"There's something wrong about this, for it crumbles even after manipulating it with my fingers."
"How long did you knead it?" asked Edison.
"Oh, more than an hour," was the reply.
"Well, keep on for a few hours more and it will come out all right," was the rejoinder. And this proved to be correct.
With the experimenter or employee who exercises thought Edison has unbounded patience, but to the careless, stupid, or lazy person he is a terror for the short time they remain around him. Once, when asked why he had parted with a certain man, he said: "Oh, he was so slow that it would take him half an hour to get out of the field of a microscope."
Edison's practical way of testing a man's fitness for special work is no joke, according to Mr. J. H. Vail, formerly one of the Menlo Park staff. "I wanted a job," he said, "and was ambitious to take charge of the dynamo-room. Mr. Edison led me to a heap of junk in a corner and said: 'Put that together and let me know when it is running.' I didn't know what it was, but received a liberal education in finding out. It proved to be a dynamo, which I finally succeeded in assembling and running. I got the job."
A somewhat similar experience is related by Mr. John F. Ott, who, in 1869, applied for work. This is the conversation that took place, led by Edison's question:
"What do you want?"
"Work."
"Can you make this machine work?" (exhibiting it and explaining its details).