The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-01-03
AN UNIQUE PLANT.
Edison's Wonderful Iron
Producing Works in
Sussex County
TEN THOUSAND TONS A DAY
The Effects of the Inventors Mind
Seen About Lake Hopatcong
Cost of Equipping
a Mine.
Special to the Jerseu Cttu NeatA

WI ~
TRENTON, Jan. 8, 1S96.-New Jersey
can boast of one of the most UNIQUE
and complete iron mining and manufac-
turing plants in the world. 1t is located
IN the mountainous region about Lake
Hopatong. The proprietor is Thomas A.
Edison, the world-famous inventor and
electrician, and the machinery used in
taking the iron-bearing rock from mother
earth and separating it is of his inven-
ton. To take the ore from the earth and
extract the metal there is used an intri-
cate system of electric appliances, all in
ventions of Edison.
The mine is but an experiment, but is a
large producer. 1t was about seven years
ago that Edison wandered over the Penn
sylvania line into the Lake Hopatcong
section of Sussex county. There he
found a deserted iron mine, which had
been worked for years previously, but
which had been abandoned by it's own
ers, who found that by the prevailing
system of vein working and with the old
stone crusher they could not take out
over 100 tons of concentrated ore a day,
and then only at al expense which ex-
ceeded the market price of the ore. Edi-
son had already begun work on his new
mining machinery and for the purpose of
making an experiment he Immediately
secured a lease of 5000 acres of rich min
eral land, including the abandoned mine.
Then the work of erecting the plant was
begun.
Without a map or a plan, but simply
from Edison's W ideas, personally
communicated to his builders. forty-one
buildings, covering an area of forty-five
acres, were erected. In these the new
electric machinery was housed and the
first mining was begun about five years
ago, after $4,000, 00G had been expended
in e~quipping the plant. Since that time
numerous changes and improvements
have been made and the mine is now
able to turn out 10000 tons of the very
best quality of concentrated ore, the
kind used in the manufacture of steel,
in a single day, as against 100 tons a
day under old methods. Furthermore,
the ore can be taken out and prepared
for market at the nomina cost of sixty
cents a tor. 1t sells for $3.50 a ton.
The plar of taking out the ore is
briefly as follows: First, by means of
electric power, the rock is blasted out in
pieces that weigh from eight to ten tons
each. These mammoth iron bearing
quartz powders are then hoisted from
tAkS P4b ny VII " L I'LL SAAS
which has a span of 400 feet, and are
loaded on platform cars, which carry
them to the crusher plant. This is the
heaviest and most powerful piece of ma
chinery ever built. The shaft is twenty
two inches in diameter, while the crusher
measures twelve feet across, and, driven
by electric dynamos, makes 300 revolu-
tlCnS a minute. From beneath this mas
$ We machine the crushed and broken rock
hoists@ it sixty-five feet to a hopper, down
which it slides into the Jaws of two sets
of ponderous electric rollers.
From this hopper the rock comes out
IN pieces the size of hens eggs. These
pieces fall upon an electric driven belt
conveyor and are whisked away to an
other elevator, in which they are again
carried up sixty-five feet to an electric
dryer that has a temperature of $50 de-
gTees Fahrenheit. Through this they
pass and are deposited in a huge cone
through the small end of the cone into
800 buckets, which are attached to az
electric conveyor. and these carry the
egg-size pieces of rock to three sets of
high-pressure rollers.
Beneath the rollers the rock is granu-
after passing through a Series Of screens.
the ~gTanulated rock is transferred to the
most wonderful part of the entire plant.
place LOO magnets, each twelve feet long.
wound witt ten miles of wire and stored
with $50 volts of electricity.
In the magnet-room the conveyor
branches off in two directions, and as
the junction is reached the Stag sand, I'M
affected by the electricity, keeps on a
straight course, and is eventually dump
ed into the yard Of the plant. But the
minute particles of iron the sand con-
ftains can't resist, as it We're, the force
of the powerful electric current, and are
detected into a separate channel. Down
this they dash into the mixer"
In the mixer a chemical compound,
of which only Edison and his chemists
know the exact nature, is added, causing
the iron particles to cling together and
flows into the ''bricker ROOM" where
forty machines, each capable of turning
out sixty bricks a minute. press it into
weighing sixteen ounces each. These
pass into another electric dryer, and
from there, firm as the solid rocks from
which they are taken, are loaded Upon
Probably the most remarkable feature
of the entire plant is that during all the
stages and progress the iron-bearing rock
passes through, travelling a distance of
touched by human hands. Everything is
accomplished by means of an intricate,
delicate, but ponderous system of auto
patic machinery, every bit of which is
1t is on account of the doing away with
the necessity of an army of workmen
that it is possible to take out the ore
at such a small price.
It is understood that Mr.. Edison has
about perfected all his plans, or rather
corrected all imperfections in them, and
will shortly prepare for the placing of
his inventions in other mines. They are
of absolutely no use in mining for any of
the precious metals, both gold and silver
being mo~n-conducto and not subject to
work a revolution in methods of iron
mining and manufacturing q