VOL. III., NO. 17.
PINEHURST, N. C, FEB. 23, 1900.
PRICE THREE CENTS,
WHY? OB LA GRIPPE MELANCHOLIA.
I was not wont, to find the days too long,
On lightning wings the roseate moments lied
And bore me on by myriad interests led,
Till Life appeared to be, one grand sweet song
AVhich all creation vied but to prolong.
Anon, my sun did set, and awesome dread
Filled heart and brain, until the weary head
Seemed but the seat where harrowing thoughts
might throng.
Most earnestly I asked the reason why
The hours should now on leaden wings go by
And sullen shadows hide the azure sky,
While sadness drlveth Hope so far away.
The answer came : "To teach thee sympathy
For suffering 6ouls, whose darkness hath no day.
Anna Hubbard Mekcuu.
MONAZITE.
A Rare Mineral Mined In Considerable
quantities In This State Its Uses.
The following interesting description
of monazite, a rare mineral for which
there has been considerable demand in
recent years, is taken from the report of
Henry B. C. Nitze, assistant state geolo
gist, issued by the N. C. Geological Sur
vey. The mines in this state and South
Carolina are practically the only ones in
this country.
"Monazite is essentially an anhydrous
phosphate of the rare earths cerium,
lanthanum, and didymium. It also con
tains, almost invariably, small percent
ages of thoria and silicic acid, which may
be present in combination as thorite or
orangite, or the thoria may exist as the
phosphate, either in combination with
the cerium, etc., or as an isoinorphous
mixture. Other occasional accessory
constituents are the yttrium and erbium
earths, zirconia, alumina, magnesia, lime,
iron oxides, manganous oxide, tin and
lead oxides, fluorine, titanic acid, and
water, usually in fractional percentages.
"It is a subtranslucent to subtranspar
ent mineral, light yellow, reddish yel
low, brownish, or greenish in color, and
has a resinous luster. It is brittle with
conchoidal to uneven fracture. Its hard
ness is from 5 to 5.5, and its specific
gravity from 4.9 to 5.3. It crystallizes
in the monoclinic system.
"The commercial economical deposits
:f monazite are those occurring in the
placer sands of the streams and adjoining
bottoms and in the beach sands along the
seashore. The geographical areas over
which such workable deposits have been
found up to the present time are quite
limited in number and extent. In the
United States the placer deposits of North
and South Carolina stand alone. This
area includes between 1600 and 2000
square miles, situated in Burke, Mc
Dowell, Rutherford, Cleveland, and Polk
counties, N. C, and the northern part of
Spartanburg county, S. C. The principal
deposits of this region are found along
the waters of Silver, South Muddy, and
North Muddy creeks, and Henrys and
Jacobs Folks of the Catawba river in
McDowell and Burke counties; the Sec
ond Broad river in McDowell and Ruth
erford counties; and the First Broad
liver in Rutherford and Cleveland coun
ties, N. C, and Spartanburg county, S.
C. These streams have their sources in
the South Mountains, an eastern outlier
of the Blue Ridge. The country rock is
granitic biotite gneiss and dioritic horn
blende gneiss, intersected nearly at right
angles to the schistosity by a parallel
system of small auriferous quartz veins.
Most of the stream deposits of this region
have been worked for placer gold. The
existence of monazite in commercial
quantities here was first established by
Mr. W. E. Hidden, in 1879. The thick
ness of these stream gravel deposits is
from one to two feet, and the width of
the mountain streams in which they
occur is seldom over twelve feet. The
percentage of monazite in the original
sand is very variable, from an infinitesi
mal quantity up to one or two per
cent. The deposits are naturally richer
per cent, monazite is considered of good
quality. From 20 to 35 pounds of cleaned
monazite sand per hand, that is, from 40
to 70 pounds to the box, is considered a
good day's work.
"But very few regular mining operations
are carried on in the region. As a rule
each farmer mines his own monazite
deposit and sells the product to local
buyers, often at some country store in
exchange for merchandise.
"At the present time the monazite in
the stream beds has been practically
exhausted, with few exceptions, and the
majority of the workings are in the gravel
deposits of the adjoining bottoms. These
deposits are mined by sinking pits about
eight feet square to the bed rock and
raising the gravel by hand labor to a
sluice box at the mouth of the pit. The
overlay is thrown away excepting in
.)U:m ;iou mm
1MXK KIDUK school.
near the head waters of the streams.
