CONSERVATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES.

By JAMES DOUGLAS, New York, N. Y.

(New Haven meeting, February, 1909.)

In discussing the waste upon which hinges, or is supposed to hinge, so largely the preservation of our national resources, the conclusions reached would be more reliable if actual experience were consulted, and fewer deductions were drawn from general statements, which are often the product of the imagination.

It can not be questioned that the value of by-products has not been sufficiently appreciated by us, and that our tardiness in recovering the useful ingredients of the escaping gas of our coke ovens is one of the most glaring instances of shortcoming in that direction. And yet even for that sin there is some palliation in the immature condition of affiliated industries. I presume that it is admitted without argument that, except under very exceptional conditions, all the elements can not be recovered from most of the ores or natural products which we treat. While it is a shame that the by-products from our coke ovens should be dissipated, Edward W. Parker's report to the United States Geological Survey for 1906 supplies a fairly good excuse in justification of this appalling waste. He says (pp. 773 to 774):

What has been already commented on in previous reports about the slowness of manufacturers to change from the better known but wasteful beehive practice to the by-product recovery method of coke manufacture is particularly emphasized in the statistics presented in this chapter. For it would appear from the table following that the construction of by-product ovens had about come to a standstill, especially when the records for the preceding five years are taken into consideration. At the close of 1901, when there were only 1,165 by-product ovens completed in the United States, there were 1,533 in course of construction, 498 of which were completed during the following year. At the close of 1902, 1,346 retort ovens were building, 293 of which were added to the completed plants in 1903. At the close of 1903, 1,335 new ovens were building and 954 of

a

• Reprinted by permission from Bulletin of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, New York, No. 29, May, 1909, pp. 439-451; also in Transactions of American Institute of Mining Engineers, 1909, with discussion thereon.

Mineral Resources of the United States for 1906, U. S. Geological Survey (Washington, 1907).

these were put into blast before January 1, 1905, at which time 832 new ovens were in course of construction. At the close of 1905 there were only 417 new ovens building, and at the close of 1906 new work was limited to 112 OttoHoffmann ovens, which were being added to the 260 ovens already built at Johnstown, Pennsylvania, by the Cambria Steel Company. These new ovens were completed and put in blast in February, 1907.

This condition is somewhat difficult to understand when the economies effected by the use of retort ovens have been so clearly demonstrated. These economies consist not only in the higher yield of coal in coke, but in the recovery of the valuable by-products of gas, tar, and ammonia. One of the reasons that has been assigned for the comparatively retrogressive condition exhibited by the statistics for 1905 and 1906 (comparison being made with beehive oven construction, 5,893 new beehive ovens having been completed in 1906, with 4,407 building at the close of the year) is the lack of a profitable market for coal tar, and yet the United States is importing coal-tar products to the value of several million dollars annually, while the development of the fuel-briqueting industry has been held back because of the lack of assurance of a steady supply of coal-tar pitch for a binder, and users of creosoting oils for the preservation of timber complain of an insufficient domestic supply of this product of coal-tar distillation.

The truth is that one branch of industry is so dependent upon another that there must be equal progress along the whole line of industrial life if complete recovery of all the available elements of our natural resources is to be effected. The chemical industry must keep pace with the mining and metallurgical industry. We may be moving too slowly in that direction, but we can distinguish a steady movement toward this needful cooperation. It is encouraging, for instance, to find that the waste gases from the furnaces of the Tennessee Copper Company are being turned into sulphuric acid for the manufacture from southern phosphates of the superphosphates which the fertilizers of the southern cotton fields need. Failing this mutual relation between the metallurgist of Tennessee and the chemical manufacturer, the blame should not rest entirely upon the metallurgist for wasting that for which, heretofore, he has been unable to find a market. The same justification exists abroad as in this country for similar waste in other branches of industrial activity. It is nevertheless true that legal compulsion alone has driven manufacturers to introduce improvements and economies which were demanded by public safety, and which have redounded to the benefit of the reluctant corporations. In Germany and England the disposal of noxious vapors and noxious liquors has been required of the manufacturers, but their compulsory removal from the atmosphere and the water has resulted in their conversion into useful products, and the building up of new technical industries. An agitation is springing up in the West against the fumes from smelting works being turned loose into the atmosphere. While in some cases the injury done to vegetation may have been falsely attributed to the smoke from metallurgical works, the agitation has been followed

by some good results. For instance, the Mountain Copper Company, having been driven out of Shasta County, California, by the farmers, has erected chemical works as an annex to its smelter at Martinez, on San Francisco Bay. Here, as elsewhere, manufacturers are reluctant to go to the heavy expense involved in abating such nuisances, even though they may know that in the end the abatement will be profitable. As far back as 1881 Mr. Vivian admitted that in recovering 47 per cent of all the sulphurous acid emitted from his furnaces in Swansea he condensed 3,666 tons of oil of vitriol at a great profit. This valuable asset, though he does not so state, was secured in spite of bitter opposition on the part of those who were ultimately the most benefited by it. One looks with wonderment at the clouds of valuable fumes which float from the New Jersey shore over Staten Island to the sea, instead of flowing inland as acid to the chemical manufacturers in the neighborhood.

Our industrial development, however, has reached such a state of advancement, especially in the densely populated portion of the country, that however averse some of us may be to expend a large share of our profits in improvements, designed primarily to relieve the public of nuisances, we must submit whether we will or not. And having obeyed the mandate of the law, not many years will elapse before we come to realize that what we do under compulsion is as much for our own good as for that of our neighbor.

