Edison High School - Wizard Yearbook (Minneapolis, MN)

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THE MOTION PICTURE MACHINE HAT the phonograph has done for the ear the motion picture does for the eye. The idea of reproducing sound by machine was original with Mr. Edison but the motion picture machine has been thought of and suggested since the days of the Greeks. About 1875, a Dr. Marey, of Paris, invented a camera which, through a single lens, could take several pictures per second, and this was as far as the motion picture had advanced at the time that Mr. Edison became interested. The inventor soon found that in order to make a good motion picture machine he would have to learn photography; so with his usual vigor and thoroughness Mr. Edison read and learned all that the books could tell him of the photographic art. Then, through thousands of experiments, he found a sensitive film with which he could take fifty pictures per second and developed successful machines for taking, developing, and projecting the pictures on a screen. When the machines became a success commercially, the Wizard predicted the union of the phonograph and the motion picture to give the illusion of reality. Then, for a time, Mr. Edison worked on color pictures, but left these for more important work. Thirteen

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PHONOGRAPH T has been said that “the phonograph was the result of pure reason based upon a very happy inspiration.” This shows how Mr. Edison brings about an invention. First, he has a very active imagination restricted by sense; second, he applies pure reason to the problem; then, scientifically and systematically he gives the world another labor-saving or joy-giving device. His experiments are nothing like guess work. Everything he does is done with reason, and if he accidentally uncovers some new natural phenomena, he remembers the facts and later uses his knowledge. Thus it was with the phonograph. Mr. Edison imagined the simple device, made a diagram, and had his assistant construct the machine, which consisted of a diaphragm with a needle attached to its center and a wooden cylinder covered by tin-foil revolved by a crank. Mr. Edison spoke “Mary had a little lamb” into the diaphragm and the needle recorded the vibrations on the tin-foil. When he “played” the record later, he heard “Mary had a little lamb” reproduced clearly, but faintly. The phonograph is a simple mechanism, but it took the imagination, reasoning, and faith of a true scientist to produce it. Twelve

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INVENTIONS LL the fields of science have advanced through the work of Mr. Edison. He gave the world an efficient, strong, and light storage battery to replace the old type of wasteful, fragile, and heavy cell. His battery was used on a five thousand mile test trip over the roughest roads in the country, but after the test the batteries were found to be uninjured although the autos were wrecks. Mr. Edison made the electric railways a success. The experiments at Menlo Park developed the original ideas of electrically driven cars and made the electric locomotive an efficient means of transportation. The Wizard saved a great deal of money for the telegraph companies by inventing means of sending several messages over the same wire. This reduced the number of wires needed and simplified the work of “connecting the cities with a copper road for speech.” Thomas Alva Edison is an inventor of the highest type. He has an utter disregard for statements which simply say “It can’t be done.” His work is as close to perfection as he possibly can make it. He never gets discouraged, because “failure” in an experiment means greater knowledge to him—he knows one more thing that won’t work. Fourteen