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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 1, 1889)
ilO THE WE8T SHORE. bet ahall enter Into the kiln noar the bottom and put upward through the stone, previously broken into small chunks, tbe top of the kiln being loft opon for lbs escape of tbe imoke and gas and to create a draft Tbe degree of beat required ii not specific, bat tbe more iutense tbe beat tbe quicker tbe pro cess of driving out tbe acid is completed, and it ia ebb-fly in tbe matter of a bettor application of tbe beat generate in tbe furnace that improvements bave been mads in tbe protest. Tbe primitive form of kiln, tbat most generally in nte by tbose operating on a small scale, it known at a " pot kiln." Tbit con tlitt of a well of masonry built np a few feet from tbe gronnd, witb an opening on one aide along tbe ground for a fire box. Tbe limestone it piled np in side tbe kiln, a small apace being left in tbe center, at tbe bottom, connecting witb tbe fire opening. A lire it maintained in tbe opening at tbe bottom, tbe beat passing np through tbe atone and gradually beating tbe whole mast. Wbon the acid bus all been expelled the fire is extinguished and the lime it taken out with long-bandied shovels through the ground owning. Tbit procM it very slow and burnt but a small quantity at a time. A decided improvement upon this it tbe stone kiln in general use until late yeart where lime waa burned on a larger scale than by thoae using pot kilns. In this there it a radical change in principle, m the kiln ia to arranged tbat the lire la never drawn, exeept to repsir tbe kilos, and tbe lime it drawn off gradually from the bottom at fast at calcined, an ninal quantity of rock being fed Into It from the lop at the aame time. There are four furnaoes, two rch on oppoeito tidet of the kiln, enuring it about four M above the bottom. In drawing line, all tbat occupying the space between the fire and tbe bottom ia taken out through an open Ing in the bottom. The kilo consists of a wall of masonry about twenty feet high and eighteen square support! ouUlds by Leavy oroa. timbers and having acjl.odrlcal t,c in the enter five M in diameter. Above tbU it a woulca crib the full tii of the kiln bio which the sWe U dumped, making the kiln self! Itun, 7 "ovemenb a this latter method have been mad which give a i0c Tl7fif,y "l tb Po larities of which ..II .rpw n the Ami,! of the wk. of U. Tm. A Rack. Hwbor IJB. Oa, the largnat enterprise of iU kinj in the we.1 When, about thirty year, the dispute about the ploo th. Har, J0M WmJ, , in' M 1 rue. strait, and ths Oulf of (WKi,U1Us, ia top, joint occupation, the government inquM lntothe urcceof tbe UW,, and found tb -mt FT! , T" of known WUt i. the entire , and by f.r tUU valuable on the Paoifio coast The largest and par. est of these is tbe one at Eoche harbor, on the ex. treme northwestern corner of San Joan island, the largest in the group, and from this ledge the English soldiers, who garrisoned the post not far away, made considerable lime. They used a pot kiln, such as has been described, and the lime produced, amounting to about fifty barrels in two weeks, the length of time it took to lay, burn and draw a kiln, was used at the barracks and by the numerous war and merchant vessels that entered the harbor, and much was sent to England in casks that had contained meat and liquors. After it was deoided that the islands be-' longed to the United States, tbe ledge was home steaded by a man named Buff, but no work was done on it till 1882, when two brother's named Scurr and three named Boss bought it and began the manufac ture of lime in a stone draw kiln, such as the one last described, operating as the Roche Harbor Lime Com pany, though not incorporated. Meanwhile lime was being made at other points on the islands in a small way, and San Juan lime acquired a great reputation in the markets of the northwest Lime was also be ing made in the Puyallup valley by the Tacoma Lime Company. In 1887 the Taooma & Roche Harbor Lime Company was organised, and the plants of both "The Tacoma Lime Company" and "The Rochs Harbor Lime Company " were purohased. The ener gy of the new company was concentrated at Roche harbor, where already a great amount of money hai been invested in creating an immense industry, which in its present stage of development is valued at fly. 000,000 00. The ledge is a solid mass of marble, ex tending across the neck of a peninsula formed by Roche harbor and Westcott bay, a distance of half a mile, having a width of eight hundred and fifty feet and a height above the water of three hundred and fifty feet, the average height being fully two hundred and fifty feet How far it extends below the water in any direction is not known, nor is information on that point very eagerly sought, as there is enough stone bote the water to laat for ages. Just think of itl Enough to make a monumental shaft for every man, woman and child in the United States. Here are half a .billion cubic feet of the pureat gray marble, or wnty billion pounds, capable of making three hun ared and fifty million barrels of lime, enough, at one thousand barrels per day, to last one thousand years. o wonder they do not worry much about how far the ledge extends under the water. In quality, the tone . .npprio, to My yet fa owe -Numerous assays of it have been made by nous persons and for varying purpo.es, the sa-n- !u ? from Wide!' Prt0M of lbe W and the results have all given as high as ninety.
