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[graphic]
[blocks in formation]

Specimens of black lead from Cumberland, in the raw state, and as hardened for use.

[The Cumberland graphite is obtained from a large and very irregular vein cutting through the green slate and porphyry, and the mineral occurs in large lumps, found here and there expanding and thinning out with no apparent order. About 50 years ago one of the largest masses ever discovered was suddenly met with, and yielded about 70,000 lbs. of the purer kind of black lead. Since then there has been nothing found of any value. The mines are near the head of Borrowdale, the entrance being about 1,000 feet above the sea, and as much below the summit of the mountain.-D. T. A.]

BELL, JOHN, 25 Buckingham Place, Fitzroy
Square-Designer and Manufacturer.

Specimen of oolitic limestone, from the Oreton Bank Works, Stottesden, Cleobury Mortimer, Shropshire. Chiselled, sanded, grounded, and polished marble, adapted for columns, pedestals, &c.

A pair of obelisks in oolitic limestone.

[It is rarely that the oolites are sufficiently uniform in texture, and sufficiently hard, to take a good polish. Specimens, however, occur, chiefly from particular parts of the series, and in limited localities, which may be made ornamental, as in the case exhibited.-D. T. A.]

CLARK, GEORGE HOUSTOUN, Rotherhithe-
Agent.

Specimen of Devon Haytor granite, from the quarries of the Duke of Somerset, Haytor Rocks, South Devon. Blocks of the largest dimensions can be produced from these quarries. London Bridge, Fishmongers' Hall, the columns in George IV.'s Library, British Museum, part of Tothill Fields Prison, and the pillars to the gates of Christ's Hospital, are all of this granite.

Specimens of Bramley Fall stone, from the Fair Head quarries, Yorkshire, and from the quarries at Marshall Meadows, Berwick-on-Tweed.

WELSH SLATE COMPANY.

BARWIS, W. H. B., Secretary, 1 New Boswell Court. Rough block of slate from the quarry of the Welsh Slate Company, at Festiniog, Merionethshire. Slabs of slate, sawn and planed. Roofing and other slates.

[The slates of Festiniog are of admirable quality, and obtained in slabs of very large dimensions, adapted to all

the more important uses of the material. The quarries are extensive, and give employment to a large population.-D. T. A.]

BITUMINOUS SHALE COMPANY, 145 Upper Thames

Street, and Wareham, Dorset-Manufacturers and
Producers.

Specimen of bituminous shale, known as the Kimmeridge coal, obtained from the cliffs at Kimmeridge, in the isle of Purbeck, in the county of Dorset. The quarries were opened in August, 1849. It is a combination of bitumen with clay, and from it are obtained, by distillation, volatile mineral oil, grease, asphaltum, and manure, specimens of each of which are exhibited.

[Bituminous schists or shale are not confined to any peculiar geological or topographical limits, and are probably, in most cases, the result of the decomposition of large quantities of animal remains.

The Kimmeridge coal is of high specific gravity (1.319), of dark-brown colour, and without lustre; it effervesces slightly with acids, and burns readily with a yellowish, rather smoky, and heavy flame. It is a very local deposit.-D. T. A.]

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CARNEGIE, W. F. L., Kimblethmont, Arbroath, Scotland-Proprietor and Manufacturer. Flag-stones, rough and planed, from Leysmill Quarries, Forfarshire, and freestone from Border Quarries, the property of the exhibitor.

Flag-stone, rough and planed, from Lord Panmure's quarries at Carmyllie, and freestone from Lochee Quarries, belonging to the Harbour Commissioners of Dundee, of which the harbour and dock are constructed.

Flag-stone from Balgavies Quarries, belonging to Mr. Baxter, of Ellangowan. Flag-stone, rough and planed, from Balmashanner Quarries, belonging to Mr. Watson Carnegy, of Lowee.

Old red sandstone shale, or stone-clay, and brick and tile from the same, manufactured by the exhibitor. Flag-stone from Guynel Quarries, belonging to Mr. Previor.

