Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1874-09-18
{ New Series. Vol. g. No. rs.
I Old Series. Vol. 30, No. 25.

was violent eruption from Mount Etna,
in Sicily, which was attended with an
earthquake, whereby 10000 persons were
destroyed. The sulphur which is now sold
/ in the markets of the world is said to be
largely derived from veins produced On
that memorable occasion. The sulphur
is elected from the volcanoes III the time of
their activity, and fills up vacant spaces in
the lava or !rUthy pumice-stone. When
this IS quarried or mined, and dug out, it
forms the birthstone Of commerce. When
this birthstone is melted and cast into
sticks, it produces the roll sulphur of the
shops and when the birthstone is boiled,
and its vapOr is allowed to escape into an
air-tight chamber, the variety called flow
ers Of sulphur is the result. Sui lphur in it's
natural state is found only IL volcanic re-
giOns but in combination there is scarcely
any substance so universally diffused over
the world. 1t is found not only united
with all kinds Of metals on the face of the
earth, but also in plants and animals, and
is of so much Importance to these that they
cannot exist without it. The exquisite
perfume of wall l-hOwers is Il peculiar COM
pound of sulphur. If a silver spoon be left
in an egg, it soon becomes black that eff
feet is caused by the sulphur of the egg
uniting with the metal. y compound of
sulphur is always present in the air we
hroo Fho nd a1fhCr,uh email -,
to its other constituents, yet the air is never
free from it.
Commercially speaking, sulphur rules the
destiny of man both in the arts Of peace
and in the appliance of war. 1t is the key
which opens the door to the most impOr-
tant chemical manufactures. From it we
has well been called the king of the acids. ,
BY it, it is said, we are enabled to produce
so many substances that The bare mention
of them would ill the whole Of this paper.
Bleaching, dyeing, soda making, metal-re-
! tining, electro-platiRg, and electric-telegra-
phing are primarily indebted to this acid.
as ether, calomel, &c, could not be made
without it. Sulphur being the chief ingre-
dent of gunpowder, all the applications of
that explosive, in war and peace, are de-
pendant upon il. A people that does not
possess lucifer matches stands beyond the
pale of civilization, yet matches cannot be
made without sulphur not because match
es are dipped into melted birthstone before
they are tipped with the phosphoric COM
position which ignites them, but because
this very material which igniteS them can
not be made without the indirect use of
sulphur. England alone consumes more
than G0,00O tons of sulphur annually which
is all brought from the volcanic regions OF
Sicily.
\ paragraph has lately been going the
rounds of the papers in which it is stated,
on the authority of SignOr Parodi (whO
ought to know all about it, that the sui
phur in Sicily will be exhausted in from
fifty to sixty years but Mr.. W. Shelford,
! in communication to the Journal of the
/ Society of arts for July 10, 1874, gives good
reasons for doubling the accuracy of this
estimate. Mr.. Shelford has inspected very
many sulphur mines in the island. has Wis
! tied the most of the sulphur districts, and
has been engaged for some years in direct
! ing the working Uf mines there. He says
| that with very few exceptions, the ore is
carried to the surface on the backs of boys,
| two or four of whom accompany each mi
ner, aud il is a well-known fact that the
produce of 4 mine in Sicily is chiefly deter
mined by the difficulty of getting boys.
Moreover, as each boy carries small load
only, and makes several journeys per day
up and down the difficult headings and
shafts, the mines soon reach depth at
which they cease to be protitably worked.
This depth is in practice found to be about
four hundred feet, below which winding
machinery is needed for hauling the ore to
| the surface, but has hitherto scarcely been
.ried. AL tie phur in the island, there
fore, below four hundred feet, is almost un-
touched. That this quantity is consdera-
ble may be inferred from the fact that ma
ny of the beds of ore are nearly vertical,
and improve as they descend.