But few of these are I have thus rapidly sketched some of the uses to which this hitherto worse than useless material may be put. likely to find any application in this country. paving-stone where good material for that purpose is wanting may be carried on successfully. It requires but little care, but the slags must be of very nearly constant composition, and must not change their form after cooling. The material when properly made wears well, and has been laid in some of the cities of Europe under severe tests for several years. I have a number of such blocks in the metallurgical collection of the School of Mines, taken up after seven years' use, at my request, from the streets of one of the largest cities in Europe. The manufacture of the granulated slag bricks, when wood for building purposes is cheap, is not likely to come into use. But in every case where brick or stone is to be used, it is cheaper and preferable, and the manufacture once started, it is more than likely that if such bricks will stand our severe climate, and there seems no reason why they should not wear here, as well as in the large establishments where I saw them used, they will be adopted for these constructions. The use of the slag in the place of sand will follow as a matter of course when it is granulated, and also its use for agricultural purposes. The most valuable of all the uses, however, is that of cement. I have seen cement equal to any of the best Portland cement made at a very small cost, and this from any slag, no matter how the composition varies. The great advantage of having a suitable substance for the manufacture of cement, in such a condition that at very small cost it can be reduced to an impalpable powder, is apparent. This manufacture of cement is not to be confounded with the adulteration of cement by slag, which is said to be carried on, on a large scale, in England. The slag, before it is manufactured, will of course deteriorate the value of the cement with which it is mixed, though it is a better adulteration than ordinary sand, and may perhaps be honestly undertaken in the belief that the pulverized slag alone has some of the properties of cement. The construction of a large manufactory, after several years' experiment, in one of the largest works of Germany, seems to be a guarantee that we may hereafter use cement in construction more freely, and be able to procure at a small cost a better article, than we now have. NEW YORK MEETING, MAY, 1872. THE METALLURGICAL VALUE OF THE LIGNITES OF THE FAR WEST. BY A. EILERS, M.E. No one who has visited our Western mining districts, and studied the economical part of the beneficiation of the ores occurring all over that vast extent of country, can underrate the high importance of the above subject. By far the larger number of the districts which contain smelting ores, i. e., argentiferous and auriferous lead, or copper ores, are situated in the Great Basin, that great plateau between the Rocky Mountains on the east, and the Sierra Nevada on the west, almost the whole of which is comprised at present in the boundaries of Nevada, Utah, and part of Arizona. This region is essentially a barren country. The extreme dryness of the atmosphere permits but a scanty vegetation in the plains; and even in the detached mountain-chains running through it-generally from N. to S., or from N. W. to S. E.-there are no trees found except dwarfed pines and mahogany, at the head of sheltered ravines, and a few cottonwoods and willows, which fringe the insignificant streams, before the water sinks in the arid plains. ores. Nearly all the mountain-chains in this region are rich in silver That class of these ores which is adapted to amalgamation, and rich in silver, has been worked with profit for more than ten years. But before the advent of the transcontinental railways, mining was restricted to these ores alone, and the consumption of fuel could be met with the scanty supply of forest trees in the immediate vicinity of the mining districts. Since, however, the Union and Central Pacific Railroads have brought the Great Basin nearer to the commercial centres of the East and the Pacific coast, thus reducing the expenses of freight and labor materially, other silver deposits, containing poorer ores in greater abundance, have been rapidly taken up and worked. During the last year this industry has so expanded, that the State of Nevada alone has been able to show a production of over $22,000,000 in silver. But not alone are the poorer grades of amalgamating ores now worked profitably, aided, as the metallurgical process is, by such excellent inventions as that of the Stetefeldt and the Bruckner roasting-furnaces, but the working of smelting ores has also been largely entered into. If I say largely, I do not only mean to say, that smelting works are now scattered widely over the Great Basin, but that some of these conduct their operations on a really grand scale. In Eureka, Nevada, for instance, there are twelve furnaces in operation, producing, during the last year, 5665.5 tons of base bullion, worth $2,035,588, although only a small part of them ran regularly. Four of the Eureka furnaces have each a capacity of from 35 to 40 tons of ore per day. Three of these belong to the Eureka Consolidated Company, who have also two smaller furnaces. Nearly throughout the year this company have kept four furnaces running at a time, and one idle, and the daily consumption was 120 to 140 tons of ore and 4000 bushels of charcoal. At this rate of smelting, the wood for ten miles around Eureka has been used up in a little over a