The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1908-11-09
BAGHOUSE SYSTEM
COMPLETE SUCCESS
United States Company at June
tiOn Plant Has Solved
Big Question.
ORES TREATED AND
NO DAMAGE RESULTS
All Matters of Injurious Nature
Are Handled Before They
Get to Open Air.

After the farmers Of the Salt Lake val
ley had won their suit against several OF
the large smelters OF Utah, 1t was no Idle
boast Of the management OF the United
States Smelling, Refining and Mining
company when the. attorneys for tho
smelling company set before the United
States courts that new method or smelt-
Ing ores had been discovered. through
which no injurious substances were al
lowed TO reach the outer air and do re-
sultant damage TO the surrounding vege-
tatiop.
The United States company went into
details to tho court just far enough TO JUS
opportunity to reopen It's smelter at Bing-
ham Junction. In so far as such permis-
sion was prayed for by tho company, that
Is. that the lead furnaces might os
operated in order to show the court and
the complaining farmers that plant
could be operated without injurins neigh
boring farms,
One passing by the United States smelt-
er at the Junction Is surprised to learn
that the smeltcr is busily engaged IN
separating the precious metals from thelr
base gangue as usual, although from Ine
huge stack no evidence Of this activity
is apparent. One need only mako an IN
spection OF the smelling works TO satisfy
himself that the United States company
ton. solved 1t to such an extent that
smelling OF oros is possible witholt inJur-
ing the neiehbors OF the company
sunday, General Manager George w:
men through the Bingham Junction
smelter that they might see for them
selves that the metallurgists for the com
pany indeed have achieved much ~ their
chosen line. BY way OF explanation 1t
should DO stated that the farmers COM
planned that the acid and poisonous
fumes from the plants OF the valley were
destroying not only vegetation, but anil
NAL life as well. 1t became necessary,
therefore, FOR the United States company
to devise way TO remove from the fumes
particle OF solid and gas as well that
might injure surrounding farm life.
The solution lay in playhouse. a 6ag.
house is exactly what us name implies,
suspended $500 bags made OF woollen
cloth. each 24 feet In length and connected
at their bottom with flue-dust cham
Der. The fumes are driven into this bag
house from every part OF the smelter,
The cloth catches all the solid Particles,
and twice ia each twenty-four hours the
bags are shaken and the dust collected
below.
1t happened, however. that the acids,
sulphuric acid especially, ate up the fab
ric OF these bags, and broken or torn
bag means the escape Of Injurious sub
stances TO the stack and to the outer air.
So the metallurgists OF the company had
TO devise some means OF handling the
acid. There was little Incentive to save
IL for commercial purposes, owing to the
lack of demand for such a product, and
II was no easy matter 10 dump this acid
anywhere without doing injury TO some
person or some persons interests The
solution was devised by the experts on
the United States companys stan. and
consists Of sending zinc oxide with some
other secret agent into tho fumes just
before they reach the baShouse. The re-
Siilt is that EnlnbNric acid forms
salt with the zinc known as zinc sulphate,
a salt easily caught by the meshes OF the
bag and non-injurious to the fabric.
1t was on this showing, therefore, that
the courts allowed the company to start
up its lead furnaces. Another step In the
process, however, deserves attention. This
taking the place OF the old hand roasters.
In these roasters heavy sulphide ores. OF
ores TOO finely divided 10 smelt success
fully, are roasted and cooked into hard.
easily smelted in the usual manner, BY
this process practically all the sulphur is
driven from the ores, and II is sulphur
that makes sulphurlc acid. The fumes
from these conVerter-roasters are taken
into the playhouse and there deprived OF
their mischief-makingt tendencies. 1t is
by the process of neutrallzing the acids
In the fumes, therefore. combined with
the playhouse and new roasters that the
management is able to operate the plant
without sending out 10 the outer air the
SUBSTANCES tlat heretofore naSC caused
all the trouble with the farmers.
To Illustrate what the farmers have bad
to contend with. and what the smeter
company has lost In the past before the
playhouse system was invented, II should
be mentioned that the dust caught by the
bags Is mixed with water TO prevent It
flying like dust WILL and 1t is then
pressed into bricks IN readiness for the
smelling process again. And the bags
catch tons upon tons of the dust day af-
ter day. and the dust carries 80 per cent
| lead and 20 per cent arsenic. This. then,
Is the stuff that once went out on the
surrounding farms, but Is now resmelted
and saved TO the company. It Is also a
matter OF interest to know that the huc-
dust, deposited before the playhouse is
reached by the cooling OF the gases, Is
saved and resmelted. This dust averages
| 20 per cent lead and from TO 10 ounces
silver.
The company is not treating arsenic
ores at present. nor will II do so until It's
new series OF arsenic fues are completed,
which is not far removed. The playhouse.
costing over 100000. is being added 10
at present, and soon will have 1850 bags
in use where 1t now has 1900.
II is q matter OF demonstration, there
fore. that the new system Of the United
States company permits smelling Of ores
without giving forth q single substance to
injure others. 1t 10 a new process, and
credit Is due the United States experts
for their achievements along these lines.
II is one OF the greatest steps In metal
lUrgy that has been made for many years.
and is destined TO have tremendous in
industry the world over. And II anyone
doubts the success OF the process, let him
go TO Bingham Junction and closely In
spect the great stack or let him take a
Lake City and study this same stack. He
will see absolutely nothing coming out to
| the outer air. And that is what the
company started out TO prove.