Effect of the use of old retorts as grog and of zinc oxide upon the properties of bodies for the manufacture of retorts

In the fall of 1924 the Mississippi Valley Experiment Station of the United States Bureau of Mines, Department of Commerce, in cooperation with the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy began an investigation of the properties of raw materials used in the manufacture of retorts for the zinc industry. The investigation proceeded cooperatively until December, 1926, when the Bureau of Mines withdrew from ceramic research. The School then took over and is completing the problem as outlined. The first phase of the investigation had for its object the determination of the properties of the fireclays and body mixtures now in use in the manufacture of zinc retorts. The second phase deals with the comparative value of various grog materials presenting possibilities of use in the manufacture of zinc retorts. The third phase of the investigation is the comparison of the properties of bodies made from various clays which present possibilities of utilization for the manufacture of retorts for the distillation of zinc. This thesis contains a description of a part of the general Refractories Investigation, of which it is a supplementary phase. The methods of procedure and study in this thesis are in close harmony with the work done in the investigation as a whole --Introduction, page 1