The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-03-18
Muscle Shoals Nitrate Plant to Be Operating
 By First Of August
Congressman Almon in Speech in House Says He Has Assurances From War Department to This Effect-Full Production to Be
 Reached by December 31
By HUGH W. ROBERTS

Tt is expected that 15,000 to 20,000 tons, or 90 0o0,00O to 100000 pounds of ammonium nitrate will be produced at these plants during this year. While it. is true that 1t will require sometime to complete the dam and develop the water power at Muscle Shoals, still arrange ments have been made by the govern ment by which the cyanamide plant at Muscle Shoals will be operated by power brought from another plant over a transmission line while the dam is being constructed.
 "It is not a Muscle Shoals project. It is a government project. primar- fly, for supplying our government with explosives for the prosecution of the war. and, secondly. for the manufac- ture of commercial fertilizer for the benefit of the farmers when not need ed for making munitions of war as provided by act of Congress. It is true that the principal plant has been To- cated at Muscle Shoals on the Ten
 nessee river near the other plant at Sheffield. and it is presumed that it was so located on account of the ad- vantages of that location. It is tho
 greatest water power site. It Is the
 best from a national defense stand
 point. being far distant from the At
 lantic coast and the Gulf of Mex
 ico, with all of the raw materials for the manufacture of nitrate in close proximity and in inexhaustible quan-
 titles, such as coal, limestone, coke, and phosphate rock. With good trans
 portation facilities both by rail and water, with good climatic conditions
 and is the most central point from an
 agricultural standpoint for the man.
 ufacture of commercial fertilizer.
 ''The synthetic process of the Gen.
 eral Chemical company is to be useo
 in the Sheffield plant and the cyana-
 m.de process at the Muscle Shoals
 plant. German air nitrate plants now
 have an output of four times the amount contemplated by ours. France is making about twice what our pro gramme contemplates. England's air nitrate plants. it is said, will be about what we are planning for.
 "Our government has wisely decided 10 no lOnScI QCpCiiu SNNiAoi'SAS eFN-- Chile saltpeter or sodium nitrate for the manufacture of explosives for the following among other reasons: '1 That the production of the plants in Chile are limited and are divided 1 between several nations by an inter- | national board.
 2. Organized labor trouble there might interfere with the production. l ns It. is shipped along the Pacific coast and through the Panama canal, and if for any reason the enemy should 1 be able to prevent such shipments our supply would be cut off and we would ] not have explosives. sufficient to con 1 duct the war for a month.
 f A. On account of the high cost and 1 freight charges.
 "5. The ships now being used to | transport it to the United States al needed in the transportation of trooI $ and supplies to Europe. It is said that I 3C0O tons of ammonium nitrate that we produce at home will save round l trip voyage for a large cargo vessel 1 between the United States and Chile, I requiring as much time as it would for
 this vessel to make two round trips .u | Europe'