Edward Wilson Davis (May 8, 1888 – December 3, 1973) was an American

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

and

inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...

famous for pioneering early research into taconite. As a researcher at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

, Davis developed an engineering process to economically extract

iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the fo ...

from hard taconite rocks, making taconite valuable as iron ore for the

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...

and

steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...

industries. He worked closely with industrial firms such as the Mesabi Iron Company and the

Reserve Mining Company Reserve or reserves may refer to: Places * Reserve, Kansas, a US city * Reserve, Louisiana, a census-designated place in St. John the Baptist Parish * Reserve, Montana, a census-designated place in Sheridan County * Reserve, New Mexico, a US vi ...

to transform his research into a working industry on northeast

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

Iron Range The term Iron Range refers collectively or individually to a number of elongated iron-ore mining districts around Lake Superior in the United States and Canada. Much of the ore-bearing region lies alongside the range of granite hills formed by ...

. Davis was known as "Mr. Taconite" for his efforts.

History

Davis was born on May 8, 1888, in

Cambridge City, Indiana Cambridge City is a town in Jackson Township, Wayne County, in the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 1,870 at the 2010 census. History Cambridge City was laid out and platted in 1836. The community was named after the city of Cambridge, ...

. He pursued courses in science and engineering and received a degree in

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

from

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money ...

in 1911. In 1912, Davis began working as a

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

instructor at the University of Minnesota. In 1913, Davis began working on taconite. Over the next four decades, Davis devised a process to crush the hard rock, separate the iron from the crushed rock using magnets, and roll the iron into pellets suitable for transport and use in a

blast furnace A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. ''Blast'' refers to the combustion air being "forced" or supplied above atmospheric ...

. Davis earned 19

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

s for his many innovations. In the 1950s, Davis's research was used to create several taconite processing plants in northeast Minnesota. The Reserve Mining Company honored Davis by naming its

Silver Bay, Minnesota Silver Bay is a city in Lake County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 1,857 at the time of the 2020 census. It is the largest population center in a natural tourism area which includes, Tettegouche State Park and the Split Rock Lig ...

, facility the E. W. Davis Works. In addition to his taconite research, Davis was active in Minnesota politics and history. He published an account of his research, ''Pioneering With Taconite'', with the Minnesota Historical Society in 1964.Edward W. Davis, ''Pioneering With Taconite'' (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1964.)

References

External links

A Basic Explanation of Taconite Mining and Processing
{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Edward W. Scientists from Minnesota Mining in Minnesota People from Cambridge City, Indiana 1973 deaths 1888 births 20th-century American inventors