leveland operators came to organise a branch of the
Telegraphers' Union, and the night men were out on 'strike,' he received
the press reports as well as he was able, working all the night. For
this feat his salary was raised next day from sixty-five to one hundred
and five dollars, and he was appointed to the Louisville circuit, one
of the most desirable in the office. The clerk at Louisville was Bob
Martin, one of the most expert telegraphists in America, and Edison soon
became a first-class operator.

In 1864, tempted by a better salary, he removed to Memphis, where
he found an opportunity of introducing his automatic repeater,
thus enabling Louisville to communicate with New Orleans without an
intermediary clerk. For this innovation he was complimented; but nothing
more. He embraced the subject of duplex telegraphy, or the simultaneous
transmission of two messages on the same wire, one from each end; but
his efforts met with no encouragement. Men of routine are apt to look
with disfavour on men of originality; they do not wish to be disturbed
from the official groove; and if they are not jealous of improvement,
they have often a narrow-minded contempt or suspicion of the servant who
is given to invention, thinking him an oddity who is wasting time which
might be better employed in the usual way. A telegraph operator, in
their eyes, has no business to invent. His place is to sit at his
instrument and send or receive the messages as fast as he can, without
troubling his mind with inventions or anything else. When his shift is
over he can amuse himself as he likes, provided he is always fit for
work. Genius is not wanted.

The clerks themselves, reckless of a culture which is not required, and
having a good string to their bow in the matter of livelihood, namely,
the mechanical art of signalling, are prone to lead a careless, gay, and
superficial life, roving from town to town throughout: the length and
breadth of the States. But for his genius and aspirations, Edison
might have yielded to the seductions of this happy-go-lucky, free, and
frivolous existence. Dissolute comrades at Memphis won upon his good
nature; but though he lent them money, he remained abstemious, working
hard, and spending his leisure upon books and experiments. To them he
appeared an extraordinary fellow; and so far from sympathising with his
inventions, they dubbed him 'Luny,' and regarded him as daft.

What with the money he had lent, or spent