NEWS EDITION HARRISON E . HOWE, Editor
Published by the American Chemical Society VOLUME 19
MARCH 2 5, 1941
NUMBER 6
St. L o u i s — A , Chemical C i t y Things Laclede
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Ε. Κ. MOORE Fouke Fur C o . , St. Louis, M o .
A L T O G E T H E R t h e journey took three m o n t h s of painful a n d sometimes dangerous labor against t h e m u d d y surge of t h e Mississippi. T h e a d v e n t u r o u s band left N e w Orleans in t h e h e a t of August 1763, b u t winter w a s almost upon t h e m b y t h e time t h e y reached F o r t Chartres. Their leader, French-born Pierre Laclede Liguest, h a d been i n New Orleans for eight financially unprofitable years, a n d h a d then been g r a n t e d exclusive privileges of t h e fur t r a d e in t h e Missouri River c o u n t r y by t h e governor general of t h e Louisiana Territory. M a x e n t , Laclede, a n d C o . w a s soon organized in New Orleans, a n d Laclede chosen t o establish a fur t r a d i n g post near t h e m o u t h of t h e Missouri River.
His cargo safely stored at F o r t Chartres, Laclede explored t h e Mississippi north ward t o t h e Missouri a n d selected, a suit able site for t h e t r a d i n g p o s t . W i t h t h e breaking of winter h e sent hiss young stepson, Auguste Chouteau, t o c l e a r t h e land and begin construction of t h e post. T h e grave A u g u s t e was not quite 14 years old, yet on F e b r u a r y 14 the 3 0 m e n in h i s capable charge began felling tinaber for the first log h u t s . W h e n Laclede joined t h e m t h e first few buildings of the new settlement were well under way. T h u s S t . Louis was founded. I t was established for commercial reasons, a n d its location selected because o f advantages of t r a n s p o r t a t i o n a n d proximity of raw materials, furs. T h e s e same factors today
give S t . Louis a n d i t s surrounding areas considerable i m p o r t a n c e in t h e c o u n t r y ' s commerce a n d i n d u s t r y . Doubtless Laclede visioned overland trails fanning w e s t w a r d , over which furs were t o be b r o u g h t t o his post. H e could n o t h a v e foreseen t h e m u c h greater web of railroads. I n 1887 there were 15 rail roads entering t h e c i t y ; t o d a y t h e n u m b e r h a s increased to 26, 18 of which are t r u n k lines. St. Louis is second only t o Chicago a s a r a i l center. Laclede m a y h a v e foreseen t h e w e a l t h of furs t h a t were to pass t h r o u g h his t r a d i n g p o s t . Certainly unrealized w a s t h e role of other n a t u r a l resources in t h e t r a n s formation of his p o s t t o a m a n u f a c t u r i n g a n d d i s t r i b u t i n g center. H e m u s t h a v e
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B a t t e r i e s ol e l e c t r o l y t i c c h l o r i n e cells a t t h e A l o n s a n t o , III., p l a n t of M o n s a n t o C h e m i c a l C o .
