(Physical Resources)
TENNESSEE GEORGE I. WHITLATCH AND ROBERT B. CASSELL TENNESSEE INDUSTRIAL AND AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION, NASHVILLE 3, TENN.
C
HEMICAL manufacture has long been an important segment of Tennessee industry but not until 1929 did chemicals and allied products achieve first place in value of product, overtaking textile and food products. As a manufacturing group, chemicals did not exceed textiles in total employment until 1948. Today, chemicals constitute the state’s leading manufacturing group, in both value of product and employment (35). The approximately 48,000 workers employed in the chemical industry of Tennessee make this state the leading The value added by chemical employer in the South (7’). manufacture of the Tennessee chemicals industry during 1952 was estimated at $283,295,000, about 22% of all manufacturing activities. In 1952, latest year for which data are available, chemical manufacturers in Tennessee expended $110,854,000 for expansion of manufacturing facilities and addition of equipment and machinery (g6). Tennessee manufacturing capacity has been expanded tremendously by major developments in two periods since 1900. The earlier period, 1914 to 1929, witnessed establishment of nearly a half dozen large industries, all in the chemical fieldAluminum Company of America a t Alcoa, starting in 1914; the D u Pont Old Hickory rayon and cellophane plants, near Xashville, after 1919; Tennessee Eastman Corp. and Mead Corp., which began operations at Kingsport in 1920; and the two rayon plants established a t Elixabethton in 1925 and 1927 and now a part of the Beaunit Mills organization. Especially notable among the “home-grown” industries established in this period is Tennessee Products & Chemical C o p , which traces its origin back to 1919 and today has seven operating units in Middle and East Tennessee for the manufacture of various mineral and chemical products. Since the midthirties, Tennessee industrial growth has been outstanding in the Southeast, as exemplified by a 53.4% increase in manufacturing employment between 1939 and 1947. Large chemical operations have been prominent among the new industries established since 1937. I n that year, Monsanto Chemical Co. pioneered electrothermal production of phosphorus a t Columbia, using a new sintering technique permitting the use of lower grades of phosphate than had previously been possible. Then followed a similar operation by Victor Chemical Works and, most recently, by Shea Chemical Co. The famed Oak Ridge atomic project in East Tennessee is the outstanding chemical development of the World War I1 period. Since the end of World War 11, there have been such notable multimillion dollar projects as the Du Pont nylon plant a t Chattanooga and also its hydrogen peroxide and sodium cyanide units a t Memphis; the American Enka rayon tire cord plant a t Lowland, near Morristown; the Grace Chemical ammonia-urea unit a t Memphis; the
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Bowaters Southern newsprint mill a t Calhoun; and the Cramet titanium plant a t Chattanooga,
Table I.
Major Mineral Production (1952-1953 Average)
Production Volume, short tons Cement Coal Clay Copperb Lime Phosphate rock Band and gravel Stone Zinc b Sulfuric acidC
7,352,784a 5,366,761 1,011,377 7,724 107,331
1,7?8.100
5,202,365 10,431,338 38,242 875,684
Dollars 18,058,713 25,345,622 3,135,539 4,098,583 11,29 1,091,348 1,465 5,466,504 17,300,408 10.734.790 6,278,654
Barrels.
b Recoverable content of ores.
1948 d a t a , later figures not available.
WATER RESOURCES The single most important factor in the growth of the Tennessee chemical industry has been water, both for power and for processing purposes. The excellence and abundance of waters in Tennessee streams have been especially instrumental in the establishment of synthetic fiber and related clpmical process plants. Water supplies are abundantly available for industrial use either from surface or underground sources in any of the three major geographic divisions of Tennessee. Private industry presently is the largest user of water, with daily withdrawal of 1.54 billion gallons or 58% of total daily withdrawals in 1949, latest reliable estimate (81). If water usage in steam generation plants were included in the industrial category, the daily total would increase to 2.34 billion gallons. Approximately 89% of the water used by industry is from surface sources, the remainder from ground sources. Surface Waters. The average annual precipitation is about 50 inches, of which 23 inches or approximately 45% of the total runs off into streams. The three master streams are the Cumberland, Tennessee, and Mississippi rivers, with their tributaries, forming a system of waterways of 25,000 to 30,000 miles in extent that cover the entire state. I n general, the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers and their major tributaries are the chief sources for development of large water supplies in Middle and East Tennessee. In recent years, both the Tennessee Valley Authority and U. S. Corps of Engi-
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Resources neem have instituted multipurpose programs for the control and utilization of these river systems through construction of a series of dams t h a t has created extensive water storage reservoirs and brought about partial equalization of flow from wet to dry seasons thus ensuring adequate mater t o industry, plus the advantages of power generation and navigation improvement. The rivers of Tennessee are important as sources of municipal as well as industrial water supplies. Of 246 Tennessee cities and towns with water systems ( H ) ,some 46 are dependent on streams, lakes, and impounding reservoirs. Three of the largest cities, Nashville, Knoxville, and Chattanooga, depend on rivers for drinking and other domestic water supplies, while many industries in those cities and elsewhere throughout the state use large amounts of river water. The new Bowaters Southern newsprint mill a t Calhoun, for example, uses 25,000,000 to 30,000,000 gallons of water daily from the Hiwassee River, while a similar quantity is pumped from the Cumberland River by the D u Pont rayon-cellophane plants a t Old Hickory-about as much water as used by the nearby city of Nashville. With the exception of a part of the Holston River in Upper East Tennessee, the average hardness of waters in Tennessee streams is low, ranging from 11 to 100 p.p.m., with the softer waters being from Tennessee River tributaries that flow from the high mountain country along the North Carolina-Tennessee border where the stream beds are in noncarbonate rock formations. Ground Water. Ground water obtained through drilled wells or from springs is the best and cheapest source of supply for 211 cities and towns, as well as for many industries, particularly in West Tennessee. Some cities and towns obtain their water supplies from more than one source, hence the apparent discrepancy between total number of city systems and sources of supply. Although West Tennessee is drained by a number of major