The Sun.
London, England, 1866-11-22 00:00:00

PLUMBAGO FROM TICONDEROGA

In the American Court of the Great Exhibition
of 1851 was exhibited, under the generic name of
" Plumbago," or " Graphite," several magnificent
specimens of this most useful and valuable ore, im-
ported from the celebrated mine of Ticonderoga,
Essex county, United States. From the massive-
ness and characteristic beauty of the specimens,
including, as they did, not only the varieties em-
ployed so extensively in the fabrication of furnaces,
crucibles, stone polish, lubrucating compounds, and
stereotyping, but the much rarer and more valuable
sort known as pencil " lead," and which, until the
discovery of the extensive deposits of Ticonderoga,
was supposed to be limited in its production to
Borrowdale, in the township of Keswick, in Cumber-
land. This ipineral collection attracted more than
ordinary attention, and elicited prophetic observa-
tions relative to the advantages which would result
both to the Fine and Industrial Arts by the intro-
duction of the American Plumbago commercially
into Europe.
It has probably occurred to few, even amongst
those who take the liveliest interest in the scientific
and mercantile position of Great Britain, to devote
any particular time or attention to such a speciality
as " black lead," and still there are many features
in the inquiry fraught with the deepest importance
both to the student and the man of business.
Setting aside for the present the geological indica-
tions of the existence of Plumbago in the bowels of
the earth, the locality of its natural development in
this country is most interesting. In the year 1751
a gentleman who had recently been to the Borrow-
dale Mine gives a graphic description of his visit,
describes the town of Keswick as bearing the ap-
pearance of antiquity, whilst he flatteringly speaks
of the " poorer inhabitants as subsisting chiefly by
stealing, or clandestinely buying of those that steal
the black lead,' which they sell to Jews or other
hawkers." Another writer in the year 1791 refers
to the Wad Mines, as he designates the explorations,
as being opened that year, the custom in those days
being to work the property every fifty years, taking
out a sufficient quantity of the mineral to supply
the probable demand in the interim. He adds:—
"Graphite, or pencil lead, is taken out in lumps
sometimes as big as a man's fist, which, when it is
pure, soft, and black, and close ground, is worth
sometimes 358. per pound."*
Another visitor writes about the same time:--" In
this parish, Seatallorfell, is that famous mine of
' black lead' or wad, a mineral very scarce else-
where." Thus described by Mr. Robertson in his
"Natural History of Westmoreland and Cumber-
land : "—" Its composition is a black,- pinguid, and
shining earth, impregnated with lead and antimony.
Its natural uses are to glaze and harden crucibles,
and other vessels made of earth and clay, that are
to endure the hottest fire, and to this end it is
wonderfully effectual, which enhances the price of
such vessels. It cannot be made malleable."
Making allowances for the imperfect state of
mineralogical knowledge in those days, which led
the writer to associate lead and antimony in the
supposed composition of Plumbago, it is clear tha
one of the principal uses to which it is now em.
ployed was then practised, and we also learn thai
amidst the numerous and startling discoveries of
modern times no substitute has yet been success. ~

fully employed for Plumbago in the manufacture
of fire-resisting vessels.

The following interesting record of the visit of
Bishop Nicolson to these celebrated mines is given
in a letter to Dr. Woodward in August, 1710 :
"Having lately had notice of the opening of our
Wad mines above Keswick, I hastened to see a
curiosity which I had never hitherto had an oppor-
tunity of viewing, and if this were omitted I was

never likely to have another. From Keswick we
travelled up the valley of Borrowdale, along the
banks of Der, wentwater, six or seven miles or more,
till we came to Seethwaite moor, where, ascending
a high mountain, we at length reached the mine.
On the first opening of the old level in the latter
end of June last great discouragement appeared,
for no search had been made for 32 years; they
found that some pilfering interlopers had carried
on the old work till they had lost it in the rock.

Upon the 3rd of July (the day before we got
thither) a billy was happily discovered before the
forehead of the Old Man (a term with miners for
old works), which proved so rich that in less than
twenty-four hours they had filled several sacks with
fine and clean washed mineral." Dr. Meneth, in
his "Pinax," would persuade one to believe it so

scarce that it is nowhere in the universe to be met
with save one in old and New England, and that
this is the only place within the four seas where it
can be had IN ith us. " Mr. Dales would induce one
to believe it a common mineral. He particularly
reckons up three several sorts of it, brought from
as many different countries ; whereas he allows that
of our English growth to be the best, that of Spain
the next, and condemns what is brought from the
East Indies as the worst of all."
In an Act of Parliament, 25 Geo. 2., c. 10, making
it felony to break into any mines or wad-holes of
wad, or black-cawkes, commonly called black-lead,
or to steal any from thence, there is a recital that
the same has been discovered in one mountain or
ridge of hills only in this realm, and that it has been
found by experience to be necessary for divers useful
purposes, and more particularly in the casting of
bomb-shells, round shot, and cannon-balls.

Mr. Pennant says :—" Saw at Dr. Brownrigg's
a great variety of the ores of Borrowdale, such as
lead, common and fibrous, black-jack, and black-

lead or wad. This last is found in greater quan-
tities and purity in those mountains than in any
other parts of the world." The learned Boyle is of
opinion it is not a metal, and has nothing of a
metallic character about it. It is a very singular

substance. It is found but in very trifling quan-
tities in several mines here, and it may be also in
other countries ; but the sole mines in which it is

* The price in the English market at the present is from
455. to 60s. per pound, and such, according to Hutchinson,
was the price in 1794.