Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1893-1895, 1895-02-04
A:Elzsg7,e71oNS Al:7l 4,
- 80 :, e. stCI-C
MYcTsElous MoNAzlrE.
An Important Refractory, Lonely Mineral
Found In North Carolina.
"Vyhat is monazito?"

W nav - ilbilsialtts
Fifty times the question was put by a
reporter TO as many of those shrewd
New Yocka.s who make handsome for
tunes i'll dull Offices i'll Maiden lane and
Burling slip and Cedar street and the
regions roundabout aud 90 times, with
more or less variation of accent. came
the answer:
Never heard Of it.
Yet monazite is commercial fact of
Importance 1t is being talked Of learn.
edly i'll learned societies; it is being
quietly handled here i'll New York,
while down in North Carolina there is
a monuzite boom Of yelled and secret
sort.
Quiet, mysterious references have
been made to it by quiet, sedate bust
ness men, but tho limit Of information
has seemed to be SOON reached One
Pearl street millionaire, who has han.
died oils for 90 years, informed his
bookkeeper recently that no was 60
ing down to North Carolina to buy
few square miles of land "WhGt for?"
asked the bookkoeper. "Monazite," " re-
piled the millionaire, and that is all
that he could or would SAY. Another
old gentleman just around tho 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 commission firm has been Slipping
around from point to point i'll North
Carolina buying up all the monazite
There were millions in it. The marEet
was "busted. " 1t was used to deioriorate
gold. 1t was a patent medicine No one
outside of two people, one in New York
and one i'll 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 foated into the re-
porter's ken, yet when it came to the
simple question, "What is mona2ite?"
the answer was almost invariably the
negative one just quoted. Sometimes,
however, it was accompanied by half
friendly pointer, such as $50 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 III 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 to famous German analytical chem
list, 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 1t was found TO
contain six of those undetinablo products
known as "rare earths" aud all ending
in "iunl, which is "a popularity, 1t
seems, of these impeTishable dusts,
What these dusts had gone through be-
fore arriving at the oatalogued state OF
'iums" aud 'ites can only be guessed
at but the inference is that they had
been born in period Of intense oosmio
energy, for they proved 10 DO the most
refractory" things on record,
Chemists call things refractory when
they can neither melt nor burn lhehl
back any further toward the point VI
elementary origin, aud these earlhs
wouldn't g0 back NJ all no matter
bow great the heat, they just became
inoandosoent aud gloWed With u bright
moss ihst was liko that ~ tho sun, bat
when the hame was turned on lhey
were just raro earths, updesIFoyed
niums, a. befOre
ID happened about this iime llal .
certain Illuminating company Was lN'h
ing for just such u malprlai ~ mppa'
| ate and iu correspondence heard " o.
| Investigations Bele mAae, esppiiH Ntlv
dispatched ~ h0Tfh Carolina, apq NO
nasiis Was found ~ Che con Along lls
riser bauks Ruq w iAV uFrl beds, w
the cl0fis ~ suIlfelous fpohs Aiiq "
dla hGltuu NJ sullles ilV bipND niyulAl
lino ssud Nas iopHq spd bought hla
shippad 10 Ggmany 1895 a lYlh lYl
of sai,a ~ fpruisb lAs iwpwlFlHpls nis
fsusl in llls shaps lilAl aas N'a.l'li sNl
dlr pHpp Nsm w uplll y i,s'l'.l ny Nv
t1p. and n0M ibsf up a. f3p9 Aad
o,er yAln ihe feal0h ~ iHplafiis sss
leauu M fagAasi aHq npH lN AlsssN
~ Madisau Mlthfll faH#y hsiff'
| polR NenDnal ag4 hslN'it4q f.i'i'i
tiies fhee ifa mHlAfils b'saH hsH
feh Son
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