356 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. YOL. XLV. No. 1163 



amounted to 760,000 tons of Chilean nitrate, 

 35,000 tons of Norwegian nitrate, 46,000 tons 

 of ammonium sulphate, and 30,000 tons of 

 cyanamide. In 1913 great efforts were devoted 

 in Germany to the preparation of materials 

 necessary for war, and no attempt was made 

 to conceal them. The German Ammonium 

 Sulphate Syndicate had a reserve of 43,000 

 tons, and on the declaration of war there was 

 probably a stock of 100,000 tons of Chilean 

 nitrate. Immediately after the battle of the 

 Marne, when a long war was evidently certain, 

 the production of artificial nitrates and of 

 ammonium sulphate was stimulated, the 

 Badische Aniline Company and Bayer and 

 Co. being subsidized to the extent of 30,000,- 

 000 marks for the installation of factories to 

 convert ammonia into nitric acid. In peace 

 time 550,000 tons of ammonium sulphate were 

 produced annually in Germany, but this output 

 was reduced once war was declared. As this 

 substance is a by-product in the manufacture 

 of gas and cast-iron, people in Germany were 

 instigated to use gas and coke instead of coal, 

 and by such means an annual output of 250,- 

 000 tons of ammonium sulphate was attained. 

 The problem of converting the ammonia into 

 nitric acid was solved by the Frank and Caro 

 and the Kayser processes. A French chemist, 

 Kixhlmann, had discovered that ammonia is 

 oxidized to nitrogen peroxide when mixed with 

 air and passed over warm, finely divided 

 platinum. The reaction was employed on a 

 commercial scale by Ostwald, and improved 

 both by Kayser and by Frank and Caro. By 

 the end of 1915 the Anhaltische Maschinenbau 

 Society of Berlin had established thirty in- 

 stallations for the conversion by Frank and 

 Caro's process, and these had a capacity of 

 more than 100,000 tons of nitric acid per 

 month. But this was only one of the methods 

 adopted. Given a cheap source of electrical 

 energy, it was known to be commercially prac- 

 ticable to prepare nitric acid by the direct 

 oxidation of nitrogen in the electric flame, and 

 this process had been established in Norway 

 by Birkeland and Eyde, who used the water- 

 falls as a source of energy. The Germans have 

 established a factory employing Pauling's 



process (a modification of that of Birkeland 

 and Eyde) at Muhlenstein, in Saxony, in the 

 neighborhood of the lignite beds, which form 

 the source of energy, and this has an annual 

 output of 6,000 tons of nitric acid. 



The third principal method adopted for the 

 preparation of combined nitrogen was the 

 direct synthesis of ammonia. Bosch and 

 Mittasch, two chemical engineers of the 

 Badische Company, had adapted Haber's 

 synthesis to industrial conditions, and the 

 company had established a factory with an 

 annual output of 30,000 tons of synthetic 

 ammonium sulphate. In April, 1914, the com- 

 pany increased its capital in order to raise the 

 output to 130,000 tons, and after the battle of 

 the Marne it was subsidized by the German 

 government to increase the production to 300,- 

 000 tons. 



Before the war the production of cyanamide 

 in Germany was comparatively small, but it 

 has increased largely under government stim- 

 ulus. In the direction of the manufacture of 

 manures, it was necessary to economize 

 sulphuric acid, so ammonia was neutralized 

 with nitre cake, and the resulting mixture of 

 sodium' and ammonium sulphates was mixed 

 with superphosphate. Moreover, it was found 

 that superphosphate will absorb gaseous 

 ammonia, and although the calcium acid phos- 

 phate is thereby converted into the insoluble 

 tricalcic phosphate, it is formed in an easily 

 assimilable condition, and the product is 

 found by experience to act both as a nitrogen 

 and phosphorus manure. 



THE MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECH- 

 NOLOGY AND INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH 



While offering every facility of the labo- 

 ratories of the Massachusetts Institute of 

 Technology to the United States government 

 for any research in which it with its staff of 

 trained professors can be of service, the insti- 

 tute holds that in addition to the education of 

 its students it has an important function in 

 being helpful to the industrial world. An 

 agreement with Technology by the U. S. Smelt- 

 ing, Refining and Mining Co., to be in force in 

 April, whereby the latter is to avail itself of the 



