James E. Homans, editor

“ Several companies, Austrian, French, and American, had successively attempted to get at the rich deposit, and had failed ignominiously. The principal difficulty lay in the fact that a bed of quicksand, about 500 feet in depth, lay immediately over the sulphur. The conditions were such that the sinking of a shaft was entirely out of the question. Consequently, the rich sulphur deposit — one of the richest in the world, as it has transpired — seemed irrevocably out of the reach of human ingenuity. To Mr. Frasch the difficulty presented only another opportunity. ”

“ The exceptional opportunity to thus create an actual monopoly of the world's market in sulphur would have been eagerly seized on by many, who would have thought of nothing but the vast profits to be obtained. With Mr. Frasch, however, a different thought occurred immediately. He knew perfectly well that the other important source of the sulphur supply was in the mines of Sicily, where the laborers had been afforded a constant source of employment since the days of the Roman Empire. ”

“ Frasch concluded that copper oxide is the most suitable, because of the fact that the sulphide resulting from the treatment of the oil may be more readily generated, or reduced to a simple oxide again by a process of roasting. The copper oxide may thus be used repeatedly, after regeneration. Furthermore, as he discovered, by the addition of oxide, after the desired combinations had largely taken place, the oil could be so far desulphurized that only about 2-100 of 1 per cent. of sulphur could be found, a quantity entirely negligible for most purposes in which petroleum products are used. ”