The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-03-15
FAMOUS JET MINES.
Their Product to Be Fashionable tn
Coming Season

Their Product to Be Fashionable the
Coming Season.
Jet is no modern material. The Rom.
ans were acquainted with it, as Pliny
tells us that ito name, gagates, was de.
rived from the River Gagas, in Syria
where the material was found. That
was shortened to gagat, as the Germans
still call it. and finally to Jet. But it was
known in this country before ever the
Romans landed in Kent; Jet beads,
rings, buttons, and other personal orna-
ments have been found in barrows of
Bronze Age, ais may be seen in York
shire museums In these instances the
material proba bly,'was obtained from
the coast near Whitby, this and the adj
jacent district being still the principal
source for jet in Britain. 1t is OCCASION
ally washed UP on the seashore like
amber on the Cromer coast, but is only
got in any quantity by mining. Some of
the best, as Drayton wrote long ago, has
been found on the Mulgrave estate. 1t
occurs at two horizons, one in theEstua-
rine beds of the Lower Oolite, which,
however, is generally too soft to be of
any commercial value, and the other in
the las, rather above the middle dvi-
sion. Here the best or hard jet" is OBJ
tanned, but the softer kind is also aseo-
ciated with it,
!, The excavations are opened sometimes
in the cliffs, sometimes inland; and the
matertal-which commonly occurs in
bands of more or less lenticular form
latter being dug out, is cut or ground
into shape, and polished on list-covered
wheels What may be the origin Of jet
10 not so certain; probably it has more
than one; but, If SO, all varieties are
likely to have much in common. 1t is
a bituminous substance for 1t burns
with a dense, strong-smelling smoke;
while an ihflammable gas and small
drops of liquid bitumen occasionally
show themselves in the mines Thus it
may sometimes be closely related to
such substances as amber of Kauri
gum; indeed, it sometimes passes by
the name of black amber. The shale
itself, when highly bituminoue, may
furnish some varieties Of jet, because it
is occasionally found in certain scales
of fish and other fossils. That would,
no doubt, be the case with many Of the
inferior, varieties, and then it would
have some relationship to camel coal,
which is the most inflammable of fuels
getting it's name camel or candle coal,
from it's easy ignition and bright flame
This may be described as petrified
vegetable pulp, and very likely some
Jet has had rather similar origin. But
a good deal, at any rate, of whit has
been examined under the microscope
Shows distinct traces of a structure
characteristic of wood. Jet would,
therefore, take its place among the lig-
mites or "brown GOALS" which represent
an intermediate stage In the conversion
of vegetable matter into coal, retaining
much more of the original oxygen than
the latter Ignite is common in more
than one geological deposit, and often
in those later than the las, in Germany
and other countries, is worked for fuel,
as, for example, at Bovey Tracey, IN
Devonshire But the Yorkshire owners,
If Jet come into. fashion, will hardly be
able to make Corner in 1t, for very
good quality can be got in Spain from
the Province of the Asturias, and from
France in the Department of the Aude,
not to mention other places. Ebonlte
has, sometimes served as substitute
for jet, art having stepped IN once more
to supply the deficiencies OF nature
London TelegraDh