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and it is frequently found arranged in the interstices, andaround the fossilized stems and branches of plants. Rocksalt and brine springs are found in some districts, wherethe surface is covered with Permian rocks; but it isdoubtful whether some of the salt sources in these lattercases are derived from the Permian or the underlyingcarboniferous series.— D. T. A.]
7 Imperial G-oroblagodatsk Iron Works,Government of Perm.
Magnetic iron ore, from Blagodatsk mine—contains 73per cent, of iron ; the same, roasted.
[The metallurgy of iron is conducted on the largestscale at G-oroblagodatsk. The mountain thus named, andat a distance of three versts from which the smelting-worksof Konschwinsk have been erected, is a rock of amphibolicporphyry, in which we find injected an enormous quantityof the magnetic iron mineral, sufficiently rich to give 60per cent, of the metal. Other great deposits of iron areworked in the same district, and the product is mixedwith the Blagodatsk ores in order to render them morefusible. No less than 1,500,000 poods of iron mineralare annually treated in this particular district. Theestablishment at Kaminsk, one of those at which iron issmelted within the department of Ekaterinburg , is fedby the mines that furnish the oxide of hydrated iron, con-taining fragments of copper of the same metal. In thislocality hematite is also met with. The matrix ( gangue )is a primitive calcareous formation, accompanied withfine crystallizations of carbonated chalk, embedded in thecavities of specular iron. The ores of Kaminsk are fusible,and do not contain sulphurus pyrites. There are ex-tracted of these ores about 500,000 poods annually; buttheir yield does not exceed 30 per cent.]
Brown iron-stone, from Balakinsk mine—contains 52*60per cent, of iron ; and roasted.
Brown iron-stone, from Levinsk mine—contains 70*50per cent, of iron j and roasted.
Brown iron-stone, from Kedrovsk mine—contains 67*38per cent, of iron ; and roasted.
Brown iron-stone, from Nijne-Tourinsk mine—contains42*996 per cent, of iron > and roasted.
Limestone , used as a flux in smelting iron ores.
[The magnetic oxide of iron obtained from Blagodat,near Nijny Tagilsk (North Ural), occurs in large patcheson the summit and slope of a hill, and in a valley on thewestern side of the same hill (Yissokaya-gora). It is nowquarried in this valley: an enormous body of the ore,rudely bedded, and traversed by numerous joints, beingexposed by great works along a face which, including theuseless overlying materials, has a height of nearly 100 feet,and a length of several hundred feet. The origin of thisore is doubtful, but it appears to be harder, and morecrystalline than usual, in immediate contact with thegreenstone which contains it, and may thus be regardedas at least intimately connected with what is usuallyrecognised as igneous action.—D. T. A.]
[M. Erman has also published valuable notices of the loca-lities in which these mineral products are found, and of theprocesses used in smelting and reducing them: “ At
Nevansk, the ore is procured at a short distance fromthe furnaces, where a shining mass of red ironstoneappears just at the surface of a bed of clay, the colour ofwhich varies from green to yellow. This bed is cut by aseam of variegated limestone, running in the direction ofthe Grand Uralian range, and in contact, on either side,
with a somewhat loosely schistose serpentine.The
smelting-houses here obtain a supply of ore from Nijny
Tagilsk, also of a peculiar sort of magnetic ironstone. Ris distinguished by the remarkable crystalline structure ofits gneiss, which are agglomerated in irregular dodeca-hadrons of the diameter of 0*8 or 1*5 fines. It is under-stood to require a sharp roasting before it goes into thesmelting furnace, otherwise it collects into lumps withoutbeing reduced, and layers of unsplit pine-wood are usuallyintermixed with it when roasting. These layers are con-tinued, alternating about every 3 feet and a half with thelayers of ore which are 7 feet thick, until they reach aheight of 35 feet upon a surface of 2,500 square feet.A cruciform opening is left in the pile of wood for thepassage of air, and the entire is well secured with a strongframing of timber. Whole forests of timber are set apartfor this extravagant, and perhaps unnecessary, operation ;for the magnetic properties displayed by the iron afterthis process even prove that the oxidation can have been,after all, but imperfect. In the production of the ordinarycrude iron, the Tagilsk and Nevgansk ores are smeltedtogether with an admixture of sand and ferruginous clay;but Nevgansk is found to offer the best material for cannonand balls, as the magnetic ironstone of Tagilsk furnishesmetal too hard for such purposes. In this case, the crudeiron is smelted a second time with a portion of lime.”]
8 Imperial Kaminsk Iron Works, Governmentof Perm , district of Ekaterinburg .
Ore Melnikovsk (brown clay iron-stone), contains about50 per cent, of iron.
Ore Razgouliaevsk, contains 50 per cent, of iron.
Ore Novikovsk, contains 28 per cent, of iron.Limestone . Silica. Quicklime. Slags.
Hard cast-iron, used for casting, and for making wroughtiron by the French method.
Strong, or close-grained cast-iron, for heavy guns.
Soft grey cast-iron, used for casting shot and shells, andfor making wrought iron by the French method.
9 Imperial Kottssinsk Iron Works, Governmentof Perm■, district of Zlataoust.
Stone that resists the fire. Fire-brick.
Brown iron-stones, from Akhtensk mine ; and fromNijne-Kissegansk mine ; raw and roasted.
Slags from iron furnaces.
Cast-iron, used in the manufacture of shot and shells.
Prepared iron, for anvils. Fibrous iron, manufacturedby the French method. Large-grained wrought iron.
[The blowing machines for furnaces employed in theUral are all of them of the kind which is called a piston,and of simple contrivance. A shaft moved by hydraulicpower sets in motion an apparatus which alternately raisesand depresses some iron cranks, a lever of wood, or of cast-iron, suspended by its centre of gravity; to one of thesecranks is adapted a disc of solid iron, which at each descentof the crank expels the air enclosed in a cylinder of thesame metal, from whence it escapes (through a valveinserted near its base) to supply a reservoir fixed near themachine; from hence a pipe, terminating in an orifice of around or an elliptical form, and inserted into the main fur-nace through the air flue, serves to pour in the compressedair, which excites and animates the combustion. This sortof machine acts very efficiently, and does not often requirerepairing. The great furnace at Kaminsk is supplied withone of four cylinders, through which 2,880 cubical feet ofair per minute are compressed and poured into the reser-voir, as above described.
The motive power for these blowing machines and then’various apparatuses is, in the Ural works, exclusively by*