Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-08-03

water in the ocean contains about one grain
of gold, which is enough to gild ffty-six
drawn out into 500 feet of wire. In the
Indian ocean is a volcanic island the sands
along the shore of witch are filled with
gold-colored crystals of chrysolite or gold
stone" These crystals glitter in the sun,
and about century ago a crazy French
man, struck with the brilliancy Of the
pebbles, supposed that he had hit upon
unlimited wealth. He collected quantities
fancied that he produced ingots from them.
Only few years agoiR lot of chrysolite-
bearing sand from Their same island was
shipped to France and fmade great sen,
sation. People went wild about 1t, ana
companies were organized to begin mining
operations along the strand OF the golden
isle. Much money waA wasted In the en-
terprise. tui
In Place of Emery.
The suggestion to the effect that the
rubies and garnets of these sands might be
utilized in the manufacture of abrasives is
an important one. In 1898 there were
Lis tons of emery produced in this coun-
try, worth $50 per ton. The value OF the
emery imported during the same year
amounted to s127,767. Rubies are better
than emery as material for emery Whees.
The sands all along the coast OF oregon
hold large percentage of magnetic IRON.
This is easily separated by means or mag nag
nets, ana the invention of the electric lur-
mace has made it practicable to smelt II.
Eventually it may become feasible to con-
centrate the sands for the iron, producing
steel of exceptional fine quality for certain
purposes and saving the gold and platinum
as by-products
The assayer of the mint Mr.. Whltenead,
has been making experiments recently WIN
tellurium-a rare metal which occurs In
combination with the gold mined at Grip
pie Creek, Col. The ores of that dlstrlct
are the richest in the world, running up TO
100000 ton. So commonly do they con-
tain the remarkable substance referred 70
that one of the camps of the region Is
nam n Telluride.
"One popularity Of tellurium." said MT;
Whitehead the other day, as ne hah an1d
which had been forwarded to the treasury;
lis that bit of it as big as pins mead
mixed with a pound of gold Will make .he
are aware that gold ordinarily is extremely
tough, being SO ductile that 300 square
inches of ordinary commercial leaf are
beaten out from q single dollars worth.
tellurium IS its extreme brittleness Here
is lump of it. You will observe that IT
looks somewhat like silver, and Is very
crystalline. 1t is slightly less heavy than
iron.
About Te1lurium.
What is 1t good for, you ask? Nothing
whatever, so far as is known. except as
L.
he would find an employment for 1t If he
could obtain it in considerable quantities.
1t is worth $50 an ounce, but the demand
for it is so small that the market would be
broken If 1 offered for sale the whole of
the one-pound bar which 1 have in my pos
session. This is the biggest bar of tel
lurium ever cast.
"Tellurium is found in small quantities
all over the United States, commonly COM
bined with gold, silver and h.smuth. When
present in ores CT silver and gold it renders
their reduction by the process of amalga-
nation impracticable. SO that smelling has
to be resorted to. The copper bullion that
comes from the west usually contains some
telluriuri. Though amounting to only ore
four-hIndredth of per cent, it renders the
copper so brittle as to- be unfit for the finer
uses though it is good enough for castings.
contains no telluriutn The business of
freeing western copper frbm the objection
able metal is conducted on quite a big
scale, the largest works being located at
the copper in solution is precipitated a
Shiny stuff. consisting Of gold, silver ar
senic, seienium and tellurium. The tel
iurium may be separated out by chemical
means, but ordinarily 1t is thrown away
with the Test of the preciptate after the
gold and silver have been saved At a
factory in Baltimore probably about twenty
pounds of it daily are thus disposed of as
of no account.
Tellurium forms refna rkable alloy with
aluminium. When the two are melted to-
sether, in certain proportions they sud-
denly combine with a lot,l explosion, form
ing very brittle substance. This sub
stance, when dropped into water gives
fc1th peculareand abominable odor. The
same odor is communicated to the breath
OF any body who swallows small quantity
OF the alloy. This smell, in fact, is one Of
the worst producible in the laboratory
SURPRISING even sulphuretted hydrogen.
Tellurium, by the way, was discovered by
German named Kiaproth. in tbs. Re
Gently many experts in the science of
chemistry have been trying to break it un
being convinced that it is in reality not an
element, but a compound of several ole
hehts unknown. RENE BACHE