The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-12-17
PRICE TESTED SOME ORE,
Brought Into Court to Settle
Dispute in Hale & Norcross
Suit.
A Chemist and an Engineer Declare
Assays From Car Samples Wholly
Inaccurate.

The defense in the case of Fox VS.. Hale
& Norcross Mining Company introduced
the expert testimony yesterday of Profess
sor Thomas Price. the assayer and chem
list, TO show that a handful of ore taken
from a car as it comes out of the mine is
not method that will give a correct or
accurate sample from which to test for the
general value per ton OF the rough ore.
Louis Janin, a mining engineer and
brother of the well-known mining expert,
also said that such basis of judgment is
radically wrong as giving an inaccurate
sample of an inaccurate sample.
The point of Professor Prices conten-
ton was that the mineral bearing ores of
the Comstock lode in Nevada are more
brittle than the ordinary granite mined
with them, and, as result, the pieces
small enough to be grasped by the hand
full would be the more valuable, while
much of the bulk of each carload would be
less productive. In consequence, the
assay of the best of the lot could not fur
nsh standard on which to reckon the
value of a ton of the whole.
This line of expert testimony was on
when court adjourned until this morning,
when two witnesses for the defense will
complete their evidence. Afterward the
plaintiff will put two or three witnesses on
the stand and the case will be taken under
advisement by Judge Hebbard before
court adjourns for the day.
The plaintiff is suing for the difference
between the $50 per ton assay of his ores
and the $50 per ton returned to him after
they were reduced to bullion by the smelt-
ing and mining company, and also for the
return of the amount paid for the work
above the regular price charged elsewhere.
During the whole forenoon and part of
the afternoon f. L. Wildes, formerly in
charge of the branch of the Nevada Bank
located in Virginia City, was taken, entry
by entry, through the old ledger of the
bank. 1t was a search for the records of
bullion purchased by the bank or depos-
tied for its customers.
The former banker told how bullion used
to be bought and exchange for it received
in coin from the Carson mint, or some
times from the Bullion and Exchange
Bank. He supposed some of the bars of
bullion handled were from the Con. Vir-
ginia, but nothing but the record and his
positive assertion were acceptable as evil
dence. Some OF the entries showed owner
unknown, and others were SO brief and
numerical that they recalled nothing of
their history to the witness.
The accounts of 1887, '88, 'S9 and 80
were reviewed in order, and the work was
not completed when a halt was called to
introduce other witnesses.
Professor Price said that he was very ia
miliar with the ores Of the Comstock lode.
and was in the habit of making about 1000
assays year from the mines of California
and Nevada. Recently he had visited the
Hale d Norcross mine at the request of
the defendants, and had taken samples of
ore according to his own methods. From
his tests he had got these results: The
fine ore or that that would pass through
half-inch sieve assayed 25 ounces of gold
and 39.5 ounces of silver per ton, valued
respectively at SOL GO and $51 OF, making a
total of $102 70 per ton for the fine ore.
The coarse rock, after being put through
the same process of crushing, powdering
and testing, showed % ounces of gold and
ia ounces of silver, respectively, worth
$45 4S and $22 so, or total of $67 SO per
ton.
This result was secured from eight as
says of a twenty-pound sample he brought
from the mine, that sample having been
taken from about 800 pounds collected by
shovelfuls here and there at the mine
under his supervision. He declared most
emphatically that an assay from a car
sample of the Comstock lode ores would
be absolutely unreliable and that a $50
assay by such means would give too high
a value.
Louis Janin said that the assay from
one mine on the COmstock lode would not
be criterion for the other mines, as there
are three groups in the lode differing
materially from each other. He declared
that the only way to get correct assay is
to take battery sample. sample from
the powdered mixture of the general prod
uct He said that carload coming up
from the mine does not represent the vein
of ore; that a handful from each car does
not represent the contents of the car, and
{t,of IA ~ FOL hos g..
the assay tests is not representative.