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CARBON BLACK INDUSTRY 
CARBON BLACK INDUSTRY IN KENTUCKY 
By Dr. Willard Rouse Jillson 
State Geologist of Kentucky 
The carbon black of commerce is often confused with the better 
known lamp black. The two products are entirely different, the 
first mentioned being derived from natural gas and the second be¬ 
ing a by-product of rock oil.^ 
Until the recent discovery of the large natural gas field near 
Monroe and Shreveport, in Louisiana, about seventy-five per cent 
of the world’s supply of carbon black was produced in West 
Virginia, which had been producing and selling natural gas for 
about three cents and four cents per 1,000 cubic feet. Recent 
advances in the price of West Virginia natural gas to seven cents 
and eight cents per 1,000 cubic feet forced many of the carbon 
black manufacturers of that State to move to other sections where 
gas could be secured at a lower figure. 
Carbon black is widely used in the industries. It enters as a 
necessary constituent into the manufacture of printing inks, auto¬ 
mobile tires, paints, stove and shoe polishes, phonograph records, 
black leathers, book-binders’ boards, buttons, typewriter ribbons, 
carbon papers, celluloids, electric insulators, carriage cloths, colors 
and pigments, drawing and marking inks, artificial stones, tar¬ 
paulins, and tiles. About thirty-five per cent of the total output 
of carbon black is used in the printer’s ink industry; and forty 
per cent is taken by the rubber tire business. 
There are two important carbon black plants at present operat¬ 
ing in Kentucky. Both are in Floyd County, situated in the heart 
of the Beaver Creek gas field. The manufacture of carbon black 
in the Kentucky Beaver Creek field, based on the normal capacity 
of the plants in operation, requires approximately 1,250,000 thous¬ 
and feet of gas per year. This amount of gas, according to the 
methods employed, produces about 2,500,000 pounds of carbon 
black, which at eight cents a pound is worth about $200,000. This 
volume of gas normally suffices to supply 30,000 domestic con¬ 
sumers for an entire year in a city four times the size of Lexing¬ 
ton, or one three-fourths the size of Louisville. 
1 In “Conservation of Natural Gas in Kentcucky,” by the author (Louisville, 1922, 
152 pp.) will be found a full discussion of this subject. 
