Document x1pv1yd3VKmnwB4ZX7VZL2b5J

August 28th, 1946 Mr. F. 0. Case, Assistant to the. President Anaconda Copper Mining Company Room 1860 - 6,Broadway New York 4, Her York SU3I2CT: Yialt of the tf !le-Piehar Represents lives Dear Mr. Cose: On Tuesday, August 27th, the folloaJjnH'T^jresentatives Ssgle-Ploher Company visited the plant at Past Chicago* Mr. Paul Hamilton, Manager of the Zinc Oxide. Department 'Kt'-Hlllsboro, Illinois; Mr. 7. Clearman, '{onager of .*nff"0*i*na, Kansas rend Smelting Plant and Mr. H. F. tnmbert, 'fanagar/or the ArVo, Illinois Plant. These gentlemen -were principally interested in seeyng the plant, inspecting its condition and the equipment wfxiob it cjxitA'ira. They did not request any cost Information or any'-shprsisal figures -with reference to \\the value of the plant. VTe spent the\ehtdre day with them. Zinc Oxide Department \\ \\ Mr. Hamilton AVs very roueh\interested in our Zinc Oxide Depart ment. Ha snamed onrtleu|lerly interisited in the packing equipment and the fact that v.a had alriew St. Pegia Packer that had not bean used. They have bean developik^tfci s typ^ it packer for thoir use at Hills boro and they^csi-der lh^>ery_mudir superior to the mogul-type of packer which we us '"SarSt course^orre-iSuch in accord with the opinion of Mr, Hamilt ha Muffle Furnaces vary much surprised Hr. Hamilton, if our judgment ok'his reaction' is correct. With the furnaces in a shutdown condition, hy-was able/io see the structural details which readily gave him an unders'tanding'of hear they should he: 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 metal after the zinc content had been reduced to a minimum. - Mr. F. 0. Casa August 28til, 1946 They admitted that Eagle-Picher had not been able to make much headway in selling their zinc oxide to the, rubber trade. ',?e 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 Chi sago was familiar' with the requirements of the rubber trade. They were also' impressed with the Faint Laboratory equipment and the completeness of our facilities for test purposes, as well as the ceramic laboratory test equipment, The French Furnace and the American Block of )course we explained to them were, in our minds, obsolete equipmp^t except for temporary use If desired. They did not seem too familiar with .the. opejeltion and advantages of a monorail system for the purposes-for which we use it. . They did however see a chance for improvement in our ba&hbese for handling'the zinc oxide from the hoppers-to^the monorail ky'.the insertion of a large screw or re-arrafi6erfent\or the bags-so that screw conveyors would deliver the materia^-'Cfom a group of hoppers to one central point. // /) \\ // Eagle-Picher is nit interested/in'any of our carborundum retorts or carborundum that we..have on'-hadd. The? appersr.tlv have developed quite an efficient rotary^furnape.for producing zinc oxide. They also use a rotary frfr)5ace for'-^bheatihg'some .of their oxides. They were interested in/why we reheard sw of our French Furnace Oxides in papt years. American Block A Mr. .eieSrman waS-lht-rggtred ir the possibility of..tearing out our AmerlcanAlock Furnaces ancTsubstltuting a rotary furnace. He wondered if7 ye had sufficient cooling capacity in our American block flues to h^nple one of their rotary furnaces. Tks\use of tnVasbestos bag in our American Block rather interested tneSt>^thoirf5tr they knew that the American Zinc had used them for some time.^'Tavpte-Plcher has apparently had difficulty in getting cotton bags and their temperature for their baghouses at Hillsboro often reach 350F. Ur. Hamilton indicated thet 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 s very questionable economy. We indicated that the asbestos bag might help him In his situation. Mr. F. 0. Case -3- August 28th, 1946 White 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 cell operations. Mr. Cleer.tan, who has charge of the operation of the lead sulphate plant of Fevle-fichah,. smiled when we told him how we had produced lead sulphate from basic carbonate pulp. Mr. desman did indicate that if it were left to him he would leave the Sperry Cell Room intact ibecr.