492 
NATURE 
[JuLy 11, 1912 
At Odda this nitrogen is made by the Linde distilla- 
tion process, but in one of the French factories the 
Claude process is used. 
Thirty tons of calcium cyanamide, containing 18 
per cent. of nitrogen, can be made in 196 furnaces 
per day of twenty-four hours. 
When it is turned out of the furnace the cyanamide 
looks like black clinker. After being broken up it is 
fed into jaw crushers, and then goes to roulette mills, 
where it is ground up fine for market. 
It is then packed in a paper-lined bag, which is in 
a jute bag. For tropical countries there are two outer 
jute bags. 
Recently, improvements have been introduced at the 
Odda Works, whereby with the same amount of 
power and labour the output has been increased from 
12,000 tons to 15,000 tons per annum. 
The furnaces are now being made to hold 450 kg. 
instead of 300 kg. Another improvement is that the 
cyanamide is treated with enough atomised water to 
reduce free carbide to less than 4 per cent. 
From the point of view of engineers in this country, 
the installation of A. G. Stickstoffdunger at Knap- 
Corbon pencil 
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Fic. 7-—Electric furnace for making calcium cyanamide. 
sack, in Germany, is perhaps the most interesting, 
because gas, generated from cheap brown coal, is 
used in gas engines to generate the electric current. 
Although calcium cyanamide is mostly employed as 
a manure, it has other uses. For example, by treat- 
ing with superheated steam, very pure sulphate of 
ammonia is obtained. Ammonium nitrate and di- 
cyandiamide are also made from it. 
Explosives. 
Although manures form the main outlet for the pro- 
ducts of these electric fixation of nitrogen processes, 
there are other important uses. 
At the Notodden Saltpetre Factory ammonium 
nitrate is made by bringing the nitric acid into con- 
tact with ammonia liquor from our English gasworks. 
The ammonia nitrate crystallises out, and when dry it 
contains 35 per cent. of nitrogen, and it sells in this 
country at about 27/. a ton. It is the principal con- 
stituent of many of the explosives for mines. 
Dicyandiamide, C,N,H,, which is made by treating 
calcium cyanamide with water, when it crystallises 
NO. 8, vot. 89] 
')'9 
into broad needles or prisms, is being used for mix- 
ing with explosives. It contains 66 per cent. of inert 
nitrogen, and is used for lowering the temperature of 
| the explosion. 
This is of importance, because ordnance powders 
rapidly destroy rifling in guns on account of the high 
temperature. The importance of this is shown by the 
statement made publicly in 1905 that the 12-in. gun 
Mark VIII. used on fifteen British battleships could 
not stand more than fifty rounds full charge. 
Nitric acid is, of course, the main constituent of 
gun-cotton, dynamite and smokeless powders, &c., 
and at the present time we are mainly dependent on 
Overseas supplies of raw material from which to make 
the acid. In case of war we should undoubtedly be in 
a very serious position, for whereas most Continental 
countries have plants for the fixation of nitrogen from 
the air, this country does not make a single ounce. 
It will be remembered that at the time of the 
Napoleonic wars the French had difficulty in obtaining 
saltpetre with which to make powder; it behoves us, 
therefore, not to be caught in the same predicament. 
A few rounds from a broadside of modern guns blow 
away into the air as much nitrogen as was used 
during the whole course of a war of the last century. 
The necessity of having factories where explosives can 
be made to any amount, and quite independently of 
raw materials from overseas, is therefore obvious. 
Even if the product could not at first compete in price 
with existing supplies, the fact that it was a necessary 
addition to our national assurance against war would 
justify the establishment of a works to fix the nitrogen 
of the air. 
Various Government factories for 
munitions of war do not pay from 
petitive point of view, yet everyone 
they must be kept up. 
the supply of 
a strictly com- 
recognises that 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 
BirMINGHAM.—At the Degree Congregation held 
on July 6, owing to the absence, through ill-health, 
of the Chancellor (the Rt. Hon. J. Chamberlain) and 
the Vice-Chancellor (Alderman C. G. Beale), the 
Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Alderman F. C. Clayton) pre- 
sided. The Dean of the Faculty of Science (Prof. 
J. H. Poynting, F.R.S.) was also unable to be pre- 
sent through indisposition. 
An honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred on 
Mr. W. E. Garforth, president of the Institution of 
Mining Engineers. The Principal presented Mr. 
Garforth as ‘‘one of the captains of a great and 
important industry, being managing director and 
general manager of large collieries in South York- 
shire. As an engineer, his energy and ability have 
been vigorously devoted to the progress of mining 
science. By his efforts in the systematic application 
of scientific principles to coal mining, he has rendered 
high service to the country, and has done much to 
further the safe working of mines; an honoured re- 
presentative of a great profession, himself an 
investigator and inventor.” 
The following were admitted to the degree of 
D.Sce.:—G. Barlow, C. L. Boulenger, G. A. 
Shakespear, A. J. Lotka, and M. Stuart. 
The Principal expressed the hearty thanks of the 
University to the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for his gift 
of the statue of King Edward VII., which had 
recently been unveiled by Mrs. Chamberlain, the wife 
of the Chancellor. He also referred to the extension 
of the work of the University in connection with the 
Workers’ Educational Association as ‘tan event 
which might have important consequences.” 
