Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-06-24

Copyright 1917 by Frank C. Carpenter)
----~ FREEPORT, Tex.
g.. HAVE come to Freeport to write Of
III an industry that means much as to
victory or defeat in our great war
q with Germany. Away down here in
southeastern Texas, at the mouth OF the
Bf5zos river and within short distance
Of deep water in the Gulf of Mexico. lies
great bed of pure sulphur. 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 quick
sand 1t reaches only twenty-three
feet above the surrounding country and
to look at it you would think it only
hill. The deposit of sulphur IS JUST
like another great bed that hes under
similar dome in southern Louisiana
= on the edge of the gulf, and the Two
deposits are now furnishing 9s per cent
of all the sulphur used IN the Uniteo
States. Each is producing tens OF thou-
sands of tons every month, and both
will be worked to their full capacity
throughout the war.
But before l describe the wonders go
ing on here let me tell you how vital
this sulphur has become to our life as
a nation. 1t is needed to make the
SuIpnurlc aClu WHICH Is eilpios GU az GA
high explosives, and it is the basis of
acid phosphate. the commercial fertl-
lizer- upon which we rely for our food
supply.
In the past we bought some of our sui
phur from Japan, but this is now gong TO
Russia. where it is used for making
munitions of war. We once got the
most, of our supply from Sicily. nut
that was cut off when the Louisiana
Inifies were developed and OF late We
have been making our suiphuflc acld
from pyrites. the most OF whlch we
have been importing from Spain and
Portugal. We took from those couh-
tries last year million anu quaF te es
ions, but the supply has been cut on
by the submarines, and 1T VIII nave TO
be replaced in large part by these sui
phar mines.
than. ever before. Our usual consuinp-
ton has been in the neighborhood or
100000 tons per annum. Last year we
used more than three times that guam
tity"and the bulk of the excess went
into high explosives for the projectiles
shipoed to our allies. From the Free
port mine quarter OF a miilio s IONS
was shipped to one munitions factory.
ardI understand that large contracts
have been placed for the future,
The fertilizer companies VIII need
,,o-e than one million tons Of sulphur
for the acid phosphate required by the
farmers; but their supply will be re-
stricted by the amounts needed in the
munitions factories ana u may DC siiso
nv our shipments to Europe.
SULPHUR is used also in many manu-
features. Prior TO this war % per cent
OF our product was consumed In max
ing wood pulp and news print paper
The oaper on which this letter Is print
ed was bleached with sulphur; and this
is so of almost all papers used for
periodicals, magazines and books. Sui
nauric acid is a necessity in refining
petroleum. 1t is employed in the max
Ing" Of sugar. and also in steel. iron
and coke manufactures. In connection
with lime il forms the lime-sulphur in
secticide which is used everywhere in
our orchards. and IL means the success
or failure of our fruit crop. In short.
n is the basis of so many different in
dustries that we must have IT IN order
TO live ,,t,s =, 1o,,is;..
were developed the most of the worlds
supply came from the Island OF Sicily.
IL Mis- dug up about the slopes of the
volcano of Aetna. and Italy supposed
that she had monopoly of the bust
ness for all time to come. This was
: potw ithstanding sulphur was known
to exist in Louisiana. II had been dis
covered there about the close of our
civil war but the deposit was covered
vim quicksand and was buried 500 feet
under the ground. so that il resisted
all the attempts of the miners.
Then came from Germany a young
into the employ of the Standard oil Com
pany, He was an inventor well
a chemist. and he became Interested in
sulphur when he invented process for
taking the sulphur and other offensive
odors out of coal oil. He had made
good investments and growing
rich when he heard of the sulphur de-
posits of Louisiana. and turned his
mind toward getting them out Of the
ground He came down to the Gulf
OF Mexico and made many experiments
He drilled wells here and there over
tho deposit. and finally concluded that
he could put down pipes into the sui
phGi and melt * by means of super
heated water in such Il way that the
Iiqnid sulphur could be forced up TO
the surface of the earth. He tried il
and it proved success. In 1903 he