GLASS-SAND    INDUSTRY,    EASTERN    WEST    VIRGINIA.  475 
the  ends  of  an  axle,  it  is  crushed  wet,  until  it  will  pass  through  a  fine  screen  into  the  washers. 
These  consist  of  long  inclined  boxes  in  which  large  screws  revolve,  and  the  sand  is  churn.  .1 
and  cleaned  as  it  is  carried  upward  by  the  screw  against  a  flood  of  water  down  the  box.  The 
tailings  are  deposited  in  settling  yards  and  make  good  building  sand.  The  washed  sand  is 
conveyed  by  horizontal  continuous  belts  to  the  drying  room  or  to  temporary  bins  on  t  he  way. 
The  drier  is  a  slowly  revolving  inclined  cylinder  over  a  fire  box.  The  hot;  dry  sand  is  deliv- 
ered at  the  lower  end  into  cups  of  an  endless  chain,  which  carry  it  out  of  the  building  to 
elevated  iron  storage  tanks  on  concrete  piers,  ready  for  loading  by  gravity.  Every  precau- 
tion against  fire  is  taken  in  this  modern  plant,  since  the  former  mill  was  destroyed  by  fire 
from  overheated  sand  deposited  in  wooden  bins.  The  capacity  of  the  two  mills  is  10  car- 
loads of  30  tons  a  day,  and  the  average  shipment  is  reported  to  be  6  cars. 
In  the  summer  of  1905  the  same  company  opened  two  new  quarries  and  was  erect  ing  t  wo 
new  mills  within  a  mile  of  the  old  quarries,  and  the  company  is  said  to  have  bought  up  all  t  he 
property  between  the  Berkeley  Springs  mine  and  the  Pennsylvania  mine,  except  a  small  area 
known  as  the  Spear  property,  which  was  opened  in  1905  by  an  independent  company. 
In  the  town  of  Berkeley  Springs  a  pulverizing  mill  is  operated  by  the  National  Milling  and 
Mining  Company,  which  is  under  the  same  management  as  the  West  Virginia  Sand  Company. 
Some  of  the  highest  grade  of  sand  is  pulverized  at  this  mill  for  use  in  porcelain,  china,  and 
glazed-brick  manufacture. 
Silica  Sand  Company.— In  1904  a  sand  mine  was  opened  on  the  west  side  of  Cacapon 
Mountain,  1^  miles  west  of  Berkeley  Springs.  This  mountain  is  composed  of  Medina  sand- 
stone, the  core  of  the  massive  anticline  previously  referred  to.  The  opening  is  along  the 
Berkeley  Springs-Great  Cacapon  road,  on  the  west  crest  of  the  ridge,  and  is  owned  by  the 
Silica  Sand  Company,  of  Pittsburg,  Pa.  A  hole  20  feet  wide  and  1.50  feet  long  had  been 
quarried  into  the  face  of  the  hill,  exposing  low  westward  dipping  beds  of  hard  quartzitic  sand- 
stone somewhat  stained  with  iron.  The  quarry  is  admirably  located  for  handling  the  prod- 
uct by  gravity  500  feet  down  the  slope,  on  a  grade  of  about  70°  to  the  railroad.  At  the  bot- 
tom of  the  incline  a  mill  has  been  constructed  with  the  different  compartments  arranged  in 
terrace  form,  utilizing  gravity  in  crushing,  washing,  drying,  and  storing  the  product  ready 
for  loading  on  the  cars.  So  far  as  the  writer  knows,  however,  the  plant  has  not  been  in 
practical  operation. 
The  rock  is  so  hard,  even  at  the  depth  attained,  that  it  must  all  be  crushed  and  thor- 
oughly ground,  and  even  then  it  does  not  separate  into  grains,  but  breaks  into  fragment-  of 
various  sizes,  much  being  reduced  to  a  powder.  The  product,  therefore,  is  not  so  suitable 
for  high-grade  glass,  and  the  greater  amount  of  grinding  necessarily  adds  to  the  cost  of 
production.  The  surface  appearance  of  the  rock  is  also  not  favorable,  as  it  has  a  grayish 
cast  with  numerous  iron  stains,  but  an  analysis  was  not  obtained  and  its  exact  composition 
is  not  known.  The  successful  operation  of  this  mine,  although  so  admirably  situated  for  a 
gravity  plant,  is  very  dubious  on  account  of  the  character  of  the  rock,  and  further  mining 
on  this  outcrop  is  not  to  be  encouraged. 
Other  sand  quarries. — At  Hancock,  on  the  Maryland  side  of  the  river,  the  Warm  Spring 
Ridge  sand  rock  is  quarried,  but  is  coarse  and  impure  and  furnishes  only  a  low  grade  of 
yellow  sand  for  building  purposes.  This  was  extensively  used  by  the  Western  Mary- 
land Railroad  in  the  concrete  work  along  its  new  extension  to  Cumberland.  A  similar 
building-sand  quarry  is  located  opposite  Great  Cacapon,  W.  Va.,  8  miles  up  the  river, 
where  the  same  Oriskany  sand  rock  outcrops  on  the  other  side  of  the  Cacapon  Mountain 
anticline  mentioned  above.  This  rock  appears  to  be  of  better  grade  than  that  at  Hancock, 
but  is  much  harder.     The  product  was  largely  used  in  the  construction  of  the  same  railroad. 
