Volume 11 (1865) (424 pages)

by : a Sournal of Alsetut Sits, » Selene, and ining annual jo a Na DEWEY «& CO., PUBLISILERS aknd Patent Solicitors, SAN FRANCISCO, SATURDAY, N OV EMBER 18, 1865. VOLUMEXI,. Number 2e, ~ TABLE OF CONTENTS. Sotium-\malgam for ihe Re-]th fopper Miutng lu Plumas. dicuou f silver ure From the vil Keglons. Pravlem ot G id nnd Siver Moleculur Cliunges in Metals Extractton, So. 18 THugsten Allays wlth drou, The Philosophy ut sleep, Ta: Steudsef ihe Tamyple, Thy Size of Drone, Sew stylend Dell Caltoraia Tl Ure, eee acta aLout Cutilpg Tho New Metal-Tangsten or] Tun Woiltram Prinetion of Slecl by means Preserving Thabdec from Dry) of Gases Rot Srenyth of Materials, Leiter from Colusl. Minng Suininury. ae lt aud about Sau!idtorial nud selected. ey: Shareholders’ DirecHitporeant Be sreeut: New Wane stock Bales and Reparts. Wlue Makin a Ny mie County Sau Franelsco Prices Current San Francisco Mining Ma New Miulng aud Other Ad: ehinery. yertlsewents, Etc. Tux Navotron Copren Masu. —-The Stockton Ladependent says that the Napyleoa and the Iuglies copper tines have recently been merged inte one company, with a capitol of $1,200,000, divided into 12,000 shares at $100 eaeh. The California owners have transferred 7,000 shwresa majority interest —to New York eapitalists, who agree to furnish for the thorongh developinent of the mine a working enpital of not less thaa $100,000, to be assessed upoa the 7,000 shares of the New York interest; tho California owners to hold their 5,000 free from nssessmeats. Pendiug the organization nnder the new arrangement, work upon tlhe miae las been suspended, The New York parties who are to take hold of the work are men of capital and energy, some of whom have had considerable experience in copper mining. Work upon the mine will shortly be resumed and prosecuted with energy. ss AwatoamaTixg By Niurcrriciry.— We would invite the espeeial attention of our readers to avery full reswme of the various projects for extracting the jrecivus met.Is fom their ores, by tho use of cleetricity as an assisting agent. Our correspondent, Dr. Laaszweert, lins given a full history of oll that has beea done or is known on thie sabjeet, from the time of the first discovery of galvanism to the present day. We have frequently been asked what has become of the electro-proeess of amaleamntion, whieh we noticed ceveral times * during the eummer of 1863, us in eourse of experimental operation in thiseity. That question is fully answered by our correspondeat, as above. ~ A Narurat Cave.—Two weeks sinee it will be remembered that we published a statement, of a large body of woter having been struek in the Pike Tuanel, on Union Hill. The Grass Valley Union, of a later date, says that after the water had sufficiently eseaped to permit of working, the men employed in the mine dis. covered 2 large eave, natural in its formation and runniug baek a considerable distance in the tuanel. In fact, so exteusive js this cave, that ao one has yet been enabled to traee its termination. It is quite a euriosity, and is dnily visited by lnrge numbers of aovelty-seekers. Ep-Presipest Day, of Yale College, is the oldest citizea of New Haven. He is in his 93d year, aad when he waats to get around towa, prefers walking to any other method of locomotion. He is the father of Sherman Day, Mining Engineer of thie eity. Tus Amapor Lepcer has eatered upon its eleventh volume.The Ledger is one of our most valuable interior exchaages. THE NEW METAL--TUNGSTEN OB WOLFRAM, The existence of this metal has long been known; but so iutraetible is its nature, und so difficult is it foudd to isolate it from its ores, that but small quantities lave hitherto found their way into eommeree. ‘The metal is obtained with comparative facility in the shape of adeuse gray powder; but great difficulty hns hitherto heeu encountered in reducing this powder into metallic form, on aeeount of the extreme high degree of heat required to Tuse it. No ordinary erueibles or furuaces will stand the heat required to reduce it. It has hitherto been reduced only ia very small quantities of a few grains only. A emull button of the metal was exhibited as a great enriosity at the International Exhibition of 1862. his button