570 



NATURE 



[Jais'Uary 29, 1920 



equivalent to about one-eighth of the present home 

 production of ammonium sulphate, the necessary 

 water-power being obtained in Scotland, or from 

 a large steam-power station. 



2. That the synthetic ammonia (Haber) process 

 should be established forthwith on a commercial 

 unit scale and extended as rapidly as possible, as 

 a post-war measure up to a minimum manufactur- 

 ing scale of 10,000 tons of ammonia (equivalent to 

 40,000 tons of ammonium sulphate) per annum ; 

 and it suggests that the factory at Billingham- 

 on-Tees, which the Government, in 1918, decided 

 to erect, mainly for the manufacture of ammonium 

 nitrate, might be utilised for the purpose. 



3. That an ammonia oxidation plant should be 

 established in conjunction with the synthetic 

 ammonia factory on a scale sufficient to produce 

 10,000 tons of 95 per cent, nitric acid, or its 

 equivalent in nitrates, and that the plant should 

 be designed to utilise either synthetic or by- 

 product ammonia. 



4. That steps should be taken with the view of 

 conserving and increasing the output of combined 

 nitrogen from existing by-product ammonia indus- 

 tries, of securing the better utilisation of the 

 national resources in coal, and of reducing the con- 

 sumption of rana coal as fuel. (The various steps 

 which it is suggested should be taken to secure 

 these ends are set forth.) 



5. The Committee further recommends that 

 certain nitrogen fixation processes — e.g. the 

 Hausser process, certain cyanide proces.ses, and 

 sulphate recovery processes — should be systematic- 

 ally investigated on a small works scale. It 

 understands that the question of low-temperature 

 carbonisation of coal is being investigated by the 

 Fuel Research Board. It suggests that the 

 researches on the nitrogen problem initiated 

 during the war should be continued under the 

 auspices of the Government for the general 

 benefit of the country, and that the results of the 

 researches carried on up to the present should 

 be edited, and published at the earliest possible 

 moment, subject to such reservations as may be 

 considered necessary by the Government, members 

 of the Research Staff of the Munitions Inventions 

 Department being allowed to communicate to 

 scientific societies the details of their work, 

 subject to such reservations as may be considered 

 necessary by the Government. 



The Committee -concludes its report with a 

 recommendation that a co-ordinated policy should 

 be framed by an Imperial authority for safeguard- 

 ing the future nitrogen requirements of the 

 Empire. It points out that, so far as the United 

 Kingdom is concerned, nitrogen fixation and 

 allied industries will constitute a new "key" in- 

 dustry. The Committee is of opinion that the 

 initiation and development of the industry will 

 require the active support of the Government. 



It is not to be anticipated, in the present state 

 of the political position, and in view of the large 

 arrears in its programme of reconstruction with 

 which the Government is faced, that any imme- 

 diate consideration will be given by it to the 



NO. 2622, VOL. 104] 



Committee's recommendations, or that any prac- 

 tical steps will be taken to give effect to them 

 beyond attempting to dispose of the Billingham- 

 on-Tees property, and possibly permitting the 

 Research Section of the Munitions Inventions 

 Department to continue its investigations. We 

 understand that negotiations on behalf of an 

 important group of firms are in progress for the 

 purchase of the Billingham works. But whether 

 the Haber process or the American modification 

 of it will be carried on there remains to be seen. 

 Within the last few days it has been announced 

 that an influential financial syndicate is about to 

 establish a factory in the neighbourhood of Mary- 

 port, West Cumberland, to work the Georges 

 Claude process, which is already in operation at 

 Montereau, near Fontainebleau, by which it is 

 claimed that the production of ammonia is in- 

 creased fourfold as compared with the Haber 

 process, as worked by the Badische Anilin & 

 Soda-Fabrik at Oppau, near Ludwigshafen. The 

 first unit of the synthetic plant will be of sufficient 

 size to produce the equivalent of- 50,000 tons o" 

 sulphate of ammonia per annum. If this consum- 

 mation is reached it will go far to solve the 

 problem which the Nitrogen Products Committee 

 has been considering with such thoroughness and 

 care during the last three or four years. 



EXPLORATION IN TIBET AND 

 NEIGHBOURING REGIONS.^ 

 r^OL. LENOX CONYNGHAM has done right 

 ^ good service to the science of geography by 

 compiling in one comprehensive volume the com- 

 plete story of the early exploration of the greal 

 Tibetan uplands before that land of mystery and 

 romance became attractive to European geo- 

 graphers, who evolved the map of Tibet as we 

 now know it on a more scientific basis. It would 

 indeed have been useful if the brief preface to 

 the volume had included a somewhat more de- 

 tailed explanation of the means and the methods 

 employed by these eaily native surveyors in those 

 amazing journeys which gave us the first (and 

 sometimes the last) outlines of Tibetan geo- 

 graphy, and laid the foundations for subsequent 

 map superstructure. The narratives of the in- 

 dividual explorers are given in chronological order, 

 commencing with the journey of Pandit Nain 

 Singh, in 1865, from Nepal to Lhasa, and ter- 

 minating with that of Atma Ram, who accom- 

 panied our first adventurer, Capt. (now Sir 

 Hamilton) Bower, when he traversed Tibet from 

 Kashmir to China in 1891-2, following a route 

 which was not very far removed from that of 

 Nain Singh in earlier days. Then for the first 

 time were the eyes, not only of geographers, but 

 also of archaeologists, opened to the immense 

 wealth of scientific and historical knowledge 

 which was to be gathered in that remote part of 

 Asia. 



» "Records of the Survey of India." Vo'. viii. (in two parts). Parti., 

 " Rxplomrton in Tihel and Neigbbourine Regions, 1865-79 " Pp. xi+2i3-t- 

 charts. Part ii , "1879-92." Pp. xi-^JTS-<II^ charts, (Dehra Dun: 

 Office of the Trigonometrical Survey, 1915.) Price 4 rupeei or 55. 4</. eicb 

 part. 



