xt7nvx05xs7w https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7nvx05xs7w/data/mets.xml Peter, Robert, 1805-1894. 1885 books b97-22-37599595 English J.D. Woods, public printer and binder, : [Frankfort] : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Geology, Economic Analysis.Peter, Alfred Meredith, 1857- Chemical report of the soils, coals, ores, clays, marls, iron, slags, mineral waters, rocks, &c., of Kentucky / by Robert Peter-- assisted by Alfred M. Peter. text Chemical report of the soils, coals, ores, clays, marls, iron, slags, mineral waters, rocks, &c., of Kentucky / by Robert Peter-- assisted by Alfred M. Peter. 1885 2002 true xt7nvx05xs7w section xt7nvx05xs7w
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF KENTUCKY.
JOHN R. PROCTER, DIRECTOR.
CHENIICAL
RIPOR ET
OF THE
Soils. Coals, Ores, Clays, Marls, Iron, Slags, Mineral Waters, Rocks, Etc.,
OF KENTUCKY.
BY ROBERT PETER, M. D., ETC., ETC.,
CHEMIST TO THE SURVEY,
ASSISTED BY ALFRED M. PETER, S. MI.
The fifth Report in the New Series, and the ninth since the be-
ginning of the Geological Survey.
JOHN D. WOODS, PUBLIC PRINTER AND BINDER.
INTRODUCTORY NOTE.
CHEMICAL LABORATORY OF KENTUCKY GEOLOGICAL SURVEY,I
STATE A. AND M. COLLEGE, LEXINGTON, Dec., i883. f
JOHN R. PROCTER, Director of Kentucky Geological Survey:
DEAR SIR: Herewith I respectfully submit to you the report
of the chemical work performed in this laboratory for the Geo-
logical Survey since the publication of my last report.
Yours, etc., ROBERT PETER.
CHEMICAL REPORT.
In the present report the results are given of more than two
hundred chemical analyses. There are of
Soils and subsoils ................ . 16
Coals.. .................. .......... 112
Cokes ... . . ........... ............ 19
Mineral wate.- .. 26
Limestones.. 19
Sandstones........................... . 2
Clays. . 2
Iron ores . .15
Pig irons and slags . . ..... ...... 4
Marls, ochre, coprolite. . .... .. 3
Total. . . .... 218
The SOILS AND SUBSOILs are from four counties only, viz.:
MIorgan, Nelson, Shelby, and Spencer, representing, respect-
ively, coal measures, upper Silurian, and upper Hudson river
formation soils.
The six coal-measures soils from Morgan county, with the
exception of the virgin woodland soils, do not probably repre-
sent the best average soil of that region, having been collected
on the water-shed of the Licking river, where they have been
subjected to the leaching action of the atmospheric waters, or on
the bottom land bordering the stream. But they all may be
profitably cultivated under favorable conditions. It will be seen
that the subsoil contains less carbonate of lime than the surface
soil, also less of rocky fragments, and the old-field soils show in
every case a dimunition of the essential elements of fertility as
the result of continued cultivation.
The Shelby county soils, except No. 2436, which is on the
upper Silurian formation, are located on the upper Hudson
river beds. Nos. 2430, 243i, and 3432 contain more than
the average proportions of all the essential elements of fertility,
and less than the average of sand and silicates, and should
therefore be quite fertile under favorable conditions. Numbers
CHENTICAL REPORT.
2433 and 2435 are remarkable for their large proportions of
organic and volatile matters, alumina, etc., etc., and especially of
carbonate of lime, TNto. 2435 containing as much as 25.245 per
cent. of that ingredient, constituting it a kind of marl, and No.
2433 contains 4.695 per cent. more than has been observed in
any other Kentucky soil heretofore analyzed. Their propor-
tions of potash, extracted by acids, is also exceptionally large, be-
ing 2.0I5 per cent. in No. 2433 and I.772 per cent. in No. 2435.
They also contain much less than the usual quantity of sand
and insoluble silicates, these being in the proportion of 6i.045
per cent. in the former and only 47.295 in the latter soil. The
former contains 8.2 per cent. of fragments of calcareous fossils
and rock fragments, and the latter, which is a subsoil, as much
as 41.2 per cent., and should be discounted in these proportions.
