'I know that I'm not supposed to believe in these things,' replied Edison. 'But I know that between my fingernail and knuckle there are ten thousand atmospheric forces. We inventors know that. Our only job is to invent an instrument delicate enough to tune in so that we can use those forces. That's your problem with guidance, Mr Buchman, isn't it?' Buchman agreed that it was. Lifelong friendships with both Edison and his wife began that evening.

In August Buchman was back in London, and had a long talk with the poet Siegfried Sassoon. 'My instinct tells me', wrote Sassoon afterwards, 'that your success in the work you are doing is made possible by simplicity. And I am learning, slowly, that simplification of life is more important than anything else.. . . Miracles can still be worked by it.'21

Buchman still felt that his most urgent need was to build a team of younger people who would be willing to carry the work with him. For almost a year he had pondered taking what he called 'an apostolic group' on a world tour which would include Europe, the Middle East, India, China and Australia. Maybe the situation at Princeton convinced him that 1924 was the right year to go. At any rate, it was at this time that he asked several young men to come on a prolonged expedition with him. Sherwood Day, Sam Shoemaker, Loudon Hamilton, Eustace Wade, Godfrey Webb-Peploe from Cambridge and Van Dusen Rickert from Princeton decided to join him, for some or all of the journey.

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Photo: John Riffe, CIO steelworkers' organiser, with Mrs Thomas Edison, widow of the inventor, both friends of Buchman.
©Arthur Strong/MRA Productions