was prodigious. New Street, as well as Broad Street, was jammed with

excited people. I sat on the top of the Western Union telegraph booth to watch the

surging, crazy crowd. One man came to the booth, grabbed a pencil, and attempted to

write a message to Boston. The first stroke went clear off the blank; he was so excited

that he had the operator write the message for him. Amid great excitement Speyer, the

banker, went crazy and it took five men to hold him; and everybody lost their head. The

Western Union operator came to me and said: `Shake, Edison, we are O. K. We haven't

got a cent.' I felt very happy because we were poor. These occasions are very enjoyable to

a poor man; but they occur rarely."