year, which is not a strange statement, when we consider, what I said before, that there is very little wood in these regions anyway. Thus the question of fuel becomes at once a very important one, for the price of 33 cents per bushel of coal, which is now paid at the works, cannot rise much without threatening the very life of the industry. In Utah, where over 20 furnaces were built and had been partly in operation, in the fall of last year, some of the works have been compelled to pay as high as 30 cents per bushel for their charcoal, and very few are so favorably located as to get their coal for less than 18 cents per bushel. Many more smelting works have been erected since the time spoken of, and the addition of every one of them must inevitably tend to raise the price of fuel. Even the most fortunate ones, those located high up in the mountains, where timber is comparatively plenty, cannot hope to escape, in the next few years, the danger of an enormous rise in the cost of wood and charcoal. And almost every smelting and amalgamating works in the Great Basin, finds itself in precisely the same position. While the masses of poor ores are growing on their hands, fuel has a continual upward tendency. Now there are two means, by the combination of which this threatening danger can be averted. The first is the building up of a network of narrow-gauge railroads along the principal valleys, which will connect the mining districts with the Central Pacific Railroad; and the second is the employment of the vast stores of lignites occurring in the Rocky Mountain region, for metallurgical purposes. The utilization of this coal for the purpose named, has not yet been attempted successfully, and I propose, therefore, tonight, to say a few words on this subject. According to a late lecture of Professor Newberry, these lignites underlie not less than 50,000 square miles in the Great Basin, and along both flanks of the Rocky Mountains. The principal beds now opened and wrought, I have had the good fortune to visit during the last summer. The mines are located at Carbon, Rock Springs, and Evanston, all three stations on the Union Pacific Railroad, and along the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. The coal in these localities, though from different beds, hardly varies in external appearance; but analysis has established a somewhat differing composition. It has a black color, resinous lustre, a brown streak, and is very compact, the wood-structure, which is found intact in so many lignites, being almost totally obliterated. The Carbon seam, 140 miles west of Cheyenne, is 8 to 10 feet thick, and had been extensively worked for over a year, when the unfortunate fire broke out in the latter part of 1870, which caused the whole mine to cave in. At the time of my visit, in the summer of 1871, work was progressing rapidly to reopen the mine, and regular operations have since been resumed. The coal in this bed is distinguished from that in the other beds by many small patches of resinous matter, very similar in appearance to amber. An analysis of this coal, furnished me by Mr. Wardell, the Superintendent of the Wyoming Coal and Mining Company, gives: water 6.80, ash 8.00, volatile matter 35.48, fixed carbon 49.72. The Rock Springs seam is opened in the midst of the Bitter Creek Desert. It is 10 to 12 feet thick, and a smaller seam lies close above it. This coal contains also some resinous matter, but not so much as the foregoing. The analysis shows: water 7.00, ash 1.73, volatile matter 36.81, fixed carbon 54.46. The Evanston seam is by far the largest. It is from 22 to 26 feet thick, but the coal is not as good as that of the last locality. According to analysis it contains: water 8.58, ash 6.30, volatile matter 35.22, and carbon 49.90. This bed presents also the great disadvantage in mining it, that innumerable joints run through it at right angles to the strike and dip, undoubtedly resulting from great pres sure, and that the coal is very hard and brittle, so that in undermining only slow headway can be made, and a very large proportion of waste results. In regard to the Colorado beds, now open, I cannot give any details, as I was prevented from visiting the mines. The coal-mines along the Union Pacific Railroad have furnished a considerable product since they were first opened in 1868, viz.: There were mined by the Wyoming Coal and Mining Company: The capacity of the mines of the Rocky Mountain Coal and Iron Company has been much increased lately, so that in the first three months of 1872 this company has been able to mine and ship 24,933 tons. Almost all this coal has been used up by the two great railroad companies, the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific, the quantities shipped to San Francisco and other points being insignificant. Here, then, is an almost inexhaustible source of supply for the pressing wants of the metallurgical works of the Great Basin and the Pacific States and Territories generally. But if you suggest the use of these lignites for metallurgical purposes to the superintendents of works in those regions, you receive the unanimous answer, that they are not fit to be employed for the production of high temperatures. You are told that the main difficulty in using the coal is the fact, that it breaks into small pieces as soon as it is exposed to the heat; that in the fire-box of the reverberatory the draft cannot after that penetrate it, and that in the frequent stirrings which are necessary, the small pieces fall through the grate half burned, while, on account of the frequent opening of |