streams, such as the Obion, Forked Deer, Hatchie, and Wolf rivers, and a network of small tributary creeks, the streams all have very low gradients, are usually quite turbid, and rapidly silt up their channels, making them practically useless for the development of large industrial water supplies. Fortunately, however, the unconsolidated Tertiary and Cretaceous sediments underlying this region constitute an excellent catchment basin and reservoir for underground waters with several widespread aquifers a t moderate depths t h a t are capable of yielding large volumes of water a t almost any point in the region. Development of both industrial and municipal water supplies, therefore, is based almost entirely on these ground water sources (SO). Even Memphis, with its large domestic and industrial water requirements, obtains all its water from drilled wells rather than from the broad Mississippi River that rolls past the city. Many industries have privately developed water systems, based on wells, in the Memphis area. There, water-bearing lenses of sand, as much as 150-feet thick and extending over several square miles, occur in Wilcox (Tertiary) formations a t depths averaging between 400 and 500 feet. From these sands is derived nearly all the water consumed in Memphis, except for a few million gallons pumped daily from the Ackerman formation (basal Wiloox) a t depths of 1200 to 1300 feet below the land surface. Still deeper water-bearing horizons a t depths of between 2400 , and 2600 feet in the Ripley sands (Cretaceous age) yield water that is too highly mineralized for either industrial or domestic uses. The capacities of private wells pumped in the Memphis area range from 300,000 to 400,000 gallons daily for 6-inch wells to 720,000 to over 1,000,000 gallons for wells of 10- to 16-inch diameters; one 24-inch well supplies 2,500,000 gallons daily (SO). Similar favorable ground water conditions exist throughout most of West Tennessee. There is no definite shallow aquifer in Middle Tennessee, as most of the rocks underlying the region are dense limestones with grsund water circulation largely limited to joint and solution
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channels. Drilling for water, consequently, is an uncertain proposition, and wells obtaining large flows are the exception. Springs are the chief source of sizeable quantities of water for communities and areas removed from rivers and other adequate surface water sources. Some of these springs have flows of several thousand gallons per minute, while the largest reported, in the north-central part of Middle Tennessee, has a flow of 25,000 to 27,000 gallons per minute ( 1 4 ) . Certain of these springs formerly were used by distilleries operating in the state in the early part of this century. Spring water temperatures here average about 60' F. Springs and other ground mater sources have become increasingly important due to the demands of industry for air conditioning as well as process cooling. East Tennessee, a region underlain by folded and faulted Paleozoic shales, sandstones, and limestones, has limited possibilities for development of ground water supplies through drilled wells, but there are numerous springs that have reported flows of several million gallons of water daily, commonly quite soft and averaging less than 60° F. in temperature. A number of conimunities in the region depend on springs for their municipal supplies, but the rivers are the chief sources of industrial or other needed large supplies of water. POLLUTION Stream Pollution Control. The need for pollution control along the surface waters of Tennessee to maintain healthful conditions, as well as to provide for future industrial needs, has been recognized by Tennessee. Since 1945, the discharge of all wastes by industries and metropolitan areas along the streams of the state has been under the control of the Stream Pollution Control Board, Through established standards and the exercise of regulatory powers, the board seeks to prevent undue pollution of Tennessee streams from discharge of untreated industrial and sanitary wastes. POWER RESOURCES Power is essential to industrial expansion in any area. The cost and availability of electric power are among several major determinants of the economic feasibility of establishing new industries and businesses. I n thie, Tennessee is in an exceptionally favored position. Yot only has the state been blessed with large coal fields affording economical steam generation of electricity, but it also has numerous large high gradient streams permitting hydrogeneration. As early as 1914, the Aluminum Company of America built a high dam on the Little Tennessee River for hydrogeneration of power, thus initiating the operation that has since grown into the huge reduction works a t rllcoa, near Knoxville. Since 1933, the Tennessee Valley Authority multipurpose program for the control and utilization of the Tennessee River has brought about rapid and extensive development of facilities for the generation of hydroelectric power. To date, a series of 20 dams have been constructed by the TVA along the Tennessee River and its tributaries in this state and in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, and North Carolina. These darns, plus the acquisition of six other major dams completed prior to 1933, five privately owned dams operated as part of the TVA system, and several minor dams constitute the T V A hydrogenerating facilities, with a total installed capacity of 3,032,935 kilowatts, as of December 31, 1954. By 1956, the capacity of the TVA hydrosystem will be 3,118,235kilowatts. In addition, the TVA has acquired five major steam-power plants and has built or is building eight others, with an aggregate installed capacity of 3,272,250 kilowatts a t the end of 1954 and of 6,287,250 kilowatts by 1956 ($4).Its Kingston plant, in East Tennessee, will have the world's largest capacity. A similar program of flood control-power generation by the U. S. Corps of Engineers on the Cumberland River has created addi-
