Raleigh High School - Excelsior Yearbook (Raleigh, IN)

Page 23 text:

ing using these lights was that of the New York Herald , then a sailing vessel, Jeanette, in search of the North Pole. The electric lighting plants in United States alone are now worth 28750,- 000,000. In the field of amusement, Mr. Edison has also accomplished much. First, the phonograph, con- sisting of two parts-the phonograph and the rec- ord. The record is a cylinder. upon which the sound waves can be impressed in a spiral line, and he reproduced by the machine. This, Mr. Edison says, will sing the baby to sleep, tell us what o'clock it is, summon us to dinner, and warn the lover when it is time to vacate the front porch. Secondly, the kinetoscope, or motion pictures, is a succession of rapidly moving photographs, and por- trays most vividly real life. Edison has also taken advantage of the construc- tion of cement in the Edison Portland Cement Works. This consists of iron molds, just the shape of the desired building, and after setting and filling, the molds are removed, leaving the building ,almost complete, for no plaster is used. This building may be constructed for about 31,200 In December, 1914, his factory in Newark, New Jersey was destroyed by a great fire, with a loss of 567,000,000 But he cares little for money, and though the has made a fortune, he never counts the cost when he is at work on a new invention. Thomas A. Edison is now sixty'eight years old, and there is much expected still from the busy brain,and hand that seem to work out their own great problems regardless of the constant frowns of so-called science. One reason of Edison 's long life and activity is the fact that he never worries, and says, Don't worry, but work hard, and you can look forward to a reasonably lengthy existence. - LUELLA ELWELL. ' 'Jane Addams' ' HAT the world-famous founder of Hull House -the foremost citizen of Chicago, -was as a child painfully handicapped by physical deformity, makes her career the more remarkable. I was an ugly, pigeon-toed little girl, with a crooked back, is the uncompromising comment of the attractive Jane Addams of today. As a child, she was burdened with curvature of the spine, and carried her head a little to one side, but nevertheless she found consolation in reading The Ugly Duckling. No doubt but that the death of her mother when Jane Addams was but two years old developed her supersensitiveness about her appearance that was soothed by this story, and as was the Ugly Duckling transformed into a beautiful swan, so was Jane Addams trans- formed from ugliness and deformity to a beautiful, lovable woman. From a child, Jane Addams was thoughtful and sensitive, as was shown by her on Sundays, when she went to attend the small church with her uncle and father. She would always walk by the side of her more ordinary looking uncle for fear her father would not want to acknowledge such an ugly duckling for a daughter. However, this foolish Page twenty one

Page 22 text:

El graph, which sent four messages-two in each direc- tion. This was perfected by the Sextuple Tele- graph, thus making a device worth millions of dol- lars to the company, as they might send six mes- f sages over one wire where previously they used six li wires. , While at Newark, he invented the harmonic l multiplex telegraph, which was a number of tuning i forks, managed by magnets, that sent vibrations i which came into contact with tuning forks at the ii other end of the line. Sixteen messages might be , sent over this system at once. l i Mr. Edisonhalsci, made a pegfeijctios for Qulhe gale- , phone, which ad een invente y exan er ra- l ham Bell. The Bell telephone, however, was prac- K 'tical only for short distances, and Edison set to , work making the telephone transmitter. Bell wished to use Edison's invention, but could not as he didn't have the patent. After much disagree- i ment, they arranged for a compromise, and by Page twenty means of the lampblack button on the transmitter, the buzzing on the telephone was destroyed. Mr. Edison was but thirty years of age when this was completed. The next subject which occupied his time was that relating to the electric light. He had observed, while in the laboratory of Professor Barker, at Philadelphia, the first arc lamp, and noticed that when one light was lighted that all were, and that they were entirely too bright. He desired to obtain small lamps that might be used in private homes, and each light independent of the other. There were two systems before him-the arc and incandescent. As a field for his operations, he chose the latter, although it was thwarted with the difficulty that platinum, when used, was liable to melt under the fierce heat of the electric current, and that carbon might be used under the combined action of gases and the current. He spent thirteen months of experimentation, not becoming discour- aged as most people do. So it was necessary to find some substance which would not only make a bright light, but also one that would not melt. Sitting one day in his laboratory, thinking of some of the unfinished details of his lamp, he began thoughtfully rolling between his fingers a piece of compressed lampblack mixed with tar, used for other purposes. Glancing at the black thread, the thought struck him that it might make a good burn- er. The experiment was tried instantly, and the results were satisfactory, except the carbon was not strong enough. He experimented further by taking a spool of cotton thread, and tried to carbonize it, but it broke and was not successful. For three more days and nights he worked, showing his will, and on the third night, after taking all the air from the glass bulb, lit the lamp, into which he had put car- bonized cotton, and lo and behold! it burned. This lasted for forty hours. Next, he desired to find something which would burn much longer, and after using straw, paper and cardboard, he thought of bamboo and obtained the best results from this. He spent nearly a hundred thousand dollars in search of the best bamboo, which was found in the valley of the Amazon, and when completed strung a number in Menlo Park. Now he attempted to make a central station for electricity in New York City. The first office build-

Page 24 text:

I a ls W Page twenty fear was forever dispelled when one day he doffed his hat to her, bowing low in courtesy as he passed her in the street. Close by the Addams homestead stood the great iiouring mill owned by her father. On the bank of the mill-stream she and her step-brother built a sac- rificial altar, to which sacred spot they carried dead snakes which they anointed with sweet cider. One day when Jane Addams was not yet seven years of age, she drove with her father through the poor district of Chicago. Until then, the city had always meant beautiful houses and splendid shops. As she looked at the miserable huts, she earnestly exclaimed, Father, why do people live in such horrid little houses so close together? Her father explained the condition as best he could. When I get big, she replied, I am going to live in a great big house right among horrid little houses like these. Miss Addams has fulfilled this youthful promise with Hull House, which has since 1889 been ministering to the needs of the poor among whom it is built. Jane Addams, while yet a mere child, attempted to read her father's library, beginning with Pope's Iliad. This proving unsatisfactory, she began to read the History of the World. She next read Plutarch's Lives, with a reward of five cents for each life she could report on to her father. As a stimulus for more reading, her father gave her twenty-five cents for every volume of Irving's Life of Washington she read. This early reading de- veloped into a real liking so that she made a very successful reading of Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. -two - In 1877, Miss Addams entered Rockford Semi- nary. She was one of the first four youngpwomen to receive a degree upon its becoming Rockford College. While hcre, she met Ellen Gates Starr, with whom developed a life long friendship, and who, along with Miss Addams, became the co-found- er of Hull House. Miss Addams early took for granted the fran- chise for women, about which her father had talked to her. This belief developed as she grew to wom- anhood, as was shown by her election in 1912 to the vice-presidency of the National Woman's Suf- frage Association, and her activity in the first convention of the Progressive party. Govern- ment, she holds, is in the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, the diseases that enter into our homes. It has to do with the educa- tion of our children and the living conditions of our men and women. That women can successful- ly deal with subjects of the government is shown by the work of Jane Addams at Hull House. When Rockford Seminary was allowed to enter the oratorical contest of Illinois, she was chosen to represent her school as the champion of the Wom- en's Cause. At the close of the contest, it was found that she ranked fifth, which was not easily forgiven by her angry schoolmates. No doubt but that all bitterness of the decision has been wiped away by the after career of the Winner for Woman Suifrage. While at Rockford, Miss Addams was prevailed upon to enter the church. Although she was a firm believer of God, she did not become a member of the Presbyterian church 'until several years later.