was vbtained by subjeeting about an ounce of the powder above meationed, for three hours to tle most intense heat which could be obtained by means of a powerful gas furnace. ‘The crueible employed was made of freshly burned lime; uo graphite or Hessian erueible being found able to stand the heat required. Tt will bo ohserved from an article on pnge 311 of this issue, that this metal lns been found of considerable value in hardening castiron, although it does not nppear to work well when alloyed with steel. In alloying it with iron, itis introdneed into the molten metalin a very fine state of divisioa as a mineral. Asa metalits alloy with ihon would be impracticable, for reason3 already given. Itisa whit2 brittle metal, uot easily oxydizable, and with the exeeption of gold aud platinum, the heaviest known. Its specific gravity is 18 while gold is 19.36,and that of platinum 21.53. Its great resistunee of heat would render it of inestimable value to ehemi=ts and metatlurgists, if somo plan of redueing it by chemical reaction could be devised. From an article in a late number of the Londoa Mechanics’ Magazine, we are led to infer that this long-sought lor desideratum has at length been diseovered. That mngazine says: “We leara thata Swedish metallorgist has diseovered a method of redueing tungsten (wolfram) by whieh he obtained it at oace ia a state of fusion, aad that ingots of the pure metal, weighiag several pounds each, are aow on exhibitioa at Stoekholm. We are informed, also, that the eost of obtaining the metal, by the new method, does not exceed a few shillings per pound.” If the metal enn be obtained thus cheaply,and with ne little difieulty as intimated, the discovery is certainly a very importont one, It’s an Inn Winp, Ete.—Should the hloekade of the Chileaa ports be eaforeed aud continued for aay length of tima, it will greatly benefit the copper intereots . of Califoraia. Nearly all the foreign ore which reachee Swansea comes from Chile, Seventeen ships recently left three different parts of Chile, in one . week, with nine ‘thousand tons of ore for the Swansea markat. Should the hlockade be enforced there will be a strong competitioa for) the California ores, whieh exnnot lail to cause . an important advance in priees. PRESERVING TIMBER FROM DRY BOT. A correspondent from Morman Island wishes to kuow if there is any preparatioa wltieh eun be used to prevent the lower end of the flas-staff, in that town, from heiug destroyed by the dry rot, which is now threatening its destruction. hey bave nlready used some preventative ; but the symtoms of deeay still continue to inerease. We are not nequaiited with the nature of the preventative which lias been used, or how it has been applied; but suppose some outward npplieation las been made, and thas the bottom of the staff is so fixed that, while the aoistnre of the earth has been kept froin reaching the interior of the timber, that interior hus beea exposed to the aetion of the atmosphere. In order to arrest the-progress of deeay, some fluid preparation must be employed which will penetrate the pores or eells of the wood. We know of nothiug better thaa a strung solution of sulphate of copper. It should be ajsplied by boring a number of holes at intervals into tho stuff, filling them with the solution aud pluggias them up tight. » A very good eoating for the outside may be made hy preparing @ varnish as follows: Take ten pounds of pulverized chalk, ten of rosin, oae of linseed oil, and boil them together in an iron pot. To this prepnratioa add one pound of a strong solution of sulphate of eupper, and apply with a brush, while hot, in the same way as paiut, This preparatiou, whieh, when dry, becomes as hard as stone, has recently been introduced iato Germany with-inuch success, for coating wood nbove ground. It will answer equully well below ground, as itis quite indestruetible and entirely impervious to wet. A pieee of wood thoroughly covered with this preparation conld never deeay from dry rot. WHAT 18 DRY 20T? Some of our readers alay not understand the philosophy of dry rot. Itie simply slow combustion ;. the oxygen of the atmosphere unites slowly with the earbon of the wood, causing an imperfeet combustion. A full and