The record-union., 1897-09-28
CLEANERS OF POISON.
ARSENIC PICKED UP BY THE
ROADSIDE.
It Has Many Commercial Uses, and
Has Restored Health to Mill
ions of Sufferers.


II Africa can boast a diamond king
and America a silver king, England has
its arsenic king, for there lives in Corn
wall the representative of a company
OF manufacturers who at times has all
the arsenic III the world, or most Of it,
In his hands Not many months ago this
gentleman held 100000 worth Of the
crystalline stuff. England has pracu-
cally the worlds monopoly Of arsenic,
and England in this case means Devon
and Cornwall.
4 year or two ago there were in Corn
wall places which were the most desc
late to look at that one could imagine.
Tt was as if here and there gigantic
monsters had wantOnly devastated the
country And around these monstrous
rubbish heaps was silence. The cottages
We're deserted, the buildings had fallen
in. Nobody ever came near. These were
the sites Of abandoned tin mines. OF
late, however there has been q change.
On the mounds have appeared men,
women and children, peering, cropping,
picking, piling up. To look at them, one
would say, cleaners at work These men
and women are cleaning Not, indeed,
for the yellow ears which give bread;
but for the white stones which give
poison. They are searching the burrows
for white mundic, technically called
mineral mispickel, or arsenical pyrltes.
In former days this mispickel went TO
the rubbish heap. Now it is valuable
product. The cleaners are searching
for arsenic, that wickedest and most in
famous Of mineral poisons.
The word arsenic is apt to fill the or
binary mind with gloomy visions To
the chemist, to the industrial and to the
husbandman, however, the word has
happier sound. In the hands of Fowler,
it became a medicine which has restored
vigor to the blood and color to the
cheeks of thousands Of sufferers. It is
also the active principle in sheep-dip,
and a prominent manufacturer whose
name is known all over the British en-
pire. uses over 1000 tons year. 1t is
largely used in analine dyes. It enters
into the composition of certain kinds of
glass. is mixed with lead for making
shot, and in the form of paris green, it
triumphed over the pest that was the
phylIoxera of the potato. In the Cal
stock district in DevOnshire, the various
mines-the Devon Great ConsuPs, Cav
ton, and Westlake-until recently have
been producing about 600 tons Of arse
mic a month. Arsenic is now worth t23
a ton. a few years ago it was worth
but f13 The rise in the price is ow-
ing to the failure in some ways Of the
mines.
WHAT ARSENIC REALLY IS.
Aresnic is SCOT, white SCOT. Refined
arsenic is the SCOT of soot-that is to
say. 1t is the SCOT Of crude arsenic, which
is the SCOT of the ores Of mundic. The
stones or ores as they come from the
mines are crushed by stamps, mainly
driven by water power, to the consist
ence of sand or gravel. Mundic is usu-
ally less finely crushed than the ores
which are to be treated for tin. This
sand or gravel is then shoveled into
kiln or furnace.
Il can show you the whole process of
arsenic getting in a few minutes" said
William Thomas, of the Camborne
School of Miners. 'It is very simple"
He produced a piece of white mundic,
which he had picked I'D on one of the
burrows at Dolcoath mine broke off a
small piece and pounded this into pow
der with hammer He then took
glass tube, which was bent at an angle
zontal," he said, represents the kiln.
This gas jet''-we We're in the labOratO
ry of the Lamborne School of Mines
represents the furnace, and the part of
the tube which slopes upward represents
the condensing chambers"
He then loaded the lower part Of the
tube with some of the crushed mundic
and held the tube over the flame Of the
gas. Almost Immediately a bright yell
low cloud flew up, staining the tube yell
low.
There goes the sulphur" said Mr..
Thomas. This was followed by white
smoke. 'That is the arsenic" he said.
As rapidly as it volatilizes, so rapidly
does it condense. The arsenic fumes
begin to deposit their SCOT as soon as
they escape from the great heat of the
furnace This is crude arsenic. This
was to be seen by this expedient, also.
The white smoke escaping from the
tube deposited Il grayish film on the
interior Of the glass, which came away
in powder when the tube was tapped
against the palm of the hand.
That is crude arsenic" said Mr..
Thomas. ITO Obtain refined arsenic.
the arsenic of commerce, all you would
have to do would be to roast that
powder again. The second roasting
would free it from any carbon or other
substance which it may contain"
MANUFACTURE IS TERRIBLE IN
TrF.cS cSTnFr1T TrvTr,U