the function of analysis comes into play and leads to more adequate
apprehension.

So, in presenting the mass of statistics contained in this chapter, we
fear that the result may have been the bewilderment of the reader to
some extent. Nevertheless, in writing a biography of Edison, the
main object is to present the facts as they are, and leave it to the
intelligent reader to classify, apply, and analyze them in such manner
as appeals most forcibly to his intellectual processes. If in the
foregoing pages there has appeared to be a tendency to attribute to
Edison the entire credit for the growth to which many of the above-named
great enterprises have in these latter days attained, we must especially
disclaim any intention of giving rise to such a deduction. No one who
has carefully followed the course of this narrative can deny, however,
that Edison is the father of some of the arts and industries that have
been mentioned, and that as to some of the others it was the magic of
his touch that helped make them practicable. Not only to his work and
ingenuity is due the present magnitude of these arts and industries, but
it is attributable also to the splendid work and numerous contributions
of other great inventors, such as Brush, Bell, Elihu Thomson, Weston,
Sprague, and many others, as well as to the financiers and investors who
in the past thirty years have furnished the vast sums of money that were
necessary to exploit and push forward these enterprises.

The reader may have noticed in a perusal of this chapter the lack of
autobiographical quotations, such as have appeared in other parts of
this narrative. Edison's modesty has allowed us but one remark on the
subject. This was made by him to one of the writers a short time ago,
when, after an interesting indulgence in reminiscences of old times and
early inventions, he leaned back in his chair, and with a broad smile on
his face, said, reflectively: "Say, I HAVE been mixed up in a whole lot
of things, haven't I?"

CHAPTER XXVIII

THE BLACK FLAG

THROUGHOUT the forty-odd years of his creative life, Edison has realized
by costly experience the truth of the cynical proverb that "A patent
is merely a title to a lawsuit." It is not intended, however, by this
statement to lead to any inference on the part of the reader that HE
stands peculiarly alone in any such experience, for it has been and
still is the common lot of every successful inventor, sooner or later.

T