(A GREAT DISCOVERY. THE "STEVENS FLUX ' — IMMENSE INCREASE OF THE PRODUCTIVENESS OF ORES-EXCITEMENT AMONG THE MINING COMPANIES IN BOSTON. (FROM THE "TORONTO WEEKLY LEADER.")

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXIV, Issue 3514, 20 October 1868, Page 7

(A GREAT DISCOVERY. THE "STEVENS FLUX ' — IMMENSE INCREASE OF THE PRODUCTIVENESS OF ORES-EXCITEMENT AMONG THE MINING COMPANIES IN BOSTON. (FROM THE "TORONTO WEEKLY LEADER.")

INTBNSB excitement among the miuing speculators of bot»ton has been creut-d, according to accounts, by (the lemaikable result* attained la«i. Friday in tie testing of a uew treatment, ot ores, by the me of a ui Atonal k<iowu as die " Mteveim Fiux," whi h h-s recent y been discovered and i>r.»nguo to notice b> Uolpuel C. 0. IStevena, of .Ne* York. JU ud=» lair, ir tbe rej/oit may be believed, t» quadruple, or multiply even beyoudthat, the product, v enets «*t the gold uime< of the woild, aud u is .btimated by the Boaiou Post that ac least .'40,000 000 do.mrs in Bo>t<>n alone, which her inerchau>a <iud oilier cap.t-il.sts have luvestail in neb b t u>. Worked mine*, "iid »dverfci>ed aa suuk, will be redeemed an<i again become acnye eapi ai. We quote fr>mJtbe Post u<e followlug ttccouno of Colouel oieveui's disooveiy and of tlie practical t uls ma ie last we<-k : — •• Colonel Stevens Was no ge. logisfc or chemiafc,and first had bis attention Jrawn to* hulpherets and tbe deaiil^hurismg of q 1 i ore* wbiK- he w<»s confined in a, pruon pen in Georgia, m compmy w.tti a iai^e cumber ot dcs iteri from the icbel army. The«e ineii weie uurduoated, but had worked iv the mine* of Georgia for jears; aud simply knew tiiat it, as they said, * the euphur could he got iid of, the* gold would.all'appean' - fheir oft-reheated conversation madea striou-t linprV-a bo on Colonel ->tevens, though he had ai yet never seeu a sulphuret. Borne time after the close of the war (this impression being still upon his miud) he. accidentally became acquainted with the material which to now uses' for sineting ore, and for which at tbe time he knew no name, not being a practical ohemi.>t Directly after this aocii. ntal discovery, which wu about oue year ago, he cmc to Bostou, when he ordered by express a small kejj of the material. *• Passing through Devonshire-street one day, lireotly after his airival, and noticing the sign of •Samuel F. Guild, assayer,' he Called upon Mr. Suild and employed him to make an assay, haviug tirsfe obtained some sulphuret d ores for this purpose. Neicher Colonel .ste/eus nor Mr. Guild had any iuea A what 'the stuff' was that they were going to u-e in smelting the ore, ' ' However,, the' treierioieut was made ; and in place of getting at the rate of 300 dollars per ton, which was the mint assay of that particular ore, they g.t over 1,400 dollars pet t i.u ibis was astounding, and the two gentlemen -looked upon each other with amazement. 'Somebbiug wrong about this,' said the Colonel, '• L4OO dollars per ton— that will never do.' bo another test'was'/made. ' ThetbalanceofUhe'-bre was pulverised, and divided into equal parts. Oue half was then assayed by thereguUr mint process, aud brue' enough it yieluedat the rate of 300 dollars uer bon. ! Then the otber half was treated with ' the stuff, ' and agaii they fiad tbe 1,400 dollars per ton. This was astounding and convincing, , but 'we canuob iodge the result,' said Mr. Guild, 'for there it is. Repeated experiments were then made by Mr. Guild, and ores were sent to his office to be tested Erom uearly all- the compauies in the country. Lv the meantime" "Colonel btevena had secuied by contract all the material which ia now known as Stevens's flux, contracting to pay 30,000 dollars a year for it for ninety-nine year*. Haviug thus secured for himself this great desulphurizing agent, he named it the Stevens Flux for treat, iug mineial ores. In speaking of this flux, in a recent official paper, Professor Hayes; State' asSayer, saya: _f«This new flux is a residue, r^maius in« after the extraction of sodium from the mineral Bfyolite.and consists of fluoride ofc*l'3ium and aluminium, with some caustic and some carbonate of lime, in varying prouoitious, little silica and oxide of iron.' The fluxiug power is dependent on the fluorides present, and is, generally aided by the addition of a chloride, snch as common salt, in mixture with* it. Besides a high efficieucy in causing oruiuary rocks and gaugues to become fluxed by heat, the luoridesgive a. remaikatde .fluidity to the -melted mass, 'And they ensure 'the deposition of any metallic globules, reduced from the ore submitted to trial, so thatlthe meta.l is found at the bottom in a Clean solid jjate' iv cooling. ProfeHsor Hayes also t-a>s iv this same paper that his tri*l ( s wjth tlm flux covered ita iciion;6ii thefcilieious,' alumi'*.W c tlc«reous' YOuks and sulphured ore-, with comp< und rocks ; and in ail these appicatious their niiueial« i weie perJeUlv melieii' l iiiio {bin, glass-iik« niaa-e*, »'nd tbe metal, i»r re^iilus, always «epa ated cleauiy from the ore. Beie tbeie is an ailnjissi-n, «u th^ part of one of aur well-known men of bcienc, that ihiN fl'tx i» tbe fci'rVl agent asked for i.y the George miners bo/ destroy the bulphur and drive ..way the s.lica, the ' old gif en bee ' of the mineral hive. Ihe Piofthsor al>o bays that his exp r.inent* demous trat'td that J' this flux m-y he applied in the large way for reducing ores directly in lurnac s of P^'P*" 11 form.'- Xhis std,t. meut has now been fairly venfied, the experiment "being a de 1 l»8t Thmaday l>y the Acwbrth Mining Company, of Georgia, iv * furnace Brectled by Colonel u^tavem. at *Lich6dd foundry, iv X ast ! Boston. The furnace, with all its adjuncts and appliances, was turned over to, the agents of this company, who' desired 10 make a test of their sulphurated ore*, from which they have never been able 'to realise over twenty qr twenty-two^ollara to i ha ton, by any other process in use. Colonel fc». U. French, President of thi* company, bad witnessed bbc 'working* of this flux lepeatedly, and on a soiiJtwhat large scale, an.i was omihdeut .«« success, while several of the stockholders were idcreduloua, still beluving their money to be no better than 'sunltl' K very thing 'bninfir .m readiness, on Thursday noon the oie aud the flux were introduced into the furnace, two thouoand five hundred -pounds of ore 'being used in this experiment. All sorts ol speculations were indulged in by tbe directors and stockholders, and other gentlemen largely interested 1 in mining properties, ihe furnace was visited by hundreds of people, and at one time it was said that there were over ten millions of Boston opital represented. During Friday night tbe tires were extinguished, and the cooling process commenced. Close watch was kept till ten o'clock on »»t« rd *y morning,, when the gojd was, removed from, ihe Tari6u 8 'rieprttsioAs 'af the b^om^ofHhe furni'cd; First there wa« taken out a nugget weighing l«o pennyweights, and valued at $195 gold. ' ' Jl his Exhibition began to-open- theses bf- several gentlemen who were strongly inclined to be sceptic*!. In a' few moments, however, another nugget; was produced, weighing 126dwt: U2grs;,i and valued at 126 dollars 50 cents. A* This was astonUhiug, and naturally created considerable, excit ment ;'anb\inAsniifch ai.no.gaM acaHsi weie at baud, the two nugeefcs were hurriedly weighed upon some large platform scales standing near by, the affair creating" corisldti-ibie'' merriihetffel&Withe time being. The party, with the exception of three or four, now separated, taking cars for Boston to briug the cheering news, and to tttivyj Wp'' any stockn in this! or ntber companies that might be floating around loose. ,A t, all eveuti it ,was fait .to- jnfer ihu,, for it was evident tb every 7 geiitle'man present had the slightest knowledge of the smelting of metal Ituatjthe bteveus Flax liad accomplished wh»t no otiier assay process had been abk to do— it had deKrbyed the sulphur, thrust out of tbe walls of the ore the miner's greatcurae, the silica, and after accompliahingfcll this it had oonvwted theßo*adotlx«i»grediettM

