SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 
(e) Concentrated nitric acid can be made by synthetic processes 
for about half the pre-war cost by the standard retort 
process vid Chile nitrate. 
(f) The ammonia oxidation process provides a means whereby, 
during a state of war, the importation of Chile nitrate 
would be rendered unnecessary. 
(g) The world’s demand for combined nitrogen appears to double 
every ten years. The increased production during the war 
has not been more than the normal rate of increase during 
peace. 
(hk) The actual consumption of combined nitrogen for agriculture 
in the United Kingdom has practically doubled during the 
war, and there is certain to be a further increase. 
(7) No very large increase in the output of by-product ammonia 
in Great Britain in the immediate future seems probable. 
The specific recommendations of the Committee are set out under 
yarious headings, and it will be observed that they embody the main 
recommendations put forward in the interim report. 
The following measures are recommended as a minimum provision 
for safeguarding the future and’ for meeting a portion of the growing 
home demand for various nitrogen products:—(1) The establishment in 
Great Britain without delay of the calcium cyanamide process either 
by private enterprise (supported, if necessary, by the Government) or 
as a public work; (2) the scale of manufacture should be sufficient to 
give an output of about 60,000 tons of cyanamide per annum, equivalent 
on the basis of combined nitrogen to about one-eighth of the present 
home production of ammonium sulphate; (8) the necessary electrical 
energy should be obtained either from water power in Scotland or from 
a large steam-power station. ; 
The Committee has ascertained from the Water Power Resources 
Committee of the Board of Trade that there are several sites in Scot- 
land where the necessary water power can be developed at a reasonable 
cost. If steam power is used, a suitable site for the cyanamide factory 
might be obtained at one of the capital power stations proposed by the 
Board of Trade Committee on Electric Power Supply. 
The synthetic ammonia (Haber) process has hitherto only been 
operated on a full commercial scale in Germany. Nevertheless, as a 
result of the continuous experiments carried out since the summer of 
1916 at the Research Laboratory of the Munitions Inventions Depart- 
ment, the Government decided early in 1918 to erect a large factory 
at Billingham-on-Tees for the manufacture of synthetic ammonia and 
ammonium nitrate. This factory, projected as an emergency war 
measure, did not reach an advanced stage through causes which it is 
unnecessary to specify, and in view of the altered situation the need 
for the completion of the factory as an ammonium nitrate project no 
longer exists. The Committee nevertheless recommends that the 
synthetic ammonia process should be established forthwith on a com- 
mercial unit scale, and extended as rapidly as possible, as a post-war 
measure, up to a minimum manufacturing scale of 10,000 tons of 
ammonia (equivalent to 40,000 tons of ammonium sulphate) per 
annum. The Billingham factory should be utilized for the purpose if 
such a course is practicable. 
234 
