The Portland daily press., 1894-07-14
EDlSON'S IRON MINING.
A Great Experiment With Vast Possible
ties Back of 1t.
(From the New York SUM-

ttrOm the New York SUM-
Anything which Thomas A. Edison is do
ing or trying to do is interesting and impor-
tant, but, perhaps, of all the things which
he has undertaken, the one of the greatest
Importance to the human race is that which
he is now busy about, in the mountains of
New Jersey.
The reporter found Mr.. Edison there the
other day, after long, circuitous ride
through the heart of Morris county, up the
Rockaway river alley, and past Lake Ho--
patcong. The railroad climbed up and up
the mountains on its single track and the
stations got to be simply open platforms a
dozen feet long in the woods, when sudden
~ the line emerged upon a mountain top,
and seemed about to plunge over into the
valley far below, but it ended by running
plump into nest of great red painted build
ings.
For an experimental outfit this strikes one
as being built upon royal scale. The rail
road track leads first by a storehouse that
covers almost as much ground as the New
York post-ofice, and then in between two
other buildings as big on the ground as the
first one, and mucn taller. Great chimneys
stick out of these to give breath to the en-
CINE fires within. and from the face of the
one to the eastward is chute emptyin COVER
the mountain side. To the westward. in
the rocky mountain top, is great hole.
1t is an iron mine. The task that Edison
has set for himself is to mine that rock,
crush it. separate the iron-carrying rock
from the rest by magnetic action, and make
available at a cost which shall be reason
able the greatest deposits of iron in the
country. which are now abandoned for the
,o.1 q II
1t is great task, but we'll worth the Ia
Dor. Excepting food, no material enters so
directly into the furnishing of human NEG
essities as does iron. When the great cool
ing process of the world reached the point
where iron was deposited, the greatest sin
gle quantity of it that fell in any one place
in this country, if not in the whole world,
was left in the rocks that reach across
northern New Jersey and into New York
and New England. Four years ago Edison
began the experiment in which he is still
engaged. From modest beginning the
works have grown and grown, until now
they keep couple of hundred men busy,
and this not in working them, but just
experimenting and making changes and adj
ditions. Besides the big buildings already
spoken of, there are apparently dozens of
SiudlISI uu1lu1uSS SCdbbef6u drOuQu.
AT one of these-red-painted, one-story
ofice-Mr. Edison was found He was seated
on the open stoop, and the contrast be-
tween his get-up and that of a couple of
men who were talking to him was striking
The latter were dressed in summer suits of
white flannel, with stylish straw hats. Mr..
Edison had straw hat, too. 1t Mas one
that had seen several years. wear, had no
i IL.
An unbleached cotton shirt, an old dust
begrimed snuff-colored suit, and hispleasant
smile completed his outfit.
''I'm not ready to talk about what 1 am
doing YETI he said, "but when l do get
ready shall blow like a 3OO-horse-power
boiler. If I can succeed in making the
ores of this region marketable, it will bring
the iron industry back to the East. There
is more iron in this deposit than there is in
all the rest in the United States. The
trouble with it is that it is poor. It runs
from 2S to 80 per cent of iron, and the fur
mace men won't put piece into their fur
mace that is poorer than 80 per cent. In
that ledge alone''-and here Mr.. Edison
pointed to the open mine-''there are
SO0,000,000 tons of iron. What am to do is
to crush that rock, take out the iron, 1
make it into bricquets, and send it to the
furnaces. shall make either gigantic
success or giga ntic failure. That mill
will crush 500 tons of rock day. 1t is bigger
than all the gold ore crushing mills in the
country put together, and there are presses
in there which will take three-ton piece
of rock and crush it like that''-and Mr..
Edison pressed one fist into the other
hand. 1.-THE iron men, continued he,
mi ha hat