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By S. F. Emmons

Introductoy.—In view of the fact that an opportunity is to be offered to the members of the Institute present to inspect the recent developments of gold-deposits in the immediate vicinity of Washington it has seemed appropriate that some preliminary description of them should be given which may facilitate that inspection. It would have been a matter of much satisfaction to me to be able to present some general description of the gold-deposits of the Appalachian system ; but I have as yet had no opportunity of personally examining any others than those of Montgomery county, and these are still in their infancy. It is, moreover, a slower and more difficult operation to make geological observations in this region than in the more northern States; for whereas in the latter region the

Jan 1, 1890

By W. H. Furlonge

WHILE fulfilling professional engagements, my travels over this portion of the Transvaal have been quite extensive—always on horseback however, so that anything like a thorough investigation of the ground passed over has been necessarily impossible; still, the more minute examination of certain small areas, coupled with general observations, has enabled me to form some idea as to the prominent geological features of the country as a whole. Anything like a complete or comprehensive description is indeed out of the question, as there are no proper maps of the country and the facilities for observation are limited. A large plateau, called the "High Veldt," stretches from east to west across the Transvaal. It is generally level, or gently rolling, and has an average elevation of 6000 feet above the sea; it is destitute of timber, and in fact greatly resembles the western prairies of North America. Rock-outcrops are not common in it. It terminates very abruptly to the east and northeast, the descent of 2000 or 3000 feet into the mountainous country that occupies its borders being made in a

Jan 1, 1890

By Willard Ide Pierce

THE native methods of mining and milling gold-ores in Korea may not present any specially new features, but are chiefly interesting as primitive practices, still followed at the present day. In mining where the rock is hard, wood is piled up near the face of the tunnel or drift and then set on fire. The fire bums for twenty-four hours, after which, three or four days are given for the rocks to cool, before the miners go in and extract the loosened material. The only tools in use are a hammer, a steel gad about five inches long, and a flat spoon-shaped basket. The pay-streak or chute is closely followed, and in places the workings are very small and intricate. Rock not yielding more than $6 per ton is not extracted. The manner of opening a mine is to begin on the outcrop, where the rock pays, sink a shaft or run a tunnel on the vein, and follow the pay-streak and more easily worked ore. When this is exhausted, or the influx of water interferes, the opening is abandoned and operations are begun again at a new spot on the outcrop. The place usually selected is as high up on the mountain as possible, and in no instance is advantage taken of the topography by running a cross-tunnel to tap the vein. The ore is brought in baskets to the surface, and there placed in sacks, holding about 150 1bs. each, and taken to be crushed. The rock is first crushed between two stones, as shown in Fig. 1. The upper stone is oval and rounded on the bottom, so that it can be readily rocked on the under stone. Two pieces of wood, used for handles, are placed, one on each side, in grooves in the upper stone, and held in position by means of straw rope. The lower stone is not smooth on top, but exhibits three elevations running lengthwise, with shallow depressions between them. The middle elevation acts as a fulcrum on which the upper stone may be rocked. From two to ten men, according to the weight and size of the stone used, are employed in rocking. With four men, from 300 to 350 lbs. of rock can be crushed per day, the stone making 50 complete oscillations per minute. The men squat on each side of the stone and move it to and fro by means of the wooden handles. The ore is fed, in pieces up to the size of an egg or even larger, by one of the men. During the crushing one man on each side, as the stone rocks from

Jan 1, 1890

Jan 1, 1890

By James T. B. Ives

The variety of copper-ore to which these notes refer is cornparatively rare, and, so far as I am aware, has not been recorded hitherto as occurring in Ontario. Moreover, the rocks of this locality differ so much in nature and mode of occurrence from the orebearing rocks of the western United States, that a description of them may be interesting. A line drawn upon a map of the region of the great lakes from the mouth of the Severn river at the Southern end of Georgian Bay, following the Canadian shore northwestward, and leaving Manitoulin island to the south, will describe the boundary between the Archaean rocks lying north of it and the Silurian rocks southward.