heard stories of how in 1719 Philip Renault left France with 200 miners and adven turers, worked his way up t h e Mississippi, and built F o r t Chartres. Exploring par ties went westward into what is now south east Missouri and found rich deposits of lead ore. Laclede probably knew t h a t about 70 miles directly south. Mine L a M o t t e , established by Renault's p a r t y in 1723, was producing lead ore. But he could not h a v e told t h a t t h i s region was to yield 37.2 per cent of the c o u n t r y ' s total lead ore production in 1939. Possibly Laclede had heard accounts of a blood-red blotch contrasting sharply with the darker rock of the region 25 miles west of Mine LaMotte. Simi lar, but smaller, red areas led to dis covery of iron ore. Six million tons of high-grade specular h e m a t i t e have been removed from deposits at Iron M o u n t a i n and Pilot K n o b . Iron Mountain has large quantities still available, a n d ad joining regions have deposits of red hema tite and brown limonite, although recent iron ore production in Missouri is insig nificant in comparison with that of the en tire country. Present-day steel p l a n t s of the St. Louis area operate on scrap, for which St. Louis has advantages a s a col lection center. Laclede m a y h a v e heard of DeSoto's march, more t h a n 200 years before Lac lede came t o New Orleans, on which DeSoto skirted zinc ore mines, now t h e most productive in t h e country. This district, known as t h e Joplin or Tri-State region, falls in the adjoining portions of Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma, and produces sul
fide ores of 83 per cent zinc and 17 per cent lead ore. In 1939 the recoverable zinc content amounted to 216,290 tons, or 37.6 per cent of total production in this country. T h e lead of these ores con tributed another 10.8 per cent of the total United States production to t h a t obtained from southeast Missouri. Rich deposits of barite, lying 50 to 60 miles southwest of Laclede's fur trading post, have proved the most productive in the United States. In 1937 almost 56 per c e n t and in 1938, 50.5 per cent of the total of 309,663 short t o n s of crude barite sold or used in this country were yielded by t h i s district. Laclede knew t h a t n o r t h w a r d about 20 miles the Mississippi became discolored by t h e m u d d y waters of t h e Missouri and visualized this river as a m e a n s of trans portation. Unsuspected b y him were t h e extensive stores of limestone, shale, clay, and coal, deposits of white St. Peter sand stone in a well-defined belt running south from the Missouri River and passing within 30 miles of him, and even closer de posits of Cheltenham clay whose eventual discovery was t o initiate t h e extensive re fractories and clay products industries of St. Louis and t h e state. Sixty miles south ward were additional deposits of limestone with 99 per cent calcium carbonate, a purity unequaled anywhere in the country. T h e limestone and shale proved suit able for Portland cement. Five plants in Missouri, two of them in St. Louis, pro duced almost 4,500,000 barrels of t h e cement in 1938; more t h a n 4,750,000 barrels in 1937.
The bituminous coal deposits were to be greatly exceeded in o u t p u t by t h e much richer fields across the river. In 1939, 44,750,000 short tons of coal were taken from the Illinois fields which, plus t h e 16,000,000 tons produced in Missouri and adjacent Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and western Kentucky, gave a coal pro duction of 15.7 per cent of the country's total output. N o r t h and southwest were the KeokukBurlington series of limestone formations, south and west the Kimmswick lime stones, southward the pure Spergen lime stone. The output of these areas places Missouri third in lime production. In 1938 in Missouri 298,151 short tons of lime were sold or used by producers, 8.9 per cent of the country's total production, an a m o u n t below full capacity of t h e state's lime industries. Laclede was to die before the valuable stores of clay only a few miles from him, along what are now Manchester and Gravois Roads, were t o come t o light. These clays have taken the name of " C h e l t e n h a m " , originally applied to this district, and further deposits of the same seam north of t h e Missouri River are now productive. The St. Louis deposits found early application in the manufac t u r e of firebrick, crucibles, clay pipe, a n d tile. Today Missouri is second only to Pennsylvania in its yield of fire and stoneware clays, producing over 258,000 tons, or 17.7 per cent of the Nation's o u t p u t in 1938. I n the north-central Ozark region occur t h e only deposits of commercial quan-
The AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY assumes no responsibility for the statements and opinions advanced by contributors to its publications. Published by the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY, Publication Office, 20th & Northampton Sts., Easton, Penna. Editorial Office, Room 706, Mills Building, Washington, D. C ; Telephone, National 0848; Cable, Jiechem (Washington). Advertising Department, 332 West 42nd St., New York, Ν. Υ.; Telephone, B r y a n t 9-4430. Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office at Easton, Penna., under the act of March 3, 1879, as 24 times a year on the 10th and 25th. Acceptance for mailing at special rato of postage provided for in Section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized July 13, 1918. Annual subscription rate, $2.00. Foreign postage to countries not in the P a n American Union, $0.60; Canadian postage, $0.20. Single copies, $0.15. Special rates to members. No claims can be allowed for copies of journals lost in t h e mails unless such claims are received within 60 days of the date of issue, and no claims will be allowed for issues lost as a result of insufficient notice of change of address. (Ten days' advance notice required.) "Missing from files" cannot be accepted as the reason for honoring a claim. Charles L. Parsons, Business Manager, Mills Building, Washington, D. C , U. S. A.
