Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1920-01-30

Mammoth EXPLOSIVES Factory
in alabama Built in
Eight Months.
ALL SPEED RECORL BP"xEN
Could Supply 13 Per Cent OF
Allies Needs Had War
Continued.
BY eARRET SMITH.

by GAHhEf OWL ",
Lifting the ban of war secrecy has
Just now brought to light for the first
time one of the most stupendous feats
of construction in history-the plan
ming and building in less than one year
of the largest ammonium nitrate plant
in the world and of a city around II
for the housing of its $4,000 workmen
and their families At the same time
is revealed one of the chief reasons
why Germany suddenly surrendered a
year ago. The German high command
knew that the United States was
ready at Muscle Shoals, Alabama, to
manufacture 13 per cent of all the
high explosives needed by all the Al
lied armies on all fronts IN the expect
ed drive of the following spring.
The first person on construction
work reached Muscle Shoals on No
vember 26, 1917. On February 10,
| 1918, ground was first broken for a
permanent plant building. On Octo-
Der %. 1918, eight months and eight
DAYS later, the manufacturing plant
had begun the production OF ammo
mum nitrate.
When America entered the world
war In April, 1s17, she had no means
Of producing the enormous quantities
Of high explosives necessary to pro-
vide the huge army she planned 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, COM
mercial fertilizer, which had for some
wears 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
t from it and combined into the explo-
( sive. ammonium nitrate Mr.. Wash
burn was invited to present plans and
estimates for the construction in the
shortest possible time of an ammonium
3 nitrate plant at Muscle Shoals, Ala
/. bama. and a,contract between his com
a many and the United States was enter
ed into under date of November 10
1917.
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
r agent of the Ordnance Department
This CORPORATION provided the general
designs. supervised all the work and
operated the camp. the town and the
S plant. II also installed all equipment
y in the chemical plant. The various
other sectiors Of the work were sub
let to organizations that were special
0 ists in the directions In which they
e were asked to help
> ! NEW AtEy bQtlh iOf' liz ~N'SN'A'
o IT was necessary to build new
town 70 house the lahorers For this
ioh Wesfingl oise Church Kerr Com
many was called in rs contractor This
: company also built the buildings of the
: chemical plant. Within four months
10 600 workmen had been assembled
and city capable of accommodating
: Or 600 inhabitants had been completed
i with lodging restaurants, stores, OF
v fees. police headquarters, schools, fir
= departments, hospitals motion picture
theaters. electric light and sewerage
systems
o The construction of the plant prope
a was begun on February 10, 1918 Jus
eight months and eight days later tn
= big plant began steady output of am
/ monium nitrate. The plant contain
No 113 permanent buildings with roo
e area of over % acres.
To provide the electric current
was necessary to build steam powe
= electric plant, for it would have take
three years or more to complete tn
dam and hydro-eiectric station now III
der way. This plant, built by the j. {
: White Corporation, is one of the lars
est steam plants for developing ele'
trical energy in the world.
Thu output of the plant Is 300 tons {
ammonium nitrate a day, and this ca
y. produced at Muscle Shoals at co:
4 ,<Ss than one-half the standard fxe
h ,rice paid by the Government for an
g monium nitrate produced by otht
= s>ethods and one-fourth to one-fifth til
5 cost of other high explosives of equ'
Z strength. Compares with the olds
e process OF making ammonium nitrat
:. the savings made by this plant woul
d have paid the $60,000,00O cost of ii
e entire plant in about one and one-ha
r years of operation
d As a military weapon 1t is one of Il
| ...;ec... and ,,aGf AgonOmicnl pXnapd