The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1894-11-09
MYSTERIOUS moNAzITE.


An Important Refractory, Lonely Mineral
Found In North Carolina
'sWhat is msnazite?''
Fifty times the question was put by a
reporter to as many Of those shrewd
New Workers who make handsome for
tunes IN dull Offices in Maiden lane and
Burling slip and Cedar street and the
regions roundabout, and so times, with
more OF less variation of accent. came
the answer:
Never heard Of it. -
Yet lnonazite is a commercial fact of
in oortance. 1t IS being talked Of learn
eddy in learned societies; it is being
quietly handled here in New York,
while down in North Carolina there is
q monazite boom of a yelled and secret
sort
Quiet, mysterious references have
been made to it by quiet. sedate bust
ness men, but the limit Of information
has seemed to be soon reached. One
Pearl street millionaire, who has han
died oils for so years, informed his
bOOkkeeper recently that he was 60
ing down to North Carolina to buy a
few square miles OF land. What fers''
asked the boozkeeper. 'Monazite, - re-
piled the millionaire, and that is all
that he could or would say. Another
old gentleman just around the corner
On Pine street has sent his son-in-law
to Germany, where the inner secrets OF
monazite are to be gathered. An agent
for a commission firm has been slipping
around from point to point IN North
Carolina buying up all the monazite-
There were millions In it. The market
was 'busted. . It was used to deteriorate
gold. It was a patent medisine. Ne one
outside of two people, one IN New Y Ork
and enc in Hamburg, knew what it was
used for. 1t was an open secret and not
worth talking about OF sush were the
varying and contradictory hints and
phrases that had foated into the re-
porter's ken, get when it came to the
simple question, ''What is monazitc?"
the answer was almost invariably the
negative one just quoted Sometimes
however, it was accompanied by a half
friendly pointer, such as Go down and
see Flinkstein. He knOws all about it. -
or run over to DR.. Schwartzmann :
place and ask him. " And So by dint OF
mounting many dark and greasy steps,
getting into all sorts Of strange smelling
laboratories and by taking up leads and
hints and indications the following
facts about mOnazite were secured:
MOnazite IS a strange, rare mineral
found in that rich metallic heart Of the
Appalachian mountains that lie IN North
Carolina. Some year OF So ago enc Of
the gold mining companies down thsrs
discovered in rhGir phases depesit Of
small, brewn crystalline SAND whieh
was quite unfamiliar to any eff the
miners They sent sample to their
agent here in New York. The agent sent
it to d famous German analytical cham
ist by whom it was recognized as
nonazite. Up to that time it had only
been found in small and scattered de-
posts In such widely separated local.
ties as Finland and Cornwall, Norway
and Bohemia, and IN such small guam
titles that only the richer laboratories
had any specimens. 1t was not like any
thing else under the sun, and 50 the few
brown octahcdron crystals that had been
Bottled up were labeled monazite, or
the lonely or solitary mineral
The composition Of the mineral was
even more curious, for it was found to
contain six Of those undefnable products
known as rare earths' and all ending
in 'ium, = which is a popularity, it
seems of these imperishable dusts.
What these dusts had gone through be-
fore arriving at the catalogued state Of
s'iu1ns'' and ties can only be guessed
at, but the inference Is that they had
bsen bern in period of intense cosmic
energy, for they proved to be the NEST
refractory things on record.
Chemists call things refractory when
they can neither melt nor burn them
back any further toward the point of
elementary origin, and these earths
wouldn't 90 back at all. No matter
how great the heat, they just became
incandescent and glowed with a bright
ness that was like that of the sun, but
when the fame was turned of thew
were just rare earths, undestroyed
''iums, - as before.
It happened about this time that a
certain Illuminating company was look
ing for just such a material as mona
zite and in correspondence heard of it.
Invasti cations We're made, experts were
dispatched to North Carolina, and mo-
nazite was found by the ton. AIsng the
river banks and IN the river beds, in
the clefts of auriferOEs rocks and at
the bottom Of gullies the brown crystal
line sand was found and bought and
shipped to Germany. But it took q let
of sand to furnish the imperishable ma
terial in the shape that was needed, and
the prise went up until it reached $3.50
a ton, and from that up to 5000 and
ever Then the search fer Inonazite was
begun in earnest, ana now IN Alexan-
der, Madison, Mitchell, Yancey, Burke,
Polk, Mcdowell and Rutherford soun-
ties there is a momazits boona. New
York Sun