Thomas Alva Edison the Telegraph Boy Who

T HE T E LEG RAP H-BOY W HO BECAME A G REAT INV E NTO R K C. E . E N Y O N ‘ ’ E YS A ND T HE TT E K N A UTHOR OF BRAV BO LI L IGHT, E TC. N E W Y O R K T H O MA S W H I T T A K E R 2 A N D 3 B I B L E H O U S E C HAPT E R PAG E I F RS T WO RK AS A N EWS BOY . I II THE YO U N G N EWS P PE R E D I TO R . A III LEARNI NG THE TE L E GR PH . A E RLY NVE NT ONS IV . A I I V AT LO U S V LLE . I I BOSTO N E X PE R ENCE S V I . I ' V I I U DRU PLEX TE LE GR PHY . QA A V III FROM POVE RTY TO R CHE S . I N E A K BO TO Y AND F TO Y I X . W R LA RA R AC R X MARRIAGE DIVE RS I NVE NTIO NS THE PHONO GRAPH E LE CTRIC RAI LROADI N G ELE CTRIC LIGHT E DI SON AS A WORKE R AND E MPLO YE R THE ORAN GE LABORATO RY THE KINETOSCOPE AN D K INETOGRAPH ORE-M LL G E T N C. I I , — ’ CONCLUSION EDI SON S PRESENT S U RROU NDI NGS L I S T O F I L L U S T R A T I N O S . PAGE ' ' E dison in h is Lib rary Fr ofztzspzece Edison with h is Phonograph Transmitting Cornet S olo in th e Phonograph Tr s mitti Pi l i th P r an ng ano So o n e honog aph . THO MAS A LV A E DI N S O . C H A P T E R I . T A NE Y FIRS WORK S A WSBO . ’ S t e HOMAS ALVA EDI ON , h world s greatest T 3 n elec tric ia n wa s n 5 . livi g inventor and f bor at Milan, W” a dull little canal town in Erie County, Ohio, on ’ r 1 th 1 8 the of February 47 . On his father s side he was descend\ed from an excellent family of Dutch millers, who I emigra ted \(rom Amsterdam to America about the year 1 — ’ 737 . They were men who lived long lives Edison s great-grandfather lived to the age of one hundred and two — years, and his grandfather one hundred and three and from them he inherited the great physical powers of strength and endurance which have marked his wonder ’ fu l r and chequered career. Edison s fathe , Samuel Edison, wa s n a urseryman, dealer in grain, in lumber, and in farm lands, and later, a produce merchant . ’ ’ Edison s mother s maiden name was Nancy Elliot. She was by birth a Scotchwoman, and she had been brought up and educated in Canada. She had a sweet yet s n n tro g i dividuality, and having received a good solid 8 I T K A A N E Y F RS WOR S WSBO . S education in the Canadian High chools, sh e became a t teacher there, in which capaci y she displayed great ability, before marrying Samuel Edison . It is said that there was a very special love between Mrs Edison and her son Thomas . She loved his very presence, and partly for that reason , and partly because of the poverty which came upon them before long, she ’ kept the boy at home, and, except for two months school f. ing, taught him entirely hersel With her he learned not only reading, writing, and arithmetic, but also the great h is object of learning. For she implanted in mind a love of learning, a hunger for knowledge, which is the end of all true education . To her young Edison owed the early teaching and training which gave his mind its strong n bent towards inventio and enterprise . His father, too, ’ c n was so interested in the boy s edu atio , that, by way of a encour ging him to read, whilst reading was for Tom a f v toilsome and di ficult matter, he paid him for e ery o . ! b ok he perused Happy boy, to have such parents Their intelligent sympathy, and the tuition of the mother, caused him to become a great reader, and then practically he took his education into his own hands, and read every thing he came across . An amusing story of his early childhood is given to us on the authority of his only sister. When he was only six o years old, he f und that a goose belonging to the family wa s n n sitti g, and, a little later, saw the asto ishing result in some goslings . He studied this wonderful occurrence in his little mind . Then one day he was missing. He no o was sought everywhere, but one c uld find him, until at length his father discovered him curled up in a sort of h e nest had made for himself in the barn, and filled with a s goose and hen eggs . He wa s keeping them as warm T A E Y FIRS WORK S A N WSBO . 9 h e could in fact, the little boy was sitting on the eggs and trying to hatch them a n in eniou s He was g little fellow, and, even when he wa s n at play, showed the mechanical tur of his mind by a nd l building plank roads, digging caves, exp oring the banks of the canal . But the play had to be soon exchanged for hard work, for, when he was only seven - a o f years old, a wide Spre d depressi n in commercial af airs caused his father to become poorer, and in consequence of this he left his picturesque home in Milan, and took his family to live in the town of Port Huron , Michigan . wa s Here the boy early"set to work to earn his own living, but still he devoted every moment he could to the improvement of his mind . ‘ I ’m ! ’ a bushel of wheat I weigh eighty pounds, he d f Wa s sai , thought ully, to his mother one day when he t only twelve years old . And the observation showed hat he had already begun to compare things with each other in - - an old fashioned, business like manner. Soon after that he became a newsboy on the Grand w a s . Tru nk Railway running into Detroit . It a busy life The American newsboys not only Show themselves and their wares at the railway stations, but accompany the n trai s . In American trains there is an outside passage c a n from one carriage to another, upon which people AS a s walk up and down . soon passengers have taken their seats and have comfortably ensconced themselves u amongst their wraps and r gs, they naturally begin to wonder with what they Shall beguile the tedious time of travelling . Then the newsboy, passing from one carriage a to another, st nds at their elbow, with his tempting display e of papers . Whilst the passenger is reading his newspap r, a little later on, he perhaps feels thirsty, and looking 1 0 I T AS A E Y F RS WORK N WS BO . 10 ! round, there stands the newsboy again before him, i this time w th a tray or basket of fruits and sweets, which w they call candies. Edison , ith his bright smiling face a . and business manner, made a c pital little newsboy When talking of these young days of his, he was once d ‘ - aske , Were you one of the kind of train boys who sell figs in boxes with bottoms half an inch thick ! ’ f To which question he replied, with a merry twinkle o ‘ I his shrewd gray eyes , If recollect right, the bottoms ’ of my boxes were a good inch . At the stations at which the train stopped, the young is newsboy would spring on the platform , and sell h wares h to any one w o would buy. He had secured the exclusive - right as news agent upon that line. a n At Detroit he obtained access to the Free Library, d was so delighted with the s ight of unlimited nu mbers of books that he conceived the idea of reading the entire library, taking the books as they came . He stuck at nothing, reading straight on, and had actually read through fifteen feet of books before his friends discovered what he wa s about and checked his proceedings . Amongst the ’ books he read were Burton s Ana tomy of Mta ne/zo/y ’ ’ ’ Gibbon s D ecline a na Fa ll of t/ze R oma n E mpir e ; Hume s ’ E n la nd Hist r ffistory of g ; . o y of tne Refor ma tion Ure s ’ D ictiona ry of til e S eienees the P enny Cy eiopeea ia and ’ P r inei ia fiwh ic h Newton s p last, however, he could not . of understand Like a wise lad , therefore, he inquired _ wh one o did, and a comparatively uneducated man gave ‘ ’ him a simple and satisfactory explanation .

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