Western liberal. (Lordsburg, N.M.) 1887-1919, 1891-09-11

him meanwhile cannot turn him aside
from his ultimate purpose, and h'
does not seem to give a thought tS
turning them to pecuhiary account
| He has succeeded in extracting $50 q
ton from our ores, buthe is trying tC
make them yield s75 or $50, the full
amount of metal they contain.
zone day happened into the lab.
oratory and he talked to me Of the
chemists wonders.
you would scarcely believe he
said, that iron can be turned into
copper
81 told him that 1 certainly did not
believe it,
Well, he answered, it can be,
stumbled upon the secret zone day In
my experiments. 1 could not myself
at first credit the result, and so went
all through with the experiment
again. The result was just the same.
II was astonished, incredulous. My
knowledge of metallurgy was consld-
cradle, and L knew, or believed that 1
knew, that,what he told me was utterly
impossible. He ended by assuring me
that he would repeat the experiment
for me.
" Come here tonight, he said, and
bring me a lump of the purest mag
netic iron ore, for Ihave SO far found
no way to make the change, except
with that form ofiron.'
Il did as he directed, and that
night appeared in his laboratory with
beautiful specimen of 95 per cent, pure
magnetic ore from the Lake Angeline
mine in northern Michigan. 1t was
an all-night task and Ihad come pre-
pared to stay. My chemist took the
ore and carefully weighed it. Then
he treated it to a chemical bath. 1t
was put afterward into ascruclble and
fused with other substances, then
treated to another bath. Finally,
after number of processes, which ]
need not describe, it was placed in
retort with some chemicals and sealed
up. / myself sealed it and put my
mark upon it so that it could not be
tampercd with or changed. Then we
went to sleep. Rather we retired
in the laboratory, for 1 did not sleep
very much. The strangeness of my
surroundings and the novelty of the
we were conducting were
sunicientto keep me awake most Of
the night.
In the morning the retort was
opened, the substance which it con
taincd washed and fused, and to my
eyes it had the color and
the ductility Of copper We weighed
It, and it had neither lost nor gained
from the weight Of the ore we had |
placed in the retort. Still, though |
we had something that looked like |
copper, did not yet appreciate the |
true significance of what X had seen.
K could not but believe that the met
u before me was iron chemically col
)red in some way X did not under
stand.
How much it looks like "copper"
said. Let us take it to the superin-
.endent of the smelter and see if we
'annot fool him with it,
." He viii be fooled, indeed, was
he reply Of my savant, If he takes it
or anything but what is native
.opper.'
"We took it to the superintendent,
nd | asked him what he thought it
vas. He looked at me in astonish-
nent, as if he pitled my ignorance,
truck it a blow with a hammer scru-
inized it carefully, and handed it
'ack with the remark:
%" l should say it was a very pure
ump Of copper
80 But wlshy you would make sure
urged.
"' Why, is there any question about
t?' he asked.
So Yes, there is replied.
linen ne put II to severe tests ,
nth acids and pronounced it without
oubt a remarkably pure piece copper.
came away dazed, and as the stupen-
of the experiments made be- ,
ore me dawned upon my mind l .
sked my chemist il he had thoughtof
he commercial value OF his discovery.
"' No. he said, i have no time to |
hlnk Of that
ut ended in my buying his secret !
him for few hundred dollars. 1 II
ave since demonstrated to my salts /
action that there was no trick played y
pom me and that what saw done on I
small scale can do much cheaper
o larger one. We are now making
separations TO begin the manufacture a
copper out Of iron on a considerable I
'ale at Pittsburgh.
ut willbe a very profitable enter
rise, too, for we can make the very
est Of mass copper at an outside cost
Z cents pound, including the cost
the iron, while our copper will be