Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-09-24
NITROGEN OF THE AIR.

NITROGEN OF THE AIR.
How II is Made Available in FsrtiIizs
Production.
Manufacturers Record.
Among the many important enter
prises being carried forward In tn,
south there is. perhaps, none Of broad
er significance than that Of the South
ern Electro Chemical Co., at Nitrolee
s. c., near the power development o
the Southern Power Co., at Great Falli
where, by the use Of high degree o
electric heat, nitrogen is gathered from
the air and converted into nitric acid
This, being sprayed upon limestone
forms calcium nitrate, a substanc,
used in place Of nitrate Of soda in tn,
manufacture of fertilizers. The South
ern Electro Chemical Co., has not beer
in operation long, but it Is said It ha,
found its business thus far so success.
full that it will largely increase it,
plant within q short time. A similar
plant Is being operated by the Ameri.
can Cynamid Co., at Niagara Fails
which will install like one at some
point In Alabama in connection with
the power development Of the Alabama
Interstate Power Co.. a million dollars
Of European money having been al
ready secured for this Alabama nitrate
plant. This will doubtless be followed
by other plants in various sections Of
the south, where large amounts Of by.
dro-electric power can be economical.
ly developed. In this connection an ar.
ticle by Waldemar Kaempfert in the
Outlook for August Is Of absorbing in.
terest, dealing, as 1t does, with the
growing need of the world for the re.
fertilization Of the soil In order thai
the people may have bread and cloth.
ing, and the discoveries made by sci.
entists in connection with the need
and some Of Its leading features ART
summarized here.
For centuries agriculturists have
known that they could perpetuate the
productivity Of their farms by crop TO.
tation, whereas q succession Of crops
of one kind would absolutely exhaust
1t. The favorite rotation was root
crop, barley, clover, wheat, q system
which experience taught was invalu.
able in soil treatment, but the reason
for which was hidden. Finally, Ger.
man bacteriologist named Hellriegel
discovered and demonstrated the fact
that the reason soil was benefited by
root" crops, legumes, or pod bearers
was that there clustered about the
roots of these Jumps or knodules, each
Of which consisted Of a whole colony
Of bacteria, andse bacterium was ir
itself laboratory In which the nitro
gen was gathered from the air and con-
veyed to the roots, which absorbed and
profited by it. In other words, 1t was
learned by Hellriegell, and by him
taught to the world, that leguminous
crops restore fertility to exhausted sol
because they gather the nitrogen from
the atmosphere and transfer 1t to the
soil.
For hundreds Of years farmers have
known that barnyard manure spread
upon land made 1t more fertile, but
they did not know why 1t did so until
modern chemists told them 1t was be-
cause the manure contained nitrogen
in such form that 1t could be readily
absorbed by growing plants.
The process Of restoring soil fertility
by means of crop rotation is, in the
nature Of things, slow one; the sup
ply Of animal manure is too small ir
comparison with the large and con-
stantly increasing demand for fertiliza-
ton to be depended upon, and so Il
became necessary that some other
means Of refertilization be found, more
rapid than the use Of legumes, more
certain than the use Of barnyard ma
nure. The discovery in Chile Of vast
deposits of sodium nitrate, or salt
peter, seemed for time to have solved
the problem, and for number of years
millions Of tons Of that substance have
been mined and shipped to the various
countries Of Europe and America. II
was thought that the 7,720 square
miles Of saltpeter-b bearing land owned
by the government and the three OF
four times that area owned by private
individuals would produce a sufficient
quantity to supply the world for cen
turtles, until expert engineers, after ex-
animation, reported that the deposits
would probably be exhausted In fifty
years-some said in less time in sup
plying q demand no larger than that
Of the present time, to say nothing OF
the increased demand as the worlds
population grows and as soils now In
their prime become exhausted and call
for help. Scientists, therefore, set
about working out some plan by which
the supply Of nitrates could be aug
mented and the world saved from the
threatened soil-starvation. Nitrogen
being one of the constituent parts OF
the all-pervading atmosphere, 1t was
to the air they naturally turned as the
fountain Of supply.
After a number Of experiments In
this country and Europe, two Ameri-
cans, Bradley and Lovejoy by name,
built a plant at Niagara Falls In
which, by the use Of electricity, they
were able to produce nitric oxide,
which could afterwards be changed
by chemical treatment into a solid nj
trate that plants could assimilate. The
Bradley -Lovejoy enterprise proved
financial failure after a million dollars
had been expended, and was abandon
ed. But although it had failed financi-
ally, 1t was a success scientifically, for
it demonstrated the fact that nitric
acid could be produced from the at
mosphere, and left as the problem to
be solved that Of producing it in such
quantities and at such cost as would
make 1t q good commercial proposition
Later two Norwegian scientists, Kris
tian Birkeland and Samuel Eyde,
worked out a plan and invented ma
chinery by which this could be done,
They built a plant close by a great
hydro electric development in the