THE OREGON SUNDAY JOURNAU PORTLAND, SUNDAY MORNING, OCTOBER 2$, 1914.
THE FUTUR
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Also He Will Eat Less,
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Electricity Human
ity Will Llve in Double
Shifts Because the
World Will Be Too
Crowded.
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By Edward Marshall.
SAZS E die on to me: "Humanity
will have to live in double shifts,
by and by, because the ' world
will se crowded, and it will
have to sleep ltss.'
By sleeping less it will enormously
increase Its productive power, for
sleep is an absurdity, a bad habit. .
Zt will have to eat less because the
world's population will be so great
that its productivenceo will not keep
pace with a per capita consumption
as great as that of the present time.
Sy eating leis it will enormously
Increase Its efficiency and happiness,
and will do away with poverty.
These statements by the great in-
vector were drawn out In the course
of a long talk occasioned by the
I thirty-fifth anniversary of his -Invention
of the electric lighting system.
That anniversary occurs this month,
and It is the anniversary of the be
f ginning of an era of peaceful revolu
ktlon. In whinh this man has been the
leading revolutionist.
In a third of a century he has seen
I the worlil march marvelously to
ward efficiency, and the fact that
kmore than any other man he has con
tributed to the facilities which have
; helped it to march rapidly makes
what he thinks of it especially im
iportant. He expects more rapid progress In
jjthe future than the paut has ever
Utnown; he. will not believe that any
feproblera will arise of which "solution
his essential to the human advance
Vwhlch will not find Its solver.
When 1 asked him what had been
the principal achievements of inven
tors since his own epoch-making
f triumph, he sat thoughtfully for
k moment.
"A good many things have been
, done." said lie. "A good many
('.things. Let me sec" ,
Wears His Years Lightly
I had not seen him for a year, and
. as he sat, with Kdlsonian intensity,
absorbed in thought, 1 watched his
''face. It showed to me no signs of
Jr added age; there was not less than
f the old-time brilliant sparkle in his
eyes; his hand as it tapped a pencil
on the table was as steady as a
youth's; a moment later when he rose
to cross the room his step revealed a
spring and an alertness notable In that
of few other men now living who were
born in 1847.
His . moment of revery ended ab
ruptly. "Give me a pad! Give me a nadl"
h called to Meadowcfoft, for years
his Office associate. His voice was
ringing and without one of the signs
of age,
I handed him a pencil and some pa
per and he wrote with a firm hand
and smoothly flowing thoughs the list
Of H great achievements which he
numbers as the most important work
Of other men since his own inven
tion of the electric lighting system.
He carefully explained, as he pushed
the list across the corner of the table
toward me, that he probably had omit
ted many things from it. The follow
ing day, when he revised this inter
view, he added the seventeenth Item.
"The biggest value to -the world has
some from chemical discovery," he
added, "If we set aside -the work of
medical men. " It has been a very
fruitful period in chemistry.
Of the sixteen items on his original
list only six were strictly chemical;
and that his heart Is true to his first
love, electneity, is shown by the
quaint circumstance that the first
item on his list consists of the one
word "wireless."
I asked him to tell me something of
tiaMmate at what his Invention of
Thtraa A. Edison.
the electric lamp really has aecom-
plished.
. .
Was the Starting PotnU
"It seems to have been the starting
point for the whole era of electrical
development," he answered.
But there was no boasting In the
woras or in tne tone, it was merely
the reply of one who, thinking deeply,
was endeavoring to state exact fact.
And then he fell suddenly silent, ab
sorbed In deep thought.
A curious change comes over Mr.
Edison's strong face when he Is
searching In his mind probably the
most marvelous mental storehouse in
the world for facta. V
It is plain enough that he sees noth-
ing, it is certain that he hears noth-
ing of the outside world when he Is
deeply thinking. There Is a complet-
ness m the Kdlsonian abstraction
which I never have seen equaled.
"You see," he went on slowly when
e roused from thla deep thought, "as
he roused from thla deep thought.
soon as the light was proved to be a
practical thing, It was plain that It
was of paramount Importance. It wai
clear that it must speedily and com
pletely be developed.
"Its development developed other
things, like dynamos and methods for
tltJfJ?011' elctrtclty- Thesf
kept me busier than the perfection of
the lamp Itself had kept me. And
they engaged the energies and talents
of many other men. -
"I estimate that 3 per cent of the
work of developing our present elec-,
trie lighting system was devoted to
the perfection of the lamp, and that
97 per cent was devoted to the per-
fection of the system which makes
the lamp available for practical use-
fulness.