March 25, 1941 tities of diaspore and burley clays in the United States. These are high-alumina clays, 70 per cent alumina and 50 to 60 per cent alumina, respectively, and are associated with flint clay deposits, 40 per cent alumina. In southwestern Missouri are large deposits of tripoli, a highly siliceous rock used in abrasives, to some extent as a filler, and in concrete mixtures. T h e Missouri, Oklahoma, and Illinois districts were the principal producers in 1938. T h e belt of St. Peter sandstone furnishes today at Pacific and Crystal City the white sandstone so extensively used in glass manufacture. In 1939 Arkansas bauxite mines produced 361,256 long tons or 96.3 per cent of the country's total yield of bauxite. Down the river there lay to the west sulfur deposits of Louisiana and Texas, in our times to yield about 99 per cent of domestic production. The encirclement of St. Louis with those raw materials essential to chemical industries is completed by the fluorspar found in Illinois and Kentucky, which furnish 92 per cent of the Nation's present yield, and t h e natural gas and petroleum of Texas, Louisiana, and Missouri's neighbors, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and recently Illinois. In 1939 these states combined supplied about 72 per cent of the petroleum production. Laclede's interests, of course, centered in the fur trade. On a return trip from New Orleans in 1788 he died near what is now Cape Girardeau. His stepson, Chouteau, successfully carried on leadership of St. Louis aided by counsel of his capable mother. B u t the town remained essentially a fur-trading center for many years, while under Spanish rule and after its acquisition in 1804 by the United States with the Louisiana Purchase. The year 1810 saw the establishment of a small brewhouse for the production of ale and porter, and by 1819 St. Louis had a small t r a d e in. lead and hemp, nail and pottery manufacture, and its first foundry. Another writer records industries in 1840 to include two foundries, two white lead, red lead, and litharge producers, one castor a n d two linseed oil manufacturers, three factories making lead pipe, six gristmills, six breweries, a "chemical and fancy soap" factory, a pottery and stoneware factory, a sugar refinery, a " b r i t t a n i a " producer (presumably the alloy Britannia, chiefly tin and antimony, with small quantities of copper, and sometimes lead, bismuth, or zinc), two tanneries, twelve stove, grate, tin, and copper plants, and even one oilcloth factory. Five years later manufacture of glass, soap, candles, and starch had been added, and there were 18 foundries. Steamboats, ferries, and overland hauls comprised the facilities for import and export of raw materials and finished products. I n 1847 the first telegraph line to the Atlantic seaboard became available. Staggered by the destructive fire and ravaging
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EDITION
cholera epidemic of 1849, St. Louis nevertheless two years later broke ground for the first railroad heading westward, and 1853 saw a train depart over the first division of t h e Missouri-Pacific. Twentyone years later completion of the Eads Bridge over t h e Mississippi gave the city its first direct rail connection eastward. Today descendants of Laclede, Chouteau, and his men can view St. Louis' industries on a scale exceeding their forefathers' most hopeful dreams. More than 120 establishments are active in the chemical and metallurgical industries. Although all, contributing their best effort and resourcefulness, make their imprint on the industrial scene, only the larger representatives of typical industries in and around St. Louis will bo considered.
Clay The 96-year history of the LaciedeChristy Clay Products Co. is distinguished by consistent progress and important attainments in character and quality of
its products. The present company, one of t h e oldest and most prominent of its kind in the LTnited States, resulted from a consolidation of two truly pioneer companies. T h e Laclede Fire Brick Manufacturing Co. began operations in 1844, extending its production in 1876 to include vitrified clay pipe and kindred articles. This extension marked the first manufacture of clay pipe west of the Mississippi. Twelve years later the company developed t h e revolutionizing dry press method of making firebrick, a process now employed for all but a comparatively small proportion of the firebrick produced. The Christy Fire Clay Co., beginning about 1857, produced high-grade pot clay refractories for the glass industry a n d , through improved methods and careful blending of clays for use in fabricating shapes, led glassmakers of this country tu prefer Missouri clays to imported varieties. In 1902, five years before these two companies combined, the Laclede organization established a research laboratory
TOHKEL
Automatic stokers in Monsanto's power plant at St. Louis
KORtINO
NEWS
300 whose work soon disclosed that certain clays then being discarded as useless were high in alumina. This discovery was re sponsible for the super- or high-alumina refractory of today. The laboratory, con tinuing the scientific approach to problems of the industry so well begun, has yielded much toward the development of refrac tories, materials universally recognized among chemists and engineers as of vital primary importance to practically all industries. The story of this development includes the installation in 1913 of one of the first tunnel kiln plants, a type now generally acknowledged as one of the more efficient units for the manufacture and burning of fire-clay refractories. Today, with 1135 acres of clay proper ties to draw on, the 73 kilns of the com pany have a daily capacity of 1000 tons. The 4 plants, with 76 buildings, are serv iced with 15 miles of private railroad tracks. Twelve hundred employees manu facture products highly regarded abroad as well as in this country.
