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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL. No. 1023 



direct union of hydrogen with nitrogen, 

 has been developed by Haber in conjunc- 

 tion with the chemists and engineers of the 

 Badische Aniline & Soda Fabrik. 



The process has the advantage that it is 

 not, like the other nitrogen-fixation proc- 

 esses, paramountly dependent upon cheap 

 power; for this reason, if for no other, it 

 seems to be destined to a more ready appli- 

 cation. The fact that the group of the 

 three German chemical companies which 

 control the process have sold out their 

 former holdings in the Norwegian enter- 

 prises to a Norwegian-French group, and 

 are now devoting their energies to the com- 

 mercial installation of the Haber process, 

 has quite some significance as to expecta- 

 tion for the future. 



The question naturally arises : "Will there 

 be an over-production and will these differ- 

 ent rival processes not kill each other in 

 slaughtering prices beyond remunerative 

 production ? 



As to over-production, we should bear 

 in mind that nitrogen fertilizers are already 

 used at the rate of about $200,000,000 worth 

 a year, and that any decrease in price, and, 

 more particularly, better education in farm- 

 ing, will probably lead to an enormously 

 increased consumption. It is worth men- 

 tioning here that in 1825, the first ship- 

 load of Chile saltpeter, which was sent to 

 Europe, could find no buyer, and was 

 finally thrown into the sea as useless 

 material. 



Then again, processes for nitric acid and 

 processes for ammonia, instead of inter- 

 fering, are supplementary to each other, 

 because the world needs ammonia and 

 ammonium salts, as well as nitric acid or 

 nitrates. 



It should be pointed out also, that, ulti- 

 mately, the production of ammonium 

 nitrate may prove the most desirable 

 method so as to minimize freight; for this 



salt contains much more nitrogen to the 

 ton than is the case with the more bulky 

 calcium-salt, under which form synthetic 

 nitrates are now put into the market. 



Before leaving this subject, let us exam- 

 ine why Bradley and Love joy's efforts 

 came to a standstill where others succeeded. 



First of all, the cost of power at Niagara 

 Falls is three to five times higher than ia 

 Norway, and although at the time this was 

 not strictly prohibitive for the manufac- 

 ture of nitric acid, it was entirely beyond 

 hope for the production of fertilizers. The 

 relatively high cost of power in our country 

 is the reason why the cyanamide enter- 

 prise had to locate on the Canadian side 

 of Niagara Falls, and why, up till now, 

 outside of an experimental plant in the 

 South (a 4,000 horse-power installation ia 

 North Carolina, using the Pauling process), 

 the whole United States has not a single 

 synthetic nitrogen fertilizer works. 



The yields of the Bradley-Lovejoy appa- 

 ratus were rather good. They succeeded in 

 converting as much as two and one half 

 per cent, of the air, which is somewhat 

 better than their successors are able to 

 accomplish. 



But their units, 12 kilowatts, were very 

 much smaller than the 1,000 to 3,000 kilo- 

 watts now used in Norway ; they were also 

 more delicate to handle, all of which made 

 installation and operation considerably 

 more expensive. 



However this was the natural phase 

 through which any pioneer industrial 

 development has to go, and it is more than 

 probable that in the natural order of events, 

 these imperfections would have been 

 eliminated. 



But the killing stroke came when finan- 

 cial support was suddenly withdrawn. 



In the successful solution of similar 

 industrial problems, the originators in 

 Europe were not only backed by scientif- 



