The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1900-08-31
PAPERIOF ALLEN COUNTY
lola BECOMES PROMINENT
Occupies Considerable Space in the
Report on Mineral Resources
of Kansas.


is out for the year 1899 and shows that
lola still holds leading place with
her gas, shelters, brick plants and
cement plant. Among the items of in
terest to lola people found in this vol
ume are the following:
NATURAL GAS FIELD PERMANENT.
The apparent permanency of natural
gas in Kansas, as indicated by the
large consumption during the past
year, is very gratifying. The strong
wells at Lola supplying fuel to the
zinc shelters have passed the test of
more than year without any APP
preciable decrease in pressure. The
gas from none of these wells is meas
ured, and therefore il is difficult to
form even an approximate estimate of
the amount consumed by the zinc
smelters. During the year there was
smelted by the use of natural gas as a
fuel about 30. 600 tons of metallic zinc.
1t is generally estimated that seven
tons of coal are required to produce
one ton of metallic zinc when coal is
used for fuel. On this basis, our zinc
shelters alone consumed natural gas
at lola, La Harpe and Cherryvale
equaling 2l0,00o tons of coal. When
we consider that some of these large
furnaces used gas from one well only
for a period of six months or more
and that such use did not sufficiently
decrease the pressure in the pipe to at
tract the attention of the consumers.
we must admit that the stability of
such gas wells is very great. Unfor-
tunately no measurements were made
of the actual pressure given by the
wells at the beginning of such con-
sumption and at the expiration of any
definite period, so that we cannot de-
termine the actual decrease of pres
sure.
At the close of 1899 the zinc smelters
in the State using natural gas had "a
capacity of more than $1,000 retorts,
which should yield 1870 tons of metallic
zinc per day when in full operation.
This would be equivalent to 1000 tons
of coal per day. with a value at the
coal-mines of from $500 to 5000 sup
posing that slack coal The were used.
total value of the gas used per year,
with the present smeltering capacity.
therefore if compared with the slack
coal value at the coal-mines will reach
nearly 1866, 900
There are also quite number of
large bricG factories now in the gas
fields which consume gas to an I'M
known extent. The brick kilns use
gas drawn directly from the wells and
no attempt is made to measure the
amount consumed. There is large
brick factory at Cotfeyville, three fac
tories at Cherryvale, three at lola, one
of which was in operation throughout
the year.
1hE sMELIlNG INDUSTRY.
The total amount of spelter pro-
duced in America for 1899, according
to statistics kindly furnished by the
Engineering aud Mining Journal is
123, l94 tons. The production of our
Kansas spelter, 1854 tons, is there
fore 42.74 per cent of the total spelter
production in America.
During the year number of large
zinc smeters were established. The
Lanyon Zinc Company, of lola and
Pittsburg, was organized by the con-
solidation of the Robert LANNON'S
Sons Company, the w. & j. Lanyon
Company, and the Palmer Oil and Gas
Company. BY this combination the
two largest companies operating gas
smelling furnaces were combined with
Der of gas wells in the State, At Gas
City the McRae-Daly and Cherokee
Lanyon companies started its furnaces
during the year. The Geo. f.. Nichol-
son Zinc Company at lola, started its
plant early in 1899, and the Edgar
Zinc Company at Cherryvale began
the production of spelter in June, 1899.
The plant of the latter company, in
some respects, is quite different from
the other smelling plants. They use
the Brown patent calcining or roast
ing furnace for desulphurizing
the ore.
THE NEW PORTLAND CEMENT
n ie intppaCtiutr IA pppopt that N av-
ceedingly large factory for the pro-
duction of Portland cement is under
process of construction at lola, where
natural gas viii be used for fuel. This
plant, it is estimated, will be ready
for operation some timo during the
year 1900, and, when once completed,
will have a capacity of from 2000 to
90 barrels per day. 1t is probable !