"The problems Involved tn the dis
tribution of electricity for lighting
purposes throughout large communi
ties and its sals to the consumer, by
meter measurement, as gas already
was being sold, involved an enormous
amount of study and hard labor. To
make each light Independent of all
Other lights was a great task.
"It is In such associated problems
that the hardest work of every big
Idea lies, and in connection with the
electric lamp the work was particu
larly full of problems, for there waa
nothing from which to draw prece
dents. "About the only help I had In the
development of the electric light lay
in the fact that the scientific world
was all against me. and recited Ohm's
law to prove the case.
"It was an interesting situation. I
turned the Ohm's law around and did
what was regarded as the opposite
of that which It provided for, and
found that it applied to the reversed
situation peirfectly.
"And once the lamp was meas'ure-
aWy Perfected It seemed at once to
start thought along the lines which
bore the world into what we now may
accurately call the 'electrical era. I
am glad to have had a hand in that '
"But I wasn't satisfied with it I
wanted to furnish power, as well as
light as soon as the wires were spread
through the strets. It was clear .
enough to me that electric power was
certain to become cheap, and It was ,
certainly more flexible than any other.
"Presently we put the world's first
electric railway Into operation at
Menlo park, and I was sure that the
idea was practical. Siemens of Berlin
also put one in operation at the same
time.
"Its development needed money,
though, and capital was hesitant In--deed,
.J was assured by . the greatest
financial tlgures in Wall street that
thla scheme of operating railroads by
electricity waa the craziest idea that
ever had been advanced by any one
assuming to be sane.
"They eould net convinee me.
.Tt had carefully gathered all the
figures of the- cost of horse cars and
ttreir operation and was sure that the
substitution of electric power for
horse power would result In an enor-
mous saving.
Indeed, I knew, and my knowledge
was exact. 1 knew electric traction
was the coming thing, and a very biS
thing. '
Rut it tooled me."
He paused, again deep in thought.
"How?" I asked.
Had Underestimated it.
"It was bigger than' 1 thought it
was," he answered. "I had made a
better guess than Wall street had, but
, ,, k
my Bues had ben far from ade:
Prophetic It was so big that
u amased me. It increased traffic
startlingly. As a matter of fact, elec-
trie traction has Increased streetcar
traffic, t stimat hv boo npr cent
"The first electric cars revealed a
facmty qf operaUon and a rapidity of
A v..-l. .. m.i
seemed to have expected.
"Their multiplication of traffic waa
enormous, their effect upon street rail
way receipts was very great. Then the
men In Wall street, who had declared
them to be a crazy dream, began to
speculate in electric traction . stock.
They have been at it ever since.
'Spragtre and Johnson, two of my
associates, put the first commercial
ttn r-i niito tn
ful operation at Richmond, Va. After
this Installation the work progressed
rapidly in all parts of the country."
One Mr. Edison told me about his
feelings when he made his first great
tour of Europe, and, although he tried
to travel very modestly, found the
cities that he visited illuminated in
;
WorkTs Greatest Inventions Sine
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Aa Appreciation of Edison by
Stelnmetx.
It U true that Sdlsoa bmw went
to ny eoIls, aid Dr. CbftrlM
Pro too StsliuiMta In pHny of th
wonderful lnrvntlon of th aleetrto
IwspVhlctt Edison produced thfatjr
Ot years ayo thla raomth, trat h
knows more about the aubct
txeorht in college tlutn most college
nen. H la eaaentlally a practical
man In the aenaethat whatever be
esdertakea he wlahea to know
whether- and how tt wouM be of uee
and benefit to mankind, but at the
same time he la apparently Interested
and familiar with almost any field
of human knowledge. Whether you
talk with him about electrlea! engW
neerlng or other engineer tag. erganle
ebemlstry or anthropoVogy or any
other subject, you always find alnt
tuny familiar with the subject and
able to grre you TaluabJe hints sot
lag your difficulties, as X have found
more than once during the various
times I had the pleasure to meet
him, and that even In the highly the
oretical aspeeta of the subject. Thus,
for Instance, most electrical engi
neers now consider the subject of
transients one of the most .recently
explored and most Intricate fields of
electrical engineering; but already In
his first direct current Installation
Edison met such phenomena, and un
derstood and explained them. From
my experience I oonstder Edison to
day as the man best Informed tn all
fields of. human knowledge.'
his honor with the electric lamps he
had invented.
