The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-06-29

the worlds supply have long been An
dreasberg, In the Hartz Mountains;
Joachimthal. in Bohemia; Freberg in
SaXony; and Cornwall and Devon.
England The women of the Tyrol,
Slyria, Carinthia. Salzberg, and the
Erzgebirge are said to consume it
daily, having unlimited faith in its
virtues as beautifier, and the men of
the same region are addicted to it's
use in the belief that it increases their
bodily strength and endurance.
From the peasant women of Austria
perhaps its use as a identifying agent
has spread to other lands. and the
clear, wax-like pallor that is the pride
of so many of the fashionable bellies
of society is in many cases due to the
secret use of this deadly drug The
habit of arsenic eating once formed is
as insdious, as ineradicable and as in
furious in it's ultimate effects as the
morphine, opium or choral habits.
Nevertheless it is asserted by physi-
clans that it's victims are numbered
by thousands in all great cities; that
its use is becoming more common and
more widespread every year, and that
in SO cases out of 100 vanity prompted
the taking of the first dose. The desire
for beauty is so great in the average
feminine heart that slow suicide is not
considered too high a price to pay for
the coveted prize.
Pioneer Manufacturers.
If he who makes two blades of grass
grow where but one grew before is
entitled to remembrances, surely he
who establishes a new industry in a
region that has hitherto been an I'M
productive wilderness is worthy of re-
nown. This honor may justly be at
tributed to Messrs. C. r. Brinton and
c. l.. Drake of Pittsburg. the develop
ers of the arsenic deposits of Floyd
and Montgomery counties, Virginia,
the founders of the town of Brinton,
the designers of the methods of re-
duction and manufacture in use there,
and, in short, the pioneers in the min
ing of arsenic ores and the manufac-
ture of arsenious oxide in the Western
Hemisphere.
To most persons the mention of ar
senic will conjure up visions of sui
cides or thoughts of various widely
advertised insecticides However, 1t
has other uses besides that of Kidding
the world of useless people and pesti-
lent vermin. Besides furnishing a
short cut to the land of shades, 1t is
an article of prime necessity in many
of the arts and manufactures. 1t is
not only a beauty potion, but a use
full agent in Legitimate materia medica.
1t is used in the manufacture of opal
glass, white metal, spectrum metal and
a great variety of pigments and paints;
in making paris green, london purple
and other less known but equally use
full poisonous preparations for the ag-
riculturist, fruit grower and gardener;
in making toilet soaps, cosmetics and
complexion powders; in bronzing brass
and for hardening lead in the manu-
facture of shot; in the manufacture of
pyrotechnics and as a constituent of
many alloys.
AS a medical agent it is used in the
treatment of ague, remittent fevers, st.
Vitus' dance and many more of the
ills that flesh is heir to. For these
and similar purposes between 5000 and
5000 tons are imported into the United
States every year, this representing
something more than half of the entire
production of the globe. The average
value of white arsenic may be placed
at about $S5 a ton, so that the tribute
paid to foreign producers for this arti-
Gle is somewhere in the neighborhood
of $780, 900, or about equal to the value
of our exports of lead, more than the
value of our exports OF mercury and
about one-third the value of our ex-
ports of zinc.
The pioneer in an UNEMPLOYED field
meets with difficulties and discourage
ments of which the follower of beaten
mountain top around the present min
ing town of Brinton was an unbroken
and almost impossible wilderness. The
story of it's transformation into busy
industrial community is a good illus
tration of the pluck, perseverance, en-
ergy and indomitable will to which
America owes her industrial supre-
macy. The mine is located seventeen
miles from Christiansburg and thirty
miles from Roanoke, at the summit of
the Blue Ridge Mountains, 5000 feet
above the level of the sea. The phys-
cal difficulties that had to be overcome
were formidable enough to discourage
any but the most persevering. 1T was
first necessary to clear an almost inn
penetrable jungle.
A sawmill was then erected, on which
has been sawed every foot of the lurn-
Der used for the mine timbers and for
the erection of the plant and dwellings
for the miners and workmen. A brick
yard was built, in which have been
manufactured 100000 brick for the fur
naces and ovens. Three hundred and
eighty thousand pounds of machinery
were hauled by a traction engine on a
track constructed especially for that
purpose across two mountain ranges.
over nearly eighteen miles of as rough
roads as the rocky Blue Ridge Noun
tadns can show.
No Source of Information.
However. the physical difficulties
encountered were minor considera-
ton, not to be compared with those of
another nature. The promoters OF the
enterprise had no experience in the re-
duction of arsenic ores to guide them,
and in the broad limits of the United
States no one could be found any bet
ter off in this respect than them
selves. 1t was necessary for them TO
evolve from their own inner conscious
ness the methods best adapted to their
wants; to reason out the processes re-
quired, and then test the correctness
of their reasoning by actual trial.
When all this had been done, and pro-
cesses of manufacture devised that
seemed to answer the requirements
perfectly, it was still desirable to Sc
cure the services of an experienced ar
senic burned to superintendent the OPP
GRAFTON of the plant with it's expensive
machinery and complicated processes
As no one could be found in America,
w. c. Seldom, formerly of the famous
Truro mines of Cornwall, England,
was sent for and the Brinton plant is
now under his charge.
Arsenic is a metal nearly six times as
heavy as water, very brittle and of
stele-gray color. 1t is most commonly
associated with iron and sulphur, in
the ore known as mickspittle, arseno-
prite, or arsenical pyrites, which is the
ore mined at Brinton. The ore found
at and near that point has frequently
attracted attention and partial analy-
ses have often been made in the be-
lief that 1t contained gold or silver.
When 1t was found that none of the
precious metals were presanf nr0snec-