The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-01-28

1OO-mesh rocking screen, and are cop- ducted thence to a drier-in some eases a drying floor, in other cases cylindri- cal rotary drier. From the drier the con- centrates usually are treated in gyra- tory sitter, after which they are pneu- matiealg concentrated, portion going to the buhrstone mill for further reduc- ton before passing to the gyratory screens and bolting reels.
 In the flotation process large amount of water is required so that the location of the plant using that process must he near a permanent &water supply. The
 location of the dry process mill is, of
 course, on this account less restricted, and many good locations, as far as mill site and ore supply are concerned, could
 be had where it would not be possible,
 or at least profitable. to operate water
 separation mill Since only about 3 ger
 cent of the graphite ore is graphite,
 practically the entire bulk of the rock quarried must be disposed of, so that
 sufficient land must be purchased on
 which to settle the sand" which comes
 from the washer. This is no small con
 sideration for large capacity mill with downstream neighbors. In numb& of
 the wet process mills the water is bonded
 and used again and again during the dry season, but even with this precaution the
 amount of water consumed is relatively large, and the minimum water supply is an important consideration in the loca- tion of a plant.
 FACTORS IN OPERATION In all the plants now operating in the lfield the ore is dried in wood heated
 kilns and necessitates a considerable amount of timber for such purposes. The nearness to rail of the graphite
 plants has less to do with their profita- ble operation than does good grade of ore and other favorable circumstances since the weight of the graphite mined is linconsiderable in respect to it's value, and since cheap electrical power can be had in most parts of the field. Some of the mills are as much as eight miles from the end of the Ashland branch railroad. 1 high percentage carbon graphite brings a better price in the market and l is more readily sold. The finished No. l | flake graphite from most of the mills carries a percentage of at least S5 per l cent carbon, and in some of the mills
 the average is considerably over 90 per | cent.
 DISCOVERY IN ALABAMA 1 Little or nothing was known concerning I the occurrence of flake graphite in the l belt in which it is now being worked prior to the civil war, although the pres- i ence of amorphous graphite had been recognized at several places and graph | ite in the form of small lenses in the rocks about Tallassee was early recog-
 nized by Professor Tuomey, the first state 1 geologist
 ] It appears that the first generally an-
 nounced discovery of flake graphite was
 made by pr. Gessner, at the time em- 1 ployed by the Confederate government to supervise the recovery of sulphur from pyrite deposits near Pyriton. The loca-
 tion of this first discovery was in the
 road leading up the hill a little to the
 northeast of the present Quenelda quar-
 ries. No development of this ore took place until 1888, when company headed i by MT. Chichester of Birmingh estat- lished an experimental mill near the spot of the discovery. A f1ve-stamp mill was l used to crush the ore.
 1 The crushed ore was agitated in
 troughs having a current of water,
 with the expectation that the flake would pass off with the overflow, while the gang would remain in the trough The results were not satisfactory. Aft CT trying other methods unsuccessfully the company abandoned it's efforts The same plant was used by other parties for experiments. MT. Collxins an Eng llishman; MT. Prochaska, Polish en-