136 HOW ON ORES OF MANGANESE AND THEIR USES. 



the seat of Messrs. Muspratt's, and Glasgow, of Messrs. Tennant's 

 works. Accordingly, we find in the " Statistics of the Alkali 

 Trade of the United Kingdom for 1862," that the annual con- 

 sumption of manganese was then 33,000 tons for the manufactures 

 depending on the products of the alkali trade, viz. : soap, glass^ 

 paper, cotton, woollen, linen, colour making, and all chemical 

 manufactures of any magnitude. This estimate, however, takes no 

 account of the ore used in making iron, and the demand for bleach- 

 ing powder has been increasing of late years, partly owing to the 

 use of grass, and pej'haps of other materials, in the making of paper. 

 The quantity of manganese ores used in the United States was, a 

 year ago, estimated by a gentleman dealing in them in Boston, at 

 about 500 tons per annum, by another gentleman, this year, at 

 1000 tons. 



With regard to the quality of the ore required in certain cases, 

 it is found that in making bleaching powder, the ordinary ores, con- 

 taining perhaps from (55 to 75 per cent, binoxide along with water, 

 oxide of iron, carbonate of lime, barytes, etc., answer so good a 

 purpose, that the iich pure ores, such as that from Teny Cape, are 

 not bought for this use, unless at a price far below that given by 

 those who require only such ores. One of the firm of Tennant Co. 

 (makers of bleaching j^owder), said, for example, that he 

 could not afford to use Teny Cape ore, meaning, I suppose, at the 

 high price it would fetch from glass makers, for, as J. Outram, Esq. 

 junr., informed me, the Spanish ore of from 70 to 75 per cent, 

 binoxide, sells for fifty-five to sixty shillings sterling per ton, and 

 therefore the bleaching powder makers will give only about £5 10s. 

 for Teny Cape ore, containing upwards of 90 per cent., while, as we 

 have seen, this actually brought as much as £9 and even £10 stg. jjer 

 ton. This high price was given by glass and pottery makers who 

 require an ore as free as possible of iron ; this at any rate is the case 

 with the former who employ it to remove the stain of iron from the 

 finest kinds of glass. Mr. Outram said that he thought even two 

 or three per cent, of iron would interfere with the sale of ore at 

 93 per cent, binoxide for this purpose, and it was because the 

 Teny Cape ore gave less than a half per cent, of iron, with 91-5 

 per cent, binoxide of manganese, that it brought the high prices 

 obtained. The demand for these pure rich ores is comparatively 



