CHEMICAL RESOURCES 

 AND INDUSTRIES 



BY HARRY EAST MILLER 



Consulting Chemist and Metallurgist^ 

 San Francisco 



A DESCRIPTION of, and comment on, the chemi- 

 cal industries of any region should precede 

 ^ the enumeration of its chemical resources. 

 The chemical resources are, of course, all impor- 

 tant; but the climatic conditions, shipping and 

 transportation facilities, cost of fuel, electric power 

 and labor, all play a very important part, and if 

 these are favorable for manufacturing, the raw ma- 

 terial may be brought in from other sources. And 

 then the capitalist or manufacturing chemist would 

 surely want to know who was in the field before 

 contemplating starting an industry. California has 

 been especially blest by its natural advantages. It 

 has a climate, shared to some extent by its sister 

 states on the Pacific Coast, which permits operating 

 a factory 365 days of each and every year. It 

 produces an abundance of cheap fuel oil, crude 

 petroleum, not only cheap as to initial cost, but 

 effecting a great saving of labor in the firing of 

 boilers, furnaces or kilns. It may be said that 

 in all manufacturing plants fuel oil has replaced 

 coal and that in virtually all office buildings and 

 apartment houses, and even in some private resi- 

 dences, either the crude oil or heavy distillate is 

 now being used for heating purposes. Fuel oil 

 is also used in locomotives and steamships where 

 the radius of travel does not take them away from 

 a source of supply. 



It would not be out of place to give here some 

 statistics regarding the production of petroleum in 

 California. In 1895 the amount first exceeded the 

 million mark, namely, 1,245,339 barrels. In 1900 

 there was produced 4,329,950 barrels; in 1905, 34,- 

 275,701 barrels; in 1910, 77,697,568 barrels; in 

 1912, 89,689,250 barrels, and in ;1913, 98,494,532 

 barrels, the output of the wells increasing every 

 year. Again a number of large corporations are 

 now operating extensive hydro-electric plants and 

 power may often be advantageously purchased. 

 Where steam is not required for drying or heating, 

 a saving can often be effected by operating the 

 machinery by a motor. 



Sulphuric Acid. — Sulphuric acid plays a very 

 important part in a great many of the chemical 



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