DEC. \7 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
848 
THOMAS ALVA EDISON. 
While Mr. Edison has, as yet given to the 
agricultural interests of the country but little, 
if any, direct benefit fjcm bis inventions, ag¬ 
riculturists, ns well as others, will doubtless 
like to know something of the man and of bis 
works; so we present, in connection with his 
portrait, a very brief and nec¬ 
essarily incomplete sketch of 
his eventful life. Thomas Alva 
Edison was born February 11 
1847, at Milan, a little villag 
in Erie County, Ohio. His 
boyhood life was largely spent 
at Port Huron, Mich., whither 
his parents had removed short¬ 
ly after his birth, fie early 
manifested a desire for a l et- 
ter education than the obscure 
country village afforded, but 
the moderate circumstances 
of his parents forbade his 
seeking knowledge in the 
higher schools, and, like many 
another youth, he found his 
best instruction in the few 
books at his command. 
Young Edison early mani¬ 
fested a love for experiment¬ 
ing, his first attempts in this 
line being made on the incu¬ 
bation of goose eggs. At 12 
years of age he became a train 
boy on a railway in Michigan, 
and when not peddling pea 
nuts, candy and papers to the 
passengers he was experiment¬ 
ing in the rudiments of chem¬ 
istry in t he baggage car. Or c 
day the car caught fire, pre¬ 
sumably from his chemicals, 
and his experimentation was 
brought to an abrupt end. Af¬ 
ter this lie set about, acquiring 
practical knowledge in tele¬ 
graph ollires, railway shops 
and newspaper press rooms. 
He seemed to have a peculiar 
liking for tt’hgraqhy, and for 
pei forming experiments in 
el ctricitv, and while employ¬ 
ed as a regular telegraph * p- 
erator on the lb o, he was ever 
on the lookout for possil le im¬ 
provements in < be a > c. A for¬ 
tunate circumstance at lm-t 
brought him into fellowship 
with the Western Union Tele¬ 
graph Company, so that he 
had broader opportunities to 
improve his talent for iuvtst - 
gation and invention, and now 
Edison, though ouly 154 yeais 
of age, has given to the world 
numerous testimonials of bis 
indefatigable energy and per¬ 
severance, and bis name, in 
connection with the electric 
light and Menlo Park, is now 
of world-renown. To give a 
list of the patents Mr. Edison 
has already taken out for inventions in tele¬ 
graphing or telephoning, in electric lighting 
and the transmission of electric energy, would 
cover a page of the Rural New-Yorker, and 
yet his brilliant inventive powers seem but to 
gather new strength with each new r conception 
wrought into practical use. 
i5ccuaneou5> 
FERGUS FALLS, MINN. 
An Important Grain Market—Magnifi¬ 
cent Water Power—A Growing City. 
MESSRS. HOLMES AND SWEETLAND. 
LSpeclal Correspondents of the Rural New-Yorker.] 
Agreeably to the promise made in our last 
letter, we will furnish the many thousand 
readers of the Rural with an epitome of the 
growth, improvement, present prospects and 
various elements of real worth which came 
under our observation during our short but 
pleasant visit to the city of Fergus Falls. 
It has increased in population from 1,635 in 
1880 to nearly 3,000, dwelling houses and 
places of business being built much faster 
than they can be painted and finished. The 
principal part of the population is 
American, many from New England. 
We found a handsome school building 
costing $0,000, graded with five depart¬ 
ments, und were not surprised to learn that it 
wus inadequate, $15,000 iu bonds having been 
voted for a new brick school-house to be 
built in 1882. More churches than are usually 
their members many of the leading citizens. 
The railroad interests of this city are doing 
much toward its rapid development. It is 
the terminus of two divisions of the St. 
Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railroad, 
having, of course, round houses, machine 
shops und division offices. It is also an im¬ 
portant point on the Fergus Falls and Bluck 
Hills division of the Northern Pacific, almost 
completed, with a branch of the same road 
from hero to Pelican Rapids, and the pros¬ 
pect of still greater progress another year. 
Fergus Falls is upon the Otter Tail River, 
which merges into the Red at its junction 
with the Bois de Sioux, and boasts 
THE FINEST WATER POWER 
in Northwestern Minnesota; the natural fall 
within the city' limits and vicinity exceeds 85 
feet, and maintains a remarkable uniformity 
of stage, never varying a foot in its rise and 
fall. The present development is from 
three crib and bent dams furnishing 4,000 
horse power, of which only about 700 is now 
used by the present manufacturing inter¬ 
ests. The power is held for sale or lease in 
any quantity desired, with or without build¬ 
ing improvements, and its early utilization 
portends a large increase in the business im¬ 
portance as well as population of the city. 
We learn that Mr. Jas. H. Hill, President 
of the Manitoba line, has, since our visit, 
made some Large investments in the power, 
with a view to improve it immediately. 
The present manufacturing inteiests of the 
city are: The Red River roller flouring mills, 
of large oapacity, working now both night 
and day, and still unable to supply the de¬ 
mand; two other large flouring mills, the 
seen in a new Western town turn their grace¬ 
ful spires heavenward here. The societies 
represented are Congregational, Presbyterian, 
Episcopal, Methodist, Swede Baptist and 
Norwegian Lutheran. The press is able, con¬ 
servative and fearless. The Journal, both 
weekly and semi-weekly, has a power press 
run by water. The Independent is also semi- 
weekly and weekly—both are 7-column 
folios. The Norroanna Banner is a Scandi¬ 
navian weekly. The various seciet societies 
have prosperous lodges, rrn lning runng 
THOMAS A. EDISON. —Fig. 557. 
three turning off 550 barrels of flour daily; a 
large saw mill, capacity 30,000 feet daily, 
whose business for the year just past has 
been 884,950; two furniture factories, a wool- 
carding mill, a foundry, oue plow shop and 
two machine shops, while openings present 
themselves for almost any branch of manu¬ 
facturing interest, especially paper mill, flax 
mill, tow and oil, agricultural implements 
and oat meal mill. 
