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EDISON

Area and Population.—With regard to area, so many alterations the whole acreage of arable land on which this crop can be prohave been, and are in process of being, made upon it by the exten- fitably grown at present rates. Oats also maintain their ground sions of Edinburgh city, and by alterations in the boundaries by on the whole ; the great reduction has been in barley. The followthe Boundary Commissioners under the Local Government Act of ing are the figures for live-stock :— 1889, that it would be a matter of considerable difficulty to arrive at a correct statement of the present acreage. The geographical Total Total Cows or Heifers or in Sheep. Pigs. Horses. Cattle. in Milk area is given as 362 square miles, or 231,724 acres. The county Calf. and parish changes of boundary in 1889 were chiefly in the parishes of Cramond and Fala, and involved small transferences of popula10,765 170,562 5309 18,907 1880 3979 tion and acreage from West Lothian and East Lothian to the 12,308 21,472 168,873 7141 1885 4143 county. The population of the registration county, including 22,404 12,623 179,565 6888 1890 4415 Edinburgh city, was 388,811 by the census of 1881, 433,552 in 1891, 11,096 19,451 183,322 8133 1895 4540 and 488,647 in 1901. Outside of the parliamentary burgh areas 12,537 191,403 8194 21,450 1899 4478 the figures were 75,120 in 1881, 81,033 in 1891, and 83,807 in 1901. The principal centres of population within the bounds of Midlothian are Edinburgh (municipal burgh, including Portobello), Industries.—There are few changes to note with regard to the 316,479 inhabitants in 1901; Leith, 76,667 ; Musselburgh, 11,704 ; Dalkeith, 6753 ; Loanhead, 3011 ; Bonnyrigg, 2926 ; and Penicuik, staple industries of the county of Edinburgh. The paper-mills, 2803. According to the latest corrected figures, the percentage situated chiefly in the valleys of the Esk and the Water of Leith, of births within the registration area was 2-91 ; of deaths, 1‘67 ; have increased their production while improving their processes. and of marriage^, 0'83. Illegitimate births formed 7,43 per cent, Hear the outskirts of the city a number of new brewing, distilling, and other works have sprung up ; on the other hand, some of the of the whole. The following table gives particulars of births, deaths, and mar- Midlothian granaries have been closed through exhaustion. The quantity of coal raised in 1900 was 1,329,495 tons ; and 9160 men riages in 1880, 1890, and 1899 :— were employed at the collieries above and below ground. The production of oil shale was 637,810 tons. The county output of Per cent, of Year. Deaths. Marriages. Births. Illegitimate sandstone was 132,761 tons, and of limestone 177,696 tons. For Births. the year 1900-1, the quantity of white fish landed in the Leith 7-3 13,255 3016 8558 1880 district was 207,218 cwts., valued at £133,895 ; there were 364,616 7-4 3266 12,571 1890 8909 barrels of herrings, exported mostly to Germany. 6'3 13,485 4290 1899 8901 Authorities.—James Grant. Old and New Edinburgh London, 1880 et seqq. —Miss Warrender. Walks near Edinburgh The following table gives the birth-rate, death-rate, and marriage- Edinburgh, 1890.—G. U. Selwin. A Midlothian Village. Edinrate per 1000 of population at different periods since 1880 :— burgh, 1890.—J. J. Wilson. Annals of Penicuik. Edinburgh, 1891. 1881-90. 1890. 1899. 1892. 1SS0. Average. Rev. W. H. Langhorne. Reminiscences of Inver esk. ~ Edinburgh, 1893. 34-52 31-50 29-22 28-27 Birth-rate burgh, 1893.—J. M. Bell. Castles of the Lothians. Edinburgh, 22-29 19-53 20-70 18-66 Death-rate 8-99 1893.—H. S. M‘Call. History of Mid-Colder. Edinburgh, 1894. 7-59 7-75 7-86 Marriage-rate —T. Chapman and John Strathesk. The Midlothian Esks. Edinburgh, 1895.—T. Speedy. Craigmillar. Selkirk, 1896.—W. Constitution and Government—The county, generally spoken of Baird. Annals of Duddingston and Portobello. Edinburgh, 1898. in this connexion as Midlothian, forms a single parliamentary —J. Geddie. The Water of Leith. Edinburgh, 1896.