ELIHU ROOT. Elihu Root, secretary of war of the United States and one of the most successful lawyers of his generation, was born at Clinton, New York, February 15, 1845. His father was Orin Root, who was for many years professor of mathematics at Hamilton college, from which institution young Root graduated in 1864. For a year or more he was a teacher in Rome, New York, academy. Coming to New York, he studied in the University law school until 1867, when he was admitted to the bar, beginning to practice forthwith. He lost no time in getting into the current of affairs in the metropolis, and soon began to attract attention on account of his earnestness and ability, and so, while still a very young man, was retained on important cases. President Arthur appointed him United States attorney for the southern district of New York in 1883. He was delegate-at-large at the state constitutional convention in 1894, was appointed secretary of war, August 1, 1899, by President McKinley, and was reappointed in 1901. As a corporation lawyer he has had to do with some historical legal cases, such as the Hocking Valley suit, in which the amount involved was $8,000,000. A few years ago he erected in the Hamilton college grounds the Root Hall of Science as a memorial to his father. He is married and has three children—two boys and a girl. INDUSTRIAL LEADERS. E. G. ACHESON. E. G. Acheson, the inventor of carborundum, which may be called an artificial gem that, unlike the majority of gems, is much more useful than ornamental, has proven that for a man of ideas and ability the world of to-day is as full of opportunities as it was in those periods which are somewhat vaguely alluded to by less successful men as “the good old times.” Mr. Acheson was born at Washington, Pennsylvania, in 1854, and after receiving a public school, college and technical training, entered the employ of Edison, the inventor. From the first he was a persistent and somewhat daring experimentalist, one of his scientific fads being the manufacture of artificial diamonds, and it was during the investigations made by him in relation thereunto that carborundum—a substance which has revolutionized some industries and incidentally brought fame and fortune to its discoverer and his associates—was obtained. The principle of the electric furnace, by means of which the substance in question is manufactured, was in existence many years before Mr. Acheson began to use it in connection with his experimental work, but other scientists had failed to recognize its possibilities. Carborundum is produced by fusing carbon and silicon by means of a huge electric arc, the result being a mass of beautifully colored crystals which are harder than any known substance except diamonds. Carborundum is rapidly taking the place of emery for abrasive purposes. Another product of the electric furnace—artificial graphite—is also a discovery of Mr. Acheson, and which is of great value in many of the arts and sciences.