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tional dams and hydrogenerating facilities, the power being distributed through the TVA4system. Their total capacity is 459,000 kilowatts now and will be 534,000 kilowatts by 1956 (24). Thus, by 1956, the TVA system-largely in Tennessee-will have a grand total power generating capacity of 9,939,485 kilowatts. Total production of the system in 1954 was approximately 35-billion kilowatt-hours. With respect to power production, TVA is the largest single integrated power system in the Cnited States. Its network of high voltage lines over the service area total in excess of 10,000 miles. Although electricity is generated and offered for sale in Tennessee by both private and public utilities, power generated by the TVA serves practically the entire state. Nearly all industrial plants use central station service, but some few generate their own power, using such industrial sources of energy as coal, coke, natural gas, gasoline, and fuel oil-all of which are generally available in Tennessee (10). TVA power is distributed primarily by municipalities and cooperatives, a t rates among the lowest in the country. At present, there are 83 distributors of TVA power in Tennessee-5S municipalities, 23 cooperatives, and 2 private utilities which retail power a t TVA standard rates. The few local distribution systems which do not purchase power from TVA have rate structures different from those distributing TVA power. These include Covington and Dyersburg in West Tennessee which generate their own power; Kingsport in East Tennessee and South Fulton in West Tennessee are served by privately owned systems. The economy of TVA power for industrial purposes is readily proved by comparison with similar rates applied by utility systems throughout the United States. I n general, the rate for TVA power will be some 30 to 45% below the national average. For example, a consumer in Chattanooga, Tenn., with a 1000 kilowatt and 400,000 kilowatt-hour monthly consumption would have a monthly bill of $2410 or an average of 6.03 mills per kilowatt hour. Contrast this with an average of 12.3 mills per kilowatt-hour in Akron, 14.7 mills in Detroit, or 14.6 mills in Lowell, ;\lass. (5). It has been this abundance of low cost power, plus available natural resources, that brought to Tennessee in the mid-thirties the elemental phosphorus industry now centered a t Columbia and Aft. Pleasant where Monsanto, Victor, and Shea chemical companies operate the world’s greatest aggregate capacity for electrothermal production of phosphorus. These operations alone in 1954 consumed approximately 1,556,000,000 kilowatt-hours of TVA power (a). This was a little more than half the Aluminum Company of America’s consumption of 2,907,000,000 kilowatt-hours in the same period. The adequacy of power supply is an essential element in the future industrialization of Tennessee. The Tennessee Valley Authority, in recognition of that need, has so forward planned as now to be in “position to continue to supply the existing requirements of the industries located in the area and to offer guaranteed firm long-term power contracts to expanding existing industries and to industries wanting to start new projects in the area” (29). During the 12-month period ending June 30, 1954, approximately 11-billionkilowatt-hours of power was used by the 4000 individual industrial customers in the TVA service area, exclusive of the loads of all federal projects. Within the next 2 years, the TVA will have available a block of about 6-billion kilowatt-hours to take care of estimated new industrial growth and expansion requirements. I n other words, this block of power being provided for new industrial uses is more than one half as large as the amount now used by the 4000 industrial customers who have developed in this area over the past 75 years. At present, contracts already have been negotiated with new firms and expanding companies, such as Cramet, Du Pont, National Carbon, Bowaters Southern Paper, for approximately 3.5-billion of this 6-billion kilowatt-hour block. But that still leaves about 2.5-billion kilowatt-hours per year for sale to industr,y, or almost equal to the total amount of electric energy used by all the industries in
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the Tennessee Valley the first year after World War 11, exclusive of the usage by two large aluminum producers ($9). MINERAL RESOURCES Tennessee, because of its extreme east-west extension across several geologic provinces, embraces one of the most diversified assemblages of mineral resources in the South. There are about 30 economically important minerals and, in variety of commercially produced minerals and mineral products, Tennessee leads all other Southern States. In recent years, the annual production values of 10 minerals and mineral products have individually exceeded $1,000,000 (Table I). Total annual value of this mineral production, based on 1952-1953 data, amounted to over $100,000,000( 2 7 ) . Water, probably, has been the mineral most important to the development of the chemical industry, both as a source of hydroelectric power and for processing and other direct industrial uses. It is certain that Tennessee’s excellent water resources will continue to be an invaluable asset for further chemical expansions. Other minerals in Tennessee that constitute important raw materials for major chemical operations are copper, zinc, and phosphate ores, limestone and dolomite, and coal. Copper. Tennessee is the only major copper producing state in the South and, as a result of those operations, is the South’s largest producer of by-product sulfuric acid. Production of the ores is restricted to the Ducktown Basin, an area about 6 miles long and 4 miles wide, in the extreme southeastern corner of the state near Ducktown and Copperhill in Polk County. The ore bodies, great lenses of heavy sulfide ores enclosed in a series of schists and graywacke of the Ocoee series of uncertain age (probably early Cambrian), range from a few feet to 300 feet or more wide and have been mined to vertical depths of 2400 feet. The ore minerals are pyrrhotite, pyrite, sphalerite, and chalcopyrite, with some magnetite ( 4 ) . The present source of ores are the yellow sulfide primary ores, containing 0.5 to 3% copper, that extend beyond the depths of exploration. The average copper content of ores now being treated is about 0.9% ($0). The Tennessee Copper Co. is the sole operator in the Ducktown Basin (13). The ores are separated by flotation, yielding concentrates of copper, zinc, and iron, The copper and iron concentrates are treated locally, producing copper metal and iron sinter. Zinc concentrates are sold, as is the iron sinter which finds a ready market in the Birmingham, Ala., steel district. None of the blister copper is refined in Tennessee. It is either cast as pig and shipped to eastern refineries, or shotted for conversion to copper sulfate and copper fungicides. A small amount of gold and silver is recovered a t the refineries. In 1954, a total of 1,187,693 tons of ore was mined. From this ore were extracted 17,944,615 pounds of copper, valued a t $4,806,285(20) N o definite estimates of ore reserves in the Ducktown Basin are available, but reserves of ores containing less than 1% of copper are sufficient for many years’ operations and may be profitably worked here because of the utilization of sulfur for making acid. Since the ores mined here are largely sulfides of copper and iron, the roasting and smelting of these produce large quantities of sulfur which are recovered and converted into acid, both by the chamber and contact processes. A t present, one chamber acid plant-largest of its kind in the world-and three contact acid plants are operated. Two grades of concentrated acid are normally produced, 60’ BE. commercial acid and 98% textile grade acid. Gradesmarketed include 60’ chamber and various grades of textile, ranging from 60’ B6. to 20 and 25y0 oleum. Battery acids ranging from 1.226 to 1.835 in gravity are produced in small quantity. Copper sulfate and fungicide are also produced by the Tennessee Copper Co. at Copperhill (32).
