Oxford eagle. (Oxford, Lafayette Co., Miss.) 1876-current, 1920-01-08

;.:::;:::::.:;'';:' Z From Air.
BIG NlTRATEfPEANT RESULTS.
Built in Eight Months Il Con-
vlnces kaiserof His Defeat.
1fFFI-7 I73F77T
BY oARRET SMITH.

pnrtment sof the United States Army
made It possible fof America, until
then utterly lacking in ammunition
and in facilities for making 1t, to man
ufacture unlimited quantities Of pow
erful explosives out of air and rock
| It was largely the knowledge OF this
| fact that forced Germany to surrender
when she did.
The secret was secured from Ger
many herself. 1t was an open busi-
mess transaction between business
men, whereby we apparently acquired
nothing more military than a 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 and
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 al
ready experimenting with processes
for their artificial prnductfpE In 1907
1 Mr.. Washburn. secured .insfi Germany
i tile American rights OK the icyananlif
process which had been invented In
that country.
# Turning Air Into asWeapon.
Eli BY this process air, which Is mix
| ture of about four-fifths nitrogen gas
and one-fifth oxygen, is placedsin con-
| tainers and subjected to pressure and
cold until it turns to a liquid. Then
| the nitrogen is distilled in much the
same manner as alcohol is separated
from water. But before this nitrogen
can be used as q fertilizer 1t must be
combined with Chemical combination
J of lime and carbon known as calcium
4 aarbide, produced hGsl a;rtllls6k
limestone In big rotrfy ~lkilns2 and seoia--.
bining it in the electric furnace with
carbon supplied In the form OF ortif-
nary coke 99tft4i.8ti.a 9aljg selG'-
| Cyanamid thus produced contains
the elements Of ammonium nitrate, one
| of the most powerful Of modern explo-
sives BY one process ammonia is ex-
| tracted from the, cyanamid. BY an
other 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
into shells with INT.
There are three kinds OF explosives
used for bursting shells In modern
warfare-TNT, apicric acid and ammo-
mum nitrate. The United States was
equally deficient in raw materials and
plants for manufacturing all three Of
these explosives Under the best OF
conditions the cost Of either; INT or
nitric acid is about two and one-half
| the, cost Of ammonium nitrate. But
| the United States was wholly depend
| ent upon Chilean nitrate of soda as 4
raw material for ammonium nitrate,
with the, exception Of a small produc-
ton OF, nitrogen from the coking OF
coal. The Chilean supply was 1850
miles away from Newly City by
way of the Panama Canal, and the
route by, way of the Straits of Magel-
Ian is nearly twice as long.
A Record Building Operation. ~
Shortly after the war began in Eu-
rope the German government entered
into the fixation of air nitrogen for
military explosives on vast scale. 1t
vas not, however, until the fall Of 1917
that the United States government
took 1t up. a, t.r.a.ee. ~ f,,,- .4g.~l.,
The Ordnance Department asked MI.
| Washburr's company to organize q
subsidiary corporation, known as the
| Air Il Mtrates1 Corporation, with 'Mr.
Washburn as president to aaet as
agent of the government for. the, CON
struction and operation Of the air. ME
traBltes plant at Muscle Shoals, Ala
ban,a. This corporation provided the.
designs, erected the equipment inotheI
chemical plants and supervised all the
other, work. styIt also operated the
camp, the town and the plant Other 1
work Is sub1et, to several Of the bestll
known organizahons in the United |
States 1 Westihg house Church Kerr
Company built the plant buildings, the
camp, the permanent city and utilitiea i
The ]. G.. White Engineering Corpora /
ton designed and built = the lhs1 nitrate
acid plant. The n. Y. Kellogg Com
pany furnished the piping and puilt
the dhfmnsesyss Ion February 16 1913.
ground was broken, mid eight months
{ and eight days latersEt the 500 V,ooO
Muscle Shoals plant began producing
ammonium nitrate. IN that brief Pc
riod 5000 men had completed the
plant ana around II where not q |
house stood before had arisen city
,ef a, 900 ,inhabitantsiw ifNnafE tessf1sa
IFfi This plant when IN fplf operation
twas ready to provide 18s per cent At az
explosives to be used BY all the allies
On ainahll ire allied fronts during the e..
LII <4 ~ 80 H0h(fG f1tssi] 1fas