52 THE IRON ORE DISTRICT OF EAST TEXAS. 



A smelter of horizontal extension has been in use for several years in 

 Fried richshuette, near Rokitzan, Bohemia. The oven consists of a vertically 

 placed cylindrical chamber (Gicht) opening into the large square preparing 

 room, continued by the conically shaped reduction chamber and the smelting 

 apartment. The different chambers are placed obliquely inside the oven and 

 surrounded by a system of flues to conduct the escaping gas on its further way 

 to the chimney. After filling the oven with coal and heating it to the neces- 

 sary temperature, the ore and lignites, crushed to fragments of convenient 

 size, are thrown through the mouth into the preparing room, and slide along 

 the oblique floors of the different chambers into the smelting apartment, their 

 forward motion assisted by a transporting screw. The further management 

 of the process is the same as in the vertical iron smelters. Though the 

 question whether the raw or dried brown coal can advantageously supply the 

 use of coke or charcoal in iron furnaces has not been solved, it has been 

 shown conclusively that an addition of raw or prepared lignites to coke, made 

 either from lignite or bituminous coal, will give very satisfactory results, and 

 this method has been used in a number of smelters uninterruptedly for many 

 years. Tne process of smelting with lignite coke is conducted in the same 

 manner as with bituminous coke in common smelters, and only needs to be 

 mentioned. 



RAW LIGNITE IN THE MANUFACTURE OF STEEL. 

 The utilization of raw brown coal has also been successfully introduced in 

 the manufacture of steel. To heat the Bessemer retorts, however, a small 

 addition of coke is necessary during the process of manufacture. The flame 

 of the coal is long, and though it heats on this account the higher portion of 

 the walls satisfactorily, the desired temperature of the bottom of the retort 

 can only be secured through an addition of coke. For all other firing pur- 

 poses, however, the smelting of the raw iron, the heating of the boilers, etc., 

 this coal has been used with the greatest advantage. 



OCCURRENCE OF TEXAS LIGNITES. 



The lignites of Texas, as mentioned before, occur in the Fayette Beds and 

 Timber Belt Beds of the Tertiary deposits. The borders of this area, which 

 may be termed the lignitic region of Texas, have been determined and were 

 fully described by Prof. E. T. Dumble in the Mineral Resources of the 

 United States, 1887, and First Report of Progress of the Geological Survey 

 of Texas, since which time they have not been changed materially by the 

 later investigations. They are copied in full on page 39 of this Report. 

 The Fayette Beds underlie the Coast Clays and other Quaternary deposits of 

 Texas. Their outcrops cross the entire State from the Sabine River to the 