A certain small quantity of lime in the soil is essential to pro-
ductiveness, as this substance is an indispensable element of all
vegetable structures, and the influence of very large proportions
of carbonate of lime on the soil has been ascertained to a cer-
tain extent by practical experiment and observation.
Applied in quantity to a heavy, wet, clay soil, lime, which
soon becomes carbonate, makes it more light and friable, lessens
its tendency to shrink and swell in dry and wet seasons, and
allows water to evaporate from it more freely. But when the
carbonate of lime is in too large proportion, untempered by clay,
it forms a soil which parts with its water too readily, and be-
comes so light in times of drought that its surface may be blown
away by the wind, conditions unfavorable to vegetation. The
chemical relations of carbonate of lime are quite important. In
contact with the insoluble silicates of the soil, it favors their de-
composition, setting free, in a soluble form, their potash, soda,
phosphoric acid, etc. It also greatly aids the decomposition, in
the moist soil, of the organic matters present, causing the more
rapid formation of carbonic acid and water and favoring the pro-
duction of ammonia and nitrates-all essential food of plants.
It also has the valuable property of absorbing and holding for
the nourishment of vegetation, organic matters, ammonia, and
other nitrogen compounds, and the phosphoric acid, which may
4
I 58
CHEMICAL REPORT.
be in the air or water which penetrate the soil. Within proper
limits, therefore, this ingredient of soils is very valuable, and the
farmers of England especially, habitually apply it to their culti-
vated soils.
The old-field soil, No. 2434, from the same locality as these
two calcareous soils, is remarkable for containing much smaller
proportions of carbonate of lime and of the other essential in-
gredients than those, although it contains more than average
quantities. It differs from them greatly also in its 83.3 I per cent.
of sand and insoluble silicates, and in containing no calcareous
fossils or rock fragments, seeming to show that, although on the
same farm, it may be located on a different geological sub-
stratum or bed.
The two Spencer county soils, soil and subsoil, from a very
old field located on the upper Hudson river beds, yet retain
full average proportions of the essential elements, organic mat-
ters, or humus, excepted. The surface soil contains more than
average sand and silicates and phosphoric acid, less than average
proportions of organic matters and potash, and about averages
of alumina, lime, and magnesia. The subsoil contains more
than average proportions of alumina, etc., phosphoric acid and
potash, less than average of organic matters and sand and sili-
cates, and about average lime and magnesia. Its proportion of
potash is much above the average, and in both organic matters
are quite deficient.
More than twenty years ago the late Prof. Liebig, then as
now an ii authority " on agricultural chemistry, promulgated his
opinion, based, as we believe, on imperfect data, that the chemi-
cal analysis of soils is of no practical value. At once all the
authors at second-hand took up the cry, and to this day copyists
and others who have no taste for this kind of investigation, or
who had not been trained to appreciate the value of its indica-
tions, while in accordance with the progress of agricultural
chemistry they are obliged to attach great importance to the
presence or absence of certain elements of fertility in soils, still
keep up an inconsistent opposition to this mode of interrogating
nature in aid of agriculture. One principal argument used by
S
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CHEMICAL REPORT.
these objectors is that the acid solvents used by the chemists in
their analyses differ from the natural agents of solution by which
the soil elements are made available for plant growth. But
Liebig himself measurably destroyed the force of this objection
when he called attention to the fact that plants do not derive
their soil ingredients from the so-called " soil water" alone, but
exert, through their rootlets, a direct solvent action on the parti-
cles of the soil; and the solvent is proved to be an acid one.
The present writer, in experiments detailed in a previous report,
proved that strong acids, such as oxalic and phosphoric acids,
enter into the composition of this peculiar solvent or digestive
fluid of plants, by means of which solid ingredients of the soil
are dissolved and made available for their nourishment and
growth.
Time and experience have gradually set aside most of the
objections which were made to this mode of studying the char-
acter and value of soils, and in a new country no other method
is known by which the capabilities of the virgin soil can be so
cheaply, speedily and certainly estimated. More especially is
this true in Kentucky, where the soils have mostly been formed
in place by the disintegration of the subjacent rocks, and not of
transported materials.
We may briefly recapitulate some of the peculiar uses of soil
analysis:
i. To teach the natural capabilities of the soil; its present
probable fertility and durability under existing conditions.
