Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1871-04-26
'ACTs ABOUT EAST TENNESSEE.
our MineraIs-IrOn.


we do not know that we can give facts con-
corning it in more condensed or intelli-
Cible form than we find them in q letter
written some time ago by one of the ed-
tors of the CHRONICLE, then a correspond
.cnt of the New York Times, from this city.
His letter was written after an interview
with Gen. John T. Wilder, of the Roane
Iron Company, one of the most successful
and practical iron meu of the South. The
letter gives a description eff the lockwood
blast furnace, built and operated 10y his
Company. We give the letter as publish
ed, beginning with the description referred
to:
His works are situated four miles from
the Tennessee river, in the midst of one of
the finest agricultural sections of the State.
He uses red fossiliterous ore, yielding so
per cent. of iron in the blast furnace and
making iron of very superior quality.
His ore lies one-half mile from his furnace.
He has three and one-half miles of iron
ore, two veins side by side four and six
feet thick. He digs his ore at cost of 80
cents ton and carries ii to the mouth of
the furnace by small railway running
down the hillside at gentle decline. His
coal is about one-half mile off, in great
abundance-veins over five feet thick,
.splendidly drained. 1t is mi-bitumlnous,
free from sulphur, and makes charcoal
iron. He uses it in his furnace raw from
the mine. Not one pound of it s.coked,
and thus far he has made an eX-
cellent quality of iron. Some of the
largest and most successful iron dealers in
Pennsylvania have made examinations
here and declared it impossible to use our
D.. coal without coking. Experience is the
best test, and | am glad to say that General
Wilder assures me that his experiment is
highly successful. This is very import
ant item of news, for ii makes a great diff
ference in the cost of producing iron.
There are but few parts of the country
where coal is found that can be used raw
in the furnace. His ore he can and does
use without roasting The iron made from
the above coal and ore is softer thansSeotch
and stronger. Near by, Within a
rs throw of his furnace, is 4 hill of fire
!. oot clay 100 feet high. Within COO yards
he has brown hematite iron ore, such as
is used in making the ROdman gun, which
yields 6S per cent. of iron. Here, in the
midst of this mineral wealth. he has built
his furnace. All about him are rich farm
ing lands Produce of every kind is deliv-
cred to his hands at the lowest rates. corn,
80 cents per bushel; bacon, l. cents per
pound -four 81 90 per hundred. On that
property, purchased for few thousand
dollars, the company have erected large
furnace at the cost Of $4,000 They have
n dozen furnaces for hundreds of years.
But this is not the only spot favored by
Providence for such great enterprises. The
Cumberland Mountains, from Cumberland
Gap to Alabama, are filled with iron and
coal of every kind This range skirts the
northern side of the great Tennessee Val
ley. In it are six veins of coal running
horizontally, varying in thickness from
one to six feet-usually five feet. Every
vein of it is within sixty miles of iron ore,
and most of it lying side by side with it.
The coal is bituminous, and ali of il of
good quality, but varying in quantity. The
Coal Creek COAL which is mined thrty-siX
miles north of this city on the Knoxville
and Kentucky Railroad, is five pounds to
the bushel heavier than the YoughiOgheny
coal, which is about the best iron coal Of
Pittsburg. The coal found in Roane coun-
ty is equal to the great Briar Hill coal of
Ohio. General Wilder says it takes one ton
less of the ROane county coal to make
ton of pig iron than Of the Briar Hill coal.
OF the former it takes but 200 bushels to
make fourteen tons of iron. They use of
the Briar Hill three to three and halftons
to one of iron.
On the Cumberland Mountains, mixed
with the coal beds referred to, running the !
whole length, is found the clay iron stone |
of which the cheap Welsh iron is made !
Bluffs of it are found one hundred feet !
high, and could be dug out at ten cents !
HCI lOils <AlbllS lLt bdSC vi lllt mountains, /
RUNNING from the Virginia to the Ala
bama line, are two veins of fossiiferous !
ore, from two to fifteen feet thick. This is |
4 fine ore for all kinds of castings. Run /
ming parallel with the mountains, we have /
ridges extending nearly the length of the |
valley. The same ore is found at various |
points in these ridges, interspersed with .
the black and brown hematte, gathered i'm I
little hills and knobs.
On the south side of the great Tennessee
Valley, in the Smoky mountains which
run about parallel with the Cumberland,
we have the finest varieties of the mag
netcirOn ore. Near this range is also found |
Il superior quality of hematite and man
ganese ores. The New York and East
Tennessee Iron Company in Greene coun-
ty, make from the hematite and mangan-
csc ores a fine quality of spiegeleisen, such
as is used as a re-cdr6OHigor in the Bcssemor
steel process. The Greene County Iron
Company make n fine iron from the hema-
tite ore. Both furnaces are doing we'll
Up the different branches of the Tennes-
see river, above Knoxville, is 10 be found
hillOcks of limonite ore, and extensive
beds and hills of all grades of the different
oxide ores. These ores are not associated
with any beds of coal. All the coal lies on
the north side of the Valley. But even
these ores on the south side are nearer coal
than the Chanlplain and Superior ores.
The latter ores at Pittsburg cost the fur
naces 50 to $50 per ton.
These are the coal and iron beds of East