The Boy's Book of New Inventions

by Harry E. Maule

"Years ago, long before Edison had retired from active business affairs to give his whole attention to scientific research," said the scientist, as he and the boy walked about the laboratory, "he became interested in metallurgy, just as he was and always is interested in every other science where great difficulties must be overcome. In those days iron and steel were not used as extensively as they are now, but the scientists and leaders in the big industries saw that the day was coming when far, far greater quantities of iron ore would be needed to supply the great demand for steel to build skyscrapers, ships, machinery, and so on. Men were going farther and farther away in their search for iron ore, but Edison, with his never failing originality, said to himself that it was likely there was plenty of iron ore right around his laboratory in New Jersey if he only knew how to get at it.

"For one thing," continued the boy's friend, "Edison had seen on the ocean beaches great stretches of white sand with millions and millions of little black particles sprinkled through them. He knew that the specks were pure iron ore. You can prove this to yourself by simply holding a good magnet close to a pile of such sand, and watching the iron particles collect."

It was Edison's idea to concentrate the iron ore found in the earth, in just this way, for he had sent out a corps of surveyors who had reported vast quantities of low-grade ore in most of the Atlantic Coast States. Low-grade ore is that which contains only a small percentage of the metal desired, and hence it does not pay to smelt it, unless a very cheap process can be found. Edison thought he had a process cheap enough, for he simply intended to grind the mountains to sand and take out the particles of iron by running it through a hopper with a high-power magnet at the mouth.

The process sounds simple, but the machinery required was very complicated, to say nothing of being extremely heavy. Edison set up his mill in the mountains of New Jersey and started to blast down the cliffs of low-grade ore and run them through a series of gigantic crushers that ground them to a fine powder. The iron particles, called concentrates, after being extricated were pressed into briquets ready for delivery to the foundry.

After having spent close to $2,000,000 on the experiment, and satisfactorily proving its mechanical success, the discovery of vast quantities of high-grade ore in the Messaba range of Minnesota forced Edison to close his plant. "This would have been a crushing failure to most men," added the scientist, "but Edison's only comment was a whimsical smile. Indeed, even on his way home after closing his plant, Edison was planning new and more important activities, for with his experience at rock crushing he was satisfied he could enter the field as a maker of the building material called Portland cement."

At that time cement and concrete were even less used than were steel and iron, but Edison for many years had seen that in the future they would take the place of wood, stone, and brick.

"Well-made concrete, employing a high grade of Portland cement," said Edison on one occasion, "is the most lasting material known. Practical confirmation of this statement may be found abundantly in Italy at the present time, where many concrete structures exist, made of old Roman cement, constructed more than a thousand years ago, and are still in a good state of preservation.

"Concrete will last as long as granite and is far more resistant to fire than any known stone."

But Edison had something more than a successful business in mind when he returned from his rock-crushing plant, for he intended setting up cement-making machinery such as had never before been seen. With this end in view he began to read up on the subject, just as we have seen the Wright brothers read up on aviation. Incidentally, as an indication of the manner in which this wizard works, it may be said that all this time Edison was perfecting his new storage battery.

One big improvement upon the usual process in the manufacture of cement, planned by Edison, was that the grinding should be so fine that 65 per cent. of the ground clinker should pass through a 200-mesh screen instead of only 75 per cent. as is the usual rule. Thus, Edison made into cement 10 per cent. more material that other manufacturers sent back to be ground over again.