552 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



parations are now in progress at Bethlehem, by two companies, for making 

 metallic zinc. But these companies, and the companies in New Jersey, 

 regard the zinc white as a specialty peculiarly their own, in which they 

 have a natural monopoly, because the anthracite coal is requisite to its 

 production ; and for it their own country is a sufficient field, while the 

 market of the world is open for all excess. 



The two active zinc mines in our country, at Sterling Hill and Bethle- 

 hem, are sufficiently opened to show that they can produce 50,000 tons of 

 zinc -white per annum. The advantages of the two vary in several particu- 

 lars, but in a general average they are well balanced. 



The red oxyde of Sterling Hill is a strict peculiarity. The ores of Beth- 

 lehem are the sulphuret, the carbonate and the silicate of zinc. In purity 

 they range from forty to sixty-one per cent of pure metal, and compare 

 favorably with the workable ores of Belgium. 



Experience at Bethlehem shows that ore can be brought to the furnace 

 at $2 a ton, and the coal at $1.80. With these advantages over the prices 

 in Belgium, it is obvious that all our disadvantages, as beginners, must be 

 overcome ; and especially when our ores are reduced to zinc white by a 

 single process. 



As to the extent of our zinc field, it is remarkable that, in Knox county, 

 Tennessee, at the southwestern end of the valley, which has the mines of 

 Bethlehem at its northeastern terminus, the zinc mines resemble those of 

 Bethlehem ; and the same metamorphic lime-stone, which contains both of 

 these deposits, is known to predominate in the eight hundred miles of inter- 

 vening valley, suggesting the vast metallic treasures yet to be explored. 

 The zinc ores of Bethlehem might have been unknown at this day, had not 

 a scientific German employed in the Moravian school brought them into 

 notice. 



The coal for the reduction of the various ores of this long valle}'' are 

 deposited at convenient distances, in the slopes of the same valley. But, 

 both ores and coals would have been useless, had not the railroads been 

 laid at the bottom of the valley. To open the mines is no longer an act 

 of faith, but of discretion. The great American act of faith appeared in 

 building the railroad. If there was frenzy in this act of faith, it was a 

 prophetic frenzy, which the disclosures of time will show had in it a fore- 

 cast of such reach and depth, as could not then be comprehended ; and the 

 mad projector may say with Bacon "my reputation I bequeath to future 

 times and other nations." The railroad system has ripened the metallic 

 harvest of the Western Continent. This harvest is destined to hasten the 

 cultivation of the whole tropical region, by the introduction of cheap ma- 

 chine-labor ; and the natural consequence will be, to homogeneous conti- 

 nental civilization, more rich than the earth has ever known. This civili- 

 zation will draw to its service all the chemical and vital forces within its 

 reach ; will so adjust its whole machinery that no spring or lever, no nerve 

 or muscle shall carry more than its just weight ; and will distribute its 



