The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1922-05-06
Company Controls S
Kreiss Process In South
Florida and Plant,
Which Will Employ 40
To SO Worknen, Will
Start Operating In Sep
tember

The Non-Acid Fertilizer and Chem
ical Company, a local company with
Polk county officers and stockholders,
and with headquarters in the Deem
Bryant building, Lakeland, has brok-
en- ground for its plant on the site
west of town recently purchased from
Cammack & Co., of West Virginia.
The site embraces four acres lying
between the Atlantic Coast Line rail
way and the asphalt road opposite the
aviation field, a short distance west
of town on the way to Tampa.
The building planned will be of cor
rugated iron, with stucco on two
sides for ornamental purposes. The
floor will be of cement and a fire
protection sprinkler system will be
installed. The dimensions are to be
70 feet by 270 feet, and, when CON-
pleted the building will house special
machinery, including two large rotary
driers and all other equipment nee
essary to the operation of a general
fertilizer factory. The plant will EN-
ploy force of between forty and
fifty, the capacity being 10000 to
10000 tons a year.
H. E. Memminger, the general man.
ager, will oversee the construction
of the factory, for which plans are
being drawn by H. d. Mendenhall, of
the firm of G. d. & H. D. Menden-
hall.
The Non-Acid Fertilizer and Chem
ical Company will be prepared to
make all kinds of fertilizers and to
use any formula. The company is
founded. however, on South Florida
rights to the Kreiss process of COM
bining potash and phosphate rock by
a non-acid process, which does away
with the use of sulphuric acid.
This process consists of the CON-
bining of potash brine with phosphate
rock at a certain temperature, result
ing in potassium phosphate. 1t was
discovered simultaneously by Ger
man chemist and by A. L. Kreiss, now
of Jacksonville. but formerly of Ne
braska, where he made his important
discovery. Mr.. Kreiss was engaged
in potash mining when the war came
on, compelling him to turn his atten-
ton to other matters. A soap factory
was his first idea, which he abandoned
in favor of an effort to combine pot
ASH WIFI the lOW 6iduc pHOoPhdiC
rock of North Dakota. In this, he was
successful, but postwar conditions
and his distance from big supply of
the phosphate rock and from the
great fertilizer using section prevent
ed operating on a successful scale.
Mr.. Kreiss controls the process in this
country and plants using the process
are in operation in Brunswick, Geor-
gia, and in Pennsylvania, and one in
New Jersey is contemplated.
The local company lays claim to
certain unique advantages. With the
plant located at Lakeland, they have
the largest area of phosphate mining.
in the world right at their door. They
are in the center of an important cit
rus and trucking area, with the rest
of the South, known as the greatest
fertilizer using part of the United
States, not too far away. for it is
claimed that two-thirds of the COM
mercial fertilizer used in this country
is sold in the southern states. In ad-
dition to this, they claim that the nom
acid process effects a saving of four
to five dollars a ton over the acid pro-
ces.
Getting their phosphate rock near
at hand, the company has arrange
ments for getting nitrate Of soda from