All these flag-stones are generally exported from Arbroath, and are known as "Arbroath Pavement."

[OFFICIAL ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE.]

K

CLASS 1. Mining and Mineral Products.

SHARP, SAMUEL, Commercial Road, Lambeth, Agent to ALEXANDER ADAM, Wick, N. Britain Proprietor.

Rockhill paving stones, from the original quarries, shipped from the port of Wick, showing the different thicknesses as they naturally arise in the quarries.

TOWLER, EDWARD, Market Rasen.

Stones adapted for paving, walling, road-making, and polishing from Kirton Lindseys Tunnel Stone Works, containing 95 per cent. of carbonate of lime.

Blue lias and hydraulic cement.

FRANKLIN, PLIMEAS LEWIS, Galway,
Ireland-Proprietor.

Black

Block of black marble, with polished surface. marble columns for statues, from quarries on the banks of Lough Corrib, near Galway; used also for ornamental marble works, monuments, tombs, &c.

SINCLAIR, J., Forss, Thurso, Scotland-
Manufacturer.

A cistern or bath of Forss-Rockhill flag. Samples of the stone, showing the natural surface, the half-rubbed, and the full-rubbed surface. Three portions of a passage of twenty-four feet long by six feet broad each, laid with the same pavement, showing the three different kinds of surface.

The principal uses of the article are laying footways, courts, railway stations, floors of manufactories and warehouses, kitchens, cellars, cottages, entrance halls, churches, &c. When used with iron girders, it renders mills, &c., fireproof, and is useful for farm buildings, and for cisterns, baths, manure tanks, troughs in chemical works, coping, for garden walls, &c. The pavement is found at the ForssRockhill quarries, four miles west from Thurso, Caithness, and it is there manufactured chiefly by machinery. It is said to be of a hard, close, strong, and uniform quality, and impervious to wet. It occurs in beds of various thickness, from one inch to three or four inches, and from one foot to eighty or a hundred feet superficial. The stone has been worked for more than twelve years, and is sent in large quantities to London, Glasgow, and other towns.

[The Caithness flags are well known and much used for various economic purposes, chiefly paving. They are quarried from the middle division of the old red sandstone (Devonian) series, as developed in the north of Scotland. The schists yielding them are often dark coloured and highly bituminous, slightly micaceous and calcareous, and often resembling rocks of much greater geological antiquity. Obscure vegetable impressions, and the remains of extinct fishes, are very frequently found in them, and these are often of considerable interest in the natural history of the ancient inhabitants of our globe.— D. T. A.]

HAYWOOD, JONAS, Ardsley, near Barnsley-
Producer.

Grindstones from the Ardsley Oaks Quarry, Barnsley, used principally in Lancashire and Yorkshire, for the grinding of machinery, files, edge tools, needles, &c., and for building purposes.

DOVE, DUGALD, Nitshill, Hurlet, near Glasgow
-Producer.

Freestone block, from Nitshill quarry. Grindstone from the same quarry, three feet in diameter by six inches thick.

[The sandstones and greenstones of Nitshill are chiefly or entirely of the carboniferous period, and include several kinds of various degrees of excellence.-D. T. A.]

RAYNES, LUPTON, & Co., Liverpool-
Producers.

Specimens of pure limestone, from Pentregwyddel quarries, near Abergele, Denbighshire; used in the rough state, in chemical manufactures, and as building cement

(lime); and in the manufactured state, as a lithographie stone, &c.

Specimens of stone, from Graig-lwyd quarries (PenmaenMawr, Carnarvonshire), cut into paving, channel, and kerb-stones, and arranged in a frame as they would appear in a street pavement; and shown in a block, used as wheelers, or tram-road stones, channels, &c.

[The stone from Penmaen-mawr, here exhibited, is an extremely hard compact rock of igneous origin, admirably adapted, from its toughness, for all kinds of paving purposes. It is much used in the neighbourhood of Liverpool, and is also exported largely.-D. T. A.]

