Unveiling Thomas Edison's Early Innovations by Bettly Jo Belton
On April 5, 1876 an earlier version of the Stratford Times newspaper announced that “Mr. Edison, the electrician, has brought out an ingenious and useful invention which excels in novelty all his previous efforts. It is an electrical duplication press which enables one to write a letter and make 5 copies per minute until hundreds of copies are produced.” Stratford readers were understandably curious about the now famous Thomas Edison (1847-1931) who had lived here about a dozen years before.
On his membership application for the Old Time Telegraphers’ and Historical Association that Edison filled out in 1904, he recorded that he was a telegraph operator in Stratford while working on the Grand Trunk Rail Road in 1863.
When celebrations took place for what would have been Edison’s 100th birthday in 1947, the Mayor of Stratford was presented with the original membership document as a keepsake. Like many other local history treasures it was put into the hands of R. Thomas Orr (1870-1957) for safekeeping. The document arrived at Stratford-Perth Archives in 1972 as part of the Orr family collection.
Interest in Edison’s career and his time in Stratford likely peaked in 1940 with MGM’s release of a biographic film starring Mickey Rooney as the young inventor. According to a plot summary on IMDB, Young Tom Edison “shows him as a lad whose early inventions and scientific experiments usually end up causing disastrous results.
As a result, the towns folk all think Tom is crazy, creating a strained relationship between Tom and his father. Tom’s only solace is his understanding mother who believes he's headed to do great things.” A few years after the film came out, the Honourable Mr. Justice J. Maurice King (1907 – 1972) gave a series of thoughtful, well-informed local history talks on CJCS radio. King was Mayor of Stratford in 1946 and 1947. He graduated from the Stratford Collegiate Institute in 1924 and went on to St. Michael’s College and Osgoode Hall in Toronto. He became a lawyer in 1932 and practiced here until 1950, when he was appointed to the Supreme Court of Ontario.
He maintained strong ties to Stratford and kept his home at 182 Church St. ( see Church St.) This is Mayor King’s radio presentation on young Tom Edison’s time in Stratford.
Maurice King
“Stratford in the early 1860’s was a fairly primitive place. Ninety percent of the buildings at that time were made of logs. The population of Stratford was about three thousand – the streets were muddy, with planks for sidewalks, and at night all was in darkness save for the light shed by candle or lamp from the windows of the early homes built here. Yet there was living in Stratford at that time, one who in the course of a few short years, was to change the whole way of life for millions of people throughout the civilized world. A passenger on the old Grand Trunk Railway some ninety years ago, travelling from Port Huron to Detroit, would have seen a bright young newsboy about fourteen years of age, selling his wares with enthusiasm to all and sundry and would have learned, upon enquiry, that this remarkable newsboy published his own weekly paper on board the train on a hand-press of his own contrivance, calling it “The Grand Trunk Herald.”
Further enquiry would have disclosed the fact that this boy was none other than Thomas Alva Edison – or young Tom Edison as he was then known. One day when the train was at Mt. Clements, the little daughter of the station agent there, ran out on to the tracks and young Edison rescued her from the threat of an approaching train. In gratitude for this chivalrous deed, the station agent, whose name was McKenzie, taught Edison the art of telegraphy and shortly thereafter he had qualified himself as an operator and was employed at Port Huron at $25.00 a month.
Following a brief period of employment as telegraph operator at Port Huron, Edison came to Stratford as night operator in the early 1860’s. For at least part of the time that he was in Stratford, Edison lived at…the residence of William Winter, who conducted an express and telegraph business here… It was while in Stratford that he rigged up a contraption that would automatically operate his signal, while he could use the time for resting. This, however, was one invention that didn’t appear to be too successful. It was only by great good luck that a train that should have been required to stop was not involved in a wreck when it continued on its course.
This was the incident that ended young Edison’s career in Stratford. Edison’s grandparents had lived in Canada, but he was born in the United States, his family having left Canada at the time of the Mackenzie Rebellion of 1837. Edison’s account of this is graphic for he is reported to have said that “The old man got mixed up in that scrap and they chased him clear across Canada. He got off at Detroit.”
Thus, Edison was born in the United States rather than in Canada, although, we in Stratford can claim him as a resident for some time just at the dawn of his amazing career. It was in 1879 that Edison perfected his invention of the electric light but it was not until Christmas Eve 1910 that the street lights were turned on in Stratford, operated by hydro-electric power from Niagara. Prior to that, the local electric company, with power from the dam, had been used for that purpose.
Now throughout the world no one considers it surprising that homes and streets should be well illuminated with electric lights. Yet it can all be traced back to a young boy who lived and worked here in Stratford years ago, and a young boy too, who did not have the advantage of much education. When the Hollywood picture “Young Tom Edison” was produced, the first Canadian showing of the film was held here in Stratford and at that time a plaque was erected in the station to mark the association of Edison, both with Stratford and with the railway.
There is an incident, in closing, which will be of interest to railway people. When Edison left the railway in such a hurry, he left without waiting to collect his wages. Some twenty-five years later (he was famous by then) the railway presented him with a cheque for one month’s wages at a public ceremony in Port Huron. I suppose there is a moral to this but I will leave you to draw your own conclusions. The point in the story of Edison’s life as far as we are concerned, is that we may well have in our midst right now young men and women whose names, like Edison’s, will be famous throughout the world a few years from now.” Source: Stratford-Perth Archives