The boys' life of EdisonMeadowcroft, Wm. H. (William Henry)
General
The boys' life of Edison
Meadowcroft, Wm. H. (William Henry)
Edison, Thomas A. (Thomas Alva), 1847-1931 -- Juvenile literature
We have seen that Edison moved to Menlo Park, where he had a very
complete laboratory, in which he brought out a large number of
important inventions. After a time, however, this establishment was
outgrown and lost many of its possibilities, and he began to plan a
still greater one which should be the most complete of its kind in the
world.
The Orange laboratory, as was originally planned, consisted of a main
building two hundred and fifty feet long and three stories in height,
together with four other structures, each one hundred by twenty-five
feet and only one story in height. All these were substantially built
of brick. The main building was divided into five chief divisions--the
library, office, machine-shops, experimental and chemical rooms, and
stock-rooms. The small buildings were to be used for various purposes.
A high picket fence, with a gate, surrounded these buildings. A keeper
was stationed at the gate with instructions to admit no strangers
without a pass. On one occasion a new gateman was placed in charge,
and, not knowing Edison, refused to admit him until he could get some
one to come out and identify him.
The library is a spacious room about forty by thirty-five feet.
Around the sides of the room run two tiers of gallery. The main
floor and the galleries are divided into alcoves, in which, on the
main floor, are many thousands of books. In the galleries are still
more books and periodicals of all kinds, also cabinets and shelves
containing mineralogical and geological specimens and thousands of
samples of ores and minerals from all parts of the world. In a corner
of one of the galleries may be seen a large number of magazines
relating to electricity, chemistry, engineering, mechanics, building,
cement, building materials, drugs, water and gas power, automobiles,
railroads, aeronautics, philosophy, hygiene, physics, telegraphy,
mining, metallurgy, metals, music, and other subjects; also theatrical
weeklies, as well as the proceedings and transactions of various
learned and technical societies. All of these form part of Mr. Edison's
current reading. At one end of the main floor of the library, which is
handsomely and comfortably furnished, is Mr. Edison's desk, at which he
may usually be seen for a while in the early morning hours or at noon
looking over his mail.
The centre of the library is left open for the reception of visitors,
and one corner is partitioned off to provide a private office for Mr.
Edison's son, Charles, who is the President and active manager of the
various Edison industries. Directly opposite to the entrance-door
is a beautiful marble statue representing the supremacy of electric
light over gas. This statue was purchased by Mr. Edison at the Paris
Exposition in 1889.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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