284 J. C. BRANNER 



invest any more capital in their business, which, they say is 

 already very much cut up. If a new industry were started, it 

 could be started on altogether a different basis and I think would 

 easily compete with the old manufactories. This is all the more 

 true since the development of the basic open hearth and 

 Bessemer process in the South calls for a higher grade of fire- 

 brick, I had, while recently in Europe, some important inter- 

 views with the proprietors of the magnesite quarries in the west 

 with regard to the introduction of that material into the United 

 States. If your material should prove to be aluminates you could 

 easily compete with them." 



Markets. — The processes by which bauxite is manufactured 

 are in some cases patented and the parties owning the patents 

 are alone entitled to use or to dispose of them ; in other cases 

 the processes are guarded as trade secrets. Partly for these 

 reasons and partly because the utilization of bauxite is confined 

 to but few companies, the public knows but little of the uses to 

 which the raw materials are put, or of the processes employed 

 in their manufacture. 



One thing that has thus far prevented the Arkansas bauxite 

 getting into the market is the fact that the samples sent away 

 have been selected without a knowledge of the composition 

 required or of the material sent. As has been stated, iron, 

 silica, and titanium are the objectionable ingredients, and the 

 percentages of these cannot be determined by simple inspection, 

 though familiarity with analyses of types will enable one to form 

 an opinion of value on this subject. 



Another matter of importance is that the freight rates 

 charged by the railways out of Little Rock are so high as to 

 prevent its profitable shipment. 



Still another is that extravagant ideas of the value of the ore 

 have induced those who would otherwise have done the mining 

 and shipping to expect very large profits from it. As a matter 

 of fact the value of bauxite at the place of production in the 

 United States during the year 1895 averaged about four dollars^ 



'Engineering and Mining Journal, Jan. 2, 1897, 3. 