Coke and By-Products The name of Laclede is commemorated in yet another company. One of St. Louis' oldest, the Laclede Gas Light Co. is described in an article published in the February 25 N E W S EDITION, page 189.
Glass The Owens-Illinois Glass Co., whose factory at Alton, 111., is one of the largest bottle-making plants in the world, has a historical background connecting it with the names of Levis, Owens, Libbey, and Smith, important American pioneers in the glass business. In the 19th century, when all glass containers were still being produced by the off-hand process, the Libbey family launched its first glass enter prise near Boston. Later, in 1873, William Eliot Smith and Edward Levis incorporated the Illinois Glass Co. and opened at Alton their first plant, con sisting of one small, five-pot furnace. Three years later Edward Drummond Libbey established a factory in Toledo where, among his expert glassworkers, was a young Irishman named Michael Owens who conceived the idea that bottles might be blown automatically. Long years of work and experimentation, with the en couragement of Mr. Libbey and financing by Libbey money, finally brought success to Mr. Owens in 1903. In 1910 the Illinois Glass Co., already grown t o an important American enterprise, became one of the first licensees of the new machine from the Owens Bottle Machine Co. The latter, which had become a n active bottle manufacturer, subsequently changed its name to the Owens Bottle Co., and in 1929 the two companies combined to form the Owens-Illinois Glass Co. The Alton plant is one of sixteen plants now operated
E D I T I O N
by the Owens-Illinois Glass Co.
Vol. 19, No. 6
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Lead £~L*cr&/c. The National Lead Co. has a number of plants in and around St. Louis. At its St. Louis plant white lead, one of the oldest yet most £>/?-C/?S ΑΛ/Ο Af£-D/C/fiS£S. widely used paint pig ments, is manufactured by the old Dutch proc ess. In large rooms called stacks a corrod ing grade pig lead is subjected to fumes of 3#£/IP A*o β/ικεκκ peoDucrj. acetic acid, forming basic lead acetate which jL/QuoJ?Sr M/icr. is converted to white r C*V£M/CA£.S r*Cr i i i f i W i ^ t f CLASS'S'tro. lead b} exposure to carbon dioxide formed £~t.ecr#/crf/L / w c v / / v « ' / ' , /iprrtjefiroJiJu/rrce*. during the fermentation and heating of spent tan *ST££C-H/0&XS >?/V£7 JeO£.L/SJ££: ground in water mills, screened, and allowed to settle, forms a con centrated pulp which is R e l a t i v e industrial values of t h e St. Louis area i n mileither dried, pulverized, lions of dollars, from t h e 1937 C e n s u s of M.aïuifactur«».s and packed or mixed directly with linseed oil to form white lead-inoil paste. titanium ore in sulfuric acid and hydroThis plant also produces those impor lytically precipitating the titanium on tant lead oxides, red lead and litharge, barium sulfate or calcium sulfate. Iron which perform a multitude of industrial salts and other impurities are removed by functions. Oxides manufactured in St. washing, after which the pigments are Louis find their way into storage batteries, calcined in rotary kilns to develop the dechromate paints, red lead paints, and the sired pigment properties and then given "sweetening" of gasoline. Here litharge suitable milling. is made in a reverberatory type of gasfired furnace; red lead in like furnaces by Lead titanate is a chemical compound gradual application of heat, with, constant produced by reacting lead oxide with tichemical control in both processes. This tanium dioxide. Barium sulfate is precontrol enables the production of oxides pared by the well-known black ash-blanc of varying chemical composition, while fixe process which furnishes sodium sulfide particle size and shape are varied at will as a by-product. Calcium sulfate is manuby the control of the grinding action of factured by reacting sulfuric acid and modern pulverizers. lime. The plant manufactures all the sulfuric acid required for the process and A plant of the Titanium Division of the produces its own power and process water National Lead Co. is also located in St. and steam. Louis. This plant manufactures com posite titanium pigments such a s TitanoxB (barium sulfate base), Titanox-C Lime (calcium sulfate base) and Titanox-M A major producer of lime near St. (magnesium silicate base), and also TiLouis is the Mississippi Lime Co. Its tanox-L (lead titanate) and sodium sul mines are located in the heart of the exfide. The principal basic raw materials tremely pure (99 