2. To detect elements or conditions injurious to plant growth,
and point out available remedies.
3. To show any surplus or deficiency of essential elements,
and indicate the best remedies-fertilizers or mechanical agencies.
A good analysis of the soil of a homogeneous field may be
beneficial for ages, if properly understood and judiciously taken
as a guide in culture and the application of fertilizers.
A good exemplification of these facts appeared in -a letter
from Charles Bernard to the New York Evening Post, in I 87I,
giving an account of the extraordinary farming operations of
See Vol. V., Ky. Geological Reports, N. S., pp. 239, 244.
6
i6o
CHEMICAL REPORT.
Mr. John Prout, of London, on a worn-out clay farm of four
hundred and fifty acres, near the town of Sawbridgeworth, in
Hertford county, which were then making quite a stir in England.
With underdraining, deep plowing, and the use of chemical fer-
tilizers, bone-dust, superphosphates, etc., etc., without any barn-
yard manure, he soon caused the unproductive soil to bear the
largest crops ever known in the country.
To obtain this high and profitable improvement, Mr. Prout
kept a chemist constantly employed on his farm, who reported
regularly the composition of the soil of each field, and directed
and superintended the application of the chemicals and fertil-
izers to make and keep the land fertile and productive. And
Mr. Bernard reported the standing crops, which he personally
examined, on the several fields to be, I without exception, of most
extraordinary vigor and abundance." But the most remarkable
novelty of Mr. Prout's management was that as the crops
ripened they were all sold at auction and entirely removed by
the purchasers from the ground, "s so that the harvesting and
marketing occupy one day." This plan was successfully con-
tinued year after year, and Mr. Prout's books showed a greater
net profit than was obtained by any farmer in the country,
although he expended 5,750 a year for fertilizers alone. Late
reports, if the writer is not misinformed, stated that he was yet
successfully carrying out this improved agriculture.
The one hundred and twelve Kentucky COALS analyzed,
which are here reported, are from eighteen counties, viz.: Bell,
Breathitt, Carter, Elliott, Floyd, Johnson, Knox, Laurel, Law-
rence, Letcher, Magoffin, Martin, Morgan, Muhlenberg, Perry,
Pike, Pulaski, and Whitley.
For comparison with our Kentucky coals, three samples each
from Alabama and Tennessee and one from West Virginia
were collected and analyzed, and the analyses of four celebrated
Pennsylvania coking coals made by the chemist of the Geolog-
ical Survey of that State are copied.
Of the samples of Kentucky coals, eighteen were of cannel
coals. Of these the average volatile combustible matters, includ-
ing No. 2291, (which, having as much as 20.60 per cent. of ash,
7
i6i
CHEMICAL REPORT.
might probably be excluded as belonging rather to the bitumin-
ous shales than coals,) was 46.32 per cent. The average ash
percentage of the cannel coals examined, excluding No. 2291,
was 9.36: varying from 2.20 per cent. in No. 2369, Letcher
county, to i9.50 in No. 238i, of Morgan county. It will be
seen by reference to the table that several of the Kentucky
cannel coals are more than equal in gas-making or gas-improv-
ing power, to the cannel coal of West Virginia, which is much
used for that purpose.
The specific gravity of the coals, here reported, varies from
i.i9i in No. 2354, of Letcher, with an ash percentage of only
2.60, to 1.634 in No. 2286, in Carter, with an ash percentage of
40.00. This latter, however, should more properly be called a
bituminous shale than a coal. It is proposed to draw the line
between these shales and coals proper on the ash percentage of
20.00, giving the name shale to all which have a greater per-
centage than this.
The volatile combustible matters of these coals (excluding the
cannel coals) varies from 22.70 per cent. in No. 2346, from
Letcher, which had an ash percentage of 9.54, to 40.90 per
cent. in No. 2354, of Letcher, which had an ash percentage of
only 2.60.
Thefixed carbon in the coke varied from 33.76 per cent. in
No. 2381, of Morgan county, to 67.60 per cent. in No. 2404, of
Pike.
The sulphur varied from 4.527 per cent. in No. 2385, from
Morgan county, to 0.390 per cent. in No. 2405, of Pike county.
