Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1913-09-28

<
lpermeating rocks carrying minute
Iquantity of mineral ingredients, can
extract the metals from them. and
Ire deposit and concentrate them into
Veins or enriched secondary ores
Chemical Industry Lays Here
| The carrying out of the perfect
Rio Tinto methods is possible be
lcause the chemical markets of the
| world are open to the cOmpany's
products and by-products: whereas
one reason why the recovery of by
| products is less advanced in Amer
lea than in Europe is that the chem
| zeal industry here has not made pro-
gross at the same rate as the metal
| lurgical industry.
! The population of our country has.
! in half a century, grown from 81
| 100000 to nearly 100000. 900 our
railroad mileage in the same period
! has increased from about 10000
lmiles to $4,000 miles. Our architects
| have rejected stone and mortar in
| favor of metal to such an extent
! that an ordinary skscraper consumes
| 10000 tons OF steel.
| The demand for metal in enor-
| nous quantities has therefore been
| so urgent that attention to minute
| economies has been overlooked to
1 pei I'D pS d ItpIeIt1SlDle extent, ana
| chemical products being less in pop
ular demand than metals. chemical
manufacturing has not advanced so
| rapidly as the metallurgical. Yet I'M
! til these twin industries keep pace
| with one another We have to go on
| wasting.
Utilization of Sulphur
| sulphur is one of the most Valua-
bic constituents in our ores that is
| going to waste. It does seem op-
! probrious that within sight of such
| q hive of industry as our city, clouds
of sulphurous acid should be issuing
from chimneys on the New Jersey
| coast and floating out to sea over
| Staten Island.
| The Tennessee Copper company has
set us an example. BY utilizing the
| sulphurous acid OF their furnace
| gases, they have brought down the
| price of sulphuriC acid to So a ton,
and they are in that way stimulating
| the superphosphate and general chem
! zeal industry over wide region, by
| placing sulphuric acid in the indus
| trial centers Of the southwest and
middle west at about IS a ton.
! If the Copper Queen company
| could find or make a market in the
| Rocky mountains for sulphuric acid.
| we would gladly occupy il. In
Douglas. at the present time. from
the ores Of the mines of that neigh
| borhood, we are wasting enough sui
| phur TO make 500 to 600 tons of oil
| Of vitroI per day. The production
| of acid in Butte would reach thous-
ands of tons day, if they could
only convert their sulphurous fumes
/ into sulphuric acid and find mar
| llet for it.
In the south we are looking to the
| islands Of the Pacific for phosphates.
Butte is not very far from the phos-
phate deposits Of Wyoming and
Idaho The farmers Of the prairie
states and the Pacific coast viii alb
! sorb at no distant date all the fer
tilizers we can make, but they are
loath to spend money on soil which
nature has so bountifully and sratu-
! itously enriched.
Handling of Coal
| At present the most obstinate case
| of waste is undoubtedly in the hand
ling of coal But there again coal
mining has progressed at such a ter
! rfficalv rapid rate that it would
have been almost impossible TO
practice perfect economy. even II
| the chemical manufacturer had kept
pace with the coal mine, which ne
has not done.
| Even under unbridled competition
tmore coal is now extracted than is
consumed: but the price is 50 low
| that it hardly warrants using the
| economies which ought to be carried
out in the mining and the handling
of the coal. and the making of coke
| do not think that cheapness is an
| unmixed benefit. But apart from the
ouestion of price. there arises that
of the utilization Of by-products.
Forgive me if l draw again from eX-
perience In the northern part OF
! New Mexico we are mining nearly
500 600 tons of coal a year, and are
making about $4,000 tons Of coke
per annum We are trying to do
the best we know how, but we do
not pretend for a moment that our
operations are as economical as they
would be under ideal conditions.
| Instead of beehive ovens we have
erected underline ovens, which are a
kind of makeshift between the or
binary beehive oven and the by
! product oven, the fIue being con-
| structed with a view to preserving
| the heat of the gases on their pass
age from the ovens to the steam
boilers. We thus generate by the
waste gases all the steam we need
for the washery, the pumps. trans
lDOrtation service, and cOal-cuttng
machinery: but we have enough
waste heat to generate 5000 horse
mower more if we could find any ser
/ vice for it We are looking for
| subterranean water supply TO lrrI-
gate the magnificent land around us,
which is athirst for moisture, but