The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

y dians could claim L'4 * Edison ~~ » _ _____. -~ National Electrical Week Thomas Edison born February 11, 126 years ago Early in December 1837, Sam Edison, the landlord of the tavern in Vienna, Ont- ario, took down his firearm from the wall and set off for Toronto to join William Lyon . Mackenzie in his rebellion. Were it not for that impulsive move, his son, famed inventor Thomas Al- va Edison, would have been born in Canada and Cana- this legendary genius as their own. But Sam Edison came from a "scrappy" family. His father, Sam Sr., had formed a Canadian militia company to fight the Ameri- cans in the War of 1812. His grandfather, John Edison, an American of Dutch des- cent, had been loyal to the British side in the War of Independence and for his pains he and his family were transported to Nova Scotia in 1783. In 1811, the Edison family, now numbering 19, were tired of the hardships and damp of Nova Scotia and, led by old John, started on the long trek to a 600-acre tract of land granted to them in Upper Canada on the Otter River, about two miles from Lake Erie. During Mackenzie's agita- tions in 1837, the Vienna tavern was a gathering place for local radicals and Sam Edison was definitely 'agin the government." But partway to Toronto, learned that the rebellion was already a military failure. He quickly changed his plan, doubled back to Vienna, gathered a few belongs and, leaving his family to spend Christmas alone, said a quick goodbye. He then walked and ran 80 miles in 2% days to cross the . frozen St. Clair River, keep- ing ahead of Sir Bond Head's men who wanted to bring him to account. Ten years later, Sam Jr., now reunited with his family, owned a lumber business in Milan, Ohio. In the early hours of a snowy February 11, 1847, the family gained another member, a baby boy with a very large head whom the doctor was afraid might have brain fever. The par- ents frankly wondered whet- her he was defective. They named him Thomas Alva. During Tom's early years, his father and schooltea- chers, Rev. and Mrs. Engles, had a very low opinion of the boy's 'iiéntal abilities. They frequently thrashed him in an effort to get young Tom to learn. Fascinated with mecha- nics, young tom Edison hung around the telegraph offices, which were equipped with a variety of electrical instru- ments. In 1862, he had the good luck to save the life of the baby son of the station- master at Mt. Clemens who had strayed into the path of a rolling boxcar. In gratitude, the father, Mr. MacKenzie, taught him to become a telegrapher. Edison arrived for his first lesson with his own neat set of instruments which he had made in a gunsmith's shop in Detroit. Although he quickly be- came an excellent operator, he was apparently quite unsatisfactory as an em- ployee. Once he got a job, it seemed he was more inter- ested in tinkering and trying to improve the equipment then in sending and receiv- ing Morse code. In May 1864, he won a post as a dispatcher-telegrapher at Stratford Junction, Ont- ario, on the 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift. In no time, he had invented a machine which would send a signal indica- ting that he was. awake and alert while in reality he was taking a little cat-nap. A few run-ins with the authorities of the Grand Trunk Railway and an on- the-carpet visit to the office of the general manager in Toronto and Thomas Alva Edison decided that Canada wasn't for him after all. He returned to the United States. In June, 1868 The Journal of the Telegraph reported that Mr. Thomas Edison of the Western Union Office Boston, had invented a "mode of transmission both ways on a single wire which is simple, interesting and ingenious." The following year, Edison devised an apparatus which would synchronize the tele- graph printing machines of the period, which frequently garbled the messages. He though his invention might be worth $5,000 but when he offered it for sale he was asked 'Hew would $40,000 strike you?" At least, this was Edison's story in later years, but there is evidence that the figure was actually 30.000, 1 His commercidl star now rose to keep company with the bright star of invention and in 1871 he opened a factory in Newark, N.J. to fill an order for 1,200 stock tickers for Western Union. The following year he invented an automatic tele- graph which could handle 1,000 words per minute (manually the speed was about 40). In 1875, he introduced the mimeograph and in the space of four years he was granted 200 patents. By 1876, the demand for his inventive talents was so great that he built, equipped and staffed a factory at Menlo Park, N.J. for the sole Cedar Creek News Mrs. John den Boer is back home again from her trip to