to be changed from rules to laws in the next 40 years, and we're going to have to stand at the gate and keep the pressure on, and we will. >> for complete america history tv schedule, go to c-span.org. c-span's touring cities across the country, exploring american history. up next, i'll look at our recent visit to force huron, michigan. port huron,on -- michigan. mr. dazer: the 20th century would look so different without edison. the lightbulb, the photograph, -- the phonograph, the moving picture. all common things that we take for granted, but they came from his brain. his brain came from port huron. he arrived here at seven years old, born in 1847. he started working here in 1859, and this was a brand-new built

station. he got a job here at age 12. here we have a vignette that shows edison's mother yelling at his teacher mr. crawford for calling edison addled. i guess today we might say stupid, confused, mixed up. you can see here, it hurt his feelings, it angered her, and she said to mr. crawford, look, he is a lot smarter than you are, mr. crawford. if you can't teach him, i will. she took him home and homeschooled him. he always credited his mother for making him the vanity became, through her kindness and teaching, and a love of learning. he read and read everything that he could. even in the evenings as a man, he would read the encyclopaedia

britannica. if edison were in school today, he might have been on ritalin or other medicine for add or adhd. he's had so much going on in his head that if you are particularly interested in the subject matter at hand, he did not want to pay attention. he would want to explore things in his own way. we are on a restored train from 1889, representing the one that thomas edison rode daily to detroit. he was a news butcher, meaning peddler, and he would have a basket and would walk up and down the aisles of the train cars, selling fruit, candy, probably cigars, newspapers. that was his job. he would arrive at the depot at 7:00 a.m. in the morning and arrived at detroit, coming back at 8:00-9:00 at night.

he would spend his time selling things to passengers. we have a regression of his chemical laboratory and printing equipment. he was the first person we know of to print a newspaper on a moving train. he had access to the latest news through the telegraph pages at the train offices. he would get it hot off the presses, so to speak. he sold the detroit free press. little story about that. during the civil war he was doing this. it was after the battle of shiloh, he was convinced the detroit free press to be given 1000 copies of the paper on credit. instead of having to buy them ahead of time. he sold way more copies than he usually did in the first station. ever the entrepreneur, he started raising the price. the closer he got back to port huron in the fewer papers he had

left, the price went up. it went from five cents a copy to 25 cents a copy. his mother objected to the method potential hazards that go along with mixing chemicals, so they moved this ring to the basement. he would scrounge up chemicals and put them in these bottles. he labeled every bottle poison to keep people out. but what we don't show is that he labeled each bottle with a number and kept a log book so that he knew what was in each bottle and could safely explore these chemicals. he had a chemistry book and was testing every statement made in the book to see if what the book said what really happened. she had to see for himself if what the book said was true.

we have articles found in the archaeology of his boyhood home. the home burned in 1870 five years after his parents were evicted. it was left until it was excavated in the 1980's. there is no way to know if any of these came from edison, but we have printers type that matches the typeface used on his newspaper printed first on the train, until he was kicked off after some chemical laboratories caught the train car on fire. he moved the printing press and laboratory to the basement again. his father asked the railroad, if he stops this nonsense, can he have his job back? this is edison and agee was

-- at the age he was working here. an adorable picture. a little glint in his eye, sort of a mischievous kid, but very likable. i think that's how he let people have a chemical laboratory on his train. he talked to the engineer and the firemen into letting him do it. they knew what it took. apparently they had the confidence he could do it. well, they were wrong in their assessment of his abilities. while they were taking a nap, he's running to train. they were all rudely awakened with a scolding hot splash of dirty, oily water because he did , not really know what he was doing. that was the end of him running the train and the dream of becoming an engineer. thank goodness for that because he went on to such great things.

this is a telegraph office. trains had telegraph operators becomes trains were dispatched by telegraph. each station had an operator, but there was also news. edison had an interest in anything electrical, especially telegraph. that was relatively new for him as a boy. he was four years old when it was invented. at 12 years old, it was still relatively new. he really wanted to learn it badly. connecting own set his house and a couple neighbor boys, but he wasn't proficient as a sender and the equivalent -- and the equipment was all cobbled up junk. it was in mount clemens, michigan, where esau the three-year-old son of the stationmaster playing on the tracks in a boxcar was rolling towards him. nobody set the break or

something. he ran and save the kid just in time for being killed. talkedtude, mr. mckenzie -- taught him morse code properly. he was a good student. in three months, he had become proficient enough to get his first job at the telegraph operator in downtown port huron atwater's jewelry store. to call it a jewelry store is a bit of a stretch, they sold everything. he left after six months, he was not a good employee. tinkered with equipment and broke with tools. after about six months, they parted ways. but mr. walker always had nice things to say about him. but mr. walker always had nice -- he went to stratford junction ontario and got a job from a telegraph agent. he moved all over the midwest,

never staying anywhere very long. he was always getting into trouble on the job for tinkering with the equipment. at one point he let a bottle of acid fall on the floor and it ate right through the floorboard into the bosses' desk below. for a few years he had three different jobs in three different cities. we know he didn't last very long as an employee, it was really important for him to be boss. that, i think, is one of the lessons he learned, it has to be his way or it's just not going to work out for him. >> the first words spoken on the phonograph. mary had a little lamb, whose fleece was white as snow. and everywhere that mary went, the lamb was sure to go. mr. dazer: we have a model of

