Technical Magazines over the past five years have published untold articles on processes for handling, neutralizing or reclaiming liquid industrial wastes, and have included detailed flow charts and diagrams, frequently accompanied by photographs of a pilot plant, or new industrial installations. As with so many other subjects much space has been given to the procedures, but little attention to the vessels in which the process takes place, or to the floors, gutters, trenches and sumps which receive spills and drainage from the processes. While it is quite true that in small volumes such liquids may be, and often are, handled in wood stave or small rubber lined steel tanks, or in FRP fabricated equipment, in larger installations concrete construction has been favored, and the lining of concrete vessels, gutter, trenches, and sumps, and the protection of the concrete floors adjacent to them appear to have received scant attention. In many installations it is not until serious damage is noted that the operators find that a simple coating will not (in most cases) do the job, and that consideration must be given to an acid-brick floor or to acid-brick linings in such trenches, sumps and vessels. Unlike a coating or thin lining, a properly installed acid-brick floor or lining can provide satisfactory service for a decade or longer, withstanding both mechanical and chemical abuse, even at an elevated or sub-zero temperature.1
