cess; unless it be so a certain portion of tungsten is dissolved. Should, however, the operation be carried on too far, and a portion of tungsten be dissolved, the addition of a small quantity of impure tin precipitates the tungsten, and chloride of tin, free from tungsten, is obtained. This is turned off into a vat, in which more granulated impure tin is placed, and any arsenic or antimony remaining is there deposited, and a pure solution of chloride of tin is obtained. From this we have to get the chemically pure tin we require, and which is quite as good as the stream tin of Cornwall. Into this bath we put bars of metallic zinc, which precipitate the tin in a spongy mass, when instead of chloride of tin we get chloride of zinc. The tin thus produced may be fused into bars, or sold as the best tin. The chloride of zinc must be used so as to lower the expense of the whole process. To do this it is precipitated by milk of lime, or common chalk; we then get oxyde of zinc, which is largely used as a pigment; and to give it sufficient opaqueness for that purpose, the washed oxyde of zinc is heated to redness, when it is found to be equal to the ordinary oxyde of zinc obtained by sublimation.-London Mechanics' Magazine.

COALS AND COLLIERIES.

ANTHRACITE COAL TRADE FOR 1854.

Shipments from Richmond to December 2d,

Same time last year,

Lehigh coal shipments to November 25th,

Same time last year,

Increase,

We estimated the quantity sent to market by the Delaware & Hudson and the Pennsylvania Coal Companies, at 950,000 tons-the quantity sent by the Delaware & Hudson Company is 440,944 tons-by the Pennsylvania Company, 496,648 tons, making 937,692 tons for the year, of which from 15 to 20,000 tons are frozen up on the line of the Canal. The Delaware & Hudson Company has fallen 53,264 tons, and the Pennsylvania Canal Company, 26,052 tons-making the deficiency this year 69,316 tons, caused by freshets, which materially damaged the Canal, and low water a portion of the season.

The Delaware & Hudson Company has declared a semi-annual dividend of 6 per cent. on their business for the year.

The quantity sent by the Lehigh last year was 1,080,544 tons. Up to Nov. 25th, the shipments from that quarter reached 1,207,684 10 tons-showing an increase of 127,140 tons so far over the whole supply of last year. The Mauch Chunk Gazette says: "The trade in this region will soon be brought to a close although 84,000 tons were shipped after this time last year."

The whole increase this year will not much exceed, if it reaches 175,000 tons from the Lehigh.-Miner's Jour.

RATES OF TOLL AND TRANSPORTATION ON RAILROAD, NOV. 9тп.

To the Editor of the Mining Magazine:

Being, I believe, the only person who has experience in the management of coal mines through the anthracite district of Wales; having also some knowledge of a great part of the anthracite district of Pennsylvania, I trust I may be excused for offering a sort of review of the question now mooted on both sides of the Atlantic;-that of the "export of Pennsylvania anthracite to London." The party desiring information should have a just idea of what can be done in Britain, before he calculates on sending to London anthracite, certain to be worth, in future, upwards of four dollars per ton in New York. I shall keep in view not only what has appeared in your columns, but also a letter in the London Mining Journal, 10th Sept., 1853. The writer of that letter is not better informed as to what has been done towards the introduction of stoves and anthracite in London than of the cost of anthracite, on board ships, of 1000 tons burden, in a dozen fine harbors of South Wales. The mineral basin of Wales has been compared to a lady's fan in the wind. The length of it along its centre is about 100 miles east to west. Unlike the basins of Pennsylvania, the narrow end of this basin is westward, but, as in Pennsylvania, the north crop is far more valuable than the south, the inclination being less rapid, &c. The east end of the Welsh basin being upwards of twenty miles wide, with a rise east of about 1 in 10, gives the idea of the "fan." I will endeavor to give the qualities and position by commencing at the rivet of the fan, and following the north crop. We have on the coast of Pembrokeshire, near Milford Haven, the fine "black marble" anthracite, of various thickness of seam, below tide water level-and in terribly costly ground, as to timber required for working. The Bigelly colliery, for instance, requires "square timber" in headings only six feet square, to the tune of $15,000 per annum for a delivery of about twice as many tons of coal, and half that small or culm, sold for burning lime at about a dollar per ton, whilst the portion above the size of an apple is generally worth at the mine from $3. to $4, and in London double that price, for kiln drying malt, hops, &c. The difficulties stated, and narrow breadth from the crop to the centre of the basin, there greatly limit the production of this quality of coal. The demand at that high price is of course also limited. As tender strata, trouble, faults and undulations of the seams occur in the Pennsylvania field much in proportion to the high quality of the coal, so is it in Wales. East of Pembrokeshire the seams are under Carmarthen Bay. Thence their course is under the Gwendraith River and flats, about fifteen miles, the number of seams being about twelve, from 2 feet to 10 feet thickness. There is at Trimsaran and other places along this distance a second edition of these seams, the length of a mile or two at intervals, so that in those "reaches" we find the crops of near thirty workable seams. This second series is of tender and free burning quality, as that of Carbondale. We have now passed along about 30 miles of the course of the seams, in which distance the thickness of coal may average 70 feet, the inclination 1 at 4. Scarcely an acre is worked below the level of the river mentioned. Millions of tons are workable above that level, with VOL. III.-38

the Ridwelly Canal along the seams, and its terminus at fine harbors. The Gwendraith coal, lately mentioned as tried successfully in a steamer by Mr. Wadney, is a fair sample of this body of coal, and I shall endeavor to show the state of inatters as regards its use in London.

