Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1919-12-25
GERMANY UND0NE
BY OWN WEAPON
Had Sold TO America Secret
OF Making Explosive
From Air. ''
BIG NITRATE PLANT RESULTS.
Built in Eight Months 1t Con-
vinces Kaiser OF His Defeat.
BY GARRETT SMITH.

In the secret history Of the World War
In the story OF how the Ordnance De
pa rtment OF the United States Army
made II possible for America, until
then utterly lacking In ammunition
and In facilities for making II, 10 man
ufacture unlimited quantities of pow
erfui explosives out OF air and rock.
II was largely the knowledge of this
fact that forced Germany TO surrender
when she did.
The secret was secured from Ger
many herself II was an open bust
ness transaction between business
men, whereby we apparently acquired
nothing more military than process
for making high grade fertilizer
known as cyanamid.
Frank Sherman washburn. head Of
the group of business men who bought
this process, conceived the germ Of
| The Idea In the early nineties while In
| South America as consulting engineer
IN connection with the production anl
shipping OF Chilean nitrate Of soda
| Nitrogen compounds are an essential
part OF all commercial fertilizers The
| only available natural nitrate deposits
In large quantities are In Chile. This
supply was diminishing. Germany.
| which had been taking about one
third OF the Chilean nitrates, was nj
ready experimenting with processes
for their artificial production. In 1870,
Mr.. Washburn secured In Germany
the American rights OF the cyanamid
process which had been invented In
that country.
Turning Air Into . Weapon.
| ny this process air. which ls n mix
! ture Of about fonr-fifths nitrogen gas
and oDe-ffth oxygen. is placed In con
tainers and subjected TO pressure and
cold until il turns 10 a liquid. Then
! The nitrogen Is distilled In much the
same manner rs alcohol 10 separated
from water but before this nitrogen
can he used as fertilizer IL must be
combined with chemical combination
Of lime and carbon known as calcium
carbide. produced by burning ordinary
limestone IN big rotary kilns and com
bining II IN the electric furnace with
carbon supplied I'm the form Of ordi
nary coke.
Cynnamid thus produced contains
he elements OF ammonium nitrate. on,
The most powerful OF modern explo
sives. BY one process ammonia is ~
racted from the cyanamid. BY an
ether process nitric acid is extracted
|. from another batch Of this same sya
namid Then the ammonia and nitric
acid are combined and there you have
ammonium nitrate ready for packing
nto shells with INT.
There are three kinds Of explosives
used for bursting shells In modern
warfare-TNT. plcric acid and ammo
MUM nitrate. The United States wa
equally deficient in raw materials an'
plants for manufacturing all three %
these explosives. Under the best a
conditions the cost OF either INT ol
nitric acid is about two and nehal
the cost OF ammonium nitrate. Blu
the United States was wholly depend
ent upon Chilean nitrate Of soda as
|
with the exception ~ small produc
ton OF nitrogen from the cOking %
coal. The Chilean supply was 4.50
miles away from New York City b.
way OF the Panama Canal, and th'
route by way OF the Straits OF Maael
Ian Is nearly twice as long.
A Record Building Operation.
Shortly after the war began in Flu
rope the German government entere'
into the fiXatiOp Of air nitrogen 10
military explosives CA a vast scale. |
was not. however until the fan of 1871
thar The United States goyernmeu
took II up
The Ordnance Department asked Nh
WashbuIn's company 60 organize
subsidiary corporation. known as thu
Air Nitrates Corporation. with Nj
Washburn as president. to aci "a
agent OF The government for the con
struction and operation at the air nj
tratcs plant at Muscle Shoals. Ala
bama. This corporation provided TIA
designs, erected the equipment IN th
chemical plants and supervised all ,h
| Ntii'l WIN ~ NiTV 'I'ih'Nl Ai'
camp, the town and the plant othc
work is sublet TO several Of the hes
known organizations in the Unite,
States. Westinghouse Church kcr
Company built the plant buildings. Tia
camp. the permanent city aud utilities
The j. g. White Engineering Corpora
ton designed and bulls the nitrat
acid plant. The NJ w. Kellogg CON
pany furnished the piping and bull
the chimneys On February lG. 1915
ground was broken, and eight month
and eight days later the S6O.0o000
Muscle Shoals plant hogan producin
ammonium nitrate. In that brief pc
riod 23OO0 men had completed IN
plant and around IL. where not
house stood before. had arisen cit
Of 5000 inhabitants.
This plant when in full operation
was ready "a provide IL per co;. - al
explosives TO be nsed by all the allie
on all the allied fronts during the ~
pected spring drive OF 1919.
!