232 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1914. 
ton than is the case with the more bulky calcium salt, under which 
form synthetic nitrates are now put into the market. 
Before leaving this subject, let us examine why Bradley and 
Lovejoy’s efforts came to a standstill where others succeeded. 
First of all, the cost of power at Niagara Falls is three to five times 
higher than in Norway, and although at the time this was not strictly 
prohibitive for the manufacture of nitric acid, it was entirely beyond 
hope for the production of fertilizers. The relatively high cost of 
power in our country is the reason why the cyanamide enterprise had 
to locate on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, and why, up till now, 
outside of an experimental plant in the South (a 4,000 horsepower 
installation in North Carolina, usmg the Pauling process), the whole 
United States has not a single synthetic nitrogen fertilizer works. 
The yields of the Bradley-Lovejoy apparatus were rather good. 
They succeeded in converting as much as 24 per cent of the air, which 
is somewhat better than their successors are able to accomplish. 
But their units, 12 kilowatts, were very much smaller than the 
1,000 to 3,000 kilowatts now used in Norway; they were also more 
delicate to handle, all of which made installation and operation 
considerably more expensive. 
However, this was the natural phase through which any pioneer 
industrial development has to go, and it is more than probable that 
in the natural order of events these imperfections would have been 
eliminated. 
But the killing stroke came when financial support was suddenly 
withdrawn. 
In the successful solution of similar industrial problems the origi- 
nators in Europe were not only backed by scientifically well-advised 
bankers, but they were helped to the rapid solution of all the side 
problems by a group of specially selected scientific collaborators, as 
well as by all the resourcefulness of well-established chemical 
enterprises. 
That such conditions are possible in the United States has been 
demonstrated by the splendid team work which led to the develop- 
ment of the modern tungsten lamp in the research laboratories of the 
General Electric Co., and to the development of the Tesla polyphase 
motor by the group of engineers of the Westinghouse Co. 
True, there are endless subjects of research and development which 
can be brought to success by the efforts of single independent inven- 
tors, but there are some problems of applied science which are so vast, 
so much surrounded with ramifying difficulties, that no one man, nor 
two men, however exceptional, can either furnish the brains or the 
money necessary for leading to success within a reasonable time. 
For such special problems the rapid cooperation of numerous experts 
and the financial resources of large establishments are indispensable. 
