Mansfield mirror. (Mansfield, Wright County, Mo.) 1908-1957, 1920-01-08
GERMANY UNDONE
BY own WEAPON
Had sr'I - America Secret
Of Hiking Explosive
From Air.
BIG NITRATE PLANT RESULTS.
Built In Eight Months It Con.
vinces Kaiser Of His De!tat.
BY CARPET SMITH.

IN 'he se"rs: history Of -" =" ar
IN m" s.o-, - - 0~'- a. -
par',s,.ul ~ fhr 5.na state.
nn!- IL possF'a Tor an.rTi"o ar'ii
then utterly Iacti NJ II amyr.''or
anil In facilities fer making tt. 30 an
ufacture unlimited quantities "t pow
erful explosives ont of air and rock.
It was lar, ely the knowledge Of this
facf that forced Germany to surrender
when she did.
The secret was secured from Ger
many herself. II was an open hasi'
pess t%rnrsacf!0n nntwern t1s."cs
men. whereby We 1ppars.ily az 'rfd
nothing more mil ary 'hnn n c-:.'~'
for making a h.sn grade fer ;L.cl
known NJ %cyhnam!d.
Frank Sherman washhrrn head %
the group NJ business men #t" houGh
this process. conceived the germ Of
the idea In the early nineties while In
South America a. consulting engineer
b connection with the production and
shipping Of Chilean nitrate Of soda.
Nitrogen compounds are IN essential
part # ait commercial fsrti'izsrs. The
only available natrra. nitrate depoxts
IN large quantities are In Chile. This
supply was eliminating. Germany.
which had been~,taking about one
third Of the Chilean n~itrates, was al.
ready experimenting with processes
for their artificial production. In 1907
Nv Washburn secured In Germany
the American rights Of the cyanamid
process which had been invented In
that country. ~
Turning Ar Into 4 Weapon.
BY this process air. which 10 . mix.
eure Of about four-nfths nitrogen Ras
and one-nfth oxygen. 10 placed In con.
tainers and subjected to pressure and
cold until It turns to q liquid. Then
the nitrogen Is distilled In much the
same manner A. alcohol 10 separated
from water. But before this nitrogen
can be used as a fertilizer 1t must be
combined with a chemical combination
Of lime and carbon known as calcium
carbide, produced by burning ordinary
limestone In big rotary kilns and cOm.
bining It In the electric furnace with
carbon supplied In the form Of ordi.
narv coke.
Cyaran'id TINS produced contains
the evucn'S n s'Gnnnium nitrate. one
o. ."o r'Ns- Irv'er'"l Of modern explO-
Eives. Il! ore process ammonia is ex.
trLcted lrUrg the cyanamid. BY an.
other process nitric acid Is extracted
from another batch Of this same sya.
na,nid. 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, picrIc acid and ammo
alum 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 sid is about 'w.' and one half
the cost NJ amnonium nitrate SHt
the United States was wholly depend.
q upon Chilean nitrate Of soda a .
raw material for ammonium nitrate.
WITH the exception Of a small produc-
ton Of nitrogen from the cokink Of
zeal. The Chilean supply was $500
miles away from New York City BY
way Of the Panama Canal. and the
route by way OF the Strnits of Magel.
Ian 10 nearly twice rs long.
A Record eu'iiing op.rstisn.
Shortly after the war begun In ECU
rope the German government entered
Into the fyation Of air nitrogen for
military explosives on a rasi Hale. Il
wal not. however. , ntll the fall pf 1917
thsr the United States government
toos 1t up.
The Ordnance Department asked Mr..
Washburn's company to organise .
subsidiary corporation. known 40 the
Air Nitrates Corporation, with Mr..
Hsshburn as president. to act -
agent II the governments for the eoa.
struction and operation Of the air NJ
trates plant at Muscle Shoals, Ala.
bana. This corporation provided the
Aeslgns. erected the equipment In the
chemical plants and supervised all the
other work. It, also operated the
camp, the town and the plant. Other
work Il sublet 70 several Of the best
known organizations In the United
States. Westinghouse Church Kerr
Company built the plant buildings the
camp, the permanent city and utifitisa
The J. @. White Engineering Corpora-
don designed and built the nitrate
acid plant. The NJ. w. Kellogg Com
pany Furnished the piping and built
the chImneys. On February ia 1914
ground was broken. and eight months
and eight 6Sys later the $60,000.0oo
Muscle Shoals plant began producing
ammonium nitrate. In that brief ~
RED $1,000 men had completed the
plant and around It. where not .
house stood before, had arisen . city
q 25.OO0 inhabitants.
This plant wnen in full operation
was ready TO provide IS per cent Of oil
explosives TO he used by all the allies
on all he allied. fronts during the sx'
pee '"'"e ~ lal9.