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Show COMMERCIAL VALUE POM DEPOSITS i J. F. O'Neil, the Discoverer, Pro- pares Interesting Paper I for The Record. HAS HAD NOv REASON TO CHANGE HIS OPINION Traces History of the Development of Potash Salts and Its Vnrious 4 Constituent Compounds. . Editor Iron County Record.I have been interrogated by many persons in regard to the potash possibilities ol Parowan and Cedar distiict, nvi as the residents of both communities are more or less interested therein, I will accept your kind offer of the column? of your valued paper to explain in jlart tho local situation as I see and understand under-stand it. But to do so intelligently, I must first take up and dissect the compounds com-pounds of alum and aluminum. Alum is a compound snlt, employed in dying dy-ing and various other industrial processes. pro-cesses. It is soluble In water: has an nstringent, acid and sweetish taste, reddens vegetable blues and crystallizes crystal-lizes in regular octhedroncs. Its constituents con-stituents arc sulphuric acid, alumina an alknli, and water. The alkali may be either potash, soda or amonia Hence there are three species of alum depending upon tho nature of the alkali al-kali which it contains. Constitution of Alum. Tho progress made by chemists in the discovery of tho constitution of alum was very slow. The species first investigated was potash alum. That it contained sulphuric acid as a con stituent, was unknown even to the nl chemists. Pott and Margrnff demonstrated demon-strated that alumina was another con. stituent. Pott in his Lithogcognosin, showed that tho earth of alum or the precipitate obtained when an alkali is poured into a solution of alum, is quite different from lime and chalk, with which it had been confounded by Stahl. ..Margraff wonU.muoh. farther., Ho not only showed that alnmnia itr one of the constituents of alum, but that this earth possesses peculiar properties, proper-ties, is different from every other substance sub-stance and is ono of tho ingredients in common clay. Margraff showed likewise by many experiments that crystals of alum cannot be obtained by dissolving alumnia in sulphuric ncid and evaporating the solution. The crystals formed are always soft and quite different in appearance from alum al-um crystals. But when a solution of potash or amonia is dropped into this liquid It immediately deposits perfect crystals of alum. Beogman had observed that tho addition ad-dition of potash or amonia mado the alum crystallize; he likewise obserbed that the sulphate of potash is frequently fre-quently found in alum. He decomposed decom-posed the solution of alum by mcanp of amonia, evaporated the filtered li- Suid to dryness and exposed the resi-ue resi-ue to a red heat. A quantity of sulphate sul-phate of potash often remnined in the crucible. From these fucts he drew the conclusion thnt sulphate of potash readily combines with sulphate of a-lumina. a-lumina. When our alum was discovered is entirely unknown. Beckman devoted a good deal of attention to the salt, and published a curious dissertation on the subject; but his attempt to trace the origin viia unsuccessful. Tho manufacture of it was discovered discov-ered In the East, but at what time or place is also unknown. Alum-stone or alunito was first observed ob-served at Talfar, thlrty-fivo miles from Rome in the Fifteenth century, and afterwards in Hungnry and several sev-eral other places, chiefly in trachyte or other volcanic rocks. It appears to be produced by the action of sulphurous sulphur-ous vapors on telspars they contain There is a mineral called aluminite which was observed in the environs of Halle, many years ago, and which was afterwards detected by Mr. Webster In clay resting oh chalk in Newhaven in Sussex. It consists of alumina, sulphuric sul-phuric acid and water. Metal Aluminum. I will now discuss briefly as possi-blo possi-blo the metal aluminum, as It will be a byproduct from any operations towards to-wards the extraction of potash, and I may incidentally remark that the U. S. Geological Survey reports a production pro-duction for the year 1914 of 79,129,-000 79,129,-000 pounds of this metal, ranging in price from 17 to 20 cents por pound. Aluminum is a white metal resembling resemb-ling silver in appearance. It is very malleable and ductilo and may bo beaten beat-en and rolled into thin sheets or drawn Into fine wire. By hammering It cold it becomes as hard as soft iron, but may bo softened again by fusion. Aluminum does not oxldlzo In air even I at a red heat; has no action upon I water at an ordinary temperaturo. and is not acted on by sulphurited hydrogen or sulphide of ammonium, and thus preserves its luster when I silver would bo tarnished and blackened. black-ened. Now, before discussing potash or potassium, I would like to remark that very few people realize to what an extent this important clement enters into our daily needs. And I assure BuyCflt inibretl ouuutft In tho Kub- " """' 'y41'"'" ..' "t.jhtliill I jeet to gather information on tho matter mat-ter a aurprl6e. If thoy tako tho troub-lo troub-lo to look It up. Potassium. (Symb. K. cquiv. 