Those coals which have the largest proportion of fixed carbon
with the smallest percentage of sulphur are the best fitted for
coking purposes, provided they have enough volatile combustible
matters to cause them to soften and become porous in coking,
and to afford heat enough by their combustion to effect the pro-
cess without burning fixed carbon.
Cannel coals do not make good coke for the iron-smelting
furnace, because, although they give more volatile combustible
matter than most other coals, they do not soften much or become
porous in coking. The so-called bituminous or soft coals, gen-
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i62
CHEMICAL REPORT.
erally soften ard swell too much for this use, and their coke
consequently will not support the burden in the high furnace.
But the so-called splint, or semi-cannel coal, known in Indiana
as "s block coal," of which variety there is a vast quantity in
Kentucky, characterized by its laminated structure and firm con-
sistence, softens and swells less than the soft bituminous coal
when exposed to heat, becoming a dense, firm coke with small
pores, and consequently it is largely used without coking in
the smelting of iron.
The softer and purer varieties of this coal, such as are found
in Pike and other counties, are admirably adapted to the pro-
duction of good coke, which compares most favorably with the
best and most celebrated cokes of Pennsylvania. (See context,
Bell and Pike counties, and Table II.)
Cannel coal, when heated, gives off without softening much
combustible gas, which burns with a clear, luminous flame, from
which it derived its name-cannel (Scotch) or candle coal. It
owes this peculiar property to the fact that it contains oxygen in
large proportion to its hydrogen and carbon. The soft bitumin-
ous coal, on the other hand, contains but little oxygen; its gas,
mainly composed of hydro-carbons, burns with a more smoky
flame, and it appproaches in physical properties the " bitumens"
proper.
Anthracite coal is not to be found in Kentucky. This con-
tains little or no volatile combustible matter, being mainly
carbon and of the nature of a dense, compact coke. The
Broad Top coking coal of Pennsylvania approaches anthracite
in its large percentage of fixed carbon. (See Table III, and
under Pike county.)
In the analysis of coals much depends on the collection of
average samples of the bed. This has been carefully done in
most cases, and in some samples of the several benches or
layers have been separately collected and analyzed.
Of the nineteen cokes which have been analyzed, sixteen are
from eight counties in Kentucky, and two are of the Jellico
Mountain Coal and Coke Company's coke. The analysis of the
celebrated Connellsville coke of Pennsylvania is copied from the
Special Report L, of the second Pennsylvania Geological Survey.
9
i63
CHEMICAL REPORT.
The average percentage of fixed carbon in the sixteen Ken-
tucky cokes is 90.6i, including the very impure coke, No. 2326,
of Hopkins county, which was made of unwashed impure slack
coal; or, excluding this very exceptional sample, the fixed car-
bon average is 91.I05 per cent., even when another very impure
sample, No. 2325, from the same locality, is included; ranging
from 77.20 per cent. in No. 2326, up to 95.70 per cent. in No.
2342, of Laurel county.
The ash percentage averages 7.44 per cent, including No.
2326, and 6.6o per cent. when this very impure coke is excluded;
ranging from only 2.60 per cent. in No. 2449, of Whitley county,
up to 13.80 per cent. in No. 2325, of Hopkins county, while it
is 20.80 per cent. in the excluded sample, No. 2326.
The percentage of sulcphur in these Kentucky cokes is i.o88
per cent., including the very impure No. 2326, or 0.907 per cent.
when this sample is excluded; ranging from only 0.517 in No.
2414, of Pike county, up to 3.799 in No. 2326, of Hopkins
county, above described.
Table III shows, however, that so far as chemical composition
is concerned all of the Kentucky cokes reported, with two or
three exceptions only, equal or excel the celebrated Connells-
ville coke of Pennsylvania, and there is no doubt that Kentucky
possesses a large area of coal which is eminently fitted for the
smelting of iron ores, either in the coked or uncoked condition.
Of the fourteen iron ores reported from Greenup, Johnson,
and Pike counties, nothing especially new is to be stated. Num-
bers 2309, 2310, 2312, and 23i6 contain a fair proportion of
manganese, but not enough to make them available for the
manufacture of spiegeleisen, used in the Bessemer steel process.
