The Assistant

The following letter was found in the desk of Ms. Sue Alva McIntyre, a former mother of four, grandmother of five, who decided to share the material with her local library many years ago. The letter itself was found in the archives and there was much speculation as to why it was never shared with the general public (such matters should become clear to the reader). It was deemed historically significant, and therefore shared with the general public.

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July 18th, 1897

Dearest Mother and Father,

I want to thank you again for the opportunity to work with Uncle George and Auntie Selma at their home. They were very keen to have me join them in assisting that new scientist that you now know quite well thanks to the papers and some gossip. He has decided to let me work as a secretary handling his notes and letters (you might be quite surprised at the number of letters that now pour into his laboratory every single day).

This is a skill worth developing.

I know that there are some doubters – I was one, too – who think that the papers are exaggerating what Mr. Edison has accomplished, but I must let you know that he really is a genius. You already know about his “light bulb” (not a joke or a lie, father; I have actually held one). He has also made some other things that are not yet popular, but will be. And that is why this might be the last letter I send you written on paper. There is a wondrous device called a “gramophone”. Now, how this works is that one person speaks into a bell – Mr. Edison calls it a “microphone,” another of his inventions – a cylinder is turned on a box, and your voice, or whatever else you want to save, is now “recorded”! He has tried to explain how these processes work. I have even written down the process for one of the many letters he has us write. I am still very confused about the language, but I do appreciate his trust in me.

I also mentioned some gossip. The newspapers in this city are probably some of the worse that I have ever seen. The portrait of our founder, the Genius of Menlo Park, is not one that I have ever seen in any of their reports. He works hard, Mother and Father, harder than anyone I have ever seen. This is why I feel like I have to explain things to you and describe our time here. The staff takes part in the operation of the laboratories and businesses connected with Mr. Edison’s inventions. And there are also the large gatherings and cultural exercises that are provided for us during the summer. We are going to begin our next session soon, and this is worth noting.

In a wide parcel of land, we chant, cheer and exercise, both men and women. Mother, you have often complained that I am a “tomboy” who is not ladylike to attract a man, and I have often agreed with you. But not after my first session. I outran both men and women in our races and have received ribbons and some money in our competitions. I have also led some of the cheers about the importance of our work (nothing too propagandistic). Tell Tommy that he is going to have to try harder to outrun me next time I’m home!

The strange thing is that these events are for the workers, not Mr. Edison himself. He once declared to us all that he had to keep his mind fresh and clear and that sitting along in his laboratory was his most keen form of exercise. I really do not understand how a man who smokes, sleeps for very few hours a day, and engages in very little conversation besides his discussions with himself - odd to catch him at such practice – can consider himself healthy. But his mind is a marvel. We let him get on with it and wait for the next surprise.

There is also something else that I should share with you. I have met one of the most interesting men in the world (besides Mr. Edison). Please, do not worry. He is as much a devotee to his working life as his boss. He is Mr. Dickson. We all call him Bill. And you should know him because he is the one who is the real genius behind the genius. Mr. Edison, it must be said, takes a lot of credit for things that his assistants created (many of the patents that I have had to fill out belong to so many other people; rather embarrassing when they create a scene). And I have discovered something about myself that I never imagined would be true: I love the life of an inventor.

Please let me explain myself. I can barely understand much of the talk between Mr. Edison and his close circle, but I can observe and study what they do. I can see what it takes to be determined and how the mind has a drive that can do more than the body imagines. Mr. Dickson, with much patience and faith, has allowed me into the private thoughts of these inventors. And there is something new that they are working on that will truly shock and surprise you, Ma and Pa.

Do you remember those short flickers that we saw at that fair? The ones that came over from France and had that train coming into a station and the crowd went wild? Well, Mr. Dickson has come up with his own device that will absolutely stun the people out there who think that the light bulb is the greatest invention of all time. He has told me that it may be called a “kinetoscope” (I truly hope that I have spelled that word correctly). The term comes from kinetics, meaning motion, and scope, meaning, well, seeing. And we are all going to be seeing something very special if Mr. Dickson gets this done. He has already taken a flicker, sorry, a “film”, of himself fiddling with two other assistants (I should have mentioned his love of music; not very talented, but very amusing). And I mention this because I did something that I did not expect to do: I made a flicker film!

It is much harder to make than you would imagine. You have to keep the machine that you use constantly cranked, and this can be quite exhausting after a day of pushing papers and long company hikes. But I did not let them down. After a few minutes, I switched arms and kept the machine going until even Mr. Dickson wondered if I wanted to take it easy. The most amazing thing was to look at the rough results and realize that those are real people on a stage doing their actual act. We even have the recording of Mr. Dickson’s fiddle (again, further evidence that the “gramophone” is a work of genius and that Bill should probably stick to invention).

Sorry, I have to end this letter here. Our break has ended, and Mr. Edison is very keen to get back to his work (he often takes long stretches of time to cudgel his brains and develop his ideas; a good thing for such a man). I will be back by the end of the summer and I hope that you do miss your very busy daughter.

Oh, and one other thing: Mr. Dickson has provided me with one of those gramophones! He says that I can take a few cylinders with me and record the family. He even gave me one of his cylinders with his recorded fiddle playing (terrible torture, but a nice gift).

Maybe I do not trust myself with all of this new technology, but he has shown me how this all works.

I may have a future in this.

Your loving daughter,

S. Masters

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