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Place, Clifton.

Fine-grained crystalline calcareous conglomerate, found near Durham Down.

Indurated red sandstone with cale spar.
Re-cemented magnesian conglomerate, from Clevedon,
Somerset.

Mills, below Bristol.
Conglomerate with quartz, limestone, &c., from Sea

Conglomerates from Clifton, Bristol; and from the tunnel of the Bristol Waterworks, Harptree, Somerset. Silicious conglomerate with jaspery iron-stone, from Brandon Hill, Bristol.

Conglomerate, from the Mendip Hills.

Gypsum (sulphate of lime), from Windford, Somerset. Coal Measures.

Pennant sandstones, from the middle part of the coal series.

Fine silicious grit (millstone grit, or miner's "farewell rock"), from Bristol.

Carboniferous or Mountain Limestone. Series of limestones and marbles from the defile of the river Avon, Clifton, Bristol.

Old Red Sandstone, Silurian, &c.

Old red sandstone, from the banks of the Avon, below Bristol.

Grey sandstone, from Tortworth, Gloucestershire. Red silicious conglomerate, from Markham Bottom, near Bristol.

Transition limestone and sandstone, from Tortworth and Charfield, Gloucesterhire.

Amygdaloidal trap rock, from Damory, Gloucester

shire.

Samples of the brick and pottery clays, with specimens of the manufacture.

Samples of sands, used for commercial purposes, and of the deposit from which the "Bath scouring brick" is made. This brick is manufactured by Messrs. Ford & Son, Bridgewater.

Samples of ochre, reddle (oxide of iron), fullers' earth, &c.

Samples of strontian, massive and fibrous; gypsum, massive and fibrous; barytes (sulphate of); lime, white and the brown, or hydraulic.

Iron ores-hæmatite, compact, silicious, stalactitic, reniform, &c.

CLASS 1. Mining and Mineral Products.

Ores of zinc: Blende (sulphuret); calamine (carbonate). Ores of lead: Galena (sulphuret); white lead ore (carbonate).

Phosphate and muriate of lead. Manganese ore (black antimony ore, sulphuret).

Specimens of quartz crystals (Bristol diamonds); crystals of calc spar; geodes (locally, potato-stones), containing various crystals, agates, &c.

Series of the various seams of coal, worked in the Bristol coal basin, showing the cleavage, fracture, &c.

[This series of rocks, illustrating the economic geology

of the Bristol district, is of considerable interest, as showing a large succession of beds, and the result, in some measure, of their close association at the surface. Of the substances used economically, the sands for Bath bricks, ochres, quartz crystals, and geodes, are worthy of notice. Of the ochres, the red and yellow are found in considerable quantities and of very good quality. They are friable, and stain the finger. The red is of deep colour, between crimson and purple, and of strong body; the yellow of fine gold colour. They are dry and mix well. The Bristol diamonds are clear quartz crystals, chiefly found near Clifton.-D. T. A.]

NICHOLLS, JOHN, Trekenning, St. Colomb-
Proprietor.

Block of porphyry or elvan stone, raised near Newquay, Cornwall; it is said to resist the action of the weather.

NICHOLSON, Sir A. N., Fetlar, Zetland.

Chromate of iron and clays.

[The chromate of iron is chiefly used in the production of chromate of potash, the ore being cleaned, pounded, calcined with a certain proportion of nitre, and evaporated after lixiviation with water. From the neutral chromate thus obtained, or the bichromate, are produced chromate of lead (chrome yellow); a green oxide used as an enamel colour in porcelain (chrome green); and a beautiful vermilion (subchromate of lead). Chromic acid is also manufactured from the same mineral. Chromate of iron is

obtained in England principally from the Shetland Islands. —D. T. A.]