per cent calcium carare imported ilmenite ores, barites from bonate) limestone deposits in St. GeneWashington County, Mo., lime from St. vieve County, 60 miles south of St. Louis. Genevieve County, Mo., and sulfur from The absence of foreign material or mud Texas or Louisiana. This plant began operation in 1924. seams in the mines permits the use of electric shovels in place of hand selection in Since that time a constantly increasing picking up the stone. The mine floor lies demand for Titanox pigments has necessi 165 feet below the surface, and modern tated a steady program of expansion. mining methods have made possible deWith completion of installations cur velopment of a 90-foot mine face. The rently under way the productive capacity present large capacity of 1000 tons of will be 10 times the initial output and lime per day will probably be increased in employment will be provided t o approxi the near future, although even now the mately 700 men. product finds its way into 38 states. The process consists of dissolving the 1
NEWS
March 25, 1941 Brewing
E D I T I O N
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S o u t h of downtown St. Louis is the world's largest brewery, AnheuserBuscîh, I n c . , reported on p a g e 3 0 6 in this issue.
Alu mina & ; · & • < $ $
B-esides fulfilling its principal function of supplying Alloxan u m C o . of America with alumina, a s described in t h e M a r c h 10 NE^VS E D I T I O N , page
248^ the Aluminum Ore Co. furnishes aluminum oxide a n d aluminum hydroxide M a c h i n e producing straw for corrugating, a t Alton Box for other uses in t h e a large refinery a t Wood River. This arts. Calcined alumina in various forms plant has a daily capacity of 75,000 bar is msed i n t h e m a n u f a c t u r e of fused alurels of crude oil, and produces a complete mina abrasives, in enamels, porcelain, line of t h e usual petroleum derivatives, and glass mixes, a n d in alloy steel producplus m a n y of a more special n a t u r e . tion.. Special forms are used in high-grade As a result of a recently completed electrical insulators and ceramic shapes, construction program most of t h e process refractory bricks, a n d a s catalyst s u p ing units are new. This Shell refinery ports. A special adsorptive form of accomplishes cracking by both liquid a n d alirmina knowm as activated alumina vapor phase processes. Both propane finds use as a desiccating agent for gases, dewaxing and extraction b y t h e Duosol vapors, a n d n o n a q u e o u s liquids, for t h e (cresylic acid and propane) process a r e reclamation a n d reconditioning of oils, used in t h e manufacture of lubricating oils. and as a catalyst or catalyst carrier. Polymerization followed b y hydrogénaa l u m i n u m t r i h y d r a t e is m a r k e t e d in tion of t h e polymer and t h e alkylation various forms, b u t t h e principal use is as process are b o t h utilized a t this refinery t o the* s t a r t i n g m a t e r i a l for t h e m a n u f a c t u r e produce high-octane number stocks for of a l u m i n u m salts such as iron-free alumiaviation gasoline manufacture. n u m sulfate, a l u m i n u m chloride, sodium alnminate, a n d zeolite. I t is also used in glass, vitreous enamels, p o t t e r y , a n d china gla-zes. A special form of a l u m i n u m trihydrate, characterized by extremely small Che 3is and uniformly sized particles, finds use as a reinforcing r u b b e r pigment, a s a highIn t h e diversity a n d extent of manufacgloss pigment i n t h e m a n u f a c t u r e of coated ture of chemicals, t h e Mallinckrodt Chemipaper, a n d for production of a l u m i n u m cal Works, described in t h e F e b r u a r y compounds where a greater degree of 25 N E W S E D I T I O N , page 187, a n d t h e chemical activity is required t h a n afforded Monsanto Chemical Co. are outstanding by t h e h y d r a t e of n o r m a l particle size. in t h e St. L o i i s area. Monsanto, whose rapid growth once started was n o t h a m .A hydrous a l u m i n u m oxide or hydrogel, pered by t h e recent depression years, h a s known a s gelatinous alumina, is m a n u plants on b o t h sides of t h e Mississippi. factured in t h e form of a thick paste. Like Mallmckrodt's, its early history T h i s material is t h e most reactive comshowed perilous escapes from failure. mercial form of alumina a n d m a y be used Founded in 1901, t h e company m a d e in. t h e p r e p a r a t i o n of organic a l u m i n u m one product—saccharin. Losing money coixipounds, a s a n emulsifying