BORAX. 



BY JOSEPH STRUTHERS. 



[Joseph Struthers, mineralogist; born at New York city in 1865, and attended 

 the School of Mines, Columbia college (now Columbia university), graduating in 

 the course of chemistry in 18S5; for fifteen years after his graduation he was on the 

 staff of instructors of the department of metallurgy at Columbia university ; organ- 

 ized and conducted the first summer school in practical metallurgy of Columbia 

 university (1896), which was at Butte, Mont. Dr. Struthers has visited many 

 metallurgical plants in the United States and Europe, and he has carried on special 

 metallurgical investigations; he has written numerous articles for the Engineering 

 and Mining Journal, Mineral Resources of the United States, Twelfth Census of the 

 United States and School of Mines Quarterly, and is assistant editor of the Transac- 

 tions of the American Institute of Mining Engineers; appointed Field Assistant to 

 the United States Geological Survey for 1901 and 1902, and in May, 1903, special 

 agent for the United States census.] 



The occurrence of borax in the United States was dis- 

 covered in Cahfornia by Dr. John A. Veatch, January 8, 1856. 

 Having boiled a small quantity of water from Lick Spring 

 (then known as Tuscan Spring), Doctor Veatch noticed that, 

 as the water cooled, crystals formed and adhered to the sides of 

 the vessel. These crystals proved later to be sodium biborate, 

 or borax. Shortly afterwards Doctor Veatch found small 

 quantities of borax at the mouth of the Pitt river, in Shasta 

 county, and traces of this salt in numerous springs in the Coast 

 Range mountains; but it was not until September, 1856, that 

 he discovered the extensive marsh deposits on the eastern side 

 of Clear Lake, in Lake county, which subsequently furnished 

 a large share of the borax produced in the United States. 



The year 1864 witnessed the beginning of the borax in- 

 dustry in this country. In that year 12 short tons (24,304 

 pounds) of borax were obtained by evaporating the saline 

 waters from Borax lake, adjacent to and connected with Clear 

 lake, in Lake county, 80 miles north of San Francisco. Later 

 the waters of the lake were enriched by the addition of crys- 

 talline borax collected from the alkaline marshes surrounding 

 the lake. 



Until the early seventies, the output of borax in California 

 was obtained solely from the waters of Clear lake and other 

 lakes in the state, but after that time the discovery of large 

 quantities of pure borax in many of the alkaline marshes in 



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