The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-04-10
Northern Capitalists Return
From Trip to Village
Springs
INSPECT COAL
DEPOSITS TODAY
Will Have Conference Tomorrow With
l.. & n. Officials to See About
Building Spur Track to
the Quarries

Tired, dusty, sunburned but optimis-
tic, the party of a dozen or more north
ern business men and capitalists re-
turned to the city last night after an
all day trip to Blount mountain, near
Village Springs, where they plan to
erect an enormous cement manufactur-
ing plant
| With the exception of one or two
of the party. the site of deposits of
raw materials on the property which
the Blount Mountain Cement, Coal and
Lime company has acquired at this
place had never before been seen and
| they stated upon their return to the
Hotel Hillman last night that they were
more than pleased with what, in old
| Pennsylvania Dutch terms, they called
the proof of the pudding" They will
return to the property today to in
| spect the coal deposits, yesterday be-
ling spent in inspecting and seeing
analyses made of the limestone de-
posits from which the cement is to be
made.
To See Railroad Men
|
night. the party will hold a conference
with Louisville and Nashville railroad
officials in regard to constructing
spur track from the main line for about
three quarters of mile to the pro-
posed site of the big plants. The
original plans were to biuld the plants
right along the main line but it now
seems probable that this win be
changed and they will be located right
among the limestone and shale quar-
ries on Blount mountain, about three
quarters of mile from the main track.
The engineers and chemists which the
party has with them made tests of the
deposits yesterday right before the
eyes of the visitors and the results
were surprising, even to themselves,
they admitted last night. Construction
on the plants will begin in the imme-
diate future, under the direction of
] Richard *. Meade, the consulting en-
gineer, who will keep in touch with
the local situation and make repeated
visits here. Engineer Tompkins will
remain in Birmingham and have direct
charge of the construction
| Blue Prints Approved
| The blue prints for the plants have
been made and approved it Is stated,
but the engineers under the personal
direction of Mr.. Tompkns will have
considerable preliminary surveying and
other similar work to do before ac-
tual construction will begin
DR.. Langham of the party is a famous
camp cook and his associates made
good use of him yesterday when they
put him to work preparing their noon
day meal They stated last night that
FOR once he had ably proven his camp
cooking stories,'' for he prepared a
meal that was greatly enjoyed by all
of them. They had many interesting
experiences to tell of the trip, one of
which was concerning a tiny country
lass who lived in the neighborhood and
who became very curious when she
| sighted the party. Becoming thirsty
| they asked her to get them a bucket
of drinking water and each man tossed
her a 25 or so cent piece. Such as
tonishment and happiness I have never
seen on the face of a child" said j. c.
McGinnis last night 1T probably was
more money than the child had ever
seen at one time before in her life
and she could hardly tear herself away
from us the remainder of the time we
were there"
Limestone Tests High
| The plans of the company were out
| lined in yesterday mornings Age
Herald in full. Concisely speaking they
intend to erect a s750,000 cement man
ufacturing plant on some 5000 acres
| of land which they have acquired in
this vicinity, and upon which they claim
are all the raw materials for the manu-
facture of an extremely high grade Of
cement at an equally extreme low cost
n fnx
close proximity to the shale and lime
stone deposits which they state are
practically inexhaustible In the test
made by the engineers yesterday 1t
was stated the limestone tested 96 and
as high as 81. the highest on record
while the famous Lehigh district in
PENNSYLVANIA where nearly all the ce-
ment of the country is now made. con-
tains stone which tests on an avera ge
of about rs. The output of the plant
which the company plans to erect will
be about half million barrels of ce
ment annually, while large quantities
of by-products will be made
|