Norwich bulletin., 1916-06-10
MEERschAuM MINES.
Have Been Operated at Esi<iseE1r for a
 Thousand Years.
Especial to The Bulletin. )

| AANAg@F1ArbA
 Washington. D. C., June 9.--If the shade of the smokers pipe were of as| much moment as the hue of miadayss spring costume the possible shortage in the neerschaI9n market might have attracted as much attention in Amer fcaD since the beginning of the war. as Eas the interruption of our aniiine dye trade with Germany, For the main source of the worlds supply of this earthly mineral lies in the zone of hos tilities. The National Geographic So- ciety, with headquarters in Washing ton. in it's war geography bulletin is- sued today, gives the following little known facts about the neerscKaunn mines of Eslzi-sehr, the m1oslem city of 10000 people which lies 200 miles to the south of Conatantinople, on the banks of the Pursak Su, in Asia. Min or:
 sMeerschaum. which derives it's name from the fact that particles Of 1 it were discovered floating on the Black Sea, giving rise to the belief that it was petrified ea-foam, has been dug from the aIIuvial deposits in l the plains near Eski-sehr for a thouS- I and years. Some of the meerschaum beds, located about IS miles from the city, have as many as 2.000 openings. 1 Here 4,00O Kurds and Persians, in l groups of from three to fifteen, bur- l row through yard-wide holes to depths l of from 20 to 200 feet, working night and day under the f1ickering light of oil lamps. The Jumps of mineral I clay which they seek is commercially | valuable in Rodules as small as a hazel I nut, while occasionally pieces as 1 large as apples are found.
 | When the meerschaum is first brought to the surface it has gray
 ish or yellowlsh tinge and is so soft T that 1t can be scraped with a knife.
 In the summer it is left to dry in the
 sun, but in the winter it is placed
 in ovens where it Is subjected to a steady temperature day and night for
 nine days, when it becomes snow
 white and loses two- thirds of it's
 weight. After being rubbed with fan-
 nel and polished with wax it is wrap ed in cotton and sent to Austria or
 America to be resoaked in water until
 it is so soft that ir can be cut like
 cheese, after it is sawn into conven-
 tent pipe shape, elaborately carved ii
 desired, and fitted with amber stems J from Germany. Before the war the
 value of Eski-sehr's meerschaum ex-
 ports was more than $1,300, 000 an
 nually.
 Even the most aestheticaIly in-
 clined of our American millionaires would hardly consider the luxury ot 4 living in palace built of meerschauyr j IS within the range of their fortunes yet there are many unpretentious 1 houses of this material in the Span I ASAA tOU OA= etA4CCdos 1t611 As1z1QI1
 where a coarse variety of t1fs-sub1
 stance is to be founds@ On the othe1
 hand the SMoroccans just across the straits of Gibraltar, find that still an.
 other variety of meerschaum fathers freely and they use it, perhaps spar } ingly, as a substitute for soap
 tl The chips and saw dust of tn
 meerschaum pipe factories make al
 excellent cleansing powder for remoV : ing stains from costly fabrics An in mir ,rTe- P l scraps, the fragments being bound to gether with some solution and the1 nodded into blocks.
 e .kMeerSchaum is found in Greco, 5 and in Hrubschitz. Moravia, as we'll a t in Asia Minor, and to limited ex tent in Pennsylvania, South Ca1,olini
 and in the upper GiIa valley, near SiI
 yer City, Mexico