The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1904-10-30

T. LOUIS, OCTOBER 29.-Special)
~ John has always prided himself
~ upon being different from the or
binary run of masculine niortals, and yet
I noticed that he did exacAy as nine out
of every ten men do who pass between
the legs of the giant statue of Vulcan, in
the Mines and Metallurgy building; he
raped him on the shins to see il he was
real iron or Just painted wood.
If Vulcan were not cast iron his ankles
would have been worn out long ago, for
nearly every person who walks under him
either raps his legs with the end of an
umbrella or a knife or with the palm of
the hand l stood near the statue long
enough to county twenty-seven who took
a crack at the legs of the big iron man.
The most of them, of course, wanted to
see whether he was hollow or solid, while
few no doubt suspected that he was
cut out of wood and painted black.
But Vulcan is not only the real thing
but decidedly the biggest thing in the
Mines and Metallurgy building. He tow
ers like Colossus above the colonnades,
surround him. He was cast by the Com
mercial club of Birmingham to typify the
colossal mineral wealth of that state. He
is Sc feet high, weighs 10000 pounds and
cost $40, 900. He was cast in twenty sec
tions and it took seven freight cars to
bring him to the fair. His big toe, sew
cred from one OF his feet, is about all the
ordinary man would care to lift. The Ala
bama exhibit in which "the big iron man.
is the central figure, took three gold
medals, four silver medals and one bronze
medal
A few DAYS spent In this building will
yield more information concerning the
mining methods and mineral resources of
the country than year spent in school
of mines and metallurgy. In nA building Is
the idea of motion and demonstration
carried out to more complete and inter-
esting detail than in this one. There Is a
great quantity and variety of mining ma
chinery in operation including model an
thracite coal breakers. coal tipples, coke
ovens, slack bins, stamp mills used in the
Michigan copper mines, and zinc concen-
trating mills.
Missouri has by far the most extern
sive and instructive exhibit of her min
ing industry and her mineral resources.
Missouri's mineral wealth is certainly a
revelation to most northerners. Judging
from the display that is made l should
say that the state had in its soil about
every known metal except gold. In an
| opening cut into the floor of the Missouri
| exhibit appear twenty-one cars In sue
| cession each loaded with a separate ore
taken from the soil of Missouri. The cars
are connected with a cable and they come
into view as though emerging from a
mine. The Missouri exhibit shows a large
zinc concentrating mill In operation, also
large coal mine tipple with self-dumpng
cages. Coal trains with miniature locomo-
tives are running around the exhibit on an
elevated structure. Missouri produced AL
| 21S,OO0 pounds of zinc ore in 1908 valued
at Sc. 100, 214, which was so per cent of all
| the zinc produced in the world She also
| produced 4,o65S2S tons of coal in 1908
| Interesting exhibits Of coal breaking
plants, tipples mining machinery and
mineral products are also made by Penn