Document e7EvOao87624KwwmJmpZeZORE

0 August 28th, 1946 Mr. F. 0. Case, Assistant to the. President Anaconda Copper Minins; Company Room 1860 - 6,Broadway New York 4, Her York SU3I2CT: Visit of the tf 5le-Piehar Represents ,ives Dear Mr. Cose; On Tuesday, August 27th, the folloxin.jrfwrei entatives Ssgle-Ploher Company visited the plant at Past Chlce^goh Mr. Paul Hamilton, Manager of the Zinc Oxide.^Department Xt'-flillsboro, Illinois; Mr. 7. Clearman, '{onager of .*nff"0*i*na, Kansas tend Smelting Plant and Mr. H. F. Inmbert, 'fanagsp/jr the ArVo, Illinois Plant. These gentlemen -were principally interested in seeyng the plant, inspecting its condition and the equipment it cpriWins. They did not request any cost information or anyNabprsisal figures -with reference to the value of the plant. 7/0 spent theveht-fre day with them. \\ Zinc Oxide Department \\ \\ Mr. Hamilton w/s very raucbSinteracted in our Zinc Oxide Depart ment. Ha seamed oartleu|lerly interisltad in the packing equipment and the; fact that k b had a irievi St. Pegia Packer that had not been used. They have bean dsvelopih^tfci s typ^ it packer for thoir use at Hills boro 'and they consider ibs^ery_mudir superior to the mogul-type of packer which we us^f/'Sa'o'f course^arre-iSuch in accord with the opinion of Mr, Hamiltq he Muffle Furnaces very much surprised Hr. Hamilton, if our judgment ok'fcis reaction' is correct. With the furnaces in a shutdown condition, he^mas able/io see the structural details which readily gave him an understaaJHEg'^f hear they should be: operated. He did not seem too confident about his knowledge of the scrap zinc business, which is understandable, because his raw material at Hillsboro has largely been ore. we pointed out to him that the Muffle Furnaces, as he saw them, had: produced all grades of zinc oxide from Acicular Oxide to US? Oxide from various form3 of scrap. He was also interested in how we removed the residue from the furnace and the final disposition of the residue metel after the zinc content had been reduced to a minimum. Mr. F. 0. Casa August 28tti, 1946 They admitted that Eagle-Ficher had not been able to make much headway in selling their zinc oxide to the, rubber trade. Vie pointed out to them that our Muffle Furnace development had produced a satisfactory oxide for the, rubber trade since its original operation, and that the staff' at East OKi.aago was familiar with the requirements of the rubber trade. They were also1 impressed with the Faint Laboratory equipment and the completeness of our facilities for test purposes, as well as the ceramic laboratory teat equipment. The French Furnace and the American Block o^ course we explained to them were, in our minds, obsolete equipmij^t except for temporary use if desired. They did not seem too familiar wlth.the. ope^sltion and advantages of a monorail system for the purposes-for which we use it. . They did however see a chance for improvement in our baghbpse for handling'the zinc oxide from the hopners-to'the monorail by''.the insertion of a large screw or re-arrapgertent'',of the bags, so that screw conveyors would deliver the materialism a group of hoppers to one central point. // // \\ />' Eagle-Pieher is nOt interested ,'inany of our carborundum retorts or carborundum that we,.have on'-hadd. They apparently have developed quite an efficient rotaiy^furnaqe.for producing zinc oxide. They also use a rotary ftfrhaca far'yhheatihg'some of their oxides. They were interested in/why we reheated some of our French Furnace Oxides in past years. American Block \V // Mr. .eleixnan waS~i5vVrrS3bed in the possibility of,tearing out our Americaa^BIoCk Furnaces and^Substituting a rotary furnace. He wondered If/Me had sufficient cooling capacity in our American Flock flues to hqtple one of thpir rotary furnaces. vU.se of tjiy asbestos bag in our American Block rather interested t&M^JdiQu^hrythey knew that the American Zinc had used them for some time. TlastS-Ficher has apparently had difficulty in getting cotton bags and their temperature for their baghouses at Hillsboro often reach 350F. Mr. Hamilton indicated that he liked the wool bag except for its very high cost. The wool bag of course does give him a little more protection at higher temperatures but it is e very questionable economy. We Indicated that the asbestos bag might help him in his situation. Mr. F. 0. ease -3- Aug-ust 28th, 1946 Bhlte Lead Plant All of the representatives were very much interested in the . technical phases of the Sperry Process, particularly in the cell room and the call operations. Hr. Clearman, who has charge of the operation of the lead sulphate plant of Parle-t>icheiY smiled when we told him how we had produced lead sulphate