NIXON, JOHN, & Co., Cardiff-Producers. Merthyr and Cardiff steam coal, obtained from the Werfa colliery near Aberdare and Merthyr Tydvil. This coal is used for steam purposes, more especially for steamships going long voyages. Its weight is 82-29 lbs. per cubic foot; its specific gravity 1.31. It is said to produce very little smoke. The following is the analysis of this coal as given in the Second Report of the Commissioners (Sir H. de la Beche and Dr. Lyon Playfair) appointed by Government to test the coals suited to the Steam Navy:Carbon Hydrogen.

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Nitrogen, with traces of sulphur
Oxygen.
Ash.

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90.27

4.12

1.83

2.53 1.25

100.00

[blocks in formation]

water for domestic purposes, a self-supplying filter is attached, so that the water withdrawn at the tap passes through the filter.

Specimen of Davey's patent ridge slate.

Slate slab, used for flooring, landings, cisterns, &c.
Roofing slates.

[The magnificent quarries of Delabole have been opened for at least three centuries, and have supplied a large

quantity of excellent slate. They are worked in the Devonian slates, near Tintagel, where they are chiefly shipped.

The quality is good, combining lightness with strength, and resisting exposure perfectly.

slabs for various purposes.—D. T. A.] This slate is used not only for roofing, but also in large

PAINE, JOHN M., Farnham-Producer. Phosphoric fossils and marls from the upper greensand, the gault, and the upper part of the lower greensand formations. These fossils are stated to contain as high a percentage of phosphate of lime, as ordinary bones; and they have been proved to be useful in fertilizing land. the agency of sulphuric acid. They are easily converted into superphosphate of lime, by The clean fossils contain from 50 to 70 per cent. of bone-earth phosphate; the green marl (without fossils) contains from 4 to 15 per cent. The substances found are characterized by the almost total absence of carbonic acid, and are, therefore, the more valuable as a material for forming superphosphate of lime. These phosphoric fossils are to be found in greater or less quantities at the bottom of the chalk range of hills throughout England. The fossils and marls are chiefly dug from the lands of the exhibitor at Farnham, in Surrey.

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Transverse section of pocket of hops of the choicest the "upper greensand." Golding" variety, grown upon the phosphoric marl of

Entire pocket of the same as prepared for sale.

[The concretions of phosphate of lime, which were Farnham, in a state well adapted for economic use, and discovered by Mr. Paine in the cretaceous rocks near which were much employed for agricultural purposes, appear to exist in two or three bands in the upper greensand and gault, not extending into the true lower green. sand. The concretions are occasionally formed about an organic centre, and appear to be instances of segregations of a mineral substance at one time generally distributed in a bed while being deposited at the bottom of a sea. The

phosphoritic nodules are everywhere found with green earth.-D. T. A.]

PHILLIPS, WILLIAM, Morley Works, near Plympton
-Producer and Proprietor.

Works, Devon, in which the felspar is in a decomposed 1. Specimen of disintegrated granite from Morley state, pure, and in a large proportion, compared with the quartz, schorl, and mica.

2 and 3. Prepared china clay, or decomposed felspar, the result of washing; used chiefly in porcelain, fine and common pottery, calico-dressing, and paper-making. 4. Specimen of clay for fire-bricks and crucibles. 5. Plymouth porcelain, made by Cookworthy, the discoverer of china clay in this country.

6 and 7. Porcelain made from Morley clay.

8 and 9. Pottery from this clay, made of 80 per cent. of clay, with flint and china-stone.

[A large quantity of china clay is found on the south side of the Dartmoor granite, the quality of the clay being excellent, and the position exceedingly favourable for the supply of the Staffordshire potteries by railway carriage. The china clay of Devonshire possesses much interest, not only by its excellent quality, but also as the material from which Mr. Cookworthy, the first manufacturer of porcelain in England, probably obtained his material. The process of purifying china clay is at present

CLASS 1. Mining and Mineral Products.

simply mechanical, but is capable of much improvement, and the coarse parts of the clay are well adapted to the manufacture of brick of various kinds. The china clay is obtained from the decomposition of particular varieties of granite.-D. T. A.]