There was a side issue to the pride
and joy he felt, furnished by the fact
that many of the lamps were operated
in countries where his rights were not
protected, so that he drew no royalty
from the honorable illumlnatlonsr but
he said little about that. He ' rtever
talks much about money. He never
has thought much about money.
But I remembered that old com
ment and asked him, upon this occa
sion, to tell me something of the aen
tlment which stirred in him &g the
anniversary of his great Invention ap
proached. "I don't believe the electric light
has ever stirred much sentiment in
me," he answered. "I had so much
trouble and worry in connection with
the perfection and Introduction of the
lights that I never have bad time for
sentiment about them.
"I believe they have expanded what
we may describe as 'day,' and that
that has increased the possibilities of
effective human effort. I rather like
to think of that
"As people advance they are lea
and less satisfied with the compara
tively brief 'illumination nature has
supplied In daylight.
"Civilization's march means the
march ; of artificial illumination, -because
artificial illumination adds to
the hours of man's possible usefulness
and interest, and because Interest
means happiness, and because' to the
best men happiness means willingness
to strive.
"Everything which decreases the
sum total of man's sleep increases the
sum total of man's capabilities.
"There really is no reason why men
should go to bed at all, and the man
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of the future will spend far less time
in bed than the man of the present
does, just as the man of the present
spends far less time In bed than the
man of the past did.
"As a matter of fact, a very simple
bit of arithmetical figuring will show
that by and by humanitly will have
to live in double shifts, so that there
may be room upon the earth for all
the people. We are conquering the en
emies of life at a great rate. Our in
crease of the life rate more than makes
up for the decrease in the birth rate."
"But war still help to keep the pop
ulation down," I commented, although
Mr. Edison had said, early in our talk,
that he did not wish to mention war.
"This war is a catastrophe," he
granted, "but it isnt going to change
the basic facts of life. It will leave
the world as round as ever, and the
places left vacant by Its slaughter will
be filled.
"The day of life in double abtfts wtll
come in spite of war. Medical science
will save more lives this year than
war will take, no matter how terrif
ically murderous that war may be.
"I think this matter of sleeping la
one of the serious things which hu
manity must begin to study. I never
yet have come across the case of a
man who had been hurt by want of
sleep.
"As we have advanced in ei visita
tion the amount of sleep which we
have taken has decreased, and as we
further advance It further will de
crease. 'Sleep Is a Bad Habit."
"In the old days man went up and
down" with the sun. A million years
from now he wont go to bed at all.
Really, sleep ia an absurdity, a bad
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Charles P. Stelnmetx.
habit. We can't suddenly throw off
the thralldom of the habit, but we
shall throw it off.
I "Humanity can adjust Itself to al
most any circumstances. Not so very
long ago we had a good deal of trouble
here in the factory while we were
i trying to perfect the disk record for
our phonographs, and it was plain
enough to me that one reason for it
was that our work was too much in
terrupted by the daily routine of our
lives.
"We made up our minds that the
trouble bad to end, andvthat it would
really get something approaching un
divided attention until it did end.
'Eight of us then started upon the
work with very definite intention of
wasting just as little time as possible.
"For five weeks we put in from 145
to 150 hours a week each at the Job.
One hundred and fifty hours a week
means more than 21 hours a day."
"And none of you suffered any 111
effects?"
Mr. Edison chuckled. "Ill effects?
No. We all gained weight"
Also Eats Very Little.
This took us Into a realm of dis
cussion as interesting as that con
cerning sleep. Mr. Edison has a world
wide reputation for sleeping very little;
it seems that he deserves a world-wide
reputatfctn for eating very little.
This point came out when I asked
him what the double quartet of prac
tically sleepless ate during the period
of Its intense endeavor the period,
during which all its members gained
weight
"We bad plain, workman's food."
he answered; and then he said with
emphasis: 'That's the stuff fer me,
and I am sure we'd all be better oif
if it was what everybody ate.
"Our diet was not scientific It was
fuel for our physical engines. As I
remember it It consisted principally
of potatoes, onions, fried ham, pork
and beans and pie. When we felt ex
hilarated because things were going
nicely we sent out for a steak.
"We became known in the factory
as tbe Insomnia squad, and we all
were proud of the appellation.
"We enjoyed life, too, and I don't
think all the members of the Insom
nia squad' have gone back to their old
habit of oversleeping, or to their old
habit of eating too much and too elab
orately. "They felt too well while they were
members of the 'insomnia squad.'
