Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1893-1895, 1895-08-27
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MYSTERIOUS MoNAzlre.
An Important Refractory, Lonely Mineral
Found In North Carolina.
What is monazitep"

round IN North Carolina.
What is monazite?'
Fifty times the question was put by a
reporter to as many Of those shrowd
New YorkGs who make handsome for
tunes in dull offices in Maiden lane and
Burling slip and Cedar street and the
regions roundabout, and 80 times, with
more or less variation Of accent, came
the answer:
Mover heard Of it. "
Yet monazite is a commercial fact Of
Importance. II is being talked of learn.
edly in learned societies. it is being
quietly handled here in New York,
while down in North Carolina there is
n monazite boom of a yelled and secret
sort.
Quiet, mysterious references have
been made to it by quiet, sedate busi-
ness men, but the limit of information
has seemed TO be soon reached. One
Pearl street millionaire, who has han
died oils for 90 years, informed his
boolkeeper recently that he was GO
ing down to North Carolina to buy
few square miles of land. "What for?"
asked the bookkeeper "Monazite, " re-
piled the millionaire, and that is all
that he could or would say. Another
old gentleman just around the corner
OH Pine street has sent his son-in-law
to Germany, where the inner secrets of
mono2ite are to be gathered. An agent
for commission firm has been slipping
around from point to point in North
Carolina buying mp oil the monazite.
There were millions in it, The market
was 'busted. " 1t was used to deteriorate
gold. twas a patent medicine. No one
outside of two people, one in New York
and one in Hamburg, knew what it was
used for. 1t was an open secret and not
worth talking about. OF such were the
varying and contradictory hints and
phrases that had floated into the re-
porter's ken, yet when it came to the
simple question, "What is monazite?'
the answer was almost invariably the
negative one just quoted. Sometimes.
however, il was accompanied by half
friendly pointer, such as go down and
see Flinkstein. He knows all about il,
or run over to DR.. Schwartzmann' 3
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 or so ago one Of
the gold mining companies down there
discovered in their places deposit Of
small, brown crystalline sand which
was quite unfamiliar to any of the
miners. They sent sample to their
agent here in New York. The agent sent
it IN famous German analytical chem
ist, by whom it was recognized as
monazite. Up TO that time it had only
been found in small and scattered de-
posits in such widely separated locali'
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 so the few
brown octahedron 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 IL was found to
contain six of those undefnable products
known as rare earths" and all ending
in 'ium," which Is a popularity, 1t
seems, Of these imperishable dusts.
What these dusts bad gone through be-
fore arriving at the oatalogued state OF
'iums" and ites' can only be guessed
at. but the inference is that they had
been born in a period of intense oosmic
energy, for they proved to be the most
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 go back at all. No matter
how great the heat they Just became
incandescent and glowed with bright
ness that was like that Of the sun, but
when the flame was turned or they
were Just rare earths, undestroyed
'iums," as before.
Il happened about this time that
certain Illuminating company was look
ing for Just such material as mona
zite and in correspondence heard OF It.
Investigations were made, experts were
dispatched to North Carolina, and mo-
nazite was found by the ton. Along the
river banks and in the river beds, in
the olsfts of auriferous rocks and at
the bottom Of gullies the brown crystal
line sand was found and bought and
shipped to Germany. But it took lot
of sand to furnish the imperishable ma
terial in the shape that was needed, and
the price went up until it reached $3.50
ton, and from that up to 5000 and
over. Then the search for mnnazite was
begun in earnest, and now in Alexan'
der, Madison, Mitchell. Yancey, Burke.
Polk, Mcdowell and Rutherford ooun'
ties there is monazite boom. New
| York Sun.