OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 289 
Although there has not been a quarry opened in the State, for procuring flagstones, with a single 
exception, in Greenville, I am persuaded that any demand could be supplied. 
Fire Proor Matertatzs. 
Those acquainted with the manufacture of jiron, know the importance of a supply of materials 
that resist the destructive influence of intense heat. For furnace hearths, there is no material equal 
to granular quartz, and the more granular the better. The King’s Mountain range furnishes the best 
specimens of this rock, in the State, and localities are well known at the Iron Works. Next to this, 
in refractory properties, stands fire clay, which is found side by side with the quartz rock and iron 
ore, in a bed of some thickness; it is derived from the decomposition of felspar. It has been made 
into brick, in York, and although formed in the ordinary way, I was told that they answered very 
well for the lining of the furnaces at the Iron Works. 
Fire bricks, however, require another operation; they are first made and burned in the ordinary 
way ; these are pulverised, and sifted so as the largest particles may not exceed buckshot in size ; 
this is mixed with the clay, and some clean quartz sand; and from it the bricks are moulded and 
burned. 
Soapstone, taleose and mica slates, answer very well for resisting ordinary degrees of heat, and 
may be used for the lining of limekilns, &c. The less silicious they are the better. 
Soapstone has, of late years, assumed considerable importance in the arts. It is used in lining 
stoves, fire-grates, culinary furnaces, &c., and is sent from N. England, to every part of the country, 
The soapstone of this State, as I have shown, is abundant and of fine quality, yet it has no where 
been explored. 
There is a peculiar rock in the lower part of Edgefield, which stands fire very well ; it resembles 
soapstone, but is evidently altered trap; it is of a reddish color, and when sawed, presents a hand- 
some appearance. 
MaveriaLs ror Porrery. 
I have in the body of this report mentioned particularly the localities of porcelain clay, which 
abounds in the buhrstone formation. The manufacture of fine porcelain requires the highest degree 
of skill, and considerable capital; but stone ware, and the better sorts of common pottery, could be 
manufactured profitably at any of these localities; and I deem it quite a favorable circumstance, 
that some of the best deposits of this clay occur on the lands of the Graniteville Manufacturing Com- 
pany, and in the vicinity of their works. 
A fine bed, entirely free from iron, is found north of Hamburg; the same may be said of the beds 
on Congaree creek. Hnormous quantities occur in the sand hills near Graniteville; and what is very 
interesting, there are also beds of pure white quartz sand, that will be valuable, should the clay ever 
be used for pottery. ‘The less pure varieties will make fire bricks and if the finer porcelain clay be 
not used, it may be exported, asit is but a few miles from the Savannah. 
In Cornwall and Devon, where, according to De la Beche, a vast amount of this clay is annually 
exported, it is known in two forms, that in which it requires no preparation, being the fine clay 
without quartz grains, and deposited from suspension in water, this is called natural china clay; 
and the other, which is prepared as 1 am about to describe, is called artificial china clay. Near the de- 
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