Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1920-02-06
M-~asaese' F7sswCEfF
GEhMHvI tJNUUNE
BY OWN Weapon
Had Sold to America Secret
of Making Explosive
From Air.
BIG NITRATE PLANT RESULTS.
Built in Eight Months 1t Con-
VinceS Kaiser of His Defeat.
BY GARRET SMITH.

BY GARRETT SMITH.
One of the most romantic passages
In the secret history Of the World War
is the story of how the Ordnance De-
partment Of the Cnited States Army
made it 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.
1t 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 busi-
ness transaction between business
men, whereby we apparently acquired
nothing more military than 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
MIR. Washburn secured in Germany
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-ffth oxygen. is placed in con
tainers and subjected to pressure anj
| cold until it turns to a liquid Their
the nitrogen is distilled in much the
same manner as alcohol is separated
from water. But before this nitrogen
can be used as a fertilizer it must be
combined with a chemical combination
of lime and carbon known as calcium
carbide, produced by burning ordinar!
limestone in big rotary kilns and com
bining it in the electric furnace will
carbon supplied in the form of ordi
nary coke.
Cyanamid thus produced contain
x,1A Of Nit tc
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
!, namid Then the ammonia and nitri
, acid are combined and there you hav
ammonium nitrate ready for packin
into shells with INT.
There are three kinds of explosive
used for bursting shells in moder
warfare-TNT, picric acid and ammo
mum nitrate. The United States wa
equally deficient in raw materials an
plants for manufacturing all three c
these explosives Under the best G
conditions the cost of either TINT @
nitric acid is about two and one-hal
the cost of ammonium nitrate. Bu
the United States was wholly depend
ent upon Chilean nitrate of soda as
raw material for ammonium nitrate
with the exception of a small produ'
ton of nitrogen from the cOking {
coal The Chilean supply was 4,5C
miles away from New York City b
way of the Panama Canal, and tn
route by way of the Straits of Mage
Ian is nearly twice as long.
A Record Building Operation.
Shortly after the war began in FL
rope the German government entere
into the fixation of air nitrogen fl
military explosives on vast scale.
was not, however, until the fall of 191
that the United States governmer
took it up.
The Ordnance Department asked NJ
Washburns company to organize
subsidiary corporation, known as Il
Air Nitrates Corporation, with Nj
: Washburn as president, to act
agent of the government for the co
: struction and operation of the air I
i trates plant at Muscle Shoals, Al
! bama. This corporation provided Il
;. designs, erected the equipment in Il
q chemical plants and supervised all Il
9 other work. 1t also operated Il
: hcamp, the town and the plant 9th
v work is sublet to several of the be
known organizations in the Unit,
States. Westinghouse Church ke
Company built the plant buildings, Il
camp, the permanent city and utilitie
The J. G. White Engineering CorpOr
1 ton designed and built the mira
acid plant The M. w. Kellogg Coz
pany furnished the piping and bu
the chimneys. On February 16, 191
ground was broken, and eight mont
and eight days later the $60,000,0
Muscle Shoals plant began producil
ammonium nitrate. In that brief I
| riod $4,000 men had completed t
plant and around 1t, where not
house stood before, had arisen a ci
l of 25,0O0 inhabitants.
| This plant when in full operati
| was ready to provide 13 per cent of
| explosives to be used by all the ALI
on all the allied fronts during the {
pected spring drive Of 1919.