1927 The Texas Almanac and State Industrial Guide Page: 246
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246 THE TEXAS ALMANAC.
fireworks, signal lights and other prod-
ucts. There has been some production
from the Mount Bonnell region, several
miles above Austin on the Colorado River,
and in Burnet and Lampasas Counties.
Production has been small and operations
intermittent and there are no reliable fig-
ures upon production. It is said, how-
ever, that the Texas supply is sufficient
to meet a large demand.
CLAYS.-Texas has a great variety of
clays adaptable to the manufacture of
nearly all grades of brick, pottery, tile,
statuary and other products. Clays sus-
ceptible of possible commercial develop-
ment have been found in nearly every
county in the State and clay deposits have
been worked in seventy-five or more
counties. Brick is the chief product, some
of the larger industries being located at
Ferris and Palmer in Ellis County, at
Elgin and other points in Bastrop County,
at Mineral Wells in Palo Pinto County
and at Thurber in Erath County. Pottery
clays are found in many places, the chief
utilization being probably at Athens in
Henderson County. Potteries are located
here and at Fort Worth, Dallas, Marshall,
McDade, Winnsboro, Mount Pleasant and
other points. The manufacture of statu-
ary and ornamental goods from Texas
clays has developed rapidly during the
last five years. Excellent tile, pipe and
similar products are manufactured from
clays of Bexar and other counties. As
result of experiments conducted by the
United States Department of Agiiculture
during 1926 it was announced that many
of the clays of Texas were without su-
perior as subgrade material for highway
construction.
Mining engineers who are familiar with
the quality and extent of Texas clays say
that the ceramic industries will witness
great future development.
The Federal census of 1923 disclosed
that there were fifty-three operating clay
products plants of all kinds in Texas at
that time, manufacturing common,
pressed, face and fire brick, tile and terra-
cotta, earthenware, stoneware, rocking-
ham and other grades of pottery and stat-
uary and ornamental goods. Among the
counties with valuable clay deposits are
Bastrop, Bell, Bexar, Bowie, Brown, Camp,
Chambers, Cherokee, Clay, Coleman, Co-
manche, Cooke, Dallas, Denton, Eastland,
Ellis, El Paso, Erath, Falls, Fannin, Fort
Bend, Gonzales, Grayson, Gregg, Guada-
lupe, Grimes, Harris, Harrison, Henderson,
Hill, Hopkins, Houston, Hunt, Jefferson,
Johnson, Jones, Kleberg, Lamar, Lavaca,
Lee, Limestone, McLennan, Marion, Mata-
gorda, Medina, Milam, Nacogdoches, Na-
varro, Nolan, Palo Pinto, Parker, Potter,
Robertson, Rockwall, Runnels, Rusk,
Shickelford, Shelby, Smith, Tarrant, Tay-
lor, Tom Green, Travis, Van Zandt, Webb,
Wichita, Wilbarger, Williamson, Wilson,
Wise, Wood and Young.
Kaolin,
Kaolin exists in large quantities in sev-
eral counties of Texas, including Real,
Bandera, Fayette and Burleson Counties.
This is probably the most valuable of
clays. It is a hydrated aluminum silicate
varying in proportion, forming a fine
plastic clay adapted to the manufacture
of porcelain pottery. To be valuable
kaolin must be free of impurities. There
is so little of this product in the United
States that the great porcelain manufac-
turing companies ship most of their rawproduct from Europe. There has been no
commercial production of kaolin from
Texas deposits, but some of the deposits,
particularly the one near Leaky in Real
County, have attracted much attention
and future utilization is probable.
COAL AND LIGNITE.-(Note: See also
chapter on Fuel and Power Resources of
Texas.) Texas has great fuel resources
in its coal and lignite deposits, particu-
larly the latter, which stretch in a broad
band across the State from the neighbor-
hood of Laredo to the Arkansas border in
the vicinity of Texarkana. The bituminous
coal deposits lie in North Central, Midwest
and Southwest Texas, covering a total
area of about 25,000 square miles and esti-
mated at eight billion tons. The lignite
deposit covers an area of 60,000 or more
square miles and is estimated at about
thirty billion tons.
Coal.
Bituminous coal is found in large areas
in North Central and Middle West Texas,'
covering portions of Brown, Coleman, Co-
manche, Eastland, Erath, Jack, McCulloch,
YMontague, Palo Pinto, Parker, Shackel-
ford, Stephens, Wise and Young Counties.
The largest production has been from
Thurber in Erath County. There has also
been considerable production from Strawn
in Palo Pinto County, Bridgeport in Wise
County and Newcastle in Young County.
At ten or more other points there are
shafts producing on a commercial scale or
which have produced in the past. The
seams of coal in this territory are usually
about two feet thick and the average
B. t. u. is approximately 12,000. Probably
one reason why the industry has not been
developed more rapidly is the tremendous
petroleum production of this territory
which supplies a cheap and easily acces-
sible fuel for all purposes.
A good giade of cannel coal is produced
in Webb County a few miles above Laredo
and there are outcroppings of this same
coal farther north in the vicinity of Car-
rizo Springs and west of Batesville. This
coal is somewhat softer than the bitumin-
ous of North Texas. A sub-bituminous
coal is produced in considerable quantities
from the mines near Eagle Pass in Maver-
ick County, where seams as much as forty
inches thick are found. Texas coal is con-
sumed largely by railroads, manufactur-
ing industries and the power plants of
various utilities.
Lignite.
The extensive lignite beds of Texas lie
in two bands extending from southwest to
northeast across the State. The upper
belt, from which practically all of the
present production comes, lies approxi-
mately along a line from Laredo to Tex-
arkana. There is a parallel belt lying
about half way between the upper belt
and the coast. Texas lignite is used
largely in the industrial plants of-Texas
and under the boilers of electric light and
power, waterworks and other utility
plants. The Texas lignite averages about
7,500 B. t. u.; it slakes rapidly and is not
adaptable to long shipments. New proc-
esses of burning lignite in powdered
form have greatly encouraged its use re-
cently. The present tendency is to intro-
duce the "super power" plant system ir
the Texas lignite fields and a large plant
has been erected at Trinidad in Henderson
County. The first unit has .50,000
K. W. capacity and plans are made for
adding other units. The plant will burl
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1927 The Texas Almanac and State Industrial Guide, book, 1927~; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth123785/m1/250/: accessed May 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.