NITROGEN
BY CHESTER G. GILBERT
USES OF NITROGEN
Plant life requires nitrogen and gets it in the normal cycle of events.
But when the occasion calls for stimulating the growth of plant life by
feeding, by soil fertilization in other words, nitrogen in available
form is indispensable. Further down along the channels of food supply
it exercises another and equally important function in providing the
chemical (ammonia) around which the modern practice of refrigeration is
built. Likewise, the chemistry of explosives is basically the chemistry
of nitrogen compounds. Nor is this all, for chemical operations in
general--hence research and industrial chemistry in general--involve
the employment of nitrogen compounds. Such, in brief, is its status. On
each of three major counts, the interests of food production, of food
distribution, and of national defense, it is indispensable; and of no
less consequence is the retinue of less conspicuous agencies serving
the interests of chemistry at every turn.
GEOLOGICAL DISTRIBUTION
The development of fixed nitrogen sources is conditioned by three
simple chemical facts. With these three simple facts in mind the rest
follows largely as a matter of inference. The facts are:
That under all ordinary conditions of temperature and pressure, free
nitrogen is a gas.
That it is extremely inert and indisposed to participate with other
elements in the formation of chemical compounds.
That such combinations when they do occur are characteristically
soluble.
In consequence of these three governing principles, along with its
relationship to organic matter, as alluded to under the preceding
caption, nitrogen has four habits of occurrence, worth considering as
at least potential sources of supply.
=Atmospheric Nitrogen.=--Being indisposed to participate in chemical
combinations, nitrogen in the course of world evolution was left
largely to itself; and since in the free state it is normally gaseous,
it established its home in the atmosphere. Thus it comes about that
the atmosphere today is approximately four-fifths nitrogen gas, and
after all is said and done the atmosphere is bound to constitute the
great source to which we must turn for our supplies. With a source
so boundlessly ever-present, the question of supply at first glance
looks simple enough. But atmospheric nitrogen, it must be remembered,
is nitrogen uncombined, and the demand is not for nitrogen itself
but for nitrogen-bearing compounds. Once in a state of combination,
it may remain so indefinitely, and the form of combination may be
changed more or less readily to suit the demand. Before it can be
put to use, however, it must be induced to surrender its gaseous
freedom and affix itself in some such state of combination. The free
nitrogen must become fixed nitrogen--hence the terms fixed nitrogen,
nitrogen fixation, and the like in common use. Toward this end it must
be induced to do what it has not seen fit to do of its own accord,
and the very trait of aloofness responsible for the inexhaustible
resources of atmospheric nitrogen stands as an obstacle opposing their
utilization. The obstacle has not proven insuperable, as will appear
later; but it is sufficiently a source of trouble even to this day, so
that the fixed-nitrogen situation may with peculiar appropriateness be
characterized as distinctly in the air.
=Nitrate Ore Deposits.=--The disposition on the part of nitrogen to
take up its abode in the atmosphere has an obvious result in minimizing
the development of mineral nitrates. Atmospheric nitrogen is not
entirely stagnant, however. Natural processes are constantly at work
effecting substantial fixation. The processes are not obtrusively
energetic, as in the case of atmospheric oxygen, whose fixation
processes constitute the ever-present phenomena of oxidation. Still, in
various ways, the most prominent among which is undoubtedly a form of
bacterial action, nitrification and the building up of nitrate minerals
everywhere in the soil goes quietly forward, and their concentration
in ore deposits of more or less plentiful occurrence is thus to be
looked for in the natural course of geologic events. In attempting to
trace their further course, however, we are confronted at the outset
by the principle of solubility. The nitrate minerals are in the nature
of soluble salts. They leach from the immediate environment in which
they form, just as do the soluble minerals in general. Mostly these
latter are carried in solution to the ocean, adding themselves to
its salinity; but under exceptional conditions of topography, where
the drainage feeds into land-locked basins, the water finds itself
entrapped with no avenue of escape except through evaporation. Here
the salts accumulate, become concentrated, and finally give rise to
deposits.
This, in outline, is the course set for the soluble mineral salts as
a class, and it is along this course that we must expect to trace the
development of nitrate ore deposits. But the ocean, with its 3¹⁄₂ per
cent. of salinity, has only traces of nitrate minerals; and the same is
true for the waters of land-locked basins, in all the various stages
of concentration. Their solubility is such that they can not have
escaped in substantial form along the way. There is only one inference
to be drawn. Evidently the inherent trait of aloofness is not lost to
nitrogen when it does combine. The compounds do not survive for any
length of time, but undergo dissociation, releasing their nitrogen
and returning it to the atmosphere even as other processes are slowly
withdrawing it from the atmosphere.
