THECUBAREVIEW 17 



A FRENCH INDUSTRY IN CUBA 



LIQUID AIR— OXYGEN— NITROGEN 



It is almost unbelievable to think that the air surrounding us, the air that we 

 breathe, is actually being bottled in a liquid form. In fact, it is scarcely twenty years 

 since Georges Claude of Paris, France (Laureat of the French Institute), finished his 

 experiments for the liquefaction of the air, for the purpose of separating it into its 

 elements and thus recuperating oxygen, nitrogen and the rare gases. These experi- 

 ments were long and tedious, the greatest of the difficulties being the so far unheard of 

 low temperature necessary to obtain the desired liquefaction and to maintain the 

 low temperature when once secured. There was also the great difliculty of holding 

 the air as a liquid, for with a rise in its temperature the air would return to its 

 gaseous state and in doing this expand to many times its volume. This liquid always 

 gives the impression of boiling furiously and has many curious properties. For in- 

 stance, a piece of raw meat dipped into the fluid for a few seconds only, when taken, 

 out will have the appearance and consistency of a stone. A natural flower dippedL 

 into the liquid will immediately look like a porcelain flower. 



The Claude Process is one of the two great systems developed for the produc- 

 tion of oxygen in great commercial quantities for industrial purposes and has revo- 

 lutionized the art of cutting and welding metals. 



The "Claude Process," as it is now known the world over, was first developed- 

 as a great industry in France, where numerous factories were in operation as early 

 as 1905, and afterwards developed in Belgium, Italy, Germany, England, Austria, 

 Hungary, Greece and Russia, where altogether over a hundred factories are in opera- 

 tion, employing capital of many millions of dollars. China and Japan also have their 

 companies operating the Claude Process, all affiliated to the French parent company^ 

 known as "L' Air Liquide,"' with its head office in Paris. 



The first Claude oxygen plant to be erected on the American continent was built 

 in 1912 in Canada, and already eight of these factories are in operation in Canada, 

 owned entirely and operated by L' Air Liquide of Paris. 



Early in 1915, the Claude Process was introduced into the United States of North 

 America, where an important American company was formed, to which the entire 

 Claude patent rights for the United States were ceded. 



This American company, owned by one of the greatest industrial and financial 

 groups of the United States, met with the same rapid development as had been ex- 

 perienced by the European companies, and has in operation at the present time about 

 twenty-five oxygen factories, located in all parts of the United States. 



Besides the manufacture of oxygen, the Claude Process for the manufacture of 

 nitrogen is of equal or greater importance and has made great development. Prac- 

 tically every nitrogen plant installed in all parts of the world since 1910 has been 

 of the Claude system, the nitrogen machines being used principally for the manu- 

 facture of cyanamide for fertilizers or for the production of ammonia which was 

 used to a very large extent during the war for making explosives. The largest nitro- 

 gen plant installed for the manufacture of ammonia for explosive purposes was 

 erected by the Air Reduction Company for the United States Government at Muscle 

 Shoals, Alabama, and formed a part of the great $60,000,000 plant built there for 

 the Government. 



Cuban industry is in great need of oxygen for cutting, welding and general 

 mechanical repair work for the railroad, street cars, steamships, sugar centrals, and 

 has for years been obliged to depend on the very limited supply that cotold be im- 

 ported from the United States. 



This unhappy condition is now at an end or will be as quickly as Cuban industrial 

 concerns can install the apparatiis necessary for the use of oxygen. Damaged boilers 

 and broken machinery of every description can be repaired by the oxy-acetylene pro- 



