been
induced to turn their attention to these parts, or that our wealthy
Australian cousins have not paid us a visit. When once this new
industry is started up here,—and surely some one will be enterprizing
enough to try it soon, however slow they may be in getting results in
the Wynaad,—it will give a tremendous impetus to every branch of work
up here, and it would not be long before we had the train running up to
Coonoor, with or without the help 0f Government.—Cor., Madras Mail.
Gold in Ceylon.—Interest
in our quartz reefs will be revived by intelligence received from
England. Samples amounting to one-fourth of a ton of quartz from
Rangboda Estate in the Ramboda district has been found, on analyses by
the Assayer to the Bank of England, to contain as muc h as two ounces
of gold to the ton. A further large sample from the same locality is
now on its way home, and, if the test prove equally satisfactory, no
time will T>e lost in commencing mining operations. The enterprise
could not be begun under better auspices, and we have not the slightest
doubt that when capitalists realize the facilities of ready transport
and cheap reliable labour as well as of healthy climate which exist in
Ceylon, that not alone in respect of gold-mining will British Capital
once again begin freely to seek investment in the country. Our new
products—tea, cinchona, cocoa, rubbers, &c.—challenge attention on
all sides.
Mica.—A
German manufacturer of mica wares, Herr Raphael of Breslau, now makes
mica masks for the face, which are quite transparent, very light, and
affected neither by heat nor by acids. They afford good protection to
all workmen who are liable to be injured by heat, dust, or noxious
vapours, all workers with fire, metal and glass melters, stone masons,
&c. In all kinds of grinding and polishing work, the flying
fragments rebound from the arched mica plates of the mask without
injuring them. These plates are fixed in a metallic frame, which is
well isolated by means of asbestos, so as not to be attacked by heat or
acid. These masks allow the turning of the eyes in any
direction, and, as against mica spectacles, they afford the advantage
of protection to the whole face. In certain cases, the neck and
shoulders may also be guarded by a sheet of cloth impregnated with
fire-proof material, or by asbestos sheet, attached to the mask. The
interval between the mica and the eyes allows of workmen who have poor
eyesight wearing spectacles, and of workers with fire or in melting
operations wearing coloured glass spectacles under the mask, without
fear of breakage of the glass mica being such a bad conductor of heat.—Home Paper.
Test for Gold.—In the present great search for gold in Ceylon the following test, taken from the Public Opinion, will
be read with interest:—" There is a simple method for the detection of
gold in quartz, pyrites, &c, which is not generally described in
the mineralbgical text-books. It is an adaptation of the well-known
amalgamation process, and serves to detect very minute traces of gold.
Place the finely-powdered and roasted mineral in a test tube, add water
and a single drop of mercury: close the test tube with the thumb, and
shake thoroughly and for some time. Decant the water, add more and
decant repeatedly, thus washing the drop of mercury until it is
perfectly clean. The drop of mercury contains any gold that may have
been present. It is therefore placed in a small porcelain capsule and
heated until the mercury is volatilised, and the residue of gold is
left in the bottom of the capsule. This residue may be tested either by
dissolving in aqua regia and obtaining the purple of Cassius with
protochloride of tin, or by taking up with a fragment of moist filter
paper, and then fusing to a globule on charcoal in the blowpile flame.
It is being shown that gold is much more universally distributed than
was formerly supposed. It has recently been found in Fulton and
Saratoga counties, New York, where it occurs in pyrites. It has also
been discovered in the gravel of Chester Creek, at Lenni, Delaware
County, Pa. In one of the Virginia gold mines wonderful richness is
reported 160,000 dols. worth of pure gold having been taken from a
speck of three square feet."