POWELL, WILLIAM JOHN, Tisbury, near Hindon,
Wilts-Producer.

Varieties of hard and soft building stone, from Tisbury. The hard from Chicksgrove quarry, 20 feet below the surface, forming part of the Portland bed. The soft from Tuckermill quarry, 5 feet deep. The hard is

10 and 11. Pottery of ordinary manufacture, with used for steps, pavements, tablets, monuments, &c. The small proportions of china clay, flint, and stone. 12 and 13. Bricks made from clay.

14, 15, and 16. Pottery and china, illustrative of the application and uses of this china clay, which has a larger proportion of alumina than other china clays, and is free from metallic oxides.

[The china clay and china stone used in the manufacture of the finer kinds of porcelain are chiefly obtained from decomposed granite; the felspar of the granite, under certain circumstances, yielding to the action of the weather, and parting with its alkaline earths, and the harder, heavier, and coarser parts of the granite removed by mechanical washing, either naturally or artificially. The purified material thus obtained is called kaolin, its specific gravity is from 2.21 to 2:26. Some of the finer kinds contain, when boiled for a short time in a solution of potash, about equal parts of silica and alumina, upwards of 10 per cent. water, and from 2 to 10 per cent. of free silica, the mineral being therefore represented by the formula A: S:2 Aq.

The formula for felspar is 3 A: Si3+K: Si3, the potash being often replaced by soda, and the nature of the change may thus be understood. The best china clay in England is obtained from Cornwall and Devonshire.-D. T. A.]

OAKELEY, EDWARD, Coed Talon, near Mold,
Flintshire, Wales.

Steam-coal from Coed Talon and Leeswood collieries, near Mold, North Wales.

[This noble column of coal, said to weigh 16 tons, is from the main coal of the Flintshire coal-field, a seam nine feet thick, accompanied by five other beds of coal and four beds of ironstone. The quality of the coal is bituminous, and the proportion of ash less than 3 per cent. The Flintshire coal-field is a narrow strip, partly covered with new red sandstone, and extends 40 miles from north to south, with an ascertained breadth of from two to 12 miles, being cut off by a north and south fault. The mines supplying the specimen extend over 1,300 acres, and were opened about 30 years ago. About 2,000 tons of coal per week are raised from them.-D. T. A.]

SHIPPARD, THOMAS, Wareham-Proprietor. Potter's, and pipe or brown clay, from Carey pits, with ware and tobacco pipes made from them; also silicious sand, for the manufacture of glass.

PIKE, WILLIAM & JOHN, Wareham-Pro

ducers.

Potter's or blue clay, from the island of Purbeck, Dorsetshire, used in the British potteries.

Stoneware clay, used in the London and Bristol potteries for the manufacture of stoneware and drain pipes. Pipe clay, for the manufacture of tobacco pipes. Alum clay, for the manufacture of alum.

[A considerable quantity of clay fit for ordinary potters' work, and for the manufacture of tobacco-pipes, besides some alum schist, is obtained in the small peninsula called the isle of Purbeck, on the Dorsetshire coast. This little tract of land contains a curious series of cretaceous, Wealden, and oolitic deposits; among the latter is the Kimmeridge coal elsewhere described, and above the whole series are clays of the Hampshire basin, in the manufacture of which the coal is used. These plastic clays belong to the lowest tertiary deposits.-D. T. A.]

soft, for fronts of houses, cornices, and general building purposes. Both are adapted for resisting the influence of the weather.

Geological specimens:-A species of coral, from the sand of the upper oolite formation at Tisbury, found in a vein extending northward, and now converted into flint and chert. The hardest flints were originally manufac tured into gun flints.

A fish from the oolite formation at Tisbury. Specimen of part of a fossil tree from Tisbury, found in an excellent state of preservation in the oolite formation.

