Zinc Smelting at the Monaca Smelter in Josephtown Pennsylvania 1948 US Bureau of Mines

The Monaca smelter at Josephtown, Pennsylvania was constructed by the St. Joe Lead Corporation in 1930 to produce zinc oxide from primary zinc sulfide concentrates. The plant also produced as a byproduct sulfuric acid for the local steel industry. Zinc ore, from the company's Balmat mine in St. Lawrence County, New York and other sources, was shipped to the Monaca smelter for final processing. By 1936, the plant started producing zinc metal from the concentrates. In the 1940s the plant's feedstock also included material from secondary sources, primarily high-grade dross and skimmings. Over the life of the operation, the dusts, fumes, and gases generated at Monaca contained cadmium, carbon, copper, iron, lead, mercury, silica, and zinc, as well as other materials. Bag filters, Cottrells and other types of precipitators, cyclones, scrubbers, and settling chambers are examples of the types of technologies that have been used at Monaca since the 1930s to recover dust, fumes, and gases generated primarily from the thermal processing of material. In addition to the dust recovered from the individual sections of the plant, there were numerous bag filters that collect process dusts generated by mechanical action in the sinter, residue, and furnace sections of the plant. Modifications to these types of equipment, plus additional equipment were installed as a result of technological advances incented by the opportunity to generate revenues from improved recoveries and in response to changes in environmental regulations. For more information on the Balmat mine in New York and the Monaca smelter at Josephtown, Pa , read the USGA report at http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2010/1131/pdf... :
Historical Zinc Smelting in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington, D.C., with Estimates of Atmospheric Zinc Emissions and Other Materials. Dr. Devra L. Davis has researched and written about the October 1948 zinc smelter related air pollution tragedy in nearby Donora, Pennsylvania, USA, her hometown. People literally asphyxiated. In a 12-hour period, 18 people died.. Within a month, about 70 people had died. Link to http://www.jhu.edu/jhumag/0603web/smo... for more detail. This was clipped from the 1948 US Bureau of Mines film, The Story of Zinc, made with the cooperation of the St Joseph Lead Corporation. The entire film is available at the US National Archive in College Park, Maryland.