The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-08-28
EDISON is D1saUsrED.
He Has Abandoned Electricity and is
Looking After Metallurgy.
From the New York World


Chicago, Aug. 19.-Speaking to-day of
himself and his plans, Thomas A. Edison
said Il am out of electricity. My ex-
perience with electrical patents has been
a sad one. l am now engaged in devising
a process to concentrate the particles of
magnetic iron ore disseminated through
the rocks of certain mountains in New
York and New Jersey. If | be successful
in thisw will open up an iron supply
1 having at least q thousand million tons of
ore in sight, and we will be able to sup
ply all the furnaces east of the Allegheny
mountains with cheap ore.
I'VE are erecting large works at Ogden,
in New Jersey, and are moving ahead
with good prospect of success. The
difficulty now is that the rock is of such
low grade that with the present known
methods of mining, crushing and milling
and bricking the ore it cannot be produced
sufficiently cheap to compete with the
regular ores. These regular ores are in
comparatively small quantities as COM
! pared with the gigantic ranges of min
| eraiZed rock which pass for sixty miles
/ through the Jersey highlands"
Have you reached anything practical
| so farl"
Yes. A small plant was erected and
about two hundred thousand tons were
| crushed and concentrated and from the
| data obtained it was seen that with the
methods in common Hse to-day it was not
a commercial success in competing with
! regular ore. Then took hold Of the thing
! personally and went forward with my eX-
| periments until produced entirely new
/ means and methods both of mining and
| milling the ore and we have now nearly
1 completed a plant. II will in operation
/ by December, and we shall mine and mill
/ 5000 tons Of rock every day, and we be-
/ lieve we will be able to sell ore at lower
/ price than it can be produced by the ordi-
nary methods"
How about patents on your new pro-
! cesses3
Il patent the different things only to
give me the right to use them myself
without other people suing me, but shall
not attempt TO stop other people using my
| patented machinery"
"Then you do not intend to make any
thing on the patents themselves"
Il take the course which / propose to
take for the reason that l have learned
by bitter experience that the cost of pros
ecuting infringers always exceeds the
amount received by the inventor All
that desire to do is to use my own ma
chinery in peace
Then other people with knowledge de-
| rived from your patents viii be in the
market on equal terms with youln
NJ, Ailllh hOb 4uG pLOtbItlOLl WHICH
/ have arises from the fact that have Sc
cured and control the whole of the con-
| centrating rock deposits within the range
of reasonable foreign rates east of the
! Allegheny mountains. That came to be
the only way | had of protecting myself,
because real estate is much better protect
ed by the courts than patent property"
How have you located this ore2''
Il have had six men surveying the
eastern declivity of the Allegheny regions
for three and half years with the mag
netic needle, and have better maps of
the highlands of New Jersey than are in
the possession of the New Jersey geologi-
cal survey
you have no faith in patents?"
while the patent law is all right, and
the intention of the government in grant
ing patents is all right, the trouble lies in
the circuit courts of the United States.
Their system of procedure is such that
by no possible means can an inventor ever
get anything from his invention except by
accident.
"The popular idea is that when man
gets patent he is secure. That is the
idea, too, among great many inventors
who have not had much experience, but
| among the real inventors of the country
the men who produce inventions of real
! yalue-the fact has been brought home to
| them that there is no protection for the
inventor, ana therefore large number OF
them are gradually leaving the ranks and
using their talents in the evolution of in
dustrial processes not protected by
patents, or where patents are not re-
quired
Suppose a man has invented method
of getting electricity direct from coal.
Such an invention would be Of incalculable
value 1t would do away with the steam
engine and substitute in its place similar
and more efficient motors, and save more