Pine-Tree Products.—The various members of the pine and cone-bearing trees yield valuable essential oils and oleo-resins that are very important in the arts and sciences. These, in nearly every instance, are prepared from the sap of the tree.

Oil of turpentine is known as an "essential oil," and in chemical structure and properties it does not differ from the various essential oils, such as lemon, orange, peppermint, etc. Commercial turpentine is generally made from the sap of the long-leafed pine of the Atlantic coast-plain.

The bark of the tree is cut near the foot, and the sap that oozes from the scar quickly hardens into a gum. The gum, generally known as "crude turpentine," is distilled and yields about one-fourth its weight of oil or "spirit" of turpentine. It is a staple article of manufacture in Europe, India, and the United States, and is used chiefly to dilute the oil paints and varnishes used in indoor work. The United States supplies about two-thirds of the world's product, a large part of which is shipped from Savannah and Brunswick, Ga., to Great Britain.[40]

Resin is the substance remaining after the crude turpentine has been distilled. It is used in the manufacture of varnish, sealing-wax, and soap. Finely powdered resin is also mixed with wood-pulp in the manufacture of wrapping-paper. It gives the latter a glazed surface and renders it almost water-proof. Most of the world's product of resin comes from the turpentine district of the United States, and about four-fifths of it is exported to Europe.

When resin is subjected to distillation at a still higher temperature, resin oil, a very heavy turpentine, is given off, and a viscous substance known as pitch remains. A considerable amount of this is still made in the United States, but the greater part comes from the pine-forests of Russia and Scandinavia. When pine-wood is distilled, tar is the chief product. In Russia tar is generally made by burning green logs covered with turf, over a pit. Creosote, or wood preservative, is made from tar. The various pine-tree products, creosote excepted, are commonly known as "naval stores," the tar being used in water-proofing the rigging of vessels, the pitch in calking the seams in between planks, in the decks and hulls.

Other Resins and Gums Used in the Arts.—Most of the gums and resins used in the arts and sciences are the hardened sap of plants—in some cases exuding by natural means from the bark, in others resulting from the puncture of the bark.

The lac of commerce is due to the puncture of the young branches of a tree, frequently a fig (Ficus religiosa) growing in the tropical forests of India. The hardened sap incrusts twigs forming stick-lac; when crushed, washed, and freed from the woody matter it is seed-lac; when melted and cooled in flakes it is shell-lac, the form best known in commerce. It is the chief ingredient in sealing-wax, and is extensively used as a varnish. It is also used in fireworks on account of its inflammability.

Dammar is the product of a tree growing in the East Indies; it is the basis of a very fine white varnish. Copal is a term applied to oleo-resins soluble in turpentine, and used almost universally as varnishes. They come from the tropical regions of South America, Africa, and from the East Indies. Kauri is the fossil gum of a cone-bearing tree dug from the ground in northern New Zealand. Amber is the fossil gum of extinct cone-bearing trees found mainly along the Baltic coast of Prussia. It is used chiefly for the mouth-pieces of tobacco-pipes and cigar-holders; the inferior product is made into varnish. It is sold wherever tobacco is used. Sandarach, found on the north African coast, is used principally in Europe, being employed as a varnish. The United States and Great Britain consume most of the foregoing products.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

Name any elastic substance you know about that is in every way a substitute for rubber.

What has been the relation between rubber and good roads?

Describe the structure of a bicycle tire.

Why are tar, pitch, and turpentine called naval stores?—and what determines the locality in which they are made?

What is varnish, and for what purposes is it used?

FOR STUDY AND REFERENCE

Obtain specimens of crude rubber, vulcanized rubber, and hard rubber; note carefully the characteristics of each.

Burn a very small piece of cheap white rubber-tubing in an iron spoon or a fire-shovel; note the character of the residue.

Obtain specimens of gutta-percha, resin, pitch, turpentine, shellac, copal, dammar, and creosote for study and inspection.



CHAPTER XII

COAL AND PETROLEUM

The economic history of nearly every country that has achieved eminence in modern times dates from its use of coal and iron; and indeed the presence of these substances in workable deposits means almost unlimited power. The present era is sometimes called the Age of Steel, but the possibilities of producing steel in enormous quantities, at less than one-fifth its price at the beginning of the nineteenth century, depended mainly upon the use of mineral coal instead of charcoal in its manufacture.

Coal consists of accumulations of vegetable matter that were formed in prior geological ages. Under the action of heat and moisture, and also the tremendous pressure of the rock layers that afterward covered them, the vegetable matter was converted to mineral coal.

The aggregate coal-fields of the United States are not far from two hundred thousand square miles in extent, but of this area not much more than one-half is workable. In Europe there are estimated to be about one hundred thousand square miles of coal-lands, of which about half are productive at the present time. Of this Great Britain has 12,000 square miles, Spain 4,000, France 2,000, Germany 1,800, and Belgium 500. In Canada there are about 20,000 square miles of coal-land; a part of this is included in the Nanaimo field on the Pacific coast, but the most important are the Nova Scotia beds, which form about the only supply for the British naval stations of America. China has extensive coal-fields.

In character coal is broadly divided into two classes—anthracite or hard, and bituminous or soft, coal. Anthracite coal occurs in folded and metamorphic rocks. It is hard and glassy, and does not split into thin layers or leaves. The beds have been subjected to intense heat and pressure, and the coal has but a very small amount—rarely more than five per cent.—of volatile matter; it burns, therefore, with little or no smoke and soot, and on this account is very desirable as a fuel in cities. Two areas in Colorado and New Mexico produce small quantities of pure anthracite; practically all the commercial anthracite comes from three small basins in Pennsylvania. In quality it is known as "red ash" and "white ash," the former being the superior.

The yearly output of the anthracite mines is upward of fifty-five million long tons a year, or somewhat less than five million tons per month. In winter the rate of consumption is somewhat greater than that of production. A shortage in the summer production is therefore apt to be keenly felt in the winter. Before shipment to the market the coal is crushed at the breakers, sorted in different sizes, and washed.

Most of the anthracite coal-mines are owned by the railway companies centring at New York and Philadelphia, or else are operated by companies controlled by the railways. About one-fourth of the output is produced by independent operators who, as a rule, sell their coal to the railway companies. The Reading, Pennsylvania, Central of New Jersey, Lackawanna, Lehigh Valley, Ontario & Western, Erie, and Delaware & Hudson are popularly known as "coalers" because the larger part of their eastern business consists in carrying anthracite coal.



Formerly much of the coal was shipped by canals, but the latter were not able to compete with the railways, and most of the coal-canals have been abandoned. The price of anthracite at tide-water (New York) varies from $3.20 to $4.50 per long ton. At Philadelphia the price is about one-fourth less. Buffalo is the chief lake-port for anthracite. Steam sizes are about two-thirds the price of house fuel.



Bituminous, or soft coal furnishes the larger part of the house fuel in the United States, and nearly all the house coal used in other parts of the world. It contains from fifteen to more than forty per cent. of volatile matter, burning with a long and smoky flame. The coal which contains twenty per cent. or less of volatile matter is a free-burning coal that may develop heat enough to partly fuse the ash, forming "clinkers"; it is therefore called "caking" coal, and is not only well adapted for use as fuel and steam-making, but it is also a good smelting coal.

Coal which contains more than thirty per cent. of volatile matter is known as "fat" coal and is generally used in the manufacture of coke and illuminating gas. Western Pennsylvania produces the largest amount of fat coal, but it is found here and there in nearly all soft-coal regions. A so-called smokeless bituminous coal occurs in various localities; its low percentage of volatile matter makes it an excellent house fuel.

Bituminous coal is mined in twenty-five States of the Union, Pennsylvania, Illinois, West Virginia, and Ohio heading the list. In about half the mines the coal is cut from the seam by means of machinery and is known as machine-mined coal. A very large part of the product is consumed within a short distance of the mines, and this is especially true of the region about the upper Ohio River.



Most of the product is shipped to the large manufacturing cities of the middle west, where it is used for steam as well as fuel; a very large amount also is sent down the Ohio in barges to the lower Mississippi River. The spot value of bituminous coal varies from $0.80 to $1.60 per ton; the product of the Pacific coast mines, however, is from $3 to $5.

The output of the mines of the United States aggregates about two hundred and forty million long tons yearly, and this is about one-third of the world's product. For many years there has been an export trade to Canada, the West Indies, Central and South America, amounting in 1900 to 8,000,000 tons. Within a few years, however, the decreased cost of mining due to machinery, and the low rates of transportation to the seaboard has developed an export trade to Russia, Germany, and France.



