Science: Wizard of Menlo

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During the War, he enlisted his mechanical ingenuity as Chairman of the Naval Consulting Board; his chemical knowledge by producing, in large quantities, carbolic acid and other substances essential to the drug and dye industries, for which the U.S. had been dependent upon Germany.

From Ohio, where he had been born, the scene of his early life, his first experiments and his days as a telegraph operator, Mr. Edison removed to Newark, N.J., in 1873; then to Menlo Park, later to Orange, N.J., where his home and large factories now are. Outside "the old man's" office, a placard advises visitors that he is so busy that he finds it "impossible to grant any personal interviews." Within, an absorbed, absentminded, gracious, tireless, cheerful individual carries on his work, with the calm open-mindedness of a scientist, from one day to the next of his 79th year. Well might his motto be the one which is the heritage of the Princes of Wales-"Ich dien" (I serve).

Works. With but three of his inventions, "the Wizard of Menlo Park" has modified human life more extensively than any man of his time. Most recent figures, for the U.S. alone :

ELECTRIC LIGHTING

Number of customers 13,400,000 Number of employees 300,000 Incandescent lamps per customer 37.85 Residences wired 10,500,000 PHONOGRAPHS Number of phonographs manufactured per year 981,635 Number of records 98,104,279 Wage earners in the industry 23,505 CINEMA Feet of film made per month 65,000,000 Miles of film made per year (over) 150,000 Cinema houses in the U.S -17,836 Proportion of U.S. population estimated as attending cinemas regularly 68.2%