—Mrs J. S. constituency, exclusive of Edinburgh city and the Leith burghs. Smith. The Grange of St Giles. Edinburgh, 1898.—Rev. J. The parliamentary constituency in 1900-1 numbered 14,077 ; the Dickson. Ruined Castles of Midlothian. Edinburgh, 1895. valuation (including railways and water-works) was £674,842. The Islands of the Forth. Edinburgh, 1899. (w. WA.) Under the Local Government Act of 1889, the county is divided EdiSOn,Thomas Alva (1847 ), American into 38 electoral districts, and these have been by the County Council arranged into 4 county districts for the purposes of the inventor, was born 11th February 1841, at Milan, Erie Roads and Bridges Act, 1878, and the Public Health Acts. _ The county, Ohio, but his parents moved to Port Huron, management of special districts formed for water supply, drainage, and other sanitary purposes is committed to sub - committees Michigan, when he was seven years old. At the age of appointed by the respective district committees. The grant under twelve he became a train news-boy on the railway to the Local Taxation (Customs and Excise) Act is administered by Detroit, and managed to gratify his youthful interest in the Technical Education Committee appointed by the Council ; and chemistry by performing experiments while travelling. At on the same authority, a special committee, called the Secondary Education Committee, looks after the distribution of the grant fifteen he became a telegraph operator, and was employed under the Local Taxation (Scotland) Act. _ in many cities in the United States and Canada, but Education.—There are in the county, exclusive of Edinburgh frequently neglected his duties in order to carry on studies and the other burghs, 30 separate school boards, managing 96 and experiments in electrical science. Before he was schools, the average attendance in these being 16,394 in 1899—1900. The grant for higher education earned in 1899 amounted to twenty-one he had constructed an automatic repeater, by £1588 16s. 4d. . . ^, means of which a message could be transferred from one t Agriculture.—The depression m agriculture has not atlectea wire to another without the aid of an operator; and he Midlothian so severely as some other counties ; compensa- had also directed his attention to the problem of duplex tion for the fall in the price of grain and other agricultural products has been found in the growth of population and the telegraphy, of which he later invented a successful system. local demand. There have been comparatively few changes In 1869 Edison came to New York City, and soon afterin the size of agricultural holdings, either in the shape of wards became connected with the Gold and Stock Company cutting up large farms into small ones, or amalgamating small He invented an improved printing telegraph for stock farms In larger. The neighbourhood of Edinburgh has given considerable stimulus to dairy-farming. The area under crops quotations, for which he received $40,000. He then has increased rather than diminished, but the area under corn established a laboratory and factory in Newark, N.J., for crops is nearly 6000 acres less than in 1880. Fallow land has further experiments and for the manufacture of his inpractically disappeared. ventions. In 1876 he removed to Menlo Park, and later Green Clover, &c. Perennial to West Orange, N. J., where he continued his experiments. Com Area under Year. Crops. Pasture. Crops. Crops. Since then his name has been prominently associated with 44,703 29,390 21,365 all kinds of novelties in practical electricity. Among his 1880 134,344 38,628 48,928 37,296 18,779 principal inventions are his system of duplex telegraphy, 1890 139,764 34,367 47,279 32,813 19,354 1899 132,833 33,033 which he later developed into quadruplex and sextuplex transmission ; his carbon telephone transmitter; the microWheat, notwithstanding the fall in prices, may be said to hold tasimeter, for the detection of small variations m temits own among the grain crops ; the area devoted to wheat, some perature; the phonograph, which records and reproduces 5000 acres, is rather larger than in 1880, and represents practically