A small amount of coal is imported into the United States. A superior quality of Australian coal finds a ready market in Pacific coast points as far north as San Francisco, and large quantities of Nanaimo, B.C., coal are sold in Oregon, Washington, and California. A small quantity of the "slack" or waste of the Nova Scotia mines is imported to Boston to be made into coke. The Canadian fields supply a considerable part of the coal used in Montana.

Coke and Coal-Tar Products.—In the manufacture of iron and steel a fuel having a high percentage of carbon free from volatile matter is essential. The great cost of wood charcoal forbids its use, and so a charcoal made from soft coal is used. Fat coal is heated in closed chambers until the volatile matter is driven off. The product is "coke"; the closed chamber is an "oven." The ovens are built of stone or fire-brick, in a long row. They are usually on an abrupt slope, so that the coal can be dumped into the top, while the coke can be withdrawn from the bottom, to be loaded into cars.

About three thousand one hundred and forty pounds of coal are required to make a short ton of coke; from three thousand to five thousand cubic feet of illuminating gas, together with varying amounts of coal-tar and ammonia, are driven off and generally wasted. In a few instances "scientific" ovens are in use for the purpose of saving these products; but in the coal-mining regions such devices are the exception and not the rule. The great waste of energy-products in the manufacture of coke is partly offset by the employment of refuse and slack, which could not be otherwise used.

There are more than five hundred and eighteen thousand coke-ovens in the United States, of which eighty per cent. are in use. Most of them are in the region about the upper Ohio River, and nearly half the total number is in the vicinity of Connellsville. The region around Birmingham, Ala., ranks next in number. The coke product of the United States is more than twenty million short tons a year. This is considerably less than the product of Great Britain, which is upward of twenty-five million tons.

Most of the "scientific" ovens are near or in large cities where the gas, after purification, is used for illuminating purposes. In some instances the coke, and not the gas, is a by-product. The coal-tar is used in part for fuel, but a portion of it goes to the chemical laboratory, where it is made to yield ammonia, benzine, carbolic acid, and aniline dyes to the value of nearly seven million dollars.

Graphite.—Graphite, plumbago, or "black lead," as it is popularly named, is found in many parts of the United States, but only a few localities produce a good commercial article; these are Ticonderoga, N.Y., which yields from six hundred to two thousand tons a year, and Chester County, Pa., which yields a small but increasing amount; a good quality is mined near Ottawa, Canada. It is extensively mined in Ceylon, and this island produces the chief bulk of the world's ordinary product. The finest grade comes from the Alibert mine in Siberia. A good article is manufactured artificially at Niagara Falls.

Graphite is used as a stove polish and for crucibles; in the main, however, it is employed in the manufacture of lead[41] pencils; for this purpose only a very soft mineral, absolutely free from grit, is employed, and the Siberian output is used almost wholly. One German firm and two American firms supply most of the pencils used.

Petroleum.—Petroleum is the name given to a natural liquid mineral from which the well-known illuminating oil "kerosene" is derived, and to obtain which it is mined. Petroleum is a mixture of various compounds known as hydrocarbons. Some of these compounds are gaseous, some are liquid, and some are solid; all of them are articles of commercial value. The petroleum from different localities differs greatly in appearance and composition.

The pitch that coated Noah's ark, the slime of the builders of the Tower of Babel, and the slime-pits of the Vale of Siddim all refer to mineral products associated with petroleum. Under the name of "naphtha" it has been known in Persia for thirty centuries, and for more than half as long a flowing oil spring has existed in the Ionian Islands. The Seneca Indians knew of a petroleum spring near the village of Cuba, N.Y., and used it as a medicine long before the advent of the white man.

As early as 1850 illuminating oil, known as "coal" oil, was made in the United States by distilling cannel coal, but this product was supplanted within a few years by the natural petroleum discovered in Pennsylvania. In 1859 Colonel Drake completed a well bored in solid rock near Titusville, Pa. The venture proved successful, and in a few years petroleum mining became one of the great industries of the United States.

Petroleum is known to exist in a great many parts of the world; the United States and Russia, however, produce practically all the commercial product; a very small amount is obtained from a horizon on the south slope of the Carpathian Mountains, situated in Rumania and Galicia, Austria-Hungary. There are also a few producing wells in Peru, Germany, Italy, Burma, Argentina, and Sumatra.



In the United States the largest horizon is that of the Appalachian region. Since 1859 it has produced more than forty million gallons of crude oil. The Lima, Ind., horizon produces about twenty million barrels. The California and Texas horizons have become very important factors. The crude petroleum is transported partly in tank cars, but mainly by means of long lines of pipe, flowing from one pumping station to another by gravity. There are pipe-line terminals on the Great Lakes and at Pittsburg, but the principal are at the refining and exporting stations in New York, Philadelphia, and on the Delaware River.

A considerable amount is exported to European countries to be there refined, but in the main the crude oil is refined before exporting it. Some of the refined oil is exported in barrels, and some in tin cases; the greater part, however, goes in tank steamers, and from these it is pumped into tank cars to be distributed. Most of the product is controlled by the Standard Oil Company, and it reaches nearly every country in the world. It is carried into Arctic regions on sledges, and over the African deserts by caravans. Great Britain, Germany, and the Netherlands are the chief purchasers and distributors. The value of the entire product is about one hundred and eighty-five million dollars.

The Russian oil-producing region is on and near the Apsheron peninsula, a small area of Trans-Caucasia, that extends into the Caspian Sea; the region is commonly known as the Baku field, and in 1900 the production of crude oil surpassed that of the United States. The petroleum is conveyed by pipe lines to the refineries at Baku. From this port it is shipped in tank cars by rail to Batum, whence it is conveyed to the various European markets. A considerable part of the product is sent by tank steamers to Astrakhan, and thence up the Volga to Russian markets. Great Britain takes about one-third; about the same amount is shipped to Port Said for China, India, and other Asian markets; the rest is consumed in central Europe.

Petroleum Products.—The various constituents of crude petroleum differ greatly in character, some being much more volatile than others. They are separated by distillation at different temperatures. By this process naphtha, rhigoline, gasoline, benzine, and other highly inflammable products are obtained in separate receivers. By a similar process the illuminating or refined oil and the lubricating oils are also separated. The residuum consists of a gummy mass from which paraffine and petroleum jelly are extracted.

Naphtha usually contains several volatile compounds, including benzine and gasoline. It is used as a solvent of grease and also of crude india-rubber, but chiefly the manufacture of illuminating gas.

Kerosene is the name commonly given to the refined oil. A good quality should have a fire test of not less than one hundred and fifty degrees; that is, when heated to that temperature, it should not give off any inflammable gas. This test is now mandatory in most States.

Lubricating oil is used almost wholly for the lubrication of heavy machinery. It varies greatly in composition and quality.

Paraffine or petroleum wax has largely superseded beeswax; it is used mainly in the manufacture of candles and as an insulator for electric wires. A native mineral paraffine, known as ozocerite, is mined in Utah and Galicia; it is used as an insulating material.

"Vaseline," "cosmoline," or petroleum "jelly" is very largely used in pharmacy as the basis of ointments and also as a lubricant for heavy machinery.

Asphalt is produced by the distillation of petroleum, but the greater part of the world's product comes from two "pitch lakes"—one in Bermudez, Venezuela, the other in the island of Trinidad, off the Venezuelan coast. The former is the larger and produces a superior quality. Small deposits occur near Los Angeles, Cal., and in Utah. The output of the Venezuelan asphalt is used almost wholly for street pavement.

Probably no other mineral has had a wider influence on both social and economic life, and the industrial arts, than petroleum and its compounds. The kerosene lamp, the aniline dye, the insulation of electric wires, the lubrication of machinery, the cosmetic, the india-rubber solution, and the physician's sedative dose represent only a few of the devices that are derived from petroleum.

Natural Gas.—A natural inflammable gas occurs in or near several of the petroleum horizons. One important belt extends through western Pennsylvania and New York, and another through northwestern Ohio and northeastern Indiana. It is conveyed through pipe-lines and used both as fuel and for lighting. Natural gas occurs in a great many localities, but is used commercially only in the regions noted. It is better adapted for making glass than any other fuel, and on this account extensive glass-making establishments have concentrated in the natural-gas belt of western Pennsylvania.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

The statement is sometimes made to the effect that coal is "condensed sunlight"; is it true, or untrue; and why?

Why are the coal areas of Europe and America also areas of various manufactures?

A recent cartoon had for its title—"John Bull and his coal piles (i.e., coaling stations) rule the world"; show why this statement contains a great deal of truth.

