The model had acted well, but the first instruments made after
it proved a failure. Edison thereupon retired to the upper floor of the
factory with some of his best workmen, and intimated that they must all
remain there until the defect was put right. After sixty hours of
continuous toil, the fault was remedied, and Edison went to bed, where
he slept for thirty-six hours.
Mr. Johnson, one of his assistants, informs us that for ten years he
worked on an average eighteen hours a day, and that he has been known to
continue an experiment for three months day and night, with the
exception of a nap from six o'clock to nine of the morning. In the
throes of invention, and under the inspiration of his ideas, he is apt
to make no distinction between day and night, until he arrives at a
result which he considers to be satisfactory one way or the other. His
meals are brought to him in the laboratory, and hastily eaten, although
his dwelling is quite near. Long watchfulness and labour seem to
heighten the activity of his mind, which under its 'second wind,' so to
speak, becomes preternaturally keen and suggestive. He likes best to
work at night in the silence and solitude of his laboratory when the
noise of the benches or the rumble of the engines is stilled, and all
the world about him is asleep.
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