Brightest Boys

Last June there was graduated from the East Orange, N. J., High School one John Osborn Reid, 19, interested in science and planning to go to the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale. Often he had driven by the Edison Laboratories, only three miles from his home, wondered what the insides were like, speculated on the personality of Inventor Edison whom he had seen only in the cinemas. Last week he and 48 other boys, specially chosen as the "brightest" from each state and the District of Columbia, inspected the famed laboratory, met Thomas Alva Edison, matched knowledge in what the daily press excitedly heralded as "The Edison Brain Derby."

Despite prophecies that the winner of the contest would mysteriously become a "second Edison" at once, and rumors that Inventor Edison would turn all his duties over to the "brightest bright boy" and then retire, the contest was held for no such spectacular reason. Its purpose was described in the rules as "to stimulate the interest of the youth of America in mental development, with particular emphasis on scientific matters, and, more generally, in the high ideals that make for the highest type of American manhood." When reports that he would retire continued, Inventor Edison said, "I never intend retiring. It's unhealthy."

When in the middle of the week Candidate Reid and his 48 competitors entered the Edison plant for their official reception, they found speakers' platforms, microphones, chairs, benches. Pale, a little nervous, the boys sat down. Spectators commented on the normalcy and healthfulness of their appearance, were amused as they recognized the drawl of the south, the slur of the west. Ranging in age from 15 to 21, the boys had come from all classes, from farms, towns, cities. There was the son of the Czecho-Slovakian consul at Pittsburgh, the son of a bishop, a boy brought up in an orphanage. Rather stiffly they sat there in the hot sun, looking with awe at the judges who sat facing them solemnly, and who, by whispers, were soon identified as Thomas Alva Edison himself, Henry Ford, Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Dr. Lewis Perry, headmaster of Philips Exeter, George Eastman, and Dr. Samuel Wesley Stratton, president of Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

First to speak was Inventor Edison. He was unusually nervous as in clear, precisely accurate words, he welcomed the boys and explained there was "no suitable yardstick which can positively determine the relative value of one human being as compared to another." Then as a surprise each boy was given a combination radio-phonograph, said to be valued at $400. When the speeches were over they filed up to the platform, spoke their names into a microphone, shook hands with all of the Committee except Col. Lindbergh who stood back and nodded politely. When Candidate Reid went up there was loud applause from proud Jerseyans.

After the reception the boys inspected the laboratories, soon recovered from the self-consciousness that had resulted from batteries of cameras and prying reporters anxious to gather material on the sayings and actions of assembled geniuses. As each wore a large identification tag bearing the name of his state, they soon found this an easier means of appellation than remembering proper names. "Oregon" compared notes with "Maryland"; "New Jersey" told "Kansas" about Manhattan, for "New York" himself was from Utica, had never seen New York City. Soon they decided to form a club, "The Edison 49ers," to meet every ten years.

While the "49ers" were going around his plant, Inventor Edison chewed a cigar and consented to answer a questionnaire that newsmen had presented to him. To the question, "What do you think of the future of the talkies?" his answer was emphatic: "Without great improvements people will tire of them. Talking is no substitute for good acting we had in silent pictures." Then, to another query, he gave ambition, imagination, and the will to work as the key to success.

In the morning the "49ers" were assembled at 8 o'clock in the storage battery room at the plant, and after a slight delay caused by New Englanders "Maine" and "Vermont" oversleeping, the papers were passed out. The hush that marked the first glance at the examination was gradually broken as the "brightest boys" began writing. A morning that had started cool grew increasingly hot and humid. Coats came off and sleeves were rolled up as the "49ers" worked in silence, five proctors quietly pacing between the desks. With tense expressions the boys labored over questions demanding exact, accurate answers, with puzzled, dreamy glances at the ceiling they tried to answer problems involving such ethical things as "truth," "honor," "love," "happiness."

Still ignorant of the winner, the "49ers" went to Coney Island that night, and then on a sight-seeing trip through Manhattan. The Edison staff, cautious gentlemen, advised leaving watches at home and taking no more than $5.

The next morning the boys assembled on the Edison lawn, talked of the test as they waited announcement of who had won. Various rumors spread. It was claimed that the judges were still debating after an all night session. It was suggested that Inventor Edison, disgusted with the results, had decided to give no award.

While the "49ers" were waiting, the Committee which had judged the papers until 3 a. m., called in five boys for a brief chat that seemed to have no significance. Actually, it was to decide by personal impression the outcome of a practical tie. To Wilbur Brotherton Huston, 16, son of the Episcopal Bishop of Olympia (Wash.), went the award that meant four years full scholarship at any institution he will choose. So pleased was Inventor Edison with his test's success that additional prizes were given, going to "Connecticut," "Pennsylvania," "New Mexico," "Indiana," and consisting of four years' tuition at any college.

