Texas Almanac, 1952-1953 Page: 226
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TEXAS ALMANAC.-1952-1953.
cases and for an admixture with anesthetic
gases to minimize explosion hazards.
Helium is found in small quantities in asso-
ciation with methane (natural gas), and is
produced by reducing the natural gas to
liquid form, leaving in gaseous form the
helium which liquefies at a lower tempera-
ture than natural gas.
CARBON BLACK
Carbon black is one of the principal prod-
ucts of natural gas. Fifty-three plants were
in operation in the United States during 1950.
of which more than half were in Texas, which
produced 948,865,000 pounds, which was 68.7
per cent of the total of 1,381,991,000 pounds
produced In the United States. (Figures of
U.S. Bureau of Mines.)
Total value of all carbon black produced in
the United States was $84,604,000 at the
plants, or 6.12c a pound. Production of this
carbon black consumed 410,852,000 million
cubic feet of natural gas and 107,707,000 gal-
lons of liquid carbons.
Formerly carbon black was made almost
exclusively from natural gas, and by the
channel, or contact, process of burning a gas
jet against a moving band of steel on which
the carbon was deposited. In recent years the
furnace process has been introduced, and
liquid hydrocarbons now supplement gas as
a fuel in the carbon process. In the United
States as a whole the average yield was 2.57
pounds of carbon from 1,000 cubic feet of gas;
and 3.02 pounds from a gallon of liquid hydro-
carbons.
Texas Production.
Most of the Texas production was in the
Panhandle which produced 638,160,000 pounds
as against 310,705,000 pounds produced in the
remainder of the state, including the Per-
mia Basin, North Texas and Coastal areas.
Of the total United States production,
1.030,368,000 pounds went to rubber companies,
50,903,000 to ink companies, 11,139,000 to paint
companies and 16,661,000 to miscellaneous
other purposes.
Recent production and value of carbon black
in Texas, according to U.S. Bureau of Mines:
Year- Production (Lbs.) Value.
1945 .. . . . ... 721,438,000 $30,198,000
1946 ..... . 830,850,000 42,701,000
1947 ......... .. .895,773,000 51,787,000
1948 ....... .. 903,384,000 58,021,000
1949 ... . . 874,843,000 57,567,000
1950 . . . . 948,865,000 57,061,000
Coal and Lignite
In recent years Texas power, for practi-
cally all industrial and transportation pur-
poses, has been derived from oil and gas.
However, the state has a large backlog fuel
in its appreciable coal and very large lignite
deposits.
Prior to discovery of a great abundance of
oil and gas, coal and lignite were mined in
considerable quantities. Production began as
early as 1850 and was on a commercial scale
in the 1870's. It gradually increased to an
annual production of about 2,000,000 tons a
year, which was maintained until about 1920
when it became evident from continued dis-
covery of new oil and gas fields that Texas
had a long supply expectancy in these fuels.
In the late 1920's and early 1930's, lignite
production rose again, primarily because of
the beginning of operation of the big power
plant at Trinidad, Henderson County, and one
or two other plants, using this fuel in pow-
dered form. However, the continued discov-
ery of gas, and, the decline in its price,
finally caused these plants to convert to gas.
During the last few years coal production has
amounted to only about 50.000 tons annually,
and lignite has not been reported by the
U.S. Bureau of Mines, though there has been
some production.
The largest single source of coal was at
Thurber, Erath County (now dwindled to asmall village), where a town of about 6,000
population was devoted to the industry in its
heyday of production. There was consistent
production also from Strawn, Palo Pinto
County; Bridgeport, Wise County; Newcastle,
Young County, and several other places.
Lignite was, mined in fifteen or more counties
including Milam, Hopkins, Wood, Titus,
Harrison, Cherokee and Henderson.
Coal is found in a considerable area in
North Central and Middle West Texas, in-
cluding the counties mentioned above and
also in Jack, Coleman and other counties.
The Texas coal ranges in quality from middle
to inferior bituminous. Cannel coal has been
mined intermittently for a number of years
in Maverick and Webb Counties where it is
found in considerable quantities.
Lignite is found primarily in two bands
extending across the state from the Rio
Grande to the East Texas border. The more
northerly passes through Maverick, Uvalde,
Medina, Bexar, Guadalupe, Caldwell, Bastrop,
Williamson, Lee, Milam, Robertson, Falls,
Leon, Limestone, Freestone, Anderson, Hen-
derson, Van Zandt, Rains, Wood, Franklin.
Hopkins, Titus and Bowie Counties. The
southerly band passes through Starr, Zapata.
Webb, La Salle, McMullen, Atascosa, Wilson.
Gonzales, Fayette, Bastrop, Lee, Burleson,-
Brazos, Grimes, Madison, Houston, Angellna.
San Augustine and Sabine. In addition, lig-
nite is found in a group of intervening coun-
ties, including Panola, Harrison, Marion,
Gregg, Rusk and Shelby. In fact, lignite is
found generally throughout East Texas in
small quantities but the foregoing counties
have the principal deposits.
A high grade of lignite has been used for a
number of years in the production of acti-
vated carbon at a plant at Marshall. During
1950 there was reported a return to coal as a
fuel by several industrial plants that had been
using gas. In July, 1951, the Aluminum Cor-
poration of America announced that it would
use lignite, in Milam County, in the pro-
duction of aluminum in large quantities. It
is also known that some large electric gener-
ating plants, notably the Texas Power &
Light plant at Trinidad, will return to the
use of lignite when, and if, cheap gas ceases
to be available.
The easy availability of lignite, by the
strip-mining process in many instances, and
its nearness to the state's "larger industrial
centers are factors favoring its return to use
in event natural gas advances in price appre-
ciably. Burning lignite in powdered form in
large-scale power production is a proven
process which adds to lignite's potentiality
as a fuel.
Further, the potentiality of lignite for the
production of by-products in processing it to
improve its fuel value holds hope of future
increased production. There are those among
engineers and chemists who think that there
will be great future development of Texas
lignite and coal resources.
U.S. Bureau of Mines figures on lignite
production in recent years has been as
follows:
Production
Year- Tons. Value
1945 ... .............79,949 $68,000
1946 ................... 55,998 46,454
1947 .... ......... ..... . 60,000 ...
1948 ............ . 56,000
1949 . . . 49,473 50.410
COKE
Coke can not be made successfully by
present methods from Texas coal or lignite.
In recent years there has been a Texas coke
production at 'the iron and steel plants at
Houston and Daingerfield, from Oklahoma
and Alabama coal, reported by the U.S. Bu-
reau of Mines as follows: 1945, 140,254 tons;
1946, report missing; 1947, 263,006; 1948,
644,225; 1949, 497,019.
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Texas Almanac, 1952-1953, book, 1951; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117137/m1/228/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.