What are some of the advantages of steam-vessels over sailing-vessels?

Whale oil, crude turpentine, kerosene, and gas have been used each in turn for illuminants; what is the advantage of each over the preceding?

Describe the structure of an ordinary kerosene lamp-burner, an argand burner, a Welsbach burner.

For what are aniline, paraffine, naphtha, and carbolic acid used?

FOR STUDY AND REFERENCE

Obtain specimens of anthracite, bituminous, and cannel coal, and coke for comparison and study.

Obtain specimens of crude petroleum, naphtha, refined oil, aniline dye, paraffine, and carbolic acid; note the properties of each. Throw away the naphtha after using.

Read Mineral Resources of the United States on the foregoing subjects.



CHAPTER XIII

METALS OF THE ARTS AND SCIENCES

The development of modern civilization is directly connected with the mining and manufacture of the useful metals. Their effect on the affairs of mankind can be rightly understood only when they are studied in their relations to one another, as well as to the people who used them. Next to the discovery of the use of fire, an appreciation of the use of metals has been the chief thing to develop the intellect of mankind. When human beings discarded natural caves for artificially constructed dwellings—when they began to cook their food and clothe their bodies, they required tools. These, in the main, consisted of the spears and arrow-heads used as weapons of the chase, and the axes and knives used as constructive tools.

Rough stone gave place to flint because the latter would take a better edge. For the same reason the people of central Europe sent to the deserts of central Asia for jade wherewith to make axes and knives. Again, for the same reason, jade was discarded, because an alloy of copper and tin produced a bronze that would not only take a sharper edge than stone, but it was hard enough to cut and dress the latter. Egypt rose to a commanding position because of her control of the copper mines in the Sinaitic peninsula, and subsequently of the gold products coming from the upper Nile.

A meridian drawn through Cairo, Egypt, practically divides the world into two kinds of civilization. East of this meridian the population is almost wholly agricultural and, excepting Japan and India, the character of the civilization has changed but little in the past 2,000 years. West of the line the population is essentially characterized as metal-workers. It controls the world—not especially by virtue of a high degree of intellectual development, but because it has availed itself of the properties and characteristics of metals and their applications to commerce.

The four metals that have had the greatest influence on western civilization are gold, silver, iron, and copper. The discovery of gold and silver has always resulted in a rapid settlement of the regions in which the discoveries were made, and usually in the building of great industrial centres. Thus, the discovery of gold in California was the first step in making the United States a world power. The acquisition of so large an amount of gold caused an industrial expansion that hurried the Civil War, and led to the manufacture of iron and steel both for agricultural machinery and railroad transportation. This, in turn, brought the country so closely in touch with the affairs of China and Japan, that European and American diplomacy in eastern Asia are a common concern. The commercial position of Great Britain is very largely due to her iron mines.

The production of Bessemer steel at a price far less than that of iron at the beginning of the nineteenth century lowered the cost of transporting commodities to the extent that large areas, once of necessity very moderately productive of food-stuffs, are now densely peopled because food-stuffs can be transported to these regions more economically than they can be grown there. Thus, owing to the improvements in iron and steel manufacture, the farmer of Minnesota, the planter of Louisiana, the miner of Colorado, and the factory operative of Massachusetts have each the same comforts of living that are enjoyed by all the others, and have them at scarcely more than half the cost of fifty years ago.



The gradual decrease in the production of the silver mines near the present site of Ergasteria proved a beginning of the fall of Athens; and when gold was discovered in the Perim Mountains of Macedonia, the seat of Greek power moved thither. Philip of Macedon hoarded the treasure from the mines of Pangaeus, and with the capital thus acquired his son, Alexander the Great, conquered the East, implanted Hellenic business methods there, and drew the various trade routes between Europe and Asia under one control.

In the fifteenth century copper from the mines near Budapest and silver from the Schwarz Mountains of Germany were the resources that made Germanic Europe pre-eminent. The wresting of the trade in these two metals from Venice caused the rise of Antwerp and brought immense gains to Luebeck, London, Brussels, Augsburg, and Nuremberg. In the latter part of the nineteenth century copper again reached a high position of importance from the fact that upon it largely depends electric motive power and transportation.

Iron.—Iron is one of the most widely diffused of metals. It is abundant in the sun; meteorites contain from more than ten to eighty or ninety per cent. of it; all earths and rocks contain at least traces of it; and in various places the deposits of ore in nearly pure form aggregate cubic miles in extent.

In only a few localities is iron ore found in a metallic or "native" form. Many meteorites consist of metallic iron mixed with nickel and manganese, and in Greenland a volcanic dyke or ledge of metallic iron is known to exist. The iron of commerce is derived from "ores," or chemical compounds of iron and oxygen, or iron and carbon. The cheapness of the product depends upon the ease with which the ore may be quarried, transported to coal, and smelted. The following are the ores commonly employed in the production of iron:

Red hematite has a reddish metallic lustre and when pure contains seventy per cent. of iron.[42] It is the most abundant of the workable ores, and certainly the best for the manufacture of Bessemer steel. The ores of the Lake Superior region are mainly red hematite, and the latter constitutes more than four-fifths of the output of the United States.



Brown hematite, or limonite, has a chestnut brown color and contains very nearly sixty per cent. of iron[43]; it includes the "bog" ores, and is very abundant. Not far from one-quarter of the Appalachian ores are brown hematite; it constitutes about one-eighth of the output of the United States.

Magnetic iron ore, or magnetite, of which loadstone, a natural magnet, is an example, has a metallic, steel lustre and contains 72.4 per cent. of iron.[44] Most of the ores obtained in Pennsylvania and New York are magnetite. The magnetites furnish about one-sixteenth of the output of the United States.

Carbonate of Iron, or siderite, occurs in a few localities, the ore produced in Ohio being almost wholly of this kind. It contains when pure about forty-eight per cent. of iron.[45] It constitutes less than one per cent. of the output of the United States.

Iron pyrites, or sulphide of iron, sometimes called "fools' gold," is a very common mineral. It is used in the manufacture of sulphuric acid, but is worthless for the production of iron; indeed, the presence of a very small percentage of sulphur in iron renders the latter worthless for many purposes.

Extensive deposits of iron are known to exist in very nearly every country in the world, but those which can be advantageously worked are few in number. In order to be available, the deposits must be within easy transporting distance of the people who use it, and likewise within a short distance of the coal used to manufacture it.

For these reasons most of the workable deposits of ore are in or near the great centres of population in western Europe and the eastern part of the United States; as a matter of fact, practically all the iron and steel of the latter country is produced in the populous centres of the Atlantic slopes. In most great steel-making districts it is essential to mix the native ores with special ores brought from a distance, the latter being used to give strength and hardness to the resulting metal. Ores from Sweden, and from Juragua, Cuba, are employed for this purpose in the steel-making establishments of the United States.

In the past few years the United States has jumped from an insignificant position in the production of iron and steel to the first rank among the iron-producing countries. This great advance is due to the fortunate geographic position of the iron ore and the coal, and also to the discovery of the Bessemer process of making steel.

In general it is more economical to ship the ore to the coal than vice versa. The position of the steel-making plant is largely determined by the cost of moving the coke and ore, together with that of getting the steel to the place of use. Formerly, iron manufacture in the United States was not profitable unless the coal, ore, and limestone[46] were very near to one another.

These conditions still obtain in the southern Appalachian mineral fields; the ore and the coal are at no great distance apart, and a great iron-making industry, in which Birmingham and Bessemer form the principal centre, has grown into existence. For the greater part the coal is coked; and in this form less than a ton[47] is sufficient to make a ton of pig-iron. The smelteries and rolling-mills are built at places where the materials are most conveniently hauled.

In the past few years the iron and steel industry which formerly centred about the navigable waters at the head of the Ohio River, has undergone a readjustment. Rolling-mills and smelteries exist at Pittsburg and vicinity, and at Youngstown, New Castle, and other nearby localities, but greater steel-making plants have been built along the south shores of Lakes Michigan and Erie, all of which have come about because of reasons that are purely geographic.

Immense deposits of excellent hematite ore in the old mountain-ranges near Lake Superior have recently become available. For the greater part the ore is very easily quarried. In many instances it is taken out of the quarry or pit by steam-shovels which dump it into self-discharging hopper-cars. Thence the ore is carried on a down grade to the nearest shipping-port on the lake. There it is dumped into huge bunkers built at the docks, and from these it slides down chutes into the holds of the steam-barges. A 6,000-ton barge is loaded in less than two hours; a car is unloaded in a few seconds.