[The town of Tisbury is on the Portland stone; but the lower beds of the Purbeck series, as well as the uppermost oolites, are quarried in the neighbourhood. A continuous bed of flint, about two inches thick, is seen in one of the quarries, and from this band are obtained beautiful specimens of coral in chalcedony. Some of the oolite of the neighbourhood is very fine grained.— D. T. A.]

ROUND, D. G., Hange Colliery, Tipton, near Birmingham-Producer and Proprietor. Specimens of iron ore.

Specimen of coal from the thirty feet, or thick coal seam of South Staffordshire, cut out of the solid coal. This specimen is of the largest dimensions that could be brought out of the mine up a seven-feet circular shaft. It measures eighteen feet in circumference, and weighs five tons.

The rope used in lifting it, is also exhibited; it was manufactured by Mr. Wm. A. Chubb, of Woodpark, Devonport.

The chains used in sending the coal out of the mine are shown in connexion with the rope; the block was raised by means of the ordinary machinery employed in the colliery. The picks used in hewing the coal.

[The thick coal seam of Staffordshire, of which a complete section is given by the exhibitors, and of which also a fine block weighing 5 tons is shown by Mr. Round, does of the accidental junction of several seams with very thin not extend over a very large area, consisting, in fact, and carbonaceous bands. The whole are necessarily worked together, and below them are no less than eight other seams (one of them 9 feet thick) worked near Wolverhampton. The district yields much ironstone, and the coal is being rapidly abstracted, being used to an enormous extent for manufacturing purposes and iron smelting in the neighbourhood of Birmingham.-D. T. A.]

JAMES & AUBREY, Swansea-Producers.

A large block of anthracite, or stone coal, from Cwmllynfell, in the Swansea valley.

[The great South-Welsh coal-field includes, at a moderate estimate, as much as 1,000 square miles of country, unequally divided between bituminous coal and anthracite, the dividing line being nearly coincident with the Neath Valley, and the anthracite portion extending to the west. The anthracite has only recently been introduced into use, but is now recognised as a very important material, the different kinds being of great value for special purposes, and yielding sometimes as much as 92 per cent. of carbon. The pure Welsh anthracite has been found to evaporate 10 lb. 84 oz. water, by one pound of coal, the best bituminous coal not evaporating more than 8 lbs. There is no reason to suppose any difference in

CLASS 1. Mining and Mineral Products.

geological age between the bituminous and anthracite adapted for use in kilns, in the manufacture of malt, and coals.-D. T. A.] in drying corn. It is also adapted for use in close stoves, bakehouses, and wherever charcoal is used for heating or cooking, as it burns without smoke or soot. The seam from which the block is taken is 4 feet 6 inches thick.

INCE HALL COAL & CANNEL COMPANY, Wigan

Proprietors.

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Specific gravity of.

gas

6.20

Coke per ton produced 13 cwt. 18 lbs. Specimens of the Arley and Pemberton coal, sent by the same exhibitors, will be found in the south enclosure, beyond the western extremity of the building.

[The Wigan coal-field is a portion of that known as the Lancashire and Cheshire, or Manchester, great coal-field, which ranges nearly fifty miles in length, with a breadth of ten miles on an average. The productive coal area is thus nearly 400,000 acres, and is divided into three principal portions, of which the middle one includes the thick coal seams, and these are worked in various places, Wigan being not the least important. The principal coals are a good caking coal (Arley main) and a very valuable bed of cannel; the former well adapted for domestic purposes, the latter yielding a large quantity of gas.

The total thickness of the carboniferous deposits is very considerable; but the number of seams of coal is large, and the thickness of many of them considerable.

The cannel is of fine quality, and takes a high polish, as seen in some of the specimens exhibited.-D. T. A.]

CAMERON'S COALBROOK STEAM COAL and SWANSEA and LOUGHOR RAILWAY COMPANY, 2 Moorgate Street.

Specimen of steam coal (of a quality intermediate between bituminous coal and anthracite), from the mines near Loughor, in the county of Glamorgan, South Wales, which have been worked about eight years. It is exported from the ports of Swansea and Llanelly in the Bristol Channel.

