The Crockett Courier (Crockett, Tex.), Vol. 23, No. 51, Ed. 1 Tuesday, January 16, 1912 Page: 6 of 8
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GRAPHITE AND ITS USES.
Mexico Supplies the Finest Brand o#
This Transformed Coal.
In the central part of the Mexi-
can state of Sonora, twenty miles
from the mining town of i,a Colo-
rada, is one of the most desolate
spots on earth. A few rude «harks
give sign of human occupancy, and
there are other evidences to show
that mining operaiion* are going
on. Here and then are huge heapH
of some inien-elv tla«*k stuff.
One soon dim-overs, however, that
the black stuff is graphite—not only
that, hut it is from this source that
the world gets most of the material
for its Iwsl pencils.
The stuff, oddly enough, is obtain-
ed from «'oal liedf which in placeB
have turned into graphite. In fact,
the same bed* are actually being
mined in other spots for coal. Ge-
ologists say that the metamorphosis
was brought about by a plutonic
agency—granite "dikes" pushing
their way up from molten hot strata
down below and changing the coal
into graphite, which today is soft
and friable enough to be dug out
with pickax and shovel.
On being brought to the surface
it is spread out in the hot sun to
dry, and then thrown into piles to
await shipment. Mules not much
larger than St. Bernard dogs haul
it to La Colorada, whence it is for-
warded bv rail to Michigan for treat-
ment.
Water is so scarce in the graphite
producing locality that it is doled
out in kerosene cans, ten gallons a
day to each family. There is not
enough of it for reckless washing,
so that the miners look like negroes.
The famous Siberian graphite is
hard to get out, transportation fa-
cilities in that part of the world
being poor, and even the best Ger-
man graphite has to he floated in
water and settled no fewer than
ninety times in order to rid it of its
impurity But the graphite from
Sonora demands no such elaborate
treatment. Velvety soft and smooth
to the touch, lumps of it are easily
crushed in the hand. After being
ground it is "air floated"—that is to
say, exposed to a gentle blast of air.
The heavy particles (grit) settle first
and are thus separated out. What
remains are particles almost infinite-
ly small, like soot.
The graphite thus refined is mix-
ed with cjav in certain proportions
for making pencils. A good deal of
clay is used for hard pencil leads,
less of it for soft. The more clay
the harder the pencil. The pencil
with a big lead, extremely soft, such
as carpenters use, has only enough
clav to hold the particles of graphite
together.
The largest use of graphite, how-
ever, is for a lubricant. It is also ,
employed extensively in the mixing
of paints to give "body." The fa-
miliar shinv look of gunpowder is
given by graphite, which furnishes a
coating for the individual grains
and prevents them from sticking
together. Other uses of graphite
are in electrotyping and manufac-
ture of stove polish.
For high temperature crucibles
the onlv suitable graphite is that
obtained from Ceylon, which has an
unusual structure, being fibrous.
Mixed with clav for a binder, its
fibers interlock, and with expansion
and contraction they work in and
out, so that the crucible does not
break when heated or cooled. Such
crucibles are made from an inch
high to sizes big enough to hold gal-
lons.—St. Louis Republic.
Byron'a Dread of Growing Fat.
Byron waB a striking exception to
Sir Francis Gal ton's theory that i
notabilities are great eaters, for
Bvron, like many less clever people,
had a morbid dread of growing fat
and was wont to mortify the flesh
aerOrdinglv. While at Athens he
drank large quantities of vinegar
and water and seldom ate more
than a little rice, and at another
time he restricted himself to six bis-
cuits a dav. Again in 1816 he lived
on a thin slice of bread for break-
fast aud a vegetable dinner, keeping
down his hunger in oetween by
chewing tobacco. And he achieved
his end. for the last time he was
weighed he went ten stone nine
pounds.—London Chronicle.
The Trunkfieh.
The trunkfish is one of the pe-
culiar inhabitants of the ocean. It
is qalled the trunkfish beoause its
back is completely covered with
bony plates of a regular shape,
forming a complete coot of mail.
It is protected so completely that it
can move only its tiuL, moyth_and a
•mall part of ¡ts gills, which puss
through the armor. It is quite a
small fish and is found onlv in the
warm waters of the southern tropi-
cal *eas.
Two of a Kind.
Peckham Mv wife talks, talks,
talks all the time
Cnderthum—You're wrong. She
must listen part of the time or my
wife wouldn't be with her so much.
Fxclwrure.
WINDMILLS OF HOLLAND.
Old fashioned Method Still Prevail
In Operating Them.
It is -aid that there are 10,000
windmi.is in Holland. The number
is said, however, to be less than it
was fifty years ago, for the Dutch
have, in a measure, substituted
steam and other forms of power for
the capricious wind.
