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Show SULPHURIC ACID AS A NECESSITY. Describing the many demands made by civilization on sulphuric acid, Ell-wood Ell-wood Hedrick in a paper just issued, gives a sketch of the chemistry of the acid, which In view of the fact that Utah is to have a large sulphuric acid plant in connection with, one of the big smelters at Garfield, will be read with that added interest attaching attach-ing to all now Industries intended to promote the welfare of the people of this state: v "We have heard of the embarrassment embarrass-ment of industry by the lack of German Ger-man dyes, but this is a mere bagatelle compared with the general break-up that would follow a dearth of sulphuric sulphur-ic acid. We can neither go to war and have smokeless powder, nor can we live In space without it. Wherever you go In civilization you cannot get out of Its path. It has been known as a commercial product for about a hundred hun-dred yearB. The first step in the process pro-cess of making it Is to burn sulphur. When you burn sulphur you produce gas containing one atom of sulphur to two of oxygen in the molecule. Everybody Ev-erybody knows the choking smell of this gas; you produce it every timM you Ught an old fashioned sulphur match. It is easy enough to do on a small scale, but when it comes to doing do-ing this very thing on a large scale and measuring the units by the ton, It will be seen that even here there are engineering problems involved that are far from easy. And we haven't hav-en't sulphuric acid yet, by long odds. We have with our two atoms of oxygen oxy-gen to one of sulphur the anhydrid of sulphurous acid; the first step In the process; what we are after is the anhydrid an-hydrid of BUlphuric acid; we must worry another atom of exygen into that molecule and make SO-3 Instead of SO-2. If wo leave it by itself an indefinite time and allow plenty of air to weaken it, some of it will change over as wo want it to, but we never could make a commercial product that way. No, we must introduce an oxygen oxy-gen carrier into the chamber thnt contains tho gaseous product of our flrat step; something that will not only give an atom of oxygon but find a taker in each molecule of SO-2. Nitric Nit-ric acid will do this and get back iti lost oxygon from the air so that it may be used over again and again with very slight loss; and that Is the way we get our SO-3. Now we can hark back to the first lesson in chemistry since nearly everybody knows 'the only two chemical formulae that are popular enough to go on the vaudeville stage; that water is H-2-0 and sul phuric acid is H-2 SO-4. So, since we have Buceeded in worrying that extra oxygen atom into the molecule and It 1b there to stay we can, we hope, come out with a chemical equation without frightening the non-chemical reader away: SO-3 plus H-2-0 equals H-2-SO-4 There Is no such trouble In getting water attached to the SO-3 molecule as we had in getting that extra atom of oxygen into It. The trouble Is to keep the water away The acid that comes out of the leaden chambers Is strong enough for "use in some Industries (for instance to produce pro-duce acid phosphate for fertilizers but It is not strong enough for general commercial purposes. There is not only the constituents of water in the molecule, but there is a lot more Coa? Oil Johnny with all his thirst for rum was mild and Inert compared with what seems like the passion of sulphuric sul-phuric acid for water It wants all the water it can get until a high dilution I is reacnea. An open aisn or it win absorb a great deal of the moisture from the air of a room. So the con vcnlent way Is to boil It off. The boiling point of watr is lower than that of sulphuric acid and the boiling point of a liquid Is the time when, If It hod consciousness, It would know that the bell had rung, and that its days or Its hours as a liquid had dr.?wn to an end, and it must take to thr air, as a gas. Not all the water is boiled off in the concentrating pans tou ennnot produce 100 per cent H-2-BO-4 by this concentrating process but it is made strong enough for a great many purposes for most purposes pur-poses in fact. "Another curious feature is that (h lute sulphuric ncld mav not be shiD-ped shiD-ped in Iron containers bpcause it will eat right through the iron, whereas strong sulphuric acid mav be shipped in tank cars If the npcessary precautions precau-tions are token to keep water out This Is curious at first glance but when we bear In mind that the salts of Iron, produced by the action of the acid upon the iron walls that contain it. are very soluble In water but In soluble In strong sulphuric acid, we see that the strong acid mpkes o pro tectlve coating to thp inside of the walls which ceases to be productive as L soon as the solvent water Is introduc- ed "Another method or producing sul phuric acid that has been developed , within the last twenty vears is called the contact process, which is of ad - vantage in providing the anhydrous i acid, the SO-3. for those industries that require it It involves one of . the most Interesting processes of chemistry, known as catalysis. It goes further to show how like Inert matter human beings are. or how like human ; being inert matter It than anvthlne elpe within the pen of the priter 1 vou bring together a stream of SO-2. which you get by burning sulphur and a stream air (of which one-fifth Is oxygen) under proper condlt'ons and at the proper temperature in the pres ence of, say, a piece of platinum sponge that extra oxygon atom will in substantial! v every instance attdch itself to the SO-2 molecule and the sulphuric acid hydrid, the SO-3, will fall in great clouds down to the hot torn of the apparatus Without the platinum sponge nothing will happen with it. you have sulphuric acid In Its most Intense or anhydrous form, on the spot Why? I suppose the an swer Is more simple than that of a problem in the fourth dimension, but It is just as hard for me There arc thousands of pages of speculation on this subject In the library of the Chemists' Club, but the most available avail-able answer that I can give Is that It Is due to tho 'personality' of the catalyst, cata-lyst, of the platinum sponge It Is not evident that anything happens to the platinum sponge all this time; It stays right on doing business in Its capacity as promoter, of bringing different dif-ferent interests together in this in anlmatp hut Hviiv inoido v., im ,-.,- i the world of chemistry. "Fortunately, there are other cata-lytic cata-lytic agents available for the process than expensive platinum sponge. Nevertheless Nev-ertheless the old chamber method seems the more economical in the production of low-grade acids. "All of its sulphates and sulpho-conjugations, sulpho-conjugations, are not soluble in water but so many of tliem are that it is fair to say that one of the principal lines of business of this chemical is to make things over so that they will dissolve in water. Phosphate rock is thus made more available in practice for the soil. Being an acid it will kill or neutralize alkali, and a new use for great quantities of acid produced from smelter fumes in the West has lately been proposed in the reclamation reclama-tion of alkali deserts." oo- |