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Resources Sulfuric acid is also produced a t Sf emphis by Virginia-Carolina Chemical Corp. Zinc. Tennessee is one of the largest producers of zinc ores in the eastern United States. The chief source of the ores is the Knox dolomite (Cambro-Ordovician) of East Tennessee, with the principal mines centering around Mascot in Knox County and Sew Market and Jefferson City in adjoining Jefferson County. These points are on the Southern Railway, only a few miles northeast of Knoxville. The principal ore bodies in the Knox-Jefferson counties area consist of sphalerite, with only minor amounts of pyrite and marcasite, and are relatively uniform in character to explored depths of about 1200 feet. The primary ores commonly occur in brecciated dolomite, the ore bodies following sinuous, more or less disconnected courses ( 1 7 ) . Crude ores mined in this area are relatively low grade, averaging about 3% in content. They require extensive flotation to obtain marketable concentrates, all of which are shipped out of the state for smelting and refining. Major operators in the East Tennessee zinc area are the Amencan Zinc Co., with its mill and a mine a t Mascot and two mines in nearby Jefferson County; Tennessee Coal & Iron Division of U. S. Steel Corp., with its mill and mine a t the city limits of Jeffcrson City; and New Jersey Zinc Co., newcomer to the area, which opened a mine south of Jefferson City in 1953 (f.9). One of the American Zinc ore bodies discovered in the Jefferson County area in 1951 contains an estimated 1,000,000 tons of concentrate of about 60% zinc; this body is expected eventually to yield some 550,000 tons of zinc ( 2 1 ) . Mining or prospecting of zinc ore has been done at a number of East Tennessee points outside of Jefferson and Knox counties, but no complete estimate of zinc reserves in that region has been made. Sphalerite also occurs in Middle Tennessee, and some mining was done in Cannon County in the early forties. Tennessee zinc production, in terms of recovered metal, amounted in 1954 to 30,282 short tons, valued a t $6,722,604( 2 6 ) . Phosphate. Tennessee is the second largest producer of phosphate in the United States. Based on this resource is a large mining and processing industry, including the world’s greatest aggregate capacity for electrothermal production of elemental phosphorus. There are three principal types of phosphate in Tennessee, brown, blue, and white. The blue rock, bedded solid rock phosphate deposits of Devonian or Llississippian age limited mainly to Lewis and Hickman counties of Middle Tennessee, is not presently mined. White rock, consisting of chemical replacement deposits in Silurian and Devonian limestone formations, occur in commercial quantities in Perry and Decatur counties K here there currently is some limited production, some undeveloped white rock deposits occur in Johnson County of Upper East Tennessee. Brown rock, derived from the weathering of phosphatic Ordovician limestones and occurring as residual deposits, is the major source of commercial production; the bulk of the brown rock deposits are in Maury, Giles, and Williamson counties of Middle Tennessee ( 1 8 ) . Mining centers around Columbia and Mount Pleasant in hlaury County and Wales, near Pulaski, in Giles County, with lesaer brown rock production in the Franklin area of Williamson County and the Centerville area of Hickman County. All milling is by open-pit stripping methods. The chief products of the Middle Tennessee phosphate industry are elemental phosphorus and various phosphorous compounds, raw ground rock phosphate for direct application to the soil, and superphosphates for fertilizer. Monsanto Chemical Co. and Shea Chemical Co., both a t Columbia, and Victor Chemical Works a t Mt. Pleasant are producing elemental phosphorus by electric furnace methods, their combined total of 11 furnaces being the world’s largest capacity for production of this element-reportedly 106,000 tons annually ( 6 ) . Shea Chemical uses its output in the production of dicalcium phosphate, and
November 1955
Victor Chemical Works produces monocalcium phosphate and a variety of other phosphorous compounds at its Nashville manufacturing unit. Other operating companies include International Minerals & Chemical Corp. with plants a t LIt. Pleasant and Wales; Virginia-Carolina Chemical Corp. with plants a t Mt. Pleasant and Memphis; Federal Chemical Co. a t Mt. Pleasant and Xashville; and Armour Fertilizer Co. at Columbia; all these are producing phosphatic fertilizers. Producers of raw ground rock are located at Centerville, Columbia, illt. Pleasant, and Sashville. Production of phosphate rock in Tennessee in 1952 and 1953 averaged about 1,500,000 long tons annually; average annual value exceeded S11,250,000 ( 2 7 ) . It was estimated in 1940 that the Tennessee fields contained reserves of over 200,000,000 tons of phosphate rock of all types ( 1 8 ) . Limestone and Dolomite. Limestone is the most widely distributed bedrock in Tennessee. Abundant supplies are available in almost any locality in Tennessee, except in West Tennessee where limestone exposures are confined to its eastern borders along the Tennessee River. Practically every type of limestone occurs in the state, ranging from almost theoretically pure dolomites and pure high calcium limestones to very impure limey siltstones and ferruginous limestones (39). In East Tennessee, limestones and dolomites ranging from Cambrian to Mississippian in age occur in narrow northeastsouthwest trending belts in the Great Valley and along the lower slopes of the Cumberland Mountains, Of most significance to the chemical industry is the Knox dolomite, a 2500- to 4200-foot thick Cambro-Ordovician formation in which dolomites of near theoretical purity occur. Another prominent and relatively pure high calcium limestone formation is the Holston marble, especially well developed in the Knoxville area. Some of the purest limestones in Tennessee are in the upper Mississippian formations which crop out mainly along the western scarp of the Cumberland Mountains in its more southerly extensions. The Gasper oolite and Ste. Genevieve limestone are exceptionally pure, analyzing more than 98% calcium carbonate with less than 1% insoluble matter. These formations, ranging t o 140 feet in thickness, are important quarry sources, being used for agricultural lime (pulverized limestone), chemical and building limes, cement, and, a t Sparta, White County, for a whiting substitute. One or more limestones of relatively high calcium carbonate content are available in nearly any part of the Central Basin