Texas Almanac, 1958-1959 Page: 314
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314 TEXAS ALMANAC-1958-1959
petroleum, carbon black, sulphur, salt, lime
and other minerals have been inducements.
The availability of natural gas has been an
inducement, first, because gas is the ideal
fuel for many chemical processes and sec-
ond, because natural gas and its allied liquid
petroleum products are the principal raw
materials in many processes; such as the
production of benzene, toluene, xylene, me-
thane and other chemicals used in the manu-
facture of Nylon, Orlon and other synthetic
fibers. From these products come also fuel
additives (tetraethyl lead), anti-freeze, sol-
vents, plastics, synthetic rubber, the newer
types of paints, refrigerants and many other
products that are both new and common-
place in the consumer world today.
Petrochemical Industries
The frantic search for synthetic rubber
and some other products during World War
II greatly influenced the development of the
chemical industries, but nearly all of the
newly developed products found ready peace-
time markets.
The majority of the Texas chemical indus-
tries come under the classification of petro.
chemicals, taking as their chief raw materials
the hydrocarbons of. natural gas, petroleum
and liquid petroleum gases.
An ,almost infinite number of compounds
are derived from them: and the manufactur-
ing processes consist of (1) taking molecules
apart, (2) putting the elemental parts to-
gether to form new simple compounds and
(3) combining these into complex commercial
chemicals from which a great array of con-
sumers' goods are made, such as plastic
dishes, synthetic rubber and .synthetic fibers.
Unique among -the Texas chemical plants,
and outside the petrochemical field, is the
giant plant -of+ Dow at Freeport Using sea-
water and a variety of other minerals for.the
prod ition of magnesium, bromine and other
chemicals.-It is the principal magnesium pro-
ducer in the United States. -
"As- a -groupe the chemical industries nclud-
ng the petrochemicals may be called the
magic industries. Scientists think that their
development has only begun. Texas will un-
doubtedly have a large part in the future
growth of this branch of industry. -
PRIMARY METALS.-There were 155 pri-
mary metal industries operating in Texas in
1954, according to the census of that year.
While this is- a group of old industries, its
recent development in Texas has been of
great significance since Texas has been de-
ficient in this field of industry. The net
value of Texas' manufactured products in
this class jumped from $58,337,000 in 1947 to
$206,151,000 in 1954.
As in the instances of the chemical indus-
tries, the search for strategic materials dur-
ing World War II was a leading cause of the
upsurge of the metals industries in Texas and
. Of the greatest significance to the Texas
economy is the development of an iron and
steel Industry which is consuming Texas iron
ores. Of the several large metal industries, it
is the only one that consumes large amounts
of Texas ores, the remaining industries hav-
ing come to Texas for its natural gas and, in
one instance, its lignite.
The plant of the Lone Star Steel Company,
at Lone-Star in southern Morris County, was
built as a-war industry. The war ended sud-
denly after blast furnace, coke ovens, ore
beneficiation plant and some other equip-
ment had been completed but before the steel'
mill had been built. It was built by the Lone
Star Steel Company which took over the prop-
erty. All of its iron -ore comes from theVicinity of the plant, and its coal for coke
comes from Southeastern Oklahoma. Steel
tubular goods and cast.iron pressure pipe are
the principal products of this plant.
The steel plant of. Sheffield- division of
Armco at Houston was built in 1942 with a
capacity of 200,000 tons which had been in-
creased to 1,200,000 in 1957. :Its products in-
clude plates, structurals, merchant bars, alloy
steels. wire. It obtains part of its ore from
East Texas and part from out-of-state sources.
Aluminum is produced at three big Texas
plants. No bauxite, the aluminum ore, is pro-
duced in Texas, but the material is shipped
to these plants from Arkansas and foreign
countries in the form of alumina, processed
from bauxite. A principal requirement for
reduction of alumina to aluminum is a great
amount of electric energy. This is produced
by natural gas at the Reynolds plant in San
Patricio County and at- the plant of the
Aluminum Company of America at Point Com-
fort near Port Lavaca. The big plant of
ALCOA at Rockdale, Milam County, uses
lignite for fuel. mining it by the stripping
process at the site of the plant and before
burning it, processing it -in a manner that
may presage the much greater use of this
native fuel in the future of Texas industry.
There is a zinc-smelting industry in Moore
County, shipping ore from other states and
utilizing Paahandle gas, ,and, a smelter and
copper refinery at El Paso which ship most of
their materials from New Mexico, Arizona and
Mexico, but some small amounts- of Texas
ores have been used. A tin smelter, the only
one in the United States, was built at Texas
City during World War II, using imported
material, but it was later bought by private
industry and turned to the manufacture of
tin industrial products.
FOOD INDUSTRIES.-The varied food man-
ufactuing processes, classed as a single in-
dustry; produce $553,030,000 of net value an-
nually and employ 67,862; the-largest of any
Texas industry. Meat packing, dairy products,
canned and frozen foods, gran mill products
and bakery products are its principal classi-
fications. It is the oldest of the Texas indus-
tries. ,
Undoubtedly the first manufacturing plant
in Texas was the little grist mill at the Mis-
sion San Jdse, San Antonio, installed at an
unknown date but probably not long after
the mission was founded in 1720 to grind the
corn grown by the Indians around the mis-
sion under supervision of the padres. It has
been reconstructed and can be seen at the
mission today.
The grist mill was also the first widely in-
stalled manufacturing business of the early
Anglo-American colonists, driven b! horse-
power, the limited water: power ''avalable in
Texas free-flowing streams and, later, by
steam power. One of these old mills still op-
erates- on the spring-fed Salado a few miles
below Salado, Bell County, and the buildings
of a few others still stand, notably the Lange
mill at Doss on Beaver Creek, Gillespie
County. The old buhr mill was succeeded by
the "roller mill" and later the modern flour
and meal mill.
The varied Texas food' ndustry has ex-
panded gradually (1) as the market demand
increased and (2) as the production of qual-
ity grains, fruits and vegetables and live-
stock products furnished the materials. A
milestone was passed In'1901 with the estab-
lishment of the first two big packing plants
at Fort Worth. During the 1920s the first
large poultry packing plants were established
at Taylor, Lubbock and some other places,
Continued on Page 316.ADCO DECAL CO.
HEAVY DUTY DECALS FOR INDUSTRY 44A035 Belmont
SDallas, Texas314
TEXAS ALMANAC--1958-1959
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Texas Almanac, 1958-1959, book, 1957; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117139/m1/316/: accessed April 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.