Jan 1, 1890

By Graham MacFarlane

The largest area of high-grade cannel coals known in America is doubtless found in eastern Kentucky. Notwithstanding the popular belief to the contrary, there is no reason to doubt that these eastern Kentucky cannel-fields, following the general rule, will be uncertain and treacherous. But, taken in the aggregate, their extent is very great. The principal service to which cannel coal can be put is enriching illuminating-gas. The electric light has, to a certain extent, created a demand for better gas, and has increased the market for gas-enrichers. Before the discovery of rock-oil, coal-oil was distilled from cannel coal and cannel shale. This business was getting fairly started when the cheaper rock-oil, or petroleum, overcame it, and the great distilleries went into disuse and ruin. Now, again, the chief competitor with cannel coal is oil, namely, the cheap oil of Lima, Ohio. Under proper treatment the vile odor of this oil can be removed.

Jan 1, 1890

By A. E. Hunt

A GREAT deal that has been written heretofore about the properties of aluminum is of doubtful value, owing to the lack of knowledge we have of the purity of the aluminum referred to. Much of the metal heretofore sold in the markets as pure aluminum has been contaminated with from 4 to 10 per cent. of impurities. Indeed, it is only within a very few years that a purer metal than 96 per cent. alumium has been made upon any larger than a laboratory scale. The works of M. Pechinet,of the Societe Anonyme d' Aluminium, at Salindres (Gard), near Marseilles, in France, have long enjoyed the

Jan 1, 1890

Jan 1, 1890

By Oberlin Smith

The object of this paper is not so much reformatory, as historical and prophetic. History tells us that, for several months past, aluminum has, in one of its largest American manufactories, been freely nicknamed " Al" by everybody connected therewith, simply because its Christian name is too long for frequent speaking and writing. In another prominent factory, for the same reason, it is spoken of by its chemical symbol merely, pronouncing it " aye ell." These facts will, perhaps, explain the use of the final word in my title, which might otherwise seem undignified in a paper of this kind.

Jan 1, 1890

By Pedro G. Salmon

The broad general distinction between primary and secondary batteries lies in the fact that in the former the current is produced by the consumption of one or both of the elements composing the cell, while in the latter the elements retain their form as such, and merely pass from one state of chemical combination to another. Much has been said in condemnation and but little in praise of storage-batteries; yet, notwithstanding the severe criticisms passed upon them, the skepticism with which electricians have viewed them, and the ignorance with which they have been handled, they continue to push their way into use. Their manufacture has now become a well-defined and established industry.

Jan 1, 1890

By George W. Goetz

As is well known, the general use of natural gas in Pittsburgh and vicinity for domestic and industrial purposes has shown the great advantages and benefits to be derived by the use of a gaseous fuel. In order to ascertain and bring together all the facts relating to a large and economical production, purification, distribution, and consumption of fuel-gas made out of coal, the Fuel-Gas and Electric Engineering Company, Ltd., was organized, under the presidency of George westinghouse, Jr.

Jan 1, 1890

By Sterling G. Valentine

Until within late years, the preparation of sulphurous ores for the blast-furnace has received comparatively little attention. After the first improvement made on the old style of heap-roasting and roasting between walls, there has followed an almost general adoption of the Gjers kiln or some modification thereof, and the majority of iron-masters have seemed perfectly satisfied with so much progress. However, the Westman kiln was developed in Sweden, and other gas-roasters for sulphurous ores have been since constructed. They are in use on the continent of Europe and in America to a limited extent. The following experiments were made in order to furnish additional information as to the proper conditions for the elimination of sulphur from ores where it is present as sulphide of iron, FeS2 I desire here to acknowledge the Kindness of Dr. Franklin Menges, of the laboratory of Pennsylvania College, at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, for lending his valuable aid in carrying out a part of these experilnents and analyses. In the first series of these experiments, pure, roughly-pulverized pyrites crystals were used, containing 53.42 per cent. of' sulphur. They were made with a view to determine the effect on pyrites, of heat alone, in various degrees of intensity and duration, air being altogether excluded. The heats at a low temperature were made in glass combustion-tubes, sealed at the end, where the pyrites to be tested were placed, and with only a small opening at the opposite end. Although not allowing circulation, this arrangement still permitted a part of the evolved sulphur to escape. The heats at high temperatures were made in Hessian and graphite crucibles, tightly luted, every precaution being taken to exclude air. The temperatures attained are given approximately, and are as nearly correct as it was possible to estimate them, using Pouillet's scale as a guide.