complete combustion, atteaded with appreeiable heat and flame would result, if tho maes was sufficiently large aad eompaet. ‘This conditioa is fulfilled when the wood is charred nnd ground to an impalpable powder, and this powder placed in a mass of say 100 pounds, with its surface freely exposed to the atmosphere. So rapid is the absorption of oxygeu by ehareoal dust, so placed, that it will take fire ina very few days and buru with great heat. ‘The solution of sulphate of copper, whea applied to the-iaterior as we have suggested, envelopes each partiele of earbon in the wood with a thin metallie covering, which effeetually prevents its uaioa with the oxygea of the atmosphere, and eonsequently preserves it from decomposition by that netive and destruetive ageat. ‘his is prohably better than kyaaisiag, so mueh used of late years as a preservative of timber, for railroad sleepers, ete. Wood thus prepared will last longer, under grouad or ia the water, than iron unprotected with any coating, impervious to wet. Tur ore shipments of the Union mine at Copperopolis, for the week eading November . 9th, was 64146 toas, OALIFORNIA . TIN ORE. Some four or five tons 3 of tin ore area in this city a lew days since, from tho Wemescal tin mines in the southwestern corner of San Bernardino County, a few miles east of the Los Aagelos County line. This ore has been brought here for the purpose of giving the mine a prnetical test—to learn the actual value of the ore, and test the eapacity of our machinery lor crushing and concentrating it. The test has proved emtuently successful iu every particular. Two or three well developed lends have beea opened, from which some thirty tous of ore have heen extracted. Out of this the lot received iu this city was selected. It has been crushed by Moore's rotary crusher at the Vulcan Iron Works, and separated from its gnugue by Huuter’s eencentrator. The averago of the ore received here is about thirty per cent. of tia,asared oxyd. This ore, after passing through Hunter's separator, hns becn raised to grade of eeventy per ceut.,in which eoudition it will be shipped for heing worked. The average of the ore as it comes from the mine—a four foot veia—is fully fifteen per cent, This ore is very readily assorted into two elasses, one of which will represent thirty per eeat. aud tho other tea per cent Irom twenty tons of the average ore fivé tons of thirty per cent. ean be readily assorted. It ie rtho intention of the parties who now have the matter in hand to proceed forthwith to the erection of ernshiug aad coneentrating maehinery, oa a large seale, at the mine. All the ore will be erushed as it comes from the vein ; as Hunter’s machine has fully proven its capneity to separate the ore from ita matrix, ina speedy, thorough and economieal manaer. The niiue is lodated within thirty-four miles of a good steamboat landing, whither the eoncentrated ore caa be hnuled at an expense not to exceed $15 per ton. Every facility lor aa econoinieal workiag of the mine exists on tho spot; while a good fat beef ean be hought for $8, ora sheap for $1, and everything in, the way-of vegetables and grain at a like low rate. The elimate is most delightful; corn ean be kept in every stage of growth from the blade to the full ear, at ull seasons of the year. We think itis safe to predict that theee mines, which have lain eo long idlo, for want of a proper appreeiatioa of their vnlue, or the lack of enterprise to develop them, will soou be made to add a new and importaat eource nf industry and profit to the State. ‘The gentlemen who have the matter in hand are old Califoraians, who have long boen interested in developing the mineral wealth of the State, and who thoroughly understand the business which they have in hand. * Worx or tHE Dianoxp Driti.—Anp persnn who may be desirous of witnessiag the exactitude aad precision with whieh the diamoad aanular drill caa perform its wok, can have the opportunity of doiag eo by exaaining at this office a core tnkea by it ont of a hard rnck. ~ We hope soon to be able to give an illustration of the inode of operating the drill, aad of the manner in which the diamoade are seeured to the same, all of whieh is exceedingly simple and easily understood.

