Edisoniana

A shrill and crackling hail greeted Herbert Hoover when he and Mrs. Hoover joined Thomas Alva Edison's 82nd-birthday party at the Edison estate near Fort Myers, Fla., early last week. It was deaf Mr. Edison yelling: "Hello, fisherman!"

Then there was a general shaking of hands and a few posings with Mr. Edison standing between his cronies, Motor-Man Henry Ford and Tire-Man Harvey Samuel Firestone, his hands affectionately around their shoulders. Mr. Hoover, sauntering across the street to telephone, saw a group of little girls looking sad because, they thought, they were not permitted to dance at Mr. Edison's party. Mr. Hoover opened Mr. Edison's gate and sent the children in. On Mrs. Edison's ample table was a big green-&-yellow pound cake. This the old gentleman sliced with skill and raillery.

As is usual at his parties, Mr. Edison had an aphorism and a statement to make.

The aphorism: "I am not acquainted with anyone who is happy."

The statement: "I believe those States bordering on the Gulf of Mexico can grow plant rubber with profit to the farmer, in case of war prices. But it might be possible in the future to grow rubber and compete with the tropics. I have found over 1,200 plants to produce rubber. About 40 of them will be cultivated on a large scale."

Henry Ford has a 22,000-acre plantation near Savannah, Ga., and on it he is cultivating some of his friend's rubber plant selections. Mr. Ford has a rubber tree plantation newly started in Brazil. Mr. Firestone has his own plantation going in Liberia. These and other intimates of Mr. Edison possess little chunks of spongy brown material--Edison's first rubber from U. S. weeds.

Another feature of Mr. Edison's birthday was a gesture of generosity by Mr. Ford. At Dearborn, Mich., Ford's factory town, stands the Edison Institute of Technology and the Museum of American Industries, dedicated to Mr. Edison. Mr. Ford last week endowed institute and museum with $5,000,000. The museum contains all Mr. Edison's tools and contrivances, in working order.

At the dedication of the Dearborn memorials, Mr. Edison, Mr. Ford and a group approached the buildings to enter. Near the door was a fresh-laid sheet of concrete, around which the party started to walk. But not Mr. Edison. Always he takes the short cut and across the concrete he walked. It was soft. His shoes sank into it. Consternation came upon his face, then stubbornness. He plodded ahead leaving a string of footprints behind. Mr. Ford was delighted and said something flattering about "the sands of time." He gave orders that the footprints be allowed to harden, furthermore, he made Mr. Edison take off his shoes and leave them in the museum.

At Dearborn, also, there is being reconstructed the brick laboratory in which, at Menlo Park, N. J., Thomas Alva Edison invented the incandescent bulb 50 years ago. That golden anniversary will be celebrated nationally on Oct. 21.