1905.] Lime Nitrogen. ioi 



In France the demands for real credit arc met by the Credit 

 Foncier, an institution under Government control, which enables 

 house and land-owners to raise money on mortgage at a low rate 

 of interest, with facility for repayment by an annuity including 

 redemption of the capital. This institution, which dates from 

 the year 1852, has been very successful, and its methods have 

 been largely copied in other countries. On the side of personal 

 credit, there has been considerable activity, though not to any- 

 thing like the same extent as in Germany. Since 1899 the 

 Government have placed sums of money to be used as capital 

 at the disposal of the banks, and there were in all in 1903 some 

 1,038 institutions of one form and another for the promotion of 

 agricultural credit. 



A more detailed account of the systems in operation in 

 France will appear in the next issue of this Journal, and will be 

 followed by particulars relating to other countries where the 

 methods adopted have features worthy of note. 



The discovery of a means of fixing the free nitrogen of the 

 air in a way which makes it available as a manure was 

 referred to in an earlier number of this 



Lime Nitrogen. Journal (March, 1904, p. 506). The method 

 employed by the inventor, Dr. Frank, is to 

 obtain, in the first place, nitrogen from the atmosphere by 

 passing air through vertical retorts or cylinders containing 

 copper shavings, and heated to a temperature of about 400° C. 

 In passing through these cylinders the oxygen of the air is 

 taken up by the copper, and the nitrogen is conveyed in 

 pipes to a retort, which is heated by an electric furnace to 

 700-900 0 C, and filled with calcium carbide. The nitrogen is 

 absorbed by the carbide, and forms calcium cyanamide. The 

 crude product, known in Germany as lime nitrogen (Kalkstick- 

 stoff), takes the form of a black powder, similar to basic slag, 

 and contains about 20 per cent, of nitrogen. It is at present 

 only being manufactured on a small scale, but if it can be pro- 

 duced cheaply enough it is likely to be a competitor to nitrate 

 of soda and sulphate of ammonia. One important factor in its 