by : a Sournal of Alsetut Sits, » Selene, and ining annual jo a Na DEWEY «& CO., PUBLISILERS aknd Patent Solicitors, SAN FRANCISCO, SATURDAY, N OV EMBER 18, 1865. VOLUMEXI,. Number 2e, ~ TABLE OF CONTENTS. Sotium-\malgam for ihe Re-]th fopper Miutng lu Plumas. dicuou f silver ure From the vil Keglons. Pravlem ot G id nnd Siver Moleculur Cliunges in Metals Extractton, So. 18 THugsten Allays wlth drou, The Philosophy ut sleep, Ta: Steudsef ihe Tamyple, Thy Size of Drone, Sew stylend Dell Caltoraia Tl Ure, eee acta aLout Cutilpg Tho New Metal-Tangsten or] Tun Woiltram Prinetion of Slecl by means Preserving Thabdec from Dry) of Gases Rot Srenyth of Materials, Leiter from Colusl. Minng Suininury. ae lt aud about Sau!idtorial nud selected. ey: Shareholders’ DirecHitporeant Be sreeut: New Wane stock Bales and Reparts. Wlue Makin a Ny mie County Sau Franelsco Prices Current San Francisco Mining Ma New Miulng aud Other Ad: ehinery. yertlsewents, Etc. Tux Navotron Copren Masu. —-The Stockton Ladependent says that the Napyleoa and the Iuglies copper tines have recently been merged inte one company, with a capitol of $1,200,000, divided into 12,000 shares at $100 eaeh. The California owners have transferred 7,000 shwresa majority interest —to New York eapitalists, who agree to furnish for the thorongh developinent of the mine a working enpital of not less thaa $100,000, to be assessed upoa the 7,000 shares of the New York interest; tho California owners to hold their 5,000 free from nssessmeats. Pendiug the organization nnder the new arrangement, work upon tlhe miae las been suspended, The New York parties who are to take hold of the work are men of capital and energy, some of whom have had considerable experience in copper mining. Work upon the mine will shortly be resumed and prosecuted with energy. ss AwatoamaTixg By Niurcrriciry.— We would invite the espeeial attention of our readers to avery full reswme of the various projects for extracting the jrecivus met.Is fom their ores, by tho use of cleetricity as an assisting agent. Our correspondent, Dr. Laaszweert, lins given a full history of oll that has beea done or is known on thie sabjeet, from the time of the first discovery of galvanism to the present day. We have frequently been asked what has become of the electro-proeess of amaleamntion, whieh we noticed ceveral times * during the eummer of 1863, us in eourse of experimental operation in thiseity. That question is fully answered by our correspondeat, as above. ~ A Narurat Cave.—Two weeks sinee it will be remembered that we published a statement, of a large body of woter having been struek in the Pike Tuanel, on Union Hill. The Grass Valley Union, of a later date, says that after the water had sufficiently eseaped to permit of working, the men employed in the mine dis. covered 2 large eave, natural in its formation and runniug baek a considerable distance in the tuanel. In fact, so exteusive js this cave, that ao one has yet been enabled to traee its termination. It is quite a euriosity, and is dnily visited by lnrge numbers of aovelty-seekers. Ep-Presipest Day, of Yale College, is the oldest citizea of New Haven. He is in his 93d year, aad when he waats to get around towa, prefers walking to any other method of locomotion. He is the father of Sherman Day, Mining Engineer of thie eity. Tus Amapor Lepcer has eatered upon its eleventh volume.The Ledger is one of our most valuable interior exchaages. THE NEW METAL--TUNGSTEN OB WOLFRAM, The existence of this metal has long been known; but so iutraetible is its nature, und so difficult is it foudd to isolate it from its ores, that but small quantities lave hitherto found their way into eommeree. ‘The metal is obtained with comparative facility in the shape of adeuse gray powder; but great difficulty hns hitherto heeu encountered in reducing this powder into metallic form, on aeeount of the extreme high degree of heat required to Tuse it. No ordinary erueibles or furuaces will stand the heat required to reduce it. It has hitherto been reduced only ia very small quantities of a few grains only. A emull button of the metal was exhibited as a great enriosity at the International Exhibition of 1862. his button was vbtained by