Smyrna times., 1933-03-01
DEAD SEA GIVES
VALUABLE SALT
Some of 1t Is Life Giging and
Analysis Shows 1t To Be
Most Valuable
LIMITED OUTPUT YET

WaShington.-With wheat at the
lowest price since 1891, and other
agricultural products selling at a
fraction of earlier prices. world
geography played paradOxical
trick when fertilizer material from
the Dead sea recently arrived in
New York.
Although the commercial exploit
tation of the salts of the Dead sea
is the result of experiments carried
on by NJ. A. NoYomeysky since 1911,
it was an American who made the
first modern exploration of the sea
OF Death" W. +. Lynch's amusing
adventures with camels and fiat
boats, nearly century ago. result
ed in a workmanlike survey of the
Dead sea and it's amazing proper
ties. This deepest hole in the world,
outside the ocean basins. is the
subject of a bulletin from the Ma
tiOnal Geographic society.
Sea Once Much Larger.
Before Behring straits separated
Alaska from Asia and before the
Straits of Dover marked off Eng
land from France, the Dead sea was
four times its present length and
its level was that of the Mediter-
ranean," says the bulletin. Most
Of the salts from that larger sea
still remain In the smaller evapora-
ton pan now known as the Dead
sea. From pipes sunk 175 feet be-
low the surface of this natural con-
centrate compounded by sun and
wind, new chemical company is
now pumping saline water. This
supersea water, so dense that or
ganic life cannot exist in it, Is
spread out into 500 acres of arti-
fetal evaporation pans contained BY
five miles Of dlkes. The savage sun
does most OF the work, but 400 |
Arab and Jewish labOrers are al
ready employed in mining the
precious salts from the sea.
-Four principal salts are being
extracted; mnriate of potash. used
In the manufacture of fertilizer:
bromine. used in medicines. photog-
raphy and dyemaking; chloride of
used in textile and ce-
ment manufacture. and common
salt, formerly a Turkish monopoly.
From this sea in which nothing
can live. finer crops are to come.
Salts which failed to heal HerOd's
illness will help in world healing.
Although the pillar of solid salt
which is pointed out as Lots wife
;till rises on the slope of Jebel Us
lum, close by the Dead sea shore.
common SALT a byproduct of the
Palestine Potash company, sets up
strong competition in the local
market.
Five and a half miles of new
Dad link the seaside factory with
he well-paved road to Jericho
made famous by the Good Samari-
an; but the limiting factor in pres
Mt operations is not the low price
T chemicals but the availability
f transportation. Diesel-engined
rucks now haul the chemicals out
f the worlds deepest land depres-
ion and up to the Judean plateau.
t Jerusalem 1t is loaded in trains
ound to Egypt, Jaffa or Haifa.
Within ten years of commencing
perations. the new company agrees
, produce thousand tons of
otassium chloride a week.
Depression Now MaIaria-Free.
'In spite of the almost inexhaust-
lie supply of Dead sea salts, there
Gems little chance of flooding the
arket unless agricultural condf-
ons alter radically. The demand
IT potash has doubled every dec
lie In recent times. At present
100000 tons of muriate of potash
year are produced. principally in
ermany and Alsace-Lorraine.