The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1896-06-20
GRAPHITE uses
Valuable Products Adjacent to
L'Anse--Its Workings,
Value and Uses.
Business Men Should Not De-
lay Attracting Attention
to the Subject.

TO the SUBJECT.
Many readers OF THE SENTINEL will
be interested In the following article
from The Chicago Record Of the 18th
inst, relative to the value and uses of
graphite or plumbago, discovered Ia this
section OF the state. The writer Is
; familiar with the vast deposits iu the
neighborhood of the Taylor location. and
feels coniiden: that graphite mines will
be one of the chief industries of BAraga
county at an early date. The deposit
which was disclosed several years ago
by a company which Is known as the
Detroit \ Lake Superior Graphite and
Paint Co., was pronounced after analysis
to be chemically pure, and there is no
reason why the product would not be
valuable for various purposes, The fact
that it is OF a carbon nature, would, In
our opinion, warrant the manufacture
OF first-clasS fire proof brick by the
Boyd press process. now operated by the
L'Anse Brick Co. The gentlemen in
terested in advancing the Interests of
L'Anse should not fail to call the at
tention of outside capitalists to the mat
ter and do so Immediately:
Bicycles have done much To bring into
common Use many things Of which the
ordinary man was acquainted only by
hearsay before he put a patch upon his
first punctured tire. 1t has led tens Of
thousands OF men aud women into the
paths OF elementary mechanics, and many
wheelmen have discovered that they were
natural born mechanics. The mere clean
ing up Of wheel, after days outing,
gives the novice and insight into wea-
ders and mysteries which formerly were
secluded behind the walls Of machine
shops aud factories.
A loose nut or bolt "A slack chain, bent
crank or loosened handle bar gives the
bicycle owner an opportunity to try his
apprentice hand on one of the most beau
tiful and complete mechanisms that ever
came cut Of shop.
ouc VI Tue mduy WHICH the
bicycle has introduced to its multitude
Of devotees Is the science of fabrication.
A calloused hand machinist, who has
fought for his favorite oil or dope" in
many Shop may be permitted TO smile
when he overhears two young misses
talking lesrnedly about this or that
brand OF bicycle oil, or arguing over the
relative merits Of graphite and soap as
o,utn In tnrt, httt h. oh
those girls know what they are talking
about.
They probably did not know what a
lubricant was before they first oiled up
their wheels, but they do now. They
know that the cylindrical sticks OF
graphite are greasy to the teuch aud
leave black marks, nut whether graphite
IS Il mineral or a vegetable product, or
what IL looks like in its natural form,
are questions which they cannot answer.
The use OF graphite for lubricating
sicyce chains has Increased the demand
for this most valuable mineral to de-
gree which is almost II not equal to the
supply. Graphite, plumbago or ''black
lead" is nearly pure form OF carbon.
ln this respect 1t Is brother of the
diamond aud half-brother OF coal lamp
stances But. unlike coal and other
forms OF carbon, graphite will not burn.
IL is SO refractory that II withstands the
most intense heat that furnace can
give. Diamond, pure carbon, Is the
hardest known substances; graphite, a
pure carbon. is one of the softest. II not
the softesr, minerals dug from the earth,
yet a diamond can be reduced by intense
heat to cinder,a aud the block OF graphite
on which the burning diamond rests will
not have its sharpest edge dulled by the
fire.
Graphite Is found iu It's natural state
singularly pure. That taken from the
Ticonderoga mines, the most important
In the United States, has been found 99.9
pure. 1t is found IN orregular sheets or
detached masses, with every evidence
that IL is the result OF destructive distil-
latlon OF vegetable or animal tissue.
1t is supposed that graphite, like coal,
originally was vegetable matter, which
was transformed to It's present form by
immense pressure aud intense heat.
But why 1t should withstand heat, and
why coal, which came from the same
source and through the same process,
should burn, is matter that science has
not settled to the satisfaction Of investi-
gators.
In the arts graphite Is used for making
the ''leads" OF lead pencils, for purposes
OF fabrication, for coating molds In cleo
trotyping and for crucibIes. As iubri-
cant, and 10 electrotyping, 1t is used
nearly II not entirely pure, although 1t Is
frequently mixed with some cohesive
matter or cheapening substance for a
lubricant.
When employed in making crucibles it
Is mixed with fire clay. For this pur-
pose the graphite is crushed to coarse
powder and then Is mixed with fire clay
and little charcoal. The clay adds CO.
hesion to the graphite, and the charcoal,
another near relation Of the graphite,
gives II p0rousness.
Enough water Is added to the mass to
make It plastic, and then lump Is laid