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FIRES OF C O F FEYVI L L E FUSE CHEMICAL MAGIC rat-* /'"'\N the plains jj^ \J of Kansas, lifcjr j t there arises a group ^T"- * of towers and ' shafts that some- how reminds one of a mystic Bagdad, ana the chemical magic performed there out-does that of the famous Master Chemists like Vernon Horn guide Ozark's many intricate technical processes. Arabian Nights Metropolis. Here some 250 men and women, using fire, whirlwinds, and lightning-like charges of electricity for their tools, wrest from nature many pure chemicals and metals needed in our modem life. In 1906, a small, one-block zinc oxide furnace. Today a plant covering 80 acres, devoted to the production of leaded zinc oxide, lithopone, zinc sulphate, and cad mium metals. S-W's Ozark Smelting 8s Mining plant history speaks for itself, and is a tribute to the guiding genius of such men as Mr. O. O. Gordon, H. J. Hain, now Vice President of the Sherwin-Williams Co., Robert Brown, W. E. Corts, Charles E. Deeds, and Ray A. Thomas, the latter having been superintendent since 1936. A leaded zinc oxide plant at first--1926 saw the addition of facilities for the manu facture of zinc sulphate. In 1930 and 31 a lithopone plant was added which had to be doubled in size by 1937 to meet the demands. For raw ores of lead, zinc and iron Ozark calls on all parts of the west, on Mexico, Canada, and even far away Aus tralia, while its coal, coke, chatts, sul phuric acid, barytes ore and natural gas come from its home State of Kansas and its neighbors, Missouri, Oklahoma and Arkansas. Materials at hand, the magic begins. First, crushed to uniform size, some ores must be roasted to remove unwanted chemicals. To do this, the crushed ore is fed into a huge steel brick lined roaster consisting of twelve self-supporting re fractory brick hearths. As the ore is moved to the center of one hearth, it cas cades to the hearth below. The tempera ture of the ore rises, sulphur is changed to sulphur dioxide and is discharged into the atmosphere. This gas fume carries with it a certain amount of dust, so it is passed through an electrical precipitator where the dust particles are charged with 75,000 volts of electricity, which causes them to collect on steel plates, from which they are returned to the roasters, while the dustfree gas is allowed to escape. Next the lead, roasted zinc ores, coal, chatts and other ingredients are carefully For leaded zinc oxide, the proper is placed on a bed of coal in a special f nace. Careful levelling and controlled blast draft govern the burning so that*" the temperature rises the leaded oxide is carried off by fume laden easM and is collected by means of pipe lin^^5.' taken the 750 foot distance to the hs houses. A large fan keeps the fume-lad gases moving, and discharges them into the collection bags, which filter out the pigment and allow the fume-free air to escape. Each bag house contains 800 20" x 30' bags, and can collect 35,000 pounds of finished pigment daily, ready to be packed in bags carrying the fa* miliar label "Ozlo Leaded Zinc Oxide." For Zinc Sulphate, roasted, sulphur free zinc ores are leached in sulphuric acid. The resulting slurry is pumped through a series of tanks and filters to purify it and remove all suspended solids. This zinc sulphate liquor is then evapo rated either by evaporating pans or ro tary dryers, leaving a white crystalline cake or granular residue. Crushed and sized it is ready for use in many ways, from the manufacture of rayon to insect sprays. For lithopone, barytes ore and coke, mixed, crushed and screened, is burned in big 60' rotary kilns to make "black ash." Quenched with water, the "black ash" slurry is filtered and purified to make barium liquor. This is added to zinc sul phate liquor and the resulting precipitate is crude lithopone. This crude lithopone must be calcinated, milled, thickened, filtered and re-dried before final sizing and grinding takes place. Sounds simple, doesn't it? Guess it is easy when you know how, and Coffeyville sure has the "know how" when it comes to doing chemical magic on a production basis. CLOSE-UPS ILLUSTRATE SOME OF COFFEYVILLE'S INTERESTING PROCESSES Moving ore and slag is big job. Here we show "Fat'' Beaver and "Mexican" John loading, with Herb Long han dling the magic mechanical donkey. With all the care of a master baker, E. A. Thiele Sr., Roaster Foreman, checks weights of ore cars as they move to their appointed mixing stations. Busy mixing "furnace charges". *e meet Joe Moyo. A popular fellow. j spends spare time helping Coffeyn'-k Jr. College students with their Spanish 7 SUP 0522S4 Filtering and grinding section of lithopone plant No. 1. Harry D. Beeman is pho tographed checking Ball Mill discharge. A Hardinge Mill is set up at the right, while _ at the top a dorrco filter can be seen discharging finished lithopone to a dryer. Pigments get actual use tests at the "farm" on painted fences such as these to y test sample batches of pigments under actual day by day, year round weather condi- tions. The exposure determines the consistency of the product's high standards. 4 , Joe /ville nish. Minister of the Cospel on Sundays, one of Ozark's best furnace tenders during the week, Rev. Hunter puts the same conscientious care To make sure finished products meet the high quality standards, processes are kept under constant check. Art Sandlin, Lithopone strikeman, As part of the job of making the world's whitest, white, this huge Caldner removes the yellow tinge peculiar to Lithopone before final milling, sizing, and grinding complete the process. | | i ? SUP 052285