through which alone it is estimated that there has been saved from
$15,000,000 to $20,000,000 in the cost of line construction in this
country. If this were the only thing that he had ever accomplished,
it would entitle him to consideration as an inventor of note. The
quadruplex, however, has other material advantages, but how far they and
the natural growth of the business have contributed to the investment
and earnings of the telegraph companies, is beyond practicable
computation.

It would, perhaps, be interesting to speculate upon what might have been
the growth of the telegraph and the resultant benefit to the community
had Edison's automatic telegraph inventions been allowed to take their
legitimate place in the art, but we shall not allow ourselves to
indulge in flights of fancy, as the value of this chapter rests not upon
conjecture, but only upon actual fact. Nor shall we attempt to offer any
statistics regarding Edison's numerous inventions relating to telegraphs
and kindred devices, such as stock tickers, relays, magnets, rheotomes,
repeaters, printing telegraphs, messenger calls, etc., on which he was
so busily occupied as an inventor and manufacturer during the ten years
that began with January, 1869. The principles of many of these devices
are still used in the arts, but have become so incorporated in other
devices as to be inseparable, and cannot now be dealt with separately.
To show what they mean, however, it might be noted that New York City
alone has 3000 stock "tickers," consuming 50,000 miles of record tape
every year.

Turning now to other important arts and industries which have been
created by Edison's inventions, and in which he is at this time taking
an active personal interest, let us visit Orange, New Jersey. When his
present laboratory was nearing completion in 1887, he wrote to Mr. J.
Hood Wright, a partner in the firm of Drexel, Morgan & Co.: "My ambition
is to build up a great industrial works in the Orange Valley, starting
in a small way and gradually working up."

In this plant, which represents an investment approximating the sum
of $4,000,000, are grouped a number of industrial enterprises of which
Edison is either the sole or controlling owner and the guiding spirit.
These enterprises are the National Phonograph Company, the Edison
Business Phonograph Company, the Edison Phonograph Works, the Edison
Manufacturing Company, the Edison Storage Battery Company, and the
Bates Manufac