PRESENTATION ADDRESS. tile constituents from the less volatile, in order to By C. F CHANDLER. increase the density, improve the fire test, sweeten MR. CHAIRMAN, BROTHERCHEMISTS, .4ND MR. FRASCH:the odor, and otherwise improve the quality. This It is my very pleasant privilege as the senior Past was followed by further applications for additional President of the Society of Chemical Industry, re- improvements for the same purpose. Five such siding in this country, to present to Mr. Herman patents were applied for between 1876 and 1885, Frasch. on behalf of the Perkin Medal Committee all of which were granted. of the Associated Chemical and Electro-Chemical He also obtained a patent in 1884 for the manu- Societies of America, the sixth impression of the facture of waxed paper, a material saturated with Perkin Gold Medal, in recognition of his most valuable . paraffin which has found a great variety of appli- work in Applied Chemistry. cations. In 188j, Mr Frasch invented an improved Herman Frasch was born in Gaildorf, in Wuertem- petroleum oil lamp. berg, in 1852. In Our great inven- 1868 he took up the tor’s attention was practice of Phar- not, however, con- macy, came to Amer- fined to petroleum. ica, and was placed In 1882 he invented in charge of the lab- a process for manu- oratory of Professor facturing white lead Maisch at the Phila- directly from the delphia College of Galena ore. In the Pharmacy. He same year he de- found, however, that voted considerable Industrial Chemistry attention to improv- interested him much ing the processes and more than Pharma- apparatus for manu- ceutical Chemistry, facturing salt, a sub- and in 1874 he es- ject which continued tablished a labora- to occupy his atten- tory of his own. tion for several years. Here began the Five patents for his studies and inves- improvements in this tigations which re- industry were ap- sulted in some of the plied for in the most important years 1882 to 1899, achievements ever and subsequently accomplished in in- granted. dustrial chemistry. He also studied the In 1876, at the ammonia process for age of twenty-four, making carbonate of he evolved a process soda from salt, and for refining parafin between 1882 and wax which was pur- 1886 applied for four chased by a Cleve- patents for improve- land Petroleum Com- ments, all of which pany, affiliated with were granted. the Standard Oil In 1883Mr. Frasch Company. These devised a very in- companies were so genious invcntion of well pleased with his HERhlAN FRSSCH, a process of making first invention that PBRKIN MEDAL 1912. elements for thermaf they induced him to electric generators, give up his work in Philadelphia, move to Cleveland, which was granted the same year. In the same year and make the petroleum industry his specialty. he obtained two patents for the manufacture of a He devoted himself assiduously to the refining of superior carbon for electric light carbons, and car- - petroleum, and made many improvements in the bons for other purposes, from “wax tailings” or processes in use, for some of which he sought “still wax” by treating the same with nitric or sul- and obtained patents. The first was applied for phuric acid in a specially designed furnace. December 15, 1876, when he was but twenty-four Mr. Frasch’s contracts with the various oil com- years of age. It was for an improvement in appa- panies expired in 188j,and he then moved to Lon- ratus and processes for the separation and treatment don, Ontario, where he went into business for himself, of oils, by more completely separating the more vola- forming the Empire Oil Co. It was here that he Feb., 1912 THE JOL7R.Y,4L OF I.TDLSTRI.4L il.YD E,YGIA\'EERING CHEMISTRY. I33

solved the Canadian oil problem, by devising a sim- cents a barrel to $1.00 and above, thus benefitting ple process by which the offensive oils of Canada and the farmers and oil producers of Ohio, Indiana and Ohio could be made so pure that they became as Illinois; and also by greatly increasing the demand valuable as the Pennsylvania oil. There had never for this kind of oil, until the production of this field been any difficulty in treating Pennsylvania oil so went up to 90,000 barrels per day, giving an increase as to obtain perfectly sweet gasolene benzine, naph- in return to the land- and well-owners of untold mil- tha, burning oil, lubricating oil, and paraffin, for lions of dollars. the simple reason that these oils were practically Other inventions of Mr. Frasch in connection with free from sulphur. But the Canadian and Ohio oils petroleum refining are: contained about one per cent. of sulphur, in such 1890.-A process for removing from the heavier offensive combinations that it was impossible to ob- burning fraction of the oil, the sulphuric acid taken tain from them, by the customary processes of treat- up during the acid treatment by the cracked prod- ment, products that could be marketed, so they ucts. This he accomplished by distillation with were only available €or fuel purposes. Many chemists lime. attacked the problem of deodorizing those oils by 1895.