it.

They laughed at him, but let him try.

He succeeded in fixing it.

They gave him a good position.

From this time on there were better times for him.

After this the world soon sang his praises; and, in the next ten
years, Fortune poured into his lap half a million dollars.

This was the result of his thinking.

The man who was in charge of the United States Patent Office called
him "the young man who keeps the pathway to the Patent Office hot
with his footsteps."

Mr. Edison believed that two messages could be sent over the same
wire at the same time.

Of course the world laughed at the idea.

But soon our inventor managed to send four messages over the same
wire at the same time.

Then the world stopped laughing.

People said, "This young man is the greatest inventor of his age,
and a discoverer as well."

The Grand Trunk train-boy had proved a genius.

When twenty-six years of age, he married a young lady of Newark,
Miss Mary Stillwell.

Three years later he moved to Menlo Park.

This was twenty-four miles from New York.

It was not a pleasant place, but he hoped to work there in quiet.

He had so many visitors that he could not work.

He said, "I think I shall fix a wire to my gate, and connect it with
a battery so that it will knock everybody over that touches it."

But he was really kind.

He would smile pleasantly, and explain patiently to anyone who
wished to know about his inventions.

At Menlo Park he built a great laboratory.

This was filled with batteries and machinery.

Here all the world came to see his wonderful talking machine.

It is called a phonograph.

What do you think Mr. Edison called this machine?

He said, "I have invented a great many machines, but this is my
baby, and I expect it to grow up and support me in my old age."

Would you like to know the names of some of his inventions.

One is the carbon telephone.

The tasimeter measures the heat even of the far away stars.

The electric pen multiplies copies of letters and drawings.

Over sixty thousand are now in use in this country.

The automatic telegraph permits the sending of several thousand
words over the same wire in one minute.

[Illustration]

There are many others.

Do you wonder that he is called "The Wizard of Menlo Park?"

But his crowning discovery is the electric light.

Some gentlemen of New York put one hundred thousand dollars into Mr.
Edison's hands.

They told him