Arizona republican., 1904-02-09
UNIVERSITY ON WHEELS
Progress of the Mining Inspection
 Party.

En Route, Feb. Special Core spondence of The Republican.)-Afte an early rush for a train that was retarded in its motion seven long hours the mining party began it's tour of inspection, leaving Tucson in the middle of the afternoon Saturday.
 of those qualified to go the following are included in the party: Professor G. E. r. Smith, in charge; Professor F. N. Guild and Students w. w. Skinner, Frank c. Kelton. Hugh Mill ington, R. Jacobson, E. c. Ball, s. c. Gang. James Holman, Buster Brostrom, Geo. Bronson, Walter Hadsell and Ross NJ. Russell. The run of forty-siX miles to Benson was made without further delay In an hour and one-half. Here an inspection of the railroad centre of Arizona was made. The Empire Smelt ing company's shelter. which has been building two years is about completed. Manager Peter l<irke told us they ex pected to be turning out 75 tons of high grade matte near the first of March.
 The furnace is more CT less an ex- pertinent, since none exactly similar has before been tried. The ore is dumped in by hydraulic hoist directly
 
 high by s feet across. This will con- stitute the roasting apparatus. From these towers, there being two, the roast ed ore drops into the furnace, where the fusion is taking place. Oil and steam are forced into the charge fer fuel. The slag is tapped out occasionally as the melting proceeds, and the bullion tapped whenever the hearth Is full. This and the crushing plant, which con- tains a Bryan mill and two Blake crushers is run by a 65 horse power compound engine. In addition to this department an ordinary blast fur mace is being constructed in connection with q converter for handling other ores. The company intends working the old slag dump over. This slag Is the result of crude smelting which was conducted over twenty years ago. and runs comparatively high in precious metals. There have been several ship ! ments of ore to Fl Paso from number of claims scattered around Benson. The results have been very encourag- | ing, and the owners are actively engag- | ed in development work on the pros poets, principally along the line of the i new P. & F. R. R.
 | Water is plentiful, both from artesian wells several hundred in number, dis | tributed around Benson and along the | San Pedro river, and the San Pedro river maintains a steady flow of sew eral thousand inches.
 A fine grade of fire clay is being mined and is shipped to Bisbee and 1 Cananea for use in lining the convert CTS. This clay is very nearly plastic and has a high fusion point. thus af- fording a binding material for the sili- ca that melts slowly. This prolongs the lining life and makes a noticeable say Ing In cost.
 Benson, even though it contains only 800 inhabitants, has several other in dustries of which to be proud. Fire \ clay brick until the recent loss bN fire of the plant was manufaciureC in large quantities. Superintendent II O'Brien, of the Industrial school, is ex
 perimenting with various clays fount
 on the premises to find a suitable bricl
 clay.
 A kiln of 300 brick will soon be burned
 as a. preliminary test Then brick vii be moulded for larger kiln. The boy
 will do most of the work, and the brici