RECENT ADVANCES IN SCIENCE 387 



technological sources, and occasionally in special cases marked 

 advances will receive some recognition in the public press. 

 Two such cases have occurred recently, and are deserving of 

 mention in these notes, although, as regards accurate scientific 

 details, we have little to record. As regards one case, we have 

 on a previous occasion pointed out the unenviable position of 

 Great Britain in the matter of the synthetic production of 

 nitrates or combined nitrogen compounds, and that she alone, 

 of all the leading nations, had taken no steps towards the 

 development of this essential industry, preferring to look to 

 sea-borne supplies from South America. It was urged that 

 the Government should grant assistance toward this end, 

 which was at least as important as the dye-industry. It is, 

 therefore, satisfactory to learn that private enterprise has at 

 last stepped into the breach in the shape of the International 

 Nitrogen and Power Company, London, who have received the 

 assistance of that enlightened body, the Manchester Corpora- 

 tion, in whose city new works for the fixation of nitrogen are to 

 be situated. An announcement was made to this effect in 

 The Manchester Guardian of June 23, and further details appear 

 in Chemical News, 116, 9 (191 7). It is stated that the process 

 will be a new one, based on the discovery of an Englishman, 

 and, unlike the somewhat costly Haber-catalytic ammonia 

 process, and the still more costly Baekeland and Eyde, the 

 Schonhurr and the Pauling electric arc processes requiring 

 cheap water-generating power, will be capable of being worked, 

 and economically worked, anywhere in England. In connec- 

 tion with this same subject of nitrogen fixation, we might 

 mention that a very succinct review of one type of reaction 

 for the purpose, namely cyanide formation, appears as an 

 editorial in the Journ. Soc. Chem. Indust. 36, 480 (1917)* an d 

 further that the pros and cons of the various processes, from a 

 technological point of view, are ably and fully set forth in the 

 Journ. of Indust. and Engineering Chem. 9, 829-841 (191 7) 

 in the Report to the United States Government of the Nitrate 

 Supply Committee. See also Journ. Soc. Chem. Indust. 36, 

 1 08 1 (191 7). It will be remembered that we previously inti- 

 mated that our American cousins attributed such importance 

 to this problem that a committee including Dr. C. L. Parsons, 

 general secretary of the American Chemical Society, was des- 

 patched to Europe to investigate what practical advances had 



