The irate conductor ejected him at the
next station, giving him a violent box on the ear, which
permanently injured his hearing, and dumped his chemicals and
printing apparatus on the platform.
Having lost his position, young Edison soon began to dabble in
telegraphy, in which he had already become interested,
"probably," as he says, "from visiting telegraph offices with a
chum who had tastes similar to mine." He and this chum strung a
line between their houses and learned the rudiments of writing by
wire. Then a station master on the railroad, whose child Edison
had saved from danger, took Edison under his wing and taught him
the mysteries of railway telegraphy. The boy of sixteen held
positions wt small stations near home for a few months and then
began a period of five years of apparently purposeless wandering
as a tramp telegrapher. Toledo, Cincinnati, Indianapolis,
Memphis, Louisville, Detroit, were some of the cities in which he
worked, studied, experimented, and played practical jokes on his
associates. He was eager to learn something of the principles of
electricity but found few from whom he could learn.
Edison arrived in Boston in 1868, practically penniless, and
applied for a position as night operator. "The manager asked me
when I was ready to go to work.
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