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Abstract

THIS book is an evident compilation, principally of newspaper cuttings from the other side of the Atlantic. The authors are Americans. Edison is posed as the inventor of the duplex and quadruplex systems of telegraphy, though each was invented in Europe when he was seven years old; while Morse is lauded as having sent the first telegram in 1844, when telegraphy was seven years old, and flourishing well in England. Edison's grandfather lived to be 102 years old, his father is now living at 83. It is to be hoped that he will live long enough to tire out these foolish defamers of his true merit, for merit, industry, and inventive skill he certainly has. Personally he is a charming man, and impresses one with his modesty and communicativeness. The phonograph, carbon transmitter, and glow lamp are quite sufficient to establish his fame without dragging in apparatus he simply altered or perhaps improved. We read in this silly book, “The very words ‘electric light,’ must stand for ever as closely associated with the name of Edison as is gravitation with Newton or the telescope with Galileo.”