pilot
plant was established Bechtelville, Pennsylvania mid 1889
and from the first operations this plant Edison was
. Edison's experiments in
magnetic separation ores had been started Menlo Park and
this led Edison's first patents this technology 1880. The project developed along familiar lines:
research led the granting patents, model separator was
constructed, and attempts were made sell the Edison ore
separators mines. Experiments continued at
the Harrison lab and the new metallurgical building set at
West Orange.
Edison's agents were ordered scour the country for
deposits iron ore, gold, and other precious metals that
could separated his process.22
New Jersey's iron making industry had begun colonial
times, when the large deposits magnetite iron ore the
north the state attracted miners.
His basic idea was use powerful electromagnet pull iron
particles from falling stream ore. Edison then moved forward into
establishing companies run mines using his extracting and
processing equipment. was simple and
inexpensive and appealed him. Ideal sites for magnetic
separation were found the ore mines New Jersey and
Pennsylvania that were exhausted high grade ore. This was something had done many times
before. The mine owners were conservative group
and this strategy failed.VI-20
$10,000,000 worth ore, bringing annual profit of
$3,000,000