"The man who sleeps too much suf
fers from it in many ways and gains
nothing from it The average man
who sleeps seven or eight or nine hours
daily is continually oppressed by las
situde. "If he sleeps only four or five hours
daily, he feels as clear as a bell and
full of energy when he wakes up and
when he goes to bed he is sufficiently
tired so that he will certainly sleep
well, but it takes a month or two to
acquire the habit"
"Have you always slept well?" I
inquired.
"I have never overslept and I have
never had a dream, good or bad, so
far as I know, in my life." said Mr.
EdiSOn.
"I had a close friend." he went on.
-who conatantly complained of dread-
i H,.,m. r irfvised a shortening of
the hours of sleep.- My advice waa
accepted, sleep waa cut down to six
hours daily, and the result has been
an absolute succesa.
"Nothing in the world ia more dan
gerous to the efficiency of humanity
thaal too much aleep, except perhaps,
stlmttlation. The elimination of all
stimulant would be a fine thing for
the race. I lately have been using a
.coffee from which the caffein has been
extracted before it oe into the cof
fee pot, and it baa been a distinct ad--vance.
I
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fine, big human sign. The temperance.
movement's advance ought to be a
ject for general congratulation; m.i;'
winter's crusade in New York for l?t-g
ter regulation of habit forming lruKijj
was mighty worthy work; presently b
shall be cutting out tobacco, tea xndlp
coffee, and we all shall be better for t,)
"But a general deoresse in tlie
waste entailed by too muoh sleep willj
do more for humanity,' I think, thuna
almost anything ever (has done. . '
"When I went through Switzerland
I noticed that in the -valleys every onM
was in bed and dead to the world at 8
oj- 9 o'clock at night, and they neveit
were very much all v to it at nj,$
time. From that population nothlnkS
is to be expected. ' a
"Higher up, where the development
of water power had meant cheap anjl.
Plentiful light for every one, it waf
quickly and plainly apparent thst tltel
mental life of the people was brthtirw
and more efficient , j
"The same thing is noticeable In tHcf
United States to any one who keeiM
his eyes open when he travels, arid;
nothing is apparent to tbe man wis
keeps his eyes shut Sleep shufs
them. if
"Here, as in Switzerland, where tl
nights are illuminated you see nwi
buildings, busy factories, clever aiicfi
effective people. Where there is "nS
cheap and effective artificial light 'yQO?
find stupid people. j
"It Is that which marks the pri$
cipal difference between the city riiiifl
and the country man. here, as elHfcS
where. And of ail illumination electric?
Hht Is the best In every respect cji
and gaa both vitiate the atmosphere
and thus counteract some of thefjf
advantages. Electricity does not.
is the perfect light It brightens pebl
Pla UP- - (
"Suppose a crusade which would
educate the people ' might be atartfeu
which would keep th 90,000.000 pejog .
pie of the United States out of bcU
one hour each night if
"I can think of no way n which w
vast addition to the wealth of. tfid .
world could be made so certainly if'li
by this method, but this nation shj
the world will be slow In Its adoption,
for apparently sleepiness is the mosj. -difficult
of all habits to break a wag
from. But there is sr vast economy
gain which humanity may mtk wittj
out the help of any new invention. : 1
"Another and an even greater onjji
might be accomplished If ; tbe wof ill
would stop Ita overeating, j;
"The 'Insomnia squad' here at Ch
factory was also a food-temperan;:!
squad to an extent If it had by
more temperate in food consumption
It would have gained efficiency there
by. I consume five ounces to a mei,
three times a day. Including the wt
in the; food. I drink lota of water, 1$
"The man engaged at hard physleaU
labor, whose work makes the en sens
or his body require more fuel thja
mine does, could get on perfectly wrll
with eight or ten ounces to a mul
although he1 might find the achieve
ment of the habit difficult if
"On the average, men would $ .
better if they reduced their food j J
sumptlon by two-thirds. They do lite
work of three horse-power eni'i
and consume th fuel which snoajjri
operate fifty horse-power engines, f A
"Taking into their bodies too rntS't1
uuuiuuug tuwiuicd vuy ynttiu.y
find themselves unable to aesimtlsge
efficiently any nutritioua substaoc
Taey become obese and pallid
they can't bold their ownin the rte
because they are 111 -from malnutri
tion. Their Intestines are full of ba,)-
terla. producing putrefaction. TWy
fail both of efficiency and comforts
"We need enough solid food. eh
day to compensate for the soHs
'which our body burns up in dJgstio.
and if we take mora than that ta
harm ouraalvea. Wa should eat? -to
keep oor weight constant ' ' TVt
ounces at a meal ia nearer what
really require than the great quagip
Ue wlflcb moat of us consume. I hVa
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