The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1917-07-19
Sulphur and War; How 1t Is Mined in
the Great Birthstone Deposits of Texas


Frank G. Carpenter, the world fam
Gus writer and traveller, has recently
visited the sulphur mines of Texas,
and his description of the deposits
and methods of recovering the sulphur
for commercial use is of unusual in
terest at this time when the product
has become of first Importance in the
conduct of the war with Germany.
Extracts from Mr.. Carpenters story
are here given:
| have come to Freeport to write of
an industry that means much as to
victory or defeat in our great war
with Germany. Away down here in
southeastern Texas, at the mouth. of
the Brazos river and within short
distance of deep water in the Gulf of
: Mexico, lies a great bed of pure sui
phur The bed is more than 500 feet
below the surface of the earth, and
it is crowned by huge dome of rock
which has a necklace of quicksand 1t
reaches only 90 feet above the sur
rounding country and to look at it
YOU would think it only hill. The
deposit of sulphur is just like another
great bed that lies under a similar
come in southern Louisiana on the
edge of the gulf and the two depos-
its are now furnishing SO per cent of
all the sulphur used in the United
States. Each is producing tens of
thousands of tons every month, and
both will be worked to their full ca
pacity throughout the war.
But before | describe the wonders
going on here, let me tell you how
vital this sulphur has become to our
life as a nation. 1t is needed to make
the sulphuric acid which is employed
in all high explosives, and it is the
basis of, acid phosphate, the CONNER
cial fertilizer upon which we rely for
our food supply. =
In the past we bought some of our
sulphur from Japan, but this is now
going to Russia, where it is used for
making munitions of war. We once
got the most of our supply from Sic
lily, but that was cut off when the
Louisiana mines were developed, and
of. late we have been making our sui
phuric acid from pyrtes. the most of
which we have been importing from
Spain and Portugal. We took from
those countries last year million
and a quarter tons, but the supply
has been cut off by the submarines,
and it will have to be replaced in
large part by these sulphur mines.
Just now we are using more sui
phur than ever before. Our usual
consumption has been in the neigh
borhood of 100000 tons per annum.
Last year we used more than three
times that quantity, and the bulk of
the excess went into high explosives
for the projectiles shipped to our al
lies From the Freeport mine a
quarter of million tons was ship
ped to one munitions factory, and l
understand that large contracts have
been placed for the future.
The fertilizer companies will need
more than 100000 tons of sulphur
for the acid phosphate required by
the farmers; but their supply will be
restricted by the amounts needed in
the munitions factories and it may be
also by our shipments to Europe ~
Sulphur is used also in many man
ufactures. Prior to this war 70 per
cent of our product was consumed in
making wood pulp and news print pa
per- The paper on which this letter
Is printed was bleached with sulphur;
and this is so of almost all papers
used for periodicals, magazines and
books Suphuric acid is a necessity
in refining petroleum. 1t is employed
in the making of sugar and also in
steel, iron and coke manufactures. In
connection with lime it forms the
lime sulphur insecticide which is used
everywhere in our orchards, and 1t
means the success or failure of our
fruit crop. In short, it is the basis OF
so many different industries that we
must have it in order. to live.
And now we come to the discovery