The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1920-01-03
Had Sold to America Secret
of Making Explosive
From Air.
BIG NITRATE PLANT RESULTS.
Built in Eight Months It Con-
yinceS Kaiser of His Defeat.
BY SMITH.


made 1t possible for America, until
then utterly lacking in ammunition
and In facilities for making 1t, to man
ufacture unlimited quantities of pow
erful explosives out of air and rock.
II was largely the knowledge of this
fact that forced Germany TO surrender
when she did.
The secret was secured from Ger
many herself. 1t was an open bust
ness transaction between business
men, whereby we apparently acquired
nothing more military than a process
for making a high grade fertilizer
known as cyanamid.
Frank Sherman Washburn, head of
the group of business men who bought
this process. conceived the germ of
the idea in the early nineties 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
in large quantities are in Chile. This
supply 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
Mr.. Washburn secured in Germany
the American rights of the cyanamid
process which had been invented in
that country.
Turning Air Into a Weapon.
By this process air, which is a mix
ture of about four-fifths nitrogen gas
and one-fifth oxygen. is placed in con-
tainers and subjected to pressure and
cold until it turns to a liquid. Then
the nitrogen is distilled in much the
same name as alcohol is separated
from water. But before this nitrogen
can be used as a fertilizer it must be
combined with a chemical&eombinatio
of lime and carbon Know 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-
nary coke.
Cyanamid thus produced contains
the elements of ammonium nitrate, n
&c The most powerful of modern explo-
sives. By one process ammonia is ex-
lracted from the cyanamid. 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.
There are three kinds of explosives
used for bursting shells In modern
warfare-TNT, picric acid and ammo
mum 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 acid is about two and one-half
the cost Of ammonium nitrate. But
the United States was wholly depend
ent upon Chilean nitrate of soda as a
raw material for ammonium nitrate,
with the exception of a small produc-
ton Of nitrogen from the coking of
coal. The Chilean supply was $500
miles away from New York City by
way of the Panama Canal, and the
route by way of the Straits of Magel-
Ian is nearly twice as long.
A Record Building Operation.
Shortly after the war began in Eu-
rope the German government entered
into the fiXation 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 it up.
The Ordnance Department asked Mr..
Washburn's company to organize a
subsidiary corporation, known as the
Air Nitrates Corporation, with Mr..
Washburn as president, TO act as
agent of the government for the con
structton and operation of the air nj
trates plant at Muscle Shoals, Ala
bama- This corporation provided the
designs, 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 is sublet to several of the best
known organizations in the United
States. Westinghouse Church Kerr
Company built the plant buildings, the
camp, the permanent city and utilities.
The J.. G. White Engineering Corpora
ton designed and built the nitrate
acid plant. The NJ. W.. Kellogg Com
pany furnished the piping and built
the chimneys. On February 10, 1918,
ground was broken, and eight months
and eight days later the 100000, 600
Muscle Shoals plant began producing
ammonium nitrate. In that brief pc
riod $1,000 men had completed the
plant and around it, where not a
house stood before, had arisen a city
of $4,000 inhabitants.
This plant when in fun operation
was ready TO provide Ii per cent Of al
explosives to be used by ali the allie,