295 



Homes of American Authors. 8vo. New York, 1853. 



Treatise on Landscape Gardening and Rural Architecture. 

 4th Edition. By A. J. Downing. 8vo. New York, 1852. 



Life and Works of John Adams. Vols. 6, 7. 8vo. Boston, 

 1852. 



Works of Antonio Canova, in Sculpture and Modelling. 

 3 vols. 4to. London, 1849. 



January 5, 1853. 

 The President in the Chair. 



Dr. C. T. Jackson gave an account of the processes now 

 in operation in Sussex County, New Jersey, for the extrac- 

 tion of Iron from the ore called Franklinite, which abounds 

 in that locality. 



» 



This mineral has been known for more than a hundred years, 



and numerous attempts have been made to work it for iron, but 

 always without success from the loss of heat caused by the sub- 

 limation of the zinc entering into its composition, resulting in 

 the formation of a Salamander, so called, by which the furnaces 

 were clogged and rendered useless. The recent use of Anthra- 

 cite coal has overcome this difficulty, and an immense supply of 

 the best iron ore is now at the command of the miners. The 

 Franklinite contains twenty per cent, of zinc, seventeen of oxide 

 of manganese, and the rest is peroxide of iron, with a small pro- 

 portion of protoxide. The mineral is peculiar to the locality, 

 and, after the separation of the zinc, furnishes an ore valuable for 

 the manufacture of the best kinds of bar iron and steel. The 

 iron obtained is granular, containing no carbon, bright on the 

 broken surface, and remaining so, presenting no trace of zinc on 

 analysis, and but from five and a half to six per cent, of manga- 

 nese. Most cast irons contain six or seven per cent, of graphite, 

 but this contains but one, and that on the surface. Thus the man- 



