7O 
NATURE 
[Marcu 18, 1915 

those high explosives upon which, her artillery 
depends. We stated further that Germany’s stock 
of the materials which are required to produce 
oil of vitriol is very limited, her sources’of internal 
supply being almost negligible in comparison with 
the huge amounts demanded by her industries. An 
article by Dr. Reusch in a recent issue of the 
Chemiker Zeitung (vol. xxxviii., pp. 1241-43) is 
interesting at the present moment as showing that 
Germany is beginning to feel the pinch of necessity 
as regards this substance, and that, in view of 
the “reprisals” with which she is now threatened, 
as a consequence of her policy of “piracy and 
pillage,” this necessity will become increasingly 
stringent. 
We learn from Dr. Reusch’s article that all 
export of sulphuric acid, sulphuric anhydride, and 
sulphurous acid from Germany is now prohibited. 
Before the war began she was a large importer of 
oil of vitriol—the imports in 1913 exceeding the 
exports by 65,289 metric tons—most of which 
came from Belgium, The total German production 
in 1912 is given as 1,649,681 metric tons, mostly 
made from pyrites, of which more than 80 per 
cent. was imported, mainly from Portugal, Spain, 
and France: Germany possesses deposits of this 
mineral, but they are of poor quality, and their 
working would present difficulties owing to 
scarcity of labour and other causes. She is now 
looking to Norway as a possible source, but if the 
policy indicated by Mr. Asquith is to be effective 
it should not be difficult to checkmate her action 
in this direction. 
Another source of supply consisted in the work 
ing-up of zinc-blende, largely carried on in Silesia, 
principally on imported material, of which about 
60 per cent. came from Australia alone. The only 
-other main source would be natural sulphur im- 
ported through Italy, and principally of Sicilian 
origin, but here again, if the policy of ‘reprisals ” 
is efficiently maintained, it should be readily pos- 
sible for us to deal with this means of supply. It is 
interesting, in this connection, to note that in this 
respect, history repeats itself. During the Napo- 
leonic wars the French occupied Sicily mainly with 
the view of cutting off our supply of sulphur for 
the manufacture of gunpowder in retaliation for 
our blockade of Pondicherry, upon which the 
enemy depended for his supply of nitre. 
The sulphuric acid required for the manufacture 
of explosives is mainly employed in the production 
of nitric acid from nitrates, and from the point 
of view of hampering Germany in providing herself 
with the munitions of war it would be equally, if 
not more, effective to cut off her supplies of 
nitrates. As regards imported nitrates, and par- 
ticularly Chile saltpetre, this may be practicable, 
and, indeed, cargoes of this material have already 
been stopped by our vessels on the high seas. But 
she has still certain internal sources of supply, as 
have most continental nations, and we now see 
that it is not for nothing that for some years past 
German chemists and engineers have, under the 
fostering influence of persons in high places, been 


processes of making ammonia and. of converting 
it into nitric acid and nitrates, largely by the aid 
of the water-power of Norway. 
Luckily for the Allies atthe present juncture, 
certain of these processes, such as that of Ostwald, 
have turned out to be hopeless commercial failures, 
but there are others which would appear to have 
in them the promise of eventual and permanent 
success. We learn that the German Government 
has just introduced a Bill into the Reichstag pro- 
viding for a State monopoly of the trade in nitrates 
for a period of seven years. The preamble explains 
that, at great expense, the Government has suc- 
ceeded, in consequence of thé ‘stoppage of imports 
of Chile saltpetre, in establishing a chemical in- 
dustry for the fixation of nitrates from the air, and 
that this industry is to be protected absolutely 
from all competition. Meanwhile, the price of 
nitrates, as of sulphuric acid, has steadily risen in 
Germany, and the shortage is becoming more 
and more pronounced. The process of deple- 
tion of sulphuric acid may be delayed by the 
action of the Government, which may be driven 
ultimately to commandeer all supplies in the 
interests of national defence. For the moment 
a certain amount is liberated in consequence of 
the diminished activity of various branches of 
chemical industry, as, for example, the dyestuff 
factories, and owing to the economy which has 
been enjoined in the manufacture of superphos- 
phate manures, partly in consequence of the in- 
creased production of basic slag, due to the 
expansion of the iron industry. 

PROF., H. W. LLOYD TANNER, F.R:S. 
ROF. H. W. LLOYD TANNER, whose death 
on March 5 we announced with regret last 
week, was born at Burham, in Kent, on 
January 17, 1851. He received his school educa- 
tion at Bristol Grammar School, from which he 
proceeded to Jesus College, Oxford. At Oxford 
he came under the stimulating influence of Mr. 
John Griffiths, the mathematical tutor of his 
college. After leaving Oxford he held some educa- 
tional appointments until the year 1883, when the 
University College of South Wales and Mon- 
mouthshire was founded at Cardiff. Of this col- 
lege he was appointed Professor of Mathematics 
and Astronomy, and he occupied the chair at 
Cardiff until his resignation in 1909. - 
Cardiff University College now forms one of the 
constituent colleges of the University of Wales, 
but the Charter of the University was not granted 
until ten years after the opening of the college 
at Cardiff. In the interval the students of the 
college were prepared for the degrees of the 
University of London, and the courses of lectures 
in mathematics and other subjects were necessarily 
framed to meet the requirements of that Univer- 
sity. After the foundation of the University of 
Wales the professors in the Welsh colleges enjoyed 
a degree of freedom in the choice and scope of 
the subjects they taught which had been denied 
straining every nerve to perfect possible synthetic ‘ to them when their students were reading for the 
NO. 2368, VOL. 95] 
