and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society.— August, 1910. 181 



SYNTHETIC AMMONIA. 



"The New Badische Process. 

 The technical synthesis of fertilisers is a pro- 

 blem which has been attacked from various 

 sides, the chief progress having been made with 

 electro-chemical methods, which havo giv^n us 

 calcium nitrate and calcium cyanide. Until 

 quite recently the mauufacture of ammonia — 

 which in the form of ammonium sulphate is of 

 great importance — by the direct combination 

 of its constituent elements, nitrogen and hy- 

 drogen, has not been considered a commercial 

 possiblity. The present output of ammonium 

 compounds depends, of course, entirely on the 

 demand for gas and the state of the iron trade, 

 for the whole of the production is obtained 

 from the distillation of coal, as carried out 

 either at gasworks of coak ovens. Coal con- 

 tains about I per cent of nitrogen, which 

 comes over during distillation as ammonia ; 

 this is neutralised with sulphuric acid, and 

 put on the market as ammonium sulphate, 

 a valuable fertiliser containing about 20 per 

 cent of available nitrogen. The direct com- 

 bination of hydrogen and nitrogen is diffi- 

 cult to effect, for at low temperatures nitro- 

 gen is in every way a very iuert element, and 

 even at high temperatures its affinity for hy- 

 drogen under ordinary conditions is 30 slight 

 that the prospect of working out a technical 

 process on these Hues seemed hopeless. A con- 

 siderable amount of experimental work was 

 performed in connection with the question by 

 Professor Haber, of Carlsruhe, and Mr. R le 

 Kossignol, and it was found that the combina- 

 tion of the elements at high temperatures was 

 greatly facilitated under a pressure of about 

 200 atmospheres, which is very considerably 

 in excess of any previously employed in prac- 

 tical work. It will be seen, therefore, that 

 there were considerable difficulties in the way 

 before the process took on a really practical 

 aspect, but it is reported that these have been 

 successfully overcome by the Badische Anilin 

 and Soda Fabrik, who took the matter up, and 

 there appears to be every prospect that they 

 will shortly be producing ammonia commer- 

 cially in this way. 



Matters are greatly assisted by the presence 

 of a catalytic agent, the best being osmium. 

 The rarity of this element, however, prevents 

 its adoption, and the one actually employed is 

 uranium. The compressed mixture of hydro- 

 gen and nitrogen — in the proposition of three 

 volumes of hydrogen to one volume of nitrogen 

 — is admitted into' the gas chamber, which con- 

 tains also the powdered uranium. At the high 

 temperature employed, and under a pressure 

 of 175 atmospheres, a fair proportion of the 

 gases unite, and the ammonia produced, along 

 with the remainder of the uncombined gases, 

 is discharged from the chamber and passed 

 through a freezing arrangement, where the am- 

 monia liquifies and is drawn off as required, 

 whilst the excess gases, with fresh additions, 

 are again subjected to the same treatment. 

 Use is made of the heat generated during 

 the reaction to raise the temperature of the 



new gases before these are admitted to the 

 pressure chamber. Under favourable condi- 

 tions there is a yield of about eight volumes 

 per cent of ammonia. Should the new process 

 prove practicable^ it will undoubtedly have very 

 far-reaching effects, and may indeed oust the 

 electorlytic processes for the manufacture of 

 nitrates and cyanamides so far as the produc- 

 tion of fertilisers is concerned. The raw mate- 

 rials — hydrogen and nitrogen — are both cheap 

 and plentiful. Nitrogen is readily obtained 

 from the air by either the Linde or Claude 

 method, whilst hydrogen may be produced in 

 various ways, of which the old one — which 

 has recently attracted renewed attention in con- 

 nection with the provision of gas for airships 

 — of passing steam over heated iron will not 

 improbably prove the cheapest. A further im- 

 portant advantage lies in the fact that no 

 electric power is necessary. In the case 

 of both the nitrate and nitrolim processes 

 cheap water-power is essential to commer- 

 cial success. The amount of cheap water- 

 power available is not unlimited, and it 

 is doubtful whether the most profitable way 

 of utilising it will prove to be in the manu- 

 facture of cheap fertilisers. In any case, it is 

 obvious that if a cheap process can be devised, 

 capable of being worked in any country, quite 

 irrespective of hydraulic power, the whole posi- 

 tion as regards fertilisers will undergo a marked 

 change. Whether the new ammonia process 

 will meet the case or not remains to be proved, 

 but its prospects seem favourable, and future 

 developments will be watched with great in- 

 terest. — Manchester Guardian. 



RUBBER IN COCHIN CHINA. 



It is interesting to note that the area planted 

 with rubber in Cochin-China is over 7,000 acres. 

 The trees, with the exception of 20,000 which are 

 from seven to eight years old, vary mostly in age 

 from two to three years. The colony is suitable 

 for the growth of Hevea, but there is a great 

 dearth of labour. The natives feel little incli" 

 nation to turn coolie. Planters have had to re- 

 sort to Javanese labour. — Straits Times, Aug. 5. 



JEQUIE MANICOBAS. 



In the Kew Bulletin, 1908, pp. 59-68, an ac- 

 count was given of the three new species of 

 blanihot from Bahia discovered and described by 

 Dr Ule. In the course of the same year a largo 

 quantity of the seeds of two of these species, 

 M. dichotom'i and M. piauhyensis, was obtained 

 from Brazil and distributed to botanical and 

 agricultural stations in the tropics (KB, 1908, p 

 451). Several reports have been received as to 

 the germination of the seed. In nearly every 

 case the percentage of germination of the seeds 

 of M . dich otoma was fairly high, but the results 

 with M. piauhyensis were not so favourable, ex- 

 cept apparently in the case of the seeds sown 

 in the Botanic Station, St Lucia, W. Indies, 

 where the seeds were slightly tiled near the 

 hilum and about 25 per cent germinated (St, 



