The clerk at Louisville was Bob
Martin, one of the most expert telegraphists in America, and Edison soon
became a first-class operator.
In 1864, tempted by a better salary, he removed to Memphis, where he
found an opportunity of introducing his automatic repeater, thus
enabling Louisville to communicate with New Orleans without an
intermediary clerk. For this innovation he was complimented ; but
nothing more. He embraced the subject of duplex telegraphy, or the
simultaneous transmission of two messages on the same wire, one from
each end; but his efforts met with no encouragement. Men of routine are
apt to look with disfavour on men of originality; they do not wish to be
disturbed from the official groove ; and if they are not jealous of
improvement, they have often a narrow-minded contempt or suspicion of
the servant who is given to invention, thinking him an oddity who is
wasting time which might be better employed in the usual way. A
telegraph operator, in their eyes, has no business to invent. His place
is to sit at his instrument and send or receive the messages as fast as
he can, without troubling his mind with inventions or anything else.
When his shift is over he can amuse himself as he likes, provided he is
always fit for work.
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