With this the eternal cycle is closed for nitrogen, and closed without
apparent provision for any considerable side-tracking, such as would
be required in the building up of ore deposits. So much for the rule;
now as to the exceptions: Mostly they are of minor consequence. Pockety
enrichments in the soil are common. Accumulations tend to build up
in caves, and may even grow to be of consequence in a small way, as
during the Civil War, when they helped materially toward relieving the
nitrogen troubles of the blockaded Confederacy. In arid country, too,
they not infrequently assume sufficient prominence to be of interest,
especially at the hands of the promoter. Finally, there are the Chilean
nitrate fields, which far from being of minor consequence, go to the
other extreme in catering to the needs of the entire world.
These occurrences, especially the last named, have served to keep
alive the hope that others of economic importance await discovery.
The Chilean deposits alone among them all deserve more than passing
notice. The origin of these deposits is veiled in uncertainty. Just why
or how the natural forces, which elsewhere as a matter of universal
observation have been seen to oppose both the formation of nitrogen
salts and the accumulation of such as do manage to form, should have
failed in this particular instance remains wholly conjectural. A
conclusive explanation would be of the utmost value in determining
the likelihood of similar occurrences elsewhere. But none has been
forthcoming, and nothing is to be gained to the present purpose from
stopping to inquire into the plausibility of the various attempts that
have been made. Confronting us on the one hand are the evidences of a
nitrogen cycle established, seemingly, without affording any visible
loophole of opportunity for the accumulation of extensive deposits;
on the other hand stands the bare fact of enormous deposition. This
fact of existence unquestionably carries with it the possibility of
duplication elsewhere. However, the fact of occurrence merely suggests
the possibility, but does not determine the chances of recurrence.
These are recorded in the prevalence of the conditions requisite to
extensive deposition. In the case of nitrogen they are unique beyond
comprehension, and the prospect of recurrence is to precisely the same
degree unlikely. Accordingly, to all practical purposes, a review of
the world’s nitrate ore deposits, both real and potential, resolves
itself down to a review of the Chilean occurrence.
The Chilean nitrate fields lie in the arid valley basin to the east of
the lofty coast range and just south of the present Peruvian boundary
line. They do not occur as a single expansive area of deposition, but
as deposits scattered here and there along the desert land at the
bases of the mountain slopes. The formation consists of a conglomerate
or breccia of rock material from the adjacent slopes, cemented with
a mixture of soluble salts in which sodium chloride, common salt, is
the dominant member, with sodium nitrate ranking second. The formation
is called _caliche_. It lies for the most part just below the surface
of the ground and varies from a few feet to many feet in thickness.
Only in scattered patches is the caliche high enough in content of
sodium nitrate to warrant treatment. These patches are sought out and
excavated, and the picked ore is loaded in carts, which haul it to the
extraction plant for treatment. Here the soluble salts as a whole are
extracted in solution, and the nitrate in turn is segregated from the
other salts by crystallization. Aside from haulage, hand labor is used
throughout.
The caliche regarded as worth treating contains not less than 10
per cent. nitrate and ranges up to 25 per cent. and over, with an
average of around 18 per cent. The product marketed is of two general
grades--the ordinary, listed as 95 per cent. nitrate, and the refined,
a guaranteed 96 per cent. nitrate, low in sodium chloride. The
deposits have been worked more or less consistently, and with steadily
increasing output, since about 1830. Their importance in the scheme of
nitrogen supply may be gathered from Figures 16 to 18.
=Organic Nitrogen.=--Another source of fixed nitrogen grows out of
its relationship to life processes, and is consequent on the very
requirements of organized society which earlier it is called upon to
assist in meeting. In other words, fixed nitrogen participates in the
material cycle of life. It enters into the material demands of life for
food, and it is yielded up among the material discards available to
absorption. All manner of residuum, animal and vegetable alike, affords
at least a potential source of fixed-nitrogen supply. Some of these are
in service; others for one reason or another are not. Prominent among
those in the former class are animal excreta, the so-called tankage
from animal rendering plants, slaughter-house refuse, fish scrap, and
vegetable-product refinery refuse. Most prominent among those still
largely potential are sewage and garbage disposal.
The nitrogen from these organic sources does not appear on the market
as such. Instead, the products enter in bulk into the make-up of
fertilizer. They are of miscellaneous character, and only part of what
is contributed collects to pass through industrial channels where
its flow may be measured. The industrial flow goes on record and the
records are available, but even here the nitrogen content has never
been systematically computed, so the record is inadequate. For the
rest, the portion that does not reach the channels of industry, there
is nothing whatever in the way of data to go by. Taken all in all,
then, the significance of the organic nitrogen resources is largely
conjectural. This is unfortunate. Approximate figures covering the use
of organic nitrogen would be of value in various connections, as in
the interests of intelligent allocation in times of nitrogen shortage,
as helping to determine the extent to which the growing demands of
agriculture incident to the growth of population may be discounted from
the consequent expansion of scavenging opportunity, or as affording a
basis for estimating the very considerable influence of motorization
toward increasing the demand for chemically prepared fertilizers.
As things stand, all such questions of relationship lead only to
profitless speculation. Even the relative importance of the organic
sources as a whole in the economics of nitrogen supply is uncertain.
