CENTURY OF THE years ago Herman Frasch perfected FIF a Tnew Y process for mining sulfur and opened up the theretofore inaccessible sources of sulfur in the salt domes of the Gulf of Mexico coast. His invention and the efforts of many other men led to the subsequent development of the American sulfur industry, and in turn contributed t o the tremendous growth of the American chemical industry. The purpose of the Symposium on a Half Century of the American Sulfur Industry is to review the establishment and achievements of the sulfur-producing industry of the United States. A t the turn of the century the total consumption in this country of sulfur in all forms amounted t o not more than half a million tons a year. Today, this is about 6 weeks’ supply for American industry. A t the beginning of the twentieth century the United States imported about 170,000 tons of brimstone a year. Today, it exports more than eight times this tonnage. In the year 1900 the infant sulfur industry produced slightly more than 3000 tons of sulfur. Today, the industry produces nearly five times this much in a single day. Until the twentieth century the major industrial supply of brimetone was Sicily. Today, the United States is the foremost sulfur producer in the world. Sulfur in quantity, of high purity, and a t low cost, is the contribution of the American sulfur industry to the American chemical industry. In 1867 an underground sulfur deposit was discovered near Lake Charles, La., while drilling for petroleum. Successively, Austrian, French, and American companies attempted to reach the sulfur by modifications of conventional mining methods. All attempts ended in disastrous failures, and the rich deposit of sulfur was inaccessible until Herman Frasch became interested. He had come from Germany at the
age of 16. He worked for a few years at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, and a t the age of 22 set up a laboratory of his o w n and began his career as an industrial chemist. By the time he was 36 his contributions to the technology of petroleum refining and his ownership in the Empire Oil Company in Canada had made him a wealthy man. His interest in scientific problems, however, was in no way diminished. To mine the sulfur discovered in Louisiana he now proposed melting it underground with hot water, and on October 13, 1890, filed a patent application covering his idea. Many years intervened before the Union Sulphur Company, which he founded -in 1896 to exploit his process, achieved success. Even as late as 1901his associates were ready to abandon the enterprise. The struggles of Frasch to make his process a successI so well described by Williams Haynes in his book “The Stone That Burns,” are now history. His inventiveness1 ingenuity, and persevering determination which enabled him, after 16 years of difficulties and disappointments to convert an idea into a fabulously successful enterprise, must be admired. From his genius and his inventions the modern sulfur industry has sprung. Frasch died in 1914 and the development of the American sulfur industry, as known today, became the responsibility of other men. That these men wrought well is evidenced by the size and stability of that industry and the service it has rendered. The Union Sulphur Company which Frasch established found competition
INDUSTRY by the Freeport Sulphur Company in 1912 and the Texas Gulf Sulphur Company in 1918 in the development of the sulfur resources of the country. In 1928 the Duval Sulphur and Potash Company, and in 1932 the Jefferson Lake Sulphur Company, also started to mine sulfur by the Fraech process. Obviously, during the intervening years this process has been improved and refined. Originally the sulfur wells were operated by “feel” and by instinct. Today, production a t each well is carefully controlled. The drilling rigs, the well e uipment, the boiler plants, and the pi e lines llave been improved and notable strides ave been made in heat conservation. The methods used in the collection, storage, and shipment of sulfur have been modified to ensure a better product for industry. The best mining, mechanical, and chemical engineering skills are employed in the search for sulfur and its efficient production. Owing to these skills, deposits are now being worked which once appeared as hopeless as the original sulfur deposit in Louisiana must have appeared to the early Austrian, French, and American sulfur miners. Furthermore, the sulfur companies of today are tapping not only the subsurface deposits, but also the substantial sulfur resources in sour gas from petroleum operations. Certainly, the sulfur made available by the ingenuity of Frasch, and the technological advances of the years, has contributed mightily to the growth of the United States as the world’s greatest chemical workshop. Conversely, the tremendous strides of the chemical industrialists of the United States since the dark days of 1914 and 1915 have had their stimulating influence on the growth of the sulfur industry.
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Sulfur in one form or another finds application in the manufacture of many products of daily use. Of all sulfur compounds, however, sulfuric acid is the most important. It is man’s basic chemical and as a chemical tool is unsurpassed. The development of the American sulfur industry, therefore, is closely associated with the development of the American sulfuric acid industry. Both illustrate the characteristic features of the chemical phase of the Industrial Revolution. The use of sulfuric acid in the United States is f a r larger than that of any other country in the world. Its increased use may, in no small measure, be attributed directly to the establishment and growth of the American sulfur industry. In 1900 the annual production of acid, basis loo%, was slightly less than 1,000,OOO tons. In 1950, production will be more than twelve times that amount. In 1900, all this acid was made by the chamber process. Today, more than 70% is made by the improved contact process. The successful development of this process in this country was simplified in many respects by the available supplies of pure sulfur. The availability of pure sulfur also contributed to the enormous production of oleum products and even to some of the success in the production of the host of dyestuffs, plastics, and synthetics and many other articles now a commonplace feature of American civilization. Man’s adjustment to the physical world in many ways is determined by the relation between population and resources. When the methods and tools of developing the resources of a country are improved these modifications usually bring about changes in industry and in the habits and the institutions of the people, and tend to raise standards of living in that country. The methods and tools for producing and using sulfur are continuously changing. New uses for sulfur and its compounds are being found. Knowledge regarding the function of sulfur in human, plant, and animal nutrition and health and disease is becoming clearer. No one knows what the next 50 years will bring. But, it is evident from the symposium that the invention of the “hot water” process of mining sulfur had a great effect on American industry and culture. W. W. DUECKER
