USA > New Jersey > Scannell's New Jersey first citizens : biographies and portraits of the notable living men and women of New Jersey with informing glimpses into the state's history and affairs, 1917-1918, Vol I > Part 17
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of giving him a check for the whole amount at once, pay him in yearly installments of $6,000 each-and he felt quite happy when he had thus assured himself of a steady annual income of $12,000 for sixteen or seven- teen years.
Every new situation brought its new device to his mind. He could not come in contract with a contrivance of any kind without trying to see how it could be better utilized in all directions. When the roaches in one of the telegraph offices where he was employed became obstrusive, he rigged up a device that electrocuted them as they crawled over the walls. So that he might be free, while an operator in railway stations, to pursue his own inquiries, he made automatic signals for reporting hourly that he was awake and on his job.
The eccentricities of an inquiring mind were beyond the ken of his schoolmaster, who set him down as "addled," and even his father looked upon him as a doubtful subject. But his mother, the daughter of a Baptist minister and herself a school teacher, saw, through them all, the activities of a receptive and thoughtful mind. With little faith in public school methods, she undertook his education herself; and by the time he was twelve years old he had read Gibbons' "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," Hume's "History of England," Sear's "History of the World," Burton's "Anatomy of Melancholy," and the "Dictionary of Sciences."
Naturally enough he turned the cellar of his home into a laboratory ; and, though his father was in comfortable circumstances, with the idea of increasing his resources, young Edison secured from the Grand Trunk Railway Company a concession for the sale of papers on its trains. There were idle moments in the long run between Detroit and Port Huron ; and, so that these might be employed, he moved his laboratory to the baggage car. That enterprise came to grief when, after a stick of phosphorous fell from the shelf to the floor and set the car afire, Edison was bundled out, appliances and all, with a cruel cuff on the ear, to boot. It is to this boxing that his life-long deafness is due. But he has found advantages even in the affliction. When telegraphing, the noise of other instruments did not bother him ; he could hear only the click of that on his table. Again in experimenting on the telephone, he had to improve the transmitter so that he could hear it, and so made the telephone commercial. So, too, with the phonograph. And his nerves have beeen saved by the deafness ; Broadway is as quiet to him as the country village to those who can hear better.
While he was selling on the train, he seems to have been quick to turn to account all the resource his service put within his reach. When the battle of Shilohi was fought and the Rebel General Johnston killed, the surging crowds around the newspaper bulletin-boards in Detroit suggested to him that the people in the towns along his newspaper route would be as deeply stirred ; and he had the news bulletined at every station down the line. His usual deliveries were probably 150 papers a day ; he ventured this day, however, to take the chance on 1,000. Enormous throngs awaited the coming of the train at every station; and, in the scramble, the price of the paper went up at each stop. He could have sold 1,000 more at 25 cents a piece. Meanwhile, as a side line he established little stationary stores in two of the towns on the line, setting chums to run them, and set
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up and printed the "Weekly Herald,"-the first newspaper ever printed on a train.
Telegraphing was then in its infaney, and he was interested in the machinery that made it possible. He rigged an apparatus of primitive design between his home and that of a chum for the interchange of mes- sages ; and a little time after, saving the child of the station agent at Mount Clemens from being crushed beneath the wheels of a dashing train, the operator volunteered to instruct him in the art of telegraphing. Thus Edison was introduced to the telegraph world. Having acquired some skill at the key, he led a nomadic career through the West, taking jobs where- ever he could find them-the Civil War was on at the time; expert tele- graphers were at the front, and jobs were easily secured-and he had just lost a position in St. Louis, because some sulphuric acid with which he had been experimenting ate through the ceiling into the President's office, when his friend Adams, wrote to him from Boston that he thought he could get him a position with the Western Union Telegraph Company.
