The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-10-31

TO tho placid country district through which
one must travel In order TO reach the place.
tho, vhirr of conveyors,, and tho general noise
aud hustle, proclaim this to be some quite cx.
m ahY . so coated p do Their H slo GSPs' beao iUSE w iitS
the nying white PARTICLES, and every one. wears
a patent muzzle IN order to c%ircuInvcnt tho bad
effects which tho dust would otherwise have
upon tho lungs.
Edison is FOUND watching the steam shovel.
I'VE nro making n Yosemite OF our own here,
We viii soon have one. Of the biggest ARTIFICIAL
stoned by, tho fact that the steam shovel is
working th~reC-quart"rs of n mile from the works
proper. II is somewhat down the hillside, but
it eating on a level straight into, the hill.
but when We do get that far in we viii have a
trench with walls 100 feet deep. suppose. we
vii! take out over 100000 tons OF rock before
pletcd, we can blast of the walls with dynamite
taking OIL 1000 tons at q nmc,"
and then laid on fiat cars with u steam shovel.
|. is then conN eyed TO the crushing plant. The
cars are run in under each end ofthc crushing
lifted by the cranes to the second story of the
mill, where the rock, is dumped into a largo
rcvolvo immense iron rollers weighing 100 tons.
The, surface of these rollers IS studded with
a Ss0i foot HnV VIDE IHe 'G %eycr gfSTssn 'n a sil Il issS r roeR
dropG shah into ,br tho pit Idcd passes between the rolls ip
nearer together. From the heavy rolls above
the rock falls into this lower SGT and is crushed
stu more infinitely. 1t has now boon reduced
to pieces OF the size of n mans fist, and from
the lower set of rolls drops into an elevator or
endless conveyor, which carries the pieces up
tn the top of another part of the building and
dumps them into n shaft leading down to three
more sets OF rolls set directly beneath one an.
other. As the rock passes through these rolls
these are found to be plnCed nearer and nearer
together, until with the last, or third SGT, tho
two sSS, ro olb.s eO Dn fSn, w i ARE ,h set rt tightly "S5,in mt
passes through 1t has been reduced to dust.
One of tho most remarkable features Of this
done by the largest or what are known in
Edison AS the giant rolls, is not the direct result
Of the energy Of the steam engine. The rock
the engine which operates the l00-tun rolls is OF
less than 100 horse power. Il has Just power
terrific speed, but more than this it cannot 10.
III any obstruction u rock, for nstancc-should
which the engine is connected to the rolls at
once causes the engine TO let 20 its hold. The
momentum of the rolls, however, carries them
around, and the rock is crushed by this stored
up energy. The same energy, ii applied d.
rcctly from the engine, would necessarily have
to be much greater than it is, and NJ the same
time the shock of the oh s~truction coming be-
tween the rolls would jar the engine to pieces
In n short time. In fact, it may be SAID that
the work OF ore separation would not be n com
mercial success were 1t not Tor the utilization
OF three natural forces, momentum, magnetism.
and gravity; momentum to crush the rocks,
gravity to take tho place of expensive machine
cry In separating the ore, and magnetism to
draw the fine particles OF orc from the sand.
One of the features OF Edison is the great
number OF endless chain elevators which con-
meet tho buildings with one another; AS the
ore passes through each building il is carried
on to the next automatically in these endless
elevators. After it leaves the crushing plant
it IS carried to the top OF the magnet, house
and dumped into space, to find its way through
many sleeves of varying mcshcs and past many
magnet faces OF varying strength before II
ultimately falls in the cellar Of the building and
into another elevator. which carries the great
y, changed product, TO the next department.
There is over a mile OF magnet faces in The
long chutes. On he way down it passes the
magnet faces. Directly under. each magnet
face is a side chute, leading of in a direction Of
its own, and directly above each magnet face is
a sieve. As the ore, comes down, if fine enough
to pass through the sieve. it continues its
at the bottom OF which there is a conveyor
which carries it back TO the rolls TO be recrushcd.
magnet draws, the ore from the sand. the sand
passing straight down to an elevator. which
huge sand pile. The falling sand pres nts a very
beautiful sight. A stream of it, s%himmering
and shining in the sunlight, ,descends and
meath. Nothing could be moro beautiful than
this gorgeous cataract of powdered rock fallin.
mass below. Nor is it a useless accumulation.
1t Is sold for various purposes to builders and
than h,snu tSsy dc the S sand e Ell The st seas moTe o e" Of thy
bank. Seashore or bank sand has in the course
Of centuries lost ills edges. because the PARTICLES
navy constantly uoDtu bkdllst tIt W
Broken rock sand, however. is very sharp, and
for cement and lime work is very Desirable
ward and pass through a room where blowers
rid 1t of any dust which may have accompa-
MED it on its travels. After leaving the blower
room, 1t is really a stream of pure, finely diyid-
ed iron ore, which drops into conycyor, and is
carried to n storehouse which holds 5,OGO tons.
Here it may rest temporarily. or il may pass on
by means of other conveyors to the mixing
house. 1t cannot be smelted in the form of iron
dust. The force of the blast would blow 1t from
Ina fNrnnfnna / I IluIa ha NnIa ~ hriut A q a.
and in order to do this it must be mixed with
some adhesive substance, which will prevent it
from disintcgrating when brought under the ac-
ton of the furnace. The mixing machines arc
huge cylinders, in which operate great iron pad
dies. The ore Is fed into the cylinder from tho
TOP, and the adhesive material, the nature of
which Is Il secret, drops also from above. and
the whole mass is churned together until every
particle OF the ore has come in contact with a
due proportion of the adhesive substance. 1t
becomes, i'll fact, Il sticky mass which Is pushed
out OF one end OF the cylinder and conveyed to
the bricking house to be made into little bril-
quotes. It may be said in passing, nasmuch as
it throws a side light on the character of Tho
$500 experiments before he struck upon the
right material for use in binding the ore together.
The bricking machines are simple.Iooking af-
fairs. and. for the purpose of comparison. may
be said to he just us simple in their appearance
as is the incandesccrt lamp. Like the latter.
however, they passed through II multitude OF
changes he. ore their final form was agreed upon.
As is usually the case with inventions o! the
kind, this final form is probably the simplest
brous machines which were constructed and
discarded in the course of the evolution. ono
wonders that this fora was not Thought OF at
once. The ore drops into II small OriIicc in the
cylinder. The cylinder then turns so that the
hole comes forward and cXertS thousands OF
pounds pressure on the ore; the cylinder then
turns downward and the newly made briquctte
drops out from the hoe and falls into another
endless convcyor. and is carried forward into II
large oven to be baked. There are thirty brick
Ing machines and fifteen ovens in the plant, and
a continual stream of briQuettes il circulated
through the hut-air chambers of these ovens.
the co9vcyors travel Ave times around the in
terror Of the oven before the briquctte5 reap
pear. When they come Oui they have under
gone n change which makes them n commercial
product. For instance, they Will row absorb
gases in the furnace. which they are required TO
do. but they will not absorb water. This con-
dition Is necessary, so MAT they may be shipped
TO the furnaces in open cars. If u stream of
water were allowed 10 flow on n brick the water
would simply run of on the other hand, II al
cOhol were dropped on il il would instantly be
absorbed by the brick. This was the point for
which Mr.. Edison was str!vinG when he made his
5000 experiments.
From the oven the bricks are conveyed to
the railroad, where long trains Of freight cars
await them. The conyeyor at this point en-
tends out oyer the track. and the engineer OF q
train has simply to back his cars underneath