BARROW, RICHARD, Staveley Works, near

Chesterfield, Derbyshire.

Coal, from the mines at Staveley, in the county of Derby, which belong to the Duke of Devonshire. This block of coal, 17 ft. 6 in. long, 6 ft. wide and 4 ft. thick, was raised from a shaft 459 feet deep. The coal is 6 ft. thick, and is valued for its cohesive strength and power of combustion, being in general use for steam-boats.

Three small pieces of coal, cut with a saw, from the same mine, intended to exhibit its utility as ballast, or for stowage in steam ships going long voyages. extensively used in the manufacture of iron.

It is

[A gigantic specimen of this coal is placed outside the Exhibition Building. The southern part of the great central coal-field of South Yorkshire and the adjoining counties of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, is now much worked, and contains several valuable beds of coal, and rapidly entering into general use. The pits are from 300 to 500 feet deep.-D. T. A.]

JONES, SELLS, & Co., 55 Bankside, Southwark
-Agents for the Proprietors.

A block and pieces of anthracite from the Gwaun Cae Gurwen Colliery, near Llanelly, South Wales; particularly

PROTHERO & PRICE, Tillery, Newport, Monmouthshire.

Coal; a block weighing three tons.

DAVIS, DAVID, Hirwain, near Merthyr Tydvil,
Wales-Proprietor.

The Blaengwawr steam-coal, from Aberdare.

FITZWILLIAM, Earl CHARLES WILLIAM, Wentworth
House, near Rotherham-Producer.

Pillar, exhibiting a complete section of the Barnsley thick bed of coal, from the Elsicot colliery, and showing the different portions applicable for steam-engines and manufacturing purposes, and for domestic uses.

[The Barnsley coal is well illustrated in the Exhibition, as there will be found no less than three columns of it; two representing the whole thickness of what is called the thick bed, and the other from Silkstone, showing a beautiful variety of coal also found in the district. The situation of Barnsley, in the centre of the great coalfield of Yorkshire, and the abundance and quality of its coal, render it important among the inland towns producing mineral fuel. There are three principal varieties, viz., hard-stone coal, soft or tender coal, and Cannel. The iridiscent or peacock coal may almost be regarded as a fourth. The coal is worked long-wall method.-D. T. A.]

THE BRYMBO COMPANY, Wrexham, Wales-
Producers.

Minerals, &c., found at Brymbo, near Wrexham, Denbighshire, or in the neighbourhood. Main coal got at the Brymbo colliery.

[The Brymbo colliery is in a part of the Flintshire coalfield illustrated by the specimen of coal exhibited by Mr. Oakeley. There will be found a magnificent squared block of this coal in the enclosure beyond the western extremity of the building.-D. T. A.]

THISTLETHWAYTE, HENRY F., The Vine House,

Sevenoaks, Kent.

A collection of gems and precious stones, chiefly illustrative of such as are used for personal ornament. The principal part of this collection was formed by Mr. Hertz, with a view to show the great variety of shades of colour in each species of stone, and to prove the connection of some classes; such as the corundum, where the tints of the ruby, sapphire, and topaz, are distinctly seen in the same stone. In the class of zircons and jargoons, the same connection of colours is exhibited. The specimens of diamond are interesting in point of crystallization as well as colour. The collection of pearls exhibit many varieties of colour both in the margarita and conch-shell specimens.

[The colours of certain minerals are extremely useful to the mineralogist in the determination of species, and are presented in great varieties in distinct series, but sometimes in very unconnected order. The most striking examples of series are found amongst gems, and are well illustrated in the collection described above, which is worthy of very careful observation and study.

The gems which best exhibit series of colours are diamond, corundum (oriental ruby and sapphire), topaz, emerald, garnet, and tourmaline. The zircons and jargoons are also remarkable, and highly interesting.

In most cases, minerals that are nearly allied, and are homomorphic, present similar series of colour; but in other

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