The Sun.
London, England, 1866-11-27 00:00:00

100.0 100.0

100.0

The subsequent analyses are exclusively those of
quality by various experts, and represent six various
samples of the granular and foliated plumbago :

Sehul. Der thollet. Vanquelin.
Carbon
Iron lO.O 9.0 ... 8.0

Oxygen
Saussure. Vanauxem. Prinsep.
Carbon
Iron 4.0 oxido 1.4 ...
Oxygen

Whilst again, of the pencil " lead," or massive
plumbago, from the celebrated mines of Borrowdale,
Buffon remarks,—" Le meilleure plombagine
(plumbago) connue est it de Keswick, dans le
duche de Cumberland, en Angleterre : elle s'y
nomme Kellow. Scheele a retire de la plombagine.
Carbon, 90 ; Oxyd fer 10. Il y a des plombagine
moins pure, qui contiennent plus de fer, et dif -
ferentes terres; c'est pourquoi,on ne peut s'en servir
comme crayon."

Until very recently the existence of pencil lead
has been supposed to be limited entirely to Cum-
berland. Thanks to the scientific knowledge of
American mineralogists, and to the mechanical
skill of our Trasatlantic brethren, Columbia has
been induced to yield an insight into her embowelled
wealth, and, in answer to the Shibboleth of know-
ledge and industry, England will no longer be
able to boast of the exclusive supply of pencil-lead,
or the proprietors of the Borrowdale mine restrict
the sale to an arbitrary issue.

In these days of free trade the following mode
adopted to enhance the value of pencil-lead will
appear incredible, yet it is indisputable. Perio-
dically, never more frequently than once a
year, the mine is opened, and a sufficient
quantity of plumbago extracted to supply the
market during the year or period determined
upon. It is then closed up, and the product
is carried in small fragments of about three
and four inches long to London, where it is exposed
to sale at the black-lead market, held at a public-
house in Essex-street, Strand, on the first Monday
of every month. The buyers, who amount to seven
or eight, examine each piece with a sharp instru-
ment to ascertain its hardness—those that are too
soft being rejected. The individual who has the
first choice pays 60s. per pound, the other 50s. But
as there is no addition made to the first quantity in
the market during the course of the year, the residual
portions are examined over and over again until they
are exhausted. The annual amount realised has
been known to reach as high as £lOO,OOO. Exigen-
cies have frequently arisen where the exactions of
demand have far surpassed the means of natural
supply. In no one instance has this position been
more forcibly exhibited than in the case under con-
sideration. For years, as we have seen, the work-
ings at Borrowdale have been on the verge of cessa-
tion, and a well-grounded conviction exists that
speedy exhaustion of pencil-lead from this far and
long-famed source is inevitable. In the interim the
consumption of pencils becomes daily on t ho increase.
With the rapid diffusion of a popular taste for the
fine arts, and an almost miraculous extension of
pro-
fessional, mechanical, and commercial enterprise—
all imperatively involving a perpetual recurrence to
the aid of the pencil—the principal material em-
ployed in its fabrication is inevitably becoming a
"thing of the past" in the locality in which the

* How much more euphonious and correct the strictly
mineralogical term " Graphite" from the Greek radix
Grapho, I write !

civilised world has for ceuturief 4 looked exclusively
for its contribution.

It cannot be denied that the aid of all-powerful
sciencz,, as is invariably the case in such dilemmas,
has been evoked, and to :a certain extent success-
fully, to furnish an artificia,l substitute. But cost of
production, an item of consideration in all questions
of supply and demand, has erected an insuperable
barrier against the practical introduction of the
fictitious article.

At the identical moment when the portals of the
Old World were closed against further production,
those of the New World were thrown wide open,
and displayed in the full vigour of freshness and
beauty an amount of this indispensable mineral that
may be considered inexhaustible. Instead of the pa-
tient industry which was rewarded by the discovery
of a chance lump or nodule amidst the vast heap of
accumulated gangue or matrix, the simple act now
involved appears to be the separation of the minor
proportion of earthy adhesions from the greater
mass of plumbago. Even at the surface, over an
acreage reckoned by thousands, Ticonderoga exhi-
bits ft capability of supply equal to the requirements
of civilisation for centuries, and, obeying the almost
universal law in that respect, deeper explorations
must result in the development of the mineral of
much richer and more prizeable quality than has
yet been brought to light.
The tocsin of peaceful competition has been
sounded, comparison of quality boldly challenged
against all comers, and though, up to this moment,
the employment of the Ticonderoga Plumbago in
the fabrication of pencils has been limited to the
United States, the quantity consumed there both
for home use and for exportation is very consider-
able, and will shortly produce an unmistakeable
effect upon the English monopoly, and create a
desire for a pecuniary interest in the American
property.
One of the earliest inducements to attempt an
imitation of plumbago arose, as many of the most
important discoveries of all ages have done, from
accident. After Captain Roe had invented the
diving-bell he joined Sir Archibald Grant, a great
speculator of that day in coal mines and other
matters, in an attempt to weigh the Florida, one of
the Spanish Armada which had been foundered off
the coast of Mull, near the entrance of Tobermory
harbour. This attempt, which took place in 1740,
was unsuccessful, as far as related to the ship, but
some guns, both of brass and iron, were brought up.
The former, whether they belonged to the Spanish
vessel or not, had the mark of an English founder,
"R. and J. Phillips, 1584," with a crown and
"E. R." on them. The iron guns were deeply
corroded with plumbago, and, on scraping them, it
is said, they were found so hot that they could not
be touched, and they did not become cool till they
had been two or three hours exposed to the air.
The astonishment of the Highlanders on finding
guns still hot, after having been more than a cen-
tury under water, may be easily imagined ; and it
is not surprising that this story was not believed,
and that, not being believed, it was forgotten.
In obedience to a law explicable only on chemical
principles, we find that in preparing plumbago
artifically, lead maybe substituted for iron as a con-
stituent. It has been further proved that of all the
varieties thus manufactured that is the best which
contains lead. The writer is not aware, however,
that in the natural production there has ever oc-
curred an instance of the substitution of lead for
iron, yet of traces of plumbago in lead-bearing
districts there is abundance of evidence.

