SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 
research was done on synthetic ammonia, and grandiose cyanamide 
plants were proposed, but some months before the conclusion of the war 
the programme was drastically curtailed, and when the war ended 
nothing had actually been done on the large scale. Alpine streams 
provide hydro-electric power for France, Italy, and Switzerland, and in 
each of these countries part of the required fixed nitrogen will doubtless 
still be obtained from the atmosphere. 
The reasons for the favorable position of Germany in this respect 
are, firstly, the possession of experience, shared by the chemists of no 
other country; the enormous home demand for nitrogenous fertilizers; 
the pooling of interests of the great chemical firms in the Interessinge- 
meinschaft; and the fact that the German financial interest in the 
Chilian deposits was never very cons‘derable, and is now almost non- 
existent. During the war the labours of chemists in the allied coun- 
tries promised to negative the first advantage, and, had it continued, 
would have done so. The second arises partly from the natural poverty 
of much of the agricultural land, and partly from the intensive culture 
system carried on. The third makes for economy, the waste, or inter- 
mediate, product of one ‘ndustry being the raw material of another. 
It has often been stated that the Badische Anilin Fabrik took up the 
Haber process because it promised to solve the question of the disposal 
of huge quantities of dilute sulphuric acid. This is probably only part 
of the truth, but the statement shows clearly how one industry may 
decide the fate of another. 
Under present conditions only factories enjoying special facilities 
appear likely to compete: successfully with the great existing sources 
of fixed nitrogen by-product ammonia and sodium nitrate. Suppliers 
of these commodities will probably be able, for a time at least, to 
improve their process sufficiently to keep the price ratios much as they 
now are. From the point of view of defence the position is different. 
The safety of a country demands that, even when completely cut off 
from external supplies, it shall have available sufficient fixed nitrogen 
to provide all military requirements without necessitating a reduction 
in the amount necessary for the production of food. During the war 
this necessity was keenly felt, even in the United States of America, 
which, compared with any European country, is close to Chili, and, as 
indicated, considerable progress towards the realization of that aim has 
been made. Great Britain is not substantially better off than she was 
in 1914, As far as Australia is concerned, the position is rather more 
satisfactory. It is true that we have no nitrogen-fixation plant, nor 
even an ammonia converter, but we produce a surplus of fixed nitrogen 
in the form of ammonia owing to the small demands of Australian soils. 
In all the States the consensus of opinion is that except for special 
crops and in special localities the use of inorganic nitrogenous fertilizers 
at present prices is not justified by the increased yields, even where 
these result. Where nitrogen is required farmers, horticulturists, &c., 
prefer to use ammonium sulphate, blood and other animal wastes— 
fertilizers always likely to be available in this country. ‘The reason 
for the small agricultural requirements of fixed nitrogen in Australia 
appears to be that the prevailing conditions so favour nitrification that 
the store of combined, but not available, nitrogen in the form of humus, 
&e., is rendered available by bacteria at a rate suflicient to meet the 
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