EAST TENNESSEE. 25 



largest and most successful |iroji dealers in Pennsylvania have made ex- 

 aminations here, and declared it impossible to use our coal without cokina;. 

 Experience is the best test, and I am glad to say that General Wil- 

 der assures mo that his experiment is highly successful. This is a very 

 important item of news, for it makes a ^eat difference in the cost of pro- 

 ducing iron. There are but few parts ot the country whore coal is found 

 that can bo used raw in the furnace. His ore ho can and does use without 

 roasting. The iron made ft'om the above coal and ore is softer than Scotch 

 pig, and stronger. Near by, within a stone's throw of his furnace, 

 IS a hill of fire proof clay 100 feet high. Withm 600 yards ho has a brown 

 hematite iron ore, such as is used in making the Rodman gun, which yields 

 68 per cent, of iron. Here, in the midst of this mineral wealth, he has 

 built his furnace. All about him are rich farming lands. Produce of 

 every kind is delivered to his hands at the lowest rates ; corn, 50 cents per 

 bushel; bacon, 12 cents i)er pound ; flour, $4 00 per hundred. On that 

 property, purchased for a few thousand dollars, the company have erected 

 a large furnace at the cost of $100,000. They have iron, coal and lime- 

 stone enough to run half a dozen furnaces for hundreds of years. _ But this 

 is not the only sjiot favored by Providence for such great enterprises. The 

 Cumberland Moutains, from Cumberland Gap to Alabama, are filled with 

 iron and coal of every kind. This range skirts the northern side of the 

 great Tennessee Valley. In it are six veins of coal running horizontally, 

 varying in thickness from one to six feet — usually five feet. Every vein of 

 it is within sixty miles of iron ore, and most of it lying side by sidewith it. 

 The coal is bituminous, and all of it of good quality, but varying in quan- 

 tity. The Coal Creek coal, which is mined thirty-six miles north of this 

 city, on the Knoxville and Kentucky Railroad, is five pounds to the bushel 

 heavier than the Youghiogheny coal, which is about the best iron coal of 

 Pittsburgh. The coal found in Roane county is equal to the great Briar 

 Hill coal of Ohio. Greneral Wilder says it takes one ton less of the Roane 

 county coal to make a ton of iron than of tho Briar Hill coal, Of the 

 former it takes but 1,000 bushels to make fourteen tons of iron. They 

 use of the Briar Hill three to three and a half tons to one of iron. 



On the Cumberland Mountains, mixed with the coal beds refen-ed to, 

 running the whole length, is found the clay iron stone, of which the cheaj) 

 Welsh iron is made. Bluffs of it are found one hundred feet high, and 

 could be dug out at ten cents per ton. Along the base of the mountains, 

 running from the Virginia to the Alabama linCj are two veins of a fossilif- 

 erous ore, from two to fifteen feet thick. This is a fine ore for all kinds of 

 castings. Running parallel with the mountains, we have ridges extending 

 nearly the length of the valley. The same ore is found at various i)oints 

 in these ridges, interspersed witli the black and brown hematite, gathered 

 in little hUls and knobs. 



On the south side of the great Tennessee Valley, in the Smoky Moun- 

 tains, which run about parallel with the Cumberland, we have the finest 

 varieties of the magnetic iron ore. Near this range is also found a supe- 

 rior quality of hematite and manganese ores. The New York and East 

 Tennessee Iron Company in Greene county, make from the hematite and 

 manganese ores a fine quality of spicr/ilcmn, such as is used as a ir-carhon- 

 acr ill the Bessamcr steel process. The Greene County Iron Company 

 make a fine iron from the hematite ore. Both furnaces are doing well. 

 Up the different branches of the Temu'ssee river, above Knoxville, is to 

 be found hillocks of limonite ore, and extensive beds and hills of all grades 

 of the different oxide ores. These ores are not associated with any beds 



