My uncle, John S. Williams, of this city, president of the Ore Knob Copper Company, had heard of the machine, and sent me to Chester with a view to purchasing the right to use it at the Ore Knob Copper Works, in Ashe county, North Carolina. On my return to Baltimore I had the magnets constructed by Watts & Co., electricians, on November 24, 1876, for a large machine, similar to the one at Chester, which machine was completed about December 10, 1876, and practically tested at No. 52 Commerce St., Baltimore. It was sent to the Ore Knob Mine about Christmas, 1876, to be used in separating magnetic oxide of iron from the copper ore, and, for aught I know to the contrary, is in use there yet. This is a striking instance of how history repeats itself in inventions. Mr. Edison is doubtless an original inventor of the device, but he most certainly is not the first inventor.
R. D. WILLIAMS.
Baltimore, Md., June, 1880.
SMITH'S SLATE WASHER.
NOVEL SLATE WASHER.
Few articles meet with a readier sale or more promptly remunerate the inventor than the class of inventions adapted to the use of children either in their school life or in their amusements. One of these useful little novelties is shown in our engraving. It is a slate washer, consisting of two pieces of metal stamped up so as to form a holder for the sponge at the top and the cloth drier at the bottom. They also form a tubular receptacle containing a supply sponge, which is moistened by removing the corks at the ends.
This invention was recently patented by Mr. Jacob A. Smith, of Salem, Ohio.