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s to them and to the events of the past sixty years are the sub

ct of this narrative18. Aside from the personal interest th

ttaches to the picturesque19 career, so typically American, there

roader aspect in which the work of the "Franklin of the Ninete

th Century" touches the welfare and progress of the race. It is

ifficult at any time to determine the effect of any single inventio

d the investigation20 becomes more difficult where

ventions of the first class have been crowded upon each other in rapid and bewild

cession. But it will be admitted that in Edison one deals with a central fig

e of the great age that saw the invention and introduction in practical form