I promised, however, to confine myself in my remarks to matters of experience. I have been identified with the copper interests of the Southwest since 1881. Though the Southern Pacific Railroad had only just traversed the territory, mining was immediately stimulated by railroad transportation, and the Copper Queen Company, at Bisbee, the Old Dominion Copper Company, at Globe, and the Lezinskys (the predecessors of the Arizona Copper Company), as well as the Detroit Copper Company, were actively at work at Clifton. All three of the most productive districts, therefore, of southern Arizona were being explored, and, through the influence of the railroad, vigorously exploited at that time. But none of them were situated on the main line, or were linked to the transcontinental road by branches. The Copper Queen was 60 miles from its nearest railroad station, Benson; the Old Dominion was 140 miles from either Wilcox or Bowie; and the mines of the Arizona Copper Company and the Detroit Copper Company were 80 miles from Lordsburg. Coke and supplies had to be hauled in and copper teamed out those long distances.

The ores in all three camps were thoroughly oxidized. At the time this was supposed to be a condition of the highest advantage, upon which the only possibility of economical treatment depended; and not without good grounds, for the tedious methods of treating

sulphide ore, so expensive in labor and fuel, were still practiced. We all, therefore, imagined in our shortsightedness that the day of doom for the copper interests of southern Arizona would date from the transition from oxidized to sulphide ore. Of the three districts, the only prosperous one during the succeeding fifteen years or so was the Warren, and for reasons which we now more clearly appreciate than we then did. The ores of the Copper Queen, or rather such of them as were then selected for treatment, were self-fluxing. They contained about 10 per cent of copper. The slags of that period, which we are now resmelting, contained about 2.5 per cent of copper. Assuming the slags to represent 65 per cent of the charge, about 16 per cent of the total copper content was being stored away in them. Less favorable conditions, however, existed at both Globe and Clifton. The ores of both these districts were extremely siliceous and the furnace charge of ore had to be diluted with from 40 to 50 per cent of limestone. The siliceous ores as treated were probably of about 12 per cent. The furnace charge was reduced by fluxing to between 7 and 8 per cent of copper. The old slags-65 per cent of the total charge-yield at Globe about 3.5 per cent and, therefore, must have carried from 30 to 32 per cent of the total copper fed into the furWe have re-treated all the old slags of the Detroit Copper Company, at Morenci, near Clifton, and know that they carried on an average of 4.5 per cent of copper and must, therefore, have contained. at least 40 per cent of the copper in the ore. At neither Clifton nor Globe was the dust collected, which probably represented a loss of another 5 per cent. Considering the high cost of fuel and labor, it is not to be wondered at that neither the Old Dominion, the Arizona Copper Company, nor the Detroit Copper Company, was financially successful for the first fifteen or sixteen years of their existence. It was not until all the richer carbonate ores had been wasted by being largely converted into slags that the companies. recognized that their salvation depended upon securing sulphide ores; upon making metallic copper through the medium of matte, and throwing away less copper in their slags. So little, however, was this fact appreciated at first that we all envied the Arizona. Copper Company, because it could turn the San Francisco River into its works and granulate and wash away this valuable refuse. And when the Old Dominion mine struck large volumes of water, the Old Dominion Company committed the same act of folly, washing its 3.5 per cent slags into Pinal Creek.

Had the companies realized the losses they were incurring and the only remedy applicable, they would have been obliged to close both mines and furnaces; for except at the Copper Queen, where sulphide ores were encountered within three or four years after the mine was ed and were considered a nuisance, heavy sulphides are rare.

Though the Old Dominion Consolidated Company has explored its property to the sixteenth level, between 100 and 200 tons daily are imported from California and Bisbee, the company's own mines producing only about 60 per cent of the sulphur required by the furnaces. And at least one of the Clifton smelting companies is obliged to draw daily from abroad by railroad about 160 tons of sulphides high in sulphur and low in copper. It follows, therefore, that there was no alternative in the early days between either suspending operations or making copper in the wasteful manner which the companies then pursued.

Looking at the situation from the standpoint of to-day, if we place the advantages and disadvantages side by side, we have on the side of the advantages:

1. The experience which was gained during that long period of adversity, which is now being turned to good account, not only by the original companies, but by the many other enterprises which have entered the same field and are profiting by the losses of the pioneers.

2. The southern portion of the territory has increased in population and in wealth, mainly through the exertions of these copper companies, even while they were losing money on the copper produced. They not only employed thousands of men, but they made a market for the agricultural development of the small amount of arable land within reach of the mines. Had the mines of Globe and Clifton not been operated because pecuniarily unsuccessful, and had not the shareholders been willing to accept hopeful promises in lieu of dividends, Arizona would not to-day be making an unanswerable plea for admission to the Union as a State.

3. The ultimate success has been due to the advent of the railroad; for railroads are seldom built into unproductive regions in the expectation of creating traffic that does not exist.

If we turn to the disadvantages, they are, of course, palpable. At the present time, when we are matting our copper ores instead of making black copper direct, the slags from those three groups of copper furnaces run from 0.4 to 0.5 per cent of copper. Even when the slags are re-treated, copper in the slags resulting from the slag treatment runs higher than in slags from the treatment of ore, owing to the difficulty of reducing silicates. Thus, when the slags are retreated, there is the double waste of fuel and the double waste of labor. Even supposing that our economic system were different, and that necessity did not drive public corporations to utilize wastefully the resources they acquire, I think that the balance of advantage to the country at large, as well as to the district, would indicate that it is better to make progress and thereby gain experience, even at the expense of such waste as I above indicate, rather than stand still and do