Edison was barely 21 when he came East without a cent and was put to work at once. While in that service he invented a machine-his first invention-for the rapid recording of the vote in the House of Represen- tatives in Washington. Its acceptance by the Government would have put an end to filibustering and other dilatory parliamentary obstructions, and the new machine met with no favor among the officials of Congress. The stock ticker was just then coming into vogue. That in the New York office got out of gear one night, when War excitement on the Exchanges was high, and the moneyed men of the city besieged the office to learn the reason for the suspension of reports. Pandemonium reigned for a while. Dr. Law, the President of the Company, rushed in, in a desperate frame of mind, to ask if anybody could put the machine in order. Edison, who had been meanwhile making some explorations on his own account, an- swered, in his quiet way, that he guessed he could fix it; and within an hour he had it in running order again. He was without regular occupa- tion at that time. Dr. Law called him to his office and made his head swim by telling him that he was engaged at a salary of $300 per month.
Soon after that, "The Telegraph" printed the card of "Pope & Edison. Electricians," and the young telegrapher was in business for himself. Colonel Marshal Lefferts, the President of the Gold & Stock Telegraph Company, called Edison in to make further improvements in the ticker machinery and he brought the system to a state of perfection that increased its commercial value enormously. When he had submitted a whole line of rapid-fire inventions and they had been approved and accepted and made part of the company's system, Lefferts called Edison in to say to him that he thought it was about time to think of a settlement. It occured to Edi- son that he might get along comfortably enough with $5,000, but as the hours passed, he found his assurance not equal to the suggestion of so large an amount and his hopes toned down to $3,000. When at last he was face to face with Lefferts and was asked to fix his price, even his $3,000 courage failed him; and he falteringly suggested to the Colonel that he might himself make an offer. The Colonel almost threw him off his feet by asking him how $40,000 struck him.
When Edison presented his $40,000 check to the bank paying-teller,
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it was shoved back to him with a mumbled observation ; and he thought he had been made the victim of a practical joke till he was advised that he must write his name on the back of it if he expected to get his money. Edison lost no time in presenting the check again in proper shape; but when the $40,000 was handed to him he was up against the other proposi- tion of how he could take care of it. Coming out to Newark he sat up all night with the cash in his pocket; and the next morning Colonel Lefferts relieved his anxiety about it by showing him how to open a bank account and put it on deposit.
Edison had now something with which to start in business. The be- ginning was made in a building in Newark; but, for years before he had established himself in West Orange, his later shop in Menlo Park was famous as the Mecca of scientific pilgrims. In December, 1914, the West Orange plant was almost destroyed by fire. Early next morning gangs of men were at work clearing the wreck. Hundreds more were added before night ; and work was continued twenty-four hours a day. Within thirty- six hours after the fire Mr. Edison had given full orders for the complete rehabilitation of the plant.
In Newark he was chiefly busy with the stock-ticker machine; but he worked on many inventions in other lines, including the motograph, auto- matic telegraph systems, duplex, quadruplex, sextuplex and multiplex tele. graph systems and paraffin paper, carbon rheostat, etc. His success with the quadruplex systems made possible the receiving of four messages over one wire at the same time, and its acceptance by the telegraph world has saved the expenditure of an enormous sum of money for telegraph wires.
While the telephone is the invention of Alexander Graham Bell, it was Edison's invention of the carbon transmitter which made the telephone commercially available. Edison had himself, before Bell applied for his patents, filed a caveat for an apparatus analyzing complex sound waves ; but it did not occur to him that that apparatus could be made useful in carrying the human voice till Bell came forward with his invention. Even after Bell had taken out his patent and put some of his machines on the market, the faintness of the speech on a distant connection rendered the original telephone system doubtful as a commercial proposition. It was not till Edison had invented the carbon transmitter that it began to find popular favor. That was the time when President Orton of the Western Union paid Mr. Edison one of the $100,000 rewards that Edison consented to accept only in yearly installments of $6,000 each. The second $100,000 accepted on the same terms, was given him for the electro-motograph; and he received $150,000 additional from a London company for a loud speak- ing telephone.
While engaged on some of his experiments Edison observed that, when a disc of paper embossed with dots and dashes was moved very rapidly, the vibration of the lever produced an audible note, and the phonograph for the reproduction of the human voice came to his mind as a possibility. Patent was issued by the United States Patent office within two months after application without a single reference; and the first machine was ex- hibited in the rooms of "Gail Hamilton," authoress and sister of James G. Blaine, in Washington. It attracted the attention of the statesmen and diplomats and scientists of the country ; and President Hayes called Mr.
