CLINTON COUNTY. 
295 
’hese statements being true, are we not in the possession of the cause or causes why the 
mold vein works so kindly, and produces such uniform results? First, it is a pure peroxide ; 
ad secondly, it is very free from earthy matters ; and these two causes combined, seem to 
le to clear up the question very satisfactorily. But still more is this opinion sustained, when 
■ken in connection with the statements I have already made in relation to those ores which 
•e mixed. We find that they do vary exceedingly in the results of working, and occasion a 
iriety of difficulties which have been exceedingly mysterious to the workmen, and which are 
)t found to exist in working those in which the ore is in the state of peroxide. 
On the probable success which will attend the working of the Arnold and other veins on Mr. 
Clay's plan. 
The remarks in the preceding section were made with a view to reach the discussion of 
this question. This subject was introduced while upon the Adirondack ores, and would have 
been carried farther in that place ; but I was at that time waiting for the result of some expe¬ 
riments which were undertaken by Mr. David Henderson, at his works at the above men¬ 
tioned place ; and since those remarks were penned, I have received from him the result of 
his experiments. 
Now, as has been stated, Mr. Clay’s plan of reducing the rich ores consists in deoxidizing 
them by means of charcoal; and it appears that his experiments were made upon an ore in a 
state of peroxidation. This being the case, it is important to bear it in mind ; for there is but 
one mineral substance, as it were, to be acted upon; one in which the relations to all sur¬ 
rounding agents are the same ; each particle having attained to that state which is usually 
termed saturation, will, when exposed to caloric, to carbon or atmospheric air, be ready to act 
equally and reciprocally. If this kind of ore is put into a covered crucible with fine char¬ 
coal, it will part with its oxygen equably ; no part having an excess of oxygen over another 
part, each will in the same time be deoxidized, or be brought to the state of metallic iron ; 
and when this is done, the process may be stopped. Now the Arnold ore, from its compo¬ 
sition, is in the state to be reduced economically by this method. So perfectly is it a per¬ 
oxide, that it might at once be deoxidized ; and being also a very pure ore, that is, free from 
stone and foreign matter, the amount of slag w'ould not interfere with its welding. I have no 
hesitation in recommending this mode of reduction, especially as this section of country is 
liable to a failure in wood, and the price of coal has now increased so much as to diminish 
the profits on the iron produced. 
Having said thus much of the Arnold ore, I return to the inquiry in relation to the proba¬ 
bility of employing the magnetic ores, which are mixtures of the two oxides ; and here we 
shall probably find the same difficulties in reducing them by Mr. Clay’s method, as in the 
forge or furnace. Proceeding without conjecture, I will go on and state the experiments of 
Mr. Henderson on the ores of Adirondack. These ores, as already stated, are mixtures of 
the two oxides; but before I proceed farther, I will state what appears to be the fact in regard 
to the distribution of the two minerals in the same mass, and the differences which prevail in 
different veins. 