On the eastern end of Long Is-
land there may be seen old wind-
mills. The curious may observe
that there is a tiny windmill in
many cases perched on the top op-
posite the great arms, a feature
that suggests a pug dog's curled
tail. Those who have investigated
the mechanism of the windmill
know that the little windmill is the
Yankee's method of automatically ;
keeping the sails on the great arms i
always in the wind. As soon as the
wind changes it puts the small wheel <
in motion, and this quickly rolls
the top of the tower and the big
wheel around until it again faces J
the wind. Then, being itself out of
the wind, it stops.
Whenever the wind changes in
Holland hundreds of mill keepers
come forth and laboriously turn the
tops about by hand. They may be
seen pushing and straining on the
galleries surrounding the towers
midway between the ground and the
top or tugging at the spokes of a
wheel on the ground.
Zaanland is especially the home
of the windmill. It lies to the north
and west of Amsterdam, and every
town or village in this district be-
gins or ends in "zaan."
Zaandijk, according to one travel-
er, perpetually reminds one of the
old query, "Do you see anything
green?" Everything in Zaandijk is
green. Bridges, fences, doors, win-
dows, walls, are green, ranging from
the green of peas to that of apples,
olives, grass, malachite, beryl, old
bottles and verdigris.
In a little museum of this place
there are shown many models of
windmills, among which is that of
the first windmill erected in Zaan-
dam. It stood in the water, and
when it was desired to turn the
sails toward the wind the miller
was obliged to get into his boat and,
taking a line, tow the whole struc-
ture around until it was in a work-
ing position again. Later on the
mill was set on a post and the whole
turned about this as an axis, in the
same manner that one revolves
bookshelves. Then another method
was devised. The entire edifice was
turned about from the bottom like
a monitor's turret. Finally the
comparatively modern type was
adopted, that of a cap holding the
axle and sails with a cogwheel and
spindle inside and easily moved
from below by a hand wheel or
windlass to secure the proper front-
age at will.—Harper's.
Bad For tho Cow.
When George Stephenson, the
celebrated Scotch engineer, had
completed his model of a locomo-
tive he appeared before a committee
of the British parliament and asked
the attention and support of that
body. The grave M. P.'s, looking
sneeringly at the great mechanic's
invention, asked:
"So you have made a carriage to
fun only by steam, have you ?"
' "Yes, my lords."
"And you expect your carriage to
run on parallel rails, so that it can't
get off, do you ?"
''Yes, ray lords.''
"Well, now, Mr. Stephenson, let
us show you how absurd your claim
is. Suppose when your carriage is
running upon these rails at the rate
of twenty or thirty miles an hour,
if you're extravagant enough to
even suppose such a thing is pos-
sible, a cow should get in its way.
You can't turn out for her—what
then ?"
"Then 'twill be bad for the coo,
my lords!"
Cause For Taars.
"Maud says she had her audicnce
in tears last night."
"I believe it. They were crying
for their money back, poor things "
—Life.
A New Year's
That we will strive to give our patrons even
better service is our business resolution for the
New Year.
We have steadily maintained that our friends
shall have 100 cents worth in service for their
dollars.
On this foundation is our business established
and has grown to where we serve more than
2000 progressive patrons throughout the United
States.
We greatly appreciate and return thanks for the
hearty support and co-operation of our friends
and extend to all our sincere good wishes for a
happy and prosperous New Year.
Yours for good service,
The Crockett Courier
IB
2/
A LASTING
MEMORIAL
an
We Feed Our Beeves
Before Killing Them
This is a modern design of which
anV one should feel proud to erect
over a departed loved one. We
have numerous others, all of the
finest granite and marble. Our
prices are based on first-class ma-
terial and workmanship and are
very reasonable.
Palestine Marble & Granite Works
NANCE BROS., PROPRIETORS
AVENUE A PALESTINE, TEXAS
Scratch This
Motto On
Your Slate
With a Nail
MASURY
PURE MIXED HOUSE
PAINTS
Is the American nation's first
choice. It's the best paint made
and those who use it say so.
I. W. SWEET.
and
We
Our cattle are fed on hulls
meal until they are beef-fat.
feed all the time and only the fat-
test are killed, therefore you will
get only the juiciest and tenderest
steaks from us. We buy hides.
BYNUM & BENNETT
Chronic Constipation Cored.
"Five years ago I had the worst
case of chronic constipation I ever
knew of, and Chamberlain's Tablets
cured me," writes S. F. Fish, Brook-
lyn, Mich. For sale by all deal-
ers.—Adv.
1 Have Moved
my shop to the building for-
merly occupied by Dr. Elliott,
at the rear of Chamberlain's,
where I am better prepared to
handle your business. Give me
a trial on some of your tailor-
ing needs.
S. R. ELLIS
TAILOR
ftXXYSKllMEYCUKE POLEYSHONEY^AR
Makes KMitays and Bladder Right atop the courffc ana Hernia lungt
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Aiken, W. W. The Crockett Courier (Crockett, Tex.), Vol. 23, No. 51, Ed. 1 Tuesday, January 16, 1912, newspaper, January 16, 1912; Crockett, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth177658/m1/6/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History.