His mother, an educated woman of Scotch extraction, taught him at home after the schoolmaster reported that he was "addled." His desire for money to spend on chemicals for a laboratory which he had fitted up in the cellar led to his first venture in business.

"By a great amount of persistence," he says, "I got permission to go on the local train as newsboy.

The local train from Port Huron to Detroit, a distance of sixty-three miles, left at 7 A.M.
and arrived again at 9.30 P.M.After being on the train for several months I started two stores in Port Huron--one for periodicals, and the other for vegetables, butter, and berries in the season.

They were attended by two boys who shared in the profits." Moreover, young Edison bought produce from the farmers' wives along the line which he sold at a profit.

He had several newsboys working for him on other trains; he spent hours in the Public Library in Detroit; he fitted up a laboratory in an unused compartment of one of the coaches, and then bought a small printing press which he installed in the car and began to issue a newspaper which he printed on the train.