What they have to offer of undeveloped reserves, now taking the form of
wasteful sanitation procedure, will be taken up later. Under existing
conditions, it is probably fair to assume that 40 to 50 per cent. of
the nitrogen normally put to use in the United States is organically
associated.
=Carboniferous Deposits.=--Nitrogen in its organic relationships is
bound up with carbon, of which organic matter is largely composed, and
the bond between the two is entirely disestablished only as the carbon
itself loses its substantial form through oxidation. In consequence
of this enduring alliance, nitrogen is characteristically present in
carboniferous deposits, a form of occurrence giving rise to still
another, a fourth type of nitrogen resource. Coal and oil-shale loom up
as the outstanding representatives of this class. In each, the nitrogen
content is variable, but amounts to 1 per cent. or over. With so low a
percentage of nitrogen, it goes without saying that neither of these is
to be regarded as a possible source of direct supply. The cost would
be prohibitive, even under the stress of the most extreme emergency.
The nitrogen in a coal bed or an oil-shale formation is as worthless
as the iron in any ordinary rock. But coal has other uses, and so has
oil shale, or at least will shortly. The nitrogen does not have to
be extracted; it gets released incidentally, and when its release is
effected under conditions that prevent its escape, the result is a
productive nitrogen resource. The nitrogen from this type of resource
is in the form of ammonia, the relative importance of which is shown in
Figures 16 to 18 and Table 66.
GENERAL ASPECTS OF CONTROL
Such is the nature of the nitrogen resources. The resource situation
as a whole is represented graphically in Figure 15. None other can
compare with it for inclusiveness. Its sources are animal, vegetable,
mineral, and atmospheric, which is to say, universal; and out of this
unparalleled diversity has grown an industrial development as complex
as it is diversified, and, incidentally, in view of its bearing on food
and munitions supply, as important as it is complex. The situation at
best can be but imperfectly grasped, for it has been but inadequately
studied. In transgressing all set rules of resource occurrence, it
transgresses the limits set for organized investigation. Geologists
have studied one phase of the situation, electrochemists another,
sanitation experts another, and so on; and the various commercial
interests involved have seen to the giving of publicity where publicity
would do the most good.
TABLE 66.--STATISTICS OF NITROGEN PRODUCTION
----+-----------+--------------------------
| Organic | Chemical nitrogen
| nitrogen +-------------------------+
+-----------+ Sodium |
| | nitrate |
| Dried +---------+-----+---------+
| blood; | | Do- | |
| tankage; | | mes-| |
| guano; | | tic | +
|fish scrap;| World’s | pro-| |
|cotton seed| pro- | duc-| |
| cake and | duction,|tion,| Imports,|
Year|meal; etc. | tons | tons| tons |
----+-----------+---------+-----+---------+
1900| | ...| ...| ...|
1901| Data for |1,328,664| ...| 203,960|
1902| organic |1,349,300| ...| 205,245|
1903| nitrogen |1,485,279| ...| 272,947|
1904|indefinite,|1,559,091| ...| 228,012|
1905| but |1,754,605| ...| 321,231|
1906| probably |1,800,500| ...| 372,222|
1907| about |1,846,036| ...| 364,610|
1908| equal to |1,970,974| ...| 310,713|
1909|the total |2,110,961| ...| 428,429|
1910| for |2,465,415| ...| 529,172|
1911| chemical |2,521,023| ...| 544,878|
1912| nitrogen. |2,585,850| ...| 486,352|
1913| |2,772,254| ...| 625,862|
1914| |2,463,356| ...| 541,715|
1915| |1,755,291| ...| 772,190|
1916| |2,912,893| ...|1,218,423|
1917| |2,950,000| ...|1,555,839|
1918| |2,900,000| ...|1,845,192|
----+-----------+---------+-----+---------+
----+---------------------------------------
| Chemical nitrogen
|---------------------------------------+
+ Fixation |
| compounds |
|--------------------------+-----+------+
| | Do- | |
| World’s production | mes-| |
|--------+-------+---------+ tic | |
| Ammon. |Calcium| | pro-| |
| sulph. |nitrate|Cyanamid,| duc-| Im- |
|(Haber),|(Arc), | tons |tion,|ports,|
Year| tons | tons | | tons| tons |
----+--------+-------+---------+-----+------+
1900| ...| ...| ...| ...| ...|
1901| ...| ...| ...| ...| ...|
1902| ...| ...| ...| ...| ...|
1903| ...| ...| ...| ...| ...|
1904| ...| ...| ...| ...| ...|
1905| ...| ...| ...| ...| ...|
1906| ...| ...| 386| ...| ...|
1907| ...| ...| 1,874| ...| ...|
1908| ...| ...| 2,767| ...| ...|
1909| ...| 45,450| 12,734| ...| ...|
1910| ...| ...| 22,596| ...| 764|
1911| ...| ...| 59,479| ...| 5,617|
1912| ...| ...| 115,688| ...| 7,134|
1913| 20,000|181,800| 173,026| ...|14,656|
1914| 60,000| ...| 208,070| ...|29,536|
1915| 150,000| ...| 845,388| ...|20,564|
1916| 300,000| ...|1,053,439| ...|38,023|
1917| 500,000|300,000| 954,765| ...|44,146|
1918| ...| ...| ...| ...|43,070|
----+--------+-------+---------+-----+------+
----+------------------------
| Chemical nitrogen
|------------------------
+ By-product
| ammonium sulphate
|---------+-------+------
| | Do- |
| | mes- |
| | tic |
| World’s | pro- |
