The Union Sulphur Company was an American sulfur mining corporation founded in 1896 by the famous inventor Herman Frasch. It utilized the Frasch Process to extract previously inaccessible sulfur deposits located beneath swampland in Louisiana. The Union Sulphur Company dominated the world sulfur market until its patents expired in 1908. Its success led to the development of the present-day city of Sulphur, Louisiana. After its sulfur patents expired, the company transitioned into oil and natural gas production and was renamed the Union Sulphur & Oil Company and later the Union Oil & Gas Corporation.
During World War I, the company was a critical source of sulfur for the U.S. war effort. During World War II, the company operated at least twenty-seven Liberty Ships and was awarded a War Service Flag.
In 1960, the company merged with the Texas Natural Gas Corporation to form the Union Texas Natural Gas Corporation. In 1962, Union Texas was acquired by Allied Chemical Corporation. Through a series of transactions, the Union Texas division eventually became part of multinational energy company BP.
Founding and development
Frasch at Standard Oil
Herman Frasch was a German immigrant to America who eventually settled in Cleveland, Ohio. He was a chemist and engineer who devised a number of inventions.
In 1885, he founded the Empire Oil Company and began perfecting a method for removing sulfur from sour crude oil. The presence of sulfur in oil causes it to smell noxious and release excessive soot as it burns, making the oil virtually useless for many purposes. John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil company owned fields of oil that contained sulfur. The oil would become far more valuable if the sulfur were removed, so Standard Oil purchased Frasch's company and employed him as the first head of its research department. Frasch perfected his method for removing sulfur from oil, resulting in a financial windfall for Standard Oil.
Calcasieu Parish sulfur deposits thwart miners
As early as 1867, organized efforts were made by various concerns to extract oil and sulfur located beneath a 50-acre hill rising out of a bayou in Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana. The swamp water surrounding the hill contained traces of oil, leading prospectors to believe they could drill productive oil wells. In 1867, the Louisiana Petroleum Company began exploratory drilling at the site. Drilling revealed that beneath 400 feet of clay and gravel was a layer of quicksand, followed by a 100-foot thick bed of limestone containing pure sulfur deposits, underlain by gypsum. The exploratory drilling continued down to 1,230 feet, still within the gypsum layer, without finding any significant oil deposits.
For the next 23 years, a series of corporations aided by esteemed experts such as Professor Eugene W. Hilgard, noted French engineer Antoine Granet, Rossiter W. Raymond, and Richard P. Rothwell, attempted to mine the sulfur deposits. Hilgard and Granet confirmed that about 450 feet below the surface was a 100-foot-thick layer of limestone impregnated with pure sulfur. A 25-foot thick layer of limestone kept the sulfur separated from the watery layers above. If a mine shaft could be built through the watery layers, down to the limestone and sulfur, miners could descend and dig caverns laterally to extract the sulfur. The problem was that any mine shaft would flood with water and quicksand as it was built.
Granet proposed digging straight down and building a mine shaft supported by 87 iron rings, 10 feet in diameter and 5 feet high. When the shaft reached the limestone, the water would be pumped out. Miners could then descend through the shaft and dig lateral shafts within the limestone. This method was attempted first by the Calcasieu Sulphur & Mining Company in 1870, and later the Louisiana Sulphur Company in 1879, followed by the American Sulphur Company in 1890. All such efforts ended with flooded shafts. The last effort by the American Sulphur Company released deadly hydrogen sulfide gas that killed five drillers, and the efforts were abandoned.
The Frasch process succeeds
As the American Sulphur Company was abandoning its efforts, Frasch, with the backing of Frank Rockefeller, Feargus B. Squire and Louis Severance, was on an adjacent property beginning his own efforts. Frasch had learned about the well-publicized sulfur mining failures, and purchased land adjacent to the American Sulphur Company's land. He assumed that the sulfur deposits extended laterally underneath his property, and he planned to extract the sulfur with a new method. He would insert three pipes down into the sulfur. Super-heated water would be pumped down one pipe to melt the sulfur, and compressed air would be pumped down another pipe. The increased pressure from the compressed air would then force the molten sulfur up through the empty third pipe. Upon drilling on his property, however, Frasch discovered that the sulfur was only located beneath the American Sulphur Company property.
The American Sulfur Company was not a fly-by-night venture, but a credible corporation backed by Abram Hewitt, Edward Cooper and Hamilton McKown Twombly. It had spent $300,000 to $350,000 to buy the land and attempt to extract the sulfur. Frasch met with Hewitt and proposed a simple 50/50 deal combining their property with his process. Hewitt wanted greater assurances about the unproven extraction process, and Frasch went to work with engineers such as Jacques Toniette and Jacob Hoffman. On a day in late December 1894, the Frasch Process succeeded, and pure molten sulfur rose up from beneath the bayou, and within 15 minutes the 40 barrels on hand to collect it were full.
