February 24, 192 1] 



NATURE 



French Chemical Industry during the War. 



T N the November-December issue of the Bulletin 

 ■*• de la Sociiti d' Encouragement pour I'lnJus- 

 trie nationale Prof. Haller gives a detailed and 

 interesting- account of the way in which the 

 requirements of the fighting forces in munitions 

 were met, and of the activities of French chemists 

 in extending, improving, and creating processes 

 for the manufacture of the necessary materials 

 on the large scale. 



The official policy before the war was to lay 

 in stocks of explosives sufficient, in the judgment 

 of the military authorities, to last out a " short, 

 sharp war." The phenol required was obtained 

 from Germany. In the middle of September, 

 1914, the use of explosives by the artillery was 

 exceeding very considerably the amount estimated 

 bv the militarv authorities, and it was necessary 

 to provide daily 40,000-50,000 75-mm. cartridges 

 and to make schneiderite and ammonium per- 

 chlorate for trench mortars. The need for ex- 

 plosives continually increased, and it became evi- 

 dent that the character of the war was not at all 

 like that for which the country had been prepared. 

 A great national effort was required, and the part 

 which the chemists of France played in this can 

 he appreciated from the following table, giving 

 the requirements of the Army in metric tons per 

 dav : 



Provided in stocks accumulated. 



.^fter .April, 19 18, the requisitions for explo- 

 sives amounted to about 390 tons per day. 



Sulphuric Acid. — Before the war there were 

 87 scattered works for the manufacture of sul- 

 phuric acid, producing 13,500,000 tons of 53° Be. 

 acid, of which 975,000 tons were used for the 

 manufacture of superphosphates and the rest con- 

 centrated to 66° acid. This output was reduced 

 by 15—20 per cent, by enemy occupation of terri- 

 tory. The production of explosives called for 

 large quantities of concentrated acid, and steps 

 were taken to force the production of the chambers 

 from 5-6 kg. of acid per cu. rn. to 7-8 kg., and 

 to increase the Kessler and Gaillard concentrating 

 plant in the ratio of i to 20. The use of 

 acid was also restricted in industry, and nitre- 

 cake began to be used in August, 191 5. The 

 Volvic lava of Puy-de-D6me proved invaluable in 

 the construction of concentrating apparatus. In 

 addition, there were needed for the transport of 

 acid 2000 20-ton tank wagons, 600 platforms for 

 which were made in England and Spain. 



Oleum containing 20 per cent, of sulphur trioxide 

 was exclusivelv used, the consumption amounting 

 NO. 2678, VOL. 106] 



20,000 

 19,000 

 18,000 



to 1.5—1-9 tons per ton of nitrocellulose, and 2.2 

 tons per ton of trinitrotoluene. The oleum was, at 

 the outbreak of war, made in a few works only, 

 one of which, at Thann (Alsace), came under fire in 

 1914, and was transported by night to Saint 

 Denis, where it was re-erected and came into 

 operation in igi6. All the common processes 

 (Tentelew, Grillo, and Mannheim included) were 

 used, and a monthly output of 21,000-22,000 tons 

 was secured. New works were put in hand, and 

 in the meantime oleum was imported from 

 .\merica. The monthly consumption of sulphuric 

 acid and oleum was as follows, in metric tons : — 



66^^ Be. acid ao per cent, oleum 



February, 1915 6,000 1,000 



January, 1916 42,000 5)O0o 



January, 1917 80,000 



January, 19 18 60,000 



June, 1918 40,000 



Nitric acid was produced before the war almost 

 exclusively from Chile nitre by the retort process, 

 and during the war great extensions of these 

 plants were made. The stock of nitre at the end 

 of 1915 amounted to 90,000 tons; it increased 

 during 1916, but from the beginning of 1917, 

 when the submarine campaign was begun, the 

 stocks of nitre diminished. In 1917 numerous 

 ships laden with nitre were torpedoed. On 

 account of the large amounts of raw material 

 (coal, pyrites, and nitre) required in the manufac- 

 ture of explosives, necessitating great shipping 

 demands, it was decided in 1917 to ask the Ameri- 

 can Government to supply explosives ready-made. 

 A programme was agreed upon, but the actual 

 deliveries from .-America fell far short of the 

 promises. Help was also given by Great Britain. 

 The consumption of nitre and nitric acid (calcu- 

 lated as sodium nitrate) in metric tons per month 

 was as follows : — 



January, 191 5, 3,600 

 August, 191 5, 9,600 



March, 1916, 25,000 

 July, 1917, 42,000 



On account of the transport and storage difficul- 

 ties it was decided to produce nitric acid by syn- 

 thetic methods. These had an additional advan- 

 tage, i.e. the economy in sulphuric acid which 

 would otherwise be required in decomposing the 

 nitre, which was even more important than the 

 nitric acid. Before the war synthetic nitric acid was 

 made by the Pauling arc process at La-Roche-de- 

 Rame at the rate of 2 tons of 50 per cent, acid per 

 day. This was continued, but a new factory on 

 the Birkeland-Eyde principle was erected by the 

 Societe nont^gienne de I'azote at Soulom, utilis- 

 ing 12,000 kw. from the hydro-electric installation 

 in the Hautes Pyr^n(5es of the Compagnie des 

 chemins de fer du Midi. This works delivered 

 300 tons of nitric acid a month, partly as nitrates. 

 The ammonia oxidation process was also largely 

 used, the ammonia being derived from cyanamide. 

 The first works was installed at the Poudrerie 

 nationale d'Angoulfime. Carbide was imported 



