Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-03-27


EAST TENNESSEE MINERALS.
Tie New York South of the ga inst.
cantains an interesting letter addressed TO
.qga Mr. Thomas Cru chfeld, Commissioner Of
Agriculture for Tennessee, from Gen. j.
T. Wilder, from which we condense the
q . FLOWING statement: Wslden's Ridge is
the southern limit of the Appalachian coal
pei, feds which runs entirely across the
S ale from northeast TO southwest at an
elevation of 1900 feet, and an average of
- 90 miles wide, by 200 long, forming coal
field Of 5000 square miles, or 3,S4O,OOO
acres. This era excseds by 100000 acres
- the entire coal fields OF England, Scotland,
Wales and Ireland. 10 the above state
p Y ,nent If Gen. Wilder, We add word of
-, ezu,ion to the effe t that, our Tennessee
- strata Of coal are no. sufficiently explored
% 3 and developed to justify any one in saying
positively. whether they viii yield more or
- less per SQUARE mile than those Of E0gland.
F.om al we have Teen able to learn on the
suhjecs, The deposits of coal in The Cumber-
land Mountains are thicker and more pro-
3 life per acre, as general fact, than those
.-.--- ot Great Britain. The intelligent reader
will see that the AVERAGE yield of good coal
~ per acre and square mile is an important
,H.a factor in this Industrial and financial prob
ry lem. So far as known, all the ia is are in
80 favor of both the quantity aud qualify OF
,.-a this mineral in our State. OF the metals,
slate aud marble in East Tennessee, Gen.
Wl1er thus speaks: "Nearly every ridge
Ia The vall-y contains minerals CT some
aA kind, the cuts through which the rivers
E fow forming natural openings to the veins
.- of iron ore which outcrop in nearly every
ridge, whilst tle great Allegheny chain is
ribbed and scanned with veins of iron
ore of nearly every known variety.
From the same range are
a= taken large quantities of copper at Duck
town, whilst all along lis northern base
runs great broad belt of roofing slate and
"A ~ most b autiful black marble intersected
with snow white veins. Along the ba OF
the Cumberland range runs entirely through
the State, low range or ridge of about
two hundred feet altitude above drainage,
containing invariably two veins of red fos,
siliferous iron ore, varying in thickness
from three to ten feet, cropping out near
s.. the crest OF The ridge on its southern slope
and dipping at an angle of about forty-hve
degrees to the northwest. 1t is supposed
to extend under the coal field; at all events
1t crops out st precisely the same geological
horizon on tie opposite side &f Wslden's
Ridge, in Sequatcbie Valley and in Elk Gap
opposite Knoxville, localities one hundred
miles apart" Touching the coal and iron
the Gen. Wilder says:
The coal in WaIden's Ridge is dry
semi-bituminous, or rather semi-anthracite,
working raw in the blast furnace, and re-
~ ouirine at lockwood about two and three
fourths of a ton of coal TO smelt one ton OF
mig metal. The ore averages yield OF
sixty per cent. of iron, and the sub-caroon-
ferrous limestones furnish ample and ex-
cellent luxing material, requiring twenty
to twenty-five per cent. OF fiuA. Nowhere
along this long line of two hundred mile:
Is IL more than half mile from the iron ore
To the coal beds, while the massive lime
stones are inva:i bly, between them the en-
tire distance. The coal at lockwood is
very much disturbed, varying from sever
to over one hundred feet IN thickness. Oul
No. furnace has been in blast most Of the
time for over four years, making hnt
quality of pig-iron for rails with only one
KIND Of ore. Our No. furnace, of forty
,4Ol tens capacity, will be pu
s.a to work early. in the spring
when we will turn out, with both furnaces
seventy five tons of pig iron per day. A
the base of the Allegheny chain, on th
south side of The valley, is wide chain o.
laa high knobs, In many of which are wonder
full beds of the finest brown heBatite iro
ores, some of which con ain manganese
ga In tie Allegheny chain are ineXnausubl
peins of brown hemaiite, and in the hig
mountains of the Blue Ridge are large vein
and lodges Of magnetic iron ores
these must 60 with the rivers TO the cos
fields on the northwest side of the gres
valley. for this reason-that it requires on
ton and a half Ct good iron ore to make ON
ton of pig iron, and it takes about thre
tons of coal 10 reduce it, and three 10 fOu
more tons of coal TO convert and III
ish il into bar iron; thus using seven ton
of coal to produce one ton OF mel
chantable iron, and one third OF ton @
limestone, making n all seven tons and
half of fuel and fuX. These are foun
contiguous to large and persistent beds o
iron ore, only requiring a mixture OF on
half of the brown hematite aud magueti
ores to make merchantsble iron, ut for al
use in arts or commerce, and giving the a,
yantages to manufacturers located near u
coal. in proportio to the greater tonnag
of fuel and fiux used, to the vastly esst
weights and freights of ores required
nroduce one ton of iron; in other word
. saving in the production of pig iron OIL
half tie transportation, and 10 bar or pla
iron or nails, nesrly 50 per cent. This
the advantage enjoyed by the manufact
rers on the northwest side of the valley ov
those located on the southeast side, whe
are plenty of ores and no coal.
REPORT OF LOCKWOOD FURNACE FOR II
MONTH ENDING SATURDAY, JANUAR
1873.