Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-05-10
SUPPLY OF NITROGEN
IS VITAL PROBLEM
FOR WHOLE WORLD
BY FREDERIC j. HAsKIN

| WASHINGTON. D. c., May s.
/ department of commerce is just be-
| ginning an investigation into the
whole question of the production of
nitrogen in all it's forms, including
both the natural nitrates of Chile
and the artificial ones being manu-
| featured out of the air.
In Europe this new industry IS
being pushed with every available
resource of private and government
capital In this country it is still
a very small industry, but Muscle
Shoals and other great water-powers
! give US the necessary basis for an
enormous development in nitrogen
extraction, which is bound to come
in due course.
The average citizen, reading of
these things in his newspaper, is
apt to think they concern him rela-
lively little. He knows that nitro
gen is necessary to the making Of
high explosives and that we can not
have another big war without plenty
of nitrogen, but he is not enthusi-
astic about another big war anyway.
He also knows that nitrogen in some
form is a necessary fertilizer. but
he does not think of the nitrogen sup
ply as a thing upon which his own
life depends. He thinks of it as a
problem for the farmer to solve as
best he can.
Vital to Every Man
AS matter of fact. this nitrogen
problem hits every man where he
lives. Each of us is made of nitro
gen to considerable extent. 1t con-
stitutes about 20 per cent of our
muscular tissue. Without nitrogen
we could not live. And getting nitro.
gent is one of the most difficult
problems in the support of large
civilized nations. The abundance
and cost Of nitrogen is a vital factor
in the cost of living all over the civil
lized world. The control of our
future nitrogen supply is matter
of first Importance to every one of
us. nitrogen monopoly would be
perhaps the one most powerful in
dustrial unit that could be imagined.
The Chilean producers have had
a somewhat imperfect nitrogen
monopoly for few years. 1t is now
being broken by the new industry
of nitrogen manufacture. How is
this to be controlled? That is one
of the more important questions be-
fore the civilized world today. 1t
is the question which lies atsthe bot
tom of the present government in
vestigation, and of the bitter fight
which was waged in the senate all
last winter over the mastery and
use of Muscle Shoals.
This. in brief, is the part nitro
gen plays in human life: Nitrogen
is a main constituent of protein,
which is the basic substance of both
plants and animals. Nitrogen exists
in enormous quantities in the air,
There are about twenty million tons
of it over every square mile of the
earth's surface. Some of this nitro
gen is precipitated by electrical dis
charges and carried to the earth by
rain, snow and dew. 1t is then alb
sorbed by the roots of plants. Man
gets his nitrogen by eating plants
and animals. The plants known, rs
legumes also take nitrogen directly
from the air.
Exhausted Rapidly
But when man, in order to sup
port his great numbers, makes hte
soil produce such highly nitrogen
Gus plants, as the cereals, in great
quantities, the nitrogen is exhausted
much faster than the processes Of
nature can put it back. Then man
must replace the nitrogen. Manure,
tankage, dried blood fish scrap and
all other animal fertilizers are nut
on the soil to restore the nitrogen
which man has taken out. But this
is no more than putting back the
waste after he has consumed most
of the substance. Therefore man
soon had to find other sources. Sui
phate of ammonia, produced as a
by-product of coke making, is a
form of heterogeneous, fertilizer, and
one upon which we have relied
not nearly enough of that to supply
largely. for g long time. But there is
our need, either
The only other important source is
certain deposits or inorganic nj
trates. formed no one knows how