SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 
lle 
of intermediates and dyes. The plants of the dye-producing firms are 
in excellent condition, and in many cases have been considerably added 
to in producing power during the period of the war. If competition 
with German dyes and pharmaceutical chemicals was difficult in pre- 
war periods, it certainly will be no less so in the era which is ‘opening 
before us, if efficient plants and large scale production are the important 
factors in production costs which we all know them to be. 
The term “a chemists’ war” has been applied over and over again 
to the great struggle which we have just passed through, and in no sease 
is the application of the term more true than when it is applied to the 
fact that, without the plants erected in her chemical works for the 
fixation of.atmospheric nitrogen, the resistance of Germany would have 
broken down at a comparatively early date. As an instrument of 
peace or a weapon of war, such plants are almost invaluable, and the 
peculiar independence of Germany from the supply of Chilean nitrate 
is one of her greatest national assets. It is said that the German Govern- 
ment, at the instigation of her military experts, adopted the position of 
foster mother to the various processes which were being developed in 
the country in pre-war times. 
Their maternal instinct was roused only by the effect which the 
supplies from these plants would have upon their military needs, and 
it would appear to be something more than coincidence that the first 
steps towards initiating a great European conflict were not taken until 
the Haber process, with its immense possibilities, had been fully estab- 
lished on a large scale by the Badische Company, and that plants were 
also in existence for the production of ammonia from cyanamide. 
Important as nitrates are as a provision for war, their value as affecting 
the foodstuffs of a nation needs no argument, and it may yet be the case 
that the now generally decried militarism of Germany has given to the 
country a boon whose worth is inestimable. 
The plants at Oppau and Merseburg, in which the direct synthesis — 
of ammonia from hydrogen and atmospheric nitrogen is effected, are 
enormous in their dimensions, and a monument to the skill of the 
chemists and engineers who have erected them. Similar words may be 
applied to the plants at Hoéchst and Leverkusen, in which ammonia 
is oxidized to nitric acid; and the imposing sight of the interior of the 
building at Héchst, which houses 256 platinum catalyst vessels with 
their various connexions, is one which a chemist cannot easily forget. 
The capacity of this particular plant is 8,000 tons of HNO, of 100 
per cent. strength per month, so that approximately 1 ton of HNO, 
is produced by each catalyst vessel per day. The whole installation, 
with its plant for vaporizing ammonia, fans, catalyst vessels, absorbing 
towers, and nitric and sulphuric acid concentrating plants, is an out- 
standing example of the mass-production policy which has been go 
largely adopted by the German chemical firms as a means towards 
reducing production costs. ; 
A. striking feature of this and very many plants for other purposes 
is that, though in the aggregate the output is very great, the plants 
themselves consist of many units, each of which is a complete plant in 
itself, and enlargement of output is arrived at by erecting a- fresh 
series of units, rather than by increasing the size of the constituent 
parts of the unit. 
T70 
— 
