The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1903-06-03

|
about 12h per cent Of potash, the
Carnallite about 10 per cent, and the
Sylvinit 16 per cent of potash. AS
there is a great demand for these
products all over the world, and the
| freishtage to long distances Is quite
an item, it became desirable to concen'
trate the potash in these natural prod
ucts as much as possible, so as to
avoid the cost of transportation on the
salts contained in them useless to agri'
culture.
The great factories of the German
Kali Works" now prepare from the
crude KANT, Carnallite and Sylvinit
muriates of potash containing As per
cent. so per cent and IS per cent OF
actual potash, also sulphates OF pot
ash containing from 48 to 81 per cent
of actual potash, also what is known as
Double Manure Salts" with 26 per
cent of potash. A complete analy-
sis of all these various products and
some Others will be found ON another
page of this bulletin.
These deposits are practically mex
haustible in quantity and will supply
the agricultural world for many years
to come Should they ever become
exhausted doubtless new discoveries
will be made, and if not, potash could
doubtless be obtained, though, of
course, at greater cost, from such wa
tiers as those of the Dead Sea" There
need. therefore, be no fear of the sup
ply running short. Having now Civ
en- you a brief account of the differ
emit raw materials used in the man
ufacture of "guano," or commercial
fertilizers, we will next consider the
methods in use by the manufacturers
for converting these raw materials
into finished products.
The Acid Phosphate Industry-DescrIp-
ton of Process of Manufacture.
The foundation of the great modern
industry of commercial fertilizers is
the manufacture of superphosphate,
or as it is more generally known IN
this country of acid phosphate OF
lime. The materials necessary for
this manufacture are sulphuric acid
and phosphate rock. The plant re-
CURED for the manufacture OF sui
phuric acid is costly one, and the
process is somewhat complicated.
Either birthstone from Sicily, or
pyrites, which is a compound Of sui
phur and iron, some of which is i'm
ported from Spain and some produced
from mines in this country, are the
raw materials used in the manufac-
ture.
The birthstone or pyrites are burned
In specially constructed burners, and
the sulphurous gases which result from
the burning are caused to mix with
nitrous gases produced from nitrate OF
soda, and drawn into great towers
made Of lead and packed with fints;
thence they are drawn into immense
leaden chambers Or' rooms, usually
three in row connected together. In
these chambers the sulphurous and nj
trous gases are mixed with steam, and
condensed into suIphuric acid, which
falls in rain on the floors of the lead
en- chambers. 1t is necessary to con-
struct these chambers of lead, because
almost any other material would be
destroyed and eaten out by the action
Of this corrosive acid.
The phosphate rock is hauled to the
factory, usually a building located
alongside the sulphuric acid chambers,
1t is there thrown into crushers which
break it into small pieces; thence con-
veyed to the grinding machinery,
either steel mills or buhrstones,
where it is pulverized into fine meal
or -four You would naturally ask
at this point, why not use this fine
phosphate meal directly on the soil,
without mixing it with the caustic
corrosive sulphuric acid? 1t is sim
ply because this meal is of a rocky
nature and only dissolves with diff
Guilty in the soil waters, and we have
seen plants require their food to be
easily soluble in water, so that the
roots suck it in. The phosphate rock
meal, no matter how finely ground
dissolves only to a very limited eX-
tent in water, and it is necessary to so
treat it as to liberate the rock-bound
phosphoric acid; and render it solu-
bic in water. Hence the necessity
for the sulphuric acid
The phosphate meal (say it is from
South Carolina rock, and contains %
per cent of phosphoric acid, combined
with lime to form 81 per cent of bone
phosphate of lime) is first weighed,
and we will take say 1000 pounds of
it, and dump it into circular cast-iron
mixer. into which has already been
introduced 1000 pounds of sulphuric
acid of the proper strength.
The acid and meal are now thor
oughly mixed togethed by machinery
in the iron pan. The mixture be-
comes very hot, the strong sulphuric
acid attacks the lime combined with
the phosphoric acid of the phosphate
meal with amazing and furious ener-
gy and appropriates to itself the great
! er part of the lime in the form of sui