AMERICAN CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES The Vanadium Corporation of America and Its Predecessor, The American Vanadium Company
Brldceville Plant of Vansdi Urn Corporati""
A
S AN erample of
tlic far-rcacliiox results of commercial vi8ion applied t o a scientific fact or discovery. the vanailirim industry stands preeminent. An element t h a t was known for over a century aud relegated t o the specimen cabi-
nets of museums was made economically available t o the metallurgical world by the foresight of two nontechnical business men of Pittsburgh, the brothers J. J. and J. M. Flannrry. The element vanadium was really discovered in 1801 by Del Kio. in Mexico, and it was surmised time and again, and suggested, especially by Lewis Thompson in 1863 arid Edward Riley in 1864, that the superior qualities of certain Rrades of iroiis, such as the well-known Swedish iron, might be dut. t o the fact t h a t the ores from which they were made. contained vanatliuiii. Following these suggestions, attempts were made to produce vanadium by working the slags from iron processes running on vanadium-containing ores. The Firminy Steel \Vorkr, in Frame, produced vanadium in this manner about 1836. and used it in the production of their wmor plates. The attention of the metallurgicsl world t o vanadium, however, was not drawn until Proiessor Arnold's work on the effect of vanadium in tool steel was published in 1900, and until four years later the paper by Sailkey and Smith appeared, showing the remarkable efkcts oi vanadium on stmeturd steels. These publications aroused some interest for vanadium in this country, and some of our native western minerals, such as roscoditc and carnotite, wcic experimented upon by the Niagara Research Laboratories, during 1902 t o 1!104, without establishing any commercial results. I t was left t o the Flaunery Hrothcrs to utilize all this information iu il thoroughly hiiiineislike manner and, r e a h iiig the iinrommcr&l nspretz of our own depoiitr, they
I d
America
turned their attrwtioii t o South America as a source of supply. Soliciting the financial aid of a few Pittsburgh business associates, they sent an engineering expedition t o Peru t o locate a deposit which was reputed t o contain vanadium. The Flanneiys were fortunate, not only in their selection ai the country for ation, but also in the choice oi D. Foster Hewett as their geologist and mining mgiiieer. Mr. Hewett soon found that the reputed deposit had very little vanadium in it, but through negotiations with and examination of some of the mining properties of E. E. Fernaodini, of Lima, Peru, helearned that a new vanadium mineral had beeii discovered by M r . Fernandini's engineer, Antenor K i m Patron, and called after him "Patronite." The discovery of this mineral was interesting as well as important, as it contained not only very much larger percentages oi vanadium, but also in entirely different combination with other elements than had been hitherto known. This discovery was reported hy Mr. Hewctl in November, 1005, and the title t o the deposit was immediately secured by the Flaniirrys. This was the starting point of the American Vanadium Company and really the inception of the vanadium industry, not only in this country but in the world. After the American Vanadium Company had thus secured its source oi supply, it turned to its exploitation. It secured the services of J. Kent Smith of England, and brought him over t o Pittsburgh t o do pioneer work in the introduction of vanadium in s i r 4 among the Pittsburgh steel-makers. I n the memitime it made arraopmentq with thc Niagara Reseearch Laboratories to smelt the alloy. After some pioneering work had been accomplished among the steel-makers. during 1807 the American Vanadium Company decided to erect i n smelting plant a t Bridgevillr, Pa. Theerprrirncewith th
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a i d their owii work in Bridgevilic, on a inore or less cxperimental
scale, convinced the leaders in the American Vanadium Company that the smelting of vanadium to a product suitable for the steel industry pzesentcd metallurgical problcms very difier-
Vol. 17, No. 3
nating the uncertainties of wet leaching processes, vanadium wa5 then produced by reduction with aluminium by purely metallurgical smelting processes, and its metallurgy made cornpamble to other nonferrous operations. In 1913, owing to complete changes that had been effected in the smeltiug process, a new plant was erected, also a t Bridgeville, and later, in about 1916. the aspect of vanadium metallurgy was piactically completely altered by the development of
Old Method of Tramp
ent from those of oidiriary ferrou
Vanadium Deposit
Mina Ragra, Per"
iii the case of an ordinary infant industry. The experimental and rnetnllurgical research work soon bore fruit in the wellknown success of the- American Vanadium Company. Elimi-
for vanadium has not only substituted the cheaper reducing agent, coke, in place of the previously used expensive aluminium, but has obviated the necessity of any previous preparation of the ore?, and bas also enabled the economical smelting of very much lower grades of ores, which might have been considered unworkable under the older processes. The electric smelting of vanadium affords a very marked example of the application of electrical and mechanical engineering to the bringing about of the extreme conditions under which only the chemical reaction of reduction could proceed. In September, 1919, the American Vanadium Company passed into the hands of very much stronger financial interests, with the formation of the Vanadium Corporation of America, which has as lately as December, 1924, extended its activities to other ferro-alloys by merging with the United States Ferro-Alloys Corporation. The application of vanadium in the field of metallurgy today, where i t is a n indispensable component of high-speed tool steel, and where it has made our present-day automobile construction possible and afforded us a more secure and more economical metal for railroad transportation, makes us marvel how the commercial vision of a small group of business men could have coardinated a n inaccessible mineral deposit with scientific and technical research of the highest order, thus achieving practical results of such far-reaching importance to OUT present-day civilization. 8.I). SAKLATWALLA
Regional Meeting - at Iowa City The preliminary plans for the Regional Meeting of the AXERICAN CIIEMICAL SOCIETY a t Iowa City on the 8th and 9th of May are well under way. Friday morning will be devoted to registration and t o inspection of the new chrmistry building of the State University of Iowa. On Friday afternoon u general meeting will be held and, although the speakers have not been definitely secured, the program, made up of a series of short addresses by prominent chemists of the Middle West, will be interesting to all. The evening of May 8 will be given over to the dcdicalion of the new chemistry building. The program will begin with a dinner a t 6 or 6:3O P. M. This will be followed by an address by a speaker of national rcputation. It is planrrcd to have a smoker and social hour after the address. On Saturday morning there will be group meetings in (1) General Inorganic and Physical Chemistry, (2) Organic Chem-
istry, (3) Biochemistry, ( 4 ) Industrial. Metallurgical, and Sanitary, Chemistry, , a n d (5) Chemical Zducation. The Iowa Section cordially tnvites the members of the A . C. S. who are interested in this meeting t o present papers. The program committee requests that the title and a brief abstract of such ~ a ~ e be r ssent t a N. 0. Taylor, .~ secretary of the Iowa Section. hot later than April IO. The plans of the entertainment committee are incomplete but arrangements have been made foi- a baseball game between Iowa and Northwestern University, as well as a track meet between Iowa and Illinois, on the afternoon of the 9th. The golf course will be open to those who desire to indulge in this pastime. If you don't golf and are not interested in athletics as viewed from the side lines, the Iowa River and a canoe are suggested as the best method of keeping up the daily dozetl.
