The Old Dutch Cleanser Mine By Dr. Ralph E. Pray The naturally-occurring white scouring powder called Old Dutch Cleanser, originally from Kern County, California, is a house-hold helper known throughout the U.S. As a sink, stove, and tub cleaner, the...
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The Old Dutch Cleanser Mine By Dr. Ralph E. Pray The naturally-occurring white scouring powder called Old Dutch Cleanser, originally from Kern County, California, is a house-hold helper known throughout the U.S. As a sink, stove, and tub cleaner, the abrasive pumicite is one of the most popular scrubbing agents on the market. Bon Ami and Comet are names of similar products. The original source of this Old Dutch Cleanser material, a pumicite mine hidden underground in the remote Mojave desert, produced 120,000 tons of cleansing powder. The mine, along the Garlock Fault, closed in 1947. There remains in the property an incalculable tonnage of pumicite identical to that marketed so long ago, a portion of which has recently been mined economically from the surface. Pumicite recovered from many areas of former volcanic activity is now used chiefly as an additive to Portland cement, paint and as a hard, white, flint-like filler. Here in my laboratory a prepared 20-mesh sample of pumicite... See less