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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 1, 1889)
THE WEST SHORE. 411 eight per cent limestone, and moat of them still more than thai When Peter Kirk was here two years ago looking into the matter of establishing a great iron industry at some point on Paget sound, he secretly scoured a sample of the rock and sent it to England to be analyzed, for the purpose of ascertaining its Take for flaxiog purposes. He sabseqaently gave Mr. McMillin, the president, the following certificate: ANALYSIS OF ROCHE HARBOR LIMESTONE. February 29, 1888. Silica 0.44 Iron sod Alumina 1.13 rhonphorus 0.11 Carbonate of Lime 08.21 The above analysis hui been made by the Mow Bay Hema tite Iron A Steel Co., Ld., Workington, England. Yours truly, Fsteb Kirk. Repeated assays by the Paget Sound Iron Co., the Weathered & Dewey Iron Manufacturing Co., of Wheeling, W. Va., and by chem iits in Portland, Ban Francisco and other places, all give praotio ally the same result When it is known that the rock from which the famous " Marblehead " lime of Ohio is made has only eighty-two per cent of carbonate of lime in it, the purity of this marble is more fully realized. The stone contains no sulphur, and for flux is unsur passed, as it acts as a pure lime stone and requires the addition of nothing to counteract deleterious ingredients, as is often the case in flaxes used in smelting. This ledge is rery important to the smelting interests of this section, and will no doubt supply the greater por- tion of stone to bo used by the smelters to be built to work up the iron, gold, silver and copper ore of the northwest Heretofore the spawls-the technical name for the small chips broken off in quarrying and dressing stone hare been damped to one aide, but ia the improvements now being made are inoladod storage bunkers and a system of tracks by which Tea sels can be loaded from ears direct from the old damps, as well ss from the bunkers. Already much flax is being supplied to the smelters at Irondele, Washington, and Oswego, Oregon, and arrangement are being made to supply a Ban Francisoo company with fifty tons per dsy. When the new oompany took possession of the works, two years age, there were but two kilns, of the large stone pattern, which were turning out about eight thousand barrels a year, a small lime abed, a H'r v 'J HI i URAWINU AMD SARHKUXU manager's residenoe, three or four small buildings, and three log eabins for men. A systematic develop ment of the property was at once begun. A dock four hundred and fifty feet long, with a front of sixty-six feet, was constructed, the steel rails wore laid on a trestle leading from the quarry to the kilns, so that loaded cars could be sent from the quarry by the op eration of gravity, being pushod back by hand when their oontent had been dumped into the bins above the kilns. The quarry was opened more extensively and the construction of new kilns began. President McMillin made some radioal improvements at once. Previously the lime had not been weighed In barrel ing, and builders complained that they never could tell how much lime they wore gotting in a barrel He at onoe sot a platform scale into the floor near each kiln, and from that time every barrel of Roche bar bor lime baa oontained just two hundred pounds of first quality of lime, no more and no leas. Another improvement is the cooling rooep taole. In the old kilns the lime is drawn direct from the bottom of the kiln into an iron car, damped apon a atone floor and spread oat with shovels, whore it mast lie for an hour or more to oool, and is then shoveled up again into bar rels. He attached an iron recep tacle to the bottom of the new kilns, somewhat in the shape of an inverted cone, into whloh the lime settles and cools slowly, and from which it is drawn into a sheet-iron oar, which runs down a abort In cline to an iron chute. Undnr the chute Is fixed the scale, apon which the barrel is set, and the lime is thus run direct from the ear luto the barrel and weighod without any handling what ever. An improvement upon this has been made in the latest kilns constructed, as the iron chute is ex tended clear np to tba oooler, and the iron car is dis pensed with, the oooler being opened and closed by means of a lever operated from the lower end of the chute by the man who fills the barrels. Lt us fol. low a piece of marble from its long sleep in the heart of the mountain to the bold of tbs vessel which car ries it away as a pleoe of prime Roche harbor lime. The face of the quarry from which rock la now being taken Is one hundred and twenty-five feet high, and ths bottom is fully one handrejl fot above the water. Ry means of several diamond drills, operated by compressed air conducted in pipes from a steam compressor located at the northern end of the row of kilns, deep boles art drilled In the rock, men often
