Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 162, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 July 1916 — CHANCE DISCLOSES SOURCE OF POTASH [ARTICLE]

CHANCE DISCLOSES SOURCE OF POTASH

United States May Be Freed From Dependence Upon Foreign Supply. CEMENT MILLS’ DUST USED Surprising Discovery Is Made While Efforts Are Being Made to Prevent Fumes From Damaging California Orange Groves. Uncle Sam’s chemical experts believe that by the merest chance, in an effort to abate a serious nuisance, which was menacing the orange groves of California, a discovery has been made which may result in giving the United States an adequate supply of potash for fertilizing purposes and thus free this country from its absolute dependence upon Germany for this miich-needed commodity. While the government experts say it is too early to make a sweeping prediction, they are optimistic and are conducting their investigations along these lines.

In the past the United States has paid tribute to Germany to the extent of $20,000,000 a year for potash, so necessary for enriching the soil, especially in the cotton-growing districts of the South. The European war, however, stopped these importations, and, necessity being the stern mother of invention, the federal chemists and others accelerated their efforts toward finding a potash supply In this country. The latest discoveries, which promise to free the United States from the dominance of Germany in regard to this valuable product, came about accidentally, aB have many other Important discoveries. A great cement mill in the or-ange-growing regions of California was sending tons of dust daily Into the air, the winds carrying the dust and depositing it on the orange groves, much to their detriment. When the owners protested, the cement mill men began buying in the nearest groves at SI,OOO an &pre, but finally had to give this up as being too expensive. Suits were filed and injunctions asked. About this time the attention of the cement-mill owners was attracted to an invention of Dr. F. G. Cottress for the precipitation of dusts from smelters’ fumes. Doctor Cottrell, who later became the chief metallurgist of the United States bureau of mines, worked out this process while a professor at the University of California several years ago. The ce-ment-mill men decided to experiment with the new invention, and the Cottrell process was installed. The surprising result was that the new process not only eliminated the dust fumes, but gave the cement people a product that contained a great amount of potash. The results are said to have been so satisfactory that It was thought for a while that the potash nlight prove to be the main product of some cement mills, with the manufacture of cement only a byproduct. This has not exactly come about, but the cement company last year, with potash at war-time prices, sold SIOO,OOO worth, and it Is said that the profit was SBO,OOO. The result of this! has been that the cement companies generally are taking notice. Another company near Hagerstown, Md., which from Its location did not have to bother about the dust nuisance, is voluntarily putting in the Cottrell process in order to save potash, which it to amount to four tons a day. Some ce-ment-mill men declare that the present mills in this country, properly equipped, are capable to turning out 100,000 tons of potash ydhrly, which is about one-fourth of the amount imported from Germany in normal times. It is further declared that Jttiere will be an incentive, to establish new mills located near deposits that are rich in potash, and that in the future no cement mill will have a haphazard location did not have to bother about mills may be erected In certain parts of the country for the purpose of making potash the main product and cement the by-product. The belief Is prevalent among those who are interested that, as a by-product in the manufacture of cement, potash can be made at such a price as to make it profitable in normal times at normal prices. The stopping of the dust nuisance in California by the use of the Cottrell process has suggested another field of endeavor. Now chemists are talking of applying this process for the obtaining of potash from the gases of the blast furnaces in the manufacture of pig iron. Charles Catlett of Stauntop, Va., a widely known chemist and metallurgical expert, makes the statement that the byproduct that can be collected from the blast-furnace gases.are sufficient in value to affect profoundly the question of the manufacture of iron In certain sections and from certain materials.