Holland where she attended her father's funeral. Her three brothers from the State of Michigan went with her. Martin and David den Boer 3 : were home from Calvin 4H College, Grand Rapids, Michigan for a week. Mr. and Mrs. Victor Lar- ocque are back home from a two month holiday in Cal- ifornia. They arrived at Malton Air Port on Wednes- day and stayed in Toronto with Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Trepanier until Saturday. The Trepaniers drove them home and stayed for the weekend. A former Cedar Creek resident, Mrs. Oscar Gilroy, died at Scarborough Hospital on Thursday. Funeral Ser- vices were held Monday at the Ogden Funeral Home, Agincourt with burial in the Pine Grove Cemetery. The Gilroy family lived on the Town Line on the farm where Mr. and Mrs. Art Cotton live, and the Gilroy children attended Cedar Creek School. purpose of ventions. The inventor worked his staff relentlessly, buf he led them -- not drove them. If the "Old Man" (he was 29) was on lo something, they could expect to work night and day, be cursed and cajoled. Legend has it that he invented the incandescent lamp. He didn't. At least five people had introduced dif- ferent types before Edison, including a young Toronto medical student named Hen- ry Woodward whose patent Edison later purchased. But Edison's lamp, with a fila- ment, or burner, of No. 9 Coates cotton covered with lamp black, could stay aglow for 40 hours and that was the best that had been developed up to that time. When demonstrating his bulb, Edison would show, after a while, that by turning a screw the light would dim and go out. He knew that if he didn't the lamp would burn out anyway! While developing the in- candescent lamp, Edison worked to reduce the fierce glare of the existing arc lights, with the hope that they could be "adapted for home use. His vision in- cluded homes supplied with electricity generated from a central station of dynamos. producing in- He saw the home of the future equipped with fans, electric cookers, irons -- the dream was unending. Edison's solution was to organize large-scale demon- strations and install attrac- tive displays at Menlo Park. These attracted crowds and, as intended, newspapermen. He got the publicity he was looking for, and gradually the financial backing. On September 4, 1882 Edison began to illum- inate parts of New York from a generating station of Pearl Street. The system employed direct current and the wires were placed un- derground. the money moguls were now attracted to the utility business by Edison's success. Manufac- turers of electrical appara- tus gobbled each other up, there were bitter court battles over patents, and financial barons manipula. ted the industry ruthlessly. In 1883 the once hungry telegraphist from Stratford Junction was back in Canada personally supervising in- stallation of an incandescent lighting system in the Can- ada Cotton Company's plant at Cornwall, Ontario, the first industrial plant to be lit "like the mellow sunset of an Italian autumn!" Power was supplied by six "Long Wais- huge, PORT PERRY STAR -- Wednesday, Feb. 14th, 1973 -- 23 Thomas Alva EDISON : and the first practical - incandescent light bulb ted Mary Anns" as Edison's dynamos were nicknamed, driven by a water wheel in the nearby St. Lawrence River. The system used 13,000 volts of direct current. In his lifetime Edison was granted 1,300: patents. He was the father of the motion picture camera and owned the copyright to the first motion picture made, '"The Record of a Sneeze" starring an assistant named Ott. One sneeze and the show was over! The interwoven financing of his and kindred enter- prises, company amalga- mations, and a little wheel- ing and dealing, led to the consolidation of Edison's interests into the Edison General Electric Company, Martell W * REAL ESTATE. o H Frane Lenest now Port Perry Star C. o Ld P.O. BOX 90 - PORT PERRY able, of ink. CRESTS of Petroleum and car com- panies, farm nia animals, constr- uction equipment etc. also avail- Printed in \ your choice of type and colors available from later General electric. When Edison died in 1929, there was a suggestion that homage be paid to him by turing off all the power in the United States for one minute. It couldn't be done. Close the industry he had done so much to create for 60 seconds? The country would be in chaos. It's doubtful whether Edi- son would have wanted the lights dimmed anyway. Edison's range of inven- tive genius was extraordinar Modern living would be hard to conceive without our having light at the flick of a switch or electricity to operate our machinery and turn on familiar electrical appliances. What better reason, then, to dedicate the week of Edison's birth - February 11 - 17, as National Electrical Week.