Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-09-23
Our Minerals in Birmingh am.

From the CarferSetUe tGa.) Courdrst.
For several months the Courant has
noticed strange gentlemen prospecting,
In company with orr local mineralogists,
around the mountains OF this immediate
vicinity, but when any attempt was made
to find out ANYTHING nothing of their
operations would be divulged. Rumors
flew thick and fast to the effect that the
vast EtOwah mineral property was being
negotiated for by steel company of
Birmingham. In the past few months
Birmingham has become very much agi-
tated over the question Of steel manufac-
ture, and, when IL was found that the
necessary material could De found there
or in this vicinity they Immediately orga-
nized a company, and are now building
furnaces. 1t will be several m onths be-
fore these furnaces can be placed In
operation, but when they do go ito opera
ton they will employ considerable labor
in mining the minerals wanted here. On
the subject Mr.. q. B. West, the regular
correspondent OF the Baltimore Manufac-
turer's Record, has written his journal a
long and Interesting letter, extracts from
which are published below:
do not know how long ago It is since
Mr.. de Bardeleben got his origin al inkling
of the presence Of Bessemer steel at Car
tersville, Ga, but am pretty sure that it
was not before Jan. l last. Since that
time few OF his friends have been walt
iag impatiently for his play to develop,
and 1t has now with q vengeance. With
his customary prudence, he appeared to
be very busy buying corner lots in town,
and the majority OF bis rivals in the field
of large local operations supposed him TO
be bent on just nothing else; but all the
time his henchmen were hard at work
buying up choice territory In the Carriers
vile Bessemer ore and manQanese region,
and, before anybody was the wiser, they
had nearly all OF it. Lest any evil-mind ed
Eastern man or newspaper should sneer
at these mineral resources and insinuate
that they are no better than trey should
be, it is a truth or which anybody can
have the evidence. on application TO head
quarters, that leading experts of Pennsyl-
vania have examined the iron ore, have
analyzed and tested It, and have declared
10 to be much like but better than the best
Lake Superior product. Chemically II
shows an average Of 67a6S per cent. me-
tallic iron, about per cent. phosphorus.
AS to the manganese from Gainesville, IL
has been some time in use at the Edgar
Thompson Steel Works in PIttsburg, and
that fact ought TO save it from derlsion.
Cartersvile is on the East and West
Alabama railway, which line is built this
way ITO miles 10 Broken Arrow. From
the latter point MIR. de Bardeleben 10 ex-
tending the road 1s miles to his Henry
Ellen mines, thence IA miles to Birming-
ham, and thence II miles TO his new steel
town Of Bessemer. At Bessemer be is
erecting two furnaces, each IS feet high
with il feet hosh, and together capable OF
producing 800 tons Of Besscmer pig per
diem. He is building standard gauge
coal road out into the eighboring coal
field, n large area in which is owned by
himself and associates. ana he Is Offering
large inducements 10 every body in the
iron ard steel manufacture to come and
locate with him. Bessemer occupies a
5000 acre town site about ii or ~ miles
south of Birmingham, and in the centre
prises. A mining and furnace community
OF several thousand working people and
their families is already on the ground.