From the time his fellow "49ers" first heard he won and lifted him to their shoulders, Winner Huston was the center of attention. It was learned that he was interested in marine biology, did not smoke, had never been a Boy Scout. When the boys boarded the Mayor's yacht Macom for a tour of Manhattan, reporters surged around Winner Huston, confident of a "chatty" interview that would tickle their public. They were disappointed and commented on the Lindberghian attitude he maintained toward them. Asked his answer to one part of the test he calmly said, "You may not ask me that question."

The test on which Winner Huston scored 92 and lowest competitor above 60, the passing mark, was in four parts, running from specific questions to vague ones that were admittedly impossible to grade but gave characteristics of the boy. Some of the questions follow with the answers at the end.

1.Define work, enery and power and leave an illustration of each. How does weight differ from mass? How does force differ from energy? Would a body weigh more or less on the moon than on the earth? Why? Where would bodies weigh nothing?

2. When you read the names of the following persons, what fact is immediately associated with them in your mind? Answer in one or two words in each case. Mendeleff, Davy, Perkin, Faraday, Curie, Priestley, Gay-Lussac, Dalton, Solvay, Ramsay, Lavoisier.

3. Solve: (X2 + Y' = 8 XY=4.

Who invented the cotton gin?

5. What did James Watt do?

6. Why does this country honor Admiral Farragut?

7. What three very low forms of life can you name?

8. Who was Jenny Lind?

9. On what physiological phenomenon is the success of motion picture projection dependent?

10. What is a meteor?

11. Name the use of the following: Gal vanometer, vernier, oscillograph, pantograph, micrometer, pyrometer.

12. What is the underlying principle of an internal combustion engine?

13. What is the function of the antenna in radio?

Impossible to answer exactly were:

What place in our daily lives do you think the automobile will have 100 years from now?

Which one of the following would you be willing to sacrifice for the sake of being successful: happiness, comfort, reputation, pride, honor, health, money, love?

What, if anything, does music mean to you beyond the usual reaction which most people have to rhythm and melody?

Westerners who claim statistics show them to be better than Easterners in every form of athletic competition rejoiced at Winner Huston's success, claimed it established their superiority in brain as well as brawn. Pious folk, disregarding the regional aspect, rejoiced and quoted statistics to show ministers' children out number all others in Who's Who. Educators searched deeper for significant causes, found: 1) Bishop Simeon Arthur Huston, a cultured gentleman, has been (1917-19) President of the State Board of Education, Wyo., but had grieved when he saw his son spurn the classics for science; 2) an uncle and grandfather, both scholars, are also plant breeders, interested in science; 3) Winner Huston, unlike most of the candidates has traveled extensively, following his father from parish to parish, spending six years in Cheyenne, Wyo., two in Baltimore, four in San Antonio.

Manhattan papers were prompt in harassing college professors for answers which were quickly printed. An exception was the New York Mirror, gum-chewers sheet, which decided to print the questions and answers under the caption "Ediquests" at the announced rate of "one or two a day."

The answers used here were obtained by the New York Telegram from four Columbia professors:

1) Work is force acting through space. Energy is capability of doing work. Power is the time rate of doing work. Work is lifting 50 pounds to a table three feet high, exerting 150 foot pounds. You increase the energy of the weight by the process, adding 150 foot pounds to it. If you do it in ten seconds you exert a power of 15 foot pounds per second. Weight is the force by which the earth attracts a body, and is variable. Mass is a measure of inertia and does not vary. Energy is force multiplied by distance. A body would weigh less on the moon because the mass of the moon is so much less than that of the earth. A body would weigh nothing at infinity.

2) Mendeleff, periodic system of the elements; Davy, miner's lamp; Perkin, mauve synthetic coal tar dyes; Faraday, electro magnetic induction; Curie, Radium; Priestley, oxygen; Gay-Lussac, law of combining volumes of gases; Dalton, atomic theory; Solvay, soda from ammonia; Ramsay, the Noble gases; Lavoisier, originator of modern chemistry.

3) Y=2, X=2.

4) Eli Whitney.

5) Invented the steam engine.

6) He was the outstanding naval commander of the Civil War.

7) Amoeba, spirogyra, yeast.

8) A Swedish singer.

9) Persistence of vision.

10) A shooting star; a mass of matter from celestial space striking the earth's atmosphere and bursting into flame.

11) To measure small electric currents; to estimate accurately the fractional divisions on a scale; to record rapidly varying electric current; to make copies of drawings, usually on a larger or smaller scale; to measure small dimensions accurately; to measure high temperatures.

12) To convert chemical energy of fuel into mechanical energy.

13) To send and receive ether vibrations.