Edison soon went into
the cement business for himself, using equipment designed in
his laboratory and experience gained materials handling at
Ogden. After leaving Ogden
for good, Edison went back the laboratory and looked for
ways recouping his loses.
Had the mill Ogden been success, Edison's reputation
as inventor would have been superceded his fame an
industrialist. His efforts make the most the failure ore
milling illustrates the broad scope his commercial outlook
and the laboratory's strong engineering skills.
Undaunted this colossal failure, Edison still
continued promote his system and finance companies to
magnetically separate ore. His laboratory had developed
skills several commercial technologies which Edison hoped to
exploit. But just like Ogden, the giant
undertaking Dunderland ended failure. even found a
use for the compressed air technology developed run his
giant rollers. His "rags riches" story would have reached a
new plateau from the immense profits providing cheap raw
. The lab carried out experiments reheating
compressed air and using power source.VII-28
achieved what Edison had only dreamed about— the radical
reduction the cost producing basic industrial good. worked the design commercial crushing and
screening machines, and planned sell them coal mines,
cement manufacturers, and metal works. assigned his patents a
European ore milling syndicate which hoped make them a
success Norwegian mines
