Unauthorized Announcements

Recently in this column public attention was directed to the fact that many of the announcements made in morning papers concerning alleged wonderful discoveries and inventions credited to that great electrician, Thomas A. Edison, were unauthorized by him. That was done for the purpose of warning the public against entertaining delusions which, when shattered, would cause great pain. For from time to time we have been told that the blind would be made to see, the deaf to hear, the germs of consumption be destroyed and cancer be conquered by electricity. All these wonders may be worked some day, but at present these afflictions defy man, and in this statement Thomas A. Edison and Nikola Tesla concur. That I did no injustice to Mr. Edison is shown by the following extract from a letter which he has deemed it his duty to write to the New York Sun, a paper, by the way, which has not been guilty of the offenses of which he complains:

“I wish to protest through the Sun against the many articles appearing in the sensational papers of New York from time to time purporting to be interviews with me about wonderful inventions and discoveries made or to be made by myself. Scarcely a single one is authentic and the statements purporting to be made by me are the inventions of the reporter — the public are led from these articles to draw conclusions just the opposite of the facts. I have never made it a practice to work on any line not purely practical and useful.”