xt75dv1ck292 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt75dv1ck292/data/mets.xml Peter, Robert, 1805-1894. 1876 books b96-12-34880202 English Printed for the Survey by J.P. Morgan & Co., : [Frankfort, Ky. : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Geology, Economic Analysis.Talbutt, John Holliday. Chemical report of the soils, marls, clays, ores, coals, iron furnace products, mineral waters, &c, &c. of Kentucky / by Robert Peter, assisted by John H. Talbutt. text Chemical report of the soils, marls, clays, ores, coals, iron furnace products, mineral waters, &c, &c. of Kentucky / by Robert Peter, assisted by John H. Talbutt. 1876 2002 true xt75dv1ck292 section xt75dv1ck292
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF KENTUCKY.
N. S. SHALER, DIRECTOR.
CHEMICAL REPORT
OF THE
SOILS, MARLS, CLAYS, ORES, COALS, IRON FUR-
NACE PRODUCTS, MINERAL WATERS, &c., &c.,
OF KENTUCKY,
BY ROBERT PETER, M. D., &C., &C.,
CHEMIST TO THE KENTUCKY GEOLOGICAL SURVEY.
ASSISTED BY
JOHN H. TALBUTT, S. B., CHEMICAL ASSISTANT.
THE FIRST CHEMICAL REPORT IN THE NEW SERIES AND THE FIFTH SINCE THE
BEGINNING OF THE SURVEY.
PART IV. VOL. I. SECOND SERIES.
137 & 138
This page in the original text is blank.
INTRODUCTORY LETTER.
CHEMICAL LABORATORY OF THE
KENTUCKY STATE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY,
LEXINGTON, KY., April i9th, 1875.
Professor N. S. SHALER, Chief Geologist, Cc.:
DEAR SIR: I have the pleasure herewith to report the
results of the chemical work performed in this laboratory, for
the State Geological Survey, since September, 1873, to nearly
the present date. So much could not have been effected but
for the able and efficient assistance of Mr. John H. Talbutt,
who has given his constant attention to this labor.
Very respectfully,
ROBERT PETER.
'39
CHEMICAL REPORT
OF THE
SOILS, MARLS, CLAYS, ORES, COALS, IRON FUR-
NACE PRODUCTS, MINERAL WATERS, &C., &c.,
OF KENTUCKY.
By ROBERT PETER, M. D., &C., &C.
In the eighty-six soil analyses, which are appended, only a
portion of ten counties of the State is represented, and the
greater number of these soils are not to be classed amongst
our most fertile. The limits of the range of variation of their
several constituents is shown in the following table, viz:
Pr. ct.No. County. P'r. ct.No. County.
Organic and volatile matters vary
from.... . .. . . . 7.985 in1300 of Boyd to I.813 in1398 of Carter.
Alumina and iron and manganese
oxidea vary ftom ...... 5.763 in 13960of Carter to 2.74 in 1571 ofHardin.
Lime carbonate varies from. . 3.890 in 133 of Campbell to .o45 in 1572 of Hardin.
Magnesia varies from . . . . . 520 in 1329 of Campbell to o34 in i298 of Boyd.
fin t 39 of Carter.
Phosphoric acid varies from . . 555 in 1424 of Fayette to .045 In 1566 of Hardin.
Potash varies from... . .. .662 in 139 of Carterto.o6 in 1325 of Campbell.
iiin 1327, Of CaMPbell.
Soda varies from ...... . .286in 1407 of Carter to trace. in 1567 of Hardin.
Sand and insoluble silicates vary
from.... . .. . . 74-84 in 139 of Carterto 92.455in i6of Ohio.
Water expelled at 3800 F. vanes
from.. . . . 2.65 in 1558 of Hardinto.225 in1572 of Hardin.
Water expelled at 212 F. varies
from. ..... . .. . . 5 75 in 1329of Campbell to. in 157 i of Hardin.
The extremes may represent very rich and very poor soils;
but not the general character of the soils of the counties
named.
140
CHEMICAL REPORT.
The method of analyses of the soils does not vary much
from that described in volume III of the Kentucky Geological
Reports. The principal object was, as there stated, to obtain
comparative results, which would enable the scientific agricul-
turist to form an opinion as to the chemical constitution of our
soils in their relation to husbandry; without attempting to
perform the almost hopeless task of giving all the minuter con-
stituents of each, or of presenting all those physical conditions
which exert so great an influence on their practical fertility.
