[D8952ACG], Letter from Samuel J Ritchie to Thomas Alva Edison, November 21st, 1889
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Title
[D8952ACG], Letter from Samuel J Ritchie to Thomas Alva Edison, November 21st, 1889
Editor's Notes
Dear Sir:-- You have doubtless by this time experimented sufficiently with your magnetic ore separator, both in you laboratory and in a commercial way at the mills you now have in operation, to know pretty definitely botht he accuracy and the cost of the reults obtained by it. Taking it for granted that such is the case iwould be glad to have you answer the following quesetions:##FIRST. What would be the approximate cost per ton, of the ore as mined from the ground, for crushing and separating the iron contained in it from the silica or other foreign matter, by your process? <Actual Cost. 62 cents per crude Ton->##SECOND. How much iron will you be compelled to waste in the rocky matter which you separate from the iron? <1 1/2 @ 2 units per oforiginal ore->##THIRD. How high a grade of ore can can you produce from an ore carrying, as mine, say forty per cent. Of metallic iron? <Average 65 By refining concentrate cost [100?] ton 68>##FOURTH. What would be the difference per ton in cost of producing an ore that would yield sixty per cent. And one yielding sixty-eight per cent? <ten cents->##FIFTH. To how low a grade of ore can you use the whole product of the mine, without throwing any protion of it intot he waste heap, by sorting or separating it into second class piles? <It will pay to use as low as 20 unit ore>##SIXTH. Allowing, as is usually the case in all magnet5ic ores, that thirty per cent. of the ore mined is thrown into the waste heap, these heaps usually carrying about forty per cent. of iron, how much of the cost per ton for mining can you save by grinding up the whole amount mined and saving all the ore contained in it? <Ordinarily mining costs $1 per ton; if you take everything down to 20 unit cost generally will be 50@60 cents>##SEVENTH. Can you lower the phosporous contained in magnetic ores? <Reduce phos 75@80 per cent>##EIGHTH. Will the fine ore which is obtained by your crushing and separating process be worth as much per unit of iron, when delivered at the furnaces, as the Lake Superior Bessemer ores containing an equally high percentage of iron? <So the Iron men say & worth more if we go to 68 percent>##NINTH. Calling the mining of Canadian magnetic ores One Dollar per ton, the Railway and Lake freights One Dollar and sixty cents per ton, the duty Seventy-five cents per ton, seventy per cent. And thirty per cent. Carrying forty per cent. Can you deliver this ore in Cleveland at as low a price per unit of iron as the Lake Superior ores can be delivered at same place? The Lake Superior ores being subject to a royalty of Fifty cents per ton and the Canadian ores being free from royalty? <[No: overstruck] about the same-- can on above assumption of costs deliver a 68 percent ore Cleveland for $5 per ton, sure, against a 65 per cent from Lake Superior->TENTH. On what terms will you erect, at your own expense, upon the line of the Central Ontario Railway at the mines belonging to the Anglo-American Iron Company in Canada, the plant for which you have now completed the plans, having a capacity for treating one thousand tons of ore per day? <Put up mill & refine for 70 cents crude ton to 65 & refine at 10 c[ents] portion concentrate. 1000 tons daily no less. You may purchase mill at end 2 yrs on 20 pct earnings being capitalized at par>##ELEVENTH. On what terms will you put up a similar plant having a capacity of two thousand tons per day? <67 cents>##TWELFTH. How soon can you have this plant in condition to work? <Beginning May 1 1890-- 90 working days->##THIRTEENTH. Do you think it practicable and advisable to put up a blast furnace for smelting this ore, and a steel plant for the manufacture of steel, in Canada? If so, what measures are necessary to be adopted by the Dominion Government? <Yes-- protective tarriff & a bonus for 8 years>##FOURTEENTH. Are you willing to become interested in the smelting and manufacturing of iron and steel, in Canada? <Yes> Very truly yours, (Sgd) S. J. Ritchie
Author
Recipient
Date
1889-11-21
Type
Folder/Volume ID
D8952-F
Microfilm ID
127:103
Document ID
D8952ACG
Publisher
Thomas A. Edison Papers, School of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers University