PUBLICATIONS OF THE DIVISION OF MINERAL TECHNOLOGY, 
IT. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
Publication 2421, Smithsonian Institution. Sources of nitrogen 
compounds in the United States, by Chester G. Gilbert Issued June 
30, 1916. 12 pp. 
Nitrogenous compounds are essential not only to self-defense but to the 
country’s capacity for self-support, and to be effective the source must be such 
that the products may be adaptable to meet either requirement. This paper 
reviews the merits of the three principal processes for manufacturing nitrogen 
compounds from the atmosphere, with the following conclusion : The arc 
method has not thus far demonstrated capacity to meet the agricultural require- 
ment at all, or even the defense requirement efficiently. Definite knowl- 
edge concerning the Haber process is lacking, but its record of achievement is 
against it, and it -would seem, moreover, unsuited to American conditions, at 
least in the present state of its development. The cyanamid process is capable 
of a development which will meet the requirements for a cheapened nitrogenous 
fertilizer source whose form of nitrogen content is readily convertible to nitric 
acid. The process is already a prominent factor in the economic well-being of 
most countries of older civilization and is capable of similar extension in the 
United States. 
Bulletin 102, part 1. Coal Products: An object lesson in resource 
administration, by Chester G. Gilbert, Issued November IT, 1917, 
16 pp., 11 pis. 
The chemical industries of this country are notoriously weak; in fact, up to 
the outbreak of the present war we had relatively few chemical industries, yet 
no field of industrial activity is more essential to the country. The most 
important of all the chemical industries is that represented in the manufacture 
of coal products. The purpose of this paper is to bring out the reason for the 
lack of the chemical industries in general and the coal products one in par- 
ticular, with a view to determining where the fault lies and what should be 
done to correct it. 
Bulletin 102, part 2. Fertilizers: An interpretation of the situa- 
tion in the United States, by Joseph E. Pogue. Issued October 10, 
1917. 22 pp., 1 pi. 
The fertilizer resources of the United States are viewed in the light of their 
importance under war-time conditions, when, on the one hand, an increasing 
supply is needed for the production of an added output of foodstuffs, and, on 
the other, the foreign sources of supply from which much of our mineral fer- 
tilizer is drawn have been cut off or endangered. The rather remarkable 
circumstance that this country has been dependent upon Chile for nitrogen, 
upon Germany for potash, and upon Spain for pyrite used in the manufacture 
of sulphuric acid, is pointed out in respect to developing national independence 
as regards these fundamental materials. The paper is accompanied by a chart 
which shows in one expanse the whole fertilizer situation, with particular 
regard to the effects of the war upon it. The purpose of the paper is to 
emphasize to the general public as well as to those more directly interested 
in fertilizers the importance of dealing with this matter as a broad and funda- 
mental problem affecting the basic matter of food supply. 
59319— 18— Bull. 102, pt. 6 6 To 