| pro- | duc- | Im-
| duction,| tion, |ports,
Year| tons | tons | tons
----+---------+-------+------
1900| 540,000| 27,600| 8,411
1901| 580,000| 29,279|14,486
1902| 600,000| 36,124|18,146
1903| 640,000| 41,873|16,777
1904| 650,000| 54,664|16,667
1905| 694,575| 65,296|15,288
1906| 778,365| 75,000| 9,182
1907| 906,255| 99,300|30,114
1908| 970,200| 83,400|38,238
1909| 987,840|106,500|42,914
1910|1,104,705|116,000|92,342
1911|1,206,135|127,000|94,633
1912|1,356,075|165,000|59,542
1913|1,532,475|195,000|65,775
1914|1,320,000|183,000|75,010
1915|1,690,000|249,000|36,370
1916|2,000,000|285,000|12,962
1917| ...|325,000|
1918| | |
----+---------+-------+------
[Illustration: FIG. 15.--Nitrogen sources and their cycles of
utilization.]
[Illustration: FIG. 16.--Wartime developments in the production of
nitrogen. Figures are thousands of tons.]
But an investigation working on the basis of geology alone can not cope
with the situation; neither can one on the basis of technology alone;
nor one on the basis of organic chemistry, or bacteriology alone; nor
yet one prepared to employ any or all of these means, but only with a
view to some special end. Nor yet again does the discordant grinding
of many axes make a noise from which it is possible to gather an
adequate comprehension. The nitrogen situation has been inadequately
treated because it has been inadequately studied. It has been studied
piecemeal, always through the medium of limited means or with some
special end in view. It is not a series of technical problems in
geology, in bacteriology, in fixation, in munitions supply, and the
like. It has to do with a composite economic structure, building for
the dependence of society in peace and war alike. Until treated as
such, the needs of the situation are bound to be inadequately met and
its control a matter of perilous uncertainty. The present discussion
makes no pretense of supplying this deficiency or of doing much of
anything more than to show the extent to which it exists.
Figure 15 is designed to show not so much the scope of the resources
as their composite functioning in the system of nitrogen supply. The
influence of geography in the control of resources so universally
available is bound to be subordinate. True, it enables Chile to
exercise monopolistic control over the mineral nitrate supply, but
it leaves the way open for the development of others; and while
acknowledging the fullness of our dependence, as shown in Figures 16 to
18 and Table 66, we must not lose sight of the fact that it is so not
of necessity, but because we have been content to leave it so rather
than undertake to develop supplies of our own. So, too, with political
control; what is gained in one direction is, potentially at least,
offset by the possibilities opening up in others. Control of the sea
gives a control over the mineral nitrate supply as absolute as that in
Chile’s territorial monopoly. Yet in the recent great war, Germany,
with her shipping obliterated at the outset, was not made to suffer
materially from a nitrogen shortage. Britain’s supremacy of the sea
went for naught. In the years before the war the force due in season
to exercise control over the nitrate supply served only to stimulate
the development of domestic potentialities, with the result that when
the test came Germany’s proved actually to be the more advantageous
equipment.
So it goes. Control over the nitrogen resources themselves is
impossible. They are too universally available. Their only
susceptibility to control is in the shaping of their development. This
is too important a matter to be disregarded with impunity and left
to develop without guidance. The modern nation that does so courts
the irrepressible disaster of a nation at war but bereft of the means
not only of waging war but of maintaining a food supply as well. From
Figure 16 may be gathered the quality of attention given the matter of
domestic supply by the different nations immediately before and during
the war. Germany, it will be observed, heeded the call to give the
matter special attention well before the war and had an independent
system of supply developed in readiness, drawing upon the atmosphere
and coal-product nitrogen with the results already chronicled. Great
Britain did not ignore the importance of nitrogen, but placed reliance
on her supremacy of the sea and paid little or no attention to
shaping the course of developments. Nor did its importance go unheeded
elsewhere abroad, and the foothold gained for fixation in France,
Italy, Austria, Russia, and Japan was, it is safe to say, not wholly
automatic. The United States alone among the great nations up to the
outbreak of hostilities in Europe in 1914 neglected to take any special
precautions whatever.
[Illustration: FIG. 17.--Nitrogen developments in the United States. 1.
Wartime expansion for munitions manufacture. 2. Field of competitive
opportunity for Chilean nitrate, air nitrate fixation, improved
coal-fuel practice, shale-oil ammonia, bacterial fixation, improved
sanitation, etc. 3. Field of opportunity reserved to coke-oven
recovery. 4. Developments indicated for coke-oven recovery.]
