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Show FULLER'S EARTH AS AN OIL FILTER A Growing American Industry. " The Production of Fuller's Earth," by Jefferson Middleton, of the United States Geological Survey, haB just been published as an advance chap-tor chap-tor from "Mineral Resources of the United States, 1910." The fuller's earth resources of the United States says Mr. Mfddleton. have attrncted considerable attention for seeral years because of the increasing in-creasing demand for this materlnl for use as a clarifying agent for mineral and vogoUible oils, The original use from which It derives Its name tho fulling of cloth. Is now of minor Importance Im-portance An Accidental Discovery For a great many years fuller's earth was Imported from England, tho only known source of supply but in 1893 it was by accident discovered in this country. At Qulncy Fla., an effort ef-fort was made without success to burn brick on the property of the Owl Cigar company. An AlBation cigar maker employed by the company called attention to the close resemblance resem-blance of this clay to the German ful-lor's ful-lor's earth As a result of this suggestion sug-gestion the clay was tested and found to be. fullor's earth, and the industry was developed. This discover caused considerable excitement and supposed deposits of fuller's earth v;oro 'reported fiVjm a number of states. Thn mntorlal In most of these deposits, however was found to bo of no value as fuller's earth. Since tho discovery Florida has been the leading state in production During the early history of the industry ful lor's earth was produced in only two or three states In 1897 to 1S99 It was repprted from Florida Colorado, and New York with a very small production pro-duction from Utah; In 1901 Arkansas was added to the list From 1904 to 1907 Arkansas was the second largest producer. Shortly after Its discovery in Florida fuller' earth was found In Georgia but Georgia did not appear as a producer until 1907, when it was the third largest producing state; it ranked second in 1909 and 1910 In 1904 Alabama and Massachusetts reported re-ported production in 1907 South Carolina Caro-lina and Texas first appeared, and in 1909 California entered the list Method of Clarifying Oils The principal use of fuller's earth In this cbuntry Is in bloachlng, clarifying, clari-fying, or filtering of fats, greases, and oils. The common practice with mineral oils la to dry the earth carefully care-fully after It has been finely ground, after which tho crude black mineral oil are allowed to percoato very lowly low-ly As a result, the oil that first comes out Is perfectly white and much thinner than that which follows. The oil is allowed "to continue percolating through the earth until the color reaches a certain maximum shade Then tho fuller's earth Itself is clarified clar-ified by a steaming process and used over again. Wfth vegotable oils, how-evor, how-evor, the process is radically differ-enL differ-enL The oil is heated beyond the boiling point of water In large tanks, from 5 to 10 per cent of Its weight of fuller's earth Is added, and the mixture Is vigorously stirred and then filtered off through bag filters The coloring matter remains with tho earth, the filtered oil being of a very pale straw color American fuller's earths arc better adapted than the English earths for use on mineral oils, but the English earths are superior for the treatment of fats and vegetablo oils In clarifying vegetable and animal ani-mal fats wUh American earths a more or less disagreeable ta6te Is left just why has never been determined. To show the growth of tho American Amer-ican industry It Is only necessary to state that from C.900 tons in 1895 the production Increased to 33.4S0 tone In 1909 This was the maximum, the output for 1910 being GG4 tonB less. Florida was the leading producing state in 1910, furnishing 57 38 per cont of the total output, or 18,832 short tons. The othor producing states, named in the order of thoir rank in output andalue In 1910, were Georgia, Arkansas, South Carolina, Caro-lina, and Colorado. A copy of Mr MIddloton's report may be obtained on application to the Director of tho Geological Survey at Washlngton.D. C. |
