No, 22
SUPPLEMENT TO THE HERMISTON HERALD
GERMANY UNDONE
BY OWN WEAPON
plants tor manufacturing all three of
these explosives. Under the best of
conditions the cost of either TNT or
nitric acid is about two and one-half
the cost of ammonium nitrate. But
the United States was wholly depend
ent upon Chilean nitrate of soda as a
raw material for ammonium nitrate,
with ■ he exception of a small produc-
tío» of nitrogen from the coking of
coal. •The Chilean supply was 4,500
miles away from New York City by
way »of the Panama Canal, and the
route by way of the Straits of Magel
lan is nearly twice as long.
A Record Building Operation.
Shortly after the war began In Eu
rope the German government entered
into the fixation of air nitrogen for
military explosives on a vast scale. It
was not, however, until the fall of 1917
that the United States government
took It up.
The Ordnance Department asked Mr
Washburn’s company to, organize a
subsidiary corporation, known as the
Air Nitrates Corporation, with Mr.
Washburn as president, to act as
agent of the government for the con
struction and operation of the air ni
trates plant at Muscle Shoals. Ala-
bama. This corporation provided the
designs, erected the equipment in the
chemical plants and supervised all the
I other work. It also operated the
camp, the town and the plant. Other
work Is sublet to severai of the best
known organizations in the Uniteti
States.
Westinghouse Church Kerr
Company built the plant buildings, the
camp, the permanent city and utilities.
The J. G. White Engineering Corpora
tion designed and built the nitrate
acid plant. The M. W. Kellogg Com
pany furnished the piping and built
the chimneys. On February 16, 1918,
ground was broken, and eight months
anti eight days later the $60,000,000
Muscle Shoals plant began producing
ammonium nitrate. In that brief pe
riod 23,000 men had completed the
plant and nround it, where not a
house stood before, had arisen u city
of 25,000 Inhabitants.
This plant when In full operation
was ready to provide 13 per cent of all
explosives to be used by all the allies
on all the allied fronts during the ex
jected spring drive of 1919.
Had Sold to America Secret
of Making Explosive
From Air.
BIG NITRATE PLANT RESULTS.
Built in Eight Months It Con
vinces Kaiser of His Defeat.
By GARRET SMITH.
One of the most romantic passages
in the secret history of the World War
Is the story of how the Ordnance De
partment of the United States Army
made It possible for America, until
then -utterly lacking In ammunition
and In facilities for making it, to man
ufacture unlimited quantities of pow
erful explosives out of air and rock.
It was largely the knowledge of this
fact that forced Germany to surrender
when she did.
The secret was secured from Ger
many herself. It was an open busi-
between business
ness transaction
men, whereby we apparently acquired
nothing more military than a process
for making a high grade fertilizer
known as cyanamid.
Frank Sherman Washburn, head of
the group of business men who bought
this process, conceived the germ of
the Idea in the early nineties while In
South America as consulting engineer
In connection with the production and
shipping of Chilean nitrate of soda
Nitrogen compounds are an essential
part of all commercial fertilizers. The
only available natural nitrate deposits
in large quantities are In Chile. This
supply was diminishing.
Germany,
which had been taking about one-
third of the Chilean nitrates, was al-
ready experimenting with processes
for their artificial production. In 1907
Mr. Washburn secured in Germany
the American rights of the cyanamid
process which had been Invented In
that country.
Turning Air Into a Weapon.'
By this process air, which Is a mix
ture of about four-fifths nitrogen gas
and one-fifth oxygen. Is placed in con
tainers and subjected to pressure and
cold until It turns to a liquid. Then
ths nitrogen is distilled In much the
same manner as alcohol Is separated
from water. But before this nitrogen
can be used as a fertilizer It must be
combined with a chemical combination
of lime and-carbon known as calcium
carbide, produced by burning ordinary
limestone In big rotary kilns and com
bining It in the electric furnace with
carbon supplied in the form of ordi
nary coke.
Cyanamid thns produced contains
the elements of ammonium nitrate, one
of the most powerful of modern expío-
sives. By one process ammonia Is ex
tracted from
other process
from another
namid. Then
the cyanamid.
By an-
nitric acid Is extracted
batch of this same sya-
the ammonia and nitric
acid are combined and there you have
ammonium nitrate ready for packing
Into shells with TNT.
There are three kinds of explosives
used for bursting shells In modern
warfare—TNT, picric acid and ammo
nium nitrate. The United States was
equally deficient In raw materials and
PROFESSIONAL CARDS
DR. R. G. GALE
Physician and surgeon
Rooms 1 and 2 Bank Bldg.
Office Hours:
10 to 12; 2 t 4; 7 t 8.
Phone Ml
DR. FRANCIS P. ADAMS
Physician and Surgeon
OFFICE PHONE. 92
RESIDENCE PHONE. 182
Office Hours: 9 to 12 a. m.; 2 to 5:30 p. m.
Day or night calls answered promptly
DR. W. W. ILLSLEY
Osteopathic Physician
and Surgeon
.
phone
641
Saturday, February 21, 1920
votes
© 1920 A. B. S.. Ing.
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