[Illustration: FIG. 18.--Nitrogen developments for the world,
1900-1918.]
The war, when it came, far exceeded all expectations as to magnitude,
and so in consequence did the demand for specially developed nitrogen
supplies. To meet the emergency, some could be deflected from
agricultural channels, but nothing like what was required, for food
was just as important as munitions. The organic sources offered no
help. Rather they were a hindrance; for organic nitrogen, broadly
speaking, comes as a by-product of sanitation, and as such develops as
the outgrowth of civilization’s refinements. There was a measurable
response from the carboniferous sources, but these could not be made
to meet the emergency, for, being of by-product order, the supply
is determined not in response to the demand for nitrogen but for the
major products. Dependence on the native mineral source in Chile was
out of the question, or at least precarious for any country except
Great Britain. Accordingly, of the four great sources it remained
for atmospheric nitrogen to meet the emergency. Thus, the war in
bringing the nitrogen situation emphatically to the fore, communicated
practically the whole weight of its tremendous impetus to development
in the one direction of fixation. The result is shown in Figure 18.
Roused by the nightmare of war in 1914, even the United States awoke
to the perils if not to the real needs of the domestic situation. It
is a striking and highly significant fact that despite the fundamental
importance of nitrogen, the awakening found us absolutely without
any formulated program of action, even military or agricultural, let
alone anything of comprehensive economic scope. A hysterical effort at
improvising a program ensued. We were not yet in the war, and public
interest was just roused to the gullible stage. The opportunity for
private pickings from public favors was too promising to go by the
board. The only prospect opening up lay in the direction of fixation
developments, and fixation in the hands of the promoter is one of the
most appealing propositions imaginable. Its major requirements are
nitrogen and power. With the former inexhaustibly present in the air
and the latter inexhaustibly available in the wasting waterpowers of
the country, nothing it would seem, could offer greater promise. Add
to this the reflection that cheap nitrogen means cheap fertilizer, and
cheap fertilizer means lowered cost of foodstuffs, and the proposition
broadcasted over the country is complete. Out of the confusion of
interests, public, political, and private, a program was finally
evolved, following our entry into the war, calling for the erection of
a series of fixation plants with an aggregate producing capacity of
around 85,000 tons of fixed nitrogen annually. For the present is must
suffice to say that the war ended before any of these had reached the
producing stage, and the United States, like Great Britain, depended on
imports.
The charts comprising Figure 16 show the influence of the war in the
development of nitrogen distributively among the countries concerned.
The Scandinavian developments, while actuated from wholly commercial
motives, were so largely influenced by the politically stimulated
market that they may well enough be included in that general class
of politically controlled developments. The same is true for the
neutral countries in general. Figure 18, based on the best information
obtainable, is designed to bring out the collective influence of
the war in contributing to the world’s supply. Organic nitrogen is
disregarded both because it involves too many uncertainties and because
the wartime emphasis was all in the direction of chemical nitrogen.
This figure takes into consideration only the actual production and
leaves out what was in process of construction when the war ended.
Accordingly, while in one respect it overrates the effect of the war
by including strictly commercial operations that very possibly might
have transpired anyway, in another it underrates the situation by
disregarding developments like those in this country. The best that can
be done is to consider these as balancing each other, which, all things
considered, is probably fair enough for all practical purposes. Taken
on this basis, the net effect of the war, it will be observed, was to
swell the production of fixed nitrogen some 40 or 50 per cent. above
the figures indicated for the normal rate of expansion.
Thus the wartime shortage was made up; but all this is history. Now
that the war is over, the question arises as to whether the world
is due to face the situation in reverse. In making ready for war,
and finally in meeting its demands, has the world been building up
a 50 per cent. over-production beyond the needs of peace? Offhand,
the answer would seem to be in the affirmative, but the question
is not one that can be answered offhand. Agriculture is capable of
absorbing an indefinite amount of nitrogen, and the war has wrought a
lasting change in the agricultural situation. The changed agricultural
conditions make room for much, perhaps for all, of the increment to
nitrogen production. The development cannot be sustained, however,
on its present arbitrary preferential basis of political expediency.
Least of all can it be sustained on that basis in this country.
Normally, we do not and can not be made to think in terms of war. The
reason is evident enough, and its recurrent force is already apparent.
Distasteful as the fact may be in some of its extremes of application,
the only rational procedure is to accept it and fashion our measures of
economic preparedness so that the normal activities of peace will keep
our economic forces exercised and in trim for the test of war. It was
recognized all along before the war that without an assured source of
nitrogen supply, our system of defense was hollow; but we succeeded in
building up no means of supply in direct response to political needs.
We managed to get comfortably started during the war, but it remains
to be seen to what extent this artificially nourished development is
fitted to withstand the bitter strife of competition ahead.
