Correspondence, Levi Syphus to Willard George

Bt. George, u bah Feb. 26, 1940 Mr. Dillard ££• George 333Q V.ilsxiire Boulevard Los Angeles, California Dear friend .illard, Tnis letter is partly supplementary to the one I wrote you a few days ago. Therefore just a. few words more about your suggestion concerning assessment work* There are no fellows in the Mo&pa Valley who are interested in the deposit, excepting John Perkins, Osborne Gentry, and Mr. Whitmore, oacn of those are at present at work on assess* meet work at the deposit, excepting Perkins and he has a man emplo y ed. Of course, parties not interested in it, wguIg not care to go there and work just for their board, etc. If you have had time to carefully investigate the relative merits of magnesite and varmiculite' as insulating materials, you will in ve found the folio,ing to be substantially the case: ’ That one ton of processed vermiculite can be had in the market for fifteen dollars or nearly, tuere&Douts, and that because of its light weight, namely about 11 pounds to the cubic foot, it will Insulate about three times the house space more than a corresponding ton of prepared magnesite or magnesium oxid would do, if all three materials were applied at the same thickness, also that the vermiculite is the best insulating material, ?‘?he six dollars ;ahdlftifty cents _ er ton cost price on magnesium oxid aieh Xquoted in my letter to your mother was predicated upon the possibility of being able to sell the carbon dioxid §as at *6.50 per ton, thereby making the gas pay the freight rate upon the two tons of.raw ore which it would require to produce about £200 pounds of magnesium oxid material. I doubt very much if the gas could be sold at that rate, if at all, for the reason that it is so plentiful, and derived from many sources and industries. There would also have to be added to the „6.50 per ton, the royalty to the owners of the deposit, and the profits for the various selling agencies. Further, I£ two tons of our ore was calcined, the operation would produce substantially 1700 pounds of gas and 23oo pounds of magnesium oxid material* That material would contain 400 pounds of silica, and 140 pounds of lime. neither of the two last are good insulating material. As I stated in your letter, I cannot think of any fora into .hich the aw magnesite could be converted that would not slack from moisture or damp atmospheres,, and besides, it would have the extra weight of the contained carbon dioxid gas. It therfore seems hopeless to me. It seems you gave Burhans quite an earful, because he came up here Immediately, so John told me yesterday, to inquire if your ^representations Were true. Burhans being a very fcrutnful man(?), and John, not having heard from you abou about the matter probably told, Burhans some of it «vasn* t true. X moan that isome of the t ings Burhans said wasn*t true. John did not tell me all that was said. He did say, however, that your state­ments to Burhans furnished a very good Background for us to work from. The «hole incident, including his rushing up here in that manner, further suggests they are very much interested and desirous of obtaining the deposit. John further said that so far as he knew, both himself and ojsher local owners, was leaving it to me to carry on the furtner negotiations with Burhans, if and when he comes back, and that they would be willing to go into the deal on the best terms I could get. That I will do with the assistance of some of them as I ask for it. It seems to me, therefore, their attitude in the matter does away for the necessity of the owners getting to gather foe- a meeting at Overton, unless yourself and mother can produce at the meeting some process or method for putting the material to use in a large way, or X may say, in some kind of a use to which we could apply it, or a market in which we could place it, or some dealer that would purchase/ it. We have been loafing along with the property for more than thirty years now, during the last half of which I have spent a lot of time and considerable money endeavoring to find a buyer and also to develop a method for using the ore. I have succeeded in recovering the magnesium carbonate content from small saiples of the ore that, when calcined, would be practically a standardised ideal product for conversion into plastic magnesite, a product for which there would be a tremendous market. Buthl whether or not it would be successful if applied to large quantities of the . ateri. l at one time,I uSonot know. It seems, too, that not any of my associate owners are willing to take a chance in assisting me by supplying the means (taking an interest in the deposit as security, which would be worthless if the process filled) with which to determine the value of the process in a large way. Neither am I able in my condition, to find any one that will do it. I am thei’e-for at a point where X am just about through, ana nearly all of the other owners feel it is unwise