| Wrought iron hurt Mr. Thomas Edison. Although a | | | | likely fueled his efforts. Pure iron isn’t |
| successful inventor, he had his share of failures as | | | | easy to manipulate into other items and turns grey |
| well. How and why did Mr. Edison lose a vast fortune | | | | after coming in contact with oxygen. Many different |
| on his efforts to extract iron ore? | | | | methods and experiments were performed in an |
| Thomas Edison certainly has a big place in our history | | | | effort to extract it for steel mills and a large staff |
| books with so many innovations. Despite how many | | | | was under Mr. Edison’s supervision. He |
| things Mr. Edison was successful with, he also had a | | | | became very determined to find a way to be |
| few let downs in his successful career. He worked | | | | successful in this and spent a massive amount of |
| tirelessly for years trying to find a way to excavate | | | | funds in these efforts. |
| iron ore. While he was very successful in his many | | | | Although Mr. Edison’s other inventions |
| inventions including: the phonograph, electricity and | | | | were very successful, the loss of GE stock and |
| the light bulb, motion pictures, and many others. He | | | | many years must have taken their tool. America |
| actually has over one thousand patents registered. | | | | needed steel but it was very expensive. Steel |
| Iron ore mining was something he worked trying to | | | | production was very expensive and Thomas |
| find a good solution for, for the duration of more | | | | Edison’s efforts to capitalize on a |
| than ten years and he even sold his stock in his | | | | cheaper way to produce it would have meant a |
| company General Electric to fund his efforts. | | | | great deal to the American economy. When large |
| Why iron ore? | | | | amounts of iron ore were discovered in the great |
| Wrought iron is a very valuable product and very | | | | lakes region in 1844, it proved to be very positive for |
| easy to mine in pure form. Mr. Edison would have | | | | Pennsylvania and they became the main supplier for |
| been very wealthy if he had found a way to | | | | the U.S. |
| excavate iron ore. It was his entrepreneurial spirit and | | | | How iron extraction changed the U.S. |
| the vision of new enterprise, invention and jobs that | | | | |