When the draft came the inventor found, much to his surprise,
that it was for thirty thousand _pounds_--nearly one hundred and fifty
thousand dollars.
"The phonograph or talking machine has been considered one of Edison's
greatest inventions, but it does not compare in importance and value
with the electric incandescent burner light. This required many
thousands of experiments and tests to get a filament that would burn
long enough in a vacuum to make the light sufficiently cheap to compete
with petroleum or gas. During all the years that he was experimenting on
different metals and materials for the electric light which was yet to
be, in a literal sense, the light of the world, he had men hunting in
all countries for exactly the right material out of which the carbon
filament now in use is made. Thousands of kinds of wood, bamboo and
other vegetable substances were tried. The staff made over fifty
thousand experiments in all for this one purpose. This illustrates the
art and necessity of taking pains, one of Mr. Edison's greatest
characteristics. The story of producing electric light would fill a big
volume.
"When the proper filament was discovered and applied there was great
rejoicing in the laboratory and a regular orgy of playing pranks and
fun.
"The philosophers say we measure time by the succession of ideas. If
this is true the time must have been longer and seemed shorter in
Edison's laboratories than anywhere else.
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