C22 



SULPHUR SUMACH. 



Mexican wars. At the outbreak of tho civil war ho 

 was still a captain, but was soou promoted major and 

 colonel. During the Peninsular campaign lie cum. 

 imtndt'd a lin-rado. :iiul lie fought at Antictam, Fred- 

 lickshurg, nml ('hanccllorsville. In ll!3 he was 

 sent against the Indians in Dakota and was brevetted 

 brigadiiT-Konoral (or his services there. In INTO he 

 was appointed colonel of the 19th Infantry. He ,ii<-.l, 

 April l!7, IsT'.t. 



SULPHUR. This very important element is 

 found widely distributed inearth and 

 S^^Jp sea i i' 1 chemical combination in gyp- 

 Am. Ren.) ' 8Um ftnt ^ lO' 1 '' 1 '" 1 - U1K ' dissolved in tho 

 ocean in the form of sulphates. It is 

 also evolved from volcanoes aud from vents in the 

 earth in former volcanic regions, the princijal Amer- 

 ican sulphur deposits being derived from sulphur va- 

 por which has arisen from the interior in this man- 

 ner and become condeused at the surface. Sulphur 

 springs are numerous in the United States, and indi- 

 oatea very general distribution of this element, either 

 free or combined with hydrogen. In the eastern 

 United States snlphur deposits occur on Cayuga Lake, 

 and at Springport, Cayuga Co., N. Y. ; on the Virgin- 

 ian side of the Potomac, about 25 miles above Wash- 

 ington ; on Put-in-Bay Island, Ohio ; in Kansas ; at 

 Tampa, Florida ; and in Louisiana. These deposits 

 are too small to have any industrial significance, ex- 

 cept that of Louisiana. Here snlphur is found in 

 Calcasieu parish, 13 miles from Lake Charles. The 

 l>ed is a deep one, being reached only at a depth of 

 425 feet. It is said to average 100 feet in thick ness 

 and to be quite pure, and is underlaid by a bed of 

 gypsum and sulphur. Some effort lias been made 

 to mine it, but with little success. An accident 

 caused the works to be abandoned, and only recently 

 have mining operations been renewed, with little re- 

 sult as yet. 



Extensive and valuable beds of sulphur exist in 

 some of the Pacific States, and here more vigorous 

 efforts have been made to mine it, though the cheap- 

 ness of Sicilian snlphur has caused the abandonment 

 of many of the mines. Large deposits have been 

 fonnd in the Uintah Mountains of Wyoming, and 

 ills. i in southeastern Idaho, though those have not 

 been utilized, from lack of railroad facilities. Sul- 

 phur also occurs in several localities in New Mexico 

 aud California. Some of the Californian deposits 

 are large, but none, except that near Clear Lake, have 

 been utilized, on account of the absence of cheap 

 transportation. At Clear Lake the sulphur vapor 

 issues from fissures in the rock, and is condensed 

 iie:ir the surface. A peculiar feature of this deposit 

 is the existence of a notable percentage of cinnabar 

 in association with the sulphur. Borax also occurs 

 in the vicinity. Snlphur was refined at this locality 

 from 1865 to 1868, but the operations were then 

 abandoned, on account of the fall in price of im- 

 ported sulphur at San Francisco. 



In Nevada sulphur is found in the craters of ex- 

 tinct hot springs in the Sage desert. There are 

 many of these deposits, but of no commercial value. 

 The sulphur beds in Humboldt county, Nevada, on 

 the borders of the Black Rock desert, have been 

 worked at the Rabbit Hole mines. The hills which 

 lii-re bound the desert have at their foot a strip of 

 stratified volcanic tufa, \vhich, at the locality of the 

 mines, is richly charged with sulphur, all its inter- 

 stices being filled with this element. The sulphur 

 is of volcanic origin, and extends for several miles 

 along the hills, in superficial deposits. The Hum- 

 boldt Sulphur Company formerly produced 20 tons 

 daily, bat Sicilian compel it ion has stopped the works. 



