FELDSPAR 1423

 Market quotations on ground nepheline syenite, f. o. b. Rochester, N. Y.,
as reported in Ceramic Industry, February 1942, were as follows:
Glass grade, $12 per (short) toll, and pottery grade, $15.50 per ton.
 Research was being continued in the Canadian Bureau of Mines laboratOries
on the feasibility of treating nepheline syenite for the recovery of alumina
and alkalies, the former as a substitute for bauxite in the production of
aluminum. Field explorations and drilling of nepheline syenite bodies were
undertaken in the Bancroft district in an effort to locate deposits of higher
grade and greater uniformity.
 A detailed description of nepheline syenite, giving its composition and
properties, as well as its advantages in making glass, various types of pottery
and enamels, was published at the beginning of 1942.'
 Baggs 2 has described a number of bodies and glazes containing nepheline
syenite. Nogai and Yamabe3 made studies of special glasses containing large
amounts of alumina and magnesia, using nepheline or nepheline syenite as
raw materials. Priest ~ discussed the use of nepheline syenite in enamels
for cast iron. According to Koenig,5 the greater fluxing power of nepheline
syenite tested in hotel chinaware bodies in place of potash feldspar allowed
a lower firing temperature, reduced the amount of principal flux, and reduced
or eliminated the use of auxiliary flux. A study of electrical porcelain
fluxed with nepheline syenite rather than potash feldspar has indicated an
earlier vitrification, about the same firing shrinkage at maturing temperatures,
an equal or greater transverse strength, dense well-vitrified bodies, and
similar thermal expansion.6

APLITE

 The mine and nearby mill of Dominion Minerals, Inc., Piney River, Va., producing
"aplite" since 1938, were described by Trauffer.7 "Aplite," a complex silicate
rock composed chiefly of the four minerals albite, microcline, sericite,
and zoisite, is used as a source of alumina in the manufacture of glass containers
and more recently for flat glass and glass fibers. Production has increased
steadily each year. New equipment added during 1941 included two additional
magnetic separators. An average analysis of "aplite" from Nelson County,
Va., supplied by V. V. Kelsey, president, Dominion Minerals, Inc., follows:
Silica (Si02), 57.75 percent; ferric oxide (Fe203), 0.80 percent; alumina
(A1203), 24.00 percent; calcia (CaO), 5.60 percent; alkalies (soda, Na20,
potash, K20), 9.15 percent; loss on ignition, 0.70 percent. A new mill in
the same locality was erected during 1941 by the Carolina Mineral Co., Erwin,
Tenn., subsidiary of the Consolidated Feldspar Corporation operation began
during the early months of 1942.
 ' Ceramic Industry, A Complete Directory of Ceramic Materials Used in the
Manufacture of Enamel, Glass, and Pottery Products, with Details of Their
Properties and Functions: Vol. 38, No. 1, January 1942, pp. 36—116
(p. 88).
 2 Baggs, Arthur E., Experiments with Nepheilne Syenite Bodies: Bull. Am.
Ceram. Soc., vol. 21, No. 4, April 1942, p.7 (abs.).
 3 Nogai, S., and Yamabe, I., Special Glasses Using Nepheline and Talc as
Raw Materials: Jour. Japanese Ceram. Assoc., vol. 48, No. 572, 1940, pp.
365-370; Ceram. Abs. (Am. Ceram. Soc.), vol. 20, No. 8, August 1941, p. 192.
 ' Priest, Harry C., Use of Nepheline Syenite in Enamels for Cast Iron: Jour.
Canadian Ceram. Soc., vol. 9, 1940, pp. 53-55; Ceram. Abs. (Am. Ceram. Soc.),
vol. 20, No. 7, July 1941, p. 166.
 ' Koenig, C. G., Nepheline Syenite in Hotel Chinaware Bodies: Jour. Am.
Ceram. Soc., vol. 25, No. 3, February 1, 1942, pp. 90-92.
 Semple, W. A., Substitution of Nepheline Syenjte for Potash Feldspar in
Electrical Porcelain: Jour. Canadian Ceram. Soc., vol. 10, 1941, pp. 51-62;
Ceram. Abs. (Am. Ceram. Soc.), vol. 21, No. 4, April 1, 1942. p. 85.
 7Trauffer, W. E., Piney River Plant Processes Virginia Aplite: Mineral Used
in Glassmaking: Pit and Quarry, vol. 34, No.3, September 1941, pp. 44-45.