Western sentinel. [volume] (Winston [i.e. Winston-Salem], N.C.) 1856-1886, 1879-10-02
Hunting Minerals.
WHAT MR.. EDIsoN's AGENTS. LOOKING
FOR AND WHAT HE HAS FoIlsD


FOR AND WHAT HE HAS FOUND. :
Mr.. Edison's agent, Mr.. W. $ E.
Hidden, who has been in Western
North Carolipa for several weeks
N seaFchr OF the mineral platinum.
d@r nse in EdisoR's electric light.
arrived in the city yesterday. He
has visited twenty-nine places in
Burke, Mcdowell, Iredell, Bun
.combe, Henderson and other west
ern counties in which the metal as
supposed ito exist and has thus far
mot with no success. He left last
3fisht for Abberille county, S. G.,
where it is represented in the news
papers that the metal has been
found in appreciable quantities.
Mr.. HiddeR is himself mineralo-
eist BY profession and a member of
the Academy of Science, of New
1 ork. He says. that While he has
not been able to find any of the
mineral he is satisfied that It exists.
His search has been confined mostly
TO gold mines, not there is any
affinity of platinum for gold, but
because, if found at all 1T is most
likely to be discovered BY those in
search of gold. 1T is a matter of
scientific record that it has been
found in four different places in
North Carolina, to-wit: Jeanes-
town, in Mcdowell county, Burns
vile, in Yancey county, Brown
Mountain, in Burke, Tusquittce, in
Clay, and at one or more points in
Rutherford county. it is found in
a free state, usually in fattened
grains of different sizes, but gen
orally small, and in color not unlike
steel, though humps have been dis
covered weighing several pounds.
Rnesia has hitherto furnished the
supply for scientific purposes, but
Mr.. Edison wants to get it in this
country, on account OF the great
amount of it psed in his electric
hight apparatus and the heavy cost
OF transporting it from abroad
Consequently he is willing to pay e
large price for mine. In fact he
must have it, in order to put his
electric light into practical use. The
light itself or the apparatus for it,
Is complete, and he awaits now the
requisite quantity of platinum.
M. Hidden will visit Georgia,
Alabama and other points in central
North Carolina before he returns to
the North, and if unsuccessful will
afterwards turn his face towards
the Pacific coast. He says. how
eyer, that his trip through North
Carolina has been OF the deepest
to himself and to Mr.. Ed
son. He found two metals, Zircon
and Samarst1ite, in considerable
both of which can be
used with great advantage by Mr..
Edison. The former possesses the
peculiar quality Of infnsibility in
the electric light, which may be of
the highest importance to the IA
mons inventor The latter IS a
combination of many substances, of
which comparatively little is known,
and any one of which may also
prove valuable. Gen. Cfingnan
has a large mine of the former
Mr.. Hidden also discovered min
eral, ansatase, which wf.srnot hither~
@ known to exist in this State and,
another which is. entirely unknown
to the scientific world. lie re-
marked in the course of the con-
versation that North Carolina was
absolutely the best field for minerals
in the world; that nowhere is any
thing like the variety which she
furnishes, aud as a RUE they are by
far the most perfect specimens
known. 81 was shown,o said he,
"a quartz crystal by Mr.. Adlai
Stephenson, of ,Statesville, who has
small but valuable cabinet, which
I would have come all The way
from New York to have seen," and
so with specimens OF .rntile, coan-
dun, &e.si9
Mr. Hidden expects,toretnrn to
Menlo Park, N. j., the home of
Edison, about the LIST of November.
Any communication will recah him
through Mr. Edison. GharLotte
3 OdSerUer. = ri eil3 fsa 5s3iesa-
.a1 5lis bi----7-o-. -.---IJz7-7 - ~. 81
The man who spends a lifetime
in investigating the idiosynerasies
of the spinal column Of an .insect
only known in Central Africa, and
which can orly be seen under a
powerful microscope, generally gets
"a .monumentT and is elected ,tn
various societies, while. the man
who gets up a ten cent sandwich
sells it, for halt a dime lives his
allotted span and dies without
fcausing ripple OF excitement.
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