to become an inventor
by profession must be conceded a mind more than ordinarily replete
with virility and originality. That these qualities in Edison are
superabundant is well known to all who have worked with him, and,
indeed, are apparent to every one from his multiplied achievements
within the period of one generation.

If one were allowed only two words with which to describe Edison, it
is doubtful whether a close examination of the entire dictionary would
disclose any others more suitable than "experimenter--inventor." These
would express the overruling characteristics of his eventful career. It
is as an "inventor" that he sets himself down in the membership list of
the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. To attempt the strict
placing of these words in relation to each other (except alphabetically)
would be equal to an endeavor to solve the old problem as to which came
first, the egg or the chicken; for although all his inventions have been
evolved through experiment, many of his notable experiments have
called forth the exercise of highly inventive faculties in their very
inception. Investigation and experiment have been a consuming passion,
an impelling force from within, as it were, from his petticoat days when
he collected goose-eggs and tried to hatch them out by sitting over
them himself. One might be inclined to dismiss this trivial incident
smilingly, as a mere childish, thoughtless prank, had not subsequent
development as a child, boy, and man revealed a born investigator with
original reasoning powers that, disdaining crooks and bends, always
aimed at the centre, and, like the flight of the bee, were accurate and
direct.

It is not surprising, therefore, that a man of this kind should
exhibit a ceaseless, absorbing desire for knowledge, and an apparently
uncontrollable tendency to experiment on every possible occasion,
even though his last cent were spent in thus satisfying the insatiate
cravings of an inquiring mind.

During Edison's immature years, when he was flitting about from place to
place as a telegraph operator, his experimentation was of a desultory,
hand-to-mouth character, although it was always notable for originality,
as expressed in a number of minor useful devices produced during this
period. Small wonder, then, that at the end of these wanderings, when
he had found a place to "rest the sole of his foot," he established a
laboratory in which to carry on his researches in a more