MUTATION OF METALS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3339, 4 October 1911, Page 8

MUTATION OF METALS.

VIEWS OF MB- EDISON. Mr T Edison, the “wizard of the West ’i as his countrymen delight to deMThVthe great inventor, is visiting End and and told, an interview that Mich a lot) of time is wasted m sleep. Sere is much too much sleep in the I here is Eight hours is ridiXus “"■& a. Somt’tiiues Avrcstle ]>rohdrop it, and I sleep. , I cm slumber a Sight and a day straight off I sleep until I wake up again. Jhat 11 last me for a month or turn “Sleer> was invented in the Curfew davs when there was only villainous artificial light, and men got into the habit of sleeping. The world Joses twothirds of its life in sleep. people tel me I have .accomplished things, if 1 have, it is-because I have always kept awake as long as possible thinking about things.” ... About his recent statements with regard to the possibility of manufacturing “old Mr Edison said it was only a matter of* time. “The discovery of a proper combination and treatment of metal is bound to come soon; it may arrive to-morrow,” and the wizard looked mysterious, and then laughed heartily “It makes some of you gold bugs shake a little doesn’t it? But scientists al over tlie world are working at metal combinations, and the crucible will betray things sooner or later—and then what about those clauses in contracts to pay in gold coin of standard weight and fineness? Supposing the railroads suddenly became able to pay their bonds in cold which they knew how to manufacture at a cost of only £o a ton. Mail, my words it will come.” For flying machines Mr Edison predicts the greatest future, but he seems to'think that there will be many improvements upon the present construction and motive power. The subject was discuss ad in the smoking room the night prior to the Mauretania s arrival at Fisliguard. He believes that the secret will be wrested from the motions of certain flying insects rather than of birds, and that in a year or two air transports with passengers, speeding 100 miles an hour, will be the general means of travel. “The earth, however, will not cease to be busy in consequence,” he added. “There will be lots of things running up and down all the time; but the days of steam power are about at a finish: electricity will be the motive power everywhere. As for a gricultural i mplemenis, there i ndeed. there is going to be a revolution. I married the daughter of a man who made a great fortune our of the manufacture and invention of all manner of farming machinery. He never would ' have made it had he lived in these days. “The coming farmer will push a button and work levers. Storage batteries will drive ploughs, while the future agricultural laborer will be a man who I has acquired a working knowledge of chemistry and botany. The very utmost will be got out of the earth, and of the seed within the earth; but all the manual labor —the donkey work with the sweat of the brow —will lie performed by machinery controlled by electricity. “We are only at the beginning of science,” said Mr. Edison, throwing away half a cigar and lighting a fresh one. “Nature’s doors are just opening after mighty pushing on our part. This century will see as many hair-rais-ing wonders as the past has seen. When good Queen Victoria was a girl, when 1 was steam, where was electricity? They both appear to be a matter of course to us now. Perhaps some mSard, as they call me, foreshadowed it all to them in those days. There have always-been men who think; but even thinking must go slow, if it wishes to be sure, and convince by patiently overcoming ridicule and the hundred and one obstacles which always confront progress.”