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Edison to the White House one night late and aroused the women of the household from their slumbers to listen to the new wonder. The inventor was at work on the improved dise phonograph for several years and an instrument and records that reproduce vocal and instrumental music with absolute fidelity and sweetness commenced a new era in phonographic ma- chines.
But perhaps no invention of Mr. Edison's has done so much for the public advancement as his incandescent lamp, which is lighting the homes and offices and pleasure places of the world. The first lamp embodying the principles of the modern incandescent lamp was put in circuit on October 21, 1897 and maintained its incandescence for forty hours. The first public demonstration of the invention was given on December 31, 1879 in the streets and buildings at Menlo Park where underground mains were used ; and in 18SO Mr. Edison had prepared the system sufficiently to introduce it commercially. A year later he established the lamp factory at Harri- son, (N. J.) and organized and established shops for the manufacture of dynamos, underground conductors, sockets, etc., and in 1SS3 the first three- wire central station for electric lighting was installed at Sunbury, Pa.
The story of Edison's search for a carbonizable material that could be found in sufficient abundance to meet the demands for the new utility is one of the romances of science. Having satisfied himself that the most servicable and desirable thing he could find was a bamboo fibre, he sent emissaries into all parts of the world to hunt for it. Frank McGowan ex- plored all of South America, and discovered in the swamps and jungles of the Cordilleras a variety of bamboo 6 to 9 inches in diameter that grew to a height of 75 to 100 feet. School Principal Ricalton of Maplewood made an excursion into the far East that took him beyond the Ganges and into Burmah; and he discovered at Ceylon a bamboo fibre that answered the test 100 to 200 points better than that in use at the Edison lamp factory. By the time these explorations were finished, however, Mr. Edison had made a compound-they call it "squirted" film-that exactly met the re- quirements and it is still in use in the manufacture of some of the lamps the factories turn out.
The exploitation of the electric lighting system meant of course the establishment of great plants for the generation and distribution of the power. Mr. Edison spent years in making further developments of the machinery and apparatus for extending the system to meet commercial re- quirements. The development of the lighting system involved 149 patents for incandescent lamps and their manufacture, 77 for distributing systems and their control and regulation, 106 for dynamo-electric machines and accessories, 43 for minor parts, such as sockets, switches, safety catches. meters, underground conductors and parts, etc. The first central station was established on Pearl street for the commercial illumination of the district included between Wall, Nassau. Spruce and Ferry streets, Peck Slip and the East River, a business area nearly a square mile in extent.
What Mr. Edison has done in the world of pleasure in the moving picture line is attested by the wonderful popularity of the picture-show places all over the world. The idea that underlies the invention is scarcely a new one. Ducos had exploited it in France away back in '64, but he was handicapped by the shortcomings of photographing. Senator Leland Stan-
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ford was first instrumental in exhibiting a motion picture-as the result of a bet that, at some point in its gait, a running horse leaves the ground entirely. A number of instantaneous photographing machines were placed along the line of a race course ; and when a horse was driven over it, his passing movements were caught by the machines. The succession of re- sulting films, made to revolve with great speed, produced the visual illusion of a horse in motion and the pictures were exhibited to wondering crowds in New York and elsewhere. It remained, however, for Mr. Edison to perfect the machinery for the production of the motion pictures.
Mr. Edison's inventions have also been adapted to furnish power for electric railways, in which art he was a pioneer in the year 1880. The first life-size electric railway for freight and passengers was installed at Menlo Park between 1880 and 1882. In September of 1882 Mr. Edison commenced the operation of the first commercial station, in New York city, for the distribution of electric current for light, power and heat.
Mr. Edison in 1871 assisted Sholes, the inventor of the typewriter, to make the first successful working model. In the summer of 1878 he went with an astronomical party to Rawlings, Wyo., to test his microtasimeter during a total eclipse of the sun. In 1880 he invented the magnetic ore separator which draws the metal from the ore; and between 1891 and 1900 came his inventions of the giant rolls for breaking large masses of rock and the three-high rolls for fine crushing.