The value of permanent improvements for 
1 lie year ending October 1st, is estimated at 
above $300,000, fully §50,000 of it being in 
manufacturing industries. The commercial 
business, carefully estimated, foots up $2,000,- 
000. The banking capital is $75,000; the ex¬ 
change business is very large and the bank is 
a credit to the city. 
The only hall is Sundhall’s Opera House, 
50x75, with stage and scenery. Fergus Falls 
needs a large hotel very much indei.d, and 
we hope on our next visit to see cue, as well 
ns some very necessary improvements in the 
post-effiee. The city indebtedness is bended 
$3,000 at 7 per cent. There is a storage capa¬ 
city for 168,000 bushels of wheat, which will 
doubtless be augmented the succeeding year. 
Too many of the stiuctures are Irame, espe¬ 
cially as we aie told that brick clay of fine 
quality is found ntar at hand. 
Fergus Falls is the eouuty seat as well as 
principal city of Otter Tail County, 186 miles 
from St. Paul, in the western part of the 
Park Region, where it merges into the Red 
River Valle} 7 . This county is an exception¬ 
ally fine agricultural district, being dotted 
with many hikes, furnishing pure water for 
stock and abundant precipitation during the 
short nights of the growing season. Thus, 
with a rich surrounding country, capable of 
producing both gruin and stock, good rail¬ 
way facilities with outlets in all directions, 
the water power mentioned, and the right 
kind of citizeus, we see no reason why Fergus 
Falls should not contiuue to hold her place in 
the front rank ol' Northwestern cities. 
The series of Bonanza farming articles 
with original illustrations will be begun the 
last of the year or the first of the New Year. 
THE TUBE WELL TROUBLE. 
I he uncertainty of the law is proverbial 
and judging from the very curious and unex¬ 
pected decisions often given in patent trials, 
of all forms of law the patent laws seem the 
most uncertain. Owing chiefly to this oncer 
tainty it is seldom that a real friend advises 
recourse to the la w unless in an important 
case; for besides being uncertain, the law is 
very expensive, and here again of all forms 
of litigation that ahont. patents seems to he 
among the most burt.hensome. 
In the case of the patentees of 
the driven well against Theo¬ 
dore S. Carman (really against 
the Pump Manufacturers’ As¬ 
sociation), decided by Judge 
Benedict, in April, 1876, in the 
U. R. Circuit Court for the 
Eastern District of New York, 
the plaintiffs’ taxed costs 
amounted to $3,070. which the 
defendents had to pay in ad¬ 
dition to their own costs which 
were, at the very least, as 
great. This was the expense 
of a trial merely in the United 
States Circuit Court, from 
whose decision an appeal al¬ 
ways lies to the United States 
Supreme Court, and of course 
a patent appeal is always mom 
expensive than the first trial. 
Where the case is not so vigor¬ 
ously contested the costs, of 
course, are lighter; for in¬ 
stance, in the ease of the same 
patentees against George B. 
Wrieht, decided by Judge R. 
R. Nelson, in 1878, in the U. S. 
District Court for Minnesota, 
the plaintiffs 1 taxed costs w r ere 
only $<522.40, which the defend¬ 
ant had to uav in addition to 
his own. together with $15, in 
contesting which all the ex- 
rc'use was incurred. Hail 
Wright paid a royalty of $5 at 
the outset, all (he worry aud 
expense of this preliminary 
trial would have been avoided, 
besides the far greater w, rrv 
and expense of the appeal, 
which we understand has been 
made in this case to the United 
States Supreme Court. 
But here Wright is merely 
th" representative of upwards 
of a million driven-well own- 
eis who are harassed by the 
exactions of the patentees of 
this well, and accordingly his 
troubles and expenses are 
lightened on account of being 
shared in by most of the well 
owners of his State. While 
litigation, like war, should be 
avoided whenever honorably 
possible, still in both cases it 
often happens that while the 
immediate cause of one or the 
other appeal's trivial there is 
back of it a principle in support 
of which the money of the pub¬ 
lic or the blood of the nation should be freely 
expended. The American people are steadily 
opposed to this driven well patent which seeks 
to tax one of the great necessities of life—pure 
water. They are impatient of the idea of 
paying to extortionate strangers a tax on the 
water they get out of their own wells. Such 
earnest, widespread movements of public sen¬ 
timent are never dishonest, and in a Republic, 
where the voice of the people is paramount, 
must always have a dominant influence on 
legislation. Nothing has ever impressed on 
the American people the necessity of an 
amendment of our patent laws so forcibly as 
has this driven-well agitation. 
With the exception of four States and a 
few counties, W. D. Andrews & Bro., of this 
city, jointly with Green, own the tube well 
patent iu all the States. They sell no patent 
rights, but grant licenses for veils either 
directly or through agents. Before the United 
States Senate Committee on Patent®, Mr. 
W. D. Andrews declared, in March last year, 
that it was their intention thenceforth to press 
vigorously their claims for “ royalty ” in 
every part of the territory in which they 
still owned the pateut, and That those who 
owned it elsewhere were in full sympathy 
with them in this and other matters. The in¬ 
creased agitation since then shows that the 
above declaration was not an idle threat. If 
the patent remains valid every driven-weU 
owner in the country will soon be forced to 
pay from $5 to $10, or as much more as the 
patentees or their agents may, later on, 
choose to exact, for every l^-inch well, and 
a greater sum for larger wells. It, therefore, 
behooves every man who owns, or may here¬ 
after own, a driven well, as well as all hater* 