Water transportation is very cheap compared with railway transportation, even when the road is built and equipped as an ore-hauling road. The ore is therefore carried a distance varying from one thousand to one thousand five hundred miles for less than it could be loaded, on cars hauled one-tenth that distance by rail, and unloaded.



At the south shore of Lake Erie, the ore meets the coke from western Pennsylvania and coal from the Ohio coal-fields, and as a result new centres of iron and steel manufacture have grown up along this line of "least resistance." The ore is unloaded at the docks by means of mechanical scoops and shovels. So cheaply and quickly is it mined and transported that it is delivered to the smelteries at a cost varying from $1.75 to $3.25 per ton.



There are three forms in which iron is used—cast iron, wrought iron, and steel. Cast iron is crystalline and brittle. The product as it comes from the blast furnace is called pig-iron. In making such commodities as stoves, and articles that do not require great strength, the pig-iron is again melted and cast into moulds which give them the required shape. Cast iron contains from one to five per cent. of carbon.

Wrought iron is malleable, ductile, and very flexible; when pure it is also very soft. It is prepared by melting pig-iron in furnaces having such a shape that the molten metal can be stirred or "puddled" in contact with the air. By this means the carbon is burnt out, and while still at a white heat the pasty iron is kneaded or "wrought," in order to expel other impurities.

Steel is a form of iron which is thought to contain a chemical compound of iron with carbon. It is stronger than iron and finer in grain. Formerly, steel was made by packing bars of pure iron in charcoal powder, the whole being enclosed in clay retorts that were heated to whiteness for about three days. The product obtained by this method is known as cementation steel. It is still used in the manufacture of cutlery, tools, and fine machinery; it is likewise very expensive. In smelting certain ores it is easy to burn out the carbon in open furnaces, and "open-hearth" steel is an important factor.

Just about the beginning of the Civil War, when the railways of the United States were taxed beyond their capacity to carry the produce of the country, it became apparent that something more durable than iron must be used for rails. The locomotives, then weighing from twenty-five to thirty-five tons each, were too light to haul the freight offered the roads; they were also too heavy for the rails, which split at the ends and frayed at the edges.



The Bessemer process of making steel was the result of the demand for a better and a cheaper method. By this process, the iron is put into a "converter" along with certain Swedish or Cuban ores to give the product hardness. A hot blast is then forced into the converter which not only melts the mass but burns out the excess of carbon as well. The color of the flame indicates the moment when the conversion to steel is accomplished.

In 1860, before the establishment of the Bessemer process, steel commanded a price of about one hundred and twenty-five dollars per ton; at the beginning of the twentieth century steel billets were about eighteen dollars per ton. In western Europe and the United States there are used about three hundred pounds of iron and steel per capita; in South America the rate of consumption is about fifteen pounds; in Asia (Japan excepted) it is probably less than three pounds.

The economic results of low-priced steel are very far-reaching. Steam boilers of steel carry a pressure of more than two hundred and fifty pounds to each square inch of surface—about four times as great as in the iron boilers formerly used. Locomotives of eighty tons draw the fast passenger trains at a speed of sixty miles an hour. Ponderous compounding engines weighing one hundred and twenty tons haul ninety or more steel freight cars that carry each a load of 100,000 pounds. The iron rails formerly in use weighed about forty pounds per yard; now steel rails of one hundred pounds per yard are employed on most trunk lines.

In the large commercial buildings steel girders have entirely supplanted timber, while in nearly all modern buildings of more than six stories in height, the frame is constructed of Bessemer steel. Indeed, a steel-framed building of twenty-five stories has greater stability than a brick or stone building of six. Such a structure as the "Flatiron Building" in New York or the Masonic Temple in Chicago would have been impossible without Bessemer steel.

In ocean commerce cheap steel has worked even a greater revolution. In 1860, a vessel of 4,000 tons displacement was thought to be almost up to the limit. The Oceanic of the White Star Line has a displacement of about twenty-eight thousand five hundred tons. This is nearly equalled by the measurement of half a dozen other liners, and is exceeded by the freighters built by Mr. J.J. Hill for the China trade.



HISTORICAL

1619.—Iron works established on Falling Creek, Va.

1643.—First foundry in Massachusetts, at Lynn.

1658.—Blast furnace and forge at New Haven, Conn.

1679.—Father Hennepin discovers coal in Illinois.

1703.—Mordecai Lincoln, ancestor of Abraham Lincoln, establishes iron works at Scituate, Mass.

1717.—First bar iron exported from American Colonies to West Indies.

1728.—Steel made, Hebron, Ct.

1732.—Father of George Washington establishes furnace in Virginia.

1740.—First iron works in New York, near Hudson.

1750.—Bituminous coal mined in Virginia.

1766.—Anthracite coal discovered in Pennsylvania.

1770.—First rolling-mill in Colonies, Boonton, N.J.

1801-1803.—Lake Champlain iron district, New York, developed.

1812.—First rolling-mill at Pittsburg.

1828.—Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, first steam railway in the United States, begun.

1829.—"Stourbridge Lion," first locomotive in America, used in Delaware & Hudson Railway.

1830.—The T rail invented by Robert L. Stevens.

1830.—First American locomotive, "Tom Thumb," built by Peter Cooper at Baltimore.

1830.—Twenty-three miles of railway in the United States.

1844.—Lake Superior iron ores discovered by William Burt.

1850.—First shipment of Lake Superior ore, ten tons.

1857.—Iron industry founded in Chicago.

1862.—Phoenix wrought iron column, or girder, first made.

1864.—Bessemer steel first made in the United States.

1865.—First Bessemer steel rails in the United States rolled at Chicago.

1890.—First armor-plate made in the United States rolled at Bethlehem, Pa.

1890.—The United States surpasses Great Britain in production of pig-iron.

1900.—The United States leads in the production of open-hearth steel.

Gold.—Gold is one of the metals earliest to be mined. It is mentioned by the ancient profane as well as by sacred writers. Pictorial representations of fusing and working the metal are sculptured on early Egyptian tombs, and beautiful gold ornaments have been found that were made by the prehistoric peoples who once occupied ancient Etruria, in Italy. Columbus found gold ornaments in the possession of the aboriginal Americans. The Incas of Peru and the Aztecs of Mexico possessed large quantities of gold.



Gold is one of the most widely diffused of metals. Traces of it are found in practically all igneous and most sedimentary rocks. It occurs in sea-water, and quite frequently in beach-sands. Traces of it are also usually to be found in alluvial deposits and in the soils of most mountain-folds. In spite of its wide diffusion, however, all the gold that has been mined could be stored readily in the vaults of any large New York bank.

In all probability most of the gold now in use has been deposited by solution in quartz veins, the latter usually filling seams and crevices in granitic or volcanic rocks. Quartz veins seldom yield very great returns, but they furnish a steady supply of the metal. The rock must be mined, hoisted to the surface, and crushed. The gold is then dissolved by quicksilver (forming an amalgam from which the quicksilver is removed by heat), by potassium cyanide solution, or by chlorine solution.

In many instances the quartz veins have been broken and weathered by natural forces. In such cases the gold is usually carried off by swiftly running water and deposited in the channel lower down. In this way "placer" deposits of gold occur. Placer deposits are sometimes very rich, but they are quickly exhausted. The first gold discovered in California was placer gold.

Nearly all the gold mined in the United States has come from the western highlands. In 1900, Colorado, California, South Dakota (Black Hills), Montana, and Alaska yielded about seven-eighths of the entire product. The placer mines of Alaska are confined mainly to the beach-sands and the tributaries of Yukon River. Since 1849 the average annual yield of gold in the United States is about forty-three million dollars.

The Guinea coast of Africa, Australia, California, the Transvaal of South Africa, and Venezuela have each stood at the front in the production of gold. The aggregate annual production of the world has increased from one hundred and sixty million dollars in 1853 to more than three hundred million dollars in 1900.

A considerable part of the gold product is used in gilding picture-frames, book-titles, sign-letters, porcelain, and ornamental brass work. Practically, all of this is lost, and in the United States alone the loss aggregates about fifteen million dollars yearly. The abrasion and unavoidable wear of gold coin is another great source of loss.

An enormous amount is used in the manufacture of jewelry, most of which is used over and over again. By far the greater part, however, is used as a commercial medium of exchange—that is, as coin. For this purpose its employment is wellnigh universal; and indeed this has been its chief use since the beginning of written history. Gold coin of the United States is 900 fine, that is, 900 parts of every thousand is pure gold; gold coin of Great Britain is 916-2/3 fine. In each case a small amount of silver, or silver and copper, is added to give the coin the requisite hardness. The coining of gold, and also other metals, is a government monopoly in every civilized country.