On January 23, 1896, the Union Sulphur Company was incorporated in New Jersey to take title to the land and Frasch patents. Half the stock went to the American Sulphur Company, and the other half went to Frasch and his backers. Frasch and his engineering team worked through various technical challenges, but work stalled because of irregular production, and the high cost of the coal necessary to heat the water caused the operation to lose money. The venture was on the verge of failure. Frasch met with Abram Hewitt and Edward Cooper and asked for more financial support. They were skeptical, but also present at the meeting was Hewitt's wife Sarah Cooper Hewitt, sister of Edward Cooper. She announced that she would personally back Frasch if her husband and brother would sell her their stakes in the company. Her faith in Frasch won them over, and they continued to back the venture.
The Union Sulphur Company dominates the global sulfur market
The fuel cost problem was solved by simple good fortune. On January 10, 1901, a huge oil field was discovered at Spindletop, not far from the Union Sulphur Company's drilling site. The Union Sulphur Company now had easy access to cheap energy, making the sulfur mining process highly profitable. Production increased from 2 wells producing 3078 long tons in 1901 to 19 wells producing 218,950 tons in 1905. By 1912, production increased to 787,735 tons, of which 57,736 were exported. As importantly, costs were one-fifth that of sulphur from Sicily, which had previously dominated the industry. The Union Sulphur Company quickly came to dominate the global sulfur market, .
The Frasch patents expire
Unfortunately for Frasch, he was too far ahead of his time. He had filed his original two patents for the Frasch Process back in 1891. At the time, patents lasted 17 years. His original patents thus expired in 1908. Competitors such as the Freeport Sulphur Company quickly emerged and began to use the Frasch Process to extract sulfur from other nearby salt dome sites. The Union Sulphur Company tried to stop the Freeport Sulphur Company by suing on the basis of later patents that improved upon the original patents. The Delaware District Court largely sided with the Union Sulphur Company. The Third Circuit Court of Appeals, however, reversed the district court, concluding that the new patents were not really new inventions, but merely extensions of the original expired patents. Union Sulphur appealed to the Supreme Court, which declined to review the Third Circuit opinion. The competitors were free to use the Frasch Process.
The Union Sulphur Company continued to extract sulfur, averaging over 200,000 tons per year from 1905 to 1911 and eventually producing a total of almost 9.5 million tons.
Union Sulphur Company critical to U.S. war effort during World War I
Sulfur has many industrial uses, including as sulfuric acid and in the manufacture of explosives, among others. The Union Sulphur Company, as the primary source of sulfur in the U.S. before and during World War I, was critical to the U.S. war effort. As the legal battle over the expiration of its patents continued, the company's daily output of sulfur rose from 700 tons per day to over 4,000 tons per day to meet the U.S.'s and its Allies' wartime needs of 150,000 tons per month. The U.S. government exerted control over domestic sulfur distribution during the War, but did not exert control over its production.
Transition to oil and gas; mergers and acquisitions
By 1929, the company's original sulfur mines were depleted, but the company had located oil near the edge of the salt dome where it mined sulfur. The company thereafter acquired additional properties for sulfur mining, but gradually transitioned to oil and natural gas extraction in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. In 1950, the company changed its name to the Union Sulphur & Oil Corporation to reflect its transition to oil production.
In 1955, the name was changed to the Union Oil & Gas Corporation. In 1960, the Union Oil & Gas Co. merged with the Texas Natural Gas Corporation to form the Union Texas Natural Gas Corporation. In 1962, Union Texas merged with Allied Chemical. Through a series of transactions the Union Texas division eventually became part of multinational energy company BP.
Executives and directors
John L. Henning
A native of Calcasieu Parish, Henning was the assistant manager of the Company from 1899 until 1915, when he became vice president and general manager overseeing much of the company's operations.
William R. Keever
Keever was hired in January 1905 to supervise drilling for the company. He had prior drilling experience from Jennings Oil Field and Sour Lake Oil Field. He remained with the company for twenty years, becoming a vice president and general manager.
Clarence A. Snider
Served as Secretary and Treasurer of the Union Sulphur Company beginning in 1907.
John L. Severance
Son of company investor Louis Severance, John Severance was a successful entrepreneur in his own right.
Henry D. Whiton
Henry D. Whiton served as president of the Union Sulphur Company from 1905-1914. Although his hiring likely resulted from his marriage to Herman Frasch's daughter Frieda Frasch, prior to their marriage Whiton had distinguished himself as an executive with Charles F. Brush's Brush Electric Company. Whiton had worked at the Brush Electric Co. for twelve years, with much of his time spent in Italy working on construction of the company's electric plants.
Whiton was a supporter of the New York Zoological Society, now called the Wildlife Conservation Society. He became a member of its executive committee in 1924 and vice president in 1925.
Herman Whiton
Herman Whiton, son of Frieda Frasch and Henry D. Whiton, served as president of the company and chairman of the board until 1952. He was a supporter of the Princeton University Physics Department, and was instrumental in its acquisition of a Synchrotron.
John R. Gordon
Gordon oversaw transportation at the company, including its fleet of ships. He served as President of the United States Shipping Board Merchant Fleet Corporation. He died in 1930.
William A. M. Burden