a n d softenduring i t s first three years, it nevertheing agent for oils a n d waxes, a n d in cosless survived a n d t o d a y h a s 16 plants in metic creams. the United States, t w o in England. T h e company manufactures thousands of products, ranging from saccharin, vanillin, coumarin, aspirin, caffein, maleic acid, Petroleum and scores of other organics t o sulfuric acid, caustic soda, alum, a n d chlorine. T h e p l a n t of S t a n d a r d Oil C o . of I n A t M o n s a n t o , 111., across t h e river from d i a n a i n industrial Wood River, 111., w a s the St. Louis plant, are located M o n discussed in t h e M a r c h 10 N E W S E D I T I O N , santo's contact plant for t h e production patge 244. T h e Shell Oil C o . also has
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301 of s u l f u r i c a c i d . Raw materials a r e both brimstone a n d pyrites, t h e latter being recovered from coal refuse. Oxidation t o sulfur t r i oxide is accomplished in converters packed with M o n Ί santo vanadium catalyst. Also at M o n s a n t o , 111., is the plant producing chlorine a n d caustic soda, e m ploying both AllenMoore cells a n d Tucker-W i n d e c k e r cells. Some of t h e chlorine is used in Monsanto plant processes, and t h e rest is sold in cylinders and t a n k cars. Board Co. The caustic is concentrated in Swenson forced-circulation evaporators and concentrators t o 70 per cent solution. Page after page could be m a d e interesting with stories of other chemical industries of t h e St. Louis area. There a r e t h e National Enameling and Stamping Co. a n d its steel producer, t h e Granite City Steel Co., b o t h in Granite City, 111. These owe their being to t h e Niedringhaus family who, shortly after the middle of t h e last century, obtained all American rights for t h e processes of producing enameled steel ware a s practiced in Europe a t t h a t time. Among their present-day products a r e steel barrels, galvanized ware m a d e b y t h e self deposition of zinc on steel, a n d lithographed a n d japanned household items. T h e Alton Box Board Co. produces practically every t y p e and grade of paperboard, a n d now holds t h e undisputed position of t h e highest production mill in t h e United States. Waste paper gathered within a 300mile radius, virgin pulps, straw obtained locally (this being t h e center of a very rich wheat section) in a m o u n t s giving a mill inventory equivalent t o 1,000,000 bales, a n d carload quantities of chemicals such as alum, rosin, soda ash, clay, starch, lime, sodium silicate, a n d muriatic acid all enter into t h e processes. T h e lining machine, 80-inch width, speeds 350 lineal feet a m i n u t e t o laminate all weights of boxboard with kraft, book, a n d bond papers. T h e wallboard machine, 108-inch width, stretches 290 feet in length, produces u p t o 300 tons of wallboard each 24 hours a t various speeds up to 300 lineal feet a minute. I t is capable of turning out in six m o n t h s all t h e wallboard used in t h e United S t a t e s in 1939. There are t h e tanneries of t h e I n t e r national Shoe C o . , located a t Hartford, 111., near Wood River, where h e a v y , light, and split leathers a r e chrome-tanned
NEWS
302 for use as uppers in army and work shoes, dress and sport shoes, and for linings, slippers, gussets, and work gloves. Packing plants of t h e Armour Co. and of Swift & Co. at National Stock Yards, 111., help make the wholesale meat packing industry the leader in the St. Louis in dustrial area from the standpoint of value of products. Two miles south of East St. Louis, 111., is the plant of the Midwest Rubber Re claiming Co., an excellent example of this important industry. This importance is realized on learning that 28 per cent of all rubber used in this country is reclaimed rubber, a proportion to be substantially increased in the event of war. T h e proc ess, basically t h a t patented b y Arthur Marks in 1899, has been constantly im proved, and today consists briefly of grinding and sizing the scrap, dissolving all cellulose, depolymerizing t h e rubber by the action of chemicals in autoclaves under 200 pounds' steam pressure, wash ing and drying, and a mechanical treat ment on roil mills, including a straining operation to remove foreign matter. This rolling and straining, requiring some very heavy and expensive machinery, de liver the final product in slab form for re-use by manufacturers of finished rub ber goods. In E a s t St. Louis the George S. Mepharn Corp. produces and maintains standard shades of earth colors, t h e natural iron oxides, Venetian reds, ochres, umbers, etc., by processes involving selection, dry or wet grinding, blending, and in m a n y cases "furnacing , J . Besides natural iron oxides, the firm prepares pure red iron oxides and Indian reds b y decomposing iron sulfate of its own manufacture. N a t u r a l barites, water-ground, water-floated, bleached, and refined yields a practically pure barium sulfate running 99.96 fine through a 325 mesh. In near-by Collinsville, 111., t h e Chemi cal and Pigment Co. manufactures lithopone and titanated lithopones with zinc
