Very belated response ...

On Fri, 2 Mar 2001, JRhodes wrote:

> Edison was a busy man, but he didn't put life's pleasures aside...two
> wives, something like six children.  According to the book Edison, A
> Life of Invention by Paul Israel:
>
> "One day, when standing behind the chair of one of his female
> employees, Miss Ma[r]y Stilwell, that young lady suddenly turned
> round and exclaimed, 'Mr. Edison, I can always tell when you are
> behind or near me.'  'How do you account for that?'  mechanically
> asked Mr. Edison, still absorbed in his work. 'I dohn't know, I am
> sure,' she answered; 'but I seem to feel when you are near me.'

I suspect she was too embarrassed to admit the real reason to his face,
even in those days before squeaky-clean modern hygiene.

Reportedly, Edison didn't like to take baths (he thought they were
unhealthy for a person) and usually slept in a storage closet on a pile of
old newspapers.

Photos of Edison show him a bit rumpled, to say the least.

---
Lawrence Kestenbaum, [log in to unmask]
The Political Graveyard, http://politicalgraveyard.com