194 DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS 



Account of the Jeffersonite, a new miner all disco- 

 vered at the Franklin Iron Works, near Sparta 

 in New- Jersey, by Lardner Vaxuxem and Wil- 

 liam H. Keating. Described and analysed by 

 W. H. Keating. Head June 4th, 1822. 



About six miles to the north-east of the town of 

 Sparta, in Sussex county, New- Jersey, are to be seen 

 the remains of the old Franklin furnace. This fur- 

 nace, situate on one of the most beautiful and eligible 

 spots for the working of iron, offers a striking exam- 

 ple of the failures which attend all works, which are 

 not conducted with a sufficient degree of attention to 

 scientific acquirements. Placed in the centre of an 

 extensive forest, with an abundant supply of water, 

 surrounded by numerous and inexhaustible beds of 

 ore, at a convenient distance from two good markets, 

 the Franklin works must have appeared to their first 

 owners calculated to become of the highest impor- 

 tance ; and such most undoubtedly would have been 

 the result, but for one difficulty which intervened, 

 arrested the operation, and after many fruitless at- 

 tempts caused the total abandonment of the works. 

 This difficulty was, it is true, of vital importance. It 

 arose from ignorance as to the nature of the ore in- 

 tended to be worked, and of the minerals which ac- 

 company it. Having long attempted to work by the 

 common process, an ore which was of a distinct nature, 

 and which, consequently, required a distinct mode of 

 treatment, they at last threw up in disgust an under- 

 taking which very little science would have made 