"The monazite is won by washing the
sand and gravel in sluice boxes exactly
after the manner that placer gold is
worked. The sluice boxes are about
eight feet long by twenty inches wide
by twenty inches deep. Two men work
at a box, the one charging the gravel on
a perforated plate fixed in the upper end
of the box, the other one working the
contents up and down with a gravel fork
or perforated shovel in order to float off
the lighter sands. These boxes are
cleaned out at the end of the day's work,
the washed and concentrated monazite
being collected and dried. Magnetite,
if present, is eliminated from the dried
sand bv treatment with a large hand
magnet. Many of the heavy minerals,
such as zircon, me.naccanite, rutile,
brookite, corundum, garnet, etc., cannot
be completely eliminated. The commer
cially prepared sand, therefore, after
washing thoroughly and treating with a
hand magnet, is not pure monazite. A
cleaned sand containing from 65 to 70
cases where it contains any sandy or
gritty material. The pits are carried for
ward in parallel lines, separated by nar
row belts of tailing dumps, similar to the
methods pursued in placer gold mining.
At the Blanton and L tttimore mines on
Hickory creek, two miles northeast of
Shelby, Cleveland county, X. C, the
bottom is 300 to 400 feet wide, and has
been partially worked for a distance of
one-fourth of a mile along the creek.
The overlay is from three to four feet,
and the gravel bed from one to three feet
thick.
" The economic value of monazite lies
in the incandescent properties of the
oxides of the rare earths cerium, lan
thanum, didymium and thorium whi h it
contains. These are utilized, prinuip illy
the thoria, in the manufacture of the
Welsbach and other incandescent gas
lights. The cerium goes to the drug
trade as the oxalate.
"The Welsbach light consists of a
cylindrical hood or in intle composed of
a fibrous network of the rare earths, the
top of which is drawn together and held
by a loop of platinum wire. It is perma
nently suspended over the flame of a
specially-devised burner, constructed on
the principals of the Bunsen burner, in
which the gas is burned with the access
of air, thus utilizing the heating and not
the illuminating power of the hydrocar
bons. The mantle becomes incandescent,
glowing with a brilliant and uniform
light.
"The method of manufacturing this
mantle is in brief as follows : A cylin
drical network, about one and one-half
inches in diameter, is woven out of the
best and strongest cotton thread. This
is first washed in ammonia and then in
warm water, being wrung out in a me
chanical clothes wringer each time. It
is then soaked in a solution of the rare
earths and dried in a revolving hot-air
bath. After being cut to the proper
lengths, each cylinder is shaped over a
wooden form, and the upper end is drawn
together by a loop of platinum wire. The
cotton fiber is then burned off under the
flame of a Bunsen lamp, which leaves a
network of the rare oxides exactly re
sembling the original woven cylinder,
each fiber being identically preserved,
excepting that the size is somewhat re
duced by shrinkage. After a series of
tempering and testing heats of various
intensities the mantle is ready for use.
The exact composition of the solution of
the rare earths is not known, being one
of the trade secrets ; but it is a well-known
fact that monazite rich in thoria is sought
after, and the natural inference is that
this element constitutes one of the most
important ingredients."
Norfli Carolina's Private Mint.
The first discovery of gold in Burke
county, North Carolina, was made in
1828 in the bed of Brindle creek, one of
the small tributaries of Silver creek,
which has its source in the South Moun
tains. Soon every stream in the neigh
borhood was prospected and panned with
golden success. Large slave owners
found a new and profitable use for their
slaves, and many thousands of them were
put to work in this new field. Placer
mines were opened and operated on a
large scale, though by primitive methods,
the pan, rocker, long torn, and sluice box
being the only implements at that time
and, indeed, these are still used in por
tions of this region today. Mining was
at first confined to the stream gravels,
which were generally rich. Later on the
upper decomposed layer of the country
rock and the more ancient placers, formed
by secular disintegration and drift, were
worked. A large amount of gold was
produced in this way, but it is impossible
to even approximate the amount, as abso
lutely no records were kept. The best
authorities place the amount at between
two and three million dollars.
There being but one U. S. mint estab
lished by the government at that time
(at Philadelphia), and the means of