into an article of commerce that woi^d readily sell f>ra lum nearly," if not quite, suffiVent to dewy toe •melting expense*— the slag which' is left after •he gold is obtained temg worth from forty to fifty dollars per t«n for the manufacture of tiles and Wavy gU-s bottles j ia fact it is already id .demand f ir tliia purpone. i'« But thr result is not reached j*t Directly after this party had separated, two other dnposits wera discovered, one weighing 59«lwt. 7grs., and the .other lOdwt. s<ra., making in all, from these 2,500 b. of?ore, 391<1«t. or 19 z. lldwb. the currency value of which, with gold at 1.38, is 539 dollar- 58 cents, ..r at the rate of 431 d.>l"aw to th- ton. This re-nit b^oming,known,in Stits-nreet, as it very .natural y. w( ul.J.^amoi.g geudemen interested in mining »tock,' Cdlonel Stevens was hurriedly waited upon! at his n>l>ms at the American House, in order to secure an opportunity to hava their ores speedily teited. Every oom'te-y possible was ' emended to those gentlemen by Colonel Stevens, the , next tri^l which is to take place being upon ore from the well-known Lewis mine, «>f Georgia} its proprietors being natignine of gre*\t remits. f"Suoli, then, i« 'the result of the- fifat' ptfbiipT experiment made with ihe Stevens flux upon anything like a large real-, although a number of private experiments haJ previously lieeu made with multi equally satisfactory, lv nil probability, a number of i other experiments upon different ores will be speedily nude, Colooel Stevens being now engaged in making additious to his furnace that will; 'allow? him to experiment upon a much larger scale. He has also in contemplation the introduction of, anther fl\m«, which .will, if successful, enable.him to reduce the ores at a great saving of time and expense. Thdse, and other particulars, however, will all be laid Before the public in due time, "and 'all parties interested in the smelting of ores will have ad opportunity to witness the process adopted with the Ste7ena flux. . „ „ , .«} We a'so understand from reliable sources that thin flux is invaluable in- the treatment < f iron in smelting, and in the manuf .cfcure of stect sevtral experiment- having recently been made that .fully demonstrate this." , t _