The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-04-17
Wealth From Waste

lutiouizcd in the past few years. Th
culm that used TO be piled up at the
mouth of the coal mines and which
nobody would carry away is now al
most as valuable as the unbroken coal.
Artificial diamonds, rubies and sap
phires are now produced from il.
Tho tailings of gold mines had tho
mineral III such minute particles that
il could not be extracted Some one
discovered that gold was soluble in a
weak solution of potassium cyanide,
the discovery was applied in practice.
every particle was recovered and seem
ingly worthless ores produced millions
Of dollars.
The loss also in silver mines was
enormous until a method was found of
freeing the mineral from the lead.
In the coke regions it uscd to he i'm
possible almost 10 meet the expense Of
building ovens. Now they build them,
not for the coke. but TO get the extract
Of coal tar. which forms tho basis
OF so many of our coloring stutfs. Our
artificial aliZarinc. anillne and similar
dyes, the importation of which amounts
annually TO more than two million dol
lars, are prepared from anthracene
paste, the annual production of which
amounts TO upwards Of 1000 tons, yet
not one ton is manufactured here. In
tar are sent abroad to be manufactured
into colors and returned to us at high
cost.
The greatest coal producers of the
world, yet we make only an mimi
tesimal amount Of the coal tar de-
rivatives used in medicine, autipY-
rim and phenanthridine TO mention only
two of the derivatives used IN medicine,
are imported mostly from Germany,
and made from American crude waste
materials sent from America,
Use for Flax Straw.
The United States grows annually
S.000000 tons of flax straw, which
should produce 100000 tons of finished
fax fiber, which. if manufactured into
linens, would add millions of dollars
every wear to the commercial value OF
the United States. This fiber is burned,
we have not one dollar invested IN linen
manufacturing from American flax. and
import upward Of SllS,OOO.OOO OF linen
fabrics per annum.
The amount of waste in our forests
is incalculable in the wood, bark and
sawdust that we uselessIy burn y
specialist in industrial chemistry has
told us that sawdust can be mixed with
coal Stag, spent dye-wood, turf, peat
and compressed into bricks of artificial
stone. while by dry dIstllation it yields
/
latter industry being now aourishing
one in the western part of New York
state.
High explosives and various kinds of
gunpowdcr can be made from sawdust
Creosotc is also obtained from beach
wood, and many sawdust combinations
have been used in making imitation
marbles, sidewalks, and, among other
things. dinner plates.
=. l..
less cutting of timber off the Appa
lachian mountains is destroying ouT
supply of hard wood, and by floods and
crosions, caused by denuding the hills
carrying S30,000,0O0 worth OF farms
into the rivers and ocean every wear,
Ten millions of dollars, the price Of 4
battlcsbip, would make Il forest reserve
of these mountains and save, these
farms. \ bill 10 accomplish tins has
passed the senate three times, and has
always been defeated IN the house
Of representatives. because, apparently
farms were so cheap and plenty as yet
that the house of representatives saw
no necessity OF appTopriating $4,000
900 10 purchase the forests and then
administer them under scientific condi,
lions where they would support them.
selves, and thus save S30,00O.O0 worth
Of farms Il year.
Can Utilize Everything.
Modern science is showing how TO
utilize almost everything and take ad-
vantage of the prod;gaitv OF nature
"When natural supplies for recupera
tion and reclamation OF the soil were
becoming scarce and too dear for profit
able application. science discovered the
possibilities of producing marketable
nitrogen in unlimited quantities from
the aIr We are ~ vet in the infancy
of electrical transmission. but there are
stored in the Sierras. the Rockies. the
Alleghenies. the White and Green noun.
tains limIlless water powers for the
creation of electricity
There IS enough energy going TO