NITROGEN PRODUCTS. 
Nitrogen. Products. 
British Committee’s Report. 
|The final report of the Nitrogen Products Committee has been 
received, and, in view of the importance of its recommendations, the 
following abstract has been prepared. Some information upon the 
general question was given in this journal in the issue of December 
last by Dr. F. H. Campbell, a member of the special committee 
appointed by the Institute to work in association with the Nitrogen 
Products Committee. | ; 
The Nitrogen Products Committee was appointed in June, 1916, as 
an offshoot of the Munitions Inventions Department, and its functions, 
in the main, were to consider the relative advantages for Great Britain 
and for the Empire of the various methods for the fixation of atmo- 
spheric nitrogen, from the point of view both of war and peace 
purposes; and also to consider what steps might with advantage be 
taken to conserve and increase the national resources in nitrogen-bear- 
ing compounds and to limit their wastage. 
In a preliminary statement the fundamental importance of com- 
bined nitrogen in agriculture is stressed. The war served to emphasize 
its vital bearing also in relation to munitions. It is pointed out that. 
the world’s production of food depends in a large measure upon the 
application of nitrogen to the soil in the form of nitrogenous manures 
capable of assimilation by plants, and suitable for varying kinds of 
soil and climate. Nitrogen is also an essential constituent of nearly 
all high explosives and propellants, and of many products which play 
an important part in industry under normal conditions. Before the 
war the industrial demand for combined nitrogen was quite small in 
comparison with the agricultural demand. Under war conditions, ° 
however, a very large proportion of the world’s supply of combined 
nitrogen was diverted from agriculture to the production of munitions, 
thus affording a significant lesson as to the extent to which the security 
of a nation may depend upon its ability to procure or produce an 
adequate supply of essential nitrogen products. Until recently Chile 
supplied the greater part of the world’s demand: for fertilizers with 
nitrate of soda. Chile nitrate also formed the basis of the products 
used for industrial purposes. 
The continuous increase in the world’s demand and the constant 
upward trend of the price of combined nitrogen led to the invention and 
development of processes for fixing atmospheric nitrogen, thus opening 
up a practically unlimited source of supply. Nitrogen gas constitutes 
about 75 per cent. by weight of the atmosphere, and it is calculated that 
the air over a single square mile of land contains about 20 million tons, 
equivalent to about 80 times the quantity of combined nitrogen con- 
tained ‘in the world’s production of Chile nitrate and ammonium ~ 
sulphate in the year 1913. 
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