Page:Ralph on the Railroad.djvu/888

64 "Well, I've got his biography," he announced.

"Whose—Wheels?"

"Yes."

"Who is he, anyway?" inquired Ralph.

"He thinks he is a young inventor."

"And is he?"

"That's an open question. They call him Young Edison around here, and his right name is Archie Graham. His father was an aeronaut who was an expert on airships, got killed in an accident to an aeroplane last year, and left his son some little money. Young Graham has been dabbling in inventions since he was quite young."

"Did he really ever invent anything of consequence?' asked Ralph.

"The attendant here says that he did. About two years ago he got up a car window catch that made quite a flurry at the shops. It was used with good results, and the Great Northern was about to pay Graham something for the device, when it was learned that while he was bringing it to perfection some one else had run across pretty nearly the same idea."

"And patented it first?"

"Both abroad and in this country. That of course shut Graham out. All the same, the attendant declares that Graham must have got the idea fully a year before the foreign fellow did."