Edison at a school
There are many others.
Do you wonder that he is called "The Wizard of Menlo Park?"
But his crowning discovery is the electric light.
Some gentlemen of New York put one hundred thousand dollars into Mr. Edison's hands.
They told him to experiment until he could make a light which every one would be glad to use.
Many had tried to do this and had not succeeded.
It is said that he tried two thousand substances for the arch in his glass globe before he found one which suited him.
Do you know what he chose at last?
Do you remember the plant which the boys and girls of India, China, and Japan know so well?
It is the bamboo.
And it was bamboo which Mr. Edison chose.
Oh, how glad this light made many people!
In ten cotton factories in one town were men, women, and children working.
They worked in rooms where gas was used.
The gas injured their eyes and health.
Now in those same factories there are sixty thousand electric lights.
The bamboo burns six hundred hours before it has to be replaced.
Would you like a picture of Mr. Edison?
Close your eyes then and think of him like this.
He is five feet ten inches high.
His face is boyish, but earnest.
He has light gray eyes.
His hair is dark, slightly gray, and falls over his forehead.
He is a pleasant man to see.
He loves his work.
For ten years he has averaged eighteen hour's work a day.
You have seen that he is not a man to give up easily.
Once an invention of his—a printing press—failed.
He took five men into the upper part of his factory.
He declared he would never come down until it worked satisfactorily.
For two days and nights, and for twelve hours more, he worked without sleep.
He conquered the difficulty.
Then he slept thirty hours.
He often works all night.
He says he can work best when the rest of the world sleeps.
But he likes fun, too.
One day he said to his old friend, of whom he learned telegraphing,
"Look here—I am able to send a message from New York to Boston without any wire at all."
"That is impossible," said his friend.
"Oh, no, it's a new invention."
"Well, how is it done?" said Mr. McKensie.
"By sealing it up and sending by mail," was the comical answer.
He has two children.
One, a girl, Mary, is nicknamed "Dot."
The other, a son, Thomas, is called "Dash."
Mr. Edison doesn't like to have great dinners given in his honor.
But the world gives him great honors.
At the Paris Exposition in 1881, two great rooms were filled with his inventions.
The rooms were lighted with his lights.
He receives letters daily in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, and Turkish.
Mr. Edison says, "Anything is possible with electricity."
That he is a genius, nobody can deny.
But do you suppose he could have done all these things without his great reading, or if he had been a lazy person?
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