HISTORY OF ELECTRICITY IN AMERICA 133 



alone; and the quadruplex is likewise associated with his 

 name exclusively, the services of Mr. Henry C. Nicholson of 

 Kentucky being overlooked. A popular misconception of 

 the facts also leaves out of account the work of William Wiley 

 Smith of Indiana, and Lucius J. Phelps of New York, in per- 

 fecting the well known system of train telegraphing by induc- 

 tion. But with all that, the fame of the wizard rests on 

 a sure basis of marvelous accomplishment in the service of 

 mankind. 



Reference has been made to Edison's powers of selection 

 for inventive ends. These are essential to every great in- 

 ventor, and it was these that Professor Morse distinctly lacked. 

 Whence, indeed, should he have acquired them in a life de- 

 voted to pictorial art? On the other hand, Edison is master 

 of his tools. He works toward the embodiment of his idea 

 just as an accomplished writer works toward the clothing 

 of his mental conception, not without rejections and re- 

 shapings, but with confidence that, in the end, he will have 

 said — in levers and pulleys, or in the words of human speech — 

 just what he started out to say. 



Edison has devoted his life, actually and avowedly, to 

 applying science to the benefit of mankind. His dominant in- 

 stinct is to reduce his knowledge of scientific facts to a prac- 

 tical, useful embodiment, to find expression for it, so to speak, 

 in an appliance that will conduce to man's comfort, conven- 

 ience, or amusement, — in a word, to invent. 



We come now to an electrician of another type, who, 

 with an inventive record and experience second only to that 

 of Edison, has preserved his interest in the speculative phases 

 of his work, and has made important contribution to theoret- 

 ical science, the value of which has received world wide recog- 

 nition. There is no one else in America to whom the younger 

 generation of electricians look with so much of expectation 

 and confidence as to Professor Elihu Thomson. He has been 

 connected since 1880 with the Thomson-Houston Electric 

 company of L}Tin, Mass., and both there and elsewhere has 

 taken the highest rank as an inventor who could adapt the 

 most thorough knowledge of principles to the practical needs 

 of the situation. His most notable work in this kind has been 



