hard at work--this time on his
cement house, of which he showed the iron molds--Edison took occasion to
remark that if he had achieved anything worth while, it was due to the
obstinacy and pertinacity he had inherited from his forefathers.
To which it may be added that not less equally have the nature
of inheritance and the quality of atavism been exhibited in his
extraordinary predilection for the miller's art. While those Batavian
ancestors on the low shores of the Zuyder Zee devoted their energies to
grinding grain, he has been not less assiduous than they in reducing the
rocks of the earth itself to flour.

Although this phase of Mr. Edison's diverse activities is not as
generally known to the world as many others of a more popular character,
the milling of low-grade auriferous ores and the magnetic separation of
iron ores have been subjects of engrossing interest and study to him for
many years. Indeed, his comparatively unknown enterprise of separating
magnetically and putting into commercial form low-grade iron ore,
as carried on at Edison, New Jersey, proved to be the most colossal
experiment that he has ever made.

If a person qualified to judge were asked to answer categorically as to
whether or not that enterprise was a failure, he could truthfully answer
both yes and no. Yes, in that circumstances over which Mr. Edison had no
control compelled the shutting down of the plant at the very moment of
success; and no, in that the mechanically successful and commercially
practical results obtained, after the exercise of stupendous efforts
and the expenditure of a fortune, are so conclusive that they must
inevitably be the reliance of many future iron-masters. In other words,
Mr. Edison was at least a quarter of a century ahead of the times in the
work now to be considered.

Before proceeding to a specific description of this remarkable
enterprise, however, let us glance at an early experiment in separating
magnetic iron sands on the Atlantic sea-shore: "Some years ago I heard
one day that down at Quogue, Long Island, there were immense deposits
of black magnetic sand. This would be very valuable if the iron could
be separated from the sand. So I went down to Quogue with one of my
assistants and saw there for miles large beds of black sand on the beach
in layers from one to six inches thick--hundreds of thousands of tons.
My first thought was that it would be a very easy matter to concentrate
this, and I found I