SOME RECENT TRIUMPHS 



other hand, the competition of the two rival artificial 

 manures is likely to diminish as the years pass on. 



"The new industry is, therefore, likely to be a per- 

 manent addition to the list of electro-metallurgical 

 processes. But for the present its success can only 

 be expected in centres of very cheap water-power, as, 

 for instance, in those localities where the electric horse- 

 power year can be generated and transmitted to the 

 cyanamide works at an inclusive cost of 2 ($10) or 

 under." 



ELECTRICAL ENERGY AND HIGH TEMPERATURES 



It will be observed that the active instrumentality 

 by which the industrial feats thus far outlined have 

 been accomplished, is that weird conveyer of energy 

 known as electricity. In the case of the aluminum man- 

 ufacture, electricity operated according to the strange 

 process of electrolysis, in virtue of which certain atoms 

 of matter move to one pole of a battery while other 

 atoms move to the opposite pole, thus effecting a sep- 

 aration the result being, in the case in question, the 

 deposit of pure aluminum at the negative pole. In 

 the case of the nitrogen factories, however, the manner 

 of operation of the electric current is quite different. 

 Electricity, as such, is not really concerned in the mat- 

 ter; the efficiency of the current depends solely upon 

 the production of heat. For example, any other 

 agency that brought the atmosphere to a corresponding 

 temperature would be equally efficacious in igniting 

 the nitrogen. But in actual practice, for this particu- 



[313] 



