Description
U.S.BORAX (1979). The Borax Story. United States Borax & Chemical Corporation. 56 Seiten.
Hundreds of varied products, from fiber glass and pharmaceuticals to fertilizers and photographic chemicals, contain the same basic ingredient – borax.
Dramatized by the twenty-mule teams, borax was recognized as an excellent laundry additive and cleaning aid during the late nineteenth century. Recent years, however, have shown unparalleled growth and variety in the uses which have been found for this versatile mineral. It is essential to almost every industry and to agriculture.
Crude borax occurs in nature as a mineral with associated clay and other impurities. This ore can be refined into a pure chemical compound. Borax is composed of the elements sodium, boron, and oxygen plus water. Sodium borate ore is found at Boron, California, where U.S. BORAX mines, refines, concentrates and ships much of the crude and refined borax required by worldwide industries.
The element boron was isolated in 1808. Although little was known about it until comparatively recently, discoveries of the last decades have focused world attention upon the element. The scope of the breakthrough suggests that the boron era is only beginning – the future of borax may be as unusual and romantic as its past.
This country’s borax industry has grown from a twelve-ton output in 1864 to well over 1.5 million tons today. Demand for borates is steadily expanding, and the United States currently supplies about eighty-five percent of the free world’s borate requirements.
