The Value Of Edison's Inventions To The World - 6

The Value Of Edison's Inventions To The World - 6

 Thus far we have concerned ourselves chiefly with those figures which exhibit the extent

of investment and production, but there is another and humanly important side that

presents itself for consideration namely, the employment of a vast industrial army of men

and women, who earn a living through their connection with some of the arts and

industries to which our narrative has direct reference. To this the reader's attention will

now be drawn.

The following figures are based upon the Special Reports of the Census Bureau, 1902

and 1907, with additions computed upon the increase that has subsequently taken place.

In the totals following is included the compensation paid to salaried officials and clerks.

Details relating to telegraph systems are omitted.

Taking the electric light into consideration first, we find that in the central stations of the

United States there are not less than an average of 50,000 persons employed, requiring an

aggregate yearly pay- roll of over $40,000,000. This does not include the 100,000 or

more isolated electric-light plants scattered throughout the land. Many of these are quite

large, and at least one-third of them require one additional helper, thus adding, say,

33,000 employees to the number already mentioned. If we assume as low a wage as $10

per week for each of these helpers, we must add to the foregoing an additional sum of

over $17,000,000 paid annually for wages, almost entirely in the isolated incandescent

electric lighting field.

Central stations and isolated plants consume over 100,000,000 incandescent electric

lamps annually, and in the production of these there are engaged about forty factories, on

whose pay-rolls appear an average of 14,000 employees, earning an aggregate yearly sum

of $8,000,000.

Following the incandescent lamp we must not forget an industry exclusively arising from

it and absolutely dependent upon it--namely, that of making fixtures for such lamps, the

manufacture of which gives employment to upward of 6000 persons, who annually

receive at least $3,750,000 in compensation.

The detail devices of the incandescent electric lighting system also contribute a large

quota to the country's wealth in the millions of dollars paid out in salaries and wages to

many thousands of persons who are engaged in their manufacture.

The electric railways of our country show even larger figures than the lighting stations

and plants, as they employ on the average over 250,000 persons, whose annual

compensation amounts to not less than $155,000,000.

In the manufacture of about $50,000,000 worth of dynamos and motors annually, for

central-station equipment, isolated plants, electric railways, and other purposes, the

manufacturers of the country employ an average of not less than 30,000 people, whose

yearly pay-roll amounts to no less a sum than $20,000,000,

The growth of the telephone systems of the United States also furnishes us with statistics

of an analogous nature, for we find that the average number of employees engaged in this

industry is at least 140,000, whose annual earnings aggregate a minimum of $75,000,000;

besides which the manufacturers of telephone apparatus employ over 12,000 persons, to

whom is paid annually about $5,500,000.

No attempt is made to include figures of collateral industries, such, for instance, as

copper, which is very closely allied with the electrical arts, and the great bulk of which is

refined electrically.

The 8000 or so motion-picture theatres of the country employ no fewer than 40,000

people, whose aggregate annual income amounts to not less than $37,000,000.

Coming now to the Orange Valley plant, we take a drop from these figures to the

comparatively modest ones which give us an average of 3600 employees and calling for

an annual pay-roll of about $2,250,000. It must be remembered, however, that the sums

mentioned above represent industries operated by great aggregations of capital, while the

Orange Valley plant, as well as the Edison Portland Cement Company, with an average

daily number of 530 employees and over $400,000 annual pay-roll, represent in a large

measure industries that are more in the nature of closely held enterprises and practically

under the direction of one mind.

The table herewith given summarizes the figures that have just been presented, and

affords an idea of the totals affected by the genius of this one man. It is well known that

many other men and many other inventions have been needed for the perfection of these

arts; but it is equally true that, as already noted, some of these industries are directly the

creation of Edison, while in every one of the rest his impress has been deep and

significant. Before he began inventing, only two of them were known at all as arts--

telegraphy and the manufacture of cement. Moreover, these figures deal only with the

United States, and take no account of the development of many of the Edison inventions

in Europe or of their adoption throughout the world at large. Let it suffice