the International Lead Co., the United States Co., the International Harvester Co. and the National Lead Co. may each have a dozen furnaces on the most varied work. Oxide copper furnaces are at work just as they used to be in Arizona during the '80s, and the slags are high in copper, too. Small copper reverberatories are getting out tough pitch copper just as the big furnaces do at Great Falls and Perth Amboy. Lead blast-furnaces are making bullion and matte just as they do in the West; one of the neatest bag houses is right in the heart of the city, and another fine example is at East Chicago.

It can hardly be held that much of the plant work is less metallurgical because it is joined up with metal

LIST I-METALS PRODUCED, REFINED AND PREPARED IN THE VICINITY OF CHICAGO

Iridium.

Palladium.

Platinum.

Gold.

Silver...

Tungsten. Tin..

preparation and manufacturing processes. Most of the Chicago plants add to the smelting, refining, graining and shaping of the metals also the final factory operations which put the stock on the market for ultimate consumption. Thus the Goldsmith plant is fundamentally a precious-metal plant, but the company is also widely known as furnishing dental specialties. The National Lead Co., with all its furnaces, alloying and extrusion work, is better known as supplying pigments

LIST II-METALLURGICAL OPERATIONS ACTIVELY PROSECUTED IN THE VICINITY OF CHICAGO

Concentrating..

Leaching..

Roasting.

Smelting..

Bismuth

Aluminum

Copper..

Great Western S. & R. Co.

Chicago Bearing Metal Co.

Goldsmith Bros S. & R. Co.

Dissolving.. Bag Houses.

Cupelling..

Granulating.. Briquetting..

Jigs, tables and fine grinding mills are found in connection with several foundries.

Few instances in strictly metallurgical works, common in the chemical plants.

Grasselli Chemical Co. has two standard Hegeler

zinc roasting furnaces in constant use.

Goldsmith Bros. S. & R. Co. has a Dwight-Lloyd

roast-sintering machine.

Chicago Bearing Metal Co.

International Lead Refining Co.

United States Metals Refining Co.

Goldsmith Bros. S. & R. Co.

National Lead Co.

Great Western S. & R. Co.

International Lead Refining Co.
United States Metals Refining Co.
Goldsmith Bros. S. & R. Co.
Great Western S. & R. Co.
Thomas J. Dee & Co.

Grasselli Chemical Co.

Goldsmith Bros. S. & R. Co.

International Lead Refining Co.
Goldsmith Bros. S. & R. Co.
United States Metals Refining Co.
International Lead Refining Co.
United States Metals Refining Co.
Goldsmith Bros. S. & R. Co.

Thomas J. Dee & Co.

Carter White Lead Co.

Goldsmith Bros. S & R. Co.

Metal Block & Ingot Co.

Rolling, Drawing, Spinning, Extruding, Wire Drawing, Pressing and Stamping of most common metals practiced in scores of plants. Casting of iron, steel, brass, bronze and aluminum carried out in over 200 foundries.

and paint. The Grasselli Chemical Co., with its roasters and metal dissolving facilities, is known rather as supplying acids and salts. A certain large manufacturing jeweler employing 50 or 60 men in a corner of one floor of a huge office building is apparently only busy at making rings and pins and setting precious stones, but really he is even more fundamentally interested in alloying, deoxidizing, hardening, shaping, electroplating and reclaiming scrap and sweepings. The International Harvester Co. makes and sells farming implements, but we would consider it a rather large metallurgical plant which operates 4 cupolas, 8 air furnaces and numerous brass furnaces.

THE UNITED STATES METALS REFINING CO.

The United States Metals Refining Co. has possibly the most important and interesting plant near Chicago, excluding the steel plants. This is an electrolytic lead refinery; base bullion from the West is the chief raw material, electrolytic lead and pure bismuth are the two chief finished products. The precious metals in the form of doré slabs are sent to Chrome, N. J., for final separation and purification. Besides the immense tank house and remarkable electrolytic work, the plant produces hydrofluoric acid and hard lead alloys. In the recent death of William Thum, long superintendent of the plant, not only the community loses a strong and able character but the metallurgical world a penetrating investigator and constructive scientist. The plant has accomplished much in the refining of lead, the treatment of the electrolytic slime and the winning of the very purest bismuth. Our view of the plant in Fig. 1 shows the immense tank house in the rear with the (from the right) office, fluosilicate building, bag house and blast-furnace building across the foreground.

