Chapter I: Front Matter

This book, designed for boys and girls, is published with my consent.

THE BOYS' LIFE OF EDISON

BY

WILLIAM H. MEADOWCROFT

OF THE EDISON LABORATORY.

AUTHOR OF "ABC OF ELECTRICITY," "ABC OF THE X-RAYS"

WITH AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

BY MR. EDISON

_ILLUSTRATED_

HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS

NEW YORK AND LONDON

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

Introduction............................. ix

I. The Early Days of Electricity............ 1
II. Edison's Family.......................... 5
III. Edison's Early Boyhood................... 15
IV. The Young Newsboy........................ 21
V. A Few Stories of Edison's Newsboy Days... 32
VI. The Young Telegraph Operator............. 41
VII. Adventures of a Telegraph Operator....... 49
VIII. Work and Invention in Boston............. 75
IX. From Poverty to Independence............. 88
X. A Busy Young Inventor.................... 101
XI. The Telephone, Motograph, and Microphone. 117
XII. Making a Machine Talk.................... 129
XIII. A New Light in the World................. 135
XIV. Menlo Park............................... 145
XV. Beginning the Electric Light Business.... 153
XVI. The First Edison Central Station......... 161
XVII. Edison's Electric Railway................ 169
XVIII. Grinding Mountains to Dust............... 177
XIX. Edison Makes Portland Cement............. 187
XX. Motion-Pictures.......................... 195
XXI. Edison Invents a New Storage Battery..... 202
XXII. Edison's Miscellaneous Inventions........ 209
XXIII. Edison's Method in Inventing............. 216
XXIV. Edison's Laboratory at Orange............ 224
XXV. Edison Himself........................... 233
XXVI. Edison's New Phonograph.................. 240
XXVII. Edison's Work During the War............. 250
Events and Achievements of Edison........ 265

ILLUSTRATIONS

EDISON AT WORK IN ONE OF THE CHEMICAL ROOMS AT THE ORANGE LABORATORY

EDISON WHEN ABOUT FOURTEEN OR FIFTEEN YEARS OF AGE

MR. EDISON AT THE CLOSE OF FIVE DAYS AND NIGHTS OF CONTINUED WORK IN PERFECTING THE EARLY WAX-CYLINDER TYPE OF PHONOGRAPH--JUNE 16, 1888

THE EDISON ELECTRIC RAILWAY AT MENLO PARK--1880

EDISON AT THE OFFICE DOOR OF THE ORE-CONCENTRATING PLANT AT EDISON, NEW JERSEY, IN THE 'NINETIES

THOMAS ALVA EDISON--1911

"THE INSOMNIA SQUAD"

EDISON AT WORK ON RUBBER EXPERIMENTS. FROM A MOVING PICTURE TAKEN DECEMBER, 1928