414 



Popular Science Monthly 



gxxncotton cake from the top, the water are not only able to make all the nitro 



beig forced down ahead of the alcohol 

 until it is driven entirely out at the bot- 

 tom, and alcohol takes the place of the 

 water. 



This is called the replacement process, 

 and was discovered by Francis G. du 

 Pont. It is very important. 



Making cotton contraband of war does 

 not prevent the Germans from making 

 guncotton from other materials. When 

 wood fiber or fiber oljtained from grass 



Cotton nitrated and ready to be 

 transformed into smokeless powder 

 (nitrocellulose). Grains of smoke- 

 less powder (nitrocellulose) are per- 

 forated so that they can bum inside 

 as well as outside, thus controlling 

 the rate of gas production 



is treated with nitric acid it also becomes 

 a kind of gtmcotton. The German chem- 

 ists are very well able to make their gun- 

 cotton, and consequently their gunpow- 

 der and high explosives, from the trees 

 of the forest. 



But nitric acid also is contraband of 

 war. How then are the Germans to get 

 their nitric acid? 



Before the outbreak of the European 

 \\^ar the Germans had anticipated the 

 present blockade and prepared for it. 

 The German chemists and scientists had 

 developed a very practical, very efficient 

 and cheap method of producing nitro 

 compounds from th'e air, nitric acid 

 among them, by means of the electric 

 current. 



I understand that todav the Germans 



compounds they need for the purposes 

 of explosives, both high explosives and 

 smokeless powder, but also what they 

 require for fertilizers for the farmers. 



With a nation of scientists, chemists 

 and inventors like the Germans, it is 

 entirely impossible to stop them from 

 producing explosives in any quantity 

 they may desire, entirely independent of 

 any class of imported materials, be- 

 cause although the English may blockade 

 the seas they cannot establish a blockade 

 between the genius of the German 

 scientists and the German govern- 

 ment. 



It is very curious how the trials 



of war often result in the most 



beneficial effects upon a nation. 



When the English established 



A their famous blockade under their 



Continental system in Napoleon's time, 

 the French were compelled to resort to 

 some other means than importation to 

 get their sugar. Consequently, they de- 

 veloped the sugar beet, and planted it in 

 enormous quantities, with the result, that 

 France introduced the sugar beet in- 

 dustry, which has been of vast im- 

 portance to that nation ever since. 



Likewise, the English blockade against 

 Germany today is compelling the Ger- 

 mans to develop their internal industries 

 in a most phenomenal way. They have 

 solved the nitric acid problem, and very 

 likely they will continue, after the war 

 is over, to make their nitric acid and 

 other nitro compounds from air. What 

 is more, they will probably compete suc- 

 cessfullv with the natural nitrate of Chile. 



