NEW YORK – Signs of improvement were noted today in the condition of Thomas A. Edison, who underwent an operation yesterday for mastoiditis. It was said at the hospital tonight that the inventor’s pulse and temperature were normal and that no alarm was felt. No official bulletin was issued during the evening, and Dr. Arthur D. Duel, who has the case in charge, did not visit the hospital tonight asf ar as could be learned. Mrs. Edison remained with her husband at the hospital tonight.

• C. O. Morton of Portland is building in his cellar a rowboat for Archie Roosevelt, the President’s son. The designer of the boat is Morton’s brother-in-law, Capt. William E. Norman of the government yacht Sylph.

50 years ago, 1958

Mickey Mantle signed a New York Yankee contract for $72,000, third highest among active baseball players, yesterday and confidently announced: “This is my jackpot year.” Mantle, the Yankees’ heir apparent to Babe Ruth’s home run throne, won triple honors in the American League in 1956, leading in batting, home runs and runs batted-in. But last season Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox beat him out for the batting championship (.388 to .365) and Sievers wrested away Mickey’s other two crowns with 42 home runs and 114 runs batted-in.

25 years ago, 1983

Maine’s battle against cancer will take on new proportions in April when Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston opens its newly constructed Cancer Care Treatment Center.

Androscoggin County, with a projected 1984 population of 101,700 people, will lead the tri-county region with an estimated 413 cases of diagnosed cancer. Oxford County, which is expected to have a population of about 50,300 next year, will have approximately 273 cases of cancer. About 116 of Franklin County’s 28,600 people will have some form of cancer in 1984.