The Opelousas courier., 1892-01-02
FOUND A NEW MINERAL
GREAT DISCOVERY BY A FISHER.
MAN IN TEXAS.

Some years ago a sportsman with rcd
and line was fishing from the bank of a
particularly inviting stream just a little
south Of the center of the State of Texas.
At the base of a long pool, a ledge,
Standing edgewise, crossed the stream
from n bank to the other, forming q
dam, over which the crystal liquid
flowed, breaking into foam as it fell be-
low. The sportsman undertook to cross
on the crest of this natural dam where
the water was shallow. AS he walked
through the thin stream, placing one
foot carefully before the other, he no.
ticed hat the ledge was yielding to the
touch, like an asphalt pasement baked
in the August sun. Reaching the other
shore, he observed that there was a
broad, high and clearly developed vein
of the same material as that of which
the ledge was formed, making into the
bank. 1t was of a dark brown color, and
contrasted sharply with the reddish earth
on either side.
With a stout pocket knife he cut out
a large lump of the clinging brown vein
and looked at it closely. 1t was a mass
of sea shells, held together by sand COW
cred with a dark, intensely sticky film
of the color of dark brown sugar, and
possessing neither taste nor odor. The
presence of the shells, which lay thickly
in the whole vein, showed that where he
stood the ocean had once ebbed and
flowed. But what this deposit could be,
or by what action of natures chemistry
it had been formed, was to him a com
pletc mystery. From the top of the
bank his practiced eye could detect the
clear outcroppings of the vein, running
away to the east and west as far as he
could see. Whatever it was, he could
see that there lay before him an enor-
nous supply of this strange, clinging
staff, mixed with seashells.
Tying his large lump of new-found
mineral substance in his handkerchief
the prospector proceeded toward camp.
That night he tired to melt the mass. 1t
would not yield in the least to any heat
he could produce. Weeks afterward, in
New York, he tried acids upon it with
out avail. He began to feel a deep
curiosity about this stubborn stuff that
held its secret so closely. He exhausted
all his knowledge of the art of reducing
minerals without producing a single
tangible result.
One day he received word to call on a
chemist to whom he had given a small
quantity of the matter some weeks pre-
v%iously. He replied to the invitation in
person. In the labratory he was Aown
a little heap of perfectly white sand and
sea shells lying on the table, while in
the bottom of a glass vessel near by was
a quantity of intensely, brilliantly black
stuff of about the density of molasses.
This matter, the chemist explained, had
been extracted from the combination of
sea shells and sand by the application
of a bath of common benzine. Where
all the scientific methods Of reduction
had failed to make the slightest impress
sion, a benzine bath instantly dissolved
the sticky film and had completely sep
arated it from the particles of sand and
shell. The chemist had not yet deter
mined upon all of the possibilities of
usefulness for the newly found product,
but it was quite clear that, inasmuch as
it fully resisted water, heat, acids and
alkalis, there was a field ready for it to
occupy. Quantities of the material were
quietly brought to New York, and a
series of experiments followed, covering
a period of more than two years time.
The result of these experiments goes to
prove beyond any question of doubt that
the State of Texas has produced an en-
tirely new mineral, which will exercise a
tremendous effect upon many of the
greatest industries at present in opera
ton, not alone in this country, but in
various other portions of the world.
DR.. Frederick Salathe has a labora-
tory fitted up on the top floor Of the
building at 10 Park place. 1t is here
that he has conducted the various ex-
aminations which have unsealed the. Sc
cret of the Texas mineral, to which he
has given, By reason of its various prop
critics, the title Litho- Carbon. He has
discovered that it makes the most per-
feet insulator yet discovered that it may
be used as a paint that will resist the
action ofheat, salt air, salt or fresh water,
gases. or the other influences that de-
stov the paints now in use; that it will
make a perfect varnish, which the am
monia gases Of the stable Willnot tarnish,
and that will remain undisturbed under
all atmospheric conditions; that it may
be 1olled into d tissue that is entirely
free from odor and practically indestruct-
able when employed in the making of
mackintoshes, canvas betting, water.
proof tents, ETC., that it possesses pecu-
liar powers OF penetration when applied
at high temperatures, enabling it to
enter and fill the pores of iron and steel,
making these metals absolutely impervi-
Gus to acids, etc, and making common
leather entirely waterproof, and that it
may be applied to wood pulp in such a
way as to transform that material into
what looks and acts like ebony or horn.
It is possible to saturate a steamship
plate in hot litho-carbon and produce a
remarkable result. Thus prepared that
plate will not be touched by barnacles,
can never rust and will not foul. Gov
cred with a layer Of paint made of this
matter a ship or seaside house will per-
manently resist the action OF the atmos-
phere or water. a portion Of the smoke
stack of the steamer Dean Richmond,
where the heat by the use Of a .sbloWer''
rises to 500 degrees Fahrenheit, was
painted with litho-carbon months ago,
aud remains u~ndisturbed and upholstered,
while other parts of the vessel have neces-
sarily been painted many times. A Shin
gle covered with l~itho-earbon paint has