The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-01-27
POSSIBILITIES ARE MANY AND GIGANTIC
 AT MUSCLE SHOALS

(By International News Service.) Florence, Ala., Jan. 25-The mani fold possibilities of the Muscle Shoals power and nitrate project have fired the imaginauons of farmers, business men and industrial engineers from all parts CT the cCuLtry.
 Wator. water power and nitrogen these are the patural elements whose 'harnessing at this point is expected to revolutionize the agricultural, in- dustrfal and commercial activity of a large port of the United States.
 When the harnessing of Muscle Shoals is completed it will have a fourfo1d effect. In the first place, it will open up navigation on the Ten nessee River. and will link up the en- tire territory as far as Chattanooga Orleans.
 Second. it means the creation of cheap electric current and the estab- hshment of a manufacturing and in in the United States.
 Farming May Be Revolutionized.
 Third, it means the operation of a fertilizer plant which would revolu- toniZe farming in the South and East and even all over the United States.
 Fourth comes the question of na- tional security, as it will be enhanced by a supply of artificial nitrates. of imp ortations from Chile.
 What is known as Muscle Shoals is an extended hard rock formation which has blocked the natural deep vicinity of Florence and Sheffield, sit uated respectively on the north and south sides of the river in the north west corner of Alabama. In their ceaSeleSS flow rivers attack the soft rock in their beds more easily than the harder crust, and owing to the peculiar formation of the river bed of the. Tennessee at this point the water has eaten away underneath in such a manner as to create fall of
 This fall is made by bed of solid rock, which will probably continue another geologic epoch. In the meantime it constitutes both an inn pediment to free navigation on the Tennessee and a potential source of a vast amount of water power energy.
 6OO.O Horsepower is Created.
 Measurements taken by Govern ment engineers show that 6oO.00o horsepower is created at Muscle of the year the figure rises as high as 100000 horsepower.
 The early colonial settlers saw in Muscle Shoals only an aspect of grim, the progress of man. Indeed, the presence of Muscle Shoals proved an a abSolute bar to the spread of the French colonists who sought to push east rom the MlSS1SS1pp1 NalIey. IL has required the enormous mechanical advances of the nineteenth century before man was finally able to ap- preciate the potential riches offered by this despised gift of nature.
 During the war the Federal Gov ernment set to work feverishly to har- ness part of the energy at Muscle Shoals and manufacture nitrates. Ni- trates, curiously enough, form the most essential ingredient of both ex- plosive materials and agricultural fer tflizer. The Government wanted ni- trates for war purposes only. and when the war over 1t closed up its nitrate plant and waited to turn it over to private company as conces sionaire.
 Ford and Edison Have Vision.
 Henry Ford and Thomas Edison were among the first to appreciate the tremendous potentia1ities of Mus cIe Shoals and MT. Ford made the Federal Government a concrete offer to buy out the Government plan and organize the water power Of the falls on a large scale, for the production of electric current and nitrate fert1l- izer.
 The story of the development of ar tfficial nttrates for fertilizing purposes constitutes by itself tremendous a achievement in chemical progress. Ni- trate salts. which are so sinsularly necessary to the sustenance of human