Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-12-28
LLANO'S PROSPECTS.
Facts and Figures Given by Well
Known Civil Engineer.
Inexhaustib!e supply Of Bessemar Ores - A
Grand Water Power to Pc Utilized.
Granite and N9rble.

| oesO 1NsS 40.
the well known civil engineer who is
well known in Fort Worth, returned
from an extended visit to Llano where
he occupies the position Of chief engineer
of the Llano improvement and furnace
company. Knowing that the Llano
country was exciting an unusual amount
of interest GAZETTE reporter waited on
| Judge Lynch to get him to talk about the
| Llano country, but found him so busy
| on plans for the dev elopment OF the
company's property that it was not until
| last night that he found time to talk
freely on the matter. Judge Lynch
! said:
al am of opinion that the Develop
| melts about to take place in the Llauo
! district will create general surprise. /
base my opinion on what have person.
ally seen and examined there. The
most valuable deposits, commercially
| speaking, are the iron ores, building
stones and marbles, although the coun-
try, being Of the primary rock forma-
/ ton, is rich IN rare minerals of various
kinds. The iron ores which l examined
are what is known as black magnetic,
commonly called Bessemer ores, through
reason of their being convertible into
steel by the Bessemer process, on account
| of the practical absence OF phosp horous
in their composition.
To form an idea of the value of this
| class of ore it is necessary to understand
| that the Besssmer is by long odds tile
| cheapest of all the processes by which
steel can be manufactured, ana consists
| simply of forcing atmospheric air
| through the converter containing the
molten metal, which has the effect of
| decarb urizing It and eliminating the
| other impurities. In addition 10 this
! slight dose of manganese is added, which
has the effect of neutralizing the excess
| of oxygen received by the metal from the
| blast. This briefly is the Bessemer pro-
cess, which you can see, is little more
expensive than making common pig iron.
But TO be susceptible to this treatment
the ore must be phosphorus bear
ing, otherwise the PHOSPHORUS must be
eliminated by the basic or other process,
which of course entails extra expense,
| hence the value of the Bessemer ore.
AS to the quantity of this ore available,
l examined one NINE they are now de-
veloping, going down through q shaft
fifty feet deep sunk through the granite
wall rock on the outside of the vein,
from the bottom of which they drifted
gallery prosecuting the vein and de-
veloping twenty-five feet of mineral
which reaches within Ave feet of the
surface and no telling how deep, the
amount of ore in this one mine alone it
would of course be impossible for any
one TO estimate. In my opinion it is
practically inexhaustlble. These speci-
mems, showing them on his table, are
from there, and assay from 62 to 6S per
cent of metallic iron and with only a trace
of PHOSPHORUS.
as to the commercial value of this
mineral it may be interesting to note
that this country Is at present mainly
supplied from two sources. the Lake
Superior region and from Cuba. The
current number of Engineering News
saws: "The Lake Superior iron regions
shipped z 500 900 tons of ore last year as
compared with 4 100, 900 tons in 1887,
and the return for this year Will be
s 800, 900 tons.
The most important building stones of
the region are the granite and Podstam
sandstone, the former being of the red,
gray and blue varieties, together with
marbles of various hues, here are two
samples of the latter, one a beautiful
white and the other gray, with olive
green bands; there are also other min
erals, such as asbestos, graphite, gar
net, etc.
The improvements contemplated con-
sist of granite dam across the Llano
river, with canal about one mile in
length carried down in front of the new
town, where the company propose to
construct a series of wheel houses and
rent them to manufacturers at so much
per horse power per annum, and utilize
= har 20 N inOviup the "a ta
machinery and the dynamos for electric
lighting, etc. l am also engaged
on the designs for a system of sewerage
and water supply, the conditions for the
latter being extremely favorable, as
there Is a mountain peak on the eiee of
town with an elevation of about 800 feet,
which il is Intended to utilize for a reser-
volr, which will give a static pressure at
the hydrauts of about 100 pounds to the
square inch, capable of furnishing such
fire streams as will peel the shingles of
roof.
AS to the source of supply for power
purposes my Raugiug of the stream
shows a flow at low water of 1877 900 200
gallons per twenty four hours, and
reserve in the reservoir from the floor of
tho canal to the Great of the dam of
$40 900, 900 gallons, which with fall of
tWenly-ulue Ieet, you cau sSe Will ue-
velop an enormous power house for manu-
featuring purposes in the way of granite
and marble polishing, wooden facto-
ries, etc.
Talking about manufactures, it seems
to me that Fort Worth is exceptionally
well located to take advantage OF and
utilize the Llano ores, being within about
200 miles of them on a direct line, and
within seventy odd miles of coking coal.
This latter statement may startle some
people, bu: it is literally correct. Here
are two samples of coal, one from near
Bowie, in Montague county, out of q
mine owned by a syndicate of our own
citizens and which they are now Develop
ing and the other sample from of the line
of the Albuquerque railroad, and these
TWO samples of coke with them were made
from these two Goals. b ,th of which are
now located within about seventy miles
OF this town. 1t would seem therefore
to be only question CT concentrating
the ore and fuel at this point to make it
a suitable location for blast furnaces. as
the limestone and wind can be had here
t. - t,- .