New York Times? Anonymous? Apocryphal?
Question for Quote Investigator: After Thomas Edison invented the phonograph many praised the device. However, a major newspaper apparently reacted with the following odd remark:
Mr. Edison has invented too many things.
This statement has been attributed to “The New York Times”. Is this quotation accurate? Did it ever appear in the pages of the Gray Lady?
Reply from Quote Investigator: In March 1878 “The New York Times” published a comically exaggerated opinion piece that began with the following preposterous remarks. Boldface added to excepts by QI:1
Something ought to be done to Mr. Edison, and there is a growing conviction that it had better be done with a hemp rope. Mr. Edison has invented too many things, and almost without exception they are things of the most deleterious character.
He has been addicted to electricity for many years, and it is not very long ago that he became notorious for having discovered a new force, though he has since kept it carefully concealed, either upon his person or elsewhere. Recently he invented the phonograph, a machine that catches the lightest whisper of conversation and stores it up, so that at any future time it can be brought out, to the confusion of the original speaker.
This machine will eventually destroy all confidence between man and man, and render more dangerous than ever woman’s want of confidence in woman.
The author of the piece was not listed. The article mentioned the dangers of voicing a harsh opinion that might be recorded:
Who will be willing, even in the bosom of his family, to express any but most innocuous and colorless views ? and what woman when calling on a female friend , and waiting for the latter to make her appearance in the drawing-room, will dare to express her opinion of the wretched taste displayed in the furniture, or the hideous appearance of the family photographs?
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
The piece in “The New York Times” caught the eye of an editor at “The Telegraphic Journal” of London, and it was reprinted in May 1878. Thus, the quotation achieved further distribution.2
In 2002 the book “Thomas Edison and Modern America: A Brief History with Documents” reprinted the article containing the quotation.3
In 2020 the book Thomas Edison: Inventor and Innovator by Kaitlin Scirri reprinted an excerpt from the article containing the quotation.4
In conclusion, the quotation did appear in “The New York Times”, but the intent of the anonymous author was not serious. The article was comically exaggerated.
Image Notes: Portrait of Thomas Edison and his early phonograph. The image has been cropped and resized.
Acknowledgement: Thanks to Pessimists Archive whose message led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration.
- 1878 March 25, The New York Times, The Aerophone, Quote Page 4, Column 5, New York. (ProQuest) ↩︎
- 1878 May 15, The Telegraphic Journal, Notes: The Aerophone, Quote Page 208, Column 2, Haughton & Company, London. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 2002, Thomas Edison and Modern America: A Brief History with Documents by Theresa M. Collins (Rutgers University) and Lisa Gitelman (Catholic University of America) with Gregory Jankunis (Rutgers University), Chapter 2: The Fantastic Phonograph, (New York Times, March 25, 1878), Quote Page 67, Palgrave, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 2020, Thomas Edison: Inventor and Innovator by Kaitlin Scirri, Chapter 5: Praise and Criticism, Quote Page 84, Cavendish Square Publishing, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