Litchfield enquirer., 1867-10-31
CHALYBEs.

Having for long time intended making
visit to the Roxbury steel mine and
works, we accepted an invitation on Satur-
day, the 10Th inst, for a drive in that di-
rection. Proceeding down the Shepaug
river through the lower part of Washing
ton and upper part of Roxbury, we came,
after drive of some six miles, in sight of
the village of Chalybes on the western side
of the river. eThe Chalybes were people
skillful in the manufacture of steel, men
toned in ancient history as living on the
Black Sea- Crossing the bridge by Ran
dall's mill, we went through new street,
on which three stores are erected, while q
little farther on is large boarding-ho
and four double tenement-houses, all new
buildings, some not entirely completed.
On the right are three curious kilns, some
thirty feet, we should Judge, in height,
built of brick and designed for the burn
ing of charcoal, by which it is expected a
great saving will be effected over the ordi-
nary method.
Rising the hill little, we came to the
immense buildings which have been erect
ed for smelling and refining the steel ore
brought down from Mine Hill. Every
thing has been constructed on the largest
scale, and in the most perfect manner;
large refining works, innumerable store
houses for charcoal, and large square kiln
for roasting the ore preparatory to smelt-
ing. The smelting-stack, is of the most
approved construction, having large blow
ers driven by steam engine, the boiler Of
which is heated by gas taken from the
stack itself. The arrangements are so con-
trived as to economist labor in handling
and re-handling material. The ore, itself,
comes down from the mountain on a rail-
road track, so inclined that the cars,
properly regulated by brakes, roll down of
their own weight. The works are built on
the side of the mountain, which rises up
from the river, and in which, little high
er, the shafts are sunk. All lifting of the
ore during any part of the process, is there
by avoided 1t is first emptied from the
car into the roasting kiln, from the bottom
OF which it is rolled in cars on short track
to the top of the melting stack. Here, g.
portion is weighed out, and together with
the proper allowance of charcoal and .ta,a1,
IA limestone from New Milford quarry
is put into the furnace, an institution great
ly improved and aggravated since Nebu-
chadnezzar's time.
Having taken hasty look at the works,
store-houses, engines and machinery, we
started for the Mine. The distance is
about three quarters of mile, and rail
road, constructed of a light 81 rail, leads
the whole way, winding up and along the
side of the mountain. At first the wood
has been cleared to quite distance from
each side of the track, but before reaching
the mine, we enter the forest of first growth
timber, which manages rather unaccounta-
bly, to find foothold among the rocks and
stones. On the way we met a couple of
cars coming down. The speed seemed
high, but the single man aboard, who man
aged the brakes from the rear of the last
Car, was evidently letting them rattle on
at that rapid rate to gain enough momen-
tum to carry his train over slight ascend
ing grade we had noticed below.
The main shaft of the mine is nearly on
the top of the mountain, where, about a
century since, company mining for silver
sank shaft over one hundred feet in
depth. The enterprise failed, and the
foreigner who had the chief management,
was supposed to have embezzled large guam
titles of silver in bars, charge We might
credit if we could believe he found any ap-
preciable amount of silver to embezzle.
The present plan of mining the ore is
somewhat different from the old one. Hor-
izontal shafts, or drifts, are started down
the hill wherever the ore is found crop
ping out, and run in on slightly inclined
plane towards the main, vertical shaft. In
this way, drainage is effected, the ore is min
ed with much less labor from below, and
run out of the drift in cars instead of being
raised by windlass, out of the shaft. Pro-
curing candle, IAN article visitors will do
well to provide themselves with, we started
into the lower drift, passage about seven
feet high and five in width, blasted through
solid rock. The change from the extreme
ly sultry air of the outside to the cold,
damp atmosphere Of the mine, was chilling
beyond measure, till We became little ac-
customed to it. We had gone on some
three or four hundred feet, when we met a
party of miners who had just fired blast,
at the further end of the drift. Waiting a
moment, it exploded with severe concus-
sion, the torrent of air and gas bursting
out by US towards the outlet in manner
not little startling to those unaccustomed
to that style of thing. Waiting a few min.
utes we CROPPED our way through smoke SO
thick. our candles were hardly visible to the
place of the explosion. Some fragments