to stand out longer in the hope of receiving even one million dollars for it, although we know th at it contains better that ^150,000,000 of net profits, something tnat does not benefit us at all, ano. is pat ticularly disc ouraging because of the failure of many of the highly skilled men in the United States to find a way to recover those values. It is my opinion that Burhans* principals have solved the problem, but I do not know' it, and therefore, cannot tell just hov, badly they want the deposit. In my negotiations > ith them, if had, I will set up the contention that I have developed and am patenting a process that will do the work. They probably .ill reply with a request for me to demonstrate, something I should hot do until after my applications for patent have passed the patent examiners, because such disclosures on my part would give them plenty of time in which to build up a case for immediately protest­ing issuance of patent to me as soon as the patent examiners make qheir decision and disclose the details to the public. Thereupon X would find myself involved in a lawsuit with no funds for defending it. I unos the So® Chemical Company of.Mialand, Michigan has a process for asking metal out. of our ore without removing the impurities, and can sake it at a very low cost. That company, however, Is a subsidiary of the Mellon ilumlnum Company, whies latter is not going to let the Bo® produce magnesium metal in quantity and at lo® cost wren it would have the effect of cutting heavily into their aluminum business, and iatd the large profits they are making from it. It is no® aefinitely known that the Mellon Company has bought in ->event., processes covering various phases of the magnesite and metal industry. I have done my best to get the Dow to purchase this deposit, and have failed. There were also two other concerns claiming very cheap processes for ffib’lng the metal, but neither of them has gotten an^woeie in doing it. One of them has a thirty thousand dollar pilot plant in Salt kite X have visited that plant and watched four skilled engineers and chemists working day after d y, working to adjust small metal ports no larger than a lady's thimble. Seemingly, they have either failed, or some metal company has bought them in. Shea X get into the hud.le with burhans, I shall endeavor to secure terms under which they ill be obligated to either have a purification plant in operation within on year's time or thereabouts, in which they will treat at least one cafloss of ore per day, ior the production of nearly pure magnesite, or in lieu ther of, sell-me the ore at & low price f.o.b. cars to the amount of as many as ten carloads per day , I agreeing not to use the ore for any purpose other than extracting from it the nearly pure magnesium carbonates, leaving them an open field to apply the ore in all other ways in which they may succeed in applying, that, by way of compelling them to use their own process, or pay me a smmll royalty upon the use of mine (in the event they do not have or do not develop one) as soon as mine is proven to be thesuccess that I am sure it aill That ^ilibe complying to the request of yourself and others, that I do not involve the process with the property. I have other weapons in the ay of information that 1 intend to use during the negotiations, if had, by way of bringing them to the best terms I can secure. When that is done, if I get them to something that is fairly reasonstie. Ifeel sure that the other owners , emcoptint, your mother will deal. It Is my lap cession, that she, too, will coma into the deal, but I <&a not .•.lab her to d so unless she shall feel that it is to her best interest to do it. Since the itev&da la provides a method under *oich the majority can secure a division of a mining property, it is just possible, these people, if they secure a deal, and your mother does not coma in on it, that they might have recourse through that method, because they are in a position financially to give the required «ond ^nd go afaoaa with operation of the property planning conclusion of the suit. It is with reluctance that Icell attention to these matters, and da not 1® iiii'j $&&&& mu&u it &s & tin*#&%* i 3 * 2 ronghXy $#fctiii$ out conations &nu possibilities as I understand them to be, ana somehow fe.1 that your mother will concur in my conclusion that iu is wise for us to do the best we can now and get the matter underway. f*Ith respect to the proposed meeting in Sevada, if yourself and mother feel that it would be best, I ill endeavor to arrange for it, but as * said heretofore, in substance, unless you e&n produce something tangible, I .CHryipi. see .there the expense of such meeting is justified. If Buril&ns ck x i s upon you again, a request that you do not tne matters I have set out above. mention to him at all Copy to Mrs. Very truly yours, Clay ton Levi I. Syphus Levi w. S yj nus Box £98 St. George, Utah Mrs.. W. M. Clayton 1315 .North Main Street Santa Ana, California m