Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-04-19
DECISION GIVEN IN
IMPORTANT SUIT
Action in the United States Dis
trict Court Alleging Infringe
ment of Patents.

In the United States District Cour
Yesterday afternoon Judge Bradford flee
an opinion in the case of the Union Sui
phur Company Of sulphur, La, against
the Freeport Texas Company, Delaware
corporation, and the freeport Sulphur
Company. a corporation of Texas, engaged
in the mining of sulphur at Bryan Mound
Texas. the case being one alleging IN
frngements of patents, and the opinion
holds that the patents are valid and had
been infringed upon.
The case is of particular interest
in view of the fact that the patents hglIr-
ing in the litigation have been responsible
for developing the sulphur mining indus
try IN this country.
The suit was brought for infringement
of three letters patent issued to Herman
Frasch and now owned by the plaintiff
for improvements in apparatus and process
for mining sulphur, relating more partl-
cularly 10 the removal of sulphur from
deposits deep down in the earth by fusing
sulphur in the underground deposits and
raising it III melted condition.
This method had never been effected
or attempted prior TO the Frasch inven-
tons Prior To these patents the mining
of sulphur was principally confined TO
Sicily where the deposits were found near
The surface of the ground and mined by
The sinking of shafts, through which the
sulphur ore was brought tn the surface
and the sulphur separated from the ore.
In 1869 very rich sulphur deposits
were discovered in Calcasleu parish,
Io,iisians. but the mining OF this
sulphur presented a difficult problem
although it was regarded by mining
engineers of that day as one that could
be easily solved.
Judge Bradford in his opinion here
reviews the efforts made hv the Louisiana
Petroleum and Coal Oil Company IN
l~6a, tho Calcasieu Sulphur and Mining
Company in 1871 and the American
sulphur Company in 1870 and reports OF
thcir mining engineers rs 10 the efforts
made 10 recover sulphur from this deposit.
Ill Of which resulted in failure The
depth OF the deposit the presence Of
,riicksand and Of sulphurous gas made
II impossible to sink shaft into the mine
MI efforts were abandoned although the
last company spent over S350000 IN the
enterprise
.Mtcr all these failures. Frasch in IlS9I
formed the broad conception OF ohvlatIng
All necessity for the mining of the sulphur
through Shaftlng by fusng the sulphur
m its natural state and bringing IT, while
So fused. 10 the surface through piping
Md this conception was embodied IN
the three patents granted 10 frasch.
October %. 1891
FrasCh then attempted 70 mine tho
sulphur by the use Of the apparatus and
process covered by his patents. but met
with failure - far rs commercial success
was concerned While attempting to
use these patents. Frasch ascertained that
the sulphur deposit was porous and water
laden. which he believed accounted for
the failure of the process and apparatus
covered by his patents, After further
experiments, he devised improvements
and obtsined the patents in the suit
Operating under these patents. the
plaintiff has met with phenomenal success.
recovering in 1902, { 1883 tons of sulphur
and increasing amounts thereafter until
1912 they recovered $50. Cos tons The