————— a 
. NITROGEN PRODUCTS. 
ee 
Primary AND SEconDARY PRopucts—continued: 
AE a a a a Te ee 
Processes. Primary Products. Secondary Products. 
Fixation Processes—contd. : 
(d) Cyanide processes .. | Crude Sodium, Batium, or | Finished Cyanides, or Am- 
other Metallic Cyanides monia or Ammonium Sul- 
phate 
(e) Hausser and Bender | Oxides of Nitrogen nor- | Concentrated (93-96 per 
processes _ mally recovered as dilute cent.) Nitric Acid, or 
(30 per cent.) Nitric Acid Nitrates such as Am- 
monium or Calcium Ni- 
trate 
(f) Serpek process +. | Crude or pure Aluminium | Ammonia Liquor or Am- 
Nitride monium Sulphate 
Conversion Process : 
Ammonia Oxidation pro- | Oxides of Nitrogen nor- | Concentrated (93-96 per 
cess mally recovered as dilute cent.) Nitric Acid, or 
(50-53 per cent.) Nitric Nitrates such as Am- 
Acid or alternatively as monium or Calcium Ni- 
Metallic Nitrates trate 
Before the war the by-product ammonia industry ranked almost 
equal in importance with the Chilean nitrate industry. Although the 
world’s production of ammonia nitrogen just before the war was less 
than the output of nitrate nitrogen, the rate of growth of the by-product 
industry was even greater than that of the Chilean industry. 
The by-product industry was an outcome of the development of the 
illuminating-gas and coke-oven industries, and its rapid expansion is 
indicated by the fact that the world’s production of ammonia nitrogen 
(expressed in terms of ammonium sulphate) increased from 540,000 
tons in 1903 to about 1,390,000 tons in 1913. - 
The commercial manufacture of synthetic nitrogen products from 
atmospheric nitrogen dates from the beginning of the present century 
with the establishment of the are process in Norway and afterwards in 
Austria and Italy. In 1906 the calcium cyanamide process was also 
successfully established in Italy, and in the subsequent years preceding 
the war was installed in Germany, Norway, France, Switzerland, 
America, Austria, Japan, and Sweden. The third of the established 
methods of fixing nitrogen, the Haber process for the synthesis of 
ammonia, was brought to a successful stage in Germany in 1913. 
With regard to the Haber or synthetic ammonia process, it is 
reported that the production of the German factory in 1913 amounted 
to from 30,000 to 35,000 metric tons of ammonium sulphate. There 
is no doubt as to the commercial success of the process, for steps were 
being taken before the war to develop it further on a considerable scale. 
The committee has been informed on ‘good authority that contracts 
were being made with other countries in the early part of 1914 for the 
forward selling of large quantities of synthetic ammonium sulphate. 
Summarizing the pre-war position, the world’s demand for combined 
nitrogen in 1913 is given as practically double the demand in 19038, 
about 4,000,000 metric tons of artificial nitrogenous fertilizers being 
consumed in 1913. 
231 
