Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1911-09-22
A GROWING INDUSTRY
The Brennan Sand Banks on The
Severn River Factor In The
Manufacturing World
New Pumping Pro-
cess Used
SUPPLY OF SAND FOR "a YEARS
Superintendent Fetters A Poet As
Well As An Expert On Good
Sand And Its Uses

Sand And Its Uses
Anne Arundel county, known far
and near for its products of the soil,
its vegetable growth and for what its
surrounding waters produce, is also
rich in its mineral products, if sand
can be classed in that line.
At Robinson's Station, on the Short
Line, is located the headquarters of
the Brenan Sand Company, from and
by whom sand of the very best quality
is shipped to the firm known as the
Philadelphia Quartz Company, of Phil
adelphia, which has a pecuniary inter-
est in the Anne Arundel sand banks.
Large quantities of sand are ship
| ped weekly, and oftener, to Pough-
| keepsie, N. Y, Chester, Pa, Alexan-
| dria, Va, and other points. The
sand is used in the manufacture of
glass in 81 icate of soda, in the man
| ufacture of soap, the adulteration
of glue and in the making of good
roads, and also in preserving eggs.
Few people realize that nine tenths
of the soap used is made from sand
such as the Anne Arundel sand banks
produce. The sand is shipped from
the Brenan works in barges, and most
of it goes to four or five different
glassworks in nearby states.
Besides being used for the above
named articles of manufacture sand is
also used largely in the adulteration
of paint. By the former old system
at the Brenan sand banks, there were
| fifty men employed, whereas now
there are but eighteen. The present
system is the pumping system. BY
this method the sand is pumped into
vacuum pipes that connect with an
engine over the well of sand which
sends forth a combination of sand,
slush water, clay, etc., all of which
are separated. The products of these
sand wells are from 60, 20 to 80 per
cent water and slush. The clear water
is drawn off by a certain process and
passes out through pipes into the
river.
That part of the substance that is
slush goes into the settling boxes,
the clay settles and the clear water
runs off as stated above. The clay
can be sold for the manufacturing of
certain kinds of crockery, and is
sold for this purpose. Recently the
workmen at the sandbanks have
struck clear, cold water, and, to use
an expression of one of them, 'are
up against it," The water is
sparkling, and boils up and would in
dicate boiling spring at that point
in the midst of the sand we'll. The
work at that point has been somewhat
interfered with because of the fresh
| flowing stream thirty feet below the
| surface.
When asked how long the Brenan
Sand Banks would be available for
use. several of those nearby having
been abandoned, the superintendent
said it is impossible to tell. For
thirtyfour years he said they have
been getting sand from these sand
banks and the end of their supply and
usefulness is not in sight. The su-
perinttendent of the Sand Company
here is Mr.. David Fetters, a man
who has managed affairs for the COM
| pany with satisfaction and in an able
and efficient manner for the past five
years. Mr.. Fetters sees great possi-
biIities in the Brennan Sand Banks.
He told of recent vein of sand they
had struck twenty feet high, and said
that this sand is the very best for
smelling purposes. He said in the
| separating process there is a good
clay, such as can be used in manu-
featuring, but he had not found a pur-
chaser for this clay. Mr.. Fetters is
surprised at having struck the boiling
spring thirty feet below the surface
during the recent pumping process,
and is somewhat puzzled at the find.
Mr.. Fetters spends his spare time
writing verse. He has 160 poems
which he proposes to have printed in
pamphlet form under the title "The
Rhymes of David-Rich, Rare''andR lead
able" Superintendent Fetters did
not discover he was gifted in the
line of verse-writing until he was
81 years old, and he has made the
best use of his talent since. He
has poems under the titles why
Where, I" ''When,'' What" and
many on patriotic subjects. All have
merit, and some show the trend of a
skeptic on religious questions and ac-
cepted belief He is, apparently, q
disciple of "The New Thought" idea,
and some of this idea has been woven
into verse.
Shut off from the world in the little
corner, prolific of sand, on the Severn
river, the visitor may not only find q
busy man who knows all about the
method and system of obtaining sane
from wells and sand banks, and sepa.
rating it into its component parts, but
genius, a verse-writer whose line.
show thought and feeling, one whC
lives near to nature and nature.
God. and one who, even past 81
has a touch of sentimentalism il
his composition.
The two following are some of Mr.
Fetters' compositions of recent date