e floor below, and again finds himself
adrift in an unappreciative world. Yet he had proved himself, in spite
of all drawbacks, an adept of uncommon skill in telegraphy; and so
widespread in scientific circles was his reputation, that he was sent
for to Boston to take charge of the main New York wire. The impression
made by the records of his life at this time is, that he looked upon
all these employments merely as so many opportunities for earning his
bread while pursuing his beloved experiments, and that the
bread-earning was the least important part of the affair. No doubt, he
always meant to do his duty, but the ecstasy of invention and the
thirst for discovery carried him out of himself and made him often
oblivious of sublunary things. While in Boston he still kept up his
experiments and perfected his duplex telegraph, but it was not brought
into successful operation until 1872.

In 1871 he came to New York, and having attracted the attention of
the Stock Exchange by some ingenious suggestions put forth while
busied in repairing the machine that recorded quotations, he was
made Superintendent of the Gold and Stock Company, and brought out
his invention of the printing-telegraph, by which the fluctuations
of the stock-market in any part of the country are instantly
recorded on narrow strips of paper.

[Illustration: Thomas A. Edison--The Wizard of Menlo Park.]

The immediate success of this invention, and the great demand for
the machines, led him to establish a workshop for their manufacture
in Newark, N. J. But soon the need of still more space, and the
desire for freedom from interruption while at his work, obliged him
to give up Newark, and he found new quarters at Menlo Park, N. J.--a
bare plot of barren acres destitute of natural attraction of any
kind, unless it be--what to Edison indeed is a great charm--an
uninterrupted view of the sky; a place virtually unknown before he
planted there the rude buildings that house his wonderful
inventions; yet now a place known to scientific men all over the
world; the Mecca of many a mind seeking to wrest from Nature her
dearest secrets.

No doubt, many of the inventions that have made Edison famous must
be ascribed in their conception and ripening' to various periods of
his life, but to the popular mind they are all associated with the
wizard's present home, from whence for several years the bulletins
of inventions--playful, useful, necessary, revolutionary--often a