Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1872-01-31
State Board ofAgrIeullure.


= we're reported By the Free Presf.
. Hon. Roswell Fsrnum Of Bradford rea,
paper on the copper niRes Of OraHq
= County from which we take the following
o extract.
Mr.. Farnham, described the mine o
e the Vermont Copper Mining Company il
5 Nershirc-ihe only mine in Orange ooun
~ now in operation and one Of The yer,
few IN the couniry-perhaps the only on,
except those on Lake Superior Aud ihesS
: would stop did they not produce native
copper.
The stockholders Of this company are
, mostly business men Of New York city
!. the President, Smith Ely, ESQ, owns
about 1000 shares Of the 100, 0OU shares
Of capital stock. A. Palmer. Press.
uent Of the Broadway Bank, owns, also. a
large number Of shares.
since 1854, when the present company
commenced work, the main shaft has been
pushed down in the vein, until now il has
reached depth Of nearly 800 feet from
the surface, aud new udit has been on.
ened, which has been driven in till il
reaches the main shaft, horizontal dis
lance OF 800 feet. 4 stationary steam
engine stands at the point where the main
shaft end adit unite. A track extends
from the bottom of the main shalt up its
Inclined plane Of from % to 30 degrees.
then out through the adit to the outer
world. TIE products of the mine all pass
over this track. The expense of draining
this mine has always been slight, aud the
apparatus for doing this is simply water
tight car, holding several hogsheads, into
which the water is dipped from a reservoir
blasted into the rock down in the mine.
The pure ore contains about 30 per
cent. OF copper; but the material that is .
blasted out and removed from the mine.
taken as whole, contains only about
three per cent. Of copper. This mass is
made up of the rock in which the vein
lies, iron pyrites, or 'mundic, as the min.
erS term 1t, aud the copper ore proper.
The coarser mass of worthless rock is
thrown aside at the mouth of the mine.
while the rest is taken TO the dressing
house, where it is separated, and the ore
assorted, so that when fitted for market
1t contains about ten per cent. of copper.
There are employed under ground |
about one hundred aud fifty men. Work
is kept up all the time, by different gangs /
Of hands. Night and day are unknown.
thousand feet under ground. The feeble !
5lmmer OF the miners lamps barely serves u
10 make the darkness visible, to eyes I'm. h
accustomed to such intense blackness n
made dusky and more impene,rablo, if n
possible, by the smoke from the frequent q
blasts.
The temperature never changes at r
uch depths, and it is impossible to get h
N Old miner to work in the open air in "
he heat of summer or the cold of winter. =.
lie prefers the even temperature under d
round " course the miners have not
he nut-brown complexion given by the =
avs OF the summer sun and the blasts of h
inter- But their counteuanccs are rudy W
nd clear and healthy, and no Vermont II
'oodsman can swing an axe with the Vi. h,
or and true aim that the Cornish miner n
wings his sledge. In the mine three men y,
re called pair, meaning a pair Of stri- A
ers, with one man to hold the drill. 1t il
interesting to watch such a pair. The Il,
nall, miners lamp, upon the top of m
axe, or fastened against the wall with a in
mp of clay, sheds Its feeble light upon M
lie top of the drill which the alternate r.;
rokes of the heavy sledge drives rapid. 5o
into the softer vein Of ore. The holder n,
rms the drill letween the strokes. To i,
lie looking upon these worklnen, for the no
st time, the danger in which the holders IN
mes are, seems so great that he invo- re-
ltarly cringes at each stroke. But fal
lners never miss a stroke, and the stroke fo,
just as sure when the drill is going va
rough the hanging wall or roof Of the to,
IN, vertically, as when going directly tai
wn through the foot wall, or when going b,
rizontally.
This continued use of the muscles of an
arms and shoulders, makes the miners sto
oad-shouldered and deep chested, and sta
yes them wonderful strength across the aft
ms, while their lower limbs suffer from III,
mt OF exercise, and are not developed nh,
the same llerculcan proportion. stu
The miners work, some of them by the n
y but most of them on shares, or "on
butte, as they term it. off,
Lucky tributes" have made as much hlo
$1,000 a week in the Vermont mines. roo
G average earnings through the year ont
experienced miners does not vary much me
m 81 day. wh;
The rock and ore is all removed from for,
place by the force of gun-powder, and inc
vermont company are now using Fe3,
,ut seventy kegs of twenty-five pounds me,
n per month. With this amount of 70 j
Vder, they remove on an average, Tho
nut loo tons of rock per month, or ab;l
mt $4,000 tons per annum, as they are ev;,
' working the mines. enr
The company now smelts its own ore, 7
sends none to market, the smelling on
naces at East Boston, Baltimore, and t;on
'gensport, N. j., being now closed. will
from the dressing house where the ore dete
eparated from the rock mixed with it, me,
ore is taken to the roasting beds on faru
nway. ,;l;.
he process of roasting is simple. A char
IF of wood, less than foot in thick n;tr,
J, is placed over the ground, the size cd n
he required bed. Over this is placed not
the coarser ore, TO the depth of depe
or five feet. After the piles of ore the