Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-10-23
U.S.. STARTS GREAT
MUNITTON PROGRAM
Muscle Shoals Provide S
Quick Means for Making
Powder and Fertilizer
NITROGEN FROM THE AIR
By WILLIAM ATHERToN DU PUY

| The Government last week launched the
| program so long contemplated which will
| take innumerable tons of nitrogen out Of the
air and make 1t available for tho production
| Of smokeless powder with which to fight the
| war, and the fertilizer that Americas $ broad
acres may be more productive.
! The act which put the project actually
! on the road TO operation was a proclama-
| tion by the President which chose Muscle
| Shoals on the Tennessee River in Alabama,
! as the site for the Government plant. This
| ended n contest Of years, in which many
| localities displayed their charms and ad-
| vantages for the operation of this sort of
| plant. The plant should have Immediately
available water power, sulphur. sulphurlc
acid and coal The Presidents decision
came after much consideration.
The plant to be erected will produce co.
/ 600 pounds Of ammonia per day and ammo
MIA Ia nitrogen in It's most usable form.
! The plant will cost 100000 Near the
ammonia plant will be erected n secondary
/ Industry that is a part Of the scheme Of
| utilizing this product of the air. II will be
| a pIant costing $500 900, which will convert
| the go 900 pounds Of ammonia into $4,000
| pounds Of 100 per cent pure nitric acid. In
| this form il Is ready for use.
This means that the United States is
preparing to declare its independence, in
| the first place Of Chilli from which sodium
nitrate has always been imported in great
/ quantities Chill, in fact, has supplied the
! nitrate OF the WOflu, since II nau tllS ma
| terial in great natural deposits and could
| furnish it cheaper than II could be procured
! i'm any other way. Even Germany before
the war, was dependent upon Chill for its
/ nitrate.
! Congress appropriated S2O,OOoOoo fer the
erection of a plant TO extract nitrogen from
the air. It has long been one Of the aluring
! schemes TO make farms fertile, and II was
! as an agricultural measure that the appro-
| priatiOn was made a year ago the proc
, esses by which this extraction were poSsi-
BILE were much less developed than they are
now Twenty million dollars will 60 ten
times as far as the legislators thought it
would. 1t will probably produce all the
nitrogen that this country can use II will
make so much of II that the experts think
it advisable to spend not more than one
fourth Of the moneE.
The first Of the great plants for the ex-
traction of nitrogen from the air was
established in Norway and used what was
known as the arc process. BY this process
the oxygen and the nitrogen OF the air were
caused to unite by the rending Of great
| electric'currents, making nitric acid II was
! a spectacular method Of forcing together
these elements that fill the lungs Of all the
world, but which never unite except under
some such unusual circumstances. II re-
, quired great quantities Of cheap power, anc
the most economical power in all the world
! is harnessed in the waterfalls OF Norway
Later a process similar to this was devel
= oped on the Canadian side Of the Niagara
River. utilizing the falls.
When the war broke out Germany vas II
n position where she had to make her owr
nitric acid. 1t is indispensable to the man
ufacture Of explosives.
Chemists had various processes of get
! ting nitrogen from the air, even before tn,
! war. but the plant in Norway was almos
: the only commercial competitor to the de
posits of Chilli. Germany had what wa
! known as the Haber process, which turned
r out small amounts of nitrate before tn
war and which was Immediately expanded
when the bars went up and her outsld,
sources were cut OFF.
ALL METHODS STUDIED
, After the United States had set aside it,
I $50, 100000 for nitrogen fixing, It studied
I all these methods. The National Academy
4 Of Sciences and the American Chemical So
! Ciety were asked by the Secretary Of Wa
- to appoint committee OF scientists ant
- engineers to investigate the whole subjec
e and report with recommendations. The com
e | mittee sent a representative abroad. Like
, wise did the Government send abroad d.
| Charles L. Parsons, chief chemist of tn
, | Bureau Of Mines,
This took place before we were al wa
with. Germany so we were able TO Sc
: what even that nation had done since tn
7 | war broke out and to study the fam1u
4 | Haber process. The world was thorough
combed 20 determine how we might bes
spend that twenty millions
After examining all foreign methods,
Z look was also taken at what was going q
n | here at home.
And It was found that an American or
. ganization had developed process that ia
e surpassed that Of the Germans or any othe
To- | people on earth