Magnetic Ore Milling Work - 8

Magnetic Ore Milling Work - 8

 Edison himself tells an interesting little story in this connection, when he enjoyed the

active help of that noble character, John Fritz, the distinguished inventor and pioneer of

the modern steel industry in America. He says: "When I was struggling along with the

iron-ore concentration, I went to see several blast-furnace men to sell the ore at the

market price. They saw I was very anxious to sell it, and they would take advantage of

my necessity. But I happened to go to Mr. John Fritz, of the Bethlehem Steel Company,

and told him what I was doing. `Well,' he said to me, `Edison, you are doing a good thing

for the Eastern furnaces. They ought to help you, for it will help us out. I am willing to

help you. I mix a little sentiment with business, and I will give you an order for one

hundred thousand tons.' And he sat right down and gave me the order."

The Edison concentrating plant has been sketched in the briefest outline with a view of

affording merely a bare idea of the great work of its projector. To tell the whole story in

detail and show its logical sequence, step by step, would take little less than a volume in

itself, for Edison's methods, always iconoclastic when progress is in sight, were

particularly so at the period in question. It has been said that "Edison's scrap-heap

contains the elements of a liberal education," and this was essentially true of the "discard"

during the ore-milling experience. Interesting as it might be to follow at length the

numerous phases of ingenious and resourceful development that took place during those

busy years, the limit of present space forbids their relation. It would, however, be denying

the justice that is Edison's due to omit all mention of two hitherto unnamed items in

particular that have added to the world's store of useful devices. We refer first to the great

travelling hoisting-crane having a span of two hundred and fifteen feet, and used for

hoisting loads equal to ten tons, this being the largest of the kind made up to that time,

and afterward used as a model by many others. The second item was the ingenious and

varied forms of conveyor belt, devised and used by Edison at the concentrating works,

and subsequently developed into a separate and extensive business by an engineer to

whom he gave permission to use his plans and patterns.

Edison's native shrewdness and knowledge of human nature was put to practical use in

the busy days of plant construction. It was found impossible to keep mechanics on

account of indifferent residential accommodations afforded by the tiny village, remote

from civilization, among the central mountains of New Jersey. This puzzling question

was much discussed between him and his associate, Mr. W. S. Mallory, until finally he

said to the latter: "If we want to keep the men here we must make it attractive for the

women--so let us build some houses that will have running water and electric lights, and

rent at a low rate." He set to work, and in a day finished a design for a type of house.

Fifty were quickly built and fully described in advertising for mechanics. Three days'

advertisements brought in over six hundred and fifty applications, and afterward Edison

had no trouble in obtaining all the first-class men he required, as settlers in the artificial

Yosemite he was creating.

We owe to Mr. Mallory a characteristic story of this period as to an incidental unbending

from toil, which in itself illustrates the ever-present determination to conquer what is

undertaken: "Along in the latter part of the nineties, when the work on the problem of

concentrating iron ore was in progress, it became necessary when leaving the plant at

Edison to wait over at Lake Hopatcong one hour for a connecting train. During some of

these waits Mr. Edison had seen me play billiards. At the particular time this incident

happened, Mrs. Edison and her family were away for the summer, and I was staying at

the Glenmont home on the Orange Mountains.

"One hot Saturday night, after Mr. Edison had looked over the evening papers, he said to

me: `Do you want to play a game of billiards?' Naturally this astonished me very much,

as he is a man who cares little or nothing for the ordinary games, with the single

exception of parcheesi, of which he is very fond. I said I would like to play, so we went

up into the billiard- room of the house. I took off the cloth, got out the balls, picked out a

cue for Mr. Edison, and when we banked for the first shot I won and started the game.

After making two or three shots I missed, and a long carom shot was left for Mr. Edison,

the cue ball and object ball being within about twelve inches of each other, and the other

ball a distance of nearly the length of the table. Mr. Edison attempted to make the shot,

but missed it and said `Put the balls back.' So I put them back in the same position and he

missed it the second time. I continued at his request to put the balls back in the same

position for the next fifteen minutes, until he could make the shot every time--then he

said: `I don't want to play any more.' "

Having taken a somewhat superficial survey of the great enterprise under consideration;

having had a cursory glance at the technical development of the plant up to the point of

its successful culmination in the making of a marketable, commercial product as

exemplified in the test at the Crane Furnace, let us revert to that demonstration and note

the events that followed. The facts of this actual test are far more eloquent than volumes

of argument would be as a justification of Edison's assiduous labors for over eight years,

and of the expenditure of a fortune in bringing his broad conception to a concrete

possibility. In the patient solving of tremendous problems he had toiled up the mountainside

of success-- scaling its topmost peak and obtaining a view of the boundless prospect.

But, alas! "The best laid plans o' mice and men gang aft agley." The discovery of great

deposits of rich Bessemer ore in the Mesaba range of mountains in Minnesota a year or

two previous to the completion of his work had been followed by the opening up of those

deposits and the marketing of the ore. It was of such rich character that, being cheaply

mined by greatly improved and inexpensive methods, the market price of crude ore of

like iron units fell from about $6.50 to $3.50 per ton at the time when Edison was ready

to supply his concentrated product. At the former price he could have supplied the market

and earned a liberal profit on his investment, but at $3.50 per ton he was left without a

reasonable chance of competition. Thus was swept away the possibility of reaping the

reward so richly earned by years of incessant thought, labor, and care. This great and

notable plant, representing a very large outlay of money, brought to completion, ready for

business, and embracing some of the most brilliant and remarkable of Edison's inventions

and methods, must be abandoned by force of circumstances over which he had no

control, and with it must die the high hopes that his progressive, conquering march to

success had legitimately engendered.