No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 415 



Cost of Production and Capacity of the Establishment.- — The Fac- 

 tory at Notodden, not far from Skien, Norway, was opened May 2, 

 1905, and has three electrical ovens each using 6U0 to 700 kilowatt 

 current as being the most economical, although tiiey can work with 

 1,000 killowatts each. The electric power is obtained from the pow- 

 er station at the waterfall Tinfos, where there is for industrial pur- 

 poses a three phase generator of about 2,000 kilowatt capacity, and 

 with a voltage of 5,000 between the phases. According to Dr. O. N. 

 Witt, the cost per horse power per year at Notodden is about |3.00, 

 or |4.02 per kilowatt, and that the possible production is 500 to 600 

 kilograms (1,100 to 1,320 lbs.) water free nitric acid per kilowatt 

 year. The average daily output, however, is reckoned to be 1,500 

 kilograms (3,300 lbs.) water free nitric acid. 



Comparing the cost of production at Notodden with that of the 

 Lovejoy and Bradley Co., at Niagara we have: At Notodden one 

 kilogram year power — 14.02. When 2,000 kilowatts are used the 

 daily production of nitric acid is 3,300 lbs. (1,500 kgs.), or in other 

 words, 600 lbs. water free acid are produced per kilowatt year at a 

 cost of 4.02 dollars. One pound water free acid, according to that, 

 costs 0.67 cent for power of production, and one pound 70 per cent, 

 acid about half that amount. It is estimated that, at Niagara, it 

 cost»'5 the Lovejoy and Bradley Co. 1.6 cent for power for one pound 

 70 per cent, nitric acid produced, when the kilowatt per year was 

 20.00 dollars. Besides having cheaper power at Notodden, than at 

 Niagara, the machinery and apparatus are less costly in the Birke- 

 land and Eyde method than in the Lovejoy and Bradley one, hence 

 the success of the former process. 



This new fertilizer which is called Calcium nitrate, also Lime ni- 

 trate, is not to be confounded with the substance called "Lime nit- 

 rogen" which is calcium cyanamid. The fertilizing quality of the 

 calcium nitrate has been tested in different countries as Norway, 

 Sweden, Denmark, Germany and France, by both pot and field ex- 

 periments. The results of the experiments show that this nitro- 

 gen fertilizer is all that could possibly be expected of it. Its fer- 

 tilizing value, pound for pound of nitrogen, was found to be equal 

 to that of Chili saltpeter. In a number of cases where the soil was 

 poor in lime it even surpassed the Chili saltpeter, and this is only 

 reasonable to expect on account of the lime it added to the soil. 

 A few experiments showed less increase in yield for the lime nitrate 

 than for Chili saltpeter. It was tried with oats, barley, hay, beets, 

 mustard, potatoes and other crops on a great variety of soils. If 

 any particular kind of plants did show a greater liking for this 

 material than the others, it was the mustard which in nearly every 

 case gave much greater yield with calcium nitrate than with Chili 

 saltpeter. 



It can now be said: The nitrogen problem has been successfully 

 solved, it remains only to develop large enough and numerous fac- 

 tories to supply the needed quantity. 