The fiat value of gold throughout the commercial world is the equivalent of $20.6718 per troy ounce of fine metal; an eagle weighs, therefore, 2580 grains. The real value, however, is reckoned by a different and a more accurate standard, namely, the labor of man, and this, the sporadic finds of placer gold excepted, has not changed much in two thousand years or more. The increased production has scarcely equalled the demand for the metal; moreover, the longer a mine is worked the greater becomes the expense of its operation. Improved processes for the extraction of gold have not created any surplus of gold; indeed, the supply is not equal to the demand; and this fact keeps the metal practically at a fixed value.

Silver.—Silver is about as widely diffused as is gold, but it is more plentiful. It is found sparingly in most of the older rocks and also in sea-water. It was used by the Greeks for coinage more than eight hundred years before the Christian era, and was known to the Jewish people in very early times. According to the writer of the Book of Kings (1 Kings x. 21), "It was nothing accounted of in the days of Solomon," but Tacitus declares that in ancient Germany silver was even more valuable than gold. The mines of Laureion (Laurium) gave the Greek state of Attica its chief power, and the failure of the mines marked the beginning of Athenian decline.

Silver is rarely found in a metallic state. For the greater part it occurs combined with chlorine ("horn silver"), or with sulphur ("silver glance"), or in combination with antimony and sulphur ("ruby ore"). The ranges of the western highland region of the American continent yield most of the present supply. The mines of Colorado, Montana, Utah, and Idaho produce about six-sevenths of the yield in the United States, which in 1900 was 74,500,000 ounces. In Europe the Hartz Mountains have been famous for silver for several centuries.

About four-fifths of the silver bullion is used in the arts, most of it being manufactured into ornaments or into table-service called "plate." A considerable amount is used in photography, certain silver salts, especially the chloride and the bromide, changing color by exposure to the light. The remaining part of the silver output is made into coin.

The ratio of silver and gold has fluctuated much in the history of civilization. In the United States the value of an ounce of fine silver is fixed at $1.2929, thereby making the ratio 16 to 1. The silver dollars, 900 fine, were coined on this basis, weighing 412.5 grains. With the tremendous output of the silver mines between 1870 and 1880 the price of silver fell to such an extent that, in time, most countries limited the amount of coinage or demonetized it altogether. In the United States the purchase of silver bullion for coinage has been practically suspended, and the silver purchased is bought at the bullion value—about fifty cents per troy ounce in 1900. In Japan the ratio has been officially fixed at 32 to 1.

Copper.—Copper is probably the oldest metal known that has been used in making tools. An alloy of copper and tin, hard enough to cut and dress stone, succeeded the use of flint and jade, and its employment became so general as to give the name "bronze" to the age following that characterized by the use of stone implements.

Copper is very widely distributed. It occurs in quantities that pay for mining in pretty nearly every country in the world. The rise of Egypt as a commercial power was due to the fact that the Egyptians controlled the world's trade in that metal, and it is highly probable that the conquests of Cyprus at various times were chiefly for the possession of the copper mines of Mount Olympus.

At the present time there are several great centres of production which yield most of the metal used. These are the Rocky Mountain region, including Mexico; the Lake Superior region of the United States; the Andean region, including Chile, Peru, Argentina, and Bolivia; the Iberian region, consisting of Spain and Portugal; and the Hartz Mountain region of Germany. In 1900 they produced about four hundred and fifty thousand tons, of which two hundred and eighty thousand were mined in the United States.

Montana, the Lake Superior mines, and Arizona are the most productive regions of the United States, and the mines of these three localities yield more than half the world's product. Of these mines the Calumet and Hecla of the Lake Superior region is the most famous. It was discovered by Jesuit explorers about 1660, but was not worked until 1845. It is one of the most productive mines in the world, its yearly output averaging fifty million tons.

The export trade in copper is very important, amounting at the close of the past century to about one hundred and seventy thousand short tons. Of this amount, half goes to Germany (most of it through ports of the Netherlands), and one-fifth each to France and Great Britain. The market price to the consumer during the ten years closing the century averaged about sixteen cents per pound. Most of the product is exported from New York and Baltimore. The head-quarters of the great copper-mining companies of America are at Boston. The imports of raw ores and partly reduced ores called "regulus," come mainly from Mexico to New York and Baltimore, and from Mexico and Japan to Puget Sound ports. The most important American refineries are at New York and Baltimore.

A part of the copper is mixed with zinc to form brass, an alloy much used in light machinery. A considerable quantity is rolled into sheets to sheath building fronts and the iron hulls of vessels. By far the greater part, however, is drawn into wire for carrying electricity, and for this purpose it is surpassed by silver alone. The decrease in the price of copper in the past few years is due, not to a falling off in the demand, but to methods of reducing the ores and transporting the product more economically.

Aluminium.—Aluminium is the base of clay, this mineral being its oxide. It occurs in the various feldspars and feldspathic rocks, and in mica. The expense of extracting the metal from these minerals has been so great as to prohibit its commercial use. In 1870 there were probably less than twenty pounds of the metal in existence, and it was to be found only as a curiosity in the chemical laboratories. The discovery that the metal could be extracted cheaply from cryolite, a mineral with an aluminium base, obtained from Ivigtut, Greenland, led to a sparing use of the metal in the economic arts.

The chief step in the production of the metal dates from the time that the mineral bauxite, a hydroxide of aluminium and iron, was decomposed in the electric furnace. The process has been repeatedly improved, and under the patents covered by the Hall process the crude metal is now produced at a market price of about eighteen cents per pound. The entire production of the United States is controlled by the Pittsburg Reduction Company, which also manufactures much of the commercial product of England. The competitor of the Pittsburg Reduction Company is an establishment in Germany, near Bremen.

Aluminium does not corrode; it is easily rolled, drawn, or cast; and, bulk for bulk, it is less than one-third as heavy as copper. Because of these properties it has a great and constantly growing economic value. Because of its greater size, a pound of aluminium wire will carry a greater electric current than a pound of copper wire of the same length. It therefore has an increasing use as a conductor of electricity.

Bauxite, the mineral from which the metal is now chiefly extracted, is obtained in two localities. One extends through Georgia and Alabama; the other is in Arkansas.

Lead.—Lead is neither so abundant nor so widely diffused as iron, copper, and the precious metals, but the supply is fully equal to the demand. Lead ores, mainly galena or lead sulphide, occur abundantly in the Rocky Mountains, Colorado, Idaho, and Utah, producing more than half the total output of the United States. In these localities, in Mexico, and in the Andean states of South America it is used mainly in the smelting of silver ores.

Metallic lead is used largely in the manufacture of water-pipes, and for this purpose it must be very nearly pure. It is also rolled into sheets to be used as lining for water-tanks. The fact that the edges of sheet-lead and the ends of pipes may be readily joined with solder gives to lead a great part of its economic value. Alloyed with arsenic it is used in making shot; alloyed with antimony it forms type metal; alloyed with tin it forms pewter and solder.

The greater part, however, is manufactured into the carbonate or "white" lead that is used as a pigment, or paint. Red lead, an oxide, is a pigment; litharge, also an oxide, is used for glazing the cheaper kinds of pottery. About two hundred and thirty thousand tons of lead are produced in the United States and one-half as much is imported—mainly from Mexico and Canada. The linotype machines, now used in all large printing establishments, have increased the demand for lead.

Other Metals.—Most of the remaining economic metals occur in small quantities as compared with iron, copper, gold, and silver. Some of them, however, are highly important from the fact that in various industrial processes no substitutes for them are known.

Quicksilver, or mercury, is the only industrial metal that at ordinary temperatures is a liquid. It is the base of the substance calomel, a chloride, and corrosive sublimate, a dichloride, both of which are employed as medicines. It is essential in the manufacture of thermometers and barometers, but is used chiefly, however, as a solvent of gold, which it separates from the finely powdered ore by solution or amalgamation. Quicksilver occurs in the mineral cinnabar, a sulphide.

Nearly one-half the world's product comes from California. The New Almaden mines of Santa Clara County produce over five thousand flasks (each seventy-six and one-half pounds net); those of Napa County nearly nine thousand flasks; the mines of the whole State yield about twenty-six thousand flasks, valued at $1,200,000. Almaden, Spain, and Idria, Austria, produce nearly all the rest of the output. An average of about fifteen thousand flasks are exported from San Francisco, mainly to the mines of Mexico, and Central and South America.

