408 ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



NITRIC ACID MANUFACTURED FROM ATMOSPHERIC NIT- 

 ROGEN. 



Bt Prof. J. August Friks, state College, Pa. 



The dream of converting the atmospheric nitrogen into nitric acid 

 and eventually into saltpeter cheaply enough to be used on the farm 

 as a fertilizer, has at last come true, and factories are now turning 

 out large quantities of saltpeter. It shall be the aim of this paper 

 to explain in part at least the methods employed for this purpose, 

 but before going into detail of the latest and most promising pro- 

 cess of manufacture of nitric acid (HNO^) from atmospheric nitrogen, 

 I shall brietlv review, or make mention of some of the well establish- 

 ed facts concerning the importance of the nitrogenous compounds, 

 and some of the causes which have led up to the establishment of 

 the industry referred to. 



Importance of Nitrogen Compounds: — In our institutions of learn- 

 ing as well as in literature, great effort is made to prove to the stu- 

 dents the importance of the nitrogenous compounds, and justly so. 

 They are met with everywhere, and are dailj' handled by all of us 

 in food, and clothing such as contain hair, wool, silk, or leather. 

 Indeed the nitrogenous compounds hold the foremost place of all 

 compounds met with in the plant and animal economy. Every liv- 

 ing cell in all plants, for instance, contains more or less, but always 

 some, nitrogen in the form of protieds and other compounds, to- 

 gether forming a mass going by the name ''protoplasm" and without 

 which there can be no cell activity or life. The tissues of animals 

 however, are almost entirely composed of nitrogenous compounds, 

 and in order for an animal to develop and grow, the food eaten must 

 contain nitrogen in combined form, that is, in so called organic 

 combination. Hence in the nutrition of man as well as of farm ani- 

 mals these nitrogenous substances form one of the three main 

 classes of nutrients, and which are: Protieds (by many called album- 

 inoids), Carbohydrates and Fats, laying special emphasis on, or at- 

 taching much importance to, the proteids. The proteids, which are 

 the nitrogenous substances, are represented in a general way by the 

 white of egg and meat. 



We are also more or less familiar with the nitric acid and nitrates, 

 and the importance of these substances in connection with agricul- 

 ture and various industries. They are used in a multitude of indus- 

 tries in many ways and combinations, for widely different purposes, 

 from the making of the destructive gunpowder and other explosives 

 wherewith to tear to pieces the very mountains to the delicate art 

 of photography, everywhere nitrogen compounds are used. But it is 

 especially in the art of agriculture where enormous quantities of 

 nitrates are used every year, and because of the necessity of using 

 such vast masses yearly, the question, of how to obtain enough nit- 

 rogen for the soil in the future, has become such a vital problem. 



