The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-10-23
THE BLUE JOHN MINE.
Workings of the Only Mine of the
Kind in the World.

London Leader.
To the average man the name of "Blue
john is as meaningless as the sound of
tinklng brass. But, strange through 1t
may seem. it is the name of stone, a
precious stone, sold at prices varying from
G25 to 91,00O a ton-according to size and
quality-found nowhere in the world save
in little Derbyshire hill of a surface
measurement Of 200 yards or Whereabouts.
Small though the hill. it is honeycombed
by three miles of the most wonderful cav
ems and mines. The center of the great
range of caverns, and they branch out for
upward of mile in each direction, is
known Lord Mulgrave's dining ROOM
1t is sixty feet wide and $50 feet high, and
it was given its present name because it
was here that Lord Mulgrave, on exploring
the caverns when first they were found,
entertained at dinner the miners who had
lowered him into these great Businesses.
Blue John is employed in the rich vest
ments OF the priest, in the making of rare
chalices, vases, dishes, slabs, the ornamen-
tation of the mantelpieces of the rich, and
in such beautiful enclosing as that to be
seen on the pulpit and in other portions
of ST. Georges Chapel. 1t is a topaz-like
fluor of exceeding beauty, and the Blue
John mine is bound up and combined with
some of the weirdeSt and most striking of
the worlds caverns. There are many coal
mines in the world; more than one country
can boast of its salt mines, its lead mines,
its tin workings, its gold fields. Yet the
whole world contains but one Blue John
mine, mine situated hard by the hamlet
of Castleton, in Derbyshire.
Chemically, Blue John is composed of an
amalgamation of lime and acid and oxide
of manganese and iron, so dexterously
bine could initiate it. Indeed, the pestle
and mortar which have served to produce
so beautiful mineral are believed by the
greatest of biologists to have consisted of
volcano and river limestone and iron de-
posits. and the mighty upheaval of rocks.
In the raw Blue John Is a study in
gray and purple, the gray where the lime
stone and manganese of iron preponderate,
and the purple where the pure Blue John
enters. When cut and polished, 1t becomes
transparent, ranging in color from lovely
amber streaked with blue to a brilliant
purple and crimson dotted with yellow or
a blush black with blood-red markings.
A little goblet of this precious stone will
cost you anything up 10 II guineas, de-
pendent upon the purity OF the specimen.
Indeed, the mineral is discovered in such
small quantities and little blocks that you
must be prepared TO pay a stiff figure for
an ornament of any modest proportions.
To the Romans must be given the credit
of discovering Blue John. That they real
lied its beauty Is patent from the fact that
some ten years ago two Blue John vases
were found among the ruins OF Pompeii.
Those Pompeians. who boasted civiliZa-
ton the essence of which we mortals of the
twentieth century have not yet grasped,
and who ransacked the world for its treas
ures, had obtained these vases from the
very mines now exploring. For
hundreds of years the Roman workings
and the Roman shaft were lost sight of.
Two hundred and twenty years ago, the
Blue John miners reopened the shaft, and
began TO mine the spar and create market
for 1t. They were utterly ignorant OF the
presence OF the caverns, and IL was not
| until 100 years later that the Blue John
miners accidentally struck into an opening
which proved the entrance To range of
| caverns. the extent of which has not been
| fully realized even 10 this day. Thirty
| steps carry one through the mine workings
| into the cavsrns the most wonderful of
| natures handiwork. In remote ages, water
bubbling and boiling and rushing In Titanic
rage in these comparatively confined
spaces, formed rooms and grottoes such as
| no human being could conceive.
] The crystaiized cavern Is ninety feet high,