132 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE 



Commission acted in an advisory capacity to the Secretary 

 throughout the war. 



During the summer of 1917 a Nitrate Division was organized 

 in the Ordnance Department; and contracts were made for 

 the construction of two fixation-plants. The first one of these 

 arranged for was a synthetic-process plant to be built at Shef- 

 field, Alabama, by the Government with the cooperation of the 

 General Chemical Company, employing the recently disclosed 

 process of that company. It was to have a capacity of 20,000 

 tons of ammonium nitrate a year. This plant was constructed 

 during the following year ; and one of the three units was com- 

 pleted before the armistice was signed. Its continuous opera- 

 tion was, however, prevented by difficulties which had not 

 then been overcome. 



The second fixation plant was built at Muscle Shoals, Ala- 

 bama, for the government by the American Cyanamid Com- 

 pany. It is the largest, and doubtless the most perfect, 

 cyanamide-process plant ever constructed. It is designed for 

 the production of ammonium nitrate, and has a capacity, of 

 110,000 tons of that material per year. It was already partly 

 in operation at the time of the armistice, but has since been 

 shut down, pending decision as to the practicability of manu- 

 facturing nitrogen-products for fertilizer use upon a paying 

 basis. 



As the American Army grew in size, with still larger in- 

 creases in prospect, the need of ammonium nitrate became 

 still more pressing ; and the construction of two new cyanamide- 

 process plants, each with a capacity of 55,000 tons of am- 

 monium nitrate per year, was begun in the summer of 1918. 

 These were located near Toledo and near Cincinnati, Ohio, 

 where surplus municipal power was available. The construc- 

 tion was suspended, and the structures were salvaged when 

 the armistice was declared. 



As in many other fields involving the applications of science, 

 the war demands have given a great stimulus to the develop- 



