Carbon black covered hoppers

[hon30critter]

doctorwayne

Carbon black is produced by the incomplete combustion of heavy petroleum products, such as tar.

Hi Wayne,

That is the current method of producing carbon black, but according to Wikipedia, there have been other somewhat interesting methods used in the past to produce several different types of carbon black. 'Ivory black' was produced by charring ivory or bones! 'Vine black' was made by burning desiccated grape vines and stems. 'Lamp black' was made by collecting the soot from oil lamps.

Also according to Wikipedia, carbon black is a huge industry. In 2016, at total of 13.9 million metric tons was produced with an estimated value of $14 billion USD.

I remember my grandparents using 'stove black' to keep the big wood stove in the farmhouse kitchen looking spiffy. It was basically the same thing with something added to make it a bit waxy.

Interesting stuff!

Dave

[doctorwayne]

This kit, from Rail Shop Inc., caught my eye because it had a BLT. date of 1934, making it quite suitable for my late '30s-era layout...

Carbon black is produced by the incomplete combustion of heavy petroleum products, such as tar.

Wayne

[gmpullman]

Tire manufacturers used lots of carbon black in the manufacturing of vulcanized rubber. 70% of carbon black production goes into automobile tire manufacture.

Carbon_ccx by Edmund, on Flickr

I bought a couple of the carbon black hoppers because I thought they were neat.

Cheers, Ed

[davidmurray]

I worker in Reactive Injection Moulding department of GM Oshawa.  We made bumper fascias (for GM cars).  To provide ultra violet protection to the parts in case they got scratched part of the formulation was powdered Carbon Black in polyol.  Polyol was a major component of the parts.

The stuff we used came in pre mixed in 55 gallon (US measure) drums.

I believe but do not know that Carbon Black is finely ground graphite.  This then can be mixed with liquids for various purposes.  Or mixed with a binder to produce pencil lead.

This is my thoughts, not perfect knowledge.

So hopper cars would carry the stuff from where it was ground, to where it was treated in the next step.

 

[hon30critter]

Motley

What exactly is carried in them, what industries do they serve, etc.

Hi Michael,

This will answer some of your questions:

Carbon black -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_black

Carbon black is commonly used to tint paint. Many years ago I was the manager of the Paint Dept. (among others) in Sears Canada's Chatham store. One morning I came into work to discover that the carbon black tint had leaked out of the paint tinting machine. I quickly got to work mopping up the considerable sized puddle of thick black stuff. Without thinking, I flushed all of the mess down the drain in the utility room. A couple of hours later a couple of city employees showed up demanding to know what we had put down the drain. Apparently there was enough carbon black to discolour the water in the sanitary sewer system! I got a bit of a lecture, but ultimately they decided to let it go (just don't do it again!!!).

Fortunately carbon black is fairly harmless. Had it been the yellow oxide tint, the fines would have been in the thousands of dollars!

Dave

[Motley]

I was looking at Scaletrains, and I see some carbon black covered hoppers. I have never heard of these. Can I get some information on them.

What exactly is carried in them, what industries do they serve, etc.