SOME RECENT TRIUMPHS 



new gas combines with a portion of water to form 

 nitric acid, each molecule of which is a compound of 

 one atom of hydrogen, one atom of nitrogen, and three 

 atoms of oxygen ; and nitric acid, as everyone knows, 

 is a very active substance, as marked in its eager- 

 ness to unite with other substances as pure nitrogen 

 is in its aloofness. 



In the commercial nitrogen-plant at Notodden, the 

 transformed nitrogen compound is brought into con- 

 tact with a solution of milk of lime, with the resulting 

 formation of nitrate of lime (calcium nitrate), a substance 

 identical in composition except that it is of greater 

 purity with the product of the nitrate beds of Chili. 

 Stored in closed cans as a milky fluid, the transformed 

 atmosphere is now ready for the market. A certain 

 amount of it will be used in other manufactories for 

 the production of various nitrogenous chemicals; but 

 the bulk of it will be shipped to agricultural districts 

 to be spread over the soil as fertilizer, and in due course 

 to be absorbed into the tissues of plants to form the 

 food of animals and man. 



ANOTHER METHOD OF NITROGEN FIXATION 



Just at the time when the Scandinavian experimenters 

 were solving the problem of securing nitrogen from the 

 air, other experimenters in Italy, operating along to- 

 tally different lines, reached the same important result. 

 The process employed by these investigators is known 

 as the Frank and Caro process, and it bids fair to rival 

 the Norwegian method as a commercial enterprise. 



[309] 



