The Value Of Edison's Inventions To The World - 2

The Value Of Edison's Inventions To The World - 2

When it is stated that the gross earnings of these central stations approximate the sum of

$225,000,000 yearly, the significant import of these statistics of an art that came so

largely from Edison's laboratory about thirty years ago will undoubtedly be apparent.

But the above are not by any means all the facts relating to incandescent electric lighting

in the United States, for in addition to central stations there are upward of 100,000

isolated or private plants in mills, factories, steamships, hotels, theatres, etc., owned by

the persons or concerns who operate them. These plants represent an approximate

investment of $500,000,000, and the connection of not less than 25,000,000 incandescent

lamps or their equivalent.

Then there are the factories where these incandescent lamps are made, about forty in

number, repre- sensing a total investment that may be approximated at $25,000,000. It is

true that many of these factories are operated by other than the interests which came into

control of the Edison patents (General Electric Company), but the 150,000,000

incandescent electric lamps now annually made are broadly covered in principle by

Edison's fundamental ideas and patents.

It will be noted that these figures are all in round numbers, but they are believed to be

well within the mark, being primarily founded upon the special reports of the Census

Bureau issued in 1902 and 1907, with the natural increase from that time computed by

experts who are in position to obtain the facts. It would be manifestly impossible to give

exact figures of such a gigantic and swiftly moving industry, whose totals increase from

week to week.

The reader will naturally be disposed to ask whether it is intended to claim that Edison

has brought about all this magnificent growth of the electric-lighting art. The answer to

this is decidedly in the negative, for the fact is that he laid some of the foundation and

erected a building thereon, and in the natural progressive order of things other inventors

of more or less fame have laid substructures or added a wing here and a story there until

the resultant great structure has attained such proportions as to evoke the admiration of

the beholder; but the old foundation and the fundamental building still remain to support

other parts. In other words, Edison created the incandescent electric lamp, and invented

certain broad and fundamental systems of distribution of current, with all the essential

devices of detail necessary for successful operation. These formed a foundation. He also

spent great sums of money and devoted several years of patient labor in the early

practical exploitation of the dynamo and central station and isolated plants, often under,

adverse and depressing circumstances, with a dogged determination that outlived an

opposition steadily threatening defeat. These efforts resulted in the firm commercial

establishment of modern electric lighting. It is true that many important inventions of

others have a distinguished place in the art as it is exploited today, but the fact remains

that the broad essentials, such as the incandescent lamp, systems of distribution, and

some important details, are not only universally used, but are as necessary to-day for

successful commercial practice as they were when Edison invented them many years ago.

The electric railway next claims our consideration, but we are immediately confronted by

a difficulty which seems insurmountable when we attempt to formulate any definite

estimate of the value and influence of Edison's pioneer work and inventions. There is one

incontrovertible fact--namely, that he was the first man to devise, construct, and operate

from a central station a practicable, life-size electric railroad, which was capable of

transporting and did transport passengers and freight at variable speeds over varying

grades, and under complete control of the operator. These are the essential elements in all

electric railroading of the present day; but while Edison's original broad ideas are

embodied in present practice, the perfection of the modern electric railway is greatly due

to the labors and inventions of a large number of other well-known inventors. There was

no reason why Edison could not have continued the commercial development of the

electric railway after he had helped to show its practicability in 1880, 1881, and 1882,

just as he had completed his lighting system, had it not been that his financial allies of the

period lacked faith in the possibilities of electric railroads, and therefore declined to

furnish the money necessary for the purpose of carrying on the work.

With these facts in mind, we shall ask the reader to assign to Edison a due proportion of

credit for his pioneer and basic work in relation to the prodigious development of electric

railroading that has since taken place. The statistics of 1908 for American street and

elevated railways show that within twenty- five years the electric-railway industry has

grown to embrace 38,812 miles of track on streets and for elevated railways, operated

under the ownership of 1238 separate companies, whose total capitalization amounted to

the enormous sum of $4,123,834,598. In the equipments owned by such companies there

are included 68,636 electric cars and 17,568 trailers and others, making a total of 86,204

of such vehicles. These cars and equipments earned over $425,000,000 in 1907, in giving

the public transportation, at a cost, including transfers, of a little over three cents per

passenger, for whom a fifteen-mile ride would be possible. It is the cheapest

transportation in the world.

Some mention should also be made of the great electrical works of the country, in which

the dynamos, motors, and other varied paraphernalia are made for electric lighting,

electric railway, and other purposes. The largest of these works is undoubtedly that of the

General Electric Company at Schenectady, New York, a continuation and enormous

enlargement of the shops which Edison established there in 1886. This plant at the

present time embraces over 275 acres, of which sixty acres are covered by fifty large and

over one hundred small buildings; besides which the company also owns other large

plants elsewhere, representing a total investment approximating the sum of $34,850,000

up to 1908. The productions of the General Electric Company alone average annual sales

of nearly $75,000,000, but they do not comprise the total of the country's manufactures in

these lines.