Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1920-01-08
Had Sold to America Secret
of Making Explosive
From Air.
BIG NITRATE PLANT RESULTS.
Built in Eight Months II Con-
vinces Kaiser of His Defeat.
BY GARRETT SMITH.

z
partment OF the United States Army
made # possible for America. until
then utterly lacking in ammunition
and in facilities for making it, 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.
I 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 high grade fertilizer
/ known as cyanamid.
Frank Sherman Washburn, head Of
the group of business men who bought
I 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
Z that country.
Turning Air Into Weapon.
4 BY this process air, which Is q mix
ture OF about four-fffths nitrogen gas
and one-fifth oxygen, is placed in con
tainers and subjected to pressure and
cold until ii turns to a liquid. Then
the nitrogen is distilled in much the
same manner as alcohol Is separated
from water. But before this nitrogen
can be used MS a fertilizer 1t must .be
combined with chemical combination
of lime and carbon known as calcium
carbide, produced by burning ordinary
limestone In big rotary klns and com
bining 1t IN the electric furnace with
carbon supplied in the form of Ordi
nary coke.
Cyanamid thus produced contains
the elements of ammonium nitrate, one
Of the most powerful of modern explo
siveS. BY one process ammonia is eX-
tracted from the cyanamid. BY an
other process nitric acid is extracted
from another batch OF this same sya
nanid Then the ammonia and nitric
nfH "a
ammonium nitrate ready for packing
into shells with TINT.
! 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 0ne-half
the cost Of ammonium nitrate. But
the United States was wholly depend
ent upon Chilean nitrate of soda as
1 raw material for ammonium nitrate,
with the exception of small produc-
ton of nitrogen from the cooking 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.
Record Building Operation.
shortly after the war began in En-
rope the German government entered
into the fixauon 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 II 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 foE the con-
I struction and operation Of the air nj
I 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 ]. G. White Engineering Corpora
>tion designed and built the nitrate
acid plant The NJ. w. Kellogg Com
pany furnished the piping and built
| the chimneys. t3n February 16. 1918.
ground was broken, and eight months
and eight days later the $60,0o0,00o
Muscle Shoals plant begun producing
ammonium nitrate. In that brief pc
Rod $4,000 men had completed the
plant and around IT. where not
house stoed before. had arisen a city
| of $4,000 inhabitants.
This plant when in full operation
was ready 10 provide Ii per cent OF ali
| explosives TO be used by all The allies
| on all the allied fronts during the ex.
pected spring drive o. 1919.
4