chapter08.txt

CHAPTER VIII







AUTOMATIC, DUPLEX, AND QUADRUPLEX



TELEGRAPHY







WORK of various kinds poured in upon the young



manufacturer, busy also with his own schemes



and inventions, which soon began to follow so many



distinct lines of inquiry that it ceases to be easy or



necessary for the historian to treat them all in



chronological sequence. Some notion of his ceaseless



activity may be formed from the fact that he started no



fewer than three shops in Newark during 1870-71,



and while directing these was also engaged by the



men who controlled the Automatic Telegraph Company



of New York, which had a circuit to Washington,



to help it out of its difficulties. "Soon after



starting the large shop (10 and 12 Ward Street,



Newark), I rented shop-room to the inventor of a



new rifle. I think it was the Berdan. In any event,



it was a rifle which was subsequently adopted by the



British Army. The inventor employed a tool-maker



who was the finest and best tool-maker I had ever



seen. I noticed that he worked pretty near the



whole of the twenty-four hours. This kind of application



I was looking for. He was getting $21.50 per



week, and was also paid for overtime. I asked him



if he could run the shop. `I don't know; try me!' he



said. `All right, I will give you $60 per week to run



both shifts.' He went at it. His executive ability



was greater than that of any other man I have yet



seen. His memory was prodigious, conversation



laconic, and movements rapid. He doubled the production



inside three months, without materially increasing



the pay-roll, by increasing the cutting speeds



of tools, and by the use of various devices. When in



need of rest he would lie down on a work-bench,



sleep twenty or thirty minutes, and wake up fresh.



As this was just what I could do, I naturally conceived



a great pride in having such a man in charge



of my work. But almost everything has trouble connected



with it. He disappeared one day, and although



I sent men everywhere that it was likely he



could be found, he was not discovered. After two



weeks he came into the factory in a terrible condition



as to clothes and face. He sat down and, turning to



me, said: `Edison, it's no use, this is the third time;



I can't stand prosperity. Put my salary back and



give me a job.' I was very sorry to learn that it was



whiskey that spoiled such a career. I gave him an



inferior job and kept him for a long time."







Edison had now entered definitely upon that career



as an inventor which has left so deep an imprint on



the records of the United States Patent Office, where



from his first patent in 1869 up to the summer of 1910



no fewer than 1328 separate patents have been applied



for in his name, averaging thirty-two every



year, and one about every eleven days; with a



substantially corresponding number issued. The



height of this inventive activity was attained



about 1882, in which year no fewer than 141 pat-



ents were applied for, and seventy-five granted to



him, or nearly nine times as many as in 1876, when



invention as a profession may be said to have been



adopted by this prolific genius. It will be understood,



of course, that even these figures do not represent



the full measure of actual invention, as in every



process and at every step there were many discoveries



that were not brought to patent registration, but



remained "trade secrets." And furthermore, that in



practically every case the actual patented invention



followed from one to a dozen or more gradually developing



forms of the same idea.







An Englishman named George Little had brought



over a system of automatic telegraphy which worked



well on a short line, but was a failure when put upon



the longer circuits for which automatic methods are



best adapted. The general principle involved in



automatic or rapid telegraphs, except the photographic



ones, is that of preparing the message in



advance, for dispatch, by perforating narrow strips of



paper with holes--work which can be done either by



hand-punches or by typewriter apparatus. A certain



group of perforations corresponds to a Morse



group of dots and dashes for a letter of the alphabet.



When the tape thus made ready is run rapidly through



a transmitting machine, electrical contact occurs



wherever there is a perforation, permitting the current



from the battery to flow into the line and thus



transmit signals correspondingly. At the distant end



these signals are received sometimes on an ink-writing



recorder as dots and dashes, or even as typewriting



letters; but in many of the earlier systems, like that



of Bain, the record at the higher rates of speed was



effected by chemical means, a tell-tale stain being



made on the travelling strip of paper by every spurt



of incoming current. Solutions of potassium iodide



were frequently used for this purpose, giving a sharp,



blue record, but fading away too rapidly.







The Little system had perforating apparatus operated



by electromagnets; its transmitting machine



was driven by a small electromagnetic motor; and



the record was made by electrochemical decomposition,



the writing member being a minute platinum



roller instead of the more familiar iron stylus. Moreover,



a special type of wire had been put up for the



single circuit of two hundred and eighty miles between



New York and Washington. This is believed to have



been the first "compound" wire made for telegraphic



or other signalling purposes, the object being to secure



greater lightness with textile strength and high



conductivity. It had a steel core, with a copper ribbon



wound spirally around it, and tinned to the core wire.



But the results obtained were poor, and in their



necessity the parties in interest turned to Edison.







Mr. E. H. Johnson tells of the conditions: "Gen.



W. J. Palmer and some New York associates had



taken up the Little automatic system and had expended



quite a sum in its development, when, thinking



they had reduced it to practice, they got Tom



Scott, of the Pennsylvania Railroad to send his



superintendent of telegraph over to look into and



report upon it. Of course he turned it down. The



syndicate was appalled at this report, and in this



extremity General Palmer thought of the man who



had impressed him as knowing it all by the telling



of telegraphic tales as a means of whiling away lonesome



hours on the plains of Colorado, where they



were associated in railroad-building. So this man--



it was I--was sent for to come to New York and



assuage their grief if possible. My report was that



the system was sound fundamentally, that it contained



the germ of a good thing, but needed working



out. Associated with General Palmer was one Col.



Josiah C. Reiff, then Eastern bond agent for the



Kansas Pacific Railroad. The Colonel was always



resourceful, and didn't fail in this case. He knew of



a young fellow who was doing some good work for



Marshall Lefferts, and who it was said was a genius



at invention, and a very fiend for work. His name



was Edison, and he had a shop out at Newark, New



Jersey. He came and was put in my care for the



purpose of a mutual exchange of ideas and for a report



by me as to his competency in the matter. This was



my introduction to Edison. He confirmed my views



of the automatic system. He saw its possibilities,



as well as the chief obstacles to be overcome--viz.,



the sluggishness of the wire, together with the need



of mechanical betterment of the apparatus; and he



agreed to take the job on one condition--namely,



that Johnson would stay and help, as `he was a man



with ideas.' Mr. Johnson was accordingly given



three months' leave from Colorado railroad-building,



and has never seen Colorado since."







Applying himself to the difficulties with wonted



energy, Edison devised new apparatus, and solved



the problem to such an extent that he and his as-



sistants succeeded in transmitting and recording one



thousand words per minute between New York and



Washington, and thirty-five hundred words per



minute to Philadelphia. Ordinary manual transmission



by key is not in excess of forty to fifty words



a minute. Stated very briefly, Edison's principal



contribution to the commercial development of the



automatic was based on the observation that in a



line of considerable length electrical impulses become



enormously extended, or sluggish, due to a



phenomenon known as self-induction, which with



ordinary Morse work is in a measure corrected



by condensers. But in the automatic the aim was



to deal with impulses following each other from



twenty-five to one hundred times as rapidly as in



Morse lines, and to attempt to receive and record



intelligibly such a lightning-like succession of signals would



have seemed impossible. But Edison discovered that



by utilizing a shunt around the receiving instrument,



with a soft iron core, the self-induction would produce



a momentary and instantaneous reversal of the



current at the end of each impulse, and thereby give



an absolutely sharp definition to each signal. This



discovery did away entirely with sluggishness, and



made it possible to secure high speeds over lines of



comparatively great lengths. But Edison's work on

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