Scientific American Supplement, No. 401, September 8, 1883Various
Science
Scientific American Supplement, No. 401, September 8, 1883
Various
Science -- Periodicals
No systematic effort has been made to ascertain the quantity of
ozokerite in Utah. I saw a drift of some fourteen feet at one place, and
a shaft twenty-three feet deep at another. In this shaft, the vein was
about ten inches wide; and it could be traced along the slope of the
hill, for several hundred feet. The largest vein of pure ozokerite is
seen on Soldiers' Fork of Spanish Cañon, which enters Salt Lake Valley
near the town of Provo. This vein is very much like the ozokerite of
Austria, and contains between thirty and forty per cent. of white
ceresin (which resembles bleached beeswax), about thirty per cent. of
yellow ceresin (which resembles yellow wax), and twenty per cent. of
black petroleum; the residue is dirt. Dr. J. S. Newberry, of Columbia
College, and Prof. S. B. Newberry, of Cornell University, made
examinations of the ozokerite found in Utah; those who are interested
in the subject will find the papers published in the _Engineering and
Mining Journal_ for the year 1879.
A deposit of white ozokerite occurs on the top of the Apennine
Mountains, in Italy, of which a specimen is here exhibited. An
interesting story is told of its discovery. A church at Modena was
robbed; among other articles taken was a quantity of wax candles. A
short time afterward, a woman brought to a druggist a quantity of wax
and offered it for sale. The druggist bought it and afterward suspected
it consisted of the stolen candles melted down. Soon after ward she
brought another lot. He had her arrested. When questioned by the
magistrate, she said she found the wax in the clay on her farm, about
twenty miles from the city. This story confirmed him in the belief that
she had stolen the candles, or was the receiver of the stolen goods; for
such a thing as a deposit of wax in the soil was unheard of. She was
therefore remanded to jail. On three several days, she was brought
before the court, and, when questioned, told the same story. She was a
member of the church, and requested the priest to be sent for. He came,
and, after an interview between them, he said it was easy to disprove
her story, if it was a lie, by sending her home, in company with an
officer, to investigate. The court sent the priest, who was the only one
who believed her. On coming to her house, she took her pick and shovel,
and going to the place at the top of the hill, she dug out of the clay
a quantity of while ozokerite, proved her case, and was at once set at
liberty. She performed the same service for me, and I saw her dig the
specimen and heard her tell the story as I have told it to you. The hill
was composed of loose clay and stones. It appeared as if it had been
forced up by gas or some power from below the surface. The quantity that
could be gathered, by one person, laboring constantly for a week, was
only twenty-five or thirty pounds. An attempt had been made to sink a
shaft; but, at a depth of fourteen feet, the pressure of the clay was
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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