My patron, partner, &c., the late Mr. Brogden, (a pupil of Dr. Priestly,) was advised by him to buy Trimsaran (before mentioned), as the greatest mass of coal in the kingdom. There as manager of the mines he and I spent 20 years. In 1830, Dr. Nott, late President of Union College, arrived in London with his patent stove. I had introduced screened anthracite to about 60 steam engines, distilleries, &c., about London. Culm being duty free to London, screened anthracite under the size of an apple, was admitted duty free, and thus we balanced the extra freight from Wales as compared with Newcastle coal. I required only sufficient surface of fire grate to make this screened anthracite the most economical steam fuel in London, as well as smokeless, &c. It was brought to the landing shaft at 35 cents per ton from a 3 feet seam, all labor included, and four boys, by a water balance, and screens without motion, lifted the coal up a shaft 100 feet deep, banked it to the screen which sent it to the cars, of five sizes, (the mere dust taken out of the pea coal,) all at the cost of a cent per ton, the four boys passing off 100 tons daily. A step for the coal to fall over, at every foot length of each screen, was the secret of this being well done. I must here say I lately saw 17 men and a steam engine at a screen (for they want no breaking) on a railway from Auburn, who all send off only as much as the boy at my screens, above half their coal being wasted in the creek. So that the "art of screening" is not likely to do much more than it has done for the anthracite trade in London.

The beautiful and excellent stoves of Dr. Nott and others being rejected in London, we have to "wait for the echo." The geologists estimate that there is coal in the South Wales basin to supply the present consumption of Britain for centuries after the Newcastle coal field is exhausted, and such is the regularity of all coal in Britain, as compared with anthracite there or in Pennsylvania, that Messrs. Pemberton, who sunk the first shaft to the centre of the Welsh basin, on the bituminous seams at Llanelly Carmarthenshire, at a point where Trimsaran anthracite would by its inclination be about a mile deep, and afterwards sunk the deepest shaft in the north of England, 1800 feet, at Sunderland, concurred with me in the opinion, that the north of England would be worked to double that depth before the coals of Wales generally would interfere in the trade of London. And I foretell that the Atlantic cities will use a large portion of bituminous coal before London is compelled or induced to use, for household purposes, either Welsh or American anthracite. The discovery of the lower seams at Pottsville may be a great matter, and the western portion of the anthracite field may be great, but for the rest, all points considered, there is little need to seek a market.

No doubt one third the grates in London are half the year without fire, another third the fire lighted three times a day, for a teakettle is boiled, &c., &c., at the consumption of about a pint of coal and wood, so easily is Newcastle coal brought to its work, while anthracite must be in a body of fire continually, or take wood to light it which would do all the London lady has to do, besides attending to her shop, &c., &c.

I must return to the anthracite coal field of Wales by saying, from the said fifteen miles under the Gwendraith River, the 70 feet thickness of seams pass six or eight miles over table land to the line of the Amman River and Railway, and follow that, five or six miles, to the boundary line of Carmarthen and Glamorgan, and thence across the canals of Swansea and Neath about fifteen miles. At the head of the last mentioned canal these seams become "smoking" coal. The amount of Ironstone gradually increases along the whole distance. The underlevel workings along this latter half of the 70 miles are next to nothing, and the width of seam workable, (at Newcastle depths,) say a mile, as the inclination comes gradually down to 1 at 8,

