The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1918-08-23
BY FREDERICK N. KERRY.
IN. e. A. Staff Correspondent

Sheffield, Ala, Aug. 23.-The Unit
ed States government will never again
have to depend upon Chilean nitrates
for the manufacture of its explosives
One of the greatest of modern pow
er projects, that will furnish the pow
er to take nitrogen from the air and
fix it by the cyanamid process to
make nitric acid and ammonium nj
trate for war use, is under way al
Muscle Shoals, on the Tennessee rlV'
er in northern Alabama.
The nitrate plant is the outcome OF
asten years. fight to secure water pow
er development at this point. The gov
eminent is spending $30,000.0O0 to de-
yelop the $4,000 available horsepower
and with it produce nitrates from the
air. ,
The once sleepy little town Shelf
field and it's sister towns OF Florence
and Tuscumbia, look like the site OF
an army cantonment. Twenty thous
and men are at work. Housing struc
lures have already been erected to
take care of 10000, and more are 60
ing up as rapidly as lumber and nails
and man power can construct them
The muddy waters Of the tennessee
river are filled with barges OF stone,
coal and all kinds of material marked
~. S. Government" Long lines OF
mule teams, their negro drivers nod
ding in the sunshine, move along the
river bank. .,
@>@ Two Great Dams Needed.
Remarkable progress has been made
in the work. Two immense power
dams must be CONSTRUCTED to develop
the water power. They will not De
finished in time for use during the
war, unless it should last far longer
than is now anticipated.
But work on the process plants has
been rushed to completion and they
will be operated by steams until the
water power is ready. Plant NO.
has been operating since last October.
Its ammonium nitrate shipments are
already going to the government pow
der mill at Hadley's Bend, near Nash
vile. Eventually it will supply one
half of it's output to explosive plants,
where it will be mixed with INT
and loaded into shells.
Nitrate Plant No. is nearly com
plete and will begin operation within
two months, using power furnished by
the Alabama Power company temper
arily.
The great power project-the gov
ernment's life insurance against fu'
ture wars-calls for the erection OF
three dams in the Tennessee river.
One is small one for the control
Of navigation only. The other. two
are giant structures; the larger,
known as Dam No. 2, will be 1O4
feet high and 4,5O0 feet long. To 60
with it an S5O-foot power house will
ba constructed. The two buildings to-
gether will require 100000 cubic
yards of concrete. This is tremen'
d0usly larger than the great Roosevelt
Dam in Arizona. which contains 24O,
900 cubic yards of concrete, or the
Croton Dam in New York, which has
$4,000 cubic yards. This dam and
power house will develop 480,0OO
horsepower. -.
Longest Dam in World. -
Dam No. 3 is Is miles up stream
from the first dam. 1t will be 40 feet
high, but it will be CAS- feet long
the longest dam in the world, exceed
ing even the famous Assouan Dam in
the Upper Nile by % feet.
The governments estimates OF the
cost Of power development on the
whole project show that, it will be less
than IL mills per kilowatt-hour AT
Niagara Falls, the cost Of developing
electricity ranges from 1.6 mills to
more than 3 mills per kilowatt-hour..
When completed these power plants
and the nitrate plants using the power
will turn out nitric acid and ammon
ium nitrate not only for explosives
but for dyestuffs and fertilizer. Ar
American dyestuff industry forever in
dependent of Germany will thus be as
sured. ..".. 4.. .
What this will mean to the Ameri
can farmers, too, can scarcely be real
ICED. Nitrogen is an essentialin soils
heterogeneous fertilizers have been higf
In cost because the sole SOURCE o
supply for the United States has beer
the Chilean nitrate beds. After the
war, with this great plant in govern
ment ownership, and the necessity o
producing nitric acid and ammonium
nitrate for explosives reduced to
minimum, the plant will be able tt
devote much Of its capacity to tn