432 
NATURE 
[FEBRUARY I, 1917 
viz. the are method, the cyanamide process, and 
the Haber process. It is with the working and 
the results of these processes that Dr. Gilbert’s 
report is particularly concerned. In what follows 
we purpose to summarise, as briefly as possible, 
the main conclusions to which his critical examina- 
tion leads him. 
The arc method in its present state of efficiency 
requires from 2°75 to 3 h.p.-year of electric 
power per ton of nitric acid yield. Having regard 
to conditions in the United States, the 2°75 h.p. 
needed for the fixation of the nitrogen in one ton 
of nitric acid costs in power-expense alone more 
than 4o dollars per ton of product. Inasmuch as 
the fertiliser equivalent in Chile saltpetre is already 
available at about the same price, the arc method 
is not commercially feasible under present con- 
ditions in America. Notwithstanding this, the 
U.S. Government is said to be contemplating a 
twenty million dollar project for atmospheric 
nitrogen fixation as a military measure. If this 
sum were put into power-site development it 
would furnish about £50,000 h.p., capable of 
yielding. about 50,000 tons of nitric acid, or only 
about a quarter of that needed in military emer- 
gency. 
power generation of about 600,000 h.p. would be 
needed, or some 50,000 h.p. more than the total 
Niagara power development. As a commercial 
proposition for peace-time working the arc method 
offers not a single advantage, and is of very 
doubtful benefit even as a measure of military 
preparedness. 
The cyanamide process yields three. main pro- 
ducts, viz. cyanamide, ammonia, and nitric acid, 
the nitric acid being the end product instead of 
the first, as in the arc method. Up to the 
nitric acid stage the power consumption is 
approximately 4 h.p.-year per ton of nitric acid, 
or about one-sixth to one-fifth of that of the arc 
method, and the normal peace-time first product 
is at once applicable to agricultural purposes. A 
consideration of all the circumstances makes it 
abundantly evident that the cyanamide process 
far outweighs in applicability, convenience, and 
economy the are method. When all is reckoned 
it requires only from three-fifths to two-thirds of 
the total power involved in the arc method manu- 
facture, in addition to the value of a product 
normally in demand as against one for which there 
is relatively very little constant requirement. 
The Haber process is exclusively worked in 
Germany. It is a catalytic process involving 
many technical difficulties which have hitherto pre- 
vented its extension even under present exigencies. 
Its production of ammonium sulphate is said to 
amount to 200,000 tons a year. Nothing is known 
as to comparative costs, but inasmuch as the 
process would seem not to have greatly extended, 
its permanent position is still open to doubt. 
The general conclusions at which Dr. Gilbert 
arrives are: (1) That the arc method has not thus 
far demonstrated its capacity to meet agricultural 
requirements at all, and defence requirements only 
very imperfectly. (2) Such knowledge as there 
is of the Haber process seems to show that its 
NO. 2466, VoL. 98] 
To satisfy Government requirements a’ 
| record of achievement is against it, and in any 
case it is unsuited to American conditions, at least 
in its present stage of development. (3) The 
cyanamide process is readily capable of a develop- 
ment which at once meets the requirements for a 
cheapened nitrogenous fertiliser, of which the 
nitrogen content can be converted into nitric acid. 
But whatever may be the relative value of these 
different synthetic processes, and whatever the 
future may have in store for them, Dr. Gilbert 
is evidently disposed to believe that it is by the 
systematic extension of the coking industry, and 
by the more rational treatment of our coal, so as 
to increase the yield of by-products, that the main 
increase in our supply of nitrogenous fertilisers is 
to be looked for immediately. He calculates that 
in America a total of about 700,000 tons of sul- 
phate of ammonia would be possible if all coking 
were of a by-product nature, and he confidently 
predicts that not far short of this amount will be 
reached when the ovens now in course of erection 
in the States are in full working order. In the 
meantime are we doing all that we can in this 
direction ? T. E. THORPE. 
LITERATURE AND SCIENCE IN 
EDUCATION. 
eee Dr. Johnson kept school at Lichfield 
; in 1736 he drew up a “Scheme for the 
Classes of a Grammar School,” which his~ bio- 
grapher, Boswell, inserted in the pages of the 
famous “Life” with the remark that “ Johnson — 
well knew the most proper course to be pursued 
in the instruction of youth.’”’ The scheme con- 
sisted of Latin accidence, translation, and syntax 
in the lower classes, with the addition of Greek 
in the third class.. No other subject was men- 
tioned. For a hundred years or more this was 
broadly the basis of the system adopted through- 
out English grammar schools, with the addition 
of a little arithmetic, geography, and history. 
Dr. Sleath, High Master of St. Paul’s School 
down to 1847, is reported to have said once to an 
inquiring parent: ‘“‘ Madam, at St. Paul’s we teach. 
only Latin and Greek. We give three half-holidays _ 
a week that boys may learn mathematics.” 
In the early fifties of the nineteenth century a 
little experimental science crept in almost shame- 
facedly, introduced by the peripatetic teacher with 
his box of tricks. But probably the first instance 
of a systematic teaching of science by resident 
teachers was at the well-known school at Queen- 
wood, Hants, with Frankland and Tyndall as the 
masters. This-was in 1847, but it was not until 
twenty years later that this example was followed 
in other schools. Then Clifton took the lead in 
1867, and was followed immediately by the Man- 
chester Grammar School. Since that day matters. 
have improved so substantially that there are few 
schools of any pretensions which do not possess a 
good laboratory and competent teachers. 
Such facts might seem to justify the question 
by representatives of the older subjects: ‘“‘ What 
more do you want, then, and what do you mean 
by the neglect of science?” The fact is that there 
