8 CHEMISTRY 



in Germany and the tardy stoppage of imports of 

 colonial vegetable oils into Central Europe. But 

 the provision of sulphuric and nitric acids is equally 

 important, not only for the manufacture of the 

 propellent cordite, but also for that of the bursting 

 charge, the high explosive, contained in the shell. 

 Sulphuric acid is manufactured by one of the 

 processes briefly dealt with above. In this country 

 much is made from Spanish iron pyrites ; some is 

 produced from native Sicilian sulphur of volcanic 

 origin, but of late years the Sicilian sulphur traffic 

 has become moribund owing to cheaper production 

 of sulphur in America. At the present time none 

 of these sources are open to Germany, and a serious 

 shortage of the raw material from which to produce 

 sulphuric acid has occurred in that country ; so 

 important is this question that Germany is now 

 producing sulphuric acid by a necessarily costly 

 process from the gypsum which occurs plentifully 

 in Central Europe. Nitric acid, another essential 

 in the manufacture of cordite, is made in England 

 from Chili saltpetre, crude sodium nitrate, by 

 distillation with sulphuric acid. This source of 

 nitric acid is now closed to Germany, and once more 

 the chemist has been called upon to remedy the 

 deficiency. During many years past German money 

 has been freely expended in utilising the water 

 power available in Scandinavia for bringing about 

 the combination of the nitrogen and oxygen con- 

 tained in the air and hence producing nitric acid; 