A deposit of snlphur was found in 1885 iu the 

 mountains of Ventura county, Cal., but has as yet 

 been used only for local purposes. In Utah the 

 Mormons used sulphur purified from native ore for 



some years. These deposits exist at Cove Creek, 

 about 22 miles east of Black Rook, on the Utah 

 Central Railroad. Here, asintheotherplacesnamed, 



tin- sulphur has been deposited from vapor coming 

 up from a great depth. This is still in progress, 

 the prospecting holes becoming quickly lined with 

 beautiful crystals of pure snlphur. In some locali- 

 ties the beds are 25 feet thick. In the four prin- 

 cipal claims the mass of .sulphur is estimated at 

 1,350, (MM) tons, much of it of high purity. The 

 Cleveland mine, put in operation in 1886, yields 

 ore of a remarkably hi^h percentage of snlphur, it 

 averaging at least 75 per cent., and frequently reach- 

 ing '.io or over. Nowhere else do volcanic deposits 

 of sulphur exist iu such massive beds. This locality 

 has, moreover, one 'advantage over the other Ameri- 

 can mines and those of Sicily in the presence of 

 abundant fuel, the deficiency of fuel being a serious 

 detriment to the Sicilian sulphur industry. All 

 the sulphur produced in the United States at pres- 

 ent is from the Cove Creek deposits, amounting to 

 3000 tons in 1887. 



In addition to the American localities for sulphur 

 above named, there are large de]>osits in Alaska, oc- 

 curring near volcanic cones in the Aleutian and other 

 i-lainK Snlphur mines exist in Japan, China, ! 

 Turkey, Austria, Spain, Iceland, and the Samoa and 

 Philippine Islands, but the principal supply comes 

 from Sicily, though recently a considerable quantity 

 of snlphur lias been received in this country from 

 Japan, and the importations from this source are 

 increasing. The Sicilian sulphur, in addition to i;s 

 abundance and cheapness of production, is free from 

 arsenic, tho most troublesome impurity, and is 

 highly prized in tho sulphuric acid manufacture. 

 The annual product of the Sicilian mines increased 

 from li:t,:il>:! tons, in 1862, to 376,316 in 1879, and is 

 still increasing. The quantitv of crude sulphur im- 

 ported into the United States in 1886 was 117,538 

 tons, worth 82, 237, 989, with over 3000 tons of refined 

 snlphur, and flowers of sulphur in addition. Sul- 

 phur has declined rapidly in price of late years, fall- 

 ing from 831 per ton of crude, in 1881, to 819.50 in 

 1887. This is due principally to tho rapidly increas- 

 ing consumption of pyrites in tho manufacture of 

 sulphuric acid. Pyrites promises to yield an acid 

 satisfactory for ordinary purposes more cheaply than 

 ordinary sulphur, the impurities in this acid being 

 too slight to detract from its value in refining petro- 

 leum and manufacturing fertilizers. Sulphur is 

 being used in increasing quantities as " sheep dip," 

 to prevent certain skin diseases in sheep. It is used 

 in limited quantities in tho gunpowder manufacture, 

 in California to protect the vineyards from mildew, 

 in the manufacture of ultramarine at Newark, N. J., 

 and for some other purposes. Vet these consume 

 but a small ]>ere-cntago, and nearly tho whole prod- 

 uct is consumed in the sulphuric acid manufacture. 

 Iu 1884 about 306,000 short tons of this acid wero 

 made in tho United States from crude sulphur, and 

 122,000 tons from pyrites. (o. M.) 



St'MACH, tho common name of plants of the 

 genus Rhux, a wide-spread genus of shrubs or small 

 trees of the order Anacardinceir, an order embracing 

 the cashew, mango, and other tropical fruits. Tin 10 

 i:re about 12 species of sumach within the United 

 . two of thorn marked by dangerously poison- 

 ous properties. They have compound leaves with 

 alternate leaflets, and snml! jKilygamous flowers in 

 terminal or axial panicles. In tho sumachs pi < >po r 

 the leaves are pinnate and the i!o\\vrs in a crowded 

 panicle; the fruit globular, and clothed will: 

 hairs. There is no plant more highly ornamental 

 in autumn than the sumach, its long leaves then 

 changing in color to a yellow, dark red, or brilliant 

 scarlet, aud forming one of the most beautiful or- 

 mimeuts of our autumn forests. 



