PRODUCTION OF NITRIC ACID BY ELECTRIC ACTION 313 



now sold under the trade name, of "Ferrodur." Dr. Reininger, 

 chief chemist of the well-known tool-steel and machine works of 

 Ludwig Loewe, first recognized this property of cyanamid and 

 called attention to the extremely uniform action of this new 

 hardening material, which proves useful especially at such tem- 

 peratures at which a uniform introduction of carbon into iron 

 heretofore met with difficulties. 



6. For the manufacture of urea a small plant is already in 

 operation in which the calcium cyanamid is treated in a suitable 

 way with acids and immediately changed into solutions of urea, 

 which may be easily crystallized. 



273. Production of Nitric Acid by Electric Action. This sub- 

 ject has been largely studied in many parts of the world, 

 and in this country at Niagara Falls works of consid- 

 erable magnitude have been erected for the production of nitric 

 acid under electric influence, the electric power being generated 

 by the water of Niagara Falls. 793 



The Atmospheric Product Company at Niagara Falls installed 

 upon the methods of Bradley and Lovejoy gave, at first, appar- 

 ently satisfactory results per kilowatt in the production of nitric 

 acid. This method, however, necessitated apparatus of a very 

 complicated character in order to insure its industrial success. 

 For this reason, since the summer of 1904 it has not been operated 

 for the production of nitric acid. The company had hoped to 

 utilize 1 5o,ooo-horse power furnished by Niagara Falls, 

 and expected, therefore, to make a sufficient quantity of 

 nitrate of soda for the world's supply. It is possible 

 that the time may come when the utilization of 150,000- 

 horse power will accomplish this result, but the experience so 

 far obtained at Niagara does not bear out the hopes of its im- 

 mediate fulfilment. While these experiments were conducted at 

 Niagara Falls, Kowalski and Moscicki built a factory at Fribourg 

 for the manufacture of nitric acid by electricity. They used 

 alternating currents of very high tension, from 50 to 75 thou- 

 sand volts. The electrodes employed were of aluminum. This 

 factory, however, does not appear to have had very much 

 greater success commercially than the one at Niagara Falls. 

 79 a Grandean, La Production lectrique de 1'Acide nitrique, 1906. 



