New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-04-09
CALC4sIEU sULPHUR MINES
.PREpARArtoNs FOR MINING


No little interest is now being manifested
in the operations of the Calcasieu Sulphur
and Mining Company, since active effort.
have been pnt forth to render the mine,
available, and to be pat into condition t.
yield the large profits anticipated, by tn.
departure Of the mining engineer to procure
ths requisite machinery for sinking thu
great shaft for extracting the sulphur
When the present company took possession
Of the lands, in June, 1870, an artesian vel
had already been put down to the depth o.
over twelve hundred feet, revealing the ex
istence of the sulphur at the depth Of foul
hundred and forty-three feet beneath the
surface. e
Since that date another artesian well Of
similar character has been sunk to the
depth of five hundred and fifty,two feet, al
a distance of one hundred and fifty feet
from the first boring, which penetrated the
same strata, and at the same depth, 81
indicated in the section of the first well
exhibited at the company's Office, in which
the auger struck the sulphur sgain, at the
depth of four hundred and twenty-eighi
feet. tf so eoe -ff
There has been, perhaps, too much tagging
and delay in the operations of the company
thus far, which the president assures us will
not continue, - he intends to give his un.
divided personal. attention to the energetic
prosecution Of the work in the future.
But the existence of immense sulphur
deposits, in quantities incalculable, and of
purity unprecedented, has been, by this
second experiment, established beyond a
doubt.
Another fact was also established, of vital
importance to the future operations of the
company. The president of the Calcasieu
Sulphur and Mining Company, who seems
to be familiar with the condition of things
at the mines, from the first effort at digging
petroleum well to the present time, init
mated to the stockholders of the sulphur
company, before its organization, that the
best engineering talent had decided after
the boring of the first well that the sulphur
could scarcely be reached and mined by
the ordinary methods Of sinking
shafts heretofore adopted, but that
the soft, movable sand, similar in character
and consistency to quicksand, could only
be penetrated with safety and certainty Of
success by the use Of an iron shaft, put
by Messrs. Kind and Chaudron, of Belgium
The existence of this strata of movable
sand found in the second well convinced
the board of directors of the necessity of
the Kind -Chaudron method of sinking the
shaft, as the more sure and practicable, if
not indeed the only method to insure
success.
By this plan, which is of recent invention,
circular shafts Of cast-iron, from six to
nsu Fnot SvnG \.
in northeast France through the wettest de-
posits down to drier ones. and reach salt
beds and coal beds several thousand feet in
depth. These shafts are sunk with rods and
borers, like the ordinary artesian wells, and
are operated from the surface of the ground,
without sending man down into the shaft,
until it has penetratedto the depth Of the
strata Of coal or mineral intended to be
mined.
BY this method the engineer has all the
advantage, which complete command of
water gives (the boring is generally con-
Quoted while the well is full of water), over
the slow, laborious, costly and dangerous
shafts in common use. Large cylinders Of
iron excavate and remove the earth and
softer strata, and huge triangular iron
frame, called trepan, weighing sometimes
several tons, and set with colossal steel
teeth, perfOrates the hardest rock to any
required depth. When the shaft has gone
down to the sulphur bed, which has been
demonstrated by both experiments to be
comparatively free from water and is i'm
permeable to water from the strata above,
the lower part of the shaft is made water
tight by q peculiar process, the water
pumped ont of it, and the miner, with pick
Ak and shovel, enters the sulphur strata,
digs out bis chambers and galleries. and
sends up the mineral to the surface. '
The invention of Kind and Chaudron has
been patented in Europe. Their machines
none have, as vet, been imported or used
in this country. Some diversity of opinion
existed in the directory as to whether the
iron shaft should be made in Europe or
constructed in our home foundries and
workshops. But they eventually concluded
that it was advisable to contract with
those parties in Europe who already had
the patterns and other appliances for exc
cutting the work, and who had the expe-
rience of former success to guarantee that
the work would be we'll done and COM
pleted within the shortest time possible
1t is anticipated that the delay in placing
the machinery and materials upon the
ground at the mines in Calcasieu will be no
greater than if the work had been done
here, and if there should be little more
delay. it will be more than compensated by
the amount saved IN G06 cost ana expense.
The motto of the President is ECONOMY
and the utmost speed compatible with
safety"
There is reason to believe that as there is
no very hard rock to perfOrate, in sinking a
shaft at the mines in Calcasieu, and not
much rock of any kind to be encountered.
the work, when begun, will be completed
in a very few months; and the directory
hope to be able to contract for
The delivery of sulphur before the end Of
the year. The cost of the whole work will
absorb more than third of the
of the company, and will thus OBJ
viate the necessity Of calling in the last re-
naming installments of stock due under the
charter, as there will, probably, be no need
Df the money.
As very many of our citizens are deeply
in this mining venture, and as it is of a new
and unfamiliar kind, to most Of us in this
section of our country, we would suggest to
hem that they can at any time receive full
as to sulphur mining data gem
orally, Or the details o fthe condition of this
particular company, by calling upon the
Mr.. w. B. Koontz, at the Office |
If the company, who will cOurteOusly an
'wer all questions pertaining to the enter
)rise.
Mission Schools Festival.
The second grand festival for benefit of
he Mission schools win be held at Odd
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