the brand name ‘Eagle-Thistle’; and lye, which is
used to dissolve grease in drains, and in soap
manufacture.
Hydrogen gas, chlorine gas, carbon
dioxide, and calcium chloride were initially
waste products.
Later chlorine gas began to be used in a
number of industrial processes, and could be
profitably sold.
Mathieson Alkali Works’s Main Saltville Plant –
In the 1930’s
During World War I the U. S. Chemical Plant was
constructed at Saltville by a cooperative effort by
Mathieson and the Federal Government.
Four hundred soldiers were
stationed there to guard and operate the plant.
It’s purpose was to make
cyanide for use on the battlefield.
Fortunately, the war ended
before it was used.
Later carbon dioxide was compressed until it solidified
into ‘dry ice’, which was used as a refrigerant.
The largest dry ice plant
in the world was at Saltville.
Carbonated water that is
used in soft drinks was also made from the carbon
dioxide.
During the race to the moon, the government came calling
again.
Hydrazine, a chemical union
of hydrogen and nitrogen, and which is very explosive,
was needed for the rocket fuel which was to be used to
send a man to the moon.
A
plant was built, which used the hydrogen left over from
the chloralkali process.
The 1969 landing on the
moon was made with Saltville rocket fuel.
... Continue
to PAGE 55