THE INTERNATIONAL LEAD REFINING CO.

The International Lead Refining plant was built at East Chicago under the direction of George Hulst, a very capable manager in the lead refining business. This is the most modern of the world's lead refineries using the Parkes process. It is the lead refining department of the Anaconda Copper Mining Co. At the

right in Fig. 2 one sees the striking bag house, while the main furnace building is at the left. The plant has never really been pushed to capacity and is designed for expansion to much larger size. Besides operating it at remarkably efficient cost, Hulst has done much interesting work in smelting antimony ores for the hardlead trade.

The Goldsmith plant is possibly the most versatile in the whole district. Precious metal values are recovered from concentrates, ores, residues and sweepings by sintering, smelting and the Parkes process of desil

verization. Precious metal parting is performed by acids and pure iridium, palladium, platinum, silver and gold are produced. Iridium is marketed as powder or in hard platinum, but the other metals are melted and sent out in bars, rolled plate, granulated or as salts. A unique copper-dissolving tank used in the manufacture of blue stone, a model bag house (Fig. 3) and improved chemical laboratory were features designed by the author. The plant manufactures a splendid line of dental cements, largely the product of an Armour Institute graduate. Osmic acid, silver chloride and silver nitrate, gold chloride and blue stone are further plant products. Fig. 4 is a view in the melting room; 18-in. dishes for parting gold bullions are on the table and a wheelbarrow of silver is at the right. The silver is melted in the crucible furnace at the right and the parting done in

the oven behind the two men. The diagram of the plant as given in Fig. 5 indicates the spread of the plant; it has recently been largely rebuilt.

GREAT WESTERN SMELTING & REFINING CO. The Great Western Smelting & Refining Co. plant is equipped with machines for grinding, washing and briquetting metallic residues. There is one cupola, or blast-furnace, and reverberatories for matte, solder, lead, brass, copper and copper refining. There are eight pit furnaces for crucibles, a sweating furnace and three large melting kettles. Precious metal residues are not handled, but otherwise the plant reclaims most of the non-ferrous wastes of civilization and turns out a long list of metals and alloys. An adequate laboratory enables work of precision to be done.

THE THOMAS J. DEE PLANT

The Thomas J. Dee plant is on the North Side of Chicago, a small heavily barred strong-box for precious metal work. Furnaces are installed for melting and refining the precious metals, while the acid process is

used for parting. Besides turning out bars and slabs, the plant features drawing precious metals into wire. After the short, thick rods are cast they are swaged down and then drawn through dies to specified size. Gold, silver, platinum and their alloys are thus treated for the market.

It is obvious that Chicago is a great lead refining center and a heavy producer of the precious metals,

either pure or alloyed. It is also a conspicuous center for the antimony-lead alloys, bismuth, the copper and tin bearing metals, and solders. A large portion of this business comes through the smelting, refining and alloying of junk materials.

gical field result from the absence of much virgin ore The most conspicuous voids in the general metallurreduction, leaching operations, electrolytic copper refining and zinc smelting. For the electrolytic copper refining one must go far, either West or East, but for the zinc smelting a short trip to LaSalle and DePue puts one among the greatest plants.

School of Mines,

Butte, Montana.

Chemical Industries of Illinois and the Chicago District

TH

BY PROCTER THOMSON

HE fortunate geographic location of Chicago has led to the development of a wonderful system of transportation facilities. This consists not only of the numerous railways which radiate from Chicago in every direction, but includes the various belt lines and clearing yards which facilitate the movement of goods from one railroad to another. The coal fields of Illinois and Indiana insure a plentiful and sure supply of fuel at low cost. When Eastern cities are tied up with freight congestion, Chicago has found it possible to obtain raw materials and fuel and to ship finished goods. appreciation of these factors is leading to the develop ment of Chicago as an industrial center. This development has extended beyond the border of Illinois and over into Indiana. As these northern Indiana industries are in the Chicago district, they will be considered here instead of with Indiana industries. Chemical industry has taken part in this growth in a greater degree than is generally known.