To this end the several soils were treated as nearly alike as
possible: air-dried together, digested for an equal time at
nearly the same temperature in acid of a uniform strength,
&c., &c. The specific gravity of the chlorohydric acid used
being about I.Io.
The process of digestion in water, containing carbonic acid,
was not employed in all, because of the press of work in the
laboratory, mainly. There can be no doubt, however, that, used
with proper care, this process will indicate the relative propor-
tion of soluble plant food in the soil at the time. As this may
very well vary, under different physical atmospheric conditions,
it was not considered of essential value in the comparative
analyses.
The well-known fact that various p/zl sical conditions exert a
powerful influence on the productiveness of soils which have
a sinmilar chemical composition. has, in recent times, singularly
perverted the minds of chemists, and consequently of agricul-
turists, in relation to the value of soil analyses. Because the
chemnical conditions of a soil are not the only ones necessary to
productiveness, they have, by a perverted logic, jumped to the
conclusion that these conditions are of no consequence what-
ever.
But if these chemical conditions are indispensable to the fer-
tility of the soil, how much injury has been done in recent
years to the scientific study of the soil and of agriculture, by
the great outcry which has been raised against this kind of
investigation! The comparative chemical examination of the
soils of a State or country can only be made under the patron-
141
5
CHEMICAL REPORT.
age of the government. Individual efforts are inadequate to
effect it; nor could they, if adequate, so economically conduct
it. The writer believes that the geological survey of any
region should always include this study of the soils; yet very
little has been done in this direction in all the recent State
surveys, and a valuable opportunity has been lost, which in
many instances cannot recur, of studying the chemical con-
ditions of the virgin soil of various parts of our country.
Chemists are naturally somewhat averse to soil analysis; it
requires so much time and labor, so much care must be taken
to secure accuracy, and there is so little variety in the work,
and so small an appreciation of its value and significance
amongst the people when done, that they gladly avoid it.
But, in the course of time, most of them who are not too
much prejudiced against the teachings of experience, arrive
at the same conclusion with Prof. Aug. Voelcker, of the Eng-
lish Royal Agricultural College: "There was a time when I
thought with many other young chemists, that soil analyses
would do every thing for the farmer; three or four years of
further experience and hard study rather inclined me to side
with those men who consider that they are of no practical
utility whatever; and now, after eighteen years of continued
occupation with chemico-agricultural pursuits, and, I trust,
with more matured judgment, I have come to the conclusion
that there is hardly any subject so full of practical interest
to the farmer as that of the chemistry of soils. The longer
and more minutely soil investigations are carried on by com-
petent men, the greater, I am convinced, will be their practical
utility."-Jour. of Roy. Agr. Soc. of Eng., i865.
Even Prof. S. W. Johnson, whose somewhat harsh criticism,
in 186I, of some of the former labors in this field of the writer,
seemed to sound the key-note of the clamor against this kind
of study in this country, has so far yielded his opposition as to
give us in his valuable work, "lHow Crops Feed," 1870, the
comparative analyses of several soils, and to point out the sig-
nificance of their chemical composition. But he is careful to
caution the reader, page 368, that although the analysis may
142
6
CHEMICAL REPORT.
show the amount of the mineral fertilizers in a soil, it cannot
tell how much of them "1 is at the disposal of the present crop;"
and on page 271: "These facts show how very far chemical
analysis, in its present state, is from being able to say defi-
nitely what any given soil can supply to crops, although we owe
nearly all our precise know/edge of vegetablc nutrition directly or
indirectly to this art."
He might very truly have added, that we should not be able
to say that a suitable chemical composition of a soil was not
the only condition necessary to its fertility, unless we had
thoroughly studied that condition. It is only by means of
chemical analyses that we find out the equally indispensable
nature of the physical conditions. He cannot fail to admit
that it is impossible to make progress in our knowledge of
the soil and its actions and conditions without a thorough
study of its chemical characters.
