THOMAS ALVA EDISON. 215 



machinery are employed in carrying out and perfecting the 

 ideas of the inventor. Edison's personal appearance is thus 

 described by a visitor who saw him at work : " A figure of 

 perhaps five feet nine in height, bending intently above some 

 detail of work. There is a general appearance of youth about 

 it, but the face, knit into anxious \vrinkles, seems old. The 

 dark hair, beginning to be touched with gray, falls over the 

 forehead in a mop. The hands are stained with acid, and the 

 clothing is of an ordinary 'ready-made' order. He has the 

 air of a mechanic, or more definitely, with his peculiar pallor, of 

 a night-student. His features are large ; the brow well shaped, 

 without unusual development; the eyes light-gray; the nose 

 irregular, and the mouth displaying teeth which are also not 

 altogether regular. When he looks up his attention comes 

 back slowly, as if it had been a long way off. But it comes 

 back fully and cordially, and the expression of the face, now 

 that it can be seen, is frank and prepossessing. A cheerful 

 smile chases away the grave and somewhat weary look that 

 belongs to it in its moments of rest. He seems no longer old. 

 He has almost the air of a big careless schoolboy released from 

 his tasks." 



Such is Edison in work-hours, and it seems to be always 

 work-hours with him ; he carries on his researches far into the 

 morning when he can have quiet, and it is then his most happy 

 hits are made. With a sharp eye to everything which may be 

 of service to him, no smallest discovery in chemistry is despised, 

 but laid aside for probable use at some future time. Besides 

 the phonograph and the practical adaptation of the electric 

 light for purposes of illumination, the number and variety 

 of his inventions are bewildering. Among his still uncom- 

 pleted ideas may be mentioned the Megaphone, composed 



