No. 31.— 1885.] plumbago. 229 



New J ersey. The American Graphite Company worked the vein 

 deposits to a depth of 600 feet. The Dixon Company now mine 

 a graphitic schist 15 feet thick, carrying from 8 to 15 per cent, 

 of graphite, practically an inexhaustible supply." 



And as to " Ore-dressing" : — 



" The process used by The Dixon Company at Ticonderoga 

 owes its success to careful supervision. It is a wet process in 

 which the ordinary practice is reversed, the " tails" being the 

 useful product, while the " heads" are thrown away. All attempts 

 at dry concentration have failed." 



The production in 1882 was, as already stated, 425,000 lb., 

 of which the output of the Ticonderoga mine was 400,000 lb., 

 all others giving only 25,000 lb., better than which they 

 were not expected to do in 1883, while The Joseph Dixon 

 Company had laid themselves out to produce 500,000 lb. ; 

 altogether 525,000 lb., valued at 8 cents per lb. Let us say 

 18 cents of our rupee currency, aud we get the high value 

 (founded on cost as well as quality ?) of Rs. 20 per cwt., or 

 Rs, 400 per ton. The local production, however, was cer- 

 tainly not much to place against 16,000,000 of pounds 

 imported from Ceylon in 1882, with considerable quantities 

 in the two following years. 



The following as to kinds of graphite and their characters 

 is interesting : — 



" Kinds.— On account of the peculiar advertising it has had, 

 graphite is commercially known as German black lead, Ceylon 

 plumbago, and American graphite. German black lead is a 

 product of Bavaria. It is of the amorphous variety, and is 

 dressed chiefly by washing. Its price depends on its percentage 

 of graphite and the nature of its impurities, varying from $1 to 



veins, and also in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. These are meta- 

 morphosed sand-stones with foliated graphite very evenly disseminated 

 throughout in small flakes. The graphite found in beds is amorphous, 

 and occurs principally in the south. It is iu a sedimentary formation, 

 is quite impure, and on account of its fineness cannot be successfully 

 purified. Geologically, graphite occurs from the coal measures back 

 to the oldest rocks. (See article by Professor Frazer, Transactions 

 American Institute of Mining Engineers, Vol. IX., page 732 ; also 

 Prof. J, S. Newberry's pamphlet on " The Origin and Relations of the 

 Carbon Mineral," Annual Report, New York Academy of Sciences, 

 Vol. IX, No. 9, 1882.) 