seventy square miles,=44,800 acres, at 70 feet=100,000 tons per acre. A fourth part of this coal approaches the quality of the black marble anthracite first mentioned, is hard as the best seam of American anthracite, so that I do not agree that the quality of the latter can give great advantage. This coal is on board ship at the cost of a dollar per ton. I spent the best of my days selling it in the ship, six miles from the mines, at little above a dollar, which brought me to America in the search of a "better country." The freight to London, $2 per ton, will make its cost there very much the same as coal in New York. As to the idea of that coal going to London, I advise that Massachusetts be first well "cared for." The Pottsville Journal has quite a review of the coal trade. Gives the price of Newcastle coal in Boston at $12 per ton, yet the same article says a ton of anthracite is equal to a ton and a half of Newcastle coal. The latter is $4 in London. The "blank reaches" in Wales, are a drawback on the quantity workable, which the "overlays" do not make good. The amount of rent or royalty per ton paid in each country is of course an item in the cost price, and it will surprise most men to hear that rent per ton of this country cannot be taken at less than double that of Wales generally. Where a capital of $30,000 will win a colliery, for twenty years, by steam pumping, say 200 feet deep, 12 cents per ton would be the rent. It is so at the Rhymney Iron Works, almost the last lease of import, ance, and where the seams of coal and ironstone are in fact won by natureas they are intersected by ravines, and the gangways begin almost in coal. An extraordinary "debut" was made by the semi-anthracite or "Llangenneck" coal about the time I have mentioned, 1830, it taking with the brewers and steamboats in London at about $6 per ton when Newcastle coal was at $4. The breakage or small of it being useless, the strong bituminous coal of Wales ultimately beat it. These coals, with or without fan blast, are the articles the American and Welsh anthracite have to supplant in steamboats. The geological change from the anthracitous quality to semi is across the Carmarthenshire portion of the basin. Overlaying seams, as in the west of Pennsylvania, so in Wales, and at high elevations horizontal seams occur over all the others; they are bituminous and tender. There is no semi between the anthracite and smoking or iron making coal in the seams and line of course I commenced with. The east end of the basin is highly bituminous and hard, all the south bituminous and tender. T. B.

THE COAL FIELDS OF OHIO, AND COAL CONSUMPTION OF ITS CITIES. We have several times touched on this subject, with a view to exhibit the economical value of coal; the prodigious resources of Ohio in this mineral; and its future development. The development of coal is the result of high civilization; and hence coal mines are not thoroughly worked, till a country begins to have large towns, and is well advanced in the arts. This is now the case with Ohio, and accordingly capitalists, manufactures, artisans and citizens, are all beginning to turn their attention to the supply of coal. Some ten or a dozen coal companies have been formed within two years in Ohio, for working mines in the north-east part of the State. The production of coal has doubled in the same time; and the consumption would increase at a more rapid rate if there was a sufficient supply.

As this is a subject of great interest to railways, as well as the public generally, it may be well to examine the causes of demand, the sources of supply, and the probable development of the coal region.

1. The Causes of Demand.—Of course, while wood was the cheaper fuel, coal was very little in demand, except for some sorts of iron work-for which it is absolutely necessary. But this has ceased to be the case. Wood, on the rivers, canals and railways is becoming rapidly exhausted, and at the large towns is therefore proportionally high. At Cincinnati, where fuel of every kind is highest, the ratio of expense in burning wood and coal is about two to In other words, coal at 25 cents a bushel is cheaper than wood at $5

one.

per cord. But with proper care, coal may be laid in the cellar at 124 cents per bushel. In the interior of the State, we are told, coal at 20 cents is deemed cheaper than wood at $3. But at Chillicothe, Columbus, Circleville, and many other interior towns, coal can be had at 8 cents, and in these towns the consumption is increasing rapidly. In domestic consumption of fuel, we may assume that in a short time coal will be used in all the considerable towns of the State..

Another and equally important source of demand are the factories, workshops and blacksmiths. There are now twenty great establishments that will consume five millions of bushels; fifty smaller ones that will consume an equal amount; while the furnaces, forges, and blacksmiths consume as much as all the others. This consumption must amount in all to twenty millions; although, it will be observed, that nearly half of it is used in the coal mines by furnaces, forges, etc.

Another important demand is caused by MILLS. Twenty years since, it would have been deemed a positive absurdity to say that coal would be used to move mills, when there was water power present! But now the thing is reversed. It costs more to build and keep a dam in repair, than it does to run a steam mill. The consequence is that we find steam mills all over the State, beside streams that formerly furnished the power. In this the railways have greatly assisted; for to a flour mill, locality is of importance. Hence, steam mills are now erected near the railway depots, where the carriage and handling of the wheat, flour and coal are all convenient. In a few years it will require at least ten millions of bushels of coal to supply the steam mills on the railways, and this amount must all be carried on the roads.

2. The Sources of Supply.-Ohio is estimated to contain a coal field equal in extent to twelve thousand square miles, or one third the surface of the State. The eastern and southern boundary of the Ohio coal fields, is the Ohio River; the western commences some ten miles above Portsmouth, and runs on a line a little east of north to the western line of Summit County. Within this limit are some counties, such as Fairfield, in which coal has not yet been found. It is nevertheless quite certain that coal underlies them, and probably at no great depth. The counties which at present produce most coal, are Meigs, Athens, Muskingum, Summit, Jackson, Jefferson, Trumbull, Tuscarawas, Belmont, Guernsey, Lawrence, Stark, Hocking, and Vinton. Besides these, coal is found in Gallia, Washington, Coshocton, Licking, Morgan and Carroll. The present amount of coal dug, including that consumed on the spot, is estimated at the following amount:

The above is probably an under estimate, and certainly will be for the future, in which the demand and supply will probably be doubled in the next two or three years.