Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1902-10-16
AREvoLUTIoN I'M INDUSTRIES
Will Be Effected by Getting Nitrogen
From Air.

Cheap nitric acid and heterogeneous
products mean revolution in almost
all the industries. First, its value as
fertilizer is great In England Sir
John Lawes and Sir Henry Gilbert
made extensive experiments on their
field at Rothamsread. They report
that by sowing the field with wheat
for 13 years they received an average
yield of 11.9 bushels to the acre. For
the next 10 years they dressed the
field with 500 pounds of nitrate of
soda to the acre and sowed it with
wheat, and the average yield was 36.4
bushels per acre, an annual increase
of 245 bushels to the acre. In plain
words, nitrate of soda causes three
bushels to grow where one grew be-
fore. At the Briarcliff farm in New
York, where agricultural experiments
are made by state experts, Prof. Geo.
T. Powell showed that by an invest
ment of $2.62 in nitrate of soda the
hay crop per acre, worth $3.50, was
raised to $3.50.
Nor will the work stop at the trans
muting of air into growing vegetation.
Chemists have long known that starch
can be drawn from the atmosphere.
though up to the present time no prac-
But with the Atmospheric Products
company in operation the solution of
smokeless powders and high cxplo-
sives are made through its agency. 1t
lies at the bottom of the celluloid in
dustry, it makes the art of etching
possible, it distinguishes pure gold
from the spurious, and it gives lunar
caustic, with which dog bite may be
treated to prevent hydrophobia.
There is another point in the indus
try that is worthy of note. Lord Kel-
vim has called attention to the sense
less waste of oxygen by the modern
manufacturing plants. which, in order
to secure a horsepower of energy, de-
stroys tons upon tons of that most inn
portant gas In the manufacture of
nitric acid by fixing that which is in
the atmosphere large quantities of
oxygen are created or rather given off
in the process, and the company
which has hitched its wagon to Mag
ara falls may find in this a most val
liable by-product.
1t was high time that some method
of securing a new source of nitrogen
was secured. In the United States
alone the consumption of nitric acid
is estimated at 100, 900 tons year. OF
nitrate OF potassium we imported in
1901 about 1000 tons. Nitrate OF So
dium, witch is used in dyeing, is con.
suned to the amount of 10000 tons
each year. OF nitrate of sodium and
nitrate of calcium the consumption
for fertillzing purposes runs into the
hundreds of thousands of tons every
year in this country alone. and in Eu-
rope, with its exhausted soil, far great
er quantities are consumed.
On the other hand, every large city
in the world wastes millions of dol
lars worth of the valuable stuff. In
England alone the loss of nitrogen is
estimated at $S0.000,000 a year, and
England is but small part of the
globe. The price of nitrogen products
is rapidly increasing, and had not sci
ence come to the aid of nature nitro
gen would be unobtainable.
But nitrate of soda can be manu-
featured at $40 or $25 ton at Mag
ara, and after the big plant has been
in operation for some time the price
may perhaps be slightly reduced even
from this low figure. Compared with
the cost of Chilean nitrates at $37 so
n ton or the nitric acid of commerce
at $50 ton. the saving is tremendous