Jan 1, 1890

By E. Gilpin

Any estimate of the economic mineral value of an unvisited district is to the mining engineer largely a comparative one. If he knows that certain minerals characterize any given geological horizon he naturally draws upon his experience of the same ores as met by him cinder similar geological conditions. And if he has not had the personal experience, the investigation of the geology of a similar district as given in a trustworthy report enables him to lay a fair basis for conclusions. In a general way these conclusions are of value, and while they pronounce on the possible mineral fecundity of a given district, they

Jan 1, 1890

By W. J. Keep

We have found that our graphic representations were, in some cases, not perfectly understood. In the tables by which we illustrate all our tests, the records appearing in the vertical columns between the rulings are the results of the tests of iron having the percentages and characteristics noted at the top of the column. The record is made by a short horizontal line in such vertical columns. It is located in horizontal spaces, which divide the table into units of measure, to indicate the value of the record. For example, in the upper part of Table VII. is recorded the transverse strength of the series of tests with white iron and aluminum, which were reported in our former paper. The numbers at the extreme top are the test-numbers. The fractional numbers below are the percentages

Jan 1, 1890

By R. W. Raymond

In my paper on " End-Lines and Side-Lines in the Mining Law," read at the New York meeting of February, 1889 (Trans., xvii., 787), I discussed certain points involving the rights of a locator, B, who had located and surveyed a piece of ground, X + Y, of which only Y was properly subject to location, X being already held by another claimant, and had applied for and received a patent, granting X + Y, " excepting and excluding X." The paper concluded with the following questions : " Is there any difference in effect between the grant to him of Y simply and the grant of X + Y, ' excepting and excluding X' ? Why should any mining locator stake out his boundaries upon another location, and thus appear to assert a claim which he immediately withdraws? What is the legal force of such boundaries, established upon the land of another?" After calling attention to the fact that the entrance upon another's land for such a purpose is a trespass, and the principle that no trespasser can create by his trespass any right which he would not have without it, I reserved to another occasion a review of the history of the absurd practice of imaginary boundaries for mining claims, and a discussion of their legal effect. This practice is founded, of course, in the regulations and decisions of the United States General Land Office. There is nothing in the Revised Statutes which hints at it. On the contrary, the terms of Section 2322, giving to a locator " the exclusive right of possession and enjoyment" of the surface of his claim, seems clearly to forbid the use of that surface for the boundary-stakes of another locator. But the Act of 1866, though it provided for the issue of patents upon payment to the Government of so much per acre, and really by implication (as I have always believed) involved the absolute grant of the surface, was not so construed by the courts generally, or by the Land Office. Surveys were laid one over another in inextricable confusion, and the United States sold at $5 per acre the

Jan 1, 1890

By H. M. Chance

One hundred and twenty miles of hard travel over steep ridges almost due east from Fayetteville, on the St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad, about 100 miles from Eureka Hot Springs, or 75 miles northwest from Batesville, will bring the traveller to the waters of the Buffalo Fork of the White river, in a wild, thinlysettled, heavily-timbered country, now being prospected quite actively for zinc, and known as the Buffalo or Rush Creek district. Excepting here and there a piece of bottom land, patented before the discovery of zinc, the land is unoccupied Government land, and subject to entry under the United States mineral laws. Claims are now being taken, 600 by 1500 feet, but a movement made this summer, if successful, will largely modify the position of claim-holders. A few claims are now being filed under the Placer Act on the ground that as the zinc occurs as a horizontal, sedimentary deposit, etc., it can only be properly so classified. The zinc occurs in limestone, which is at times so siliceous that

