THE FIXATION OF ATMOSPHERIC NITROGEN. 
current needs of the growing crops. On the other hand, the tropical 
plantations of Java, Sumatra, &e., require heavy fertilization, and pro- 
vide a convenient market for the surplus ammonium sulphate. 
_ The data in possession of the Special Committee established by the 
Institute of Science and Industry show the approximate position to 
y 
be as follows :-— 
Tons.. 
Fixed nitrogen (as ammonium sulphate and ammonia) 
produced and used locally am = .. 2,000 
Fixed nitrogen (as sodium and potassium nitrates and 
mining explosives) imported 2,000 
Total local consumption .. os .. 4,000 
Fixed nitrogen (as ammonium sulphate) exported so WAN) 
These figures show that under present conditions the Commonwealth 
could be rendered practically independent of imported fixed nitrogen 
if that now exported in the form of ammonium sulphate and ammonia 
were oxidized into nitric acid. Further, an estimated quantity of 900 
tons is lost annually from beehive coking ovens. From the pont of 
view of national security we cannot calculate on this potential source, 
since, were sea traffic restricted, the erection of by-product recovery 
plants, always slow and expensive, would become practically impos- 
sible. It would seem, then, that in the extreme case of a complete 
blockade the present output of military explosives could not be increased 
except at the expense of the agricultural and mining industries, upon 
which our ability to maintain a resistance would ultimately depend. 
Only on the hypothesis of the effectiveness of the League of Nations 
‘an such a position be regarded with complete equanimity. The wise 
course is to prepare for the work, and the first step is the continuance 
here of the work on nitrogen fixation which has been carried so far 
in England and America. Figures supplied to an American chemist 
who inspected the Haber factory at Oppau* (McConnell, Journal of 
Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, Vol. 11 (1919) pp. 837-841) 
in March of this year led him to estimate that the cost of concentrated 
nitric acid produced at this factory by oxidation of synthetic ammonia 
would not exceed 1d. per Ib. as against a pre-war cost in. America of 
24d. to 3d. per Ib. for acid made by the old process. Such a low cost 
is unattainable in this country. The factory in question produced 
90,000 tons of fixed nitrogen during the twelve months ending 1st 
November, 1918. An Australian plant producing one-twentieth of this 
amount would meet all our probable requirements. So small a plant 
would not be economical. Nevertheless it seems reasonable to estimate 
that the cost of acid made by this, or 2 similar process, would no% 
exceed that of the acid made from imported nitrate, and our capacity 
to make it would reduce our liability to outside aggression, and enabic 
us to resist it should it come. 
. ive 
_* Since the armistice the German Government has granted a loan of about 200 million mk. to the 
Badische Anilin und Soda tabrik for further .evelopments.--Ep. 5. and T, 
499 