COMMERCIAL ASPECTS OF NITROGEN CONTROL
Free nitrogen, it will be recalled, has no economic significance.
To be available in the industrial arts it must be in a state of
chemical combination. The form of compound is of secondary importance,
since this may be modified more or less readily to suit the need,
but its value is conditioned in terms of its availability in the
form of nitrogen compounds. In consequence, the several sources are
classifiable industrially under three heads:
Natural compounds--nitrogen occurring naturally in the form of
marketable compounds.
By-product compounds--nitrogen rendered available incidentally in the
course of operations otherwise directed.
Fixation compounds--nitrogen whose availability is dependent on special
fixation treatment.
=Natural Compounds.=--Chile nitrate is the outstanding representative
of the natural compounds. The guano industry, or what there is left of
it, and a few other odds and ends of production from organic sources,
belong here as well, but their combined output is so relatively small
that the Chilean industry comprises what amounts to a monopoly of the
natural resources. It is not operated as such, however, but by private
capital, which owns and operates the oficinas, paying the Chilean
government a royalty or export tax amounting to about $11.20 per ton.
British and Chilean interests share about equally in making up the far
greater part of the capital invested. The balance is largely German and
American. The total capitalization in 1909 amounted to approximately
$134,000,000, representing an actual valuation of about $30,000,000.
Various efforts on the part of the commercial interests involved to
effect combinations for the purpose of stabilizing production have
been attempted, but have not been entirely successful, and the general
tendency has all along been toward overproduction.
The operations, as already outlined on page 424, are crude, and the
cost of production is correspondingly high, amounting to around $25 to
$30 per ton at seaboard, inclusive of the $11 export tax. The nitrate
is marketed largely through commission houses. The American situation
is mostly in the hands of three companies, W. R. Grace & Co., E. I. du
Pont de Nemours Powder Co., and Wessel, Duval & Co. The magnitude of
the Chilean industry as a whole and its relative importance are shown
in Figures 16 to 18 and Table 66.
=By-product Compounds.=--To this class of compounds belong, with
the few minor exceptions already noted, the nitrogenous products of
organic derivation as a whole, and those from carboniferous sources
such as coal and oil shale. From the former source comes a miscellany
of organic refuse resulting from activities dealing with animal,
vegetable, and fish products, and carrying nitrogen in the form of
organic ammoniates commonly left as such for use in agriculture. From
the latter the nitrogen recovered is all chemical nitrogen in the
form of ammonia or ammonium salts, mostly ammonium sulphate, and is
available in all capacities.
The organic production is impossible of definite analysis from any
angle. The lack of systematically compiled records, and back of that
the miscellaneous largely decentralized character of the output,
along with the fact that the producing costs are for the most part
indistinguishable, leaves altogether too much to the imagination. Much
of the supply is derived from connections of sanitation, especially of
local sanitation, such as the rural practice, for which there is no
measure whatever. Another prominent source of supply is represented in
what is known as tankage, the refuse from animal-rendering plants; but
here too the issue is lost in the scattering of the production, the
indefiniteness of composition, and the fact that not all of the product
is used as a source of nitrogen, some of it going into the preparation
of animal food. The same is true of cottonseed meal and various other
less prominent forms of organic waste resulting from industrial
activities. Fish scrap and slaughter-house refuse from meat packing
also contribute prominently and at the same time rather more definitely
to the supply of agricultural nitrogen; but even here adequate figures
are not available. The Federal Trade Commission undertook to analyze
the 1913 consumption, with results given in the following table:
ESTIMATED CONSUMPTION OF NITROGEN IN COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS FOR THE
YEAR 1913
-------------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-------------
|Fertilizing|Consumption| Content | Units
Materials | substance | (tons) |(per cent.)|consumed[157]
-------------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-------------
Nitrate of soda | Ammonia | 260,000 | 18.0 | 4,680,000
Sulphate of ammonia| Ammonia | 130,000 | 25.0 | 3,250,000
Cyanamid | Ammonia | 15,488 | 18.0 | 278,784
High-grade tankage | Ammonia | 210,000 | 10.5 | 2,205,000
Concentrated | Ammonia | 18,351 | 14.5 | 266,090
Dried blood | Ammonia | 40,000 | 17.0 | 680,000
Dried fish scrap | Ammonia | 50,000 | 11.0 | 550,000
Cottonseed meal | Ammonia | 660,000 | 7.5 | 950,000
-------------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-------------
Total | ... | ... | ... | 16,859,874
-------------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-------------
[157] A unit is 1 per cent. of a ton, or 20 pounds.
This estimate, however, takes into account only the more strictly
industrial sources, leaving rural sanitation and the like out of the
reckoning.
