MICA AND ITS USES. 250 



oil it wears longer than any other ingredient. Eecent experiments have 

 shown that for any swift- running machinery, where the Babbit metal and 

 other packing have proved at fault, mica packing is j)erfect ; being inde- 

 structible by heat, it generates none, and as soon as a good Yankee test is. 

 made, the result will be mica-packed boxes for fast, heavy-running machin- 

 ery, and no more hot boxes or worn journals, being entirely free fi'om o-rit. 

 For stoves it has now become indispensable, and the demand for clear, 

 transparent mica is rapidly increasing. We have opened five mines durino- 

 the past three months, and out of over forty veins which I have examined 

 since last November, these five are the best. The quantity which these 

 mines can produce is unlimited, and the quality equal to any in the United 

 States. I have carefully compared it with mica from the mines of North 

 Carolina, of S. Eoyalston, JSf. H,, and of Paris, Maine, where mines are now 

 being worked; from what I learn of mines in other parts of the United 

 States and over the water, I am led to believe that we have a much larger 

 deposit and of larger sizes than is now found in this or any other country .. 

 Large plates, when they could be procured, were at one time used in the 

 Russian naval vessels for deck or dead lights, because not -liable to fracture 

 from concussion. It is in common use for lanterns, and is rapidly comino- 

 into use for lamp chimneys. On account of its transparency and tough- 

 ness, and the thinness of its folia, it has been used as glass in Siberia but 

 is now too costly for common use. It is not difScult to find mica in the dis- 

 trict in which our minerals are located, but after many months spent in 

 prospecting, exploring, and working, I find that to find the perfectly clear 

 transparent, flexible mica, free from color, veins, curves, and other imper- 

 fections, is very difficult. Sizes as large as 14 inches have been found in 

 North. Carolina. We have not unfrequently sized from 18 to 24 inches- 

 Last week we took out one book or crystal weighing fully one hundred 

 pounds. We are now able to furnish mica by the ton. Crude mica i. e. 

 pieces too small for cutting, and the cuttings are too far from market and 

 the uses of waste mica too limited, to render them valuable. Sizes less than 

 2|x4: or 4J inches are hardly worth saving. Sizes 5x7 and 9 inches are 

 worth $6.50 to $7.40 per pound, with a rapid increase in price for larger 

 sizes. I made an extended tour of observation through New Mexico with 

 Governor Hunt and Colonel C. B. Lamborn, of the D. and E. G. railway a 

 few weeks ago, and returned to our mines fully satisfied that the small dis. 

 trict in which we are now oj)erating contains about all there is worth look- 

 ing for in that line in that territory. Small deposits or veins are often 

 found at a distance from us, but after a thorough investigation and an ex- 

 penditure of labor and money, have been abandoned, the quality not prov- 

 ing satisfactory, The mica which I have so far exhibited from our mines 



has all been taken from within one to three feet from the surface. J. Cart 



French. — Journal of Applied Science. 



