The books lying about, the designs and placards on the walls, the
draught-board on the table, gave it the appearance of a mechanics' club-
room. The free and lightsome behaviour of the men, the humming at the
benches, recalled some school of handicraft. There were no rigid hours,
no grinding toil under the jealous eye of the overseer. The spirit of
competition and commercial rivalry was absent. It was not a question of
wringing as much work as possible out of the men in the shortest time
and at the lowest price. Moreover, they were not mere mechanical
drudges--they were interested in their jobs, which demanded thought as
well as skill.
Upstairs was the laboratory proper--a long room containing an array of
chemicals; for Edison likes to have a sample of every kind, in case it
might suddenly be requisite. On the tables and in the cupboards were
lying all manner of telegraphic apparatus, lenses, crucibles, and pieces
of his own inventions. A perfect tangle of telegraph wires coming from
all parts of the Union were focussed at one end of the room. An ash-
covered forge, a cabinet organ, a rusty stove with an old pivot chair, a
bench well stained with oils and acids, completed the equipment of this
curious den, into which the sunlight filtered through the chemical jars
and fell in coloured patches along the dusty floor.
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