Aside from the conversion of organic ammoniates, which is practiced
on a large scale only in a few instances, notably that of the Paris
system of sewage disposal, four general types of industrial operation
figure more or less in the production of by-product ammonia. They
include coal distillation, bone carbonization, oil-shale distillation,
and blast-furnace operations. The American production, however, is all
derived from the first two types. Both the others are active producers
abroad, especially in Scotland, but neither of them has as yet obtained
a foothold in this country. The American recovery in connection with
bone carbonization is of minor consequence. Practically the whole
supply comes from gas works and by-product coking operations. Figure
17, in the shaded area bearing the designation “ammonium sulphate
production,” shows the magnitude and trend of the production from year
to year since 1900.
The organic nitrogen recovered in all of the various by-product
connections taken together probably constitutes 40 to 50 per cent. of
the total supply. Coal product ammonia in this country adds another 12
to 15 per cent. So over half of our supply is of by-product derivation.
The domestic output is supplemented in the case of the organic form by
considerable importations from South America, and, until interfered
with by the war, small amounts of ammonium sulphate were imported
annually from Europe. Essentially, however, the by-product supply is
of domestic origin. Despite its magnitude, it occupies an anomalous
sort of position industrially. It is recovered incidentally for what
it is worth, and sold for what it will bring. The cost of production
is largely charged off against the major operations with which its
recovery is associated, and the returns are credited in conformance,
as a saving in the cost of the major operations. This is equally true
whether the source be that of the domestic animal on the farm, a coke
oven, or a packing house.
The industrial output is built up as a sequence to industrial
concentration. This is evidenced all down the line, notably in the
output of coke-oven ammonia from the steel industry and in that
of organic ammoniates from the meat-packing industry. It is this
influence of co-ordinated industrial concentration, along with the
call for the major operations, that controls the supply of by-product
nitrogen; so the development and handling of the industrial output
comes naturally to be largely in the hands of trade combinations. Thus,
the coal-product ammonia situation is largely at the disposal of the
Barrett Co., the tankage and other animal-product ammoniates gather for
disposal at the hands of the packing interests, and the nitrogenous
fertilizers from cottonseed are for the most part prepared and marketed
by interests subsidiary to the Cotton Oil Co.
The manufacturing interests involved are concerned primarily in the
manufacture of other than nitrogen products. The by-product nitrogen
recovered has to compete for its market against what comes from the
other two industrial classes of supply, and its price goes just
low enough to enable it to do so. The limits set in the incidental
character of the output leave no special incentive to carry the price
competition further. Whatever additional latitude of advantage as
to cost of production it possesses goes not to promoting a further
reduction in the price of nitrogen but to lowering costs with reference
to the major theme of production. Gas-house ammonia, for instance, does
not affect the nitrogen market so much as it does the cost of gas, and
the organic ammoniates recovered in connection with meat packing have
not lowered fertilizer costs so much as they have kept down the cost
of meat to the consumer. Thus the by-product class of supply, though
the leading one in the point of magnitude, and by far the cheapest to
produce, has little to do with determining the price of nitrogen. The
selling price of by-product nitrogen is determined by the price the
product from competing sources brings. In this country it is controlled
by the price of Chile nitrate, and not, as commonly imputed, by the
trade combinations that develop and handle the output.
=Fixation Compounds.=--Nitrogen has five general habits of combination:
with oxygen, giving rise to nitric acid and its retinue of nitrate
salts; with hydrogen, giving ammonia and the ammonium salts; with
carbon, to form cyanogen and the cyanides; with basic elements,
yielding nitrides; and organically, in the form of organic ammoniates.
Various projects have been advanced for turning these to account in the
fixation of atmospheric nitrogen. For the most part they have met with
little or no practical success, but there are exceptions to the rule of
failure in all five directions.
_Direct Oxidation--Arc Fixation._--Nitrogen does not oxidize at all
readily under any ordinary conditions, but its natural indisposition
to combine with oxygen may be overcome by passing a mixture of the
two gases through an electric arc. The atmosphere furnishes the
nitrogen and oxygen ready mixed, so all that is needed in the way of
raw materials is an abundant power supply. Arc fixation was developed
in Norway, where the possibilities in the way of hydro-electric power
give the best setting to be found anywhere in the world. Efforts to
introduce it elsewhere have resulted unsatisfactorily, and arc fixation
has made relatively little headway, as may be deduced from Table 66
and Figure 18. The reason is two-fold. So far, its use of power has
proved uneconomical, and its product unsatisfactory. The former of
these two objections depends for its force on the demand for power,
but the latter is more decisive. The immediate end product is nitric
acid, which is both difficult to transport and limited as to use. To be
put in shape for agricultural use it must be neutralized in the form
of a nitrate salt. Limestone is the only cheap neutralizing agent.
This gives a salt, calcium nitrate, which absorbs moisture, cakes,
and is thus unsuited to the American agricultural practice of machine
drilling. An experimental plant near Seattle, Wash., aims to overcome
this difficulty by turning out its arc product in the form of sodium
nitrate, but the project is of no commercial significance as it stands.
