﻿OOLITIC LIMESTONE INDUSTRY 



75 



neries and paper mills^ : that burned at Bedford is used mainly 

 by the chemical trade.' The lime is not barreled, but is shipped 

 wholly in bulk. 



In vieAv of the occurrence in the State of so mnch limestone 

 that is well suited for the production of lime, it may be doubted 

 whether lime-making from the oolitic stone is destined to become 

 an important independent industry, but the fitness of the stone 

 for the production of a higii-gTade, chemically pure lime seems 

 sufficiently demonstrated, both theoretically and practically, to 

 make lime-burning a profitable means of the utilization of waste 

 in the future.^ 



The suitability of the Indiana oolitic limestone for the manu- 

 facture of Portland cement has frequently been shown by chem- 

 ical analyses and chemical tests. The stone must be ground much 

 finer than the natural Portland cement stone^, such as that found 

 in the Lehigh Valley region, in order to secure the proper mixing 

 of the ingredients ; but when first quarried the oolitic is soft 

 and yields readily to grinding. The difficulty has been to 

 find a suitable clay to mix with the stone. However, the oolitic 

 belt adjoins the coal-bearing counties to the west, where not only 

 suitable shales and clays but also fuel may be had abundantly 

 and cheaply, and it seems quite reasonable to expect the develop- 

 ment of this industry in the not distant future. 



In 1900 the Bedford Portland Cement Company was organ- 

 ized and purchased a tract of land near Bedford upon which oc- 

 curs oolitic stone, common clay and kaolin. Samples of these 

 materials were submitted to chemists and cement experts, whose 

 reports indicated the fitness of the stone and clay for the manu- 

 facture of a high grade of Portland cement.^^ However, the en- 

 terprise did not prove successful until recently. The company 

 is now using a shale found a few miles southeast of Bedford, and 

 is producing daily about fourteen hundred barrels of cement of 

 a good ciuality.^^ 



6 Ind. GeoL Report, xxviii, 250. 

 , ' Idid., p. 256, 



* Ind. GeoL Report, xxviii, 256, 257. But compare also, xxi, 17. 

 ^ Ind. GeoL Report, xxv, 11. 

 "76id., p. 330. 



11 Ind. Geol. Report, xxv, 328, 329. 



12 A description of tlie plant of the Lehigh Valley Portland Cement Company, 

 located at Mitchell, is omitted from the text, because, contrary to popular belief, 

 the stone used by this concern is not the Bedford oolitic limestone, but an overly- 

 ing stone known as the Mitchell limestone. This is in some places as truly oolitic 

 as the Bedford stone, but is distinguished fr^m it by the character of fossils and 

 by a peculiar form of weathering (Ind. Geol. Report, xxi, 299). The Mitchell plant 

 has been quite successful. It employs about four hundred men, and produces about 

 two thousand barrels of cement daily. 



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