Stassfurt, Germany. No other important commercial source in foreign
countries is known, though small quantities have been obtained from the
mother liquors of Chile saltpeter and from the seaweed, kelp, in various
countries. India has been mentioned as a possible large producer in the
future.

The United States is independent of foreign sources for bromine. The
entire domestic tonnage is produced from brines pumped in Michigan,
Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. A large part of the output is not
actually marketed as bromine, but in the form of potassium and sodium
bromides and other salts. During the war considerable quantities of
bromine materials were exported to Great Britain, France, and Italy.

GEOLOGIC FEATURES

Bromine is very similar chemically to chlorine, and is found under much
the same conditions, though usually in smaller quantities. The natural
silver bromide (bromyrite) and the combined silver chloride and bromide
(embolite) are fairly common in the oxide zones of silver ores, but are
not commercial sources of bromine.

Bromine occurs in sea water in appreciable amounts, as well as in some
spring waters and many natural brines. When natural salt waters
evaporate, bromine is one of the last materials to be precipitated, and
the residual "mother liquors" or bitterns frequently show a considerable
concentration of the bromine. Where complete evaporation takes place, as
in the case of the Stassfurt salt deposits (p. 113), the bromine salts
are crystallized out in the final stages along with the salts of sodium,
magnesium, and potassium. The larger part of the world's bromine has
come from the mother liquor resulting from the solution and fractional
evaporation of these Stassfurt salts.

The bromine obtained from salt deposits in the eastern United States is
doubtless of a similar origin. It is produced as a by-product of the
salt industry, the natural or artificial brines being pumped from the
rocks (p. 295), and the bromides being extracted either from the mother
liquors or directly from the unconcentrated brines.

FULLER'S EARTH

ECONOMIC FEATURES

Fuller's earth is used chiefly for bleaching, clarifying, or filtering
mineral and vegetable oils, fats, and greases. The petroleum industry is
the largest consumer. Minor uses are in the manufacture of pigments for
printing wall papers, in detecting coloring matters in certain
food-products, and as a substitute for talcum powder.

Fuller's ea