Vol. 19, No. 6
E D I T I O N
sulfate and barium sulfide as by-products. These pigments find extensive use in paints, paper, shade cloth, linoleum, and rubber. North of E a s t S t . Louis, t h e Union Starch and Refining Co., in Granite City, 111., has a plant with a capacity of 16,000 bushels of corn a day devoted to the preparation of wet starch products— sirups, caramel color, corn oil, and by product feeds. One of the Reilly Tar and Chemical Corp.'s 15 plants also is located in Granite City. T h e company manufactures creo sote oil, roofing pitch, cresylic acid, and a complete range of refined coal-tar chemi cals used in medicines, resins, explosives, disinfectants, dj^es, and many organic syntheses. Crossing the Mississippi t o return again to St. Louis, we find m a n y additional chemical industries. One of these, en gaged in the manufacture of lubricating greases, compounding lubricating oils, casting paraffin wax for household candles, compounding various sprays for animal and horticultural purposes, and manufac turing potash and liquid soaps and pine oil disinfectants, is probably t h e oldest chemical industry in the city to maintain its identity to t h e present day. This company, the Schaeffer Brothers and Powell Manufacturing Co., was estab lished by Nicholas Schaeffer in 1839. T h e Warner-Jenkinson Manufacturing Co. occupies a high position in its field. Its production of certified food colors has found its way in foreign trade to countries as distant as Egypt. The company, producing only flavoring oils and extracts prior t o World War I, began the manufacture of the food colors so difficult to obtain during t h a t war. Under the direction of Harold Johnson, who is still their chief chemist, a research program was inaugurated t o develop methods for these manufacturers, and its continuation led t o t h e introduction of three new dyes, formerly unknown, commercially, and now among t h e 18 colors certified by the
Food and Drug Administration for use in foods. The company estimates t h a t its color output during 1940 would, on an average use basis, be sufficient to color 23 pounds of candy, 37 quarts of ice cream, or slightly more than a case of soda water, for each man, woman, and child in the United States. T h e Ralston Purina Co., Inc., careful manufacturer of animal feeds, is also in St. Louis. Recognizing t h a t there is a science of animal as well as h u m a n nu trition, the company exercises rigid labora tory control of every ingredient of its Purina Chows and Ralston cereal, so t h a t a uniform product meeting high standards will be ensured. Control extends to m a n y vitamins, particularly vitamins A and Bi, and traces of minerals, both measured by a series of original photoelectric instru ments. There are the Missouri Portland Ce m e n t Co., whose two Prospect Hill wet process plants have a total capacity of 3,250,000 barrels of cement a year, the United Drug Co.'s large plant on N o r t h Kingshighway, manufacturing a broad line of pharmaceutical, medicinal, cos metic, and confectionery products, the Lambert Pharmacal Co., the Meyer Brothers Drug Co., 88-year old distribu tors of pharmaceutical products, numer ous breweries, paint manufacturers, and cosmetic firms, all contributing t o the St. Louis industrial effort. With much left unsaid, with many stories of chemical interest untold, we can recall to our thoughts again Laclede, Chouteau, and their rugged comrades. J u s t as they could not realize the ultimate growth of their trading post, so t o d a y the Lacledes and Chouteaus of St. Louis chemical industries cannot make accurate long-range predictions. But they, instead of concentrating on furs, by focusing their abilities and energies on problems of industrial production, h u m a n welfare, and national defense, will build toward a future now only vaguely discerned.
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