NITROGENOUS FERTILIZERS. 7 
Baskerville, 1 with reference to oil shales, has shown 2 that ''the 
principal by-product on retorting (under suitable conditions), 
ammonium sulphate, will often more than bear the expense of 
mining and treatment." This author reports an oil shale from 
Montana which yields 41.5 pounds ammonium sulphate and 6 gallons 
crude oil per short ton. 
In the dry distillation of peat most of its nitrogen is evolved 
uncombined. On the other hand, by the adaptation of the Mond 
process of distillation as much as 110 pounds ammonium sulphate 
per ton of peat may be obtained. 
Recently proposed methods of synthesizing ammonia from 
atmospheric nitrogen are undergoing commercial exploitation and 
give promise of success. 
ARTIFICIAL NITRATES. 
The recent rapid development in the manufacture of nitric acid 
by the electrothermal fixation of atmospheric nitrogen has made 
artificial nitrates commercially important. 
Three well-known processes are employed in the direct oxidation 
of nitrogen to oxide — the Birkeland-Eyde, the Schonherr, and the 
Pauling — the processes differing chiefly in the design of the electric 
furnace and plant installation rather than in the chemical reactions 
involved. 
It is claimed that the Birkeland-Eyde process of manufacture 
yields 500 to 550 kilograms of nitric acid or 850 to 940 kilograms of 
calcium nitrate for every kilowatt-year of electrical energy expended. 
The Norwegian hydro-electric nitrogen companies now are utilizing 
about 200,000 horsepower in the manufacture of nitrates and nitrites. 
The composition of commercial calcium nitrate, manufactured 
by the Birkeland-Eyde process, is given in Table VIII. 3 
Table VIII. — Analysis of commercial calcium nitrate. 
Constituent. 
Proportion. 
Constituent. 
Proportion. 
Calcium oxide 
Per cent 
25. 83 
12.47 
23.83 
.52 
Magnesium oxide 
Per cent. 
0.41 
Nitrogen 
.71 
Water 
Insoluble (in hydrochloric acid) 
.51 
During the year 1910, 13,531 tons calcium nitrate were exported 
from Norway. This is in addition to 2,000 tons calcium nitrate 
which, it is estimated, is the domestic consumption for fertilizer 
purposes. In the same year, 3,200 tons sodium nitrite and 1,074 
i American Oil Shales, J. Ind. Eng.Chem., 5, 73 (1913). 
2 Proc. Seventh Internat. Cong. Appl. Chem., 1910, Sec. IV; J. Ind. Eng. Chem., 1, No. 8 (1909). 
8 Manufacture of Nitrates from Air, Scott, J. Roy. Soc. Arts, 60, 645 (1912). 