subjeeting about an ounce of the powder above meationed, for three hours to tle most intense heat which could be obtained by means of a powerful gas furnace. ‘The crueible employed was made of freshly burned lime; uo graphite or Hessian erueible being found able to stand the heat required. Tt will bo ohserved from an article on pnge 311 of this issue, that this metal lns been found of considerable value in hardening castiron, although it does not nppear to work well when alloyed with steel. In alloying it with iron, itis introdneed into the molten metalin a very fine state of divisioa as a mineral. Asa metalits alloy with ihon would be impracticable, for reason3 already given. Itisa whit2 brittle metal, uot easily oxydizable, and with the exeeption of gold aud platinum, the heaviest known. Its specific gravity is 18 while gold is 19.36,and that of platinum 21.53. Its great resistunee of heat would render it of inestimable value to ehemi=ts and metatlurgists, if somo plan of redueing it by chemical reaction could be devised. From an article in a late number of the Londoa Mechanics’ Magazine, we are led to infer that this long-sought lor desideratum has at length been diseovered. That mngazine says: “We leara thata Swedish metallorgist has diseovered a method of redueing tungsten (wolfram) by whieh he obtained it at oace ia a state of fusion, aad that ingots of the pure metal, weighiag several pounds each, are aow on exhibitioa at Stoekholm. We are informed, also, that the eost of obtaining the metal, by the new method, does not exceed a few shillings per pound.” If the metal enn be obtained thus cheaply,and with ne little difieulty as intimated, the discovery is certainly a very importont one, It’s an Inn Winp, Ete.—Should the hloekade of the Chileaa ports be eaforeed aud continued for aay length of tima, it will greatly benefit the copper intereots . of Califoraia.

Nearly all the foreign ore which reachee Swansea comes from Chile, Seventeen ships recently left three different parts of Chile, in one . week, with nine ‘thousand tons of ore for the Swansea markat. Should the hlockade be enforced there will be a strong competitioa for) the California ores, whieh exnnot lail to cause . an important advance in priees. PRESERVING TIMBER FROM DRY BOT. A correspondent from Morman Island wishes to kuow if there is any preparatioa wltieh eun be used to prevent the lower end of the flas-staff, in that town, from heiug destroyed by the dry rot, which is now threatening its destruction. hey bave nlready used some preventative ; but the symtoms of deeay still continue to inerease. We are not nequaiited with the nature of the preventative which lias been used, or how it has been applied; but suppose some outward npplieation las been made, and thas the bottom of the staff is so fixed that, while the aoistnre of the earth has been kept froin reaching the interior of the timber, that interior hus beea exposed to the aetion of the atmosphere. In order to arrest the-progress of deeay, some fluid preparation must be employed which will penetrate the pores or eells of the wood. We know of nothiug better thaa a strung solution of sulphate of copper. It should be ajsplied by boring a number of holes at intervals into tho stuff, filling them with the solution aud pluggias them up tight. » A very good eoating for the outside may be made hy preparing @ varnish as follows: Take ten pounds of pulverized chalk, ten of rosin, oae of linseed oil, and boil them together in an iron pot. To this prepnratioa add one pound of a strong solution of sulphate of eupper, and apply with a brush, while hot, in the same way as paiut, This preparatiou, whieh, when dry, becomes as hard as stone, has recently been introduced iato Germany with-inuch success, for coating wood nbove ground. It will answer equully well below ground, as itis quite indestruetible and entirely impervious to wet. A pieee of wood thoroughly covered with this preparation conld never deeay from dry rot. WHAT 18 DRY 20T? Some of our readers alay not understand the philosophy of dry rot. Itie simply slow combustion ;. the oxygen of the atmosphere unites slowly with the earbon of the wood, causing an imperfeet combustion. A full and complete