Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1907-03-14
SHELTER SMOKE
LIVE QUESTION
Mining Journal Discusses Meth
DDS of Reducing Its De.
stroying Properties.
Other Methods Arc Costly and clumsy
High chimncys Are Expensive
But Necessary,

The disp csaI Of snelter smoke - one
OF tho live questions OF the day, saSs
she Engineering and Mining journal
So FAR as past or present practise Is
concerned. there are oniy three ways
Of taking care Of sulphur smoke Ihese
nre:
1. Dispersal cr the smoke 5" hlsn
IN the atmosphere that when II comes
down to the ground It win be 80 dilute
,bat no troubla viii result. This means
of getting rid Of the nuisance is SO
closely involved with tn" amount Oh
.ulphur dIoxide TO be produced that
no general rule can be formed
In the case OF WORKS
turning out the equivalent Of 80 tons
of sulphur pen day through chim-
ney tg5 feet in Heighth the vegetation
of all kinds viii be killed on at less'
rendered very seeble inside of fadius
OF quarter Of mile from the Chilli
ncy. Outside " that cirole- the et-
fects are stlI felt, but with diminlsh-
ing intensity, and depend great deaf
upon the prevailing direction of the
wind. and other atmospheric condt-
tlnne A chimney of 900 feet or up
ward in heghth will discharge u very
large amount Of sulphur In sucn 2 way
that there Is no noticeable ualhase;;
but, of course, the cost 81 Sucn ~!
rhimnevs Is large. The chimney. S55
feet IN heighth OF the Orford Copper
company, al Constable Hook, ~ j..
which was erected solely for the puf-
nose OF dispensing sulphur smoke, cost
about $50, 00V.
ACID AS BY-PRoDUCT
2. A second method of eliminating
The sulphur dioSide is TO convert 1t
into sulphurs acid. which Is 4 market
able product. Ia many sections How
ever In many sections, II Is an I'M
marketable product, and most Of the
mining and smelling districts OF tne
Rocky mountains fail Into tnat classl-
ficatlon. SulphuFic acid OF 60 deg. -
t7G,6 per cent pure acld) may ne
counted on 10 bring. Ia the long run.
AN average W about 81 fob. works
lr the eastern and central states. and
The cost OF manufacture as o bY-prou-
uot ought NOT to exceed 81 per ton
1in many cases 1t VIII mot be more
than al.2s to s 50 per toni, but opNi-
ousy there Nv no margin for the high
freight charges OF q long haul
THIS rs INTPRAcT1CABtE-
g. Another method OF getting rid
of sulphur dioside is to absorb IT In
water and then neutrali2e the solution
with some cheap chemical. such as
lime. This method Is pracised In
Germany but 1t Is Troublesome ana
costly. and prObab bly, is entirely out ot
the question under the conditions
which exist In The mining districts OF
the Rocky ~ Dun tains and Westward.
II the solution OF sulphur dioxide
rculd be employed in the manufacture
of some product more valuable than
artificial gypsum, OF In some other
useful way, such, for example, as the
extraction Of copper from low-grade
ore, waste Stag. etc. there might be
something i'll This process. but 80 far,
all experiments in that direction have
been unsuccessful.
DISPERSAL. rs ONLY HOPE.
Consequently, II is to be said that
at present, the only feasible thing 10
do is TO disporse the sulphur dioSide
ns high In the air as possible We
read frequently in the daily papers
that such and such smelling COM
rany Is going 10 overcome the fuine
and smoke problem by installing Il
Lag-hcuss. a playhouse is simply a
understanding arrangement on Il large
scale The dust dirt, and Carbonace-
Gus matter of the smoke are filtered
out, but the sulphur dioxide continues
to escape into tle atmosphere nnater-
ed and as noSlous as 1t was IN the
first place However, good many
OF the complaints against smeter
smoke are based on The SCOT ana dirty
character OF the smoke. rather than
ON It's sulphur dloNide content. and
IN such cases bag house iiltrAtion Will
naturally obvtaso the difficulty. but
playhouse iiusltion Is impracticabt
when the gas contains any consider
MINI nArnrnrIlnA .AT sIIahl INN iIlnNiln