Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1918-09-03
NITRATES IN ABUNDANCE
Government Plant Will Make a. Plen-
ty for War and Peace.


The United States government,
writes a correspondent from Shelf
field. Ala, will never again have to
depend upon Chilean nitrates for the
manufacture of its explosives,
One Of the greatest of modern
power projects, that will furnish the
power to take nitrogen from the air
and fix" 1t by the cyanamid process
to- make nitric acid and ammonium
nitrate for war use, Is under way at
Muscle Shoals, on the Tennessee riv-
er in northern Alabama.
The nitrate plant Is the outcome Of
n ten years fight to secure water
power development at this point. The
government is spending s30,0o0.000 to
develop the 100000 available horse
power. and with 1t produce nitrates
from the air.
The once sleepy little town OF
Sheffield and its sister towns OF Flor
cnce and Tuscumbia, look like the site
OF an army cantonment. Twenty
thousand men are at work. Housing
structures have already been erected
to take care of 10000, and more are
going up as rapidly as lumber and
nails and manpower can construct
them. The muddy waters Of the Ten
nBsee river are filed with barges of
stone coal and all kinds of material
4hrlyo
II les OF mule teams, their negro
divers nodding in the sunshine. move
albng the river bank.
J Two Great Dams Needed.
enarkable progress has been made
I II The work. Two immense power
dams must be constructed to develop
the waterpower. They will not be
finished In time for use during the
war, unless 1t 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 steam until the
waterpower Is ready. Plant No. has
been operating since last October. It's
ammonium nitrate shipments are al
ready going to the government power
mill at Hadley's Bend, near Nashville.
Eventually 1t will supply one-half of
its output to explosive plants. where
1t will be mixed with 1T. N. T." 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 tempo
rarily.
The great power project-the gov
ernment's life insurance against fu-
tue wars-calls for the erection Of
three dams In the Tennessee river.
One Is a small one for the control Of
navigation only. The other two are
giant structures; the larger, known
as Dam No. 9, will be 104 feet high
and $500 feet long. To go with it
an $50 foot powerhouse will be con-
structed. The two buildings together
will require 100000 cubic yards of
SohSiSlcs ID
than the great Roosevelt dam in Ari-
zona, which contains 100000 cubic
yards Of concrete, or the Coroton dam
in New York, which has S55,000 Gu
bic yards. This dam and powerhouse
will develop 100000 horsepower.
Longest Dam in World.
Dam No. 3 Is Is miles up stream
from the first dam. 1t will be 40 feet
high. but 1t will be 6,245 feet long
the longest dam in the world, exceed
ing even the famous Assouan dam in
the upper nile by 25 feet.
The governments estimates of the
cost Of power development on the
whole project show that 1t will be less
than / 1-2 mills per kilowatt- hour
At Niagara Falls. the cost Of develop
ing electricity ranges from 1.6 mills
to more than mills per kilowatt-
hour.
When completed these power plants.
and the nitrate plants using the pow