combustion, atteaded with appreeiable heat and flame would result, if tho maes was sufficiently large aad eompaet. ‘This conditioa is fulfilled when the wood is charred nnd ground to an impalpable powder, and this powder placed in a mass of say 100 pounds, with its surface freely exposed to the atmosphere. So rapid is the absorption of oxygeu by ehareoal dust, so placed, that it will take fire ina very few days and buru with great heat. ‘The solution of sulphate of copper, whea applied to the-iaterior as we have suggested, envelopes each partiele of earbon in the wood with a thin metallie covering, which effeetually prevents its uaioa with the oxygea of the atmosphere, and eonsequently preserves it from decomposition by that netive and destruetive ageat. ‘his is prohably better than kyaaisiag, so mueh used of late years as a preservative of timber, for railroad sleepers, ete. Wood thus prepared will last longer, under grouad or ia the water, than iron unprotected with any coating, impervious to wet. Tur ore shipments of the Union mine at Copperopolis, for the week eading November . 9th, was 64146 toas, OALIFORNIA . TIN ORE. Some four or five tons 3 of tin ore area in this city a lew days since, from tho Wemescal tin mines in the southwestern corner of San Bernardino County, a few miles east of the Los Aagelos County line. This ore has been brought here for the purpose of giving the mine a prnetical test—to learn the actual value of the ore, and test the eapacity of our machinery lor crushing and concentrating it. The test has proved emtuently successful iu every particular. Two or three well developed lends have beea opened, from which some thirty tous of ore have heen extracted. Out of this the lot received iu this city was selected. It has been crushed by Moore's rotary crusher at the Vulcan Iron Works, and separated from its gnugue by Huuter’s eencentrator. The averago of the ore received here is about thirty per cent. of tia,asared oxyd. This ore, after passing through Hunter's separator, hns becn raised to grade of eeventy per ceut.,in which eoudition it will be shipped for heing worked. The average of the ore as it comes from the mine—a four foot veia—is fully fifteen per cent, This ore is very readily assorted into two elasses, one of which will represent thirty per eeat. aud tho other tea per cent Irom twenty tons of the average ore fivé tons of thirty per cent. ean be readily assorted. It ie rtho intention of the parties who now have the matter in hand to proceed forthwith to the erection of ernshiug aad coneentrating maehinery, oa a large seale, at the mine. All the ore will be erushed as it comes from the vein ; as Hunter’s machine has fully proven its capneity to separate the ore from ita matrix, ina speedy, thorough and economieal manaer. The niiue is lodated within thirty-four miles of a good steamboat landing, whither the eoncentrated ore caa be hnuled at an expense not to exceed $15 per ton. Every facility lor aa econoinieal workiag of the mine exists on tho spot; while a good fat beef ean be hought for $8, ora sheap for $1, and everything in, the way-of vegetables and grain at a like low rate. The elimate is most delightful; corn ean be kept in every stage of growth from the blade to the full ear, at ull seasons of the year. We think itis safe to predict that theee mines, which have lain eo long idlo, for want of a proper appreeiatioa of their vnlue, or the lack of enterprise to develop them, will soou be made to add a new and importaat eource nf industry and profit to the State. ‘The gentlemen who have the matter in hand are old Califoraians, who have long boen interested in developing the mineral wealth of the State, and who thoroughly understand the business which they have in hand. * Worx or tHE Dianoxp Driti.—Anp persnn who may be desirous of witnessiag the exactitude aad precision with whieh the diamoad aanular drill caa perform its wok, can have the opportunity of doiag eo by exaaining at this office a core tnkea by it ont of a hard rnck. ~ We hope soon to be able to give an illustration of the inode of operating the drill, aad of the manner in which the diamoade are seeured to the same, all of whieh is exceedingly simple and easily understood.