title: Thomas Edison:  Inventing the Future (Great Lives)
author:  Penny Mintz 
description: ory in the making in this profile of Thomas Edison, the Wizard of Menlo Park, an authentic American genius who invented the phonograph and the electric light bulb and, in so doing, revolutionized the way we live.
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  ![cover](resources/_cover_.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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  # Lord Chizelrigg's Missing Fortune
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Robert Barr
  
  
  This page copyright © 2002 Munsey's.
  
  
  http://www.munseys.com
  
  
  
  
  
  ### "O MY PROPHETIC SOUL, MY UNCLE!"
  
  
  
  
  
    
  THE name of the late Lord Chizelrigg never comes to my mind
  
  
  without instantly suggesting that of Mr. T.A. Edison. I never saw
  
  
  the late Lord Chizelrigg, and I have met Mr. Edison only twice in my
  
  
  life, yet the two men are linked in my memory, and it was a remark the
  
  
  latter once made that in great measure enabled me to solve the mystery
  
  
  which the former had wrapped round his actions.
  
  
    
  There is no memorandum at hand to tell me the year in which those
  
  
  two meetings with Edison took place. I received a note from the
  
  
  Italian Ambassador in Paris requesting me to wait upon him at the
  
  
  Embassy. I learned that on the next day a deputation was to set out
  
  
  from the Embassy to one of the chief hotels, there to make a call in
  
  
  state upon the great Americ