e thousand barrels in twenty-four hours.

"Each time I would return to the plant with the determination to
increase the output if possible, and we did increase it to seven
hundred and fifty, then to eight hundred and fifty barrels. Every time I
reported these increases Mr. Edison would still be disappointed. I said
to him several times that if he was so sure the kiln could turn out one
thousand barrels in twenty-four hours we would be very glad to have him
tell us how to do it, and that we would run it in any way he directed.
He replied that he did not know what it was that kept the output down,
but he was just as confident as ever that the kiln would make one
thousand barrels per day, and that if he had time to work with and watch
the kiln it would not take him long to find out the reasons why. He had
made a number of suggestions throughout these various trials, however,
and, as we continued to operate, we learned additional points in
handling, and were able to get the output up to nine hundred barrels,
then one thousand, and finally to over eleven hundred barrels per day,
thus more than realizing the prediction made by Mr. Edison before even
the plans were drawn. It is only fair to say, however, that prolonged
experience has led us to the conclusion that the maximum economy in
continuous operation of these kilns is obtained by working them at a
little less than their maximum capacity.

"It is interesting to note, in connection with the Edison type of kiln,
that when the older cement manufacturers first learned of it, they
ridiculed the idea universally, and were not slow to predict our early
'finish' as cement manufacturers. The ultimate success of the kiln,
however, proved their criticisms to be unwarranted. Once aware of
its possibility, some of the cement manufacturers proceeded to avail
themselves of the innovation (at first without Mr. Edison's consent),
and to-day more than one-half of the Portland cement produced in this
country is made in kilns of the Edison type. Old plants are lengthening
their kilns wherever practicable, and no wide-awake manufacturer
building a modern plant could afford to install other than these long
kilns. This invention of Mr. Edison has been recognized by the larger
cement manufacturers, and there is every prospect now that the entire
trade will take licenses under his kiln patents."

When he decided to go into the cement business, Edison was
thoroughly awake to the fact that he was