Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1920-01-08
WORLDS BIGGEST
NITRATE PLANT
Mammoth Explosives Factory
in Alabama Built in
Eight Months.
ALL SPEED RECORDS BROKEN
kqpf % - 7--
Could Supply 10 Per Cent OF
Allies Needs Had War
Continued.
ALL SPEED RECORDS BROKEN
sy GARNET sMlrn.

's2@.aa - s.A.--s9 I.rt
~ GARNET SIXTH.
:. Lifting the. ban of war secrecy has
Just now brought to light fer the frst
time ore Of thu most stupepdous feats
Of construction In history--fhs plan
ming and building In. less than one year
OF. the largest ammonium nitsate. plant
Ia the world and OF = city. around n
ter he Aoustng. Of IL, Is 600 sworkmsh
and their fanaiss i AZ the same time
4 revealed one OF the chief reasons
why Germany suddenly surrendered =
year ago. The German high csrnnsana
knew that the United States was
ready at Muscle Shoals, AieeApa. ~
manpfa cturs II per. cent u all the
I high explosives Asedsd b. all the ~
lied armies on an frenss IN the lexpec<
ID drive Of the totsswsnE spring. .sa'
Y The nrst person en- corstfuctteu
axSrk reaehsd Muscle .sAssiG On No
ysmbsr ~ fp17. on Tssrsafy -,
sieis, trotisd wssr art brsksn FOR .
pefnsnsiht rtsst sbufidin3 on Aocto-
7 Der n, l91A, ssght sosthS and eight
days inter, The osnansfActusing plant
4 had begun the production Of anmel
mum nitSate..a yislwa Tnfse9 y-f'g ~.
N. wheD.. America entered the world
war, In April, 1917. she hsd No raesfis
of producing the enormous 3auAntsties
of kish explosives necessary 70 pro-
vide the huge arny SHE piAnned to
raise The very fact that eur indus.
tries were already worked to capacity
providing ammunition to the allies
seemed to make further production for
" our own use Impossible. ~
Fertilizer Process Turned to War use.
!, At this juncture the Ordnance De-
partment turned to cyanamid, CON-
mercial fertilizer, which had for some
years been produced successfully at
Niagara Falls, by process the Ameri-
can rights of which were obtained In
1907 from Germany by Frank Sher.
man Washburn, head of the American
Cyanamid Company.
BY this process cyanamid was pro.
duced by extracting nitrogen from the
air and combining it with calcium OBJ
tanned from limestone rock and carbon
from coke. BY putting cyanamid
through three more processes both am
monia and nitric acid can be extracted
from it and combined into the explo'
sive, ammonium nitrate Mr.. Wash
burn was invited to present plans anG
estimates for the construction in the
shortest possible time of an ammonium
nitrate plant at Muscle Shoals, Ala
bama and a contract between his com
pany and the United States was enter
ed into under date of November 16
1917. [ ". ses
To have general supervision of plan
ming and carrying out the work an or
ganization known as the Air Nitrates
Corporation was formed to act as
agent of the Ordnance Department
This corporation provided the general
designs, supervised ali the work and
operated the camp. the town and the
plant. 1t also Installed all equipment
in the chemical plant. The various
other sections OF the work were sub
let to organizations that were special
lists in the directions in which they
were asked to help.
New City Bulit From the Ground. Il,
Itawas necessary. to build = new
town 10 house the, laborers Fer THU
lob westinghouse Church Kerr Com
pany was called In rs contractor, Thls
company also built the buildings Of thu
chemical plant Within four, IaonthI
| 10000 workpen had beep assemblies
and 4 city capable Of accommodate ting
F 2S 600 innabitants had been completed
with lodging, RESTAURANTS, stsa'es, Of
fees. police headquarters, schools FRI
departments, hospitals, motion pictafs
theaters electric light and sewerage
systems. sta Ml
The construction Of the plant proper
was begun on February 18, 1918. Jus
eight months and eight days later thu
| big plant began steady output Of ana
monium nitrate. The plant contain.
113 permanent buildings, with roo
area of over 26 acres. snss ~
To provide the electric current Il
was necessary to build a steam power
electric plant, for 1t would have taker
| three years or more to complete thu
| dam and hydro-electric station now I'm
der way. This plant, built by the j. G
White Corporation, is one of the larg
est steam plants for developing cleo
trcal energy in the world.
Tho output of the plant is 300 tons o
ammonium nitrate a day, and this car
! be produced at Muscle Shoals at a cos
| less than one-haIf the standard fixet
| price paid by the Government for am
monium nitrate produced by othe
| methods and one-fourth to one-fifth til,
cost of other high explosives of equa
strength CompareG with the olde
| process of making ammonium nitrate
me savings made by this plant wouI,