In accordance with this outcry against this sort of investi-
gation the difficulties of obtaining good samples for analyses
has been exaggerated. In a country like that of most of this
State, where there is comparatively but little quarternary or
transported material constituting'the soil, and especially before
its character has been much altered by a dense population,
there is little difficulty, with the use of necessary precautions,
in obtaining representative samples of large areas similar in
character and position. In many large districts in our State
the soil has been formed in place by the disintegration of the
rocks. In other parts, where surface action has been greater,
more judgment and care must be exerted in the collection of
the soils; but in no part of the State, probably, is so great
local variety to be seen in the soils as frequently may be
observed in the northeastern States, where the transporting
action of water and of ice, in former epochs, has produced a
high degree of local irregularity in the nature of the surface
deposits.
In the collection of the samples of our Kentucky soils the
causes of local and accidental differences of composition were,
as much as possible, avoided.
143
7
CHEMICAL REPORT.
Because of the very small proportion of the essential ingre-
dients of the soil, which are carried off in crops, as compared
with the whole amount of the earth, taken to the depth through
which the roots of plants absorb nourishment, it has been
denied that it is possible by chemical analysis to show their
diminution in the old field soil, as compared with the virgin
soil. Indeed it has been logically demonstrated to be impos-
sible. But, it should be recollected that when, by the acid
digestion, we separate these essential soluble ingredients from
the greater mass of the soil, left as sand and insoluble silicates,
which amount to from about seventy-five to ninety-two per cent.
of the whole, the probabilities of error in the determination
of these minuter ingredients must not be calculated into the
whole weight of the soil, but into that smaller part which we
have thus extracted from it.
Logic apart, the fact still remains, that in one hundred and
forty-nine duplicate analyses, made by the writer for the Ken-
tucky, Arkansas, and Indiana Surveys, in which the chemical
composition of the virgin soil was compared, under similar
conditions of treatment, with soil of a neighboring old field in
the same locality, one hundred and twenty-two out of the one
hundred and forty-nine showed a marked diminution of most
of the essential ingredients of the soil in that of the old field
as compared with the virgin soil. This certainly is not an
accidental result.
In the soil analyses at present reported the results are not
so striking in this relation. Partly because the samples had
not, in several cases, been collected with special reference to
this investigation, and partly because of greater local variations
of the soil in the regions in which they were obtained.
In calculating the probable amount of exhaustion of the
essential soil ingredients, it should be recollected that as
much, and sometimes more, may be alienated from the soil
by the solvent action of the atmospheric agents, while the
surface is much exposed in the cultivation of hoed crops,
than is absorbed and removed by the products. Hence the
exhaustion of the soil is much more rapid under these cir-
144
8
CHEMICAL REPORT.
cumstances than is generally allowed. In other words, the
exhaustion of the soil when under cultivation in hoed or
plowed crops, during which time a large portion of its surface
is kept bare of vegetation and subjected to the leaching
action of rains, is much greater than can be accounted for by
the amount of the essential ingredients which are taken from
it in its products.
In several instances, in the analyses of the soils described
above, the Isand and insoluble silicates," left after digestion,
for ten days in the acid, were analyzed by the admirable pro-
cess of Professor J. Lawrence Smith, for the determination of
the amount of fixed alkalies held in the form of insoluble
silicates. As will be seen, in the detailed report and in the
tables, the quantity of potash and soda thus held in the soil
in the samples in question are, in most cases, considerable,
ranging from 0.485 to 2.731 per cent. of potash to the whole
soil, and o. X 65 to 1.306 per cent. of soda.
It is evident that, although at present insoluble, and hence
unavailable for plant nourishment, these alkalies are doubtless
gradually released and brought into a soluble form by weath-
ering and under the influence of the products of vegetable
decay, so that they tend to prolong the fertility of the soil.
The seventeen limestone and lime analyses, of specimens
from nine counties only, represent but a small part of our vari-
ous lime rocks. But even these exhibit their great industrial
value, including, as they do, limestones useful for the fluxing
of our iron ores, as well as for purposes of construction in the
form of building stone or cement, while some of them would
be valuable as fertilizers on the land. The so-called litho-
graphic stone of Barren county and of other corresponding
localities may, for some purposes, with well-selected samples,
replace the more costly foreign stone.
The eighty-two iron ores which have been analyzed are from
eleven counties, principally of the northeastern portion of the
NOTE.-I have found it impossible to use this stone for crayon or transfer work.
