Show THE MINES the valuable deposits in Uin tali county SAID TO BE WORTH MILLIONS OF DOLLARS interesting story that led to their discovery A prospector among the mountains of utah four years ago found in one of alie bar rooms f a little mining town a small conical object of color which the proprietor of the dram shop used as a paperweight paper weight it looked like a piece of gutta percha yielded slightly to the pres bure of the thumb nail and possessed a mild resinous flavor and smell from its shape it had evidently been in a beer glass what is it asked the visitor after examining it curiously chewing gum sententiously replied the bartender bar tender lots of it back here in the hills the prospector had struck pay dirt when he little expected it for the chewing gum was no less important a substance than or mineral wax commercially known as ceresin and up to that time popularly believed to exist only in the austrian province of galicia attention was drawn to the mineral in this country about the year 1879 when mr jacob wallace of new york city an importer of austrian products received a consignment of it and introduced it to the trade where it soon proved most valuable in the adulteration of beeswax and the manufacture of many articles into which largely enters mr wallace a man with the inherited taste of a naturalist was himself so strongly impressed with the properties of the comparatively new product that he determined to search for deposits in this country his first work was done among the mineralogical if cords contained in new york libraries and was almost barren of result A slight trace was found however in the tenth census report which gave a brief and fragmentary description of a mineral substance that mr wallace believed to be identical with the one he was looking for the hunt was then transferred to the mountains of utah where after varied experiences among cormons mormons Mor mons gentiles and aborigines mr wallace ran down his gamy in the manner already described bed the owner of alie paperweight paper weight was easily persuaded to conduct the prospector to alo chewing gum deposits although his contempt for a tenderfoot who would pass by minerals of established value to look for chewing gum was apparent mr wallace donad the mineral cropping out on the mountainsides mountain sides apparently forced from its hiding places by the immense weight upon it and tests ef the various specimens gathered on the surface and by sinking shafts showed that it was undoubtedly in its purest natural form mr wallace at once had the region thoroughly explored and surveyed and under the mineral and desert acts preempted pre empted about eight aquaro miles of territory on the denver eio grande railroad Eail road miles east of salt lake city the white eiver runs through the property and the deposits are found in the wasatch and uintah mountains the inhabitants of the sparsely settled region chewed the was the satisfaction derived being much the same as that obtained by working over a piece of spruce gum while the denver grando railroad engineers having leurner its brightening properties polished their locomotives with it till they shone icke burnished steel and brass but to these two uses was the american mineral confined while the utah explorations were proceeding mr bichard J kroupa a chemist of recognized reputation was dispatched to Europe everything he could about the mining refining and practical uses of this task was not an easy one the secrecy pie served in the districts being so great that it is difficult for the austrian government even to make surveys and make reports by spending seven or eight months in galicia and by the aid of friends and the use of ingenious disguises mr kroupa accomplished his object sometimes as a mining engineer or electrician and again as a tourist mineralogist or geological student he worked in the mines and refineries manufacturers and consumers hob bobbed with the makers of ro fining machinery and gained access to the patent offices gradually but surely extracting tr and assimilating the information he sought he discovered die covered that th main deposits of are in the region of the carpathian range where petroleum rock salt potassium chloria ch lorid s sulphur and brown coal are aiso found boaya law a place of inhabitants ithe principal one of half a dozen mining towns that are almost entirely supported by the industry here the salt clay or wax bearing formation is found at a depth of from twenty to seventy feet un der layers of peat clay and sand in close proximity to rock salt deposits and slate rich in fossils all beins impregnated with oil at not far away there arc surface vains of and the ground is honeycombed honey combed with shafts and wella A black oil which is used for ancl grease and all kinds of lubricants alfa abounds thia oil through the earth crevices cre vires and by pressure heat and general chemical decomposition forms tha wax the mining is in somo cases by wind and buckets manual labor according to most primitive methods being employed while in others perfected machinery is used blasting is ao dangerous that it is rarely permitted disastrous explosions which fread large volumes of aas under tremendous pressure and filled shafts and levels eo rapid lyS that the escalo of miners was having made this prohibition necessary another danger to which he workers are exposed is the bursting through into a well of some hidden deposit efremi wax in one instance a shaft was filled in a fringle night by such a flood which dea iro cd several lives but yielded to the owner of the mine florans florins flor ins worth af alie gases which are cou linua lly escaping make the work of the most unhealthful and they are ible to remain underground bat four jours at a time the shafts in the gali iao mines have been sunk in places to a depoli of feet with paying results it is not strange that with all the daners and difficulties surrounding ti ro of there should bi desire to perpetuate what has hitherto been an undisputed monopoly for the industry ia most profitable the total mineral taken out at boras iw alone since 1861 ia flor ins about the present pro being in the vicinity of SOO tons a week the refineries arc found in london glasgow vienna on main bude besth and a few other laces in russian poland poland france germany and belgium at the seaboard crude is worth about per ton and tho grade known us hoch paua brings 30 per ton delivered in london in new york the import is practically absorbed by john field sons ilie large firm of candle makers who supply the british navy with all its candles having finished his researches abroad mr returned to this country to apply bia knowledge the of utah he pronounced to be identical with that of Gs dicia but generally of a better grade while the depoe its arc far more extensive subjected to a greater pressure under the ponderous weight of the guyed western mountains and surrounded by absorbent clays foreign substances have been ched and eliminated from alie j american wax leaving much of it almost pure the mineral rons in veins some of those thus far discovered being from nine to twelve inches in width from ono of these deposits a block weighing 2500 pounds lias been taken out and the promises to be corn ively easy either by tunnel i or by sinking shafts the crude varies in color from a light yellow to a brown er black and when refined becomes as yellow as beeswax or as A company with capital stock has been formed by mr wallace and his associates and the development of what promises to be a it is impossible at present to enumerate all the uses to w aich may be put aa american ingenuity is finding in it a most profitable field for experiment As the riyal of beeswax it has already reduced alic price of that product from forty to twenty five cents a pound and this reduction will be increased as the cost of producing decreases but our ceresin possesses many valuable qualities not found in other wax its melting point is high from degrees to degrees fahrenheit it is plastic without being boft and bard without bitterness it is decolorized tt without destructive tive distillation alks lisand the strongest acids make no impression on i and when refined it is odorless and tasteless electric wires are perfectly insulated by it as leading electric companies have discovered to their addan is valuable for all kinds of waterproofing and papers waxed with it being largely used in wrapping soaps steals books and all kinda of articles eliat require protection from moisture boxes tubs barrels and kegs lined with it are perfectly tight and impart no unpleasant flavor to the contents even if they are the most delicate minerals the permeates the pores of the wood instead of merely giving it a surface coating is also used in lining aion tanks in which powerful acids are to be mixed it is estimated that three fourths of the candles used in the churches of this and other countries are made of or beeswax strongly i adulterated with it the illuminating power of such candles is stronger than that of others while they drip but little and never lop over when subjected to ordinary atmospheric heat all wax figures and wax dolls are made of which also enters largely into the manufacture of imitation alabaster statuettes and the elaborate decorations which sometimes adorn wedding cakes and other confections confect ions among other uses to which it is put are the making of liniments salves and plasters sealing wax wax matches life preservers boot blacking varnishes shoemakers wax and all kinds of lubricants |