area of Middle Tennessee. These include the Carters, Lebanon, Ridley, Pierce, and Murfreesboro limestones (Ordovician age), all of which normally exceed 90% calcium carbonate and are suitable for agricultural lime, road metal, lime, cement, or similar products. The Warsaw and St. Louis (Mississippian) limestones which crop out extensively in the Highland Rim area range to 150 feet in thickness and are sufficiently pure for chemical lime, blastfurnace flux, or agricultural purposes. Limestones of similar purity occur in the Silurian and Devonian formations in the Western Highland Rim area, particularly along or near the Tennessee River. Certain high calcium limestones are quarried by underground methods in Franklin County for use by Victor Chemical Works in Nashville and in White County for grinding into whiting a t Sparta for use as linoleum and rubber fillers. Similar underground quarrying is done a t Chattanooga by a cement plant and a t Wrigley and Crab Orchard for fluxstone used in nearby blast furnace operations. Chemical lime also is made at Crab Orchard. Knoxville is a major lime production center. Production of stone in Tennessee in 1952 and 1953 averaged about 10,500,000 short tons, valued a t some $17,000,000 each year ( 2 7 ) . Cement. Tennessee is a leading cement producer in the South, with portland cement being manufactlired in six coun-
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ties. Total production in 1952 and 1953 averaged 7,352,000 short tons, valued at over $18,000,000 (27). Marquette Cement Mfg. Co. operates two units, a t Cowan in Franklin County and a t Nashville. Penn-Dixie Cement Corp. also has two units at Kingsport in Upper East Tennessee, and a t Richard City in Marion County, near Chattanooga. General Portland Cement Co. has a large plant a t Chattanooga whose capacity is currently being expanded. Volunteer Portland Cement Co. operates at Knoxville. Coal. Coal is the leading mineral product of Tennessee and the backbone of the state's industrial economy. It is a source of low cost power and also a raw material for important chemical operations. The Tennessee coal fields, a part of the Appalachian coalbearing region, are coextensive with the mountainous Cumberland Plateau in the eastern half of the state, embracing a total area of about 4400 square miles. ,411 coals are the bituminous type and belong to the Pottsville series of the Pennsylvanian system. More than 50 beds of coal have been recognized but only about 20 beds are of commercial importance (S8). Most mining is by drift entry. No shaft mining is done and, until only recently, very little strip mining. I n 1953, there were 529 mines each producing 1000 or more tons annually (16). In the southern part of the field, near Chattanooga, are the two largest underground mines-at Palmer and Whitwell-each producing 240,000 to 300,000 tons annually; two other large mines a t Montery produce about 120,000 and 225,000 tons per year, respectively. The bulk of coal mined comes from the northern half of the field; there some 8 mines each produces from 100,000to over 700,000 tons annually. Total coal production in 1953 was 5,466,569 tons, valued at approuimately $25,150,000 (86). The all-time record output was 8,158,000 tons in 1942. Estimated available reserves amount to about 25,800,000,000 tons, of which 85% is potentially recoverable coal (38).
Physically, Tennessee coals are coking bituminous types with a hard and blocky structure, They are generally low in ash and sulfur, high volatile content and a heat value of about 15,000 B.t.u. per lb. (moisture and ash-free basis). Ash fusion temperatures are usually medium, between 2250' and 2550' F., although both high and low fusion coals are found (16). They make excellent domestic fuels and are also employed for general industrial use. Certain of the Tennessee coals long controlled the steam-coal trade of the cotton mill section of Georgia and the Carolinas. The Sewanee coals of the southern field are excellent cooking coals-the lower Sewanee coal kept iron furnaces at Rockwood in blast continuously from 1867 to 1922. Coke is currently made a t Chattanooga by the Tennessee Products & Chemical Corp. which operates 44 modern byproduct ovens. These ovens produce metallurgical coke as the principal product. Approximately 2.5 gallons of crude light oils are produced per ton of coal; these are refined to yield benzene, toluene, and xylene. Fine chemicals and insecticides are derived from these coal by-product light oils by chlorination in glass-lined steel equipment. These finished chemical products are widely used in the preparation of plastics, perfumes, medicines, dyestuffs, and foods. The list of such products includes benzoic acid, sodium benzoate, benzyl alcohol, benzaldehyde, and an entire series of esters and ethers derived from these. Benzene hexachloride, which is widely used in the South to control the boll weevil, is also produced in this same Chattanooga plant. It is significant that the chemical industry regards Tennessee coal not only as an abundant source of energy, but also as a source of chemical raw materials. Other Minerals. Manganese, barite, and iron ores are other minerals mined in limited quantities in Tennessee that are of significance to the chemical industry. Current mining of manganese is confined to Johnson, Monroe
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and Unicoi counties in East Tennessee. Production is for government stockpiles; some additional expansion was planned in 1954. The Electro Manganese Corp., Knoxville, in 1939 pioneered commercial production of metallic manganese by the electrolytic process and by late 1953 had an annual capacity of 15,000,000 pounds ( 1 9 ) ; no Tennessee manganese is processed by this company. Brown iron ore (limonite) is being mined in the Madisoriville area of Monroe County. Shipments, chiefly to the nearby blast furnace operation of Tennessee Products & *Chemical Corp. a t Rockwood, averaged about 10,300 tons annually in 1952-1953. Primary barite is mined in Loudon and Monroe counties. Part of this production is crushed and ground for use in well drilling, glass manufacture, and concrete aggregate. PETROLEUM FUEL RESOURCES Tennessee has never been a major producer of oil and gas, although some of the first petroleum produced in the United States was discovered in the state by pioneers in drilling for brines to make salt. Several of these earliest wells antedated the famous Drake well in Pennsylvania, drilled in 1859. Oil and gas production has been limited largely to areas in the Highland Rim of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberland Plateau. Practically all production has come from wells of relatively shallow depths, mostly under 1500 feet. Crude oil production in Tennessee during 1953 amounted to only 16,317 barrels and 12,800 in 1954 (19). While limited amounts of natural gas-about 83,000,000 cu. ft. in 1954-are marketed locally from wells in Morgan and Fentress counties for consumption in the Sunbright-Oneida and Jamestown areas, Tennessee is amply supplied with natural gas piped from Southwest fields. Through a network of transmission lines, natural gas for both industrial and residential purposes is available to all four major cities, Memphis, Nashville, Chattanooga, and Knoxville, as well as some 65 cities and towns throughout all parts of the state ( 1 ) . Memphis and several nearby towns, through the Memphis Light, Water & Gas Division, are served from the transmission lines of Texas Gas Transmission Corp., which also furnishes gas through the West Tennessee Gas Co. to Brownsville, Covington, Ripley Henning, and Jackson. Sashville and suburban towns are served by the Tennessee Natural Gas Co. Principal supplier of numerous Middle and East Tennessee cities, including Knoxville, Chattanooga, Johnson City, Bristol, and Kingsport, is the East Tennessee Gas Co. This company also supplies huge amounts of gas to the atomic energy plants a t Oak Ridge. Other transmission companies whose lines in Tennessee serve one or more city systems are Texas Eastern Gas Transmission Corp., Alabama-Tennessee Natural Gas Co., and Tennessee Gas Transmission Co. Lines of Trunkline Gas Co. and Gulf Interstate Gas Co. pass through the state, but no Tennessee city is served by these companies. The availability of natural gas in volume has led to the recent establishment a t Memphis by Grace Chemical Co. of a $20,000,000 plant for the manufacture of anhydrous ammonia and urea, using the gas as a basic raw material. The D u Pont large sodium cyanide and hydrogen peroxide units, also a t Memphis, were located in that city partly because of the availability of natural gas for use in those operations. Fuel oil, gasoline, and other petroleum products move into Tennessee by both pipeline and barge, making these fuels available a t relatively economic costs. Two major pipelines, both with terminals in East Tennessee, serve the state (9). The Southeastern Pipe Line, jointly owned by Pure Oil Co. and Gulf Oil Corp., is a 465-mile line that pumps gasoline from Port St. Joe, Fla., to its terminus a t Chattanooga. The Plantation Pipe Line, a 1261-mile line between Baton Rouge, La., and Greensboro, N. C., jointly owned by Standard Oil of N. J. and Standard
INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
Vol. 47,No. 11
Resources Oil of Ky., has a lateral from Bremen, Ga., that supplies terminals a t Chattanooga and Knoxville with gasoline and other clean products, such as kerosine. Mid-Valley Pipeline Co., jointly owned by Sun Oil Co. and Standard Oil of Ohio, has a 1000-mile crude oil pipeline crossing West and Middle Tennessee. Over 90% of the fuel oils and a large percentage of motor fuels consumed move into Tennessee by river transport, over the Mississippi, Cumberland, and Tennessee rivers. Bulk-oil storage facilities for such barge operations are maintained a t Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville, Chattanooga, Carthage, Ashland City, Clarksville, and Perryville, permitting economical truck distribution of the petroleum products throughout the remainder of the state. FOREST RESOURCES Timberland in Tennessee amounts to 12,927,318 acres or nearly one half its total area. The principal forest regions represented here are the Appalachian and South-Central hardwood regions, with a section of Southern hardwoods in the western part of the state. Southern yellow pines are the chief softwoods, occurring generally throughout East Tennessee and to a considerable extent in several counties of southwestern Tennessee. Oak, gum, elm, hickory, maple, poplar, beech, and ash are the principal hardwoods. There are about 11,700,000 acres of privately owned forest areas in Tennessee, of which nearly 5,200,000 acres are individually owned farm properties. A large portion of the remainder, possibly as much as 75’%, are industrially owned. Every county in Tennessee has some commercial timber, but the most heavily timbered counties are in the Highland Rim area of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberland Plateau and Smoky Mountain areas of East Tennessee ( 1 1 ) . Tennessee forests supply a large amount of cordwood, both hardwoods and pine, for use in chemical processing. The state has an abundant supply of cordwood. A survey made in 1946 showed 4,167,954 acres in cordwood or nearly 33y0 of the total forest area. These areas were estimated to contain 40,332,000 cords of timber classified as cordwood. More than 91% of the volume was hardwoods (S). A number of major Tennessee industries are consumers of wood bolts for chemical use or conversion for pulp and paper manufacture. Newest and largest of these is Bowaters Southern Corp.’ $60,000,000 newprint-from-pine plant dedicated last year a t Calhoun, Tenn. The plant will produce 130,000 tons of newsprint annually, plus 50,000 tons of sulfate pulp. At Kingsport, the Mead Corp. manufactures pulp and paper (principally high grade book and magazine) using soft-textured hardwoods, This Kingsport mill, with an annual output of about 75,000 tons, supplies considerable paper to the Kingsport Press, world’s largest complete book manufacturer located in that city. Mead Corp. also has operations a t Knoxville (half interest in Southern Extract Co.) and a t Harriman for utilizing chestnut wood in the production of tannic acid and chestnut paperboard for corrugated boxes, using spent chestnut chips bought from the local plant of Teas Extract Co. which produces tannic acid. The latter company, which also has a similar tannic acid operation a t Chattanooga, obtains its wood largely from Tennessee forests, although a part comes from Southern Kentucky ( 1 1 ) . Some wood pulp is used a t Kingsport by Tennessee Eastman Co., Eastman Kodak subsidiarp, in its manufacture of cellulose acetate products, a t Elizabethton by Beaunit Mills in the manufacture of rayon yarns, and a t Lowland by American Enka in the production of rayon tire cord, while Du Pont uses wood pulp for the production of both rayon fibers and cellophane a t its Old Hickory plant, near Nashville. Most of the pulp for these operations is obtained from out-of-state sources, and some is imported from abroad. Several paperboard and paper box manufacturers in Tennessee also purchase their required pulp outside the state.
