Audio
(ENG) Building 4, #321
Transcript
[SOUND—STAMP MILLS, ROCK CRUSHERS, ASSAY FURNACES.]
NARRATOR—Edison set up a metallurgical laboratory here in Building Four to test samples of various metals.
BERNIE CARLSON—In the 1890s, Edison hoped to use giant electromagnets to remove iron from rocks. However, to do so, Edison had to crush the ore into a very fine powder, and the existing steel mills—the steel mills in the 1890s, that is—couldn’t use powdered iron in their blast furnaces. And so Edison never had customers for his iron ore; it was very pure, but he could never find anybody who could actually use it. As a result, he lost over three million dollars on this project.
NARRATOR—Edison did produce usable ore briquettes, pressed with a binder. But the discovery of higher graded iron ore deposits in the Midwest proved the final downfall.
BERNIE CARLSON—A reporter asked Edison how he felt about the magnetic ore separation venture and losing all that money, and Edison replied, “Well it’s all gone now, but we had a helluva good time spending it.”
[MUSIC—“HAS ANYBODY HERE SEEN KELLY?,” 4-MINUTE AMBEROL CYLINDER 416, ca. 1908.][1]
NARRATOR—Later Building Four witnessed major developments in phonograph recording and duplication. Here’s where Bill Hayes and other muckers created a harder wax phonograph cylinder called the Four-minute Amberol. You’re listening to a Four-minute Amberol cylinder from 1908.
Thomas Edison, Junior, Edison’s eldest son by his first wife, also worked awhile in Building Four, testing toasters and coffee makers for the Edicraft line of kitchen appliances.
[1] Billy Murray and Chorus, “Has Anybody Here Seen Kelly?,” The Edison CD Sampler, copyright 1984 Edison National Historic Site, West Orange, NJ, track 9
Description
English audio guide for Building 4, #321
Date Created
01/01/2007
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