Abandoned Carbon black plant

I know you guys like old manufacturing plants, but there isn’t much to see in the sticks of western Kansas.
Too hot to work so went for a drive, I go by this old plant often and I thought someone might like to see it.
I have been in this part of the country for 35 years and it hasn’t changed a bit.
Rumor has it that its full of asbestos is why some one hasn’t scrapped it out.
One interesting thing is the dirt around the plant is black. Very black around the plant and still has some color too it 1/2 a mile away.
Its replacement is 6 or 8 miles down the track.
I have done some contracting work in the new plant over the years, its one nasty dirty place to work.


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Another photo


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Still have 50 Lbs of the stuff

Im sorry, what did you you use it for?

true temper said:

Im sorry, what did you you use it for?

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Good to add to red oxide primer to make it more of a defect filler in refinishing old machinery - of course it turns the paint black or nearly so

One of the largest uses for carbon black is in rubber tire (sorry, Limy) construction:

Carbon black uses | What is carbon black? | Products and Technology | ASAHI CARBON CO., LTD.

How is carbon black produced commercially ? I know dust from the wearing of generator and motor brushes produces something like carbon black, and I know a 'full rich' acetylene flame or kerosene lamp flame will produce carbon black as soot. When preparing a mandrel or shaft to be used when babbitting bearings, we coat it with 'carbon black' gotten from a full-rich acetylene flame. Obviously, a plant such as the one pictured has to have had some more economical means of producing carbon black.

I seem to recall that paint supply stores sold 'lamp black' to be used as tint or pigment, but this was in small quantities. John Oder, in having 50 lbs of carbon black, has the mother lode. Given John Oder's account of it being used as a filler for finishing machine tool castings, the carbon black was probably a cheap commodity back 'in the day'. Paint supply stores used to sell basic materials for mixing one's own paints and the famous (and one of the best) anti-corrosion paints in the form of "red lead primer". Linseed oil, Japan Drier, turpentine, and various pigments such as white lead, read lead, lampblack, and more were common items. It makes sense that carbon black, which is a very fine powder, would be mixed with paint to make a 'high build' coating or 'self levelling filler'. I am sure the paint shops in the old machine tool plants mixed their own paints, and they probably took some Linseed Oil, thinned it with turpentine, stirred in the carbon black and then added Japan Drier and stirred it in a bucket before smearing it onto the castings.

Somewhere along the line, I recall reading that some machine tool builders mixed Portland Cement with the paint to make a flowable filler to paint on rough castings. Portland Cement is a very fine powder, but I do not think it reacts with the oils in the old types of paints. It was simply a filler added to the paint, same as the carbon black. This was in the days before auto body fillers like 'Bondo' or 'spot filler' existed.

Do you know what year the old plant started operations and what year it ceased?

I'm pretty sure at one time it was produced with said rich acetylene flame playing on cast iron plates or disks of some sort. When enough lampblack built up it was knocked off and the process started again. Interesting photos.

The method of manufacture is described in another part of the link provided by Milland;

Carbon black manufacturing | What is carbon black? | Products and Technology | ASAHI CARBON CO., LTD.

The amount produced and used every year is substantial;

Carbon black - Wikipedia

Thanks to true temper for the excellent photos; very stark.

It's produced by burning fuel.

Carbon black is itself considered cancerous now, that's why it's all moved out of north america.

Rubber tire workers used to swim in vats of the stuff to clear out clogged conveyors.
they loved it because they then were given an extra half hour of shower time - Fn the dog.


The pipe wraps are probably all asbestos too.

I had to clean the castings of a large old machine of all the filler. Believe it was bitumin mixed with coal dust or carbon black. Used a knotted wire wheel. Really bad idea. Turned everything pitch black and fast.

I had a customer that used carbon black in the plant. I had to do some work in the mixing area. It got through the tyvek suit. Threw my clothes out and showered there. It was horrible.

Mebfab said:

I had a customer that used carbon black in the plant. I had to do some work in the mixing area. It got through the tyvek suit. Threw my clothes out and showered there. It was horrible.

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Man, that would have to be a very good customer for me to even think of doing something like that.

And I would still say no.

I don’t have any idea of what years the plant was in operation.
It would have been nice if I could have gotten in for more photos.

We are in what used to be the natural gas capital of the world, the Hugoton field.
I am pretty sure they burn natural gas to make it.

I didn’t know it was too dangerous, the new plant is very active in-fact they are expanding it now. They ship it out on rail.

I had some welder buddy’s that worked out there, they couldn’t keep their grinders and power tools running the carbon would short them out in no time.

To walk through the yard to look at a job to bid all the PPE is required, plus they give you tyvex booties to protect your boots, and you are glad to wear them. Without them your boots get nasty and you track it in your truck.

Years ago I had a job in the load out area, I new it was gonna be nasty. I wore the oldest clothed I had. When I got home they went straight to the burn barrel.
My work boots were black I took the pressure washer to them the black went through the leather and blackened my socks and feet.

But it pays good I have always charged WAY more than I thought is worth and I have always gotten the job I bid on.

The laundry mart in town has 2 washers and driers that are for carbon black construction workers only. They get real pissy if they don’t use the right ones.

Carbon black was a very big business, probably still is. A major producer were the Cabots from Boston, starting with Godfrey Lowell Cabot (of whom there is a good biography a copy of which I have here) and then to his son Tom (whose autobiography is excellent and of which I also have a much read copy).

'Cabot Corporation was founded by Godfrey Lowell Cabot in 1882 when he applied for a patent for a "carbon black making apparatus".'

Godfrey Lowell Cabot - Wikipedia
Thomas Dudley Cabot - Wikipedia

I'm a fan of business history.

The carbon black business started as a way to use waste gas from oil exploration. It's burgeoning came with the need for filler in automobile tires.

The photographs shown above seems to show mostly a silo and some hoppers (though I can't tell really what is there). These looks like a tail end of the plant, which probably had a myriad of sooty gas burners whose flames impinged upon some metal plates that could be scraped. I don't see that is these photographs.

I have used lamp black mixed with shellac for intense silky dark black tint for over 40 years, having learned this from the pattern shop of my family's iron works, where all the black was made this way. Pattern shops bought it by the barrel.

I think it is used in about everything that’s black.

There is an active carbon black plant in Parkersburg WV. Some of the sheet metal workers that worked at the plant I used to work at had done work in the carbon black plant. The said every thing that went into the place came out black and dingy looking. Clothes and tools had to be dedicated to that job.

Could be the old plant has some bad soil around and nobody wants to touch the property. Could be a nice old machine shop there.

the old baby food jar plant in Charlotte Michigan finally got sold. 15 acres under one roof.5-Hour Energy is going to re-open the building for a shipping depot..

Pete Deal said:

I think it is used in about everything that’s black.

There is an active carbon black plant in Parkersburg WV. Some of the sheet metal workers that worked at the plant I used to work at had done work in the carbon black plant. The said every thing that went into the place came out black and dingy looking. Clothes and tools had to be dedicated to that job.

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Were they supplied with respirators, or anything to protect their lungs?

They are anal about safety and I never seen anyone wearing a mask when I have been there.

I've worked in a few tyre factories over here. Nothing gets you as dirty as carbon black. Mix it with lubricating oil and you have a really difficult to remove goo.

Regards Tyrone