St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1893-09-07
Correspondence.
AT THE WORLDS FAIR.
The Mines BniIdinR.

that ever had an entire building de-
voted to the products of mines and
mining machinery. 1t is essentially
an exhibit for specialists, though
there is much to interest all in the
handsome white building. The
building is located between the Elec-
tricity and Transportation build
ings, its architecture is early Italian
renaissance and it is an imposing
structure. More than one and one
half million pounds of iron and steel
were used in the building and the in
terror space is spanned by steel can
tilever trusses, supported on steel
columns. The cantilever system, as
applied to roofs, was never used on
so large scale before. The floor
area OF the building is nearly nine
acres.
The foreign exhibit is very compre-
hensive. Canada makes an exhaust
i've exhibit of her resources, includ-
ing marble, granite, nickel, copper
and platinum. In the nickel exhibit
is a complete collection of the ores
in the different stages ofpurihcation,
though the method of extracting
the nickel from the ore is profound
secret. One ingot of nickel is shown
that weighs $500 pounds and is
valued at $2250, and there is also a
lump of nickel ore that weighs three
tons. Canada has some fine ashes
tos mines which make an elaborate
exhibit of their products. Gold is
extensively mined in British Column
bia and there is gilded pyramid rep
resenting the amount of gold which
has been taken from the mines.
Platinum is also found in the prov
inces and platinum ore is shown.
Another notable exhibit is from
New South Wales, which has large
displays in almost every building of
the Fair. This colony has remark
able display of ores, metals and coal,
with printed information concern
ing the products of that country.
Mexico, as is well known, has won
derful mineral resources, and its ex-
hibit is very handsome. Native
opals and rubies and many other
precious stones are well locked up in
glass cases, while big specimens of
silver ore stand outside the cases
The Mexican commissioner was very
glad to show me around and took
great pains to explain the exhibits.
This leads to the remark that all the
exhibitors at the Fair were courte-
Gus and glad to impart information
whenever desired.
The feature of Chii's exhibit is a
model of nitrate of soda plant and
many nitrate specimens. 1t was this
rich bed of nitrate that caused the
recent civil war between Chill and
Peru. Brazil and Cape Colony had
wonderful diamonds exhibits and the
Kimberly Diamond Company of
South Africa had plant in opera
ton attended by big Zulus. The
diamond-bearing sand was exhibited
and the process of separating the
costly stones from the quartz at
tracted a big crowd. England had
big iron and coal exhibit, includ-
ing lump of camel coal from the
New Abraln mines, Lancashire,
weighing 10 tons. A notable fea-
ture of the German exhibit was a
handmade water pipe 60 feet long
and 312 feet in diameter Russia,
Spain and Japan also had complete
exhibits.
OF course the Western states had
the best exhibits in the United States
department. Montana's greatest
piece was silver statue of Justice,
six feet high and weighing 212 tons.
1t was made of solid silver, but it did
not look like pure silver, as it lacked
the brightness which one always
sees in solid silver. Arizona showed
beautiful specimens of onyx and a
lump of carbonate of copper weigh
ing $685. pounds. A notable exhib-
it from this territory was the petri.
fed wood.
Colorado's exhibit was very com.
plete and consisted of coal, silver
lead and other products. Creole and
Cripple Creek, the new mining
towns, had good displays of silver
ore. There was also an exhaustive
mineral collection, with all the speci
mems properly labelled. Utah had {
beautiful collection of native gem.
and some handsome specimens O