Mr.Edison's biographers say, but the statement is somewhat exaggerated: "He has frequently spent from fifteen to twenty hours daily, for six or seven months on a stretch, dinning the word 'Spezia,' for example, into the stubborn surface of the wax.

'Spezia,' roared the inventor, 'Pezia' lisped the phonograph in tones of ladylike reserve, and so on through thousands of graded repetitions till the desired results were obtained.
"The primary education of the phonograph was comical in the extreme.

To hear those grave and reverend signors, rich in scientific honors, patiently reiterating: Mary had a little lamb, A little lamb, _lamb_, LAMB, and elaborating that point with anxious gravity, was to receive a practical demonstration of the eternal unfitness of things." Milton, when blind, old and poor, showed a royal cheerfulness and never "bated one jot of heart or hope, but steered right onward." Dickens' characters seemed to possess him, and haunt him day and night until properly portrayed in his stories.
At a time when it was considered dangerous to society in Europe for the common people to read books and listen to lectures on any but religious subjects, Charles Knight determined to enlighten the masses by cheap literature.

He believed that a paper could be instructive and not be dull, cheap without being wicked.

He started the _Penny Magazine_, which acquired a circulation of 200,000 the first year.