i88 RAY STANNARD BAKER 



old, though he looks scarcely thirty five — has he ceased to be 

 interested in science and mechanics. As a student in Stevens 

 institute and later in Columbia college, he gave particular 

 attention to electricity, physics, chemistry, and mechanics. 

 Later, when he went into business, his inventive mind turned 

 naturally to the improvement of manufacturing methods, 

 with the result that his name appears in the patent records as 

 the inventor of many useful devices — a vacuum pan, a glue 

 clarifier, a glue cutter and other glue machinery, and numer- 

 ous others. He worked at and learned many sorts of trades 

 with his own hands; machine shop practice, blacksmithing, 

 steamfitting, carpentry, jewelry work, and other work-a-day 

 employments. He worked in a jeweler's shop, learning how 

 to make rings and to set stones ; he managed and hired a steam 

 launch ; he was for eight years in his grandfather's glue factory, 

 where he had practical problems in mechanics constantly 

 brought to his attention. And he was able to combine all 

 this hard practical work with a fair amount of shooting, golf- 

 ing, and automobiling. 



Most of Mr. Hemtt's scientific work of recent years has 

 been done after business hours — the long, slow, plodding toil 

 of the experimenter. There is surely no royal road to success 

 in invention, no matter how well a man may be equipped, no 

 matter how favorably his means are fitted to his hands. He 

 worked for seven years on the electrical investigations which 

 resulted in his three great inventions; thousands of experi- 

 ments were performed; thousands of failures opened the way 

 for the first glimmers of success. 



His laboratory during most of these years was hidden 

 away in the tall tower of Madison Square Garden, overlooking 

 Madison Square, with the roar of Broadway and Twenty third 

 street coming up from the distance. Here he has worked, 

 gradually expanding the scope of his experiments, increasing 

 his force of assistants, until he now has an office and two work- 

 shops in Madison Square Garden and is building a more ex- 

 tensive laboratory elsewhere. 



Of all the power used in producing the glowing filament 

 in the Edison bulb, about ninety seven per cent is absolutely 

 wasted, only three per cent appearing in light. This three 



