The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-07-26
FOOD FROM THE AIR.
4Y ELECTRO-CHEMIC4L MAR
 TEL.
Nitric Acid and Other Products From
 Atmospheric Nitrogen for crop Fer-

Lord Kelvin sad, just before leaving this country after his latest visit. that the most wonderful of new things which he had seen here was the infant indus try of utilizing the nitrogen uf the air. { The magir If clectr0-chemistry, by which Ihat k performed, may have ap- ! pealed peculiarly to his fancy, but he [ Was also impressed, without doubt, by ' lhe far reaching possibilities which are 1! opened up by the art to which he re- 1 ftrrcd.
 Several compounds of nitrogen now render valuable service to man. Among them are nitric and nitrous acids, and the salts derived from them-nitrates and nitrides 0f soda, potassium and cal Cium, Nitragen. in a rather complica- ted combination with other clements, is an important constituent of great va riety of fnodstuffs. It may be said to be the basis of albumen and albumenoids.
 Fertilizers which supply that constitu- cnt to crops therefore perform an eX-
 ceedingly useful function.
 | Although nitrogen is good for not hing 1 except when in some of these com pumnds, it is hard work to persuade it
 to form any sort of association with other clements. Chemists call this trait 1 it's "mertness." As found in the atmos- | phere, nitrogen is not bound to the OK ygen by any affinity. The mixture is
 merely mechanical in it's nature. Yet | great difficulty is experienced i'll per
 suading this unsociable gas to enter
 into any ather partnership. Two ways are known, though, by which such afttli- ation is promoted. A particular species of bacillus, when present in the soil, in duces nitrogen to unite with oxygen and other substances which a plant will ab-
 sorb. Electricity will also affect this combination. Minute quantities of ni- tric of nitrous acid are formed by an
 arc lamp. No doubt bolt of lightning produces the same effect
 Nitric acid is manufactured commer-
 cially to-day by subtraction rather than
 addition. The chemist takes com
 pound like nttrade of soda, which con
 sists of nitric acid and soda and is
 found in Chilli. sulphuric acid being
 added robs the salt of it's soda and l lG'dNSS lElc IlllIlt dtll lllNE IltIiuOilt' I'AN
 same thing may be done with nitrate of
 potash. But except in the two ways
 previously mentioned free nitrogen
 cannot be made to combine with OXy-
 gen. The second one, the electric pro-
 cess. supplies the germinal idea of the
 new industry which excited Lord K"l-
 vin's enthusiasm. The work is carried
 on at Niagara Falls, with artificial lightning, by the Atmospheric Products
 company, of which Charles s. Bradley
 is president For two years the enter
 prise has been on an experimental ba-
 sis, but at length the details of the pro cess have been worked out to such a point that manufacturing for the trade
 is about to begin.
 The mechanism to he employed is q
 modified form of an arc. It has been
 decided, too, that large number of small arcs is more seryiceable than a
 few large ones. The possibilities of
 what electricians call the "disruptiNe
 discharge" and the brush discharge
 have been carefully considered, but the
 are has been adopted by MT. Bradley s
 company.
 | ie ItSt pItJNutl bl lilt VlNNtA AN ' va rent is a brownsh liquid to which no
 specific name has been given, but which consists of two atoms of nitrogen . and three of oxygen. A molecule of ni- , trnus acid contains one atom of hydro } gen, one of nitrogen and two of oxygen. By adding one molecule of water to one of that brownsh fluid two molecules of , nitrous acid may be readily secured. 5 The formula for nitric acid demands ) one more atom of oxygen than nitrous } acid contains. but this can be had ith- out trouble from water. At the outset . the company will probably confine it.
 self to the manufacture of these acids, } but cit her under the auspices of that l corporation or some one else's 1t will be ? an easy matter to produce the various e nitrates and nitrites which are needed 9 in the arts and in agriculture. The Vii
 tai and fundamental operation is per 2 suading nitrogen and oxygen to unite 1T forming that brown fluid.
 . The worlds consumption of nitric aCic 5 is to-day, says Mir. Bradley, is approx e imatelv one hundred thousand tons. IT > the nature of things, the demand for
 | r deposits of salts from which it has
 hitherto been derived, though. are like n ly to be exhausted before many years = The perfection of the new process therefore. is an event of immense i'm s portance to industry. This system, too U has unlimited resources to draw upon $ If is estimated that there are thirty bil $ lion cubic miles of air, each ot Whlci
 contains six million tons of nitrogen 2 and is the equivalent of fifteen hundred II thousand tons of nitric acid.
 Some conception of the relation be e teen the new method of producing z cheap fertilizer and the worlds brea' IS and but ter may be obtained from tn 5 following citation from an address de - livered three or four years ago betor 'a the British Association for the Ad It yancement of Science by Sir William IT Crnokes, a chemist of worldwide repu u tation. He had been considering tn
 past, present and future supply 0
 wheat, and said among other things: J. The action of nitrate of soda in i'm
 rroving the yield of wheat has bee
 studied by Sir John Lawes and Sir Hen
 ry Gilbert on their experimental farr l. at Rothamstead. This field was sow If with wheat for thirteen cOnsecutiV se years, without manure, and yielded a average of 11.9 bushels to the acre. Fn ,o tbn upxt thirteen years it was SOW