June 4^ 1915] 



SCIENCE 



813 



alone. And so it seems to me that a report 

 on such joint work is peculiarly fitting 

 before this academy, which I assume, if it 

 stands for anything, stands for cooperation 

 and mutual help among men of science. 

 Joel Stebbins 



IlNrVERSITY OF ILLINOIS OBSERVATORY 



mn. EDISON'S SERVICE FOM SCIENCE-^- 



All the world is indebted to Mr. Edison, 

 but the portion of it that is under special obli- 

 gation is the educational world, particularly 

 the schools of technology. It is not merely that 

 he has helped them by criticism and construc- 

 tive suggestion ; it is not merely that by finan- 

 cial assistance he has enabled them to carry on 

 scientific investigations in fields that he has 

 cultivated with such remarkable success; but 

 it is mainly because he has himself been for a 

 generation an educational institution of the 

 first rank. As much as any other school he 

 has had a profound influence throughout the 

 country in arousing in the minds of young 

 men some sense of the limitless possibilities of 

 science when devoted to the service of man and 

 some appreciation of the conditions under 

 which great problems of industrial improve- 

 ment must be attacked if lasting victories are 

 to be won. It has been a great thing for 

 America to have such a central figure in this 

 age of applied science — a man with such a hold 

 on the popular imagination as to force men to 

 watch what he is doing, for in studying Edison 

 there can not fail to be revealed something of 

 the underlying forces that mould the world of 

 modem industry. 



I have said that Mr. Edison is an institute of 

 technology or a school of applied science. Such 

 an institution, if it be worth anything, stands 

 preeminently for three things : for belief in 

 science and in its powers of service, for under- 

 standing and appreciation of the method of 

 science, and in the third place, for faith in the 

 gospel of work. 



Edison more than any one else in this coun- 



1 Address at the Civic Foium, New York, May 

 6, 1915, on the occasion of the presentation of its 

 medal for public service to Mr. Edison. 



try has taught men to see something of what 

 science can do. It would, of course, be im- 

 possible on such an occasion as this to enumer- 

 ate the accomplishments of a life so rich in 

 great achievements. With such an embarrass- 

 ment of riches, it is scarcely practicable even 

 to single out a few of his great accomplish- 

 ments. Many of you are familiar with what 

 he did in the early days by way of improving 

 the duplex and quadruplex systems of teleg- 

 raphy, you know of his invention of the con- 

 tact transmitter and his development of the 

 loud-speaking telephone, of his marvelous in- 

 vention of the phonograph (Edison being the 

 first to make a record that would reproduce 

 sound), you think of his wonderful work in 

 1878 and later years in developing the incan- 

 descent lamp, and you realize that he prac- 

 tically made the whole incandescent system, 

 not only inventing the lamp, but turning his 

 attention to all its adjuncts, improving the 

 dynamos for such work and providing the 

 necessary means for the distribution of power 

 over large areas. You recognize that he laid 

 the foundations for the design of central power 

 stations and that his Pearl Street Station was 

 a landmark in the history of science. His 

 work in this field is truly phenomenal, the 

 three-wire distribution, the system of feeders 

 entering the network of mains at different 

 points, the underground conductor system, the 

 bus system in stations, the innumerable acces- 

 sories of switches, fuses, meters, etc., that he 

 provided are each achievements that would 

 make the fame of any individual. You appre- 

 ciate the remarkable character of his later 

 work in developing the apparatus of moving 

 pictures and you agree that what he has done 

 still more recently in perfecting the alkaline 

 storage cell is a splendid example of energy 

 and persistence in attacking a difficult prob- 

 lem. Thinking of all these things, you can 

 not fail to be impressed with two things — the 

 enormous range of his activities and the won- 

 derful simplicity of many of his devices. 

 After all, simplicity of device is always the 

 sign of the master, whether in science or in 

 art. In studying Edison you have something 

 of the same impression as in studying Newton 



