Luthee — Economic Geology of Onondaga County. 



259 



way, while the more recent process works entirely in the wet way to the point 

 of the production of crude bicarbonate of soda. As this can only be decom- 

 posed by heat, it is necessary to use, for this purpose, a single furnace opera- 

 tion. Fifteen years ago, probably about four-fifths of all the soda produced in 

 the world, was produced by the LeBlanc process. To-day it is safe to say 

 that the ammonia-soda process produces fully three-fourths of the soda-ash 

 produced in the entire world, and the remaining twenty-five per cent, alone is 

 produced by the LeBlanc process." 



The Solvay Process Co. was organized in 1881, for the purpose of 

 engaging in the manufacture of soda-ash, and other soda salts by the ammonia 

 process, under the American patents of Messrs. Solvay & Co., of Belgium, of 

 which it has exclusive control. Works were erected near the Erie canal and 

 New York Central railroad, a little west of the village of Geddes. 



The following statement recently published is claimed to be authentic : 



Capacity of works, 500 tons finished product daily. Present daily output, 

 350 tons finished product. Men employed, 3,000. Coal consumed, 1,000 tons 

 per day. Limestone consumed, 1,200 tons per day. Brine consumed, 800,000 

 gals, per day. Water, 30,000,000 gals, per day. Land occupied, 2,000 acres. 



The "Mineral Industry" for 1896 (Statistical Supplement of the 

 Kngineering and Mining Journal, Vol. IV, pp. 57, 58), gives in greater detail 

 the present amount and valuation of this company's product, as follow s : 



" A few more or less unsuccessful efforts were made before 1884 to make 

 soda in the United States, but the birth of the industry here must be said to 

 have commenced practically in 1884 with the manufacture of 11,000 metric 

 tons of soda-ash by the Solvay Process Company, at Syracuse, N. Y. This 

 Company was organized in September, 1882, with a capital of $300,000, and 

 commenced the erection of works with an estimated capacity of 30 tons of 

 soda-ash a day, and in 1884 it commenced regular production. To-day its plant 

 covers an investment of some $6,000,000, and has a capacity of 75,000 tons of 

 soda-ash alone at Syracuse. The improvements introduced from the ver\ begin- 

 ning increased the output beyond the estimated capacity when the works were 

 planned, as is shown in the accompanying table of materials used and products 

 turned out each year. This valuable table contributed to the Mineral Indus- 

 try by the courtesy of the company, is in itself almost a history of the alkali 

 industry of the United States, for it covers probably nearly ninety per cent, of 

 the entire output. In 1894 and 1895, when there were a number of other 

 producers, the Solvay Process Company made about three-quarters of the 

 entire output and is now building a large plant near Detroit, Mich. 