November 1955
Hardwood distillation plants operated are those of the Tennessee Products & Chemical Corp. a t Wrigley and the Forest Products Chemical Co. a t Memphis. These plants are engaged in the manufacture of industrial chemicals. The latter company reports that only a small percentage of its chemical wood comes from Tennessee sources (11). AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES Tennessee, by virtue of its highly varied topography and geology and resultant wide range of soil and climatic conditions, produces a wide variety of crops. The principal cash crops are cotton and tobacco. Of these, cotton is most important to the chemical industry. Cotton-Cottonseed. Cotton is grown mainly in West Tennessee where, in the extreme southwest part of that region, it occupies over 50y0 of the cultivated land. I n hliddle Tennessee, a thousand acres or so are normally planted in some 6 or 8 of the more southerly counties, and the same is true in the lower part of the valley of East Tennessee. I n all, acreage planted to cotton in Tennessee is exceeded only by that planted to corn. Both the long and short staple varieties of cotton are grown, about three quarters of the annual crop being one inch or more in length (8). The average yield of cotton per acre between 1941 and 1950 was 381 pounds, compared with 267 pounds for the United States average. The yield per acre of Tennessee cotton over the past decade or so has consistently averaged higher than that of any of the other 9 leading cotton producing states and has several times passed the 400 pound mark. Total production in 1954 was 545,000 bales, valued a t $95,375,000. Cottonseed production in that year amounted to 221,000 tons, valued a t $12,995,000 (28). Memphis, in West Tennessee, is the principal market, being recognized as the world’s largest inland cotton market. The Tennessee cotton crop supplies plants of Southern Chemical Cotton Co. a t Chattanooga and of Buckeye Cotton Oil Co. a t Memphis which process linters into chemical cotton, these operations being among the largest in the South. Cotton linters are used in the production of rayon yarns at Elizabethton, of rayon tire cord at Lowland, and of cellulose acetate yarns, film bases, and plastics a t Kingsport by Tennessee Eastman Co. Processing of cottonseed for its oil and subsequent refining of such oil into shortenings, oleomargarine, salad oils, and soap is a leading industry of the state centering a t Memphis and Chattanooga (8). Among the major companies engaged in this field of production are HumKo Co., Cudahy Packing Co., Buckeye Cotton Oil Co., Southern Cotton Oil Co., and Swift & Co. a t Memphis and Wilson & Co. and Lookout Oil & Refining Co. a t Chattanooga. Soybeans. Also processed for their oil content are soybeans, a relatively new addition to Tennessee cash crops. Before World War 11,the beans were grown mainly as a forage crop, but wartime demands for soybean oil caused a substantial increase in acreage, mainly in West Tennessee, where the beans find a ready market in 1ocal.extraction plants (8). Among the principal operators are West Tennessee Soya Mill a t Tiptonville and Buckeye Cotton Oil Co. and DeSoto Oil Co., both at Memphis. Soybeans are grown in every county, but most production comes from West Tennessee; nine of the ten leading counties are in that area. Of 347,000 acres of soybeans grown in 1954, over 5070 were harvested for the beans. I n that year, a total of 2,160,000bushels of beans were marketed a t a value of $5,508,000 (68). Latest significant development is the construction a t Chattanooga by Central Soya of a multimillion dollar plant for the storage, extraction of oil, and conversion of soybeans into poultry feed (23’). The new market created by this plant should tend to greatly stimulate expansion of soybean growing in that part of Tennessee.
