6 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis 



LoBlanc soda proooss had become obsolete whoii the 

 chemical industry be,ii:an to develop in this country and 

 therefore it has novor reached this continent. Instead 

 we make in this country soda ash by the ammonia soda 

 process on the largest scale and the details of manufac- 

 ture are worked out in the best research laboratories 

 established by the soda factories themselves. 



The process was particularly adajjtcd to the rtM^uire- 

 ments in the northern part of the United States, where 

 enormous deposits of salt are underlying the surface near 

 the Great Lakes. On account of the permeability of the 

 soil to water these deposits could not be reached by 

 mining operations, but we have learned to get hold of the 

 salt by boring wells, letting water into the salt deposits, 

 and jjuniping the brine. So abundant is the sujiply of 

 salt, and so cheap its recovery, that it has become 

 profitable to waste half of it in the process and to waste 

 all of the chloride in order to save cost in the manufac- 

 ture of soda ash. This is one of the few cases where it 

 has been found that waste is economy. 



The soda industry in the United States is most flour- 

 ishing and repeatedly I have been asked to helj) in estab- 

 lishing the industry in China and Japan. Only recently 

 an agent called to induce me to come to Bombay, India, 

 for the ])urpose of establishing the art. In all instances 

 I liad to decline, knowing that in these countries there is 

 no rock salt and that salt must be made from the ocean 

 water by evaporation, the product containing much mag- 

 nesium chloride and being expensive, costing eight dol- 

 lars per ton for 85% pure salt, while here we pump the 

 pure article for fifty cents. From recent reports, how- 

 ever, I have it that rock salt is found in ^lancliuria, 

 which would make it possible to transi)lant the industry 

 into that country for the ])urpose of covering their own 

 requirements. 



But even the ammonia soda ]irocess may be limited to 

 the consumption of local industries. AVhen our own 

 civilization progresses westward and reaches the great 