The

The chemical industry of Illinois other than the Chicago district is considerable. It participates in the transportation advantages of Chicago, but is generally the result of nearby sources of raw material. This is particularly the case of the zinc industry with the associated acid plants.

BY-PRODUCT COKE PLANTS

Illinois has unlimited supplies of limestone and fluorspar, which, in addition to the factors already named, contribute to the growth of the iron and steel industry, which has reached great proportions and is still growing.

and sintered electrically. These bars are then swedged into the desired shape. The tungsten is cut into discs and mounted on the proper supports for electrical-contact apparatus. The molybdenum is used in the manufacture of spiders for tungsten filaments. Metallic cerium is produced from materials obtained from the Lindsay Light Co. A pure cerium chloride is made which is fused and electrolyzed and metallic cerium recovered. This is used in pyrophoric alloys.

PAINT PIGMENT

The manufacture of paint pigments is carried on at a number of plants in Illinois. Lithopone is manufactured by Sherwin-Williams at Pullman, the Midland Chemical Co. at Argo and the Consolidated Chemical Products Co. at Alton. The Sherwin-Williams Co. manufactures corroded white lead and dry colors, including prussian blue, chrome yellow and para toners.

The National Lead Co. has a large plant producing corroded white lead by the old Dutch process, red lead and litharge. Here also, babbitts, solder and metals for tempering baths, etc., are produced.

The Carter White Lead Co. produces white lead in South Chicago.

HEAVY AND INORGANIC CHEMICAL MANUFACTURE

The field of heavy and inorganic chemical manufacture is well taken care of by Illinois and the Chicago district. The General Chemical Co., with factories at South Chicago, Chicago Heights and East St. Louis, manufactures a general line of heavy chemicals, including mineral acids, sodium sulphide, zinc chloride, silicate of soda, aluminum sulphate, soda alum and contact sulphuric acid.

The Grasselli Chemical Co. manufactures heavy chemicals at East Chicago.

Closely associated with iron and steel is the by-product coke industry. This has reached tremendous proportions. The United States Steel Corporation has 700 Koppers ovens at Gary and 280 Koppers ovens at Joliet. The total coking capacity of these ovens is 12,000 tons of coal per day.

The By-Products Coke Corporation operates 280 Semet Solvay ovens at South Chicago and has 120 more nearly ready to operate at Indiana Harbor. The combined capacity of these 400 ovens will be 45,000 tons of coke per month.

MISCELLANEOUS METALLURGICAL INDUSTRIES

Most of the metallurgical activity in the Chicago district other than iron and steel is in the refining of trade wastes. There are notable exceptions to this, however. One of these is the Fansteel Products Co. This company at North Chicago is producing metallic tungsten, molybdenum, and cerium of great purity. The tungsten is produced from wolframite, and the molybdenum from ammonium molybdate or molybdic oxide. The processes are practically the same for both metals. The raw material is fused with sodium carbonate, the soluble salts of the metals leached out, and by alternate precipitation with acid and solution in alkali, with the accompanying filtering and washing, oxides of a high degree of purity are produced. After ignition the oxides are reduced by hydrogen. The metallic powder is pressed into bars

and nitric acid.

One of the most interesting developments in Chicago is the Lindsay Light Co., which originally was a producer of incandescent mantles for gas lights, but market conditions in 1914 led it to become a producer of the basic materials used in the mantle industry. The raw material used is monazite sand from India. From this the company is producing thorium nitrate, cerium salts and titantium potassium oxalate. It is almost alone in this field. Beryllium and antimony salts are also being produced. Since the signing of the armistice it has been preparing for the production of dyestuffs and will soon be in the market with phthalic anhydride, phenolphthalein, methylene blue, fuchsine and other products of like nature.

Most people think of borax as being produced in the region where raw materials are found. The Thorkildsen-Mather Co., however, finds conditions in Chicago so favorable to chemical industry that it has located its factory here. It produces borax in the stockyards district from California colemanite.

The production of radium compounds is also being carried on in Chicago-the Carnotite Reduction Co. is producing radium bromide and vanadium compounds from Colorado carnotite.

The Superior Chemical Co. at Joliet is making filter alum, cream of tartar substitute and soda alum, using Arkansas bauxite. Located near by is the Superior Phosphate Co., manufacturer of calcium phosphates.

Stiesen-Reuter & Hancock are producing metallic