142 BULLETIN 102, VOL. 1, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



drawn upon and presumably with the help of the electric current.^ 

 It is scarcely too much to say that the fertilizer industry in the 

 course of a decade or so will undergo a radical change, in which im- 

 portations of Chilean nitrate, German potash, and Spanish pyrite 

 will be a thing of the past. But the course of progress will depend 

 very much upon the conditions surrounding the supply of electrical 

 power in this country; this matter will determine the speed of ad- 

 vancement and reflect in some measure in this respect upon the cost of 

 living. 



In the field of manufacturing, electrochemistry occupies a unique 

 place. It has already created a number of products of fundamental 

 usefulness, while the latent opportunities for the future are very 

 great. The development of artificial abrasives, especially carborun- 

 dum, superior to natural abrasives, has greatly facilitated many 

 processes of mechanical manufacture, such as the making of automo- 

 biles, ordnance, and other materials; the production of calcium car- 

 bide has made the acetylene lamp possible, with inestimable benefit 

 to thousands of mines the world over, which have thus been freed 

 from smolry oil lamps and flickering candles; and the manufacture 

 of artificial graphite is rendering a useful service as a lubricant 

 in conserving energy. These products, which are of much greater 

 significance than may be measured by the pecuniary value of the 

 output, have all been developed at Niagara Falls as result of the 

 abundant electric power earlier available there and are made from 



cost of the finished product. This goes to show that whiie under presont conditions the 

 process verges on being a commercial proposition, an apprecialjle reduction in the cost 

 of power, even und(>r post-war conditions of cheaper sulphuric acid, would bring the 

 electric-furnace method into competition with the old acid process. The gain In trans- 

 portation accruing from the shipment of a commorilty of three times the present concen- 

 tration and the enlargement In the phosphate reserve made possible by bringing into play 

 phosphate rock containing more than 3 to 4 per cent of the combined oxides of iron and 

 aluminum (material not usable In the present acid process) commend the whole matter 

 to careful consideration. It should he remembend. too, that of fertilizing materials 

 phosphoric acid appears to be the only one which, from present knowledge, is absolutely 

 limited In amount and therefore demands tinusual care in its utilization. 



1 " With respect to the necessary supplies of plant foods other than nitrogen, it has 

 not as yet been seriously considered to utilize electric power, but. speaking to electrical 

 engineers. T can say that the extraction of potash from feldspathic and granitic rocks 

 by electrolysis presents by no means an insoluble or even, in my opinion, a difficult 

 problem. It Is perhaps the easiest way that has been as yet proposed to artificially obtain 

 potash, which only awaits cheap enough power to become a reality. I need only remind 

 you that In the silicate rocks of which our mountain ranges are composed, there lie 

 dormant untold billions of tons of potash, to show that when the proper time comes 

 we will not want for raw material. On this special topic I am well informed, for I have 

 made a close study of it in the laboratory and in the field for many years." (A. S. Cush- 

 nian. Water-power development and the food problem, Proc. Amer. Inst. Electr. Eng., May, 

 1916. p. 547.) Since this was written, as noted above, the electric- furnace production 

 of phosphoric acid has almost become a commercial possibility — so rapid is progress in 

 such matters. Also, part of the potash even now being produced in the United States 

 is precipitated from waste fumes from cement plants and blast furnaces by means of the 

 discharge of an electric current. Thus the statement above bids fair to be realized, if not 

 literally, at least through the by-pioduct recovery of potash by means of the electric 

 current. 



