A Life Electric

Question 1

At the stroke of midnight on July 10, 1856, thunder clapped.

Question 2

Lightning flashed.

Question 3

And a baby boy was born.

Question 4

He’ll be a child of the storm, his nurse said.

Question 5

No, his mother replied. A child of light.

Question 6

He loved animals and never missed a day cradling and feeding his family’s chickens, roosters, pigeons, and geese.

Question 7

He had many playmates but his best friend was a cat.

Question 8

Macak’s back was a sheet of light and my hand produced a shower of sparks loud enough to be heard all over the place.

Question 9

Stop playing with the cat, he might start a fire.

Question 10

This is nothing but electricity, the same thing you see on the trees in a storm.

Question 11

He wonder, Is Nature a gigantic cat?

Question 12

If so, who strokes its back?

Question 13

He dreamt of flying like the pigeons and geese on his farm - so, he jumped off the roof of his barn holding only an umbrella.

Question 14

His bones didn’t break, but he was bed bound for weeks.

Question 15

He remembered everything he read and soon carried whole volumes in his head.

Question 16

While the family slept, he made his own candles, stuffed towels in the cracks of his bedroom door to hid the light and worked his way through his father’s library of books.

Question 17

Everyone feared he was at death’s door.

Question 18

A puzzle he had thought about for years.

Question 19

A puzzle his university professor had said was impossible to solve.

Question 20

And he knew it was an invention that would soon power the world.

Question 21

So he set sail across the Atlantic from Europe to America.

Question 22

On the fair’s opening day, thousands of visitors from around the world gathered.

Question 23

And for the first time in history, over a hundred thousand light bulbs lit up at once.

Question 24

The crowds cheered, trumpets blared, and flags unfurled

Question 25

Soon once-darkened homes, office buildings, and city streets were illuminated.

Question 26

So, he gave away the rest of the rights to his invention.

Question 27

Even as he grew old, he didn’t stop memorizing poems by heart, or solving scientific equations in his head, or taking long daily walks up and down New York’s cobblestoned streets.

Question 28

He also never stopped loving animals.

Question 29

He never missed a day.

Question 30

I’ve been feeding pigeons, thousands of them, for years, thousands of them, for who can tell, he said.

Question 31

Before making a diagnosis, he would peer into each bird’s eyes, then inspect their wings, beaks, and feet.

Question 32

Caring for homeless, hungry or sick birds is the delight of my life, he said.

Question 33

Now newspapers flashed headlines about an unusual old man, scattering seeds in the park.

Question 34

They called him the Pigeon Charmer of New York,

Question 35

All things from childhood are still dear to me.

Question 36

He was a feather in the cap of the whole human race.

Question 37

A gifted inventor, a creature of habit.

Question 38

A lover of animals, a friend to humankind.

Question 39

A child of the storm, a child of the light.

Question 40

A human flash of lightning, far ahead of his time.