39, sp. gr. 0.8C5) Is one of tho alkaline metals. Tho letter K. is selected ns Its symbol as being the first letter of Kali, the Arabic word for polnsh, tho letter P bIng fore-occupied as tho symbol for phosphorous. The following aro tho chief characteristics charac-teristics of this mctnl: It Is of a bluish-white color and presents a stronor metallic luster at !12 deg. It is brittlo and has n crystallno fracture. At a somewhat higher heat or temperature it is malleable; at 60 deg. it is soft nnd of consistency of wax; at 130 dog it is completely liquid; nnd at a red heat It is converted into a beautiful green vnpor. Its affinity for oxygon Ss so great that on exposure to the air it immediately imme-diately becomes covered with a film of oxide. When heated It burns with a violet flame. Its intenso affinity for oxygen is well shown by throwing it Into water, on which, from its low specific gravity it floats. Tho metal abstracts oxygen from tho water and forms oxide of potassium (potash), while with the liberated hydrogen a small portion of the volntilized potassium potas-sium comes off, nnd taking fire from tho heat evolved by tho energetic "hemicnl action, burns with a brilliant violet flame. The experiment is n beautiful ono The burning metals swim about rapidly rapid-ly upon tho water and finnlly disappear disap-pear with an explosion of steam when the globule of melted potash becomes sufficiently cool to come Into contact with the water. At an elevated temperaturo this metal removes oxygen from almost nil bodies into tho constitution of which that element enters. And in tho laboratory it is often used to remove re-move any trace of oxygon from hydrocarbons, hy-drocarbons, by distilling the latter with a small quantity of the metal. From tho above factB it is obvious that potassium must always be kept in some fluid such as purified rock oil or naptha, which contnin no oxygen. oxy-gen. POTASSIUM DOES NOT OCCUR IN THE NATIVE STATE AND CAN ONLY BE OBTAINED BY THE REDUCTION RE-DUCTION OF ITS OXIDE POTASH. POT-ASH. Potassium forms these compoundr with oxygen, viz: a protoxide, K20 or potnsh, which is strongly basic. A dioxide, K202, and a ditroxlde, K204. which does not combine with acids. It is unnecessary to enter a detailed statement concerning tho hundred and 9m ,useH,.made,ot.tncL different compounds com-pounds obtained from tnlB very useful element, nnd my short sketch of each is only written with a view of Informing Inform-ing those desiring to know the close ind intricntc relationship existing in the group. As to Local Possibilities Reverting to the possibilities of potash being produced in commercial quantities locally, I have no reason whatever to change my opinion or alter al-ter my statement in which I asserted potash would be produced in large quantities in Iron county. It would scarcely bo an exaggeration to say that the first rock you might pick up in your morning walk would contain some potash. Yet thU denotes noth-Ing. noth-Ing. There nro large ledges of alunite oi C8, containing potash, both in Colo-dado Colo-dado and Utah, whiph are undeveloped and may remain so for a long period of time. If present market price was an assured fact for one, two or three years, theso deposits of alunito ores would undoubtedly be developed, providing pro-viding that a cheaper source of potash were not discovered in the meantime. And I nm of the opinion tho sandstone strata east of Parowan and Cedar will upon development prove to be just such a source of potash. It must be remembered, however, that to obtain an average potash values val-ues of tho material just mentioned, it will be necessary for tho holdors or owners of property on or along said strata to develop by tunnels or shafts sufficient depth to obtain samples showing uniform continunto of potash, or nearly so, in and beyond tho tracked zone; as it is a well-known fact that potash is the most soluble element on earth, when found in tho simple oxidized oxi-dized state, and tho recovory of it when onco in solution is practically impossible by any known method ex-copt ex-copt by evaporation of tho liquid to dryness. In the alunito ores the potnsh pot-nsh has formed a compound which makes It n complex product and in-solublo in-solublo while In this stato, and It is necessry to crush, roast and leach the ore to obtain potash therefrom. The strata of Bandstone containing the double sulphates of potash and alumina in which wo arc more or loss interested, will by tho naturo of the material, permit tho extraction of possibly 80 per cent of tho contained sulphate by the simple process of lixfvation. If this bo possible, and all tests up to tho present writing have contrih-uted contrih-uted to this belief, it can bo readily seen that alunite ores containing 10 por cent of potnsh cannot compete with tho sandstone carrying a like amount, for tho reason that the milling', mil-ling', roasting, &c., are eliminated. J. F. O'NEIL. |