from basic carbonate pulp. Mr. Cleeman did Indicate that if it were left to him he would leave the Sperry cell Room intact bccr.un? it Is too valuable as a cell room to tear out end to place other equipment that might be necessary to use the Sagle-Picher Process for maxing white lead. He felt that if T.agle-Ficher wished to use their process for making white lead the necessaryjtienk equipment should be placed in a separate build lag rather than in jthe cell room building. It was suggested to Mr. Clearman that if tilers was any doubt about the economy of the Sperry Process as compared ta the Eagle-Picher Prddhs^::: it would be relatively simple to ppiv&jpi^i^itll^by''mhki^.a test run of six months or a year of the Sperry ProeesIX^hen if the results at the end of the year dli hot, caip|ie, fh:Pohatijy^ipt|i':'thl Eagle- Picher Process th9 necessary changes cpCU.d"hc'i;iE:dy at thatxir.e. // ! j ) They were very favorobly/improsseS .with the Anode hashing Machine and also the Bismuth rlsniNskd its operation. We impressed upon them thf adva:iLtceeS;''l;p.f the hlandling : Imbhre metals or recovering metals sssociatec\?/ii*' lead that have high values. ..... ^ \'s\. The ::oore Flltpf,-Jr.s of'iriherest\ta them with, particular reference as to why we adopted the ulopre Filter and why we continued to use it. Te explained opi/ reasons andrefiay '!&skedj: If Iwo were rebuilding the Moore Filter what changes would make. 1 Indicated that we would make the filter baskets 'throe or four times larger and arrange to have ail of the fiit^ring.4iong'^g-!.the.'dSy/ shift,'' thereby11 hlindnatibg, two out of the three/ff-lterShn required--for a 24-hour operation. determinir ouch interested inn our Moisture Tester for he white lead as barrelled. Theyvalso lle'd very much, the White Lead Flant Vfarshouse with the crane and metHod-'O? pressing the bags and storing them. They indicated that in their opinion the skid loading and delivery of the pigments is going to become a very iijporto&t method of handling pigments. Ho indicated that we felt much the same as they did and realized that many people were developing new ideas that might make akld handling very much more attractive. <k !Ir. T. 0. Case -i- August 23th, 1946 Lead Refinery The principal interest was in the lead Rsfinery Building and related facilities for the treatment of battery plates and secondary lead. They inspected the removal of the brick work from the residue furnace and .the condition of the residue furnace water-jacketed pan. It is obvious that the pan ia of little value. Tie explained to them that the buckstays and other equipment Would be put aside and could be used for reconstruction of a furnace if it wore desirable. Vie also discussed the rotary furnace development, the removal of the brick lining from this furnace to recover'the feilver Values, and a comparison of the rotary furnace vs blast furnace fdij treatment of battery plates. Vihlle inspecting ttie blast furnace vsi.j clearmsn waa particularly interested about;bur TOpemeD;who had had jbj.st furnace experiendet I explained, to hisfi the situatloif aa-dL~}jaa already given Ur. Hallows on the telephone. ^\ \\ Personnel /:/'--- 'Th.e above covers the visit-through Me plant. In addition to this information,. I should coH^lga' my brief/conversation with you today relative to the telephone callv;p^ Mr..--Hallows, while these gentle men visited the plant. Mr. Hallows "telephoned to find out how many of our staff members were still on_the payroll at Boat Chicago. I briefly gave him the enswerhi-to-his questions about the following employees: // X. V. Cl/rk X. Klimeicj V B. A. 'fayhew w. TerTilhurg T. Haltotjl X. Rinn W. ?ortef\\ Stanley Dudek /--srTTr^Stoakddle- - I.. H. Cutler ^ 3. Toney rsul Calhoun W. X. Knox Vi Shfduahlre 6. B. Bogey Paul Martens S. Stdlte Walter Mack F. Weaker Charles Mainland Mr. Ha-Haws elso inquired as to the possibility of hourly employees returning if yagle-Pioher should buy the plant. I told him that as far as I knew the Personnel Department felt that a number of' our key hourly employees would be willing to return if the plant were taken over by some concern that would use essentially the same equipment as et present, ; However, I indicated that a number of our employees had left and some of them probably have better JobB and would bo reluctant to return, Mr. F. 0. Case -5- August 28th, 1946 We made it a point to show these men around to our general plant facilities, storeroom, machine shop, change houses, offices, etc. They indicated that the plant was certainly well maintained and the office and buildings kept surprisingly clean. you. I trust this information may be helpful and of interest to Very truly yours, /] 0