The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1880-01-23
KANSAS NATURAL LIME.
Another Source of Wealth in the Gre
Agricultural Commonwealth

Another Source OF Wealth in the Great
Agricultural Commonwealth.
Among the natural products, some
possessing some very peculiar character
lstlcs, which the young and growing
state of Kansas contains, is singular
substance, lying in very considerable
beds, and called kansas native lime"
1t is, says correspondent of the Ameri-
lean Architect, of Il beautiful white col
or and of a very fine-grained texture Ii
is soft, smooth and readily made into a
plastic condition by the admixture of a
suitable quantity of sand and water. The
mortar thus made up has seemingly
identical qualities to the best mortar
as made from superior lines selected
from kilns where the lime rock which
had been employed for burning had been
| of the very purest nature.
The native lime is whit;sh and pure
white clay, lying disposed favorably in
beds more or less horizontal in their po-
sition. These beds are seen to be out
cropping along the borders of certain
streams and in the breaks of hills, and
in such places the beds can be worked
entirely above the water level Expert
ments which have been performed by
workmen and artisans in Kansas have
exhibited the fact that Kansas lime NOR
TAI SClEtS sS SOou JuIDOSc us any Olner
usual styles or kinds of mortar, and even
better than some of the artificial mortar,
especially for nice inside work. The
tendency of this newly discovered de-
post of pseudo-lime, when made into
mortar for walls and stone work or plas-
tering, is TO set and harden. Another re-
markable quality is its then turning i'm
mediately to an intense whiteness. The
beds are very thick and easily dug,
so that large quantities of the substance
can be thrown up and at once applied to
use. Besides its ready adaptability to
purposes of mortar, it has been applied
TO the purpose of whitewashing, and in
this respect it has been accepted as an
admirable substitute for lime prepared
artificially. These immense beds of
pseudo-limc occur in localities where
railways of eastern Kansas can readily
be utilized for shipping the material to
all parts OF the country. 1t Is, perhaps,
presumable that upon the spread of the
knowledge of this fact, the excellent
natural mortar lime and whitewash
lime from these native deposits may be-
come articles of export, especially as
improved styles of building and more
permanent structures everywhere in
Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa and
Illinois are growing TO be more and
more the requisites OF the times The
great pseudOlime beds or navive beds of
calcined lime rock, are a geographical
phenomenon They are difficult to ac-
count for in any plain or obvious man
ner. They have a close resemblance in
their physical condition and looks, and
in their feel or touch, to the best NOR
tars made in the usual ways with the
very best of lines. Can il be possible
that some of the unknown laws of cleo
tro-magnetism and tereOtrial magnetism,
which cduse certain metamorphisms to
occur in metaliferous beds, are likely to
be discovered as the laws also which set
the elements at work to alter the chemical
conditions of this singular lime rock
qualification Can the problem of their
origin and nature be clearly or satisfac-
torily accounted for in any other way?
Does such a strange product as this &C
cur in any other section of our con-
finanfS