Prominent Scientist In Mining Abroad

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ISAAC TYSON, Jr. (1792-1861)

Pioneer Baltimore Industrialist, Isaac Tyson. Jr. was the Renaissance man of the early United States minerals and chemicals industries. In a day when specialists were scarce, Tyson was a man of many titles: geologist, mineralogist, essayist, mining engineer, metallurgist, industrial chemist, inventor, business manager, banker and economist. Tyson recognized the need for a resource base to underpin industrial development, and from 1810, every aspect of United States resource development captured his interest. Tyson fathered the American chromium industry, first as an exporter of chrome ore, and then as a manufacturer of chromium-based chemicals. Although chromium was first discovered in France in 1797, by 1810 Tyson had identified chromites in the Bare Hills near Baltimore and had begun to export it to chemical plants in England.

Tyson's business grew slowly until 1827, when he discovered additional chromites deposits in Maryland and Pennsylvania. For 20 years following these discoveries, when major deposits were discovered in Turkey, Tyson dominated world trade in chromites ore.

In 1845, Tyson founded the Baltimore Chrome Works, a plant that continued production for 140 years, until 1985.

In 1827, Tyson obtained a patent for a new method for making copperas, an iron salt used in dyeing and as a disinfectant. The copperas patent led Tyson to an interest in iron pyrite deposits, and he became associated with the backers of the major US iron pyrite mine at the time, in South Strafford, Vermont.

The presence of chalcopyrite, a copper-sulphide mineral found in the South Strafford ore, prompted the group to attempt to smelt copper while also producing sulphur at the mine site. In 1833, Ty-son spent 15 months at South Strafford working toward that end. During those months, he devised the use of a hot air blast, using anthracite fuel to smelt copper, perhaps tor the first time. In lfcS4, Tyson obtained a patent for applying heated air to the smelting of copper ores.

Tyson's pioneering experiments led him to iron making. In 1837, he installed a furnace at Plymouth, Vermont, which, using charcoal as a fuel, continued to produce iron for 20 years.

During the 1830s and 1840s, Tyson worked intensely to develop Maryland copper deposits, and in 1850, he joined a group of investors in establishing the Baltimore Copper Smelting Co. in Baltimore. Tyson also helped find and finance lead, iron, manganese, copper and coal mines at numerous locations throughout New England and the Middle Atlantic states.

In the chemical industry, Tyson is best remembered as an innovative and pioneering industrial chemist. He was an American original and one of its truly great industrialists.

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