Thomas Edison’s Invention

When the Western Union company asked the great inventor Thomas Edison to “name his price” for the ticker he had invented, Edison asked for a few days to think it over. His wife suggested $20,000, but Edison thought that was too much. When the time came for the meeting, the Western Union official asked Edison for his price. Edison wanted to say $20,000, but couldn’t get the words out of his mouth. So the official broke the silence. “Well, how about $100,000?”

Today in the Word, January, 1998, p. 10