Show geee lo 10 bistod of the western milor hs n weekly of denver contains the following very interesting account of the establishment and JL rapid and substantial growth of the western chemical works of that place an eminent writer has said that the prosperity and imbor importance tance of a m manufacturing district can be best gauged by the size and character of its chemical works because manufacturing requirements involve the extensive use of chemicals for many purposes this being so a brief description of the works pf af the western chemical company on the banks of the platte river near valverde and within t wenty twenty minutes drive from the denver en postoffice post office will give some index as to de danvers Den vers importance as the manufacturing and add di distributing ari buting c center e anter 0 of f the trans missouri country that sulphuric acid is the base of nearly all chemicals and the very life and soul of the chemical industry may be to produce hydrogen gas for balloons for dissolving indigo in the preparation of dyes ether coll odian nitro etc it is used in the refining of oil large quantities being so consumed at florence in this state also in the refining of the precious metals at the various smelters shelters sm elters it is now being most ex W AA aj THE WESTERN CHEMICAL WORKS IN 1891 seen from a glance at the substances to whose manulat manufacture ture it is essential or at any rate con convenient lenient veni ent from it is produced nitric acid acid acid phosphate acetic acid sulphates hates of copper iron zinc lead etc for making nitro 0 o glycerine and dynamite for bleaching dyeing and printing tor for producing teng ten ively used at the different chlorination mills in the cripple creek district for the treatment of the gold ores of that vicinity one concern alone consuming pounds of acid monthly the first attempt at manufacturing fac turing sulphuric acid in colorado was by prof william west a chemist of high repute P T J f 7 T 7 ap A aw 5 THE CHEMICAL WORKS OF DENVER electric currents and for electroplating electro plating for galvanizing and wire making I 1 for cleaning iron copper and silver and se separating pa rating gold from copper alloys in making alum epsom salts and glaubert glau bers salts in the manufacture of blacking of sugar from starch and of mineral waters for dissolving iron and zinc j now deceased he erected a small plant ut at black hawk in 1875 and produced about 2000 pounds of acid abeld per day he continued the business about three years but the demand for his goods was so limited and the expense of manufacturing on a small scale so great that he was compelled to suspend business in 1879 a mr pierce with others built a small plant at golden this also proved a failure only running about one year the next attempt at acid manufacturing was by a company of deaver and boston capitalists who organized in 1881 the denver smelting smelling Sm elting and chemical company with professor west as mana ger and mr G H smith as superintendent they purchased ground near valverde where they erected buildings a large chamber and other apparatus for the production of sulphuric sulphur tc acid this company failed after after doing business bus for about three years and the whole plat was sold by the sheriff for the non pay ment of salary to the superintendent in mr smith held the title for about ore one year when he sold it in 1885 to mr E M ashley and dr N K morris these gentlemen put in new machinery and made many improvements and ran the business as a partnership company for about one year when they organized the western chemical works company and placed prof west in charge as superintendent in the fall of 1878 prof west resigned and mr T G owen became hi his s successor soon Q af after te r i his mr henry stewart fc bought an in terest in the company and became secretary and treasurer in october 1891 mr owen resigned as superintendent to enter into business for himself and mr P F R ashley a graduate from the scientific and chemical department of michigan university became his successor in april 1892 mr fc sold d his inter inte r est in the company to mr J C skinner of cleveland 0 a gentleman of large experience in the business having been superintendent of the largest chemical works in the country for eighteen years thoroughly practical in business as well as affable affable and courteous in his intercourse with business men and he was elected manager of the company and mr F R ashley secretary and treasurer the officials of the company are mr E M ashley president mr C B kountze vice president mr J C skinner manager mr F B R ashley secretary and treasurer the works are located on about six acres of ground on the colorado southern railroad south park line three miles from the union depot their products are sulphuric nitric and acids blue ditrol copperas refined salt cake marble dust and amonia they also manufacture chemically pure acids and amonia MAKING SULPHURIC auric ACID there ig 13 no secret connected with the manufacture of sulphuric acid all books on chemistry giving clear information on the subject the principal ingredient Is sulphur either native or from iron pyrites the western chemical company use the latter in the form of concentrates from the gilpin county mills these concentrates contain about 45 percent sulphur and are roasted in herreshoff furnaces when the sulphur is ignited in a current of air it volatilizes and robbing the air of part of bf its oxygen becomes converted into sulphurous acid gas which passes from the furnaces by means of a flue into a series of leaden chambers where on coming in contact with the gaseous nitric acid and steam it becomes converted into sulphuric acid at the expense of part of the oxygen of the nitric nitric acid gas which becomes converted into nitric oxide this in its turn seizes the oxygen present in the air and returns to its original condition the nitric acid gas is produced by the action of sulphuric acid on nitrate of soda commonly called nitre ditre and is generated within the flues by a special arrangement and go along with the sulphurous gases into the lead chambers the combined gases together with steam and air mix in