The Edison phonograph monthly (Jan-Dec 1912)

<TD/Te EDISON PHONOGRAPH MONTHLY Published by Thomas A. Edison, Inc., Orange, N. J. NATIONAL PHONOGRAPH CO., LTD., VICTORIA ROAD, WILLESDEN, LONDON, N. W. NATIONAL PHONOGRAPH CO. OF AUSTRALIA, LTD., 364-372 KENT STREET, SYDNEY, N. COMPANIA EDISON HISPANO-AMERICANA, VIAMONTE 515, BUENOS AIRES. EDISON GESELLSCHAFT, M. B. H. IO FRIEDRICHSTRASSE, BERLIN. COMPAGNIE FRANCAISE DU PHONOGRAPHE EDISON, 42 RUE DE PARADIS, PARIS. S. W. All commun cations to The Pho nograph Mo nthlj should be addressed to the Advertising D apartment, Orange, N j Vol. X MARCH, 191 2 No. 3 Edison at Sixty-five Proud of His Youth Nearly forty one-time associates and present day admirers of Thomas A. Edison gathered at his home in West Orange, N. J., last night, to feast him in honor of his sixty-fifth birthday anniversary to-day. A testimonial and loving cup was presented to him, the testimonial by T. Comerford Martin, and the cup by Edward H. Johnson. On behalf of the inventor the responses were made by Samuel Insull of Chicago. The dinner was served at 7 o'clock in the music room of Mr. Edison's handsome residence in Llewellyn Park. Afterward there was a reception, at which the guests numbered twice as many more. Mrs. Edison, their daughter Madeline, and son Charles, participated in the tribute tc the inventor. The testimonial, engrossed, was worded as follows: To Thomas Alvah Edison, greeting: On this your sixty-fifth birthday and thirty-third anniversary of your inauguration of the now world-wide industries, bared on the generation and distribution of electrical energy, your associates in the pioneering days unite in this tribute of appreciation and affectionate regard, and bear witness to posterity that despite a marvelous development of electric lighting and allied arts, the comprehensive system originally worked out by you remains to-day unchanged in any essential. We feel that no higher tribute to your genius can be paid than is embodied in the simple statement of fact, but we are not content with this alone. We have another obligation, of which it is our pleasure to acquit ourselves on this happy occasion, namely, the acknowledgment of our indebtedness to you for the great example you have given us of indomitable energy, patient perseverance in pursuit, modesty in achievement, charity toward detractors, sympathy with fellow-pioneers and co-workers, and an utter disregard for profit for its own sake. The inventor himself, smiling in appreciation of it all, sat in what appeared to be an ordinary mahogany chair, but which in reality was one of his latest achievements, a reinforced concrete chair stained to look like mahogany. Edison recently announced that he had added to his discovery of how to make cement houses cheaper the invention of concrete furniture which would enable "newlyweds" to outfit themselves for a few hundred dollars as grandly as the rich could do under the old regime. The dinner was arranged by Robert T. Lozier of New York, and he was master of ceremonies. The tables were set in a hollow square, the centre of which was a sunken garden, with a cement house, small, but complete in every detail, in the centre. On either side of the house was a tiny lake, in which swam goldfish and real ducks. Each lake was spanned by a cement bridge. The ducks swam at one end of the lake and at the other was a fountain, and on the Tanks a flower bed. The landscape was surrounded by a hedge, in which at intervals tiny incandescent lights sparkled. At the tables the place cards were recent photographs of the inventor. Each guest received as a souvenir a bronze paperweight specially made for the occasion and bearing in its centre a favorite motto of Edison's, "All things come to him who hustles while he waits." In the upper left-hand corner appears a view of the Menlo Park laboratory of the early days, and in the right the laboratory of to-day at West Orange. Between the two emblems of the past and the present at the upper part of the plate is the fac simile of Edison's signature, and the date of the birthday celebration. In the lower left-hand corner is a stock ticker, one of his early inventions, and at the right the storage battery, one of his latest achievements. At the very bottom are the dates 1847 and 1912, to show the span of Edison's life. There was no separate menu printed, but it was put in a program folder with a unique cover. It represented an incandescent light, with sixtyfive distinct luminous streams radiating its surface. Each of the radiants was labeled with the name of some signal achievement of Edison,