Document V3KYN524n1eE7Jz8Vp5y5JvnZ

A Brief Bistory of The Ozark Smelting & Mining Company's Activities from 1909 to 1944, inclusive At the time of Mr. Padgett's writings on Ozark Smelting 8c Mining Company's history, R. V. Brown was the local superintendent, the plant, as an auxiliary was still young, having at the time only two blocks of oxide furnaces, and, during his incumbency the only expansion in manufacture being the installation of the Lime-Sulfur plant, technical guidance for which came from Mr. Holton at Cleveland. In 1911 Mr. Brown was called to Chicago and the responsibility of management became the duty of Mr. W. E. Corts. For the next few years there followed a period of profitable expansion, both in materials production and technical refinement in the leaded-zinc oxide department. Throughout the years and up to the present time the handling of the plant personnel, selection and allocations of men and labor problems in all departments of this auxiliary has been under the able guidance of one general foreman, llr. R. F. Fitzpatrick. Technical guidance has varied through these years and for the most part, been a responsibility of the superintendent in charge. Time and experience in the paint manufacturer's field had established the necessity for low and controlled zino sulfate content of our product, and, to make this possible, a washing and drying unit was built to maintain this control, operation beginning in 1912. This new unit was engineered by Mr. Mackllnd and fabricated through the supervision of Kr. Deck. The leaded-zinc oxide, washed and dried, continued to be an active department unit for several years, an additional dryer having been added in 1925, and, it was not until 1930 that other refinements in the pigment manufacture made it unnecessary to further operate. , The demand in the pigment trade for more and more of our excellent product, made it imperative that the factory be enlarged to satisfy the demand. Accordingly, Block kCN was built in 1915, and, to supply the necessary roasted ore for these additions, Cappeau kiln Mo. 1 was built and put into operation the following year. The multiple hearth MoDougall kilns. Inadequate in tonnage, oostly to operate and quite old and expensively maintained, were dismantled and Cappeau No. 2 kiln built, operation beginning in 1918. In 1916, a fire, unknown in origin, destroyed the Lime-Sulphur department. Subsequent production of this insecticide was established elsewhere in the East. 0007 -SWP-000007338 J 2 A Brief History of The Ozark Smelting & Mining Company's Activities from 1909 to 1944, inclusive___________ Throughout the years, the trend of the paint formula tor was toward leaded-zinc oxide having appre- . ciable amounts of basic lead sulfate, and, to satisfy these demands and to simultaneously reduce the formation of zinc sulfate in our product, a gradual evaluation of furnaoe design ensued. Even before the wrection of block "C", in 1915, the long, massive brick trails leading from the original furnaoe Installations were dismantled, this to lessen the zinc sulfate produced, to more quickly dissipate the heat, to favor the formation of basic lead sulfate and to extend the operative period of the furnaces, which, heretofore had been shortened by the erosive action of ^lead compounds on the brick work of the furnaces. In 1915, when Block "C" was built, the combustion chamber was modified to a steel tower Instead of the former massive brlok work, and later when Block "D" was built, further refinements were instituted on Blook *C", all for the final result to Increase the basicity of the finished product, technically and to reduoe operative _ and replacement oosts, materially. With the ever increasing demand for our produot, Blook "D" was built in 1926, new in design and with individual furnace control. So well did it meet the needs in pigment quality, that the following year Blook "C" was remodelled upon its lines; basicity was sure and eontrollable and the life of the furnaoes extended Indefinitely. Cappeau kilns No. 5 and No. 4 were also built in this year to meet the demands for more roasted ore for the extended output of finished oxide. JL926 ushered in a new period of Company development in heavy chemicals. Zino sulfate is needed in the manufacture of Llthopone and it was in this year that operations began to supply the Chicago llthopone faotory and to be dlreot manufacturers to the insecticide and textile trades. This new addition to Coffeyvllle activities was supervised by Hr. Deeds, who in 1927 became the local superintendent. Hr. Ports having been called to the Chloago auxiliaries. During Hr. Deeds guldanee much was done in technical observation of leqded-zlno Oxide manufacture and installation of solentiflo instruments for its control. Early in 1956, Mr. Deeds was transferred to Chicago, to . be succeeded by Hr. Thomas who has held the superintendency to date. B^imH la'll Hi...... . i iiWie--i 0007-SWP-000007339 In 1930 the Company found fit to transfer the manufacturing of llthopone to Coffeyville, thereby knitting closer the coordination of control of Its raw materials to the finiehed pigment, under the direction of Ur. Saunders as a consultant and Ur. Pascal as superintendent of operative procedures. This manage ment was uninterrupted until September of 1943 at which time Ur. Pascal was called to Cleveland and the Linseed Oil auxiliary, and Hr. Downs became superintendent of the llthopone plant. The llthopone plant here presented itself as a composite of all that oould be had in modern design and economy. During its existence here, all the latest In pigment needs have been produced as well as supplementary products such as double strength llthopone and, in a small way, sine sulfide. Many of the problems attending the exploration of these products were studied and procedures adopted through the use of the pilot plant. The pilot plant still continues to be the forerunner of expanding interests of the Company into new fields; today, the production of indium is coder surveillance, tests and adaptions for a lucrative yield of this precious metal. The production .of cadmium metal, also, beoame a profitable byproduct of the zlno sulfate department with the advent of llthopone manufacture here. It was also in 1930 that Block "A" was permanently discontinued as a manufacturing unti having beoome completely absolesoent and unfit for rebuilding. Expansion in all departments necessitated the installation of more roasting capacity of ores and to meet the'needs, two Berreshoff furnaces were installed in 1937, equipped in the most modern manner with Cottrell separators for dust, minimizing nuisanoe to the country side and saving of metal values, otherwise lost. In the early years of this auxiliary!a activities, power was obtained through our own power plant but with ever Inareasing demands on power for the Company's expansion in produots made, it became expedient in 1925 .to buy eleotrieal power from outside agencies, a set up which exists to this day. 0007-SWP-000007340 /