8.11. Lesson 75: Speed
In his early teens, Tom Edison learned the rudiments of telegraphy from the Grand Trunk stationmaster in his hometown of Port Huron, Michigan. With this knowledge under his belt, he went on to teach himself the Morse code. For the purposes of practicing sending and receiving, he built a telegraph key and set as his goal not only gaining mastery of the code but building facility and velocity. Thus speed became one of the goals of Edison's professional life.
After just three months of intensive practice, Edison was a sufficiently adept telegrapher to get a job at Micah Walker's store in Port Huron, which doubled as the Western Union telegraph office. For Edison, the job's most attractive perk was having access to the books ...
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