El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-05-01

of gold In this country. There are thou
sands OF square miles OF gold-bearing
lands in the United States that cannot
be worked on account OF lack of water.
In the great deserts of the southwest
there are vast expenses Of rich sands
that might be made to give up millions
of dollsrs' worth of gold II the neces-
sary water could be obtained. A friend OF
Edison's, scient ist of no mean repute,
ssys:
To mining men this has been one
of the greatest problems and the fact
that man like Edison was engaged in
trying to solve 1t has been q matter OF
the greatest interest to them. In fact,
they have had uubounded faith in the
ability of the wizard of electricity to
make good his promises, and there are
few people now who will dare to assert
tie at the secret process will not prove
q success.
While ore concentrators are not 3
new thing, Mr.. Edison's machine,
says an exchange, is unique in
every respect. The only man,
however, who knows the secret of
its construction is the inventor him
self, and even when 1t is put In opera
| tion no other persons will share the
secret, with the exception of a trusted
employe who will be taken from his
New jersey laboratory to assist Mr..
Edison in its operation. The only
thing that the outsiders, or even the
workers at the mines, will see Of its
workings will be the gravel being
dumped into the hopper at one end,
and coming out at the other end, separ-
ated from it's precious burden of gold,
which will be delivered at another part
of the machine ready for the work of
the refiner. Those who construct the |
machine will have no idea of how 1t is
operated. They will be given certain |
parts OF the machine to make according
to designs furnished them, and they |
will have no knowledge as to the pur-
poses for which the parts are intended.
Some idea of the secrecy with which
the corcentrator has been built may be
gathered from the fact that although
it has been in process of construction
for more than year the fact that the
strange machine was to be used for
tina purpose was not known by any
at the laboratory until a few
weeks ago.
AS soon as the inventor was per-
suaded that he had accomplished his :
object he proceeded to organize a COM
pany to operate the machine. Mr..
Edison then purchased the abandoned
Ortiz Grant, in New Mexico. paying !
about So, 600, 600 for the 81 900 acres,
and it is there that the machinery is
now being installed. The first plant Is
to be located at Dolores, and others
will be set up at different parts of the
territory. Dolores lies in the very
heart OF the Ortiz Grant, but no one
would imagine, to look at the surround
ing country, that millions of dollars
worth of gold was concealed IL the sun
baked sand. Meiallurgists have estima-
ted that there Is between $500, 600. 900 {
and $500, 900, 900 In gold buried in the
rocks and gravel of those $4,000 acres
Of barren New Mexican ground. {
While the history of the Ortiz Grant t
has always been regarded as somewhat Y
.omautic, it is particularly interesting 7
It this time, when the eye of the en- t
ire financial world Is turned upon this I
New Mexican waste. The original f
grant was made to Antonio Ortiz by
he Mexican government in 1888, but
g that time It con tained more than
49, 900 acres This grant was paten-
ed by act of congress in 1861 and was
confirmed in 1916. A number OF years .
go Is, 900 acres of t. is land was sold
0 the Cerrillos Coal and Iron Com
ANY.
From eastern sources it is learned
hat the company's first plant will
ave capacity of 5000 tons a day.
'ince the work Of preparing for the e
of the plant has been I'M B
err way many experts have visited the a
rant, but have returned without be- "
ng wiser for the pains they have ia nc
en-. Still no barrier has been raised &c
D prevent the curious from inspecting G.,
he work, but no one has yet obtained
ne least inkling of the ,process by
hitch the inventor expects to be able U
D extract his gold from the sand g
Visacres and experts return from the IL
ulch with widely different theories. u
ome claim that electricity Is certain CT
D be the agent that will be used by p
1r. Edison, while others insist that
he inventor has discovered some new .,
ir process, and that electricity will .,
>t figure in the scheme except so far -,
} to supply the motive power for the ~
We shall what we shall see.