Omaha daily bee., 1889-09-22
A MONSTER GOLD BRICK.
The Largest Bar in the World Turned
Ont Mt Helena

me Largest bar in the world turned
Ont at Helena.
The largest gold bar ever cast IN the
world was turned out at the United
States mint here last night, says a
Helena special. The bullion came from
the Spotted Horse, Drum Iummou and
done under the supervision of Superin-
tendent Braiden. The largest crucible
would hardly hold the enormous charge,
and with the hottest furnaces it took a
long time TO melt the precious metal.
Sixteen men were engaged in the task.
and, after eight hours work, the mass
was finally successfully poured into the
large mold specially prepared. 1t took
all night to cool, and even at 10 this
morning the great brick was still warm.
In shape the BRICK is section of Il
pyramid, the base being 1Sx74 inches,
height u inches, and top surface 17x6
inches. Its weight is 6,945 ounces, or
about five hundred pounds avoirdupois.
Its value is a triile over 100000. The
bar is to be the center piece of MIN
eral monument, which will he placed on
exhibition at Minneapolis and New
York. The display will consist OF four
bars of lead for the base Of the monu-
ment,. four bars of copper for the
yer for the third, on top
of the whole to rest the 100000 gold
bar, and the monument will be sur
rounded by specimens of quartz and ore
from all parts of Montana.
The Coal Supplies of the World.
In view of the question which has
suggested itself on more than one oc-
casion as to how long it would be be-
fore the old world coal deposits would
become exhausted, the Deutsche Han
delsMuseum supplies some interesting
figures relating to the worlds coal
fields outside OF the North American
continent. According to these, the low
countries, Switzerland, Denmark, Ger
many and Bohemia, possess coal mines
of surface area of about fifty-nine
thousand square miles. Russia alone
has $4,000 square miles The deposits
OF the island of Formosa amount to some-
thing like 10000 square miles. some OF
the coal veins ranging up to ninety-siX
feet in thickness. The coal fields of
Austria, Spain, Portugal, Italy,
Greece, Turkey and Persia cover
about thirty-nine thousand square
miles, those of India 30, 900 and those of
Japan 5000 square miles, while those of
China are estimated at the enormous
figure of 100000 square miles. But
these are rot all. The Falkland islands,
Patagonia and Peru. are very rich in
coal, while the southern part of Chilli is
one immense deposit. In Brazil veins
varying in thickness from seventeen to
twenty-five feet are found in numbers,
and in the United States of Columbia
there is an abundance of the mineral.
Mexico and the Vancouver islands are
also we'll supplied. there being proba-
bly, not far from 10000 square miles,
while the deposits thus far discovered
in Tasmania, New Caledonia and Natal
are estimated to cover 100000 square
miles. the larger number of these
deposits not yet having been worked.
Without reckoning the immense stores
of coal in the United States, and merely
relying upon those given above, there
seems to be but little prospect of a coal
famine for some years.
Coughs and colds come unlimited, but
you can quickly get riil of these with a