Tin is about the only metal of industrial value whose ores are not found in paying quantities in the United States. Small quantities occur in San Bernardino County, Cal., and in the vicinity of Bering Strait, Alaska, but it is doubtful if either will ever pay for development. About three-fifths of the world's product comes from the Straits Settlements on the Malay Peninsula; the nearby islands of Banca and Billiton also yield a considerable quantity.

The mines of Cornwall, England, have been worked for two thousand years and were probably the source of the tin that made the "bronze age." The United States imports yearly about twenty million dollars worth of tin, about half of which comes from the Straits Settlements. This is used almost wholly for the manufacture of tin plate[48]—that is, sheet-iron coated with tin. Much of the block tin imported from Great Britain is returned there in the form of tin plate, being manufactured in the United States much more economically than in Europe.

Nickel occurs in New Caledonia, in Canada, and in the State of Missouri. It is used in the manufacture of small coins and for plating iron and steel. It is an essential in the metal known as "nickel steel" which is now generally used in armor-plate and propeller-shafts, about four per cent. of nickel being added to the steel. Most of the product used in the United States is imported from Canada.

Manganese, a metal resembling iron, occurs in Russia, Brazil, and Cuba, Russia producing about half the total output. It is used mainly to give hardness to steel. The propeller-blades of large steamships are usually made of manganese bronze. The building of war-ships in the United States during the past few years has led to the extensive use of manganese for armor-plate, and manganese ores to the amount of more than two hundred and fifty thousand tons were imported in 1900. More than one-half of this came from Russia; most of the remaining half from Brazil.

Zinc is abundant in nearly every part of the world. In the United States the best known mines are in the Galena-Joplin District, in Missouri and Kansas, which produce about two-thirds of the home product—mainly from the ore blende, a sulphide. There are also extensive zinc-mining operations in Illinois, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The lower Rhine District, Great Britain, and Silesia are the chief European sources. Sheet-zinc is found in nearly every dwelling in the United States, and zinc-coated or "galvanized" iron has become a domestic necessity. Zinc-white is extensively used as a pigment. About two hundred and fifty million pounds of crude zinc, or "spelter," are produced in the United States; forty-five million pounds were exported in 1900, mainly to Great Britain.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

What are the qualities that make iron the most valuable of metals?

In what ways does commerce depend on iron and steel?

What substances are used for food, clothing, or domestic purposes that are not manufactured by the aid of iron?

Ingot or billet steel is rated at about one cent per pound; the hair-springs of watches are worth several thousand dollars per pound; what makes the difference in their value?

What are the qualities that give to gold its value?

Would all the gold mined in the United States pay the national debt at the end of the Civil War?

What causes have led to the increasing price of copper during the past few years?

What is the market price each of copper, silver, steel rails, and aluminium to-day?

FOR STUDY AND REFERENCE

Obtain specimens of the following iron ores: Hematite, brown hematite, magnetite, carbonate, and pyrites. Note the color and physical appearance of each; scratch the first four with a very hard steel point and note the color of the streak.

Obtain specimens of pig-iron, cast iron, wrought iron, and cast steel; note carefully the fracture or "break" of each; how does cast iron differ from wrought iron?

Obtain specimens of the following copper ores: Malachite, azurite, chalcopyrite, and red oxide; wet a very small fragment with an acid and note the color when it is held in the flame of an alcohol lamp or a Bunsen burner; dissolve a crystal of blue vitriol (copper sulphate) in water and note what occurs if the end of a bright iron wire be dipped in the solution.

Name the various uses to which nickel, tin, lead, and aluminium are put.

Consult the chapters on these subjects in any cyclopaedia.



CHAPTER XIV

SUGAR AND ITS COMMERCE

The term sugar is applied rather loosely to a large number of substances characterized by the quality of sweetness. In a few instances the name is given to certain mineral salts, such as sugar of lead, but in the main the sugars are plant products very similar in chemical structure to the starches. They are very closely connected with plant growth, and even in animal life, starchy substances are changed to sugar in the process of digestion. Although sugar does not sustain life, it is necessary as an adjunct to other food-stuffs, and it is probably consumed by a greater number of people than any other food-stuffs except starch and water.

Three kinds of sugar are found in commerce, namely—cane-sugar, grape-sugar, and milk-sugar. Cane-sugar occurs in the sap of the sugar-cane, sorghum-cane, certain of the palms, and the juice of the beet. Grape-sugar is the sweet principle of most fruits and of honey. Sugar of milk occurs in milk, and in several kinds of nuts.

Sugar-Cane Sugar.—Cane-sugar is so called because until recently it was derived almost wholly from the sap of the sugar-cane (Saccharum officinarum). The plant belongs to the grass family and much resembles maize before the latter has matured. It is thought to be native to Asia, but it is now cultivated in nearly all tropical countries in the world.

Practically every moist tropical region in the world, the basins of the Kongo and Amazon Rivers excepted, is a cane-sugar-producing region. As a rule it is grown in the states under native rule for home consumption, and in European colonial possessions for commercial purposes. India and China are probably the foremost in the production of sugar-cane sugar, but the product is not exported. Cuba, Java, the Gulf coast of the United States, Mauritius, the Philippine and the Hawaiian Islands produce the most of the supply that enters into commerce.

Beet-Sugar.—During the last quarter of the nineteenth century the demands for sugar increased so greatly that it became necessary either to raise the price of the commodity, or else to utilize some plant other than the sugar-cane as a source. After a few years of experimental work it was found that sugar could be readily extracted from the juice of the common beet (Beta vulgaris). Several varieties of this plant have been improved and are now very largely cultivated for the purpose. Beet-sugar and cane-sugar are identical.

Almost all the beet-sugar of commerce comes from northwestern Europe; Germany leads with nearly one-third the world's product; France, Austria, and Russia follow, each producing about one-sixth. A small amount is produced in the United States—mainly in California and Michigan. The area of production, however, is increasing.

Other Cane-Sugars.—Maple-sugar is derived from the sap of several species of maple-trees occurring mainly in the northeastern United States and in Canada. The sap is obtained by tapping the trees in early spring, a single tree often yielding several gallons. The value of maple-sugar lies mainly in its pleasant flavor. It is used partly as a confection, but in the main as a sirup. A very large part of the maple-sirup and not a little of the sugar is artificial, consisting of ordinary sugar colored with caramel and flavored with an extract prepared from the maple-tree.

Sorghum-sugar is obtained from a cane known as Chinese grass, or Chinese millet. It has been introduced into the United States from southeastern Asia and Japan. The sorghum-cane grows well in the temperate zone, and its cultivation in the Mississippi Valley States has been successful. The sugar is not easily crystallizable, however, and it is usually made into table-sirup.

Maguey-sugar is derived from the sap of the maguey-plant (Agave Americana). It is much used in Mexico and the Central American states. The method of manufacture is very crude and the product is not exported. Palm-sugar is obtained from the sap of several species of palm growing in India and Africa.

Sugar Manufacture.—Sugar manufacture includes three processes—expressing the sap, evaporating, and refining. The first two are carried on at or near the plantations; the last is an affair requiring an immense capital and a most elaborately organized plant. The refining is done mainly in the great centres of population at places most convenient for transportation. The raw sugar may travel five or ten thousand miles to reach the refinery; the refined product rarely travels more than a thousand miles.

After it has been cut and stripped of its leaves the sugar-cane is crushed between powerful rollers in order to express the juice. The sugar-beet is rasped or ground to a pulp and then subjected to great pressure. The expressed juice contains about ten or twelve per cent. of sugar. In some factories the beet, or the cane, is cut into thin slices and thrown into water, the juice being extracted by the solvent properties of the latter. This is known as the "diffusion" process.

The juice is first strained or filtered under pressure in order to remove all foreign matter and similar impurities. It is then clarified by adding slacked lime, at the same time heating the liquid nearly to the boiling point and skimming off the impurities that rise to the surface. The purified juice is then boiled rapidly in vacuum pans until it is greatly concentrated.

When the proper degree of concentration is reached, the liquid is quickly run off into shallow pans, in which most of it immediately crystallizes. The crystalline portion forms the raw sugar of commerce; the remaining part is molasses. The whole mass is then shovelled into a centrifugal machine which in a few minutes separates the two products.

In purchasing raw sugar, the refiner was formerly at a loss to know just how much pure sugar could be made from a given weight of the raw sugar. In order to aid in making a correct determination, the Dutch government formerly prepared sixteen samples put up in glass flasks and sealed. These samples varied in color according to the amount of pure sugar contained. The pure solution was known in commerce as No. 16 Dutch standard, and this was generally taken all over the world as the standard of pure sugar. Within recent years the polariscope, an optical instrument that determines the percentage of sugar by means of polarized light, has largely replaced the Dutch standard.

