The Penn's Grove record., 1913-08-29
DELAWARE'S new INDUSTRY
Makes Sulphuric Acid From Imported
Iron PyrlteS

Anywhere within a radius of ten miles
from North Claymont, Delaware, about
three miles northeast of Penns Grove,
one cal see rising high up into the sky
a giant yellow shaft. 1t is the brick
pany's new plant. Less than two years
ago the spot where it stands was all open
field used for farming; now there stands
a city there.
For almost a year a great steam shovel
grunted and pulled. dug and scoped.
For almost a year men piled brick on
brick, fastened girder to girder, twisting
pipes and installing machinery. Grad
ually the work progressed until at last
fine great buildings of brick, steel and
concrete, bristling with pipes, stacks watts
and tanks, stood completed. At a cost
of $50, 900 the first buildings of the
General Chemical Company had been
erected and prepared to manufacture sui
phuric acid by a secret process as care
fully guarded as the secrets guns of the
United States.
70 the uninterested the whole plant
looks like the dream of some mad man.
Pipes every wherel Twisted, bent, coil
ed and contorted-fo for all the world like
the intestines OF some great giant. This
giant is not content with food found in
this country, Only the best iron pyrites
ore imported from Spain is poured into
his open NAV. Then the process of di-
gestion begins. First the sulphur fumes
are separated from the iron by burning
the ore in closed ovens. These fumes
are carried off thru pipes and rushed to
orook laoJ ohonnhoro Uhoro iafo of .kao,~
play OIL them turning them from sulphur
trioxide into sulphuric acid. On thru
more coils and loops and turns, thru a
thousand feet of pipe chilled by running
water, the acid goes, cOndensing and be-
coming more and more concentrated all
the time. Then thru buildings where
none may go but those who know the
secret. Finally it splashes out OF the
long tube INTO six tanks used for storage
and loading purposes. The process
never stops. Night and day, year in and
year out, this man-made monster will
guzzle Spanish ore and spit it out sui
phuTic acid.
The present plant gives employment to
125 men. This number includes ~electri-
clans, engineers, chemists, ore experts,
carpenters, department foremen and
laborers. The majority of the latter are
employed handling the raw ore.
Large tho the present plant now seems,
it is only a fourth part of what will
ultimately be Que OF the biggest chemical
factories of its kind in the world. Equip
ped and ready for use, the complete
plant will represent an expenditure of
81, 900, 600. Just when the rest of the
D1anf mill no hni1t 10 ac uof n,,Aoailo1
owing to the unsettled state of the tariff.
If all probability the work will be COM
menced next spring. The addition will
consist of buildings and apparatus for
manufacturing almost every chemical oil
the market. The buildings are to. be
made fire. resistant and are to be so ar
ranged as to effect the greatest possible
economy. The apparatus used will be
made from secret plans by the company's
own construction department. The pipes,
watts and tanks will be so built that the
escape of dangerous or offensive fumes
will be impossible. This seems very
considerate OF such a great and busy COM
pany. Where there is gas escaping.
there is waste, they argue. Unpleasant
odors are a useless expense. One cannot
help but think what a lot of waste there
must be about the mechanism of a skunk.
The materials used by the company
are now handled entirely by freight.
There is nearing completion a system of
overhead tracking that makes the twist
ing of a scenic railway seem Insignificant.
When it is finished. whole freight trains
will be run right into the company's
buildings, and cars will be shifted and
switched and shunted around precarious
curves fifty feet above the earth in mid
airl
In addition to this there is to be a
wharf reaching from shore far out into
the deep water of the Delaware. By
means of rail and water. the new plant
at Claymont will be in touch with every
place in the world.