SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 
nitrogenous compounds in amounts approximately equal to her pre-war 
consumption of 750,000 tons of Chilean nitrate. The producing capacity 
of the Oppau works at the present time is estimated to be:— 
Tons Tons combined 
Oppau Plant, per annum, Nitrogen per annum. 
Ammonium nitrate a 10,000 x 3,450 
Sodium nitrate .. .. 1303000 oe 21,410 
Nitric acid (100 per cent.) .. 40,000 Ate 8,890 
Ammonia (liquid) e 40,000 = 32,900 
Total en oy 66,700 
The cost of the plant is stated to have been between £5,000,000 and 
£10,000,000; to-day a similar plant would cost at least £13,000,000. 
The personnel of the factory comprises 1,500 labourers, 3,000 mechanics, 
350 clerks, and 300 chemists. The daily consumption of fuel is 1,750 
tons of lignite, and 500 tons of coke, and the total cost per diem is 
about £11,000, including allowances for depreciation, &e.—(J. Ind. 
Eng. Chem., Sept., 1919.) 
A SHIPMENT OF POTASH. 
In the October number of Science and Industry Dr. Heber Green, 
in an article on the available sources of potash, referred to the rich 
deposits of Strassfurt salts in Germany, and quoted a newspaper state- 
ment to the effect that a shipload from that centre has already arrived 
in Australia. Messrs. Dalgety and Company, the agents, have ex- 
plained that the shipment referred to is not German potash, but comes 
from Alsace, which territory, of course, has now reverted to France. 
As part payment of her war indemnity, Germany is being allowed to 
export potash from Strassfurt to Great Britain. 
KIMBERLEY DISEASE IN HORSES. 
The West Australian Committee of the. Institute of Science and 
Industry is interesting itself in the Kimberley disease of horses. From 
reports received from the Western Australian Department of Agricul- 
ture, the Aborigines Department, and the Commissioner of Police, it 
appears that in the West Kimberley region about 30 per cent. of the 
total number of horses die from the disease every year, whilst in the 
East Kimberley region the mortality percentage from the same cause 
is about five or six. 
INDUSTRIAL ALCOHOL. 
In the September issue of the Journal of the Society of Chemical 
Industry attention is directed to the fact that in the U.S. America 
breweries are gradually finding new uses, the latest to report having 
become a modern macaroni factory. Meanwhile a fight is being waged 
to secure relaxation of the regulations so as to permit of the use of tax- 
free alcohol in the industries. Alcohol is quite important, if indeed not 
essential, in the production or refining of some 150 materials in indus- 
trial chemistry and pharmacy, to say nothing of its use in producing 
light, heat, and power: Several recent experiments with alcohol as a 
motor fuel, even in aeroplanes, have yielded results encouraging to those 
interested in its use. 
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