chapter12.txt

CHAPTER XII







MEMORIES OF MENLO PARK







FROM the spring of 1876 to 1886 Edison lived and



did his work at Menlo Park; and at this stage



of the narrative, midway in that interesting and



eventful period, it is appropriate to offer a few notes



and jottings on the place itself, around which tradition



is already weaving its fancies, just as at the time



the outpouring of new inventions from it invested



the name with sudden prominence and with the



glamour of romance. "In 1876 I moved," says Edison,



"to Menlo Park, New Jersey, on the Pennsylvania



Railroad, several miles below Elizabeth. The



move was due to trouble I had about rent. I had



rented a small shop in Newark, on the top floor of



a padlock factory, by the month. I gave notice that



I would give it up at the end of the month, paid the



rent, moved out, and delivered the keys. Shortly



afterward I was served with a paper, probably a



judgment, wherein I was to pay nine months' rent.



There was some law, it seems, that made a monthly



renter liable for a year. This seemed so unjust that I



determined to get out of a place that permitted such



injustice." For several Sundays he walked through



different parts of New Jersey with two of his assistants



before he decided on Menlo Park. The change was



a fortunate one, for the inventor had married Miss



Mary E. Stillwell, and was now able to establish himself



comfortably with his wife and family while enjoying



immediate access to the new laboratory. Every



moment thus saved was valuable.







To-day the place and region have gone back to the



insignificance from which Edison's genius lifted them



so startlingly. A glance from the car windows



reveals only a gently rolling landscape dotted with



modest residences and unpretentious barns; and



there is nothing in sight by way of memorial to suggest



that for nearly a decade this spot was the scene



of the most concentrated and fruitful inventive activity



the world has ever known. Close to the Menlo Park



railway station is a group of gaunt and deserted buildings,



shelter of the casual tramp, and slowly crumbling



away when not destroyed by the carelessness of



some ragged smoker. This silent group of buildings



comprises the famous old laboratory and workshops



of Mr. Edison, historic as being the birthplace of the



carbon transmitter, the phonograph, the incandescent



lamp, and the spot where Edison also worked



out his systems of electrical distribution, his



commercial dynamo, his electric railway, his megaphone,



his tasimeter, and many other inventions of greater



or lesser degree. Here he continued, moreover, his



earlier work on the quadruplex, sextuplex, multiplex,



and automatic telegraphs, and did his notable pioneer



work in wireless telegraphy. As the reader knows,



it had been a master passion with Edison from boyhood



up to possess a laboratory, in which with free



use of his own time and powers, and with command



of abundant material resources, he could wrestle with



Nature and probe her closest secrets. Thus, from the



little cellar at Port Huron, from the scant shelves in



a baggage car, from the nooks and corners of dingy



telegraph offices, and the grimy little shops in New



York and Newark, he had now come to the proud



ownership of an establishment to which his favorite



word "laboratory" might justly be applied. Here



he could experiment to his heart's content and invent



on a larger, bolder scale than ever--and he did!







Menlo Park was the merest hamlet. Omitting the



laboratory structures, it had only about seven houses,



the best looking of which Edison lived in, a place that



had a windmill pumping water into a reservoir. One



of the stories of the day was that Edison had his



front gate so connected with the pumping plant that



every visitor as he opened or closed the gate added



involuntarily to the supply in the reservoir. Two or



three of the houses were occupied by the families of



members of the staff; in the others boarders were



taken, the laboratory, of course, furnishing all the



patrons. Near the railway station was a small



saloon kept by an old Scotchman named Davis,



where billiards were played in idle moments, and



where in the long winter evenings the hot stove was



a centre of attraction to loungers and story-tellers.



The truth is that there was very little social life of



any kind possible under the strenuous conditions prevailing



at the laboratory, where, if anywhere, relaxation



was enjoyed at odd intervals of fatigue and waiting.







The main laboratory was a spacious wooden building



of two floors. The office was in this building at



first, until removed to the brick library when that



was finished. There S. L. Griffin, an old telegraph



friend of Edison, acted as his secretary and had charge



of a voluminous and amazing correspondence. The



office employees were the Carman brothers and the



late John F. Randolph, afterwards secretary. According



to Mr. Francis Jehl, of Budapest, then one of the



staff, to whom the writers are indebted for a great



deal of valuable data on this period: "It was on the



upper story of this laboratory that the most important



experiments were executed, and where the incandescent



lamp was born. This floor consisted of a



large hall containing several long tables, upon which



could be found all the various instruments, scientific



and chemical apparatus that the arts at that time



could produce. Books lay promiscuously about,



while here and there long lines of bichromate-of-



potash cells could be seen, together with experimental



models of ideas that Edison or his assistants were



engaged upon. The side walls of this hall were lined



with shelves filled with bottles, phials, and other



receptacles containing every imaginable chemical and



other material that could be obtained, while at the



end of this hall, and near the organ which stood in



the rear, was a large glass case containing the world's



most precious metals in sheet and wire form, together



with very rare and costly chemicals. When evening



came on, and the last rays of the setting sun penetrated



through the side windows, this hall looked like



a veritable Faust laboratory.







"On the ground floor we had our testing-table,



which stood on two large pillars of brick built deep



into the earth in order to get rid of all vibrations on



account of the sensitive instruments that were upon



it. There was the Thomson reflecting mirror galvanometer



and electrometer, while nearby were the



standard cells by which the galvanometers were



adjusted and standardized. This testing-table was



connected by means of wires with all parts of the



laboratory and machine-shop, so that measurements



could be conveniently made from a distance, as in



those days we had no portable and direct-reading



instruments, such as now exist. Opposite this table we



installed, later on, our photometrical chamber, which



was constructed on the Bunsen principle. A little



way from this table, and separated by a partition,



we had the chemical laboratory with its furnaces and



stink-chambers. Later on another chemical laboratory



was installed near the photometer-room, and this



Dr. A. Haid had charge of."







Next to the laboratory in importance was the machine-



shop, a large and well-lighted building of brick,



at one end of which there was the boiler and engine-



room. This shop contained light and heavy lathes,



boring and drilling machines, all kinds of planing



machines; in fact, tools of all descriptions, so that



any apparatus, however delicate or heavy, could be



made and built as might be required by Edison in



experimenting. Mr. John Kruesi had charge of this



shop, and was assisted by a number of skilled mechanics,



notably John Ott, whose deft fingers and



quick intuitive grasp of the master's ideas are still



in demand under the more recent conditions at the



Llewellyn Park laboratory in Orange.







Between the machine-shop and the laboratory was



a small building of wood used as a carpenter-shop,



where Tom Logan plied his art. Nearby was the



gasoline plant. Before the incandescent lamp was



perfected, the only illumination was from gasoline



gas; and that was used later for incandescent-lamp



glass-blowing, which was done in another small building



on one side of the laboratory. Apparently little



or no lighting service was obtained from the Wallace-



Farmer arc lamps secured from Ansonia, Connecticut.



The dynamo was probably needed for Edison's own



experiments.







On the outskirts of the property was a small building



in which lampblack was crudely but carefully



manufactured and pressed into very small cakes, for



use in the Edison carbon transmitters of that time.



The night-watchman, Alfred Swanson, took care of



this curious plant, which consisted of a battery of



petroleum lamps that were forced to burn to the



sooting point. During his rounds in the night Swanson



would find time to collect from the chimneys the



soot that the lamps gave. It was then weighed out



into very small portions, which were pressed into



cakes or buttons by means of a hand-press. These



little cakes were delicately packed away between



layers of cotton in small, light boxes and sh...