The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-02-14
A TON OF SMOKE A DAY.
How LampblaCk Is Made Out Of Resin
and TuTpeltine DTOSS.

The Furnaces of savannah's New Fac
tory Started Yesterday-A Glimpse
of the Sooty Process-The Consump-
of Lampbleok Here and Abroad-The
New Industry's Prospects.
Savannah has a lampblack factory in
full operation. The furnaces were started
yesterday. and work TO perfection.
The factory is on the Thunderbolt road,
about a mile from the city limits. The
main building is 40 feet long, 25 feet wide
and 20 feet high 1t has a spread of
%, 900 superficial feet of burlap sacking,
stretched on wires, in the main building,
on which the smoke deposits the lamp
black.
The patent furnaces are from designs
made by Mr. G. B. Warrand, who is the
inventor of the device They consist of
substantial cast iron hopper, which holds
about half ton of rosin or turpentine
dross The flow of the molten rosin is
regulated by perforated plate and set
screws, and drips continuously on a cast
iron CRATE incased on all sides. The in
terstices of this CRATE are loosely filled
with asbestos wool. The draft is regu-
lated by two cast iron doors. Under the
furnace is set Of CRATE bars on which a
fire is started as soon as the rosin begins
to melt. The furnace works automati-
cally, as the heat from the burning mate
rial is sufficient to keep the rosfn in a
molten state.
HOW THE BURNING GOES ON.
The fame burning downward, as the as
bestos acts like gigantic lamp wick,
volume Of dense black smoke
which is carried by two fiues,
10 inches in diameter and Is feet
long to the safety or cooling chamber,
which is substantially built out of brick
feet square, covered with sheet iron.
This chamber is practically air tight. A
similar set of tlues carries the smoke
from the safety chamber to the
main building. Each fue has a defect
ing guard or shield, which causes the
smoke to travel in a circuitous route and
renders direct striking of the flame an
impossibility. Even If it could reach the
safety chamber 1t would at once be ex-
tinguished. The hopper holds enough ma
terial TO burn thirty hours. All that is
necessary is to replenish the supply once
a day; The fires are never
duction of lampblack goes on night
and day, week days aud Sundays, unin-
terruptedly, until sufficient quantity Of
lampblack has been deposited on the bags
which are shaken of or beaten, the lamp
black falling to the floor. 1t is then put
in sacks or barrels, and is ready for
market.
THE RAW MATERIAL.
Savannah handles over 1000, 900 barrels
of rosin annually. There is necessarily
some wasted rosin, which is mostly in
small fragments or pulverized, slightly
mixed with sand and dirt Assuming
that the waste amounts to 2 per cent.
this would aggregate about 5000 tons a
year While this waste is unfit for any
other purpose, it is an excellent material
for the manufacture Of lampblack as the
sand does not affect the furnaces in the
least and can be removed from time to
time
Schwarz & Co. have some 300 tons of
this waste on hand, which will make
very nearly, if not quite, seventy tons
of lampblack, worth $65 per ton.
There is a limited demand for lamp
black in Savannah, as well as in Charles
ton. Each city imports about 1875 tons
from the north every year for use in col
oring fertilizers
The demand for lampblack all over the
world is enormous, as immense quantities
are used in the manufacture of printers
ink, rubber, oil paint, shoe backing in
currying leather and numerous other
ways.
THE SOURCES OF SUPPLY.
The chief sources from which lamp
black has been obtained we're by burning
natural gas or residues from coal tar and
petroleum distilleries; natural gas has
become too valuable and scarce for
this purpose, and while the demand
for lampblack is steadily ON the increase,
the sources from which it was formerly
produced, have decreased. Three or four
tons of rosin or dross, will produce one
ton of lampblack, worth sos, netting from
rosins in Savannah are worth less than 81
per ton, hence gross profit of 100 pei
cent. is quite evident, and probably 200
per cent on waste and dross.
The new plant has two furnaces. Two
| more, however, will be added shortly
! The plant will consume nearly ton OF
material day. There is ample room
| for many such establishments, of which {
number are already in successful opera
| ton, here and in interior points. The
waste of dross is computed to bt
$4,000 tons annually, which could be
turned into IL, 900 or Is, 900 tons of lamp
black, worth at least $50 per ton at the
factory, or total of 100000 or $700,0
probably more than has been cleared on
the whole turpentine business last year
AS waste material can be employed
whatever is made is evidently a clear
gain to the individual. Another factory
will be started shortly in Savannah, anC
there will be a good market for rosiI
| dross next season, as others are bound Il
! follow throughout the turpentine belt