Connecticut western news., 1898-01-13
FINDS A NEW METAL.
THE WIZARDS LATEST DISCOVERY IS
 ONE OF GREAT IMPORTANCE.

He Believes It wlI Do Away With the
 Slow and Costly Process of Making MaIIeable Iron.
 ! New York. Jan. 1l.-Thomas A. Edi- son. the electrical wizard. has made a I discovery which gives promise of revolu- tionizing the iron business of the world. It is nothing less than a new metal, which, admixed with iron. renders cast iron as tough and strong as wrought iron. The discovery was made purely by accident
 Mir. Edison has been at work for the past year at the mines in Edison. N. J., in bringing his great magnetic ore sep | nrating process into practical commer- cial shape. He has practically solved the problem and got the plant into full operation. During the last few months | he has run through the mills experi- mental test lots uf from 5000 to 10000 tons each. Most of the products of the mills have been marketed at the great blast furnaces al Catasauqua. Pa. The last lot. shipped to Catasauqua about a month ago, developed curious charac> | teristics.
 It is we'll known that after pig iron is run out of the blast furnace it is broken up by sledge hammers Into pieces for shipment and handling. but this lot proved refractory. After the | pigs had been broken of from the SOW" as the main line leading to the pig molds is called. the pigs were GOV cred with sand and allowed to cool. as usual
 Upon being thoroughly cooled and taken out into the yard the workmen were set to work to break the pigs up Into convenient sizes. To their surprise the pigs would not break. Fifteen pound sledge hammers were used with all the force that sturdy man could employ. and repeated blows failed to break the pigs. Twenty-Five pound sledges were then used, with the same result. A Remarkable Discovery. Mir. Edison was at once notified of the remarkable discovery. Sections of the refractory pigs were submitted by him to half dozen eminent chemists whom he keeps constantly employed. Mn. Ed ison formed the theory that there was some hitherto unknown substance in the iron which caused the difference in the output. He suspected that it was a new metal. The reports of the analy- sis by the chemists have been made and all coincide with the wizards theory. Tn fact, two of these men have no hesi- tatlon in saying that by the process of exclusion they have obtained portions of the new metal.
 Mir. Edison declines to say whether it Is an entirely new metal or one whose existence was hitherto known. He Is having new analyses made on a larger scale and will not assume more than he is prepared to substantlate.
 He was much pleased over the dis covery. He said that all that remained to be done was to ascertain the exact proportions in which the metal should be mixed with iron to obtain the best results. He spoke of the wonderful rev. olution that the discovery would make in the iron world. Thousands of arti- cles which are now forged or turned out on lathes or other machines by .a slow and expensive process. he says, will be cast as readily as common cast iron articles are now. Further than this, the new alloy will do away with the slow process of making malleable iron. by producing at once from the melting furnace the desired article, not only quickly and cheaply. but stronger and tougher than if malleableized.
 Mir Edison Is about to begin a series of exhaustive experiments on the new metal or alloy to determine just the the best results and as soon as thess are ended he will publish to the world the details of the discovery.