Edison Portland Cement - 4

Edison Portland Cement - 4

"Well, for a year or so the kiln problem was a nightmare to me. When we started up the

plant experimentally, and the long kiln was first put in operation, an output of about four

hundred barrels in twenty-four hours was obtained. Mr. Edison was more than

disappointed at this result. His terse comment on my report was: `Rotten. Try it again.'

When we became a little more familiar with the operation of the kiln we were able to get

the output up to about five hundred and fifty barrels, and a little later to six hundred and

fifty barrels per day. I would go down to Orange and report with a great deal of

satisfaction the increase in output, but Mr. Edison would apparently be very much

disappointed, and often said to me that the trouble was not with the kiln, but with our

method of operating it; and he would reiterate his first statement that it would make one

thousand barrels in twenty-four hours.

"Each time I would return to the plant with the determination to increase the output if

possible, and we did increase it to seven hundred and fifty, then to eight hundred and fifty

barrels. Every time I reported these increases Mr. Edison would still be disappointed. I

said to him several times that if he was so sure the kiln could turn out one thousand

barrels in twenty-four hours we would be very glad to have him tell us how to do it, and

that we would run it in any way he directed. He replied that he did not know what it was

that kept the output down, but he was just as confident as ever that the kiln would make

one thousand barrels per day, and that if he had time to work with and watch the kiln it

would not take him long to find out the reasons why. He had made a number of

suggestions throughout these various trials, however, and, as we continued to operate, we

learned additional points in handling, and were able to get the output up to nine hundred

barrels, then one thousand, and finally to over eleven hundred barrels per day, thus more

than realizing the prediction made by Mr. Edison before even the plans were drawn. It is

only fair to say, however, that prolonged experience has led us to the conclusion that the

maximum economy in continuous operation of these kilns is obtained by working them at

a little less than their maximum capacity.

"It is interesting to note, in connection with the Edison type of kiln, that when the older

cement manufacturers first learned of it, they ridiculed the idea universally, and were not

slow to predict our early `finish' as cement manufacturers. The ultimate success of the

kiln, however, proved their criticisms to be unwarranted. Once aware of its possibility,

some of the cement manufacturers proceeded to avail themselves of the innovation (at

first without Mr. Edison's consent), and to-day more than one-half of the Portland cement

produced in this country is made in kilns of the Edison type. Old plants are lengthening

their kilns wherever practicable, and no wide-awake manufacturer building a modern

plant could afford to install other than these long kilns. This invention of Mr. Edison has

been recognized by the larger cement manufacturers, and there is every prospect now that

the entire trade will take licenses under his kiln patents."

When he decided to go into the cement business, Edison was thoroughly awake to the

fact that he was proposing to "butt into" an old-established industry, in which the

principal manufacturers were concerns of long standing. He appreciated fully its inherent

difficulties, not only in manufacture, but also in the marketing of the product. These

considerations, together with his long-settled principle of striving always to make the

best, induced him at the outset to study methods of producing the highest quality of

product. Thus he was led to originate innovations in processes, some of which have been

preserved as trade secrets; but of the others there are two deserving special notice--

namely, the accuracy of mixing and the fineness of grinding.