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 making ?.hite lead. He felt that if F.agle-^icher wished to use their process for making white leed the necessaryihank equipment should ho placed in a separate building rather than; injtbe cell room building. It was- suggested to Mr. Clearman that if there was any doubt about the economy of the Sperry Process as compared tol the Eagle-Picher Process.!', it would' 'be relatively simple to priiy&^ir|ii65St. by:',mhk|ihg;..e test run of sir months or a year of the Sperry ProcessTs^tan if the results at the end of the year did cot ccnpnre fsvcratlyvd'th the Ecgle- Picher Process the necessary changes ccd.d'hq'tiadc at thstxir.e. " A '/V ,, They were very favorably-impressed .with the Anode Joshing ..Machine and' a"ln' o th' e Bismuth --rlen"' th(>-s/kd i-t-s oper...a.....t..ion. "W e i-m"p"r"es sed- upon them thf :Bdv$:nte.geh',:pf tip handling :l:mb#iP0' metals or recovering r.ietels S'ShO!CiatecH!T/l:1t^.''".'.iilaEil':thi!fc',hhv.e. high values. ' "W " ' ' The ::oore of ^tn^eres^ita; them with particular reference as to why v;e adopted the ulppre Filter end why we continued to use it. We explained on rep soul's hnd (they 'ifesked;. if'lwe were rebuilding the Moore Filter what changes would make. 1 ihdi|!atd that we would make the filter baskets throe or fquV times larger and arrange to have all of the filh^ring-hone'^g-s.the-'djcy^ shift,i`thehiSy1 llindnating, two out of the three/fi-lferintn required-for a 24-hhUi'' operation. ' determinir huch interested in cur Moisture Tester for he white lead as barrelled. ThejKalso llSce'd very much, the White Lead Flant Warehouse with the crane and metSS-of' 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 ia-portant method of handling pigments. We indicated that we felt much tie same as they did and realized that many people were developing new Ideas that might make skid handling very much more attractive. !ir. F. 0. Case -i- Auguat 23th, 1946 Lead Refinery The principal interest was in the lead Refinery Building and related facilities for the treatment of battery plates and secondary lead, They inspected the removal of the brick work from the residue furnece and .the condition of the residue furnace water-Jacketed pan. It is obvious that the pan is of little value. Tie explained to them that the buckstays and other equipment would be put aside and cauld.be used for reconstruction of a furnace if it wore desirable. '.Ve 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 foij treatment of battery plates. Vihile inspecting tiie blast furnace ui.j clearmen was particularly interested about; 0ur :fbre)neo; who had ihad jbkast furnace experiendeV I explained to hiid.: the situation-aa-lL^ad already given Ur. Hallows on the telephone. ' Personnel f /-'"'O- \\' \ \\ .v 'The above covers the visit-through ^lie plant. In addition to this information,. I should cou^lija' my brief /conversation with you today relative to the telephone callv-of Mr,--Hallows, while these gentle men Tisited 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 answers,.to-hls^questions about the following employees! V vj. f. cleric A. Hayhew J. Klimetcj T. TerTilburg T. Hal top V, ,T. Rinn W. rortef\\v Stanley Dudek /--Sr7TT^3t ockddl a. - I,. H. Cutler . ' ' h. Toney W. J. Knox S. Ui Shrclushlre F. S. Stilt a T"sul Calhoun S. B. Bogey Paul Kartena Walter Mack E. F. Weaver Charles Mainland Mr. Ha-Haws also inquired as to the possibility of hourly employees returning if yagie-Picher should buy the plant, I told him that as far as I knew the Personnel Department felt that e 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 at present, ; However, I indicated that a number of our employees had left and some of them probably have better Jobs and would ba reluctant to return. Mr. F. 0. Css 5 August 28th 1946 : We made it a point to show thass man 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. I trust this information may be helpful and of interest to you Very truly yours. /] 0