Four distinguished people started life as telegraph-operators. Sir William van
Horne, who was one of the pioneers of the C.P.R., Andrew Carnegie, George Kennan, the traveller, and Thomas Alva Edison, whose life forms the subject of a very. interesting book by Mr. G. S. Bryan. (Edison : the Man and His Won:. Knopf. 18s.) Here is given, in non-technical language, a sufficient account of Edison's many and supreme inventions, but the best feature of the book is the picture of the man himself---his early struggles, his blunt humorous person- ality, his prejudices, and his capacity for toil. In 1909 he stated that up to 1902 (when he was 55) his average working day was 19.1 hours long, but since then he considered* did lib,: exceed 18: Is it, then, to be wondered at that the industries
based wholly or in part on Edison's inventions are worth to America 35 billions of dollars ? And, as he said himself in 1923, "the Electrical age: is just starting." We extend our respectful congratulationS to the greatest inventor of the age : Mr. Edison was eighty a fortnight ago.
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