Tour the West Hall of the National Museum After the First Fifty Years

Ores

Coal

A collection showing the different varieties of coal from Pennsylvania and Virginia, including anthracite, semi-bituminous, bituminous, splint, and cannel coal; also a large collection illustrating the methods of coal mining, including some large photographs (taken by electric light) of the interior of a coal mine, showing the formation of the coal-seam and its peculiarities, together with the men at work. These are the first photographs ever taken of the interior of a coal mine.

Among the curiosities of the collection may be mentioned pieces of iridescent or "peacock " coal, so called on account of its brilliant metallic colors. Anthracite, semi-anthracite and semi-bituminous coals of this character are represented; the handsomest specimens are from the Ross vein of the Red Ash Coal Company of Wilkes Barre.

As an evidence that the miner is warmly receptive to art, and as an illustration of the adapability of anthracite coal to such purposes, several coal ornaments are shown:

(1) a lady's slipper,
(2) a miner's brogan,
(3) a table caster with bottles, and other articles made by the artistic miner in his leisure moments.

The pictorial portion of the collection consists of

(1) photographs, including negatives and prints;
(2) tracings and sketches on linen cloth;
(3) lithographs; and
(4) cyanotypes.


This collection illustrates the processes of mining by drift, slope, and shaft; the miners in their different positions when engaged in cutting and drilling coal; the working costumes of the miners and mine of facials; the excavation of coal by the pick and milling machine or "coal digger;" the inside and outside haulage of coal by means of the mule, mine locomotive, and the underground wirerope system; the maclliuery for hoisting coal to the surface; pumping machinery; ventilating fans and fan-houses; exterior and interior views of the breaker, where the large loads of coal are broken and the various sizes assorted for market; the chutes and pockets for loading coal at the colliery for transhipment; the transfer of the coal up and down the precipitous sides of the mountains by inclined planes; the form of mine wagons used in the anthricite collieries and the bituminous mines; the formation of a coal seam, slowing the partings of slate between the benches and the crest of all anticlinal where the measures cross over a mountain from one basin to another, and coal-washing machinery.


Foreign Ores

A very valuable series from the Krupp Works, Essen, Germany, collections representing the ores of Sweden, Russia, Spain (very large and complete), Portugal, Italy, Turkey, Japan, Mexico, and the Australasian colonies. This latter collection is especially valuable on account of its richness in tin specimens.

Non-Metallic Ores

The manufacture of emery cloth and sand-paper is very fully illustrated by specimens of the quartz and emery as mined; as ground and sorted in various sizes for making the paper, and the extraction of the glue and the manufacture of the paper used, together with samples of the various sizes of emery cloth and sand-paper as put upon the market.

The occurrence and application of asbestos is very fully illustrated samples from fifty-five different localities - and is by far the most thorough and complete illustration of the occurrence of this material that has ever been exhibited. To this are added very full illustrations of the application of asbestos, including various kinds of packings and covers for heated surfaces; threads of various sizes; cloth used for various purposes, etc.

The materials used for various abrading and polishing purposes are illustrated, and a collection of tripoli in its crude and prepared shape. A large collection of corundum, emery, and quartz in the lump and in various sizes. The preparation of barytes for various uses is represented.

Minerals

The first place must be given to the admirable suite of American minerals loaned to the Museum by Mr. Joseph Wilcox, of Media, Pa. This collection numbers some 1,400 specimens. It is remarkably rich in quartzes, rutiles, corundum felspars, amphiboles, pyroxenes, micas, tourmalines, pyrophillities, appatites, and darkurites, and in some of its series it could hardly be paralleled. Next in importance is the Abert collection, 1,245 specimens, particularly rich in foreign material.

Gems and Ornamental Stones

Includes all the gems proper, rock crystal, agates and jaspers, malachite, lapis lazuli, jet, meershaum, amber, &c., and every important gem or ornamental species shown both in the rough and cut conditions. About one thousand specimens of this class are now on exhibition, of which nearly or quite one-third are cut and polished stones. Educationally, the gem collection is practically complete.

Lithological Collection

Comprises all varieties of rocks of scientific or educational value, without regard to their economic importance. Rocks belonging to this series are, for convenience sake both in handling and storing, broken into blocks about 4 by 3 by 1 inches, with the edges carefully trimmed and the faces showing fresh fractures, with no abrasion marks from the hammer.

As a supplement to this collection, to explain their structure and mineral composition, a series of enlarged photo-micrographs of twelve thin sections of typical rocks has been prepared. These enlargements are in the form of transparencies, 12 inches in diameter, and are colored by hand, the artist taking his tints from an examination of the sections themselves under the microscope and in polarized light. The illustrations thus prepared are very accurate as well as attractive.

With particular reference to educational purposes there are two special collections, one a structural series of rocks, and the other a series of rockforming minerals. The structural series shows all the more typical forms of rock structure and texture; in other words, to illustrate by means of specimens the meanings of certain words and phrases in constant use in lithological nomenclature, but whose exact significance or force is poorly comprehended by the public in general. In this collection the rocks are divided primarily into three groups: (a)crystalline, (b)vitreous (or glassy), and (c)elastic, or fragmental, under which are arranged all those forms of structure common to each. The collection thus includes three nearly parallel series, and comprises, as at present arranged, forty-one specimens each of which is accompanied by a printed label stating to which of the three principal groups it belongs, what type of structure it represents, and also the name of the rock specimen itself, the locality from whence it came and the name of the donor or collector.

The collection of rock-forming minerals, includes representative specimens of all those minerals which commonly form an appreciable part of large rock masses, the rarer minerals and the gems being excluded. Each mineral species is shown in several varieties, and is accompanied by a printed label giving its crystalline system, chemical composition, and the species of rock or rocks in which it commonly occurs. If the mineral itself possesses any economic values this is also stated.

For more information on Metallurgy, see [handbook cover]

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