In this connection, however, attention is called to a sample sent
to the Chemical Laboratory of the Kentucky Geological Survey
for analysis, in i858 or i859, by Messrs. Lampton, Nicholl &
Co., the proprietors of Star Furnace, Carter county, labeled by
them No. 6 and designated as "black ore," which on analysis
was found to contain manganese equivalent to 39.677 per cent.
of its brown oxide. (See Vol. 4, 0. S., Kentucky Geological
Reports, pp. io6-7, No. 862 ) It is described as a " dark-col-
.0
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CHEMICAL REPORT.
ored, friable ore; a nodular mass, with a soft brownish-yellow
nucleus." If this ore is abundant it might be made useful in
the manufacture of Bessemer steel.
The nineteen limestones described are from seven counties,
viz.: Carter, Fayette, Franklin, Mercer, Nelson, Shelby, and
Spencer; from the coal measures, upper silurian, chazy, upper
Hudson, and Trenton formations. They vary greatly in their
composition, as may be seen in the following comparative state-
ment. Of the eleven samples of phosphatic limestone from the
Trenton (lower silurian) formation of Fayette county, only their
relative proportion of phosphoric acid was estimated. In the
other eight different limestones;
The Carbonate of Lime ranged
From 96.380 per cent. in No. 2290, coal-measures limestone, of Carter county,
To 40.780 per cent. in No. 2437, upper silurian ..... . of Shelby county.
The Carbonate of Magnesia ranged
From 80.720 per cent. in No. 2378, chazy limestone, . of Mercer county,
To 1.135 per cent. in No. 2290, coal-measures limestone, . of Carter county.
The Alumina and Iron Oxide, etc., ranged
From 10.550 per cent. in No. 2379, chazy limestone, ... . of Mercer county,
To .980 per cent. in No. 2290, coal-measures limestone, . of Carter county.
The Phosphoric Acid in the Nineteen ranged
From 11.650 per cent. in No. 2292-3, Trenton limestone, . . of Fayette county,
To a trace . . . in No. 2290, coal-measures limestone . of Carter county.
And the Siltiious Residue in the Eight ranged
From 25.520 per cent. in No. 2437, upper silurian ..... . of Nelson county,
To .380 per cent. in No. 2290, coal-measures limestone, . of Carter county.
The alkalies, potash, and soda were determined only in the
three limestones from Nelson and Spencer counties, all three
from the upper Hudson river beds. The potash in the Nelson
county limestones is severally 0.423 and 0.443 per cent., and
the soda 0.248 and 0.254 per cent. In that of Spencer county
they exist in the proportions of 0.154 per cent. of potash and
0.212 of soda. In this limestone the phosphoric acid is equal to
1.842 per cent.; in that from Franklin county (lower Trenton)
the phosphoric acid is 2.968 per cent., and in No. 2394, Nelson
county, it is 1.202 per cent.
It will be seen that the coal-measures limestone is a remark-
ably pure carbonate of lime, which would give nearly 54 per
cent. of pure, white quick-lime, containing but little magnesia,
alumina, and iron oxide, manganese and silica. The limestones,
I I
x65
CHEMICAL REPORT.
No. 2395 and 2437, from Nelson and Shelby counties, would
probably yield good hydraulic cements, and those which have a
large proportion of phosphoric acid are well fitted for improve-
ment of soils, as well as for all the ordinary uses of lime or lime-
stones.
Of the twenty-six mineral waters examined, only twenty were
submitted to quantitative analysis; and as these were analyzed
in samples sent to the laboratory in bottles, etc., the proportions
of the gases in them could not be determined with accuracy.
Five, from Anderson, Boyle, and Ohio counties, are sulphur
waters, so-called from the presence in them of hydrogen sul-
phide gas, and as in the case with No. 2262, of Anderson county,
a smali proportion of sodium sulphide. Five, all from Boyle
county, are chalybeate waters, so-called because they contain a
notable quantity of compounds of iron, and ten, from Bell, Boyle,
Kenton, and Logan counties, are denominated saline waters,
from the predominance of alkaline and earthy salts in the com-
position of their saline materials.
