The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1893-06-23
EDISON AS A MINER.

in the aid of stock spectators, and he is
just now congratulating himself that he
has capital enough to carry on his future
projects on his wi responsibility. In a
most interesting interview with the in
ventor, published in McClure's Magazine
for June he gives some decidedly inter
esting facts about the work he now has
in mind, and which is to be developed
in the near future.
The first of these is an economical
system for the reduction of magnetic
iron ores. This is pow almost perfected,
and entirely meets the inventors wishes.
Some of the mountains of New Jersey
contain vast deposits of the ore, and to
make his discovery of value to himself
Mr.. Edison has acquired most of these
lands. None of the details of the treat
ment have been given out, and it is not
likely that they will become public prop
ertp. but the marvellous success of the
discovery may be imagined from Edison's
own statement that when his machinery
is done he expects to handle twenty
thousand tons of the ore a day with two
shifts of men, five in a shift. THAT is
to say" says the magician,
"ten workmen, working twenty hours
a day in the aggregate, will be able to
take this ore, crush it, reduce the iron to
cement,like proportions, extract it from
the rock and earth and make it into
bricklets Of pure iron, and do it all SO
cheaply that it will command the market
for magnetic iron."
The New Jersey ore is about one-quar-
ter pure iron, SO that four tons of ore are
required to turn out one ton of iron
ready for the founder. The. supply in
the mines controlled by Mr.. Edison is
practically inexhaustible, SO hat he bids
fair to become the greatest iron miner in
the world.
His next great undertaking, be says.
will be the direct control of the energy
which is stored up in coal so that it may
be employed without waste and at a very
small margin of cost. BY the present
method Of using coal 90 per cent of the
energy that exists in it is lost in convert
ing it into power. 1t goes IN heat
through the chimneys of boiler rooms,
and is greatly wasted in the development
of latent heat which is created by the
change from water to steam.
Only an intellect especially endowed
for such work can conceive the results
that must come from the practical so.
luton of this problem. OF it Mr.. Edi-
son says: ''If this wastage can be saved
it will result in vastly ~cheapening the
cost of everything which is manufacture
ed by electric or steam power. In fact,
it will vastly cheaper the cost Of all the
necessaries and luxuries of life, and l
suppose the results would be of mightier
influence upon civilization than the de-
velopmont f the steam engine and cleo
tricity have been. 1t would enable an
ocean steamship of 10000 horse power to
cross the ocean faster than n of the
crack vessels now do, and require the
burning of only $50 tons of coal instead
of 5000 as now required; SO that, of
course, the charges for freight and pas
senger fares would be greatly reduced.
1t would enormously lessen tho cost of
manufacturing and of traffic. 1t would
develop tho electric current directly
from coal, SO that the cost of steam en-
gines and boilers would be eliminated.
81 have thought of this problem very
much said Mr.. Edison in concluding
this part of the interview, "and | have
already my theory Of the experiments,
or some OF them, which may be neces-
sary to develop this direct use of all the
power that is stored in coal. 1t may be
years before it is finished, and it may
not be "A very long time"
referring to Mr.. Edison's religious
views, the interviewer reports him as
saying: u tell you that no person can
be brought into close contact with the
mysteries Of nature or make a study of
chemistry without being convinced that
behind it all there is supreme intelli-
gence. | am convinced of that, and /
think that could, perhaps | may some
time. demonstrate the existence of such
intelligence through the operation of
these mysterious laws with the certainty
of a demonstration in mathematics"
Here are things for people who
delight in contemplation to study over
at their leisure. The world is on the
threshold of discoveries far greater than
any that have yet been made, and the
mind which will delve the deepest into
the mysteries of nature will be the mind
which recognizes at the start, that there
is a supreme intelligence which guides,
directs and masters all, both the seen
and the unseen.
IL is estimated by Mr.. Dickinson that
the street railway company will have TO
pay about one-cighth Of the cost of paw
inc Central nvppua This il whv tha