January 22, 1920] 



NATURE 



533 



THE NITROGEN PROBLEMS 

 I. 



""PHE Nitrogen Products Committee was ap- 

 -*■ pointed in June, 1916, as a Committee of 

 the Advisory Panel of the Munitions Inventions 

 Department with the following terms of refer- 

 ence : — - 



To consider the relative advantages for this 

 rountry and for the Empire of the various methods 

 for the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen, from the 

 point of view of both war and peace purposes; to 

 ascertain their relative costs, and to advise on pro- 

 posals relevant thereto. 



To examine into the supply of the raw materials 

 required and into the utilisation of the by-products 

 obtained. Since some of the processes depend on 

 the provision of supplies of cheap power, to ascer- 

 tain how this can best be obtained. 



To consider what steps can be taken to con- 

 serve and increase the national resources in nitro- 

 gen-bearing compounds, and to limit their 

 wastage. 



To carry out the experimental work necessary 

 to arrive at definite conclusions as to the prac- 

 ticability and efficiency of such processes as may 

 appear to the Committee to be of value, and to 

 advise as to starting operations on an industrial 

 ^.!-ale. 



It will be seen that the terms of reference are 

 pretty wide, and the Committee, as is stated, 

 have, moreover, interpreted them "in a liberal 

 manner." The inquiry accordingly has resulted 

 practically into a detailed ej^amination of the 

 nitrogen problem in its relation to the military, 

 agricultural, and industrial requirements of the 

 United Kingdom and other parts of the British 

 Empire. The Committee submitted an interim 

 report in February, 1917. As the conclusions and- 

 recommendations of that report are closely con- 

 nected with the final conclusions and recommenda- 

 tions of the Committee, they are incorporated in 

 the present report. The final report, with its 

 appendices, charts, and diagrams, is a somewhat 

 formidable document of upwards of 350 pages, the 

 report itself occupying no fewer than 137 pages. It 

 has been somewhat loosely constructed, and there 

 is a certain amount of recapitulation, which was, j 

 perhaps, inevitable when regard is had to the j 

 many points of view the subject presents. But of 

 its great value there can be no doubt. Consider 



Indeed, its appeal is so wide, and the whole ques 

 tion affects so many interests, that there is a fear' 

 that no immediate action wiU come of it, on tfie" 

 principle that what is everybody's business is ncr- 

 body's business. It is pre-eminently a national- 

 question, and demands the consideration of states"- 

 men. But in the present condition of the politicdt; 

 and industrial atmosphere we cannot hope that it' 

 will receive this. The State will wait upon private 

 enterprise, and private enterprise will wait upcfff 

 the State, each trusting, like Mr. Micawber, thai 

 " something may turn up " to avert the main con- 

 clusions to which the report inevitably points. 

 But in view of the menace which will come from 

 a resu.scitated Germany, it would be nothing less 

 than criminal folly to neglect the warning which 

 the evidence now summarised conveys. Our 

 chemical manufacturers and our producers of fer- 

 tilisers must be brought to realise that synthetic 

 nitrogen products have come to say. The davs 

 of the Chile nitrate industry are apparently num- 

 bered. If we accept the estimates of the Com- 

 mittee, retort nitric acid cannot, even in this 

 country, be produced so cheaply as the synthetic 

 product, and synthetic fertilisers are serious com- 

 petitors with the natural nitrate and by-product 

 sulphate of ammonia. 



It would be impossible in the space at disposal 

 to deal in detail with the many points and issues 

 raised by the Committee's inquiry, and set out 

 at length in the report. We must content our- 

 selves, therefore, with a summary statement of 

 the principal conclusions at which it has^ 

 arrived. 



AVith respect to the world's demand and pro- 

 duction of nitrogen compounds before the war, rt' 

 is shown that the world's consumption in 1913 

 was almost double what it was in 1903. The 

 demand up to this time was practically wholly met 

 by Chile nitrate and by-product ammonia, the 

 nitrogen fixation processes contributing only a 

 small, but still growing, proportion, notwithstand- 

 ing their notable development during the years 

 1903-13- '-'P to 1914 the market price of com- 

 bined nitroL;en was governed by that of Chile 

 nitrate, and was characterised by a general up- 

 ward tendency, showing that the supply was not 

 in excess of the demand. At the same time, syn- 

 thetic nitrogen products could be placed upon the 

 market at prices which competed favourably with 

 ammonia nitrogen and nitrate nitrogen. ' That 



ing the difficulty and complexity of the inquiry, it ' these fixation industries were in a, healthy con- 



cannot be said to have been unduly protracted, 

 and, as the result of the 106 sittings of the Com- 

 mittee and its Sub-Committees, we have now pre- 

 sented to us the most complete and compre- 

 hensive statement of the problem, as it affects this 

 country, which has yet appeared. 



The report will doubtless receive the most seri- 

 ous study, for it deals with matters of the gravest 

 importance— the world's production of food, our 

 industrial supremacy, and our national security. 



1 "Minklry of Munitions of War. MunUions Inventions Deoarlment 

 Nitrogen Products Cotn'n ttee. Fin.il Reoorl " Pn „ii,„ Ti ■ 

 H.M. Stationery Office, ,„»). Cmd .f.^'Tric. J.'^n.t.'^'"- ^''""''''"^ 



NO. 2621, VOL. 104] 



dition was shown by the fact that they had ex- 

 panded more than 150 per cent, during the perioql, 

 1903-13, or more than double the expansion 

 during the same interval of the Chile nitrate 

 industry. . ■ 



The war has profoundly modified the relative 

 position of the natural and synthetic nitrogen 

 industries. Before the end of 1914 the productive 

 capacity of the nitrogen fixation installations repre- 

 sented 10 per cent, of the world's supply of com-, 

 bined nitrogen; at the present time it is about. 

 28 per cent. The post-war production of am-; 

 monium sulphate, both synthetic and by-product,, 