Relative to the geological character of the localities
which afford plumbago, it may be added that it
is found usually in primary or transition and
schistose' rocks. In this respect it appears to fol-
low the arrangements which regulate the existence
of most other minerals. At Borrowdale the pencil-
lead occurs chiefly in nests in partially decomposed
trap rock. The inferior sorts are found at Gles-
thrathfarar, near Inverness, in gneiss, where they
crop out in seams or veins from twelve or eighteen
inches in thickness, At Arendal, in Norway, it
occurs in quartz. In Ayrshire it is yielded in coal-
beds, and the writer has picked up isolated pieces
in the Alps in the Department d'lsere, where it is
associated with anthracite amongst the granitic
ranges. In most cases, as though to stimulate the
patience and energy of the explorer, the usual result
of continuous labour is apparent, the veins con-
verge into one, enlarge and improve in quantity and
quality as they penetrate deeper.
At the Ticonderoga mines, where plumbago has
been discovered in such profuse abundance, it is
found in felspar and mica-slate, and in a wall-rock
of bastard granite, a combination acknowledged by
practical geologists to be the most favourable for
richness of ore and perpetuity in working. In some
localities of the mountain the incasing-rock ap-
proaches a variety of senite.
A recent visitor, Professor Vincent, thus describes
the mine—." It is situated about two miles west of
Ticonderoga, three miles from Lake George. The
outcroppings on the north side of the mountain show
the extraordinary number of more than 100 true
veins. Between 20 and 30 of these veins have been
opened to various depths, ranging from 10 to 350
yards. One lode at a depth of 350 yards is consi-
dered to yield, on an average, from 1,200 to 1,600
pounds per fathom. All the lodes have afforded
plumbago of a very superior character. Both the
quantity and quality of yield gradually improve as
the workings gain iu depth. The entire side of the
mountain is literally dotted with outcroppings, pre-
senting to the geologist a rare and most interesting
phenomenon, inasmuch as between all the main
lodes intermediate small veins or ' feeders' occur."

The writer then proceeds to describe that portion
of the property which yields the pencil lead. " The
mineral itself," he remarks, " is of a rare and supe-
rior description, and is pronounced superior for lead
pencils to any yet exhibited, the Siberian and Cum-
berland varieties alone excepted, but possessing this
advantage over those two celebrated sorts, that it
can be produced for market at an exceedingly low
price." "In conclusion," Mr. Vincent observes,
" that, in view of the constantly increasing demand
for plumbago for crucibles, stove polish, foundry
and powder facings, stereotyping, lead pencils,
paint, lubricating, &c., the cheapness with which it
can be mined, prepared, and delivered in the great
markets of Europe and America, and the limited
number of plumbago mines in the world worth
working, this property—capable of supplying, when
properly developed, the entire commercial demand,
large as it is—can scarce fail to reward its owners
beyond that of most of the best iron, coal, or other
mines of the world." This encouraging report is
fully borne out by that of a practical Cornish miner
who has made a professional inspection of the sett.
Amongst the principal consumers of the mineral, the
crucible makers, the Ticonderoga plumbago has ob-
tained a remarkable celebrity. The superintendent
of the New York Crucible Works reports, "An
important consideration is that the Ticonderoga
plumbago can always be obtained of an uniform
quality, thereby
assuring an uniform crucible, that
d upon t
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sides the foregoing advantages of the Ticonderoga
plumbago over the Ceylon, I can make pots for the
manufacture of steel that will stand as many heats
as the best Ceylon plumbago with 30 to 33 per cent.
less weight."

We have had occasion to enumerate tho various
purposes to which the use of plumbago has been
confined, its limited employment being doubtless
the result of the high price it has hitherto com-
manded. It remains to be seen whether a reduc-
tion in cost, such as must inevitably result from the
introduction of the American produce into England,
may not materially extend the consumption, by gain-
ing for it an employment in other operations.
Amongst other probable uses may be suggested
extensive trials of its effects in increasing the tena-
city of iron, both in the construction of auxiliaries
of peaceful occupation and the stern but imperative
muniments of war. It has been asserted on excel-
lent authority (11‘Culloch) that a certain portion
of plumbago found in pig-iron adds considerably to
its toughness. On one occasion, in particular, he
mentions that " a cannon had been condemned for
some fault in the bore, and it was found so exceed-
ingly tough that none of the men were able to break