310 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL. No. 1026 



general hospital. Certain structural altera- 

 tions are being carried out witli a view of 

 making the hospital as efficient as possible. 



OuTsroE of Germany there is no known com- 

 mercial supply of potash salts. If the Ger- 

 man supplies are cut ofi during the European 

 war, the agricultural world must either go 

 without potash salts after the meager supply 

 now on hand is exhausted or bestir itself to 

 find another adequate source of supply. Al- 

 ready many inquiries regarding potash have 

 been addressed to the United States Geological 

 Survey, and the fertilizer journals report that 

 small quantities of spot material are changing 

 hands at sharp premiums. The situation is 

 undoubtedly more acute than it was a few 

 years ago, when national interest was first 

 awakened to the fact that the United States is 

 entirely dependent on Germany for this impor- 

 tant class of fertilizer materials. Potash salts 

 are employed in many industries other than 

 the fertilizer industry. A large amount is 

 used in glass and soap making and in the 

 manufacture of a number of chemical products. 

 These include potassium hydrate, or caustic 

 potash, and the carbonate and bicarbonate of 

 potash, used principally in glass and soap ma- 

 king; the potash alums; cyanides, including 

 potassium cyanide, potassium ferro-cyanide, 

 and potassium f erri-cyanide ; various potash 

 bleaching chemicals, dye stuffs, explosives con- 

 taining potash nitrate, and a long list of gen- 

 eral chemicals. The imports of potash salts, 

 listed as such in the reports of the Bureau of 

 Foreign and Domestic Commerce, include the 

 carbonate, cyanide, chloride, nitrate and sul- 

 phate, caustic potash, and other potash com- 

 pounds. The importation of the above salts in 

 round numbers the last three years has aver- 

 aged 635,000,000 pounds in quantity and $11,- 

 000,000 in value. These figures, however, rep- 

 resent only a part of the potash salts entering 

 the United States as they do not include the 

 imports of kainite and manure salts which are 

 used in fertilizers. The quantity of this class 

 of materials imported for consumption in the 

 United States during the last three years has 

 averaged about 700,000 tons valued at $4,300,- 

 000 annually. Thus it is apparent that the 



annual importations of potash salts exceed 

 $15,000,000. 



The outbreak of the European war has 

 caused the New York price of tin to rise to 65 

 cents a pound, although in the latter part of 

 July tin was sold as low as 30.5 cents a pound. 

 None of the European countries make a pro- 

 duction which would greatly affect market 

 values, and the disturbance of price is due 

 mostly to the insecurity of ocean freights. 

 The known American tin deposits are small, 

 and production from them will probably not 

 be much affected by the exceedingly high 

 prices if these are temporary. However, the 

 operators now working tin deposits may reap 

 a profit if they can market their ores before 

 the drop in prices that is sure to come. The 

 benefit which it seems possible to get out of 

 the present situation is in the establishment 

 of a tin smelter in the United States in which 

 to smelt Bolivian tin ores and such small lots 

 of American ore as are produced. At present 

 between 30,000 and 40,000 tons of tin concen- 

 trates carrying more than 20,000 tons of 

 metallic tin are shipped each year from Bo- 

 livia to Europe for smelting. The United 

 States would absorb the tin smelted from this 

 ore easily, and it has been demonstrated that 

 there are no difficulties in the smelting of the 

 Bolivian ores that American metallurgists can 

 not meet. Owing to the lack of European 

 freighters, Bolivian ores will now be seeking 

 a market, and, providing that ships can be 

 found to carry the ore, this will be the oppor- 

 tunity for Americans to begin purchasing the 

 ores that have heretofore gone to Europe. A 

 few years ago a smelter was established at 

 Bayonne, N. J., in which to smelt Malayan 

 tin ores, but when it became known the Eng- 

 lish government placed a high export duty on 

 Malayan tin ores not going to some part of the 

 British empire. Such a thing could not 

 happen in Bolivia, and to some extent, at any 

 rate, the smelting of Bolivian and other ores 

 in this country would relieve American con- 

 sumers from the speculative profits of the 

 London market. 



Antimony is ordinarily one of the cheaper 

 metals, selling at one and a half times to twice 