The sulphur waters vary considerably in their saline contents,
some of them, such as Nos. 2274, 2275, and 2276, are called
"black sulphur waters," from the circumstance that the iron
carbonate, which they contain in notable proportions, varying in
the several springs, undergoes decomposition, together with the
hydrogen sulphide gas, when the water is exposed to the atmos-
phere, and the sulphur of the gas uniting with the iron of the
carbonate produce a black sulphide of iron, which forms the
deposit from which the water takes its name. The black sul-
phur waters, which should be used only fresh at the spring, are
always somewhat chalybeate. The Boyle county sulphur waters,
with the exception of No. 2275, which is simply a chalybeate
sulphur water, contain enough saline matters to make them
slightly aperient, especially No. 2276. In this respect No. 2379,
from Ohio county, resembles them, but it contains much more
sulphate of lime. The sulphur water from Anderson county, No.
2262, exceeds them all in its proportion of saline matter, mostly
sodium chloride-common salt-and is a stronger and more
durable sulphur water because of its sodium sulphide. In this
,2
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CHEMICAL REPORT.
respect it resembles the celebrated Blue Lick water. It, like
most of the others, contains traces of bromine, lithia, etc. The
Boyle county sulphur waters are also slightly alkaline, from the
presence of carbonate of soda. This is especially the case with
black sulphur, No. 2274, which may therefore be more diuretic
than the others. No. 2276 comes nearest to it in this respect.
The five chalybeate waters are all from Boyle county. They
are of two kinds, those which contain bi-carbonate of iron, such
as Nos. 2269, 227i, and 2272, and those which contain sulphate
of iron, viz.: Nos. 2270 and 2273. The latter, having 10.485
per thousand of saline matters, contains as much as 2.676i of
sulphate of iron and 5.3477 per thousand of sulphate of alumina.
It is more properly to be called an alum water than a chalybeate,
and is too strong in these salts to be commonly used internally.
It also, like No. 2270, is acid from the presence of free suphuric
acid. The safest chalybeates are those which contain the iron
in the form of bi-carbonate, which is the case with Nos. 2269,
227i, and 2272; of these the first named is the weakest. On
exposure of these waters to the air, the bi-carbonate of iron,
which is held in solution in the carbonated water, is changed
into insoluble hydrated peroxide of iron, which falls as a brown-
ish or reddish sediment. Hence such water should always be
drank fresh from the spring, unless care is taken to exclude the
air perfectly by inclosing it, without much agitation, in bottles
with tightly-fitting glass stoppers.
The ten salinewaters, from Bell, Boyle, Kenton, and Logan
counties, may be divided into chloride and sulphate water. No.
2280 (a) is the only one which comes under the first division, and
is simply a weak salt water, containing i3.878 per thousand of
sodium chloride-common salt-the remainder of its 19.200 of
total saline matters is composed of carbonates of lime and mag-
nesia, and sulphates of potash, lime, and magnesia, with traces
of lithia and strontia. The other nine saline waters mostly con-
tain sulphates of lime, magnesia, potash, and soda, with a small
proportion of chlorides, and carbonates of lime, magnesia, soda,
and iron, all in variable proportions. Some, as No. 2263, from
Bell county, and No. 2277, from Boyle county, contain so little
13
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CHEMICAL REPORT.
saline matters-o. 1077 and 0.102I severally-in a thousand
parts of the water, that they can not properly be included under
the head of mineral waters, they being remarkably pure potable
waters. No. 2280 (a), with its o.686 of Iotalsaline matters, comes
very nearly under the same classification.
According to recent reports of the influence of potable waters
upon the health of communities, a certain amount of saline
matter in the water is useful and necessary to health, provided
these mineral substances have representatives in the animal
economy, which is the case with lime, magnesia, iron, potash,
soda, sulphuric acid, phosphoric acid, chlorine, etc., etc.; but if
the potable water is too pure-too free from these wholesome
saline matters-" the health of the community using it suffers."
The recognized healthy proportion of such saline matters " does
not exceed 0.500 in the thousand of water, nor fall below o. I30
to the thousand." It is evident, however, that this statement
would not apply in all localities.
Notwithstanding these facts it is well known that some of the
most celebrated waters in the world-widely known from their
great curative action in many cases of disease-are found to be,
on analysis, like Nos. 2263 and 2277, nearly pure water; and
the demonstration is thus given that in certain conditions of the
animal economy, where a depurative remedy is necessary or ap-
propriate, the free use of pure water becomes a good curative
agency when applied with discretion.
