SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 
M. Georges Claude has linked up his new process of manufacturing. 
synthethic ammonia with the conversion of the ammonia into ammonium 
chloride for agricultural purposes. His idea was that the success of 
the synthetic process would depend upon the increased employment of 
the product in agriculture, and that as hydrochloric acid was cheaper 
than sulphuric, the synthetic ammonia should be neutralized with the 
former acid. He devised a modification of the classical solvay ammonia 
soda process for the manufacture of bicarbonate of soda, consisting of 
decomposing large quantities of sodium chloride (brine) with the aid 
of ammonia and carbonic acid gas. 
This results in the separation and precipitation on one side of 
ammonium chloride and on the other of sodium bicarbonate, utilizing 
the alternate precipitation method due to Schreib, by means of which . 
for each ton of fixed nitrogen in the form of ammonia three tons of 
bicarbonate of soda are recovered. 
The process may be briefly summarized as follows: — 
Taking as the basis of operations a saturated solution of ammonia 
and salt, and adding carbon dioxide, bicarbonate of soda and chloride 
of ammonia are formed, then by adding further ammonia and carbon 
dioxide, neutral carbonate of soda is obtained, and chloride of ammonia 
is precipitated. The carbonate of sodium, then in solution through 
the addition of further carbon dioxide, is transformed in bicarbonate 
of sodium, which in the presence of chloride of ammonia causes the 
precipitation of the bicarbonate of soda, and a solution of chloride of 
ammonia is once more reconstituted. On the addition of more salt 
and carbon dioxide, the same cycle of operations is started over again, 
in the same solution, indefinitely. After having twice operated as above, 
chloride of ammonia is still produced 97 per cent. purity. 
M. Claude has also perfected a method for the production of hydro- 
gen from producer gas, which gives better results as to purity and cost 
than the iron contact process, the Linde-Frank Caro or the Badische 
Anilin catalytie process. The new French method of producing hydro- 
gen forms an integral part of the Claude synthetic ammonia process 
eveloped at Monterean, in the Grand Paroisse Company’s Works. 
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