. EDISON, THOMAS ALVA, b. Ohio, 1847, of a mother of Scotch and a father of Dutch descent. The boy had scarcely eight weeks of common school education, but he had a passion for reading, and his education was greatly advanced by the assiduous care of his mother, who, however, died when he was but 15 years old. Before he was 12 he had read Hume and Gibbon, and all that he could get of the Penny Cyclopaclia. He had a liking for chemistry, and such a thirst for all kinds of knowledge, that he firmly resolved to read every important book in the Detroit public library. With this design lie went through Newton's Principia, Ure's Dictionary of Science, and by way of dessert, Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy. Becoming a newsboy on the trains of the Grand, Trunk railroad, his employment introduced him to a more varied range of books. The infection of chemistry clung to him, and was developed by his establishing a laboratory in an empty car. But his chemicals exploded, set the car on fire, and put the train in great danger. The boy and his broken apparatus were promptly thrown out of the car by the indignant conductor. The next venture of the young enthusiast was in getting a small lot of type, and issuing on the train a small sheet called The Grand Trunk Hera-1d. Becoming acquainted with telegraph operators, he determined to learn the art himself. A kind-hearted station-master consented to give him lessons, and for several months Edison returned to that station after a long day's work, and took his regular lessons at night. He became an expert operator, and was employed at Port Mich., Stratford, Canada, and Adrian, Mich, where he also prepared a small workshop and began to repair telegraph instruments and manufacture other novel machinery. From this place he went to Indianapolis, where he invented his automatic repeater, an instru ment by which messages are transferred from one wire to another without the aid of an operator. He wandered to Cincinnati, Louisville, Memphis, and New Orleans, returned
to Cincinnati, and at the age of DO began to be known as a successful inventor. But he was called to Boston on telegraph business, having become famous as one of the most expert of operators, and there he set up a shop for his experiments. Testing, in 1870, between Rochester, N. Y.,' and Boston, his new invention of duplex telegraphing, he was not successful; but he was employed by the gold indicator company in New York, of which he became superintendent. While in this position he brought out some new inventions, and introduced improved apparatus. A.t the same time he set up a factory in Newark, N. J., for making his novel apparatus and machines. Here he employed 300 persons; but the superintendence took so much of his time that he gave it up, and, in up a small experimenting establishment at Menlo Park, on the Pennsylvania railroad, 24 irL from New York, This establishment has grown to be almost a village in itself, and since the commencement of 1879, has been the Mecca of all men interested in the perfection of artificial lighting by electricity. At the time of this writing (Aug., 1880), he has made no public demonstration, but one is promised ere long, and then he confidently expects to give the world a safe, cheap, and reliable elec tric carbon light that will take the place of nearly all the illuminating materials now in use. The number of inventions, great and small, already patented by Edison, is said to be nearly 200. The most important are the carbon telephone, the phonograph, the micro-tasimeter, the aN.ophone, the megaphone, the phonometer,. the electric pen, and especially the quadruplex system of telegraphing, by means of which four messages at, the same time may be sent in opposite directions over a single wire, and perfectly delivered.