The Raymer enterprise., 1920-01-22
GERMANY UND0NE
BY own WEAPON
Had Sold to America Secret
Of Making Explosive
From Air.
DIG NITRATE PLANT RESULTS.
Built IN Eight Months Il Con-
sinces Kaiser Of His Defeat.
by oARRET SMITH.

oy oARRET SMITH.
One Of the most romantic passages
n the secret history Of the World War
b the story Of how the Ordnance De
pertment Of the United States Army
made II possible for America, until
.1.zss utterly lacking In ammunition
!. md In facilities for making It, to man
ufacture unlimited quantities Of pow
srful explosives out of air and rock.
\ was largely the knowledge OF this
fAcf that forced Germany to surrender
na 4 she did.
Tne secret was secured from Ger
many herself 1t was an open busi-
asss transaction between business
ns,. whereby we apparently acquired
sssiing more military than a process
roF making high grade fertilizer
known a. cyanamid.
Frank Sherman Washburn, head Of
the group Of business men who bought
- process, conceived the germ Of
tns idea In the early ninetles 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
large quantities are In Chile. This
J ,ply was diminishing. Germany,
which had been taking about one
third Of the Chilean nitrates, was al.
ready experimenting with processes
for their artificial production. In 1907
Nj. Washburn secured In Germany
the American rights Of the cyanamId
process which had been invented In
that country.
Turning Air Into q Weapon.
Bv this process air, which Is mix
tpsf Of about four-fifths nitrogen gas
q | one-fifth oxygen. is placed in con-
tnlers and subjected to pressure and
"a until It turns to liquid. Then
the nitrogen is distilled in much the
sstIe manner as alcohol Is separated
from water. But before this nitrogen
can be used as fertilizer II must be
combined with a chemical combination
a. ime and carbon known as calcium
srbide. produced by burning ordinary
.anestone In big rotary kilns and com.
blning II In the electric furnace with
carbon supplied In the form of ordi-
nary coke
; Cyanamid thus produced contains
Ia elements of ammonium nitrate, one
the most powerful Of modern explo-
nves. BY one process ammonia Is ex-
tracted from the cyanamld 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.
acre are three kinds OF explosives
"a for bursting shells In modern
warfare-TNT, plcric acid and ammo
mum nitrate. The United States was
equally deficient In raw materials and
plants for manufacturing all three of
Sc explosives Under the best OF
additions 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.
eh upon Chilean nitrate Of soda as
sxw material for ammonium nitrate,
with the exception Of a small produc-
tion Of nitrogen from the coking OF
coal. The Chilean supply was 4,5O0
miles away from New York City by
4. Of the Panama Canal, and the
e ute by way Of the Straits Of Magel-
Ian Ii nearly twice as long.
A Record Building Operation.
Shortly after the war began in Eu-
xepe the German government entered
70 the fxation Of air nitrogen for
military explosives on a vast scale. II
was not however, until the fall Of 1917
that the United States government
took 1t up.
IRE Ordnance Department asked Mr..
! aburn's company to organize a
Osidiary corporation, known as the
Air Nitrates Corporation, with Mr.
Washburn as president, to act us
agent Of the government for the con.
struction and operation Of the air nj.
frss<s plant at Muscle Shoals. Ala.
T. This corporation provided the
.esigns, erected the equipment in the
chemical plants and supervised all the
other work. 1t also operated the
camp, the town and the plant. Other
work u sublet to several Of the best
known organizations In the United
L, 20. Westinghouse Church Kerr
re npany built the plant buildings, the
c ap. the permanent city and utilities.
|, h J. G. White Engineering Corpora
ton deslgned and built the nitrate