The refineries, as a rule, are built with reference to a minimum handling and transportation of the raw product. The cane-sugar refineries are mainly at the great seaports, where the raw sugar does not pay railway transportation. The beet-sugar refineries are in the midst of the beet-growing districts. So nearly perfect and economically managed are these processes, that raw sugar imported from Europe or from the West Indies, at a cost of from two and a quarter to two and a half cents per pound, is refined and sold at retail at about five cents.

The margin of profit is so very close, however, that in the United States, as well as most European states, the sugar industry is protected by government enactments. In the United States imported raw sugar pays a tariff in order to protect the cane-sugar industry of the Gulf coast and the beet-sugar grower of the Western States. The duty at the close of the nineteenth century was about 1.66 cents per pound; or, if the sugar came from a foreign country paying a bounty on sugar exported, an additional countervailing duty equal to the bounty was also charged.

In the various states of western Europe the beet-sugar industry is governed by a cartel or agreement among the states, which makes the whole business a gigantic combination arrayed against the tropical sugar interests. In general, the government of each state pays a bounty on every pound of beet-sugar exported. The real effect of the export bounty is about the same as the imposition of a tax on the sugar purchased for consumption at home.

Two-thirds of the entire sugar product are made from the beet, at an average cost of about 2.5 cents a pound. In the tropical islands the yield of cane-sugar per acre is about double that of beet-sugar and it is produced for about five dollars less per ton. This difference is in part offset by the fact that the raw cane-sugar must pay transportation for a long distance to the place of consumption, and in part by the government bounties paid on the beet product.

Both the political and the economic effects of beet sugar-making have been far-reaching. In Germany the agricultural interests of the country have been completely reorganized. The uncertain profits of cereal food-stuffs have given place to the sure profits of beet-sugar cultivation, with the result that the income of the Germans has been enormously increased. In the other lowland countries of western Europe the venture has been equally successful. Even the Netherlands has profited by it.

In the case of Spain, the result of beet-sugar cultivation was disastrous. The price of cane-sugar in Cuba and the Philippine Islands fell to such a low point that the islands could not pay the taxes imposed by the mother country. Instead of lowering the taxes and adjusting affairs to the changed conditions, the Spaniards drove the islands into rebellion, and the latter finally resulted in war with the United States, and the loss of the colonies. Great Britain wisely adjusted her colonial affairs to the changed conditions, but the British colonies suffered greatly from beet-sugar competition.

Production and Consumption.—The production and consumption of sugar increased about sevenfold during the latter half of the nineteenth century, the increase being due very largely to the decreased price. Thus, in 1850, white (loaf) sugar was a luxury, retailing at about twenty cents per pound; in 1870 the wholesale price of pure granulated sugar was fourteen cents; in 1902 it was not quite five cents.

Although the tropical countries are greatly handicapped by the political legislation of the European states, they cannot supply the amount of sugar required, unless the area of production be greatly extended. It is also certain that without governmental protection, sugar growing in the temperate zone cannot compete with that of the tropical countries.

Of the eight million tons of sugar yearly consumed, two-thirds are beet-sugar. The annual consumption per capita is about ninety pounds in Great Britain, seventy pounds in the United States, and not far from thirty-five pounds in Germany and France. In Russia and the eastern European countries it is less than fifteen pounds.

Molasses.—The molasses of commerce is the uncrystallizable sugar that is left in the vacuum pans at the close of the process of evaporation. The molasses formerly known as "sugar house" is a filthy product that nowadays is scarcely used, except in the manufacture of rum. The color of molasses is due mainly to the presence of "caramel" or half-charred sugar; it cannot be wholly removed by any ordinary clarifying process.

Purified molasses is usually known as "sirup," and much of it is made by boiling a solution of raw sugar to the proper degree of concentration. A considerable part is made from the sap of the sorghum-cane, and probably a larger quantity consists of glucose solution colored with caramel. Maple-sirup, formerly a solution of maple-sugar, is now very largely made from raw cane-sugar clarified and artificially flavored.

Glucose.—Glucose, or grape-sugar, is the natural sugar of the grape and most small fruits. Honey is a nearly pure, concentrated solution of glucose. Grape-sugar has, roughly, about three-fifths the sweetening power of cane-sugar. Natural grape-sugar is too expensive for ordinary commercial use; the commercial product, on the other hand, is artificial, and is made mainly from cornstarch.

Glucose is employed in the cheaper kinds of confectionery in the United States; most of it, however, is exported to Great Britain, the annual product being worth about four million dollars. From the fact that it can be made more economically from corn than from any other grain, practically all the glucose is made in the United States.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

It frequently happens that the prices of sugar and tin-plate rise and fall together; show how the fruit-crop may cause this fluctuation.

Which of the possessions of the United States are adaptable for cane-sugar?—for beet-sugar?

In what ways has the manufacture of sugar brought about international complications?

What is meant by "Dutch Standard" tests?—by polariscope tests?

FOR REFERENCE AND STUDY

Obtain specimens of rock candy, granulated sugar, raw sugar, and caramel; observe each carefully with a magnifying glass and note the difference.

World's Sugar Production.



CHAPTER XV

FORESTS AND FOREST PRODUCTS

Outside the food-stuffs, probably no other material is more generally used by human beings than the products of the forests. More people are sheltered by wooden dwellings than by those of brick or stone, and more people are warmed by wood fires than by coal. Even in steam-making a considerable power is still produced by the use of wood for fuel.

Neither stone nor metal can wholly take the place of wood as a building material; indeed, for interior fittings, finishings, and furniture, no artificial substitute has yet been found that is acceptable. For such purposes it is carried to the interior of continents and transported across the oceans; and although the cost has enormously increased, the demand has scarcely fallen off.

Forest Areas.—The great belts of forests girdle the land surface of the earth. A zone of tropical forest forms a broad belt on each side of the equator, but mainly north of it. This forest includes most of the ornamental woods, such as mahogany, ebony, rosewood, sandal-wood, etc. It also includes the most useful teak as well as the rubber-tree and the cinchona. Another forest belt in the north temperate zone is situated mainly between the thirty-fifth and fiftieth parallels. It traverses middle and northern Europe and the northern United States.

This forest contains the various species of pine, cedar, and other conifers, the oaks, maples, elms, birches, etc. Most of the forests of western Europe have been greatly depleted, though those of Norway and Sweden are still productive. The forests of the United States, extending from Maine to Dakota, have been so wellnigh exhausted that by 1950 only a very little good lumber-making timber will be left.

The destruction of forests has been most wasteful. When a forest-covered region is settled, a large area is burnt off in order to clear the land for cultivation. In many instances the fires are never fully extinguished until the forest disappears. The timber of the United States has been depleted not only by frequent fires but in various other ways. The lumbermen take the best trees and these are cut into building-lumber. The railways follow the lumbermen, cutting out everything suitable for ties. The paper-makers vie with the tie-cutters, and what is left is the plunder of the charcoal-burner.

Forestry.—In most of Europe the care of the remaining forests is usually a government charge. Only a certain number of mature trees may be removed each year, and many are planted for each one removed—in the aggregate, several million each year. In the United States, where the value of the growing timber destroyed by fire each year nearly equals the national debt, not very much has been done to either check the ravage or to reforest the denuded areas. Many of the States, however, encourage tree-planting. In several, Arbor Day is a holiday provided by law.

The general Government has established timber preserves in several localities in the West. The State of New York has converted the whole Adirondack region into a great preserve. Forest wardens and guards are employed both to keep fires in check and to prevent the ravages of timber thieves; excepting the State preserves however, the means of prevention are inadequate for either purpose.



To be valuable for lumber of the best quality, a forest tree must be "clear"; that is, it must be free from knots at least fifteen feet from the ground. In the case of pines and cedars, the clear part of the trunk must have a greater length. To produce such conditions, the trees must grow thickly together, in order that the lower branches may not mature.

The growth of trees thus set is very slow. Isolated pine-trees will reach the size large enough for cutting in about fifty years, but the lumber will be practically worthless because of the knots. On the other hand, pine forests with the trees so thickly set as to make a clear, merchantable lumber require at least a century for maturity.[49] Oak forests require a much greater period.

As a rule, the forest growths of the United States are found in the areas characterized by sandy and gravelly soils. Thus, the glaciated region of the United States and Canada for the greater part is forest-covered. The sand barrens along the Atlantic coast usually are forest areas. The older bottom-lands of most rivers are often forest-covered, especially when their soil is coarse and sandy.