N. S. SHALER.
9
VOL. 1,-10
145
CHEMICAL REPORT.
State. Sixty-four of these are limonite ores; twenty-seven are
clay ironstones or carbonate ores; and only one, to be found
probably only in limited quantity in Lawrence county (see No.
1594), is of the red hematite variety.
The proportion of metallic iron, in the limonite ores exam-
ined, varies from 19.344 per cent. to 57.148 per cent. In the
carbonate ores analysed the per centage of metallic iron ranges
from 10.960 per cent. in what may be termed only a ferruginous
limestone, up to 40.465 per cent.
Of the one hundred and ten speciniens of coal, &c., which
were examined by proximate analysis, eighty-nine were from
eleven counties in Kentucky; of which five counties, viz:
Boyd, Carter, Greenup, Lawrence, and Menifee, are in our
northeastern coal field; and six, viz: Butler, Edmonson, Gray-
son, Hopkins, Muhlenburg, and Ohio counties, are in the
southwestern coal field. All these coals are of the splint, dry
coal, or semi-cannel coal variety; cleaving generally into thin
layers, which have more or less fibrous coal between them.
Although some of them make a good coke, they do not gen-
erally soften or swell much when heated or burnt, and hence,
when they do not contain an unusual quantity of sulphur, they
can be used, without preliminary coking, for the smelting of
iron. Some of these coals, however, are quite sulphurous, and
some contain a large proportion of ash,t but the better sam-
ples compare favorably with the best coals of the neighbor-
ing States.
For the purpose of this comparison seven of the best coals
of the State of Ohio, two of the best of those of Illinois, and
four of the celebrated "block coals " of Indiana, used there
for iron smelting, &c., were submitted to similar processes of
analysis with our Kentucky coals. We give the general com-
parative results in the following tables:
t In some cases, as the samples for analysis were taken from new and imperfect openings, it
is more than probable the coals will be found to be better than is represented in the analyses
given.
146
10
CHEMICAL REPORT.
AVERAGE COMPOSITION OF THE COALS FROM THE NORTHEASTERN KEN-
TUCKY COAL FIELD.
Number of Specific Volatile Fixed car- Per cent. of Per cent. of
COUNTIES. samples gravity.combustible bon in the ash. sulphur.
analyzed. matters. coke.
Boyd. . . . . . . 13 1.337 33-43 54-35 8.46 2.292
Carter.i6 1.331 33-39 53.45 8.17 i. 886
Greenup.. . . . . 14 1 375 34.50 52.20 9.37 3. X65
Lawrence. . . . . 6 1.326 36.27 53.85 6.86 1.285
Menifee.. . . . . 2 1.319 33.55 53.42 10.36 2- 544
General average.. 51 1.3376 34.23 53.45 8.62 2.234
AVERAGE COMPOSITION IN THE SOUTHWESTERN COAL FIELD.
Number Specific Volatile Fixed Per cent. of Per cent. G
COUNTIES. analyzed. gravity. combustiblecarbon. ash. sulphur.
matters.
Butler... . . . 1. .378 30.66 54.94 11.00 2.544
Edmonson.. 8 1.360 34.01 52.34 10.56 3.312
Grayson. 8 1.385 3117 49.78 14.38 2 .083
Hopkins 2 1.385 32-95 52-55 11.20 5.019
Mahlenburg . . . 11 1.312 36.42 53.26 6.74 2.949
Ohio...3...... 3 1.362 34.90 53-77 8 i6 3.103
General average. 33 1.3636 ,33.70 52.77 10.34 3.166
By leving out the exceptional ash of No. 19, the average is-..
tWithout No. x hs avenge would toe- o-36.
, This is the ave-ge of fifteen of the coats only.
I By avingout the exceptiona ash of No. t454, the average would heb _x..t.
AVERAGE COMPOSITION OF THE SELECTED COALS FROM NEIGHBORING
STATES.
Number Specific Volatile Fixed car- Per cent. of Per cent. of
STATES. analyzed. gravity. combustiblebon in the ash. sulphur.
matters. coke.
