June 1, 1865.] THE TECHNOLOGIST. 



MINERAL ' SUBSTANCES FOR WRITING ON. 513 



The situation of this factory offers every advantage for this new- 

 branch of trade. Until recently, industry was at a very low ebb in 

 the forest of Franconia, which abuts on that of Thurmgia ; its iron and 

 mining works had pretty well gone to decay, and, with the exception of 

 its scanty agriculture and still more unreniunerative weaving, the timber 

 trade alone formed an important staple. 



On leaving the railway at the little town of Kronach, the road enters 

 the ever-narrowing valley of Rodach, with its steep slopes covered with 

 forest. By degrees agriculture disappears and one sawmill after another 

 is seen on the banks of the little river. Pursuing the road as far as the 

 watering-place of Steben, you traverse a woodland mountain district 

 the whole distance surrounded by the deepest and entirely unbroken 

 silence. You are ascending a verdant valley, watered by a murmuring 

 brook, the soft foliage of the beech intermingling with the dark branches 

 of the firs. For hours neither habitations nor human beings are met 

 with. Then a pretty forester's hut, built in the Swiss style, peeps out 

 from among the trees ; while further on a mineral spring gushes forth, 

 and forest and sky are reflected in the serene, glittering surface of some 

 secluded pool. This is Langenau ( Long Meadow), and from this point 

 the road, still ascending, brings you to Geroldsgriin, a village situated 

 on the other side of the mountain and surrounded by hills. The 

 extensive premises of A. W. Faber's manufactory first strike the eye, 

 causing no little surprise by thus abruptly reminding you, in the very 

 heart of the solitary forests and Nature's otherwise, uninterrupted sway, 

 of the great, busy, industrial life of modern times with its steam and 

 machinery. 



The manufactory is situated about eighteen miles from Kronach, and 

 the railway with which it is connected by a good and passable road. A 

 poor but industrious population inhabits this region, a portion of whom, 

 especially during the winter season, had been in the habit in former 

 times of devoting themselves to the manufacture of slates. The new manu- 

 factory, however, has already largely increased the rate of wages in their 

 vicinity and infused new life into their otherwise lonesome region. 

 This will be still more the case in time, as the most favourable condi- 

 tions for carrying on the trade in the most extensive manner are here 

 met with. The immense forests of Franconia furnish a supply of the 

 most useful hard as well as soft wood from trees which have seen more 

 than oue century, and whose old and completely full-grown timber is of 

 an excellence scarcely to be met with anywhere else. The slate-quarries 

 belonging to the factory itself, and the neighbouring ones of Lehesten, 

 the former rivalling the latter in every respect, both as regards extent and 

 grandeur, yield an excellent and unsurpassable material in rich abundance. 



These slate quarries are of themselves so interesting that a glance at 

 the deep gloom of their subterranean recesses will well repay the 

 trouble. If the valley of Langenau is distinguished by its idyllic 

 loveliness, the valley of Durrenvvaid, on the other hand, which must be 