-Processes for increasing the flow of oil wells. decomposing the sulphur compounds ; many processes The Pennsylvania oil wells occur in the Devonian were devised and patented, but not one of them was sandstone, and in order to rejuvenate an exhausted satisfactory until Mr. Frasch began to study the sub- well, it had long been customary to shatter and crack ject. On February I, 1887, he applied for his first the surrounding rock by exploding one or several patent for " Refining Canadian and similar Petroleum hundred quarts of nitroglycerine at the bottom. Oils," and by December 31, 1894, had applied for In Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, the wells occur at twenty patents for his inventions in connection with a much deeper geological horizon, in the Silurian this subject, all of which were granted. The essence limestones. Frasch substituted sulphuric or hydro- of his invention consisted in distilling the different chloric acid in place of nitroglycerine for the pur- products of the fractional distillation of the crude pose of rejuvenating the exhausted wells, one proving oil, with metallic oxides, especially oxide of copper, best in some localities, the other in other localities, as by which the sulphur was completely removed, by one yields insoluble calcium sulphate, and the other entering into combination with the copper, while soluble calcium chloride. the oils distilled over as odorless and sweet as those By plugging the wells after the acid has been poured from the best Pennsylvania oil. The process was down, the pressure of the carbonic acid gas forces comparatively inexpensive, as Frasch devised simple the acid through the most minute cracks, which were processes for separating the sulphide of copper from thus widened so as to open communication with new the residuum, and restoring it by roasting to its origi- cavities of supply. nal condition, making it possible to use it over and I goo.-The application of live steam to remove over again on fresh lots of oil. completely the gasoline, naphtha and benzine from It was in the works of the Empire Oil Co. that the burning oil in the process of distillation, in order Mr. Frasch solved the problem of raising the terribly to raise the fire tests. offensive sulphur-containing oils of Canada and Ohio 1902.-A process for treating the peculiar crude from the low grade of fuel oils, to the highest grade oil of Fresno Co., California, so as to remove the of purest oil. He had the process in operation on valuable aromatic hydrocarbons which it contains : a large scale, when in May, 1888, the Standard Oil Benzol, toluol, xylol, mesitylene and naphthalene. Co. purchased his patents after they had been thor- 1902.-A process by which it is made possible to oughly investigated and tested by their experts. secure a satisfactory burning oil, from the peculiar The Company bought the works of the Empire Oil crude oil of Beaumont, Jefferson Co., Texas, which Co. at London, Ontario, and proceeded at once to consists on washing out of the burning oil frac- construct large works for carrying out Frasch's in- tion, its peculiar smoke producing hydrocarbons, by ventions at Lima, Cleveland, Whiting, Olean, Phila- means of wood alcohol. delphia and Bayonne. Mr. Frnsch received in pay- 1899.-Improved processes to bring to the surface ment, stock of the Standard Oil Co. selling at that by solution, the rock salt reached by boring. time €or 168 and paying 7 per cent. After his pro- I 894.-Process for purifying solvent extracted oils, cess had been thoroughly established, he sold half having special reference to linseed oil, consisting in his stock at 820, and the Company had been paying removing the solvent naphtha from the oil by low for some time 40 per cent. instead of 7 per cent. tension steam in a partial vacuum. When one considers that the capital of the Stand- 1895.-Improvements in mining gold or like metal, ard Oil Co. was one hundred million dollars, the pe- which consist in saturating strata containing the cuniary return from the Frasch process in the in- diffused metal with an aqueous solution of a suitable creased value of the stock, and the greatly increased solvent, the final solution being subsequently drawn dividends, assumes gigantic proportions. from wells or borings through the strata. In addition to the advantages to the owners of the On the 23rd of October, 1890, Mr. Frasch applied stock of the Standard Oil Co., there were a host of for a patent for an epoch-marking improvement in others who profited to an enormous extent. Frasch's the sulphur industry. It had long been known that process sent up the price of crude Ohio oil from 14 there was a large deposit of native sulphur in Cal- I34 THE JOCRXAL OF ISDVSTRIAL A.\-D E.VGIA7EERIA\-G CHELTTISTRY. Feb., 1912

