ECONOMY OF NITROGEN. 



177 



tained from the nitre-beds was merely a transfor- 

 mation of the combined nitrogen put in them in 

 various organic compounds was formerly not per- 

 ceived. The nitre-bed was supposed, in some 

 unexplained manner, to have the power of fasci- 

 nating that chainless wanderer the free nitrogen 

 of the atmosphere, and chaining him down as a 

 slave to do man's work. Had, however, the con- 

 stituents of the heap been accurately analyzed — 

 a requirement utterly impossible when nitre-beds 

 first came into use — it would have been found 

 that the nitrogen in the saltpetre obtained, in- 

 stead of being more than equivalent to the nitro- 

 gen originally present, invariably fell short of it, 

 and that a portion consequently of this element 

 made its escape in the uncombined gaseous state. 

 To this subject we shall be compelled to revert 

 more fully below. 



The Indian saltpetre, which till lately formed 

 the bulk of our supply in England, was also ob- 

 tained by the lixiviation of soils, which contained 

 it as saline crusts. It was not, however, any and 

 every soil which could be made use of, but such 

 only as had become saturated with nitrogenous 

 matter capable of yielding nitric acid by oxida- 

 tion. The importation of saltpetre from India, 

 therefore, was a robbery of the soil of India, and 

 lessened the crop-producing power of the world 

 in general just as much as did the nitre-beds of 

 Europe. 



It is true that at the present day the great 

 bulk of the saltpetre used, whether in the manu- 

 facture of gunpowder or in other arts, is obtained 

 from a different source — the deposits of nitrate 

 of soda found on certain parts of the western 

 coasts of South America. From these vast de- 

 posits more than 4,000,000 cwts. are yearly ex- 

 ported to different parts of the world ; yet even 

 these beds are supposed to have been originally 

 formed by the decomposition of nitrogenous or- 

 ganic matter, and, though large, they are by no 

 means incapable of exhaustion. So long as we 

 take combined nitrogen and set it at liberty then, 

 no matter whence our supply is obtained, the 

 ultimate result must be complete sterility. 



The manufacture of gunpowder involves an- 

 other kind of waste, which is more conspicuous 

 in the present state of the trade than it was for- 

 merly. The nitrate of soda imported from South 

 America, unlike the nitrate of potash, has the 

 property of absorbing moisture from the air, and 

 is hence utterly unfit for the preparation of gun- 

 powder. Before it can be used for any such 

 purpose it must be converted into common salt- 

 petre by appropriate treatment with some salt 



84 



of potash. Now, most unfortunately, potash — 

 just like phosphorus and like combined nitro- 

 gen — is an important constituent of the food of 

 plants, and we can only procure it by the old sin 

 of robbing our crops. Formerly the salts of 

 potash were obtained by burning timber to ashes 

 and lixiviating the residue. Next, the salts left 

 in the preparation of beet-root sugar were em- 

 ployed. In either case the substantial result was 

 the same : unless we can show that pine-trees or 

 beet-plants have the power of creating potash out 

 of nothing, or out of some other elementary body, 

 we must confess that they obtain it from the soil, 

 and that the soil must ultimately become ex- 

 hausted. But potash compounds are now ob- 

 tained by mining, at Stassfurt, and elsewhere ? 

 Granted, yet the supply — like that of nitrate of 

 soda in Atacama — is not infinite. 



The gunpowder-manufacturers, or those who 

 prepare their materials, compete with the farmer 

 for the one and the other of these products, rais- 

 ing the price and hastening the day of exhaustion. 

 As regards potash, however, the waste is of a 

 less fatal character than the expenditure of com- 

 bined nitrogen. Gunpowder, indeed, contains 

 the equivalent of 34 per cent, of potash, and, ac- 

 cording to our estimate of 100,000,000 pounds as 

 the world's total annual production, about 34,000,- 

 000 pounds of this valuable body are thus with- 

 drawn from the immediate service of agriculture. 

 But the potash is Dot, like the nitrogen, with- 

 drawn from utility. When a battle takes place, 

 all the potash contained in the gunpowder ex- 

 ploded gradually settles down upon the earth in 

 the form of a fine dust, and, being washed into 

 the soil by the next shower, becomes again avail- 

 able for the food of crops, and shares with the 

 " red rain " the honor of making the harvest grow ! 



The other explosives in practical use — such 

 as gun-cotton, nitro-glycerine in its manifold dis- 

 guises and modifications, fulminate of mercury, 

 etc. — all share with gunpowder the cardinal fault 

 of unlocking combined nitrogen and returning it 

 as an inert gas to the atmosphere. Wheresoever, 

 therefore, man works by dint of explosions, he is 

 warring against life itself. The glorious victories 

 of the warrior, the triumphs — often little less 

 costly — of the civil engineer, the very " set 

 pieces " of the pyrotechnist, the red fire in which 

 the villain of the stage meets his retributive fate, 

 and the squibs and crackers which have now for 

 some two centuries been annually blazed away in 

 honor of Guy Fawkes, are all bought at the cost 

 of potential life, and all tend to make life more 

 difficult. 



