Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1897-12-31
EDlSON'S NEW MARVEL.
An Invention That May Prove to he His
Greatest Achievements

Thomas A. Edison has just completed
what may prove to be the greatest
achievement of his life. After eight
years of incessant work, night and day.
in the face of discOuragements which
seemed almost insurmountable, in spite
of obstacles which only a genius could
overcome, he has given to the world
an industrial invention which in the
seriousness of it's intention may come
to rival the kaleidoscope the phono-
graph or even the electric light. Moth
ing he has done heretofore has required
so much of his individual attention,
taxed his inventive ingenuity so fully,
or in the aggregate consumed his vital
powers more than this latest accom-
plishment. He has in short at last
pointed out a commercial way of util-
izing the immense deposits of iron ore
which lie under the New Jersey hills.
Billions of tons of iron ore lie scat
tered through the rocks of the Eastern
spurs of the Allegheny mountains Edi-
son himself made this remarkable dis
covery years ago and biologists ever
since have amused themselves with
proving how perfectly inexhaustible is
the supply. But the ore is scattered
about in such fine particles that it
could not be mined with the ordinary
methods, and hence has been looked
upon as one of the few great wastes of
Nature. This state of affairs was very
aggravating in view of the peculiar
conditions which prevailed in the iron
trade of the extreme East. For some
years past the bulk of the Bessemer
steel trade has been drifting westward
by reason of the discovery and opening
up of immense deposits of high grade
ore in the upper Peninsula of Michi
gan, suitable for making Bessemer
steel, cheaply produced, and carried at
a small cost by water transportation to
furnaces contagious to the lake ports.
The tremendous cheapening in the cost
of mining and transportation of these
deposits have apparently raised insur-
mountable obstacles in the way of East
ern iron mills meeting the competition
of the great mills of the Central West,
even in the Eastern market, and many
mills have ceased to operate. The
condition is not a trivial one. for many
thousands of persons depend upon
these mills and furnaces for living.
Much has been heard in general
way during the past few years of Mr..
Edison's plan to extract iron from low
grade ores by means of electro-mag
nets, but the details have not until now
been given. Mr. Edison bought many
acres of what was regarded as nearly
worthless land and put up plant. He
says near his factory are 100000 600
tons of low grade ore. His machines
tract from this ore every day nearly
1900 tons of pure iron. The ore is bro
ken up, pulverized, and then
passed close to electromagnetic,
which draw away the iron
and leave the refuse matter. The
whole process is automatic and appears
to be very simple, just as most of Mr.
Edison's processes are. The most use
full inventions are the simplest, but a
scientific mind is needed to bring them
into existence. Mr.. Edison has long
been regarded as one of the most as
tonishing men of the age. He is mod
est, as all really great men are, going
about his work always in a quiet sort
of way. There is nothing of the boom
err about Edison.