There are large areas, however, in both the United States and Europe, that are treeless. In some instances this condition, without doubt, resulted from the fires that annually burnt the grass. With the cessation of the prairie fires, forest growths have steadily increased.

In other instances these areas are treeless because the seeds of trees have never been planted there. The high plains at the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains are an example. This region is deficient in the moisture required to give young trees the vigorous start that will carry them to maturity. Moreover, the westerly winds and the streams of this region come from localities also deficient in forestry, and there are therefore no seeds to be carried.

As a rule, the distribution of forests is effected by the winds and by moving water. The prevailing westerly winds of the temperate zones have carried many species eastward and have extended the forest areas in that direction. Freshets, floods, and overflows have been even more active in carrying seeds, sprouts, and even trees into new territories. Waves and currents have likewise played a similar part. Wherever the soil of the region into which the species have been carried is moist and nutritious, the forest growth has usually extended.

The Pine Family.—The pine family includes the various species of pine, tamarack, spruce, hemlock, fir, juniper, larch, cypress, and cedar. A few members of the family thrive in the warmer parts of the temperate zone, but for the greater part they flourish between the fortieth and sixtieth parallels. Most of the species found in low latitudes are mountain-trees. They constitute the greater part of the American and Russian forests. The American pine forest is thought to be the largest in the world.

The white pine (Pinus strobus) is the most valuable member of the family. Its value is due in part to the fact that the wood is soft, clear, and easily worked, and in part to the accessibility of the forests. Not much inroad has yet been made upon the great Russian forest, owing to the fact that the timber is too far away from seaports and water transportation. Rough lumber becomes too expensive for use when transported by land, but it will stand the expense of shipment by water many miles.

The Georgia or long-leafed pine (Pinus palustris) is also commonly called pitch pine, turpentine pine, and southern pine; it grows chiefly along the south Atlantic coast and in the northern counties of Georgia. It is harder than white pine and makes excellent flooring.

The sugar pine (Pinus lambertiana) occurs mainly in Oregon and California. The grain is fine and soft and the trees reach a large girth.

The loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) has a considerably larger area than the Georgia pine, extending into Indian Territory. The short-leaf pine (Pinus echinata) occurs in small areas from New York to the Gulf of Mexico, and across to Missouri; it is the Chattahoochee pine of Florida. The pitch pine (Pinus rigida) occurs in various areas mainly north of the Ohio River and west of the prairies. The lumber cut annually from these pines aggregates about thirty billion feet.

The common white cedar (Chamaecyparis thyoides) occurs along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts nearly to the Mississippi. On account of its fine grain it is much used in cabinet work and as a finishing wood. Red cedar, probably a different species, occurs along the Atlantic coast. It is largely used in the manufacture of lead-pencils, and the forests are wellnigh exhausted.

The redwoods are confined to the California coast, mainly in the coast ranges, near the ocean. Ordinary redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) resembles red cedar, is soft, and very fine in grain, and shrinks but little in seasoning. It is a most valuable timber both for common and for ornamental use. It very frequently attains a diameter of five or six feet; the big tree sometimes exceeds sixteen feet in diameter and reaches a height of nearly four hundred feet.

Other Industrial Woods.—The oaks, like the pines, form a nearly continuous belt across the northern continents, lying mainly south of the pines; they do not extend much south of the thirtieth parallel. The white oak of the New England plateau and Canada commands a high price on account of its strength; a considerable quantity is exported.

The "quartering" of the lumber used in ornamental work is produced by sawing the logs, which have been split in quarters, so that the silver-grain shows on the faces of the boards. The bark of the oak is rich in tannic acid and it is much used in tanning leather. Cork oak (Quercus suber) grows mainly in Spain and Algeria.

Black walnut (Juglans nigra) grows in the river-bottoms of the Mississippi Valley and in Texas. The merchantable supply is not great, and the wood is therefore growing more valuable each year. Hickory is used where great strength is required, and also for various tool-handles. Maple is largely employed in making furniture. Ash is a very common wood for tool-handles.

Shade-Trees and Ornamental Woods.—A large number of trees are yearly transplanted, or else grown from seed, to be used as ornamental shade-trees. For this purpose the elm, maple, acacia ("locust"), linden ("lime"), catalpa, ash, horse-chestnut ("buckeye"), poplar, and willow are most common in ordinary temperate latitudes, both in Europe and America. In warmer latitudes the Australian eucalyptus ("red gum" and "blue gum"), magnolia, palmetto, laurel, arbutus, and tulip are common. The local trade in ornamental trees is very heavy; the trade is local for the reason that the transportation of them is very expensive.

Tropical Woods and Tree Products.—Many of the tropical woods are in demand on account of their beautiful appearance, and in many species this quality is combined with strength and hardness. Mahogany is obtained from Mexico and the Central American states, and also from the West Indies. The former is classed as "Honduras"; the latter is generally known as San Domingo mahogany and commands the highest price. Rosewood is obtained from Brazil, and is used almost exclusively in piano-cases. Both are cut into thin veneers, to be glued to a less expensive body.

Ebony is the heart of a species of persimmon obtained mainly in Ceylon and the East Indies. Very little of the so-called ebony is genuine, most of the ebony of commerce consisting of fine-grained hardwood, stained black. Jarrah, an Australian wood, is now very generally used for street-paving, and for this purpose it has no superior. Teak probably has no equal for strength and durability. It is not touched by the teredo and other marine worms.

Boxwood (Buxus balearica) is a high-growing tree, native to India, but growing best in the islands of the Mediterranean. The wood is very hard, of yellowish-brown color, and so fine in grain that it finds a ready market in nearly every part of the world. Probably the larger part is used by engravers. A large amount of the wood is also used in the manufacture of folding-rules, and in inlaying. Constantinople is the principal market, and nearly ten thousand tons of the selected wood are sold yearly.

Lignum vitae, or guaiac wood (Guaiacum officinale), grows profusely in the West Indies and along the Spanish Main. It is used both in medicine and in the arts. Shavings of the wood steeped in water were once considered a cure-all, hence the name. The wood is very hard, heavy, and is split with the greatest difficulty. It is therefore much employed in making mallet-heads, tool-handles, nine-pin balls, and pulley-blocks. In tropical countries it is employed for railway ties. West India ports are the chief markets, and the United States is the chief consumer.



Logwood is the wood of a tree (Haematoxylon campechianum) growing in Central America and the West Indies. The best quality comes from Campeche, and it is marketed mainly from Central American ports. It is almost universally used for dyeing the black of woollen and cotton textiles, and logwood blacks are the standard of color-prints.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

In what structures has timber been supplanted by iron and steel?

In what manufactured article has timber supplanted the use of rags?

When a pine forest is cut away, what kinds of timber are apt to come up in place of the pines?

In what manner does the railway draw upon the forests?—the paper-maker?—the farmer?—the tanner?—the beaver?—the teredo, or ship-worm?

From what country or countries do the following come: boxwood, rosewood, sandal-wood, cinchona, bog oak, jarrah?

FOR STUDY AND REFERENCE

Make a list of the forestry growing in the State in which you live; so far as possible, obtain a specimen of each wood, prepared so as to show square, oblique, split, and polished sections; for what purpose, if any, is each used?

Consult "Check-list of Forestry of the United States" (U.S. Department of Agriculture).



CHAPTER XVI

SEA PRODUCTS AND FURS

The world's fish-catch amounts probably to more than one-quarter of a billion dollars in value and employs upward of a million people; in the United States 200,000 are employed. In some localities, such as the oceanic islands, far distant from the grazing lands of the continents, the flesh of fish is about the only fresh meat obtainable. Even on the continents fish is more available and cheaper than beef. The fish-producing areas pay no taxes; they require no cultivation; moreover, they do not require to be purchased. In general, fish supplements beef as an article of food; it is not a substitute for the latter.

The whale-catch excepted, fish are generally caught in the shallow waters of the continental coasts. The fish, in great schools, resort to such localities at certain seasons, and the seasons in which they school is the fisherman's opportunity. For the greater part, such shallows and banks are spawning-places. Most of the fish, however, are caught off the Atlantic coasts of Europe and North America, these localities being nearest to the great centres of population.

Whales.—The whale is sought mainly in cold waters, and at the present time the chief whaling-grounds are in the vicinity of Point Barrow. In the first half of the nineteenth century whale-fishing was an industry involving hundreds of vessels and a large aggregate capital. The industry centred about New England seaports.