THE ILLINOIS PYRITE INVENTORY 

 NATIONAL SULPHUR SITUATION IN THE SPRING 



OF 1918 



G. H, Cady^ Illinois Geological Survey,, Urbana. 



With the entrance of the United States into the war and 

 with the reduction in the importation of Spanish pyrite 

 that followed, the increased requirements of raw material 

 from domestic sources for use in the manufacture of sul- 

 phuric acid became a matter of some concern. Consider- 

 able tension developed over the situation in some quarters. 

 The production of sulphuric acid (monohydrate) in 1917 

 was about 4,300,000 tons, against about 3,900,000 tons in 

 1916. We imported from Spain and Portugal in 1917 

 about 833,000 tons of pyrite which may be reckoned as 

 equivalent of about 1,000,000 tons of sulphuric acid 

 (monohydrate) ; so that from domestic and Canadian 

 resources we manufactured in 1917 about 3,300,000 tons of 

 sulphuric acid. The government estimated a requirement 

 of 5,000,000 to 5,600,000 tons in 1918. It appeared neces- 

 sary, therefore, to find raw material in 1918 sufflcient to 

 manufacture about 2,300,000 additional tons of acid. 



A careful review of the possible sources of raw material 

 by government agencies revealed what seemed early in 

 1918 to be incapacity of the then existing sources to meet 

 the probable demand. Sulphuric acid is manufactured 

 from three sorts of material: — native sulphur or brim- 

 stone, pyrites, and as a by-product in smelting and refin- 

 ing. In 1917 brimstone used in the manufacture of sul- 

 phuric acid amounted to 163,361 tons producing possibly 

 about 1,300,000 tons of acid (monohydrate) ; in the same 

 year 1,257,128 tons of pyrite produced about 2,000,000 

 tons of acid ; and by-product acid to the amount of abouc 

 1,000,000 tons was manufactured, mainly in the western 

 states— a total, as has been stated, of about 4,300,000 tons. 

 With about 800,000 tons of Spanish pyrite cut off the 

 market and a probable additional demand for raw material 



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