the cambers and condense as sulphuric acid which falls to the bottom as a liquid this is known as chamber acid and has a specific gravity of about 52 deg beaume this chamber acid is now concentrated first into leaden pans to a specific gravity of 60 deg beaume and finally concentrated in stills up to 66 deg beaume which is the commercial standard strength this is finally pumped by means of compressed compres sd air to the steel storage tanks which are elevated twelve feet above the ground level the acid is now allowed to run into tank cars and is then ready for shipment the company has seven steel storage tanks each holding tons of sulp sulphuric hurie aid acid and have a train of tank cars fifteen in number the capacity of which range from twelve to twenty seven tons shipments are also made in steel cases known as drums holding about 1600 pounds each also in car boys holding about pounds the carboys carbons are at present purchased in the east but the western blabs manufacturing company intend manufacturing these in the near future and the chemical company will use them thus helping the local glass factory the company is now making about 1500 of sulphuric acid per month and use two cars of concentrates daily and about two cars of nitrate of soda monthly for its manufacture the ore after roasting is shipped to the argo smelter to be treated for its gold and silver contents ACID acid is made from sulphuric acid and salt tiie the salt being purchased at salt lake city the two ingredients are placed in an iron refert ret art and heated by means of a coal fire I 1 acid gas being liberated this gas is conducted through an earthenware pipe into a series of tanks or boxes constructed ted of I 1 stone the gas on cooling becomes liquid acid when the acid is strong enough it is then run into carboys carbons through an earthenware faucet and is now ready for sale acid is used extensively in some cyanide gold mills for the dissolving of the zinc in the gold slimes it is also used to some extent in soap making also in woolen mills the beet sugar factories are also consumers of this acid considerable of it is used for the cleaning of brick walls NITRIC ACID nitric acid is manufactured from sulphuric sulphur c acid and nitrate of soda it is made in similar retort as the acid only that the nitric acid gas is condensed conden ced in glass tubes instead of earthenware earthenware tanks A special grade of this acid is now being extensively used in the various smelters shelters sm elters for the parting of the gold and silver in their bullion the powder works formerly existing near denver used large quantities of this acid and sulphuric also but at present no explosives are made in colorado all being obtained from distant points nitric acid is used extensively in electroplating electro plating and etching ing g cuts for printing purposes BLUE blue vitriol or sulphate of copper is made from sulphuric acid and copper oxide obtained from the argo smelter of this city the acid and copper oxide are thrown into a lead lined tank and live steam introduced by this means the copper is entirely dissolved the copper sulphate solution is then run into into lead lined tanks into which strips of lead are suspended in a few days beautiful blue crystals of copper sulphate will be noticed adhering to the lead strips these crystals are carefully removed well washed and drained and afterward dried in a centrifugal machine run b by steam power when thoroughly dried they are packed into barrels and ancl are ready for the market blue vitriol is used in refining purposes and in batteries for general electric work and telephone lines several carloads per annum of blue ditrol from these works are used for steeping seed wheat to prevent rust copperas or sulphate of iron is manufactured in the same kind 01 a plant as blue ditrol the only difference te being the use of scrap iron instead of cop copper per oxide copperas is used in some ome gold reduction works for the purpose of the preci pi pl tation of gold out of their solutions it is ig also used as a disinfectant for street gutters closets etc marble dust is ground at this plant bein carl carbonate onate of lime obtained from morrison to the extent of one car per month anclin and 18 used exclusively in the soda water trade for gene generating ratin cr carbonic acid gas with which soda water is charged we are indebted to mr R B hosker the chemist ol at the company for the chemical facts contained in this article mr hosker has had considerable experience in chemical I 1 factories both in europe and in this country he was chemist in the acid works of the standard oil company at new jersey prior to his engagement to the western chemical Chem iaal company before closing 0 we would like to speak of the chemically pure acid and ammonia department of this works this is the young est branch of their business and is under the direction of mr george C a chemist formerly connected with the boston montana smelter at great falls montana these C P goods are now being used by nearly all the smelters shelters sm elters in the west and jn in mexico also by all the leading chemists and assayers in this western country this alone is a sufficient guarantee ot of the purity of their goods the bulk of the product of these works is consumed in colorado but about seventy five fite cars per annum are shipped outside to montana utah arizona black hills S D new mexico and old mexico the capacity of the plant is fully up to the western demand cheapness of production necessitates necessitates large production which puts out of the ques question a small plant and there is no room for another large one I 1 it will be seen from the foregoing that with the exception of south american nitrate of soda and salt lake salt all the raw mat erias used are of colorado production ore from the black hawk mills in gilpin county coal from boulder county copper from argo smelter scrap iron from colorado generally marble rock from morrison glass bottles bottle from the western glass manufacturing company of this city fire brick and clay from golden etc pay roll of this company amounts to 2800 monthly and the number of employed emp loyes about forty |