Ohio .. . . . . . 7 1.327 34- 51 55.17 6.43 1.494
Illinos ... . . . . 2 1X310 31.95 59.o6 5.96 1.924
Indiana.. . . . . 3 1.313 35.93 54.24 7. 23 1946
General average. 12 1. 317 34-13 56.12 6.5 4 1.768
This comparison is more or less imperfect, because the sam-
ples, which were too few in number to make it complete, were
not averaged with special reference to it. Yet it measurably
corroborates opinions held by geologists and others in regard
147
I I
CHEMICAL REPORT.
to our two coal fields. For instance, it will be seen in the
general averages that the coals of the southwestern field have
more ash and sulphur, and a higher specific gravity, than those
of the northeastern, and that the relative proportions of the
combustible matters, volatile or fixed, are less in the former.
The differences, however, are not very remarkable.
In each of these particulars the coals from our neighboring
states of Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana, show less difference than
might have been expected, in view of the fact that they had
been collected from some of the most celebrated coal mines,
as representing the best coals of those States. The following
tables illustrate this:
TABLE OF THE EXTREMES OF COMPOSITION OF THE COALS.
Volatilecombus- Fixed carbon. Ashes. Sulphur.
CouNTIEs. tible matters.
From From From From
B1oyd . . . . . . . . . . 29.70 to 36.70 46.86 to 57.90 5. To to 14-74 1.285 to 5.36i
'.arter . . . . . . . . . 27.22 to 36.26 44.64 to 58.88 3.20 to 12.10 .724 to 3.443
V .reenup ....... . 31.66to 37.70 47.ooto 56.70 5.40to 13.00 .746 to 5.934
1awrence... . . . , 33-90t o 39 00o 47.84 to 57.80I.80 to 13.70.736 to 3.785
Menifee . . . . . . . 333. o6 to 34. 4 50. 24 to 56.60 7.40 to 13.6 .997 to 4.092
(;reatest extreme . . . 27.22 to 39.00 44.64 to 58. 88 I . 80 to 14.74 .724 to 5 .361
B'tler.... . 30.66 .. ..... 11.00 2.544
l .dmonson ., , , , , , , 32 2o0 to39.oo 45.46 to 54.26 6.94 to 14.34 1.059 to 8.685
;.rayson ..... . . . 25.86to 35.80 40.14to 55.52 7.50to 29.60 .777 to 3.565
1 1.pkins . . . . . . . . 30.00to 35,90 51 - 10to 54.oo 6.9oto 15.50 2.759 to 7.28o
Muhlenburg . . . . . . . 30.60 to 43 .0 49 . 80 to 58.80 3.72 to 11 .80 .640 to 4.032
Ohio.. . . .. 33-50to36.2052.20tO55.10 7.10to 9.00 2.837 to 3.332
Greatest extremes . . . 25.86 to 43.08 4014 to 58.80 3.72 to 29.60 .640 to 8.685
State of Ohio ... . .. . 29.68to 36.68 54. 5 16to 57.o6 4.20to 8.72 .756 to 2.247
State of Illinois .... . 31.86to32.04 55.64to59.54 5.s6to 6.76 m.376to2.472
Ste of Indiana. 35. 10 to 36.38 5 3.50 to 53.58 5.28to 9.oo i.664to2.373
Greatest extremes . . . 29.68 to 36.38 5350 to 59.54 4.20 to 9.000 .756 to 2472
148
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CHEMICAL REPORT.
TABLE OF THE COMPOSITION OF ELEVEN SELECTED
FROM SEVERAL COUNTIES.
I3
KENTUCKY COALS
Number. Specific Volatile Fixed car- Per cent. of Per cent. of
COUNTIES. gravity. combustiblebon in ash. sulphur.
matters. coke.
Boyd . . . . . . 1286 1.308 33.30 57.60 5.80 2.480
Boyd. . . . . .. 1289 1.320 34. 50 55.40 5.10 1.285
Carter.3 . 46.. 1 i.288 34.36 54.60 4.40 .724
Carter.347.3... . 1 .290 27.22 55.88 7.50. 973
Carter. 1353 1.274 34.50 58.50 3.20 2.164
Edmon son.34 1a8 1.336 35-14 54.26 6.94 2.706
Greenup.... .. . 1492 1.292 33.90 56.70 6.20 .746
Greenup.... .. . 1493 1.289 34.96 55-54 5.40 1.590
Hopkins. 1579 x .322 35.90 54.00 6.go9 2- 759
Lawrence. . . 1589 1.281 35.30 57.80 X.80 .73S
Lawrence. . .. . 1593 1.284 39.00 54-76 3.74 t1.o66
Generalaverage...... . 1.298 34.36 56.38 5.i8 .566
To show the great importance of collecting true and faithful
average samnples of the coal beds, for the purpose of analysis,
two picked cabinet specimens were taken and analyzed, to-wit:
No. 1280 (6). Coal No. 7, from Turkey-pen Hollow, Boyd countyt.