I N D U S T R I A L A N D E N G I N E E R I N G] C H E M I S T R Y
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LITERATURE CITED (1) Cassell, R. B , “Xatural Gas Supplies in Tennessee,” Tenn. (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8)
(9)
(IO) (11)
State Plann. Comm., Industrial Resources of Tenn., supplement to vol. 3, 1952. Chem. Week, p. 22, Jan. 15, 1955. Cowan, W. Foster, “Forest Resources Appraisal, State of Tennessee,” Tenn. Dept. Cons., Div. Forestry and Am. Forestry Assoc., 1946. Emmons, W. H., and Laney, F. B., “Geology and Ore Deposits of the Ducktown Mining District, Tenn.,” U. S. Geol Survey, Prof. Paper 139,1926. Federal Power Comm., “Typical Electric Bills,” 1954, Cities of 50,000 Population and More, Table 4, Industrial Service. Gordon, Joseph, C h m . Week, pp. 26-42, Aug. 2, 1952. IND. ENG.CHEM.,47, 36 A (February 1955). Jones, Malinda, “Agriculture,” Tenn State Plann. Comm., Industrial Resources o j Tenn., vol. 2, pp. 28, 29, 33, 1948. Long, W. C . , “Fuels,” Zbid., vol. 3, p. 21, 1948. Long, W. C., “Electric Power,”Zbid , p. 24, 1948. McGann, W. S ,and Cassell, R. B., “Forests,” Zbzd., pp. 2, 9,
11, 1945. (12) Milhous, H. C., “Oil and Gas Developments in Tennessee in 1954,” Am. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists Bull., vol. 39, no. 8, p. 846, 1954. (13) Aletcalf, R. W., and Hardeman, W. D., Jr., U S. Bur. Mines, lMinerals Yearbook, 1952, pp 2 , 5 , 1955. (14) Piper, A. Rl., “Ground Water in North-Central Tennessee,” Tenn. Div. Geology, Bull. 32,1932. (15) Place, P. B., Combustion, 8, no. 3 (1936). (16) Reed, A . H., Jr., U. S. Bur. Mines, Mineral Industry Surveys, Annual Area Rept. G-21,1954. (17) Secrist, M. H., “Zinc Deposits of East Tennessee”, Tenn. Div. Geology, Bull 31, 1934.
(18) Smith, R. W., and Whitlatch, G. I., “Phosphate Deposits of Tennessee”, Tenn. Div. Geology, Bull. 48, 1940. (19) Steel, 135, 99 (Dec. 27, 1954). (20) Tennessee Copper Co., personal communication from T. A.
Mitchell, vice-president and general manager. (21) Tenn. Dept. Health, Div. Sanitary Eng., “Annual Report of ilctivities, Juls 1 , 1953 to June 30, 1954” (Unpublished). (22) Tenn. I d . Newsletter, Tenn. Ind. & Agric. Devel. Comm., Jan. 1952 and Sept. 1954. (23) Zbid., June and Aug. 1954. (24) Tenn. Valley Authority, personal communication from James E. Watson, Director of Power Utilization. (25) U. S. Bur. Census Annual Survey of Manufactures 1952 (1953). (26) U. S. Bur. Mines, “Bituminous Coal and Lignite in 1953,” Mineral Market Summary No. 2339. (27) U. S. Bur. Mines, Alinerals Yearbook, 1952 preprints on ce-
ment, coal, copper, phosphate, and stone.
(28) U. S. Dept. Agriculture, Agricultural Marketing Service Statistics, 1954. (29) Watson, James E., “Power for the Wheels of Industry,” presented at 2d Ann. Tenn. Indus. Devel. Conf., Nashville, Oct. 1954. (30) Wells, F. G., “Ground-W‘ater Resources of Western Tennessee,” Tenn. Div. Geol., Bull. 44,1933. (31) Whitlatch, G. I., “Industrial Water Supply of Tennessee,” Tennessee Town and City, p, 17, July 1955. (32) Whitlatch, G. I., “Minerals,” Tenn. State Plann. Comm., Zndustrial Resoirrces of Tenn., vol. 2, pp. 70-75, 81-83, 1948. (33) Whitlatch, G. I., and Cassell, R. B., “Industrial Trends in Tennessee,” Ibid., rol. 1, pp. 10-11, 1949. RECEIVED for review .4pril 11, 1965.
ACCEPTEDSeptember
9, 1965
Industrial labor Supply and Productivity C
OURTAULDS (Alabama) Inc., is a relative newcomer
to the industrial South. Its industrial relations department feels-\! hether or not this is flag y\ avingthat regional characteristics and the Deep South way of life have a great deal to do with the may the workers in that region feel and think and act-their attitudes toward their jobs and toiqard management as a whole. This is a summary interpretation by Arthur E. Jakernan, Courtauld’s director of industrial relations, of the labor picture in the light of these attitudes, supported by data from the usual sources of labor statistics. b Almost 4,000,000 persons are employed in the major
business occupation groups (mining, contract construction, manufacturing, transportation and public utilities, wholesale and retail trade, finance, insurance and real estate, service, government) in Kentucky, Tennessee, illabama, and Mississippi. -4bout one fourth are women, shon-ing the availability of female workers for industry. 1953 Figures shon- these Ixeakdowns: XIanufacturing
Contract
Construction
b Chemical plante are moving into the South not onlv be-
cause of the availability of natural resources, but also of the good supply of easily trained workers. Kotice the italics. There is no surplus of trained chemical workers, and the chemical industry in the South is stillnew enough that there is difficulty in locating workers already proficient in the many skills required. But there is no difficulty in finding n orkers A ho are quick to learn and who adapt themselves to the industry easily and efficiently. b Southern industrial
TT oikers are not necessarily well educated in academic fields. They are endowed with plenty of coninion sense and endowed with unusually good physical coordination. Much of this comes from an agricultural background-years of training in the skills and arts of farming, with acquisition of patience from handling animals and mechanical knowhow from handling farm machinery.
b Southern workers are, in the majority, native to the .\lining
b Although the top position among the states in the
employment of chemical workers may be somewhat disputable due to definition of terms, Tennessee is
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certainly among the top three states in the entire South and Southwest.
area in which they work, and generally desire to stay there. They have a desjrahle stability and sense of security and the result is an average turnover much lower than in other sections of the country. b Production workers in the chemical industry average $1.60 to $1.80 per hour; maintenance workers $1.85 to $2.35; office \!-orkers $42 to $90 per week.
INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
Vol. 47, No. 1 1
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