ork firm of lithographers and color printers, who
had previously been able to work only by day, owing to difficulties in
color-printing by artificial light. A year later they said: "It is the
best substitute for daylight we have ever known, and almost as cheap."

Mr. Edison himself describes various instances in which the demand for
isolated plants had to be met: "One night at '65,'" he says, "James
Gordon Bennett came in. We were very anxious to get into a printing
establishment. I had caused a printer's composing case to be set up with
the idea that if we could get editors and publishers in to see it, we
should show them the advantages of the electric light. So ultimately
Mr. Bennett came, and after seeing the whole operation of everything,
he ordered Mr. Howland, general manager of the Herald, to light the
newspaper offices up at once with electricity."

Another instance of the same kind deals with the introduction of the
light for purely social purposes: "While at 65 Fifth Avenue," remarks
Mr. Edison, "I got to know Christian Herter, then the largest decorator
in the United States. He was a highly intellectual man, and I loved to
talk to him. He was always railing against the rich people, for whom
he did work, for their poor taste. One day Mr. W. H. Vanderbilt came
to '65,' saw the light, and decided that he would have his new house
lighted with it. This was one of the big 'box houses' on upper Fifth
Avenue. He put the whole matter in the hands of his son-in-law, Mr. H.
McK. Twombly, who was then in charge of the telephone department of
the Western Union. Twombly closed the contract with us for a plant. Mr.
Herter was doing the decoration, and it was extraordinarily fine. After
a while we got the engines and boilers and wires all done, and the
lights in position, before the house was quite finished, and thought we
would have an exhibit of the light. About eight o'clock in the evening
we lit up, and it was very good. Mr. Vanderbilt and his wife and some
of his daughters came in, and were there a few minutes when a fire
occurred. The large picture-gallery was lined with silk cloth interwoven
with fine metallic thread. In some manner two wires had got crossed with
this tinsel, which became red-hot, and the whole mass was soon afire. I
knew what was the matter, and ordered them to run down and shut off.
It had not burst into flame, and died out immediately. Mrs. Vanderbilt
became hysterical, and wanted to know where it