The remainder of these saline waters contain sulphates of
lime, magnesia, potash, and soda, etc., in sufficient quantities to
make them laxative in their action. Some, as Nos. 2280, 2278,
and 2263, contain some carbonate of soda. All have a small
quantity of carbonate of iron, especially No. 2371, of Logan
county, which has 0.326 of this material, making it notably cha-
lybeate, and No. 2278, of Boyle, which contains 0.102 per
thousand.
Under the head of Boyle county is the description of certain
coprolites, No. 228i, found at the base of the WVaverley beds,
See nrticle "Eaux Potables,' par A. Gautier. (JVurtz: Dictionnaire de Chemie, etc.
T. 1 Part. 2. p. 1200.)
14
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CHEMICAL REPORT.
which gave on analysis as much as 29.I per cent. of phosphoric
anhydride (P2 05). Under that of Floyd county, No. 2304, are
described certain other phosphatic concretions, of irregular coni-
cal and somewhat spiral forms, probably coprolites, which are
found in apparently a more recent clay, which have the property
of changing from their original light-grey to a grey-blue color
on exposure to the atmosphere-which gave as much as 8 per
cent. of phosphoric anhydride.
A sandstone, No. 2393, from Nelson county, Boston district,
collected by Mr. Linney in the black Devonian slate formation,
very full of fossil relics of fishes, etc., gave on analysis i i.162
per cent. of phosphoric anhydride-equivalent to 24.372 per
cent. of bone phosphate.
ANDERSON COUNTY.
NO. 2262-MINERAL WATER: -From a bored well, eighty, feet
deep. Sample sent by Henry S. Carl, of Lawrenceburg." Re-
ceived October 2, 1883.
A sulphur water. It had made a slight light-grey deposit in
the bottles.
COMPOSITION, ill 1000 Parts of the Water.
Hydrogen sulphide and carbonic acid gases . Not estimated.
Iron carbonate .. . ......... 0.0046
Lime carbonate.... .. .. . . .. .1827 oeldinsolution d.car-
Magnesia carbonate..... . .. .. .. .1434acid.
Lime sulphate..... .. .. . .. .. . 0700
Potash sulphate. ......... . 0441
Calcium chloride. ........ . .0314
Magnesium chloride .. ......... . 1140
Sodium chloride . . .......... 4.5000
Sodiumsulphide.... .. . .. .. .. .0410
Silica.... .. . .. .. .. . .. .. .0236
Lithia, bromine, etc., etc ........ . . Not estimated.
Total saline matters . . . . . . . . . . 5.1648 in 1000 parts of the water.
A good saline sulphur water, very slightly chalybeate, resem-
bling in general properties the celebrated Blue Lick water, but
containing somewhat less saline matters than that. The amount
of the gases and of the minuter ingredients could only be ascer-
tained by operating on the water fresh at the well and in larger
quantities than was furnished for the present analysis.
15
169
CHEMICAL REPORT.
BELL COUNTY.
NO.2263-" MINERAL WATER: From Clear Creek Springs, about
four miles above Pineville." Collected by Roger C. Ballard,
July ri, z883.
The water was brought in half-gallon glass preserve bottles,
with tight metal covers and rubber collars. It had no percepti-
ble odor when received at the laboratory, although Mr.- Ballard
states it smells of hydrogen sulphide at the spring. It was
almost tasteless and perfectly colorless, with a very slight flocu-
lent, brownish deposit in the bottles. " The inhabitants of the
region believe they derive benefit from its use as a mineral
water.
COMPOSITION, in 1000 Parts of the Water.
Carbonate of lime..... .. . .. .. . 0.0356 Held in solution by car-
Carbonate of magnesia..... .. . .. . Trace. t bonic acid.
Sulphate of lime............. . . 0056
Sulphate of magnesia ......... .. . .0246
Chloride of calcium ........ . .... .0027
Carbonate of soda ... . .. ....... .0316
Silica.... .. .. . .. . .. .. . .. .0076
Iron oxide, alumina, etc ........... . Trace.
Total saline matters ... . . . . .... 0.1077 in 1000 parts of the water.
This is nearly a pure water, which could not strictly be classed
with mineral waters proper. This, however, does not prevent it
from exerting a curative influence in many cases, as it is well
known that several so-called mineral waters celebrated because
of the cures attributed to their use have been found, by analysis,
to be almost pure water. Pure water i