THE
WEST SHORE.
Fifteenth Yeah. AUGUdT, 1889. Ni'mpkd 8.
U ' J
ONB THOUSAND BARRELS A DAT.
7 pi
A
NE thousand barrels of lime t day
i the reoord of one of the
greatest manufacturing en
terpriees on the Pacifio coast
The rapid building up of
this region renders lime a
most important article of
merchandise, and the pro
duct:on here on a large scale
of this most essential build
ing material adds muoh to
the economy and facility with which our cities and
towns are being improved. This fact alone would
render a description of the industry interesting, but
the many details of the process of reducing bard
marble to soft and fiery lime are so peculiar and so
little known that a description of them can not but
be entertaining to everyone possessing a mind above
the mere trivialities of life.
Ferhaps it is wrll to first inform the unscientiflo
reader what lime is and then he will more easily com
prehend the process of its manufacture. Lime is the
oxide of calcium, which, in combination with carbonic
acid, forms carbonate of lime, the chief constituent of
limestone as we see it in nature in the form of lime
rock, marble, shells of marine animsls, eta White
marble, such as the famous stone of which the great
masterpieces of soulpture were made, is the purest
limestone in existence; but even this is not perfectly
pure, for the theoretical limestone, containing fifty,
six per cent of lime and forty-four of carbonio acid,
is never found in a state of nature. The best stone
in the United States, such as that of Roche harbor,
contains about fifty pr cent of lime, or ninety-eight
and one-fourth per oent of limestone. Lime is made
by freeing the stone from its acid, and this is accom.
plished by heat, by which the acid is volatilised and
caused to pass away into the atmosphere, leaving the
white, brittle and flaky substanoe known as lime, or
quick lime. When water is applied to lime it cans
it to boil, and when a perfect chomioal combination
has been effected the slaked lime absorbs carbonic
add from the atmosphere with groat avidity and be
comes hard, or sot This is the principle involved in
the use of lime in making mortar for the purpose of
oementicg brick and stone work, the sand being add
ed to the slaked lime to furnish centers of attraction
around which the particles of lime shall gather in
hardening, thus adding to its strength. The mortar,
when used in laying masonry, gradually loses Its sur
plus water and absorbs carbonic acid until it booomes
hard, thus firmly cementing the stones or bricks to
gether. Knowledge of the chemical properties of limestone
anl of its nse in the mechanical arts is not an ac
quirement of modern times, but ex U ted long before
the age of written history. How the stone was burn
ed, or eufciW a more proper word to indicate the
process by the ancients is unknown. They may
have had a far betUr way of achieving the result than
that now in use. Certain it is that the process in nse
in modern times was very orudo until recent years,
and the reason for this was that lime burning has al
ways been conducted on a small scale by a great
many individuals scattered over the entire civilised
world. It is only where an industry is conducted on
a oomprchensive plan, whore the saving of a few
cents on each item of expense means the addition of
thousands of dollars to the year's profits, or, possibly,
the difference between success and failure, that biains
and inventive genius are invoked, and marked Im
provements in the process of manufacture are made,
This principle is well illustrated in the lime busi
ness, for with the concentration of the industry at va
rious points Into large enterprises have come Ira
pnvements that have Increased both the quantity and
quality of the lime produced, and have so lessened
the expense of production as to materially cheapen
its oost to consumers.
Lime Is calcined in a kiln, so constructed that the