GEOLOGICAL PAPERS. 81 



ers of the Lanyon Zinc Company of twelve blocks. This gives a 

 total of about 20,000 retorts, giving a daily capacity of over 300 tons 

 of spelter, requiring nearly 700 tons of ore. 



Sulphuric- ACID Works. — The new plant of the Standard Acid 

 Company, now in active operation, is located jast east of town. The 

 zinc ore is roasted in mechanical continuous roasters comi3osed of a 

 seven-row muffle kiln, capable of roasting sufficient ore to run a three- 

 block ( 1800 retorts ) smelter. The sulphur fumes pass into a flue 

 where the dust is deposited, and the sulphur gas passes to a square 

 condensing tower, forty-nine feet high, and the heat of the gas is used 

 to concentrate the weaker acid, The gas is then carried through a 

 three-inch pipe into six chambers connected tandem, 150 feet long, 

 20 feet high and wide, and in these condensation takes place. Into 

 these chambers exhaust steam is admitted, and the gas passes into 

 two absorbing towers lined with lead and filled with a checkerwork 

 of chemically prepared bricks, where the nitrogen compounds are re- 

 covered. These were added in the condensing tower in the form of 

 nitric acid, to furnish oxygen. 



In the lead-lined chambers the steam and sulphurous gas unite 

 and form sulphuric acid. From the condensing towers the acid passes 

 through lead coolers, kept cool by flow of water, and it is then pumped 

 into storage tanks and run into tank cars of 65,000 pounds' capacity. 

 Twenty of these cars have been constructed for this work. 



The buildings cover twenty acres of ground. The main building 

 is 526 feet long, 65 feet wide, with an L of 111 feet, and is 70 feet 

 high. The plant will treat forty-five tons of ore a day, yielding fifty 

 tons of acid. The acid will be used in the manufacture of fertilizers, re- 

 fining of petroleum, alum, soda-ash, blue vitriol, etc. This is probably 

 the only plant in the United States manufacturing sulphuric acid 

 where natural gas is used as fuel.. It is the second plant established 

 in Kansas, the other being located at Argentine. 



The sulphur vapors, so destructive to the vegetation around the 

 smelters, are now to be made of economic importance, and, with the 

 exhaust steam, furnish material which would otherwise go to waste. 



Potland Cement. — The only Portland cement mill in the state is 

 located at lola, and it has now been in successful operation for two 

 and a half years, turning out a quality of cement equal to the best 

 foreign cement. Natural gas is the fuel used to drive the engine, to 

 dry the material, and to burn the cement. The largest gas-engines in 

 this section of the country are to be found at lola. There are six 

 300-horse-power Westinghouse gas-engines and five 150-horse-power. 

 The aggregate horse-power now used is 2600. About 1000 tons of 

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