Jan 1, 1890

By A. A. Blow

The productive area of the Leadville mining district immediately adjoining the city of Leadville, which, by its wonderful richness, has attracted the attention of the mining world for the past twelve years, may, with a few exceptions, he considered as divided into seven local mining centers, separated one from another by the topographical features of the country, and designated by common consent as Fryer Hill, Yankee Hill, Breece Hill, Rock Mill, Printer-Boy Hill, Iron Hill, and Carbonate Hill. Of these seven distinot mining localities, or groups of mines, the central one, Iron Hill, is the one of greatest importance and interest. It was the scene of the earliest discovery of carbonates, as far back as 1875, and since that time has always maintained its position

Jan 1, 1890

By William P. Blake

The adaptation of aluminum to the construction of portable instruments of precision, where lightness is important, is well illustrated by the double reflecting and repeating circle, the invention of Captain Charles Hervey Tomnshend, of New Haven. One of these instruments, now exhibited to the members, has just been completed by Stackpole & Bro., of New York, and is made of aluminum, with the exception of a few minor pieces and a portion of the handle. This instrument is intended for use in a boat, and to be held in one hand like a sextant; and as it is a complete circle, lightness of the material becomes more important. The whole instrument, as shown, exclusive of the eye-pieces and the handle, weighs only one pound, or about one-third of the weight of a sextant of the usual construction. The circle, about nine inches in diameter, was cast in one piece from metal furnished by the Pittsburgh Company.

Jan 1, 1890

By Richard Pearce

H. M. Howe, Boston, Mass. (Communication to the Secretary): One by one our venerated idols are shattered, our cherished beliefs are filched away. Mr. Pearce's interesting experiments on the effect of an intermixture of coal in expelling arsenic from roasting copper-ores seems at the first blush to spike one of the great cannons of our faith. Plattner, however, is so positive that coal does lead to the expulsion of arsenic that we may well pause before accepting Mr. Pearce's results as final, and ask whether there is not some explanation of the discrepancy between them and Plattner's statements. Plattner states that while ferric arseniate decomposes easily under the action of carbonaceous matter with expulsion of arsenic as arsenious oxide (As2O3) and sub-oxide of arsenic (it is now generally thought, I believe, that this supposed sub-oxide is really but a mixture of metallic arsenic and arsenious oxide); cupric arseniate, on the other hand, undergoes this decomposition with difficulty, usually forming a certain proportion of arsenide of copper. Now, may not the whole matter lie just here? Mr. Pearce experimented on an ore containing its arsenic as enargite, sulph-arsenide of copper. This, in roasting, would probably give rise to arseniate

Jan 1, 1890

By P. H. Dudley

The present paper was suggested by the paper read by Mr. R. W. Hunt at the New York Meeting, in February last, on rail-sections (Trans., xvii., p. 778)) in the discussion of which I brought forward some of the facts and observations here stated. Professional duties having prevented me from writing out my part of that discussion in time for its publication in the volume containing Mr. Hunt's paper, I take the opportunity to present it in separate form and greater fulness. The striking features of the series of rail-sections submitted by Mr. Hunt are their shallow heads and heavy bases. In these respects they are quite similar to the section of the 80-1b. rail, which I designed in 1883 to meet the requirements of the traffic of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad. Before the adoption of the 80-1b. rail, this road had modified its 65-1b. section from a shallow head with rounding sides and quite heavy base to one having a deep head and thin base. All the leading railroads had changed from the earlier sections of steel rails to those having deep heads and thin bases, conforming to the recommendations of the Committee on Rails of the American Society of Civil Engineers. It is but proper to say that the committee's investigations upon the wear of rails were made upon the rails manufactured under a practice quite different from that which obtained after the committee's recommendations were carried into effect. The results in actual service have been contrary to what was expected. Fig. 1 shows my 80-1b. section of 1883. Before designing this rail I had taken, at different times, a series of diagrams of the condition of tracks, with my car, on the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, all of the New England railroads, and all but one of the trunk lines. My diagrams gave me an opportunity which could not otherwise have been obtained to see the wear of great numbers of sections of rails under widely varying conditions of traffic.

Jan 1, 1890