Since the outbreak in 1914 of the war between the Central powers and the Entente allies, Mr. Edison has devoted much time to the solution of various problems growing out of the suspension of shipments of chemi- cals from Germany. Being the largest individual user of carbolic acid in the United States he found himself in danger of being compelled to close his factories because of the embargo on exportations. He devised a plan for making carbolic acid synthetically, set gangs of men working twenty- four hours a day to build a plant, and on the eighteenth day was making the acid. Within four weeks the plant could turn out a ton a day. Early in 1915 Edison found he was in danger of being unable to obtain a con- tinuous supply of benzol, from which he made his synthetic carbolic acid. He arranged with two coke oven plants to put in benzol plants of his own. The first one, at the Cambria Steel Company's plant at Johnstown, Pa., was put into operation in forty-five days. The second one, at Woodward, Ala., was completed in sixty days. Ordinarily, it requires about nine months to install a benzol plant. Two other benzol plants were put in operation within sixty days.
Edison next conceived the idea of helping out the textile and rubber industries by making myrbane, aniline oil and aniline salt. always in great demand and previously imported from Germany. Having mastered the literature on the subject, he installed a plant in forty-five working days, commenced deliveries in June, 1915, and is still continuing the manu- facture of these chemicals. The fur dyeing industry and other arts were suffering from a great scarcity of paraphenylenediamine, formerly imported from Germany. Edison also uses it in the manufacture of records for his Diamond Disc Phonographs. Being unable to procure it, he experimented in his laboratory until he found a way to make it. Much pressure was brought to bear on him to supply some to the fur dyers and he equipped
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a separate plant for this, and has been supplying it to the public for more than two years.
EDWARD IRVING EDWARDS -Jersey City, (29 Duncan Avenue.)-Banker. Born at Jersey City on December 1st, 1863; son of William W. and Emma J. (Nation ) Edwards; married at Jersey City, on November 14th, 18SS, to Jule B. Smith, dangh- ter of William A. and Fannie E. Smith, of Jersey City.
Children : Edward Irving, Jr., born March 1st, 1890; Elizabeth Jule, born January 15th, 1902.
Edward I. Edwards is President of the First National Bank in Jersey City, one of the important financial institutions in New Jersey; and for five years was Comptroller of the State of New Jersey. His father and brothers have been prominent in the business and political life of Hudson County for the past fifty years. While officiating as State Comptroller, Mr. Edwards devised and secured the passage of the new Inheritance Tax Law under which the State's revenue from that source has increased from $700,000 to over $3,000,000 per year. The Democratic joint meeting that re- elected him to the State Comptrollership gathered in Trenton at the open- ing of Governor Fielder's administration in 1914. The state's resources were not at the time equal to the demands upon them, and the out-look was that the new administration would be forced to, for the first time in thirty years, impose a state tax to meet deficiencies. The imposition of a direct tax was likely to have a bad politi- cal effect; and it was at that juncture that Comptroller Ed- wards came to the rescue with the suggestion of a law increas- ing the receipts from inheri- tances. The act was shaped up under his direction, laid before the Governor for his approval and adopted by the legislature. It subjects lineal heirs to a pro- gressive rate tax with an exemp- tion of $5,000 to each lineal. The receipts under the new act were large enough to avert the state tax menace.
Comptroller Edwards also fa- thered what is known as the Requisition Act which makes it impossible for any of the departments or institutions of the state to over draw their respective appropriations. Prior to the passage of the act, both had been in the habit of exceeding the
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amount apportioned to them in the annual budget and depending upon the legislature of the following year to order the payment of their excesses. The exhaustion of their funds before the end of the fiscal year, with large accounts still outstanding, brought frequent embarrassment not only to the State Treasury, but, more, to the merchants and others who had furnished supplies or rendered services. Comptroller Edwards insisted that both the departments and institutions should ask the state in their estimates for all they would need during the year and that they should not be permitted to go beyond the amount the legislature allowed. His Requisition Act therefore required that no obligation could be incurred unless the institu- tion had to its credit sufficient funds to meet it, enforced a reasonable economy on the part of the administrative officials and guaranteed to the merchants of the state the prompt payment of their accounts.
