Mansfield mirror. (Mansfield, Wright County, Mo.) 1908-1957, 1920-02-12
MUSCLE SHOALS
NATIONS ByLWARK
Bio S6O,OOO.OOO Nitrate Plant
a Defense for Future
Generations.
INSURES NATIONa. DEFENSE
Assurance Of Abundant Ameri-
can Explosives a Reason
Why Germany Quit.
INSURES NATIONa- DEFENSE
BY GARRETT SMITH.

BY GARRETT SMITH.
One of the chief fnrtre>SrS Of Amer
ica's new military defense system
which developed out of the World
War is the Ammonium Nitrate Plant
at Muscle Shoals. Alabama, on the
Tennessee River. over three hundred
miles from the sCacoaSt, capable OF
turning out %Uu tons nf high explosives
a day. II assures 10 the United States
for all time an abundance of ammuni.
ton without which an army is Il help
less cncumbrance and ii has made
this unlimited supply of explosives
available without resort to raw ma.
terial from outside Of the country
The essential ingredient of all mod,
ern military explosives in nitric acid.
Before the World War. America was
entirely dependent upon chile Cor the
supply of nitrate of soda. the Gnly
chemical from which nitric acid can
be made. In case this country became
involved in wal with any nation that
could control the sea our 70" would
have us at her mere. for she could
cut off our essential means of striking
back.
Other nations. however. We're
equally dependent upon the Chilean
nitrate supply. ~G"rnany WIS pur-
chasing one.thiri Of it. She had eX.
pected to hold tie sen with her sub
marines but failed. Eut a process
for extracting nitrogen from the air
had been obtained by Germany some
years before from Italian ch"nliS,s.
This process had been successful in
producing n high grade nitrogrnois
fertilizer from which in turn could
be extracted ammonium nitrate. Ger
many, therefore, fell to manufacturing
ammonium nitrate from the air on a
large scale.
Americans Buy German Secret.
In 1907 an American company, head
ed by Frank S. Washburn. had secured
the American rights to this process
from Germany AMI had one into man.
sian s;Io 90 tIo Iinn,ro r,rs Wiz
.n.au;aa fo,n1 horsnIf :, IA, U,or,a
War the Ordnance Department turned
to Mr.. Washburn's company for help.
T,,o ,;r >i,r,to, rnr,or,.t,, wns
-. iii ", u.,.il,,, ~. 70,
hooI ,a h,irI ,ho urscI, cr,,rs ,l,n+
r, ,.si.toJ hr s,rn,.,l otlor nrni
tnov.n cornor,tions srcr as tho vrcs,.
,n.,am.o C,,rroh Eorr r,,n,,n, ,,.hio,
nmt ~ ,bo nI,r+ hui,d,r.s ,hn anna
49,. It,, oni1 ,.;;tios. .h, cu1i,o
Carnoro,inn which da,ir,ol and onp.
s,nra,aa ,ha nan,or ,,,r,. ,L, ,,,or,-
tai cans,rro,ion ro,,nnr. v.ri,h Io
:ionoa and h,,i,t ,la nitric acid r,on+
and cha NJ w Kou,cg c,,,nonv vhich
n"rnish.a ,ha ,ining and h,ilt tho
ahin,nors
p~o,irri,, ,ror,, IN Horomhor 1o,-
,ha ~, ,Innt and nou, o,.v ot Nns,,o
Sha.Is was co,r,,Io,od within ma
raor,s ,;ro uod tho .vnoctod s,r,n.
Isui,o 30 1o,o mo,nri,Ii,oJ ,hie ono
nlont alone would have hnnn nhle to
~sunnlv 70 nor cent of all tla bipb
explosives used by all the Allied ar.
mics on all fronts during that drive,
and the United States vas secure for
all time to come against an ammuni-
ton shortage.
When the arrangement was finally
made for building the big air nitrate
plant, work was begun on a power
dam at the same point. This work is
being conducted directly by the Unit
ed States Engineering Corps. 1t will
not be completed, however, for two or
three more years. 1t was necessary,
therefore, in order to insure imme-
date operation when the nitrate plant
was completed to construct a $4,000
600 steam power plant, one of the larg-
est steam plants for the production Of
continuous electric power in the world.
It is pointed out that ever had the
water-power plant been completed dur
ing the war it would have been neces-
sary also to have constructed a steam
plant to insure the nitrate plant work
ing at full capacity at all times dur
ing the year.