No. 1 348 (6). Coal No. 7, Prztchard's coal, Mt. Savage Fur--
nace, Carter county.
The comparative results of the analyses are as follows
thoroughly air-dried:
Picked sample. Ave'ge sample. Picked sample. Ave'ge sample.
No. 1280 (3). No. 1280 (a). No. 1348 (b). NO. 1348 (a).
Specific gravity... . .. . . Not determ'd. 1.358 Not determ'd. 1.435
Hygroscopic moisture... 4.70 3-40 4.50 5.40
Volatilecombustible matters.. 34-30 32.30 37.10 32-70
Coke . . . . . . . .. . 6,.co 64.30 58.40 6.9go
Total... . .. . . . . . 300.00 100.00 100.00 100.00
Total volatile matters 39.00 35-70 41.60 38. 10
Carbon in the coke..... . 59-04 55-40 56.40 52.52
Ash. . . . .. . . . . .. x.96 8. go 2.00 9.38
Total... . .. . . . . . 00.00 100.00 100.00 100.00
Per cmntage of sulphur... 0.983 1.230 0.571 2.356
149
As the value of a coal bed bears a very near relation to that
of its average product, it is easily to be understood that the
analysis of a selected sample may be of very little utility. On
the other hand, the selection of a true average sample of the
bed may often be a task of considerable difficulty.
The determination of the proportion of sulfphur in coals has
been much neglected in this country; and where it has been
done the method generally used has been to oxidate the pow-
dered coal in strong nitric or nitro-hydrochloric acid. This
mode of analysis is not so perfect as fusion with a mixture of
nitre, carbonate of soda, and salt, &c., which always, when
properly managed, brings all the sulphur into the form of sol-
uble sulphate, in whatever state it may have existed in the
coal. This exhaustive mode was employed in all our estima-
tions of this substance, and hence the quantities obtained may
seem greater than are shown to exist in similar coals which
have been treated with the acids.
As has now been extensively demonstrated, the sulphur in
coals is rarely all combined with iron as sulphide or bi-sul-
phide. Some frequently exists in a free or uncombined con-
dition, as is shown in an analysis described in the following
pages. Some of it is frequently in the form of lime sulphate.
When it is recollected that vegetable matters, decomposing
in a solution of sulphates of lime, magnesia, iron, &c., reduce
these salts to sulphides, with the production of hydrogen sul-
phide in the case of the earthy 'salts, and when we reflect that
this gaseous compound, HS, is decomposed, with the depo-
sition of free sulphur, on contact with the air, we can easily
understand how most of our coals must contain not only
pyrites but free sulphur.
In the thirty-four marls, marly shzales, sands, and silicious con-
ci-etions, which have been analyzed, we find a general preva-
lence of lime, fixed alkalies, phosphoric acid, sulphuric acid,
&c. Some of the marls and shales contain these in such con-
siderable proportions as to make them locally useful for the
amelioration of poor sandy land. Some of these find an ap-
plication as mineral paint, for which they are adapted by their
I ro
CHEMICAL REPORT.
14
CHEMICAL REPORT.
agreeable tint and other properties. Some of the more sili-
cious could be used in the manufacture of glass, as well as for
other purposes; some of post-tertiary silicious clays, or soft
sandstones, might be made into bricks for scouring purposes,
&c., while others, which contain but little lime, magnesia, oxide
of iron or alkalies, would prove quite refractory in the fire.
But the fire-clays and plastic clays of the coal fields, of which
the analyses of sixteen are appended, are especially deserving
attention; and from their abundance, superior quality, and
vicinity to fuel, should form the basis of extensive industries.