the first phonograph invented in 1877. this was quite a popular project for people learning machine work. the edison laboratory had blueprints made so people could make a copy of this if they wanted. it was recorded on tinfoil. you would wrap it around a cylinder. nice and smooth. and one wouldk, in boss the tinfoil. the sound waves of your -- the sound ways of your voice would make the diaphragm go up and down and emboss the tinfoil, and you would playback on the other one. he realized that the same one would work to record and playback. be part of a perpetual memorial -- this is a 50,000 watt lightbulb supposed to be part of a perpetual memorial to edison. it was lit in 1940 by edison's

window along with mickey rooney and the mayor for the world premiere of the movie "young, -- louis b mayer for the world premiere of the movie "young, tom edison." we have a newsreel from the time period of mickey rooney arriving on the steeple and an old train. at the end of it, mrs. edison throws the switch that likes this lightbulb up. i think you would need welding goggles to look at it. it's so bright, even on the camera. edison is most famous for the lightbulb. his favorite invention he said was the phonograph. he figure out a way to save sound. i can play this for you if you would like. this cylinder is from 1915, the photograph from 1905. this is from memorial day. ♪

>> ♪ one million soldiers to the war have gone ♪ ♪ who may never return again wait for theothers one who died in vain ♪ mr. dazer: he invented the cylinder format. some might not realize that records were shaped like this originally. this one is celluloid. it's called indestructible because the early wax ones were early fragile. this one i could drop and it would suffer no ill effects. shatter into one million pieces. the heyday of this piece was 1895 to 1915 or so.

although in the 1920's, they would make cylinder machines with inside horns. he produced cylinders until 1929. he was loyal to his customers, providing them with cylinders. as late as one of his most 1929. geniuses --s, genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. he knew that everything with hard work and was not afraid to do it. you show that as a young boy in the laboratory in his home, where he was testing every statement made in a book about chemistry to see for himself if it was true or not. it just became important to him to have that work ethic. that she was working on the lightbulb, 1000 different compositions for the filament until he finally found the right one.

again, hard work and sticking to it. that served him well in life. port huron's pretty proud of thomas edison. he is probably one of most famous people in the world. he spent his formative years here. we have this beautiful train depot that he worked out of. his family is still here in the cemetery. it just shows to us that people from a small town can go on to do great things. edison invented the century. >> this weekend we feature port huron, michigan. together with our comcast cable partner. about port huron and other stops on c-span.org/citiestour. you are watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend, on c-span3.

our c-span campaign 2016 buses in chicago this week at the national conference of state legislatures, acting -- asking elected officials what issue is most important to you, your district, or your state. >> in the statement representative from the great state of south dakota. here at the convention, the number one issue that i believe is one to face the state of south dakota in this next letters light of year is the potential expansion of medicaid. the governor seems to want this particular program expanded. there are many in the leslie jirga who oppose it. it's going to be a very interesting session. thank you. legislator in the desert of columbia. i'm here today to talk about really important issue for the residents of the district. this year, and addition to voting for president, we will be voting on statehood and self-determination. we are getting out the vote to show everyone across the country that we want to be the 51st state trade that is because just

like everyone else, we pay taxes, we fight in wars, and we serve our communities. we want the same equality and representation as all the residents in the united states. >> minus alex in the issue most important to me in the 2016 election cycle is raising wages for all learners, so we can grow the economy from the bottle up -- bottom-up and middle out. >> this federal election has been really exciting one to follow. as a female, i'm really excited that we have a viable female as a candidate, and i can't wait to see how she does. >> my name is rodney from louisiana. with most important to me right now in my state is education. education and critical services. we just did a wonderful expansion of medicaid, helping over 200,000 people in my state, which is great. nationally, it has to be focused on continuing to get the help we need in this country. america is great, louisiana is growing.

thank you. >> voices from the road on c-span. >> tonight at 6:00 eastern, barbara krauthammer of the university of massachusetts amherst talks about photography to chart the history of american slavery. here's a preview. >> i'm sure you're all familiar with this image. and the power of so many of these images. one of the things that we sought ondo with our research was the one hand, to really recognize and respect the history of the image tells us. but to also offer some alternative thoughts. if you look at the harpers weekly in which this photograph is reproduced as an etching, there is a companion piece. this is actually part of a triptych. some people are nodding. nina with a triptych is. it's how he comes into the camp in tatters, is this picture of the start back, and what is the third picture?

him and his union uniform. that is not the image that circulates today. in our popular culture. is not the image of a dignified soldier. it's the image of a battered body. there's something about the currency of these battered bodies that we thought was powerful, but we also thought it was worth taking a moment and stopping to ask why are the images of bladder back bodies -- sotered black bodies powerful and compelling in a way that beautiful bodies are not. >> you can watch the entire program tonight starting at 6:00 eastern here in american history tv on c-span3. >> nexen american history tv, -- next on american history tv, the

edward m.kennedy institute for u.s. senate hosts a program on his efforts to encourage peace in northern ireland. former u.s. envoy george mitchell gives the keynote address followed by a panel , discussion with ambassadors and members of congress and journalists. this 90-minute program begins with remarks by the irish weapon to the u.s.assador anne anderson. >> thank you very much for that introduction. senator mitchell, mrs. vicky kennedy. distinguished panelists. all the distinguished guests. i really am genuinely happy to be here this evening. it is not an easy night for me because the group of my prime minister comes to town tomorrow and they are working very hard the night before but i have to say he's on a kennedy related visit because he comes to the kennedy center tomorrow to open the ireland 100 festival which is the centerpiece of our