casieu Parish, Louisiana, at a depth of one thousand To MR. FRASCH: feet below the surface. But all attempts to get at It gives me great pleasure, as the representative the deposit and bring the sulphur to the surface had of the Society of Chemical Industry, and the affiliated failed completely, on account of the layers of quick Chemical and Electro-Chemical Societies, to place sand above the deposit. Mr. Frasch evolved the in your hands this beautiful token of the apprecia- idea of melting the sulphur in place, by means of tion and affection of your Fellow Chemists. superheated water forced down a boring, and forcing the melted sulphur to the surface, through an inner ADDRESS OF ACCEPTANCE. tube. During the period beginning October 23, 1890, ny HERMASFRASCH to February 6, 1905, Frasch has applied for ten pat- MR.CHAIRMAN, LADIES AXD GESTLEMEN: ents for his inventions of apparatus and processes When I received the notification that I had been for accomplishing this result. awarded the Perkin medal, I was most happily sur- His efforts kave been entirely successful. The prised. I recognize and appreciate fully the honor Union Sulphur Co. was organized, he secured con- and distinction which the medal conveys, and I wish trol of the sulphur deposit, set up the batteries of to express my sincere thanks and appreciation to boilers, bored the wells, built the railroad to carry the members of the Awarding Committee and to the the sulphur to the seaboard, and the docks at Sabine Societies which they represent. Pass, for the ships which deliver the sulphur to the seaboard. OIL There are seven batteries of boilers, each of which Very little is known of the impurities contained runs a well. A single well delivers about four hun- in petroleum. They influence the price, however, dred and fifty tons of sulphur per day. In a two- to a remarkable degree. The best illustration of this months test, six wells delivered one hundred and is the case of Ohio oil. This contains about 0.75 per twenty-two thousand tons of sulphur, proving the cent. of sulphur, and before my desulphurizing pro- capacity of the mines to exceed the entire consumption cess was known sold at 14 cents per barrel, while of the world. Pennsylvania oil, with a sulphur content of only The sulphur is pumped into bins about fifty feet 0.03 per cent., sold at $2.2j at the same time. Sul- high constructed of planks, where it congeals and phur affects the value of petroleum in a greater de- forms a block of from seventy-five thousand to one gree than phosphorus does that of iron ore. hundred and fifty thousand tons, over ninety-nine One of the oils which contains an objectionable per cent. pure sulphur. The planks are subsequently amount of sulphur is that found near Pretolia, On- removed, the huge block is broken up by blasting, tario. It is the only crude that has been found in and the sulphur is loaded directly into the cars by a the Dominion of Canada. When this oil was first scooping derrick which picks up two tons at a time. discovered in 1868, it was refined in the usual way- The effect of this work on the imports of sulphur treated with sulphuric acid and soda, and then put into the United States is very far-reaching, as will on the market. The result was disastrous. The be seen in the following figures, showing imports and odor emanating from the oil was very offensive and exports of sulphur into and from the United States. penetrating, so much so that' the cargoes of ships carry- ing flour and bacon, anchored near a vessel loaded Imports Exports. Tons Tons. with Canadian oil, were spoiled, as the flour and bacon 1903...... 188,888 none absorbed this odor. Law-suits based upon these 1907...... 20,399 35,000 facts were decided against the shippers of Canadian At present the Louisiana Deposit supplies this oil, and all export ceased. In order to protect the country with sulphur, and might supply large quan- home industry, the Canadian Government imposed tities to European countries. Fortunately the Com- a duty of 9 cents per gallon on Pennsylvania oil, pany is owned by a feu- broad-minded and large- but in spite of this almost prohibitive duty, half the hearted men, who could not be induced to bring star- oil consumed in Canada was imported from Pennsyl- vation and ruin upon the two hundred and fifty vania. thousand people dependent upon the mining of sul- The offensive odor of this oil, moreover, was not phur in Sicily. its only objection. It had also the property of de- Kinety per cent. of the stock of the Union Sul- positing soot upon the lamp chimney, so that a large phur Co. is owned by Herman Frasch, the estates percentage of the light emitted by the flame was lost. of H. McK. Twombly, Abram H. Hewitt and Ed- The Canadian Government, as well as the Cana- ward Cooper and Mr. L. H. Severance. dian producers and refiners, made every effort to I have presented to you very briefly the great discover a method by which the objectionable prop- achievements of Mr. Frasch in the field of Applied erties of this crude oil could be eliminated, but practi- Chemistry, but quite fully enough to satisfy you cally nothing has been accomplished in twenty years, that your Committee is fully justified 'in placing Mr. except perhaps in the matter of covering up the odor, Frasch by the side of Sir William Perkin, as one of when in 1885 I bought a refinery in Canada and made our greatest Industrial Chemists and Chemical Engi- a thorough investigation of the character of this neers. crude and decided to discover a remedy, if possible.