Part 22 (1/2)

Again success seeain Worn out with fatigue and disappointment, Edison took to his bed

Ultias stock rose again In five ed five years, but he was not yet ready to give up the fight And at last it on, and the incandescent laas, as soht it would, but it is the basis of a business which reat a himself the finest laboratory in the world; where the lass-blowers, metal-spinners, machinists and chemists in the world find elass, stone, earth, wood, fibre, paper, skin, cloth, may be found in its store-rooms, ready for instant use The library contains one of the finest collections of scientific books and periodicals to be found anywhere These are the tools, and with thereat variety of proble he turned his hand to after his installation in his new laboratory was the phonograph The patient thought and experi over many years, lavished on this wonderful invention are almost unbelievable The idea had come to him years before, when he had worked out an instru a strip of paper with the dots and dashes of the Morse code, but would also repeat thethe indented strip of paper through it

”Naturally enough,” said Edison, in telling the story, ”the idea occurred to ive off again the click of the instrued up an instruh it, at the saain, and listening breathlessly, I heard a distinct sound, which a strong iinal 'Hallo!' That was enough to leadof a ed on piece-work forit a joke; but he set to work and soon had the ed some tin-foil on it and spoke into the ed the machine for transmission and we both heard a distinct sound froht I must admit that I was a little scared myself” The words which he had spoken into the machine and which were the first ever to be reproduced , ”Mary had a Little Laraph, hich Edison has never ceased to experiment He has made improvements in it froh state of efficiency--a state, however, which Edison hopes to ireat inventions of the phonograph and incandescent lamp, which we have dwelt upon here, reatest client the patent office ever had, nearly one thousand patents having been issued in his na off in either y, and no doubt more than one invention has yet to coreat laboratory forever

No one can ever guess at the future of electrical invention The recent raph, by which the impalpable ether is harnessed to man's service, is an indication of the wonders which may be expected in the future It was our own Joseph Henry who, in 1842, discovered the electric wave--the ”induction” upon which wireless telegraphy depends He discovered that when he produced an electric spark an inch long in a room at the top of his house, electrical action was instantly set up in another wire circuit in the cellar After some study, he saw and announced that the electric spark started soh floors and ceilings and all other intervening objects, and caused induction in the wires in the cellar But wireless telegraphy was reat scientist, but by a young Italian naoing forward, and another half century may see all the labor of the world performed by this wonderful and mysterious force which we call electricity

Froate the air He has watched with envy the free flight of birds, and has tried to imitate it, usually with disastrous results The balloon, of course, enabled him to rise in the air, but once there, he was at the mercy of every wind More recently, balloons fitted with ear have been devised, which are to soible; but the real problem has been to fly as birds do without any such artificial aid as balloons provide

Experio by Professor S P Langley, of the Sovernators He proved, theoretically, that air-flight was possible, provided sufficient velocity could be obtained He showed that a heavier-than-air machine would sustain itself in the air if it could only be driven fast enough

You have all skipped flat stones across the water Well, that is exactly the principle of the flying h, it skipped along the top of the water, which sustained it and even threw it up into the air again When its speed slackened, it sank

So the boy on skates can skiht for an instant if he tried to stand upon it

So, theoretically, it was possible to fly, but to reduce theory to practice was a very different thing Professor Langley tried for years and failed He built a great ed beneath the waters of the Potomac a minute after it was launched All over the world, inventors were struggling with the probleree of success It remained for two brothers, in a little workshop at Dayton, Ohio, to produce the first ht were poor boys, the sons of a clergyuished from ordinary boys, except by a taste for mechanics They had a little workshop, and one day in 1905, they brought out a strange looking -machine The people of Dayton smiled skeptically, and asseht that there would probably soon be need for an aasoline motor hich the machine was equipped, was started, one of the brothers cliht which started the , then its great forward planes caught the air current and it soared gracefully up into the air

That was a greaton scarcely realized its import They watched the machine with bated breath, and saw it steered around in a circle, showing that it could go against the wind as well as with it For thirty-eight ht of over twenty-four ently landed and the exhibition was over Great crowds flocked to Dayton, after that, expecting to see further exhibitions, but they were disappointed Theinventors announced that they were es in it No one was adhts made

One day the inventors also disappeared, and months later it was discovered that they had built themselves a little shop on a deserted stretch of the sandy North Carolina coast, and that they were carrying on their experi reporters tried to interview thereatproudly in a wide circle above the sands A photographer even got a distant photograph of it

There could be no doubt that the Wright brothers had solved the probleht

But not for two years more were they ready for public exhibitions Then, in 1908, they appeared at Fort Myer, Virginia, ready to take part in the contest set by the United States governet his sensations as the great winged creature rose gracefully froain and again flights were reat speed was attained and the machine was under perfect control But an unfortunate accident put a stop to the trials, for one day a propellor-blade broke while the round before it could be righted The passenger, a nal Corps, was instantly killed and Orville Wright was seriously injured

Meanwhile, the other brother, Wilbur, had gone to Europe, where, first in France, and afterwards in Italy and England, he created a trehts They were uniforovernht to s and princes vied with each other in honoring the young inventor, and when he returned to the United States, city, state, and nation coreat reception to hi written, in August, 1909, another series of flights has been concluded at Fort Myer They were successful in every way in fulfilling the governovern made successfully, and it is only a question of time until the aeroplane becoht declares that it is already safer than the automobile, and it would seem that there is in store for ht

Surely, America has cause to be proud of her inventors!

SUMMARY