MR. CHAIRMAN, BROTHER CHEMISTS, .4ND MR. FRASCH: It

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.

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