The Metallurgy Of Zinc

A discussion at a joint meeting of the New York Section of the American Electrochemical Society and the American Institute of Mining Engineers, Nov. 20, 1913. Chairman Lawrence Addicks:-Our program this evening represents an attempt to set before you the present situation and outlook in the metallurgy of zinc. It is a time-honored custom to throw bricks at the zinc man. The accusation is that he has borrowed a lime kiln and a gas retort and part of a sulphuric acid plant, hitched them together, and spent the last 50 years in regarding with holy veneration the reactions which take place in that retort. The copper man, who thinks of zinc as something with which copper is adulterated to make brass, and the iron man, who regards it as a sort of paint for corrugated sheets, and the lead man, whose opinion as to zinc is not fit for publication, have long felt that, when two or three of the minor details of their respective metallurgies were put in order, they would take a few clays and fix up zinc on a modern basis. But somehow there still seem to be some unsolved problems at home, and while we are waiting it seems only fair that the case for the defense should be adequately presented. There is probably no man in this country to-clay better able to do this than Mr. George C. Stone, of the New Jersey Zinc Co., on whom I have pleasure in calling to talk to us on "Progress in the Metallurgy of Zinc." George C. Stone:-It is frequently stated that there has been no change in the metallurgy of zinc since the first Belgian furnaces were built in the early part of the last century. It is true there have been no such spectacular and radical changes as were worked in the metallurgy of copper and iron by the introduction of converters; but, in the essentials, I believe the progress in zinc metallurgy has been as great as in that of the other common metals. The main reason that there have not been revolutionary changes is that the chemistry of zinc differs radically from that of the other metals and these differences control the type of apparatus that can be used. The differences are: 1. The temperature at which zinc is reduced by carbon is much above the volatilizing point of the metal and it is therefore always produced as a vapor.