the ---- wire had a bad spot
in it. Please cut it up into lengths and test each one and send results
to me immediately." Possibly the electrical fraternity does not realize
that this earnest work of Edison, twenty-eight years ago, resulted in
the establishment of the high quality of copper wire that has been
the recognized standard since that time. Says Edison on this point:
"I furnished the expert and apparatus to the Ansonia Brass and Copper
Company in 1883, and he is there yet. It was this expert and this
company who pioneered high-conductivity copper for the electrical
trade."

Nor is it generally appreciated in the industry that the adoption of
what is now regarded as a most obvious proposition--the high-economy
incandescent lamp--was the result of that characteristic foresight which
there has been occasion to mention frequently in the course of this
narrative, together with the courage and "horse-sense" which have
always been displayed by the inventor in his persistent pushing out
with far-reaching ideas, in the face of pessimistic opinions. As is
well known, the lamps of the first ten or twelve years of incandescent
lighting were of low economy, but had long life. Edison's study of the
subject had led him to the conviction that the greatest growth of
the electric-lighting industry would be favored by a lamp taking less
current, but having shorter, though commercially economical life;
and after gradually making improvements along this line he developed,
finally, a type of high-economy lamp which would introduce a most
radical change in existing conditions, and lead ultimately to highly
advantageous results. His start on this lamp, and an expressed desire to
have it manufactured for regular use, filled even some of his business
associates with dismay, for they could see nothing but disaster ahead
in forcing such a lamp on the market. His persistence and profound
conviction of the ultimate results were so strong and his arguments so
sound, however, that the campaign was entered upon. Although it took two
or three years to convince the public of the correctness of his views,
the idea gradually took strong root, and has now become an integral
principle of the business.

In this connection it may be noted that with remarkable prescience
Edison saw the coming of the modern lamps of to-day, which, by reason of
their small consumption of energy to produce a given candle-power, have
dismayed central-station managers. A f