Amongst them may be fou'nd some of the best of fire-clays, as
well as some well-fitted to the manufacture of pottery ware of
various kinds, including the better sorts of delf, stone china,
or queensware. Skill, capital, and enterprise are all that are
needed, on these somewhat neglected deposits, to make them
of very great value to individuals as well as to the public.
Only the want of these essentials causes us to pay a heavy
tax to foreign nations for our pottery ware, when the materials
for the manufacture lie measurably neglected at home. It is
simply the history repeated of the importation of bricks from
Holland to build houses in Albany, and the packing of English
bricks, on the backs of horses, over the Alleghenies, to con-
struct the barracks at old Fort Duquesne on the Ohio.
The nineteen samples of pizg iron which have been analyzed
are mostly of the kind known as foundry iron. On reference
to the general table of their composition, it will be seen that
they present considerable variety in this respect; as for exam-
ple:
The per centage of iron ranges between .5.455 to 95.840
carbon . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 2.040 to4.400
phosphorus . .. .. .. . .. .. .. . 0.123to1.029
sulphur :. .. . .. .. .. .. a trace too. 150
The specific gravity . ... . ....... 6.406 to7.782
Of the numerous mineral waers of our State the analyses
of twenty-one are given in the present report, mostly from one
locality.
151
I 5
CHEMICAL REPORT.
BATH COUNTY.
No. 1269LIMONITE IRON ORE. "From Block-house ore bank,
one and a halfmiles from the Old Slate Furnace, Bath county.
Bed ten to twelve feet thick; on the Clinton Group. Collected
by Philip N. Moore."
Ore generally dense and dark-colored, with some dark
ochreous ore. Structure cellular and oolitic.
COMPOSITION, DRIED AT 2120 F.
Iron, peroxide ............... . 76.077 = 53.254 per cent. of iron.
Alumina... .. . .. .. .. . .. .. . 2.592
Manganese, brown oxide......... . . .430
Lime, carbonate.... .. . .. .3... . . .30
Magnesia................. . 281
Sulphuric acid.............. 030 = o.oi0 per cent. of sulphur.
Phosphoric acid.... ... . .. . . 731 = .319 per cent. of phosphorus.
Water, expelled at red heat........ . . 12.300
Silica and insoluble silicates .8......... S. i..8 6. 16o per cent. of silica.
100.751
The phosphoric acid determination was made by Chancel's
process, viz: by means of acid nitrate of bismuth solution,
after the separation of the iron oxide, and is believed to be
nearly correct. The iron ore in the Clinton Group, especial-
ly the "e dye-stone ore," is usually quite phosphatic. This does
not prevent it from being quite valuable for the production
of iron for many purposes, although it may not be made to
yield the higher grades of bar iron or steel.
BARREN COUNTY.
No. 1421-LIMESTONE. "Oslitic Limestone. Upper layers of
upper sub-carboniferous limestone. Glasgow Junction, Barren
county. Collected by Prof. N. S. Shaler."
A compact, nearly white, fine oolitic limestone, with a fer-
ruginous stain on the exposed surfaces probably derived from
the superincumbent soil.
No. 1422-LIMESTONE (compact). "Upper Sub-carboniferous
Limestone. Glasgow Junction. Collected by N. S. Shaler."
A light-grey, fine granular, or compact limestone, which
might be a good lithographic stone but for the presence of
some imbedded fossils and minute specks of iron peroxide.
15.
CHEMICAL REPORT.
No. 1423-LIMESTONE. Labeled Litlwgraphic Slone; be/ow the
building stone. Upper sub-carboniferous limestone. Glasgow
Junction. Collected by Prof. JV. S. Shaler."
A light-grey, compact, or very fine granular rock, which
might be a perfect lithographic stone but for the minute im-
bedded fossils and the small occasional specks of iron per-
oxide, &c., which it contains. Some layers, however, are
reported measurably free from these imperfections, and found
to be good enough, on actual trial, for some ordinary litho-
graphic purposes.
COMPOSITION OF THESE BARREN COUNTY LIMESTONES, DRIED AT 2120 F.
No. 142x. NO. 1422. No. 1423.
Specific gravity.2................ . .. 678 2.721 2.689
Lime, carbonate .98.050 77.550 82.960
Magnesia, carbonate.... . .. . .. . .. . . .363 ' 3. 14 7. 655
Alumina, and iro