Comptroller Edwards was educated at Public School No. 13 and the High School of Jersey City. He entered the class of 1884 at the University of the City of New York, but left college at the end of his Junior year. After spending some time in the law office of his brother, Ex-Senator Wil- liam D. Edwards, he accepted a position in the First National Bank of Jersey City, where he remained for seven years. His health impaired by the confining nature of his work at the bank, he left, and was, for some years, engaged in the general contracting business of Edwards Brothers.
In 1898, he entered the service of Jersey City in its tax department and was clerk to the Martin Act Commission, during the busy years of that Board. In 1903, at the suggestion of Edward F. C. Young, President of the Martin Commission, he re-entered the service of the bank as an assistant to the President ; shortly afterwards he became cashier and a director, and on October 13, 1916, he was elected president of the bank. He is also vice- president and a director of the Merchants National Bank of Jersey City and connected with a number of other banking and business houses.
In politics a Democrat, he had been for many years a member of the Hudson County Democratic Committee. It was in 1911 that the joint meeting of the legislature elected Mr. Edwards, who was then Cashier of the First National Bank, to the office of Comptroller of the Treasury. At the end of his three year term, in 1914, he was re-elected.
Mr. Edwards is a member of Bergen Lodge 47, F. & A. M., the Carteret Club, Jersey City ; the Trenton Country Club, the National Democratic Club of New York City, the Bankers Club of America and the Zeta Psi Fraternity.
FREDERICK W. EGNER-Newark (360 Mt. Prospect Avenue) -Financier. Born at Orange, August 6, 1870; son of John Fred- erick and Elizabeth (Graah) Egner, married in 1895 to Florence G. Carter; 2nd in December, 1907 to Elizabeth Wigton of Phil- lipsburg.
Frederick W. Egner is one of the Vice Presidents of The Fidelity Trust Company, Newark. He attended the public schools at Orange until he was fourteen years of age, when he went to work in the Half Dime
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Savings Bank that had just been organized there. In 1891, he was of- fered the position of assistant bookkeeper in the Savings Department of the Fidelity Trust Company, in Newark. Six months later he was made assistant teller, and, six months beyond that, Paying Teller of the Com- pany.
In January, 1889, the Company named him as its Secretary and Treas- urer and he held that position until, ten years later, he was promoted to the office of Third Vice President.
Mr. Egner is a member of the Newark Board of Trade and a Director of the Union County Trust Company of Elizabeth and of the Essex Trust Company in East Orange. His club memberships are with the Essex County Country, the Baltusrol Golf, the Forest Hill Field, the Salmagundi and Lotos.
SIGMUND EISNER-Red Bank .- Manufacturer. Born at Ho- razdiowitz, Bohemia, Austria, on Feb. 14th, 1859; son of Michael and Catharine (Brumel) Eisner ; married at Red Bank, on Jan. 13, 1885, to Bertha Weis, daughter of Elias and Hannah Weis, of Red Bank.
Children : H. Raymond, J. Lester, Monroe, Victor.
Sigmund Eisner is President of the Sigmund Eisner Company, in whose plant in Red Bank, uniforms for the United States and for nearly every nation in Europe and Central and South America are made. Since the outbreak of the European war he has had large orders from England, Italy and their allies for the furnishing of army sup- plies in his line.
Mr. Eisner was educated at the public schools across the seas, and came to this country in 1880. The business which has grown into such large pro- portions, started in his manu- facture of clothing in a very small way. Through his ener- gies it grew rapidly and eventu- ally necessitated the great plant in which it is now conducted. The Sigmund Eisner Company are the largest manufacturers of uniforms in the United States and produce more uniform gar- ments than any other concern in the world.
Mr. Eisner has not lost sight of his duties to the community in which he has made his home, and he has served as Water Commissioner, a Commissioner of the Sinking Fund,
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and as Commissioner of Playgrounds of Red Bank and is one of the Gov- ernors of the Long Branch Hospital. He has interested himself too in the problems for the solution of which the State Charities Aid Society was created and is one of its Vice Presidents.
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