66 



NATURE 



[September 26, 1918 



i,, 1 1. ii e a fresh lol of seed which; 



I iih buried in the soil fur a quartet 



tained its gei minating capai il \ , 

 John Parkin. 



I I ton, < 'umberland, 

 5 ptember 9 



Rock-disintegration by Salts, 

 eference in Nature for Septembei 19, p. 50; 

 to Mr. J. T. Jutson's paper dealing with the influence 

 rystallisation ol soluble salts in promoting tha 

 weathering of rocks reminds me of II Fungo, art 

 isolated mushroom-shaped rock opposite Laced 

 'lmeno, on the north shore of [schia. Formed of 

 porous volcanic tuff, the sea-water rapidl) ascendf 

 by capillarity, and, being 1 iraporated, large crystals 

 of salt are produced on the face of the rock. As these 

 natural processes are most active over an area about 

 midwa) between the sea and the summit, the sides 

 there are being hollowed out verj rapidly, large Hakes 

 df rmk constantly falling. 



In 1892 the late Dr.Johnston-Lavis gave meaphoto^ 

 graph of, and much valuable information respecting 

 This rock. ( • ( VK1 s-Wilson. 



September 20. 



GERMAN INDUSTRY AND THE WAR. 



A RECENT issue of the Bulletin de la Society 

 d' Encouragement pour 1' Industrie Nationals 1 

 —the French counterpart of our Journal of 

 the Society of Arts — contains two interesting 

 and important articles on the present' and 

 future influence of the war on German in- 

 dustry, written by MM. Jaureguy, Froment, 

 and Stephen, which make known a number 

 of facts concerning the means by which Germany 

 has attempted, with more or less success, to evade 

 efforts to isolate her during the war. In spite of 

 the rigour of the blockade to which she has been 

 subjected, there can be little doubt that, thanks 

 to the knowledge, skill, and ingenuity of her 

 chemists and engineers, encouraged and aided 

 I'm ancially by the State, she has hitherto managed 

 to provide herself with the means of carrying on 

 the war not only as regards munitions, in which 

 she has been eminent!) successful, but also in re- 

 , the alimentation of her people, in which, 

 irse, owing to the complexity of the problem 

 and to natural conditions beyond her control, her 

 mi.vi i 1 been less conspicuous. The new in- 

 dustries ■ I h have been created, and the great 

 develi hose already in existence, would, 



apparent Germany to prosecute the war 



almost indel The fletermining factors will 



be the exhau Lion of her man-power and the 

 gradual weaki I her moral. Both these 



causes are begi 11, and it is abundantly 



evident from a of signs that the Higher 



Command is re J he rot has set in. 



[unkerdom is now fi 1 ly for its existence. 



The steady and persis tire of the Allies 



will accelerate the advent ol itable ddb&cle. 



The end will come when tl 1 of the tier- 



man armies are driven back to the Rhine. 



, it I, >... • '. il'Encouragetnent pour [| i Xationnle. 



2552, VOL. I02] 



In the meantime il is instructive to note what 

 Germany is doing in her efforts to stave "H the 



disaster which assuredly awaits her. Il is always 

 wise to learn from vmir enemies when you can, 



and German) has much to teach us concerning the 

 manner in which Science may be made subser- 

 vient to War and to the conditions which 

 produces. 



We have ahead) dwelt, on former occasion-., 

 on the importance of the nitrogen problem in the 

 war, and have given some account, in the light 

 of such information as was available, ol the 

 met hods b) which < .erman\ has attempted to solve 

 it. The communication before US contains a number 

 of statistical statements respecting the development 



and present position of the several synthetic pro- 

 cesses of utilising atmospheric nitrogen whieh are 

 ol interest at I his present juncture. It appeals 

 that the Birkeland-Eyde process, which in tgi | 

 furnished Germany with some 5000 tons of cal- 

 cium nitrate from the Norwegian factories, is still 

 worked to a limited extent in Saxony, where a 

 manufactory was established before the war at 

 Muldenstein, employing lignite as a source of 

 power. Ostwald's process of oxidising ammonia 

 catalytically or rather the Frank-Caro modifica- 

 tion of it — is in operation at Spandau, Hocbst, 

 Griesheim, and at works belonging to the Badische 

 Aniline Company. Kayser, at Spandau, employs 

 apparatus capable of oxidising 370 kilos, of 

 ammonia in twenty-four hours with a yield 

 of from qo to 95 per cent. The Badische 

 Company makes use of plant constructed 

 by the Bcrlin-Anhaltische Maschinenbau, oxidis- 

 ing about 750 kilos. of ammonia in 

 twenty-four hours. The heat furnished by the 

 reai lion suffices to maintain the catalyser at a 

 constant temperature of 700 C. The main 1 ata- 

 lytic agent is said to be one of the oxides "I the 

 iron group containing bismuth or one of its salts. 

 During 1915 some thirtv installations of this sys- 

 tem were erected, each capable of oxidising more 

 than, 12 million kilos, of ammonia annually. 

 In the more recent forms of the apparatus the 

 yield has been increased to 17 million kilos. Bi 

 the war the main source of supply of ammonia 

 was from coke-ovens and from the gasworks, 

 which in the aggregate furnished about 500,000 

 tons of sulphate of ammonia, of whieh agricul- 

 ture absorbed 450,000 tons. 



The llaber process of combining nitrogen, ob- 

 tained by the fractional distillation of liquid air, 

 with hydrogen procured by the electrolysis of 

 water, as worked out by Bosch and Mittasch, 

 chemists of the Badische Company, was already 

 in operation before the war, bill has now been 



greatly extended. The factor) .n Oppau has 

 been much enlarged at the Government expense, 

 and other factories have been erected. The capi- 

 tal of the Badische Compan) has been increasi 

 from 14 In (10 million marks. The firms 

 of Bayer, Meister Lucius, c'asclla, Weiler-Ter- 

 meer, Kalle, and the Griesheim-Elektro'n Company 

 have also augmented their capital, and are work- 