_Ammonia Fixation._--Nitrogen is no more disposed to combine of its
own accord with hydrogen to give ammonia than with oxygen to give
nitric acid. In the case of the Haber process, the only synthetic
ammonia process that has stood the test of industrial application, the
native indisposition to combine is overcome by subjecting a properly
proportioned mixture of the two gases to heat and pressure in the
presence of a catalyzer. This process was instituted in Germany shortly
before the outbreak of the war, and as shown in Figure 16 and Table
66 has developed steadily since then. Little seems to be known as to
the efficiency of the German Haber practice. Apparently, careful
manipulation is necessary to obtain results. This means a skilled
attention, which is incompatible with mechanical volume production and
is thus unsuited to American practice. What aims to be an adaptation
to American conditions was worked out by the General Chemical Co., and
a plant with a rated capacity of 60,000 pounds of anhydrous ammonia
per day was projected at Sheffield, Ala., at the instance of the
Government. The plant was completed, but before it could be tuned up
for actual production the war ended.
_Cyanide Fixation._--Nitrogen, in passing through a red-hot mixture of
finely divided soda ash, coke, and iron, reacts with the sodium and
carbon to give sodium cyanide. This principle of fixation is being
extensively experimented with, but has not been developed commercially,
except in a small plant with a rated daily capacity of 10 tons of
sodium cyanide at Saltville, Va.
_Cyanamid Fixation._--Hot calcium carbide will absorb nitrogen,
forming a compound of calcium, carbon, and nitrogen, according to
the formula Ca CN₂, known as cyanamid. The cyanamid process, based
on this reaction, has been extensively developed, far more so than
any other of the various processes, as will be seen by referring to
Figure 16 and Table 66. Offhand, it looks to be the most adaptable
and consequently the most promising of the lot commercially. In this
connection, however, it is interesting to examine the several charts
of its growth in the warring countries given in Figure 16. In none of
these is the showing indicative of a strong, healthy development. Worst
of all is the case of Germany, with the contrast offered in the Haber
and cyanamid charts. Until the war, cyanamid manufacture was unable to
obtain a competitive foothold in the United States, although a small
plant has been in operation at Niagara Falls in Canada for some years.
The problem it has faced is similar to that already chronicled for
arc fixation, in that it draws heavily on power in the preparation
of the necessary carbide, and the cost of power in this country
has been prohibitive. Under the stress of the wartime demand for
nitrogen, however, the Government contracted for the erection of three
plants--one at Muscle Shoals, Ala., one near Toledo, Ohio, and one near
Cincinnati, Ohio, with a total rated capacity amounting to 220,000 tons
of ammonium nitrate per year. The work on all three was well under way,
but none of the plants had reached the producing stage when the signing
of the armistice brought the nitrate activities of the War Department
to an end.
_Nitride Fixation._--The only process of any prominence aiming to fix
nitrogen in the nitride form is one developed by the Aluminum Company
of America. This has for its working principle the fact that a mixture
of alumina and carbon, highly heated, will absorb nitrogen by reacting
to give aluminum nitride. The nitride when heated with caustic soda
gives its end product in the form of pure ammonia. The outstanding
difficulty encountered in applying this process commercially seems to
be that of providing a furnace capable of standing the temperature
requirements. At all events the process has not succeeded in making
good industrially.
_Bacterial Fixation._--The artificial attempts at fixation have been
directed almost wholly toward employing chemical principles. In view
of the difficulties experienced and the uncertain value of the results
as a whole, it is interesting and perhaps highly significant to
reflect that after all, as indicated in Figure 15, inorganic chemical
principles seemingly have little to do with developing the natural
supply, probably because of the activities of nitrifying bacteria.
Little attention has been given to the possibilities in this direction.
This is only natural so far as commercially actuated research is
concerned, since it does not lead in the definite direction of patent
rights; but the failure to institute an adequate investigation
governmentally can be attributed only to lack of comprehension with
reference to the scope of the nitrogen issue as brought out under
“General Aspects of Control” on pages 425 to 433. The subject has
received just enough attention to show that bacterial fixation
represents a tremendous field of grossly neglected possibilities.
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS AND CHANGES IN PRACTICE
The whole matter of fixation must be regarded as in process of
development. True, it was instituted some fifteen or twenty years ago
and has grown to represent the largest producing source of chemical
nitrogen, with operations in practically all the important industrial
countries in the world and with responsible financial backing. But
no one can examine the charts in Figure 16 without recognizing the
premature, mushroom quality of the upgrowth, induced primarily in
response to the political conditions leading to and through the war.
This is especially true for the American situation. When the war broke
out, fixation here was confessedly still in the dependent stage of
its development, unable in every effort it had made to stand alone
industrially. In the main, the developments that have transpired
subsequently have followed along pre-existing lines. In so far as they
have done so, little actual economic significance is to be attached to
them. For the rest, the new developments, all that can be said at this
juncture is that they are disappointingly meager.
Just one wartime achievement, the oxidation of ammonia, stands
out as affording a worth that is unmistakably clear. The nitrogen
situation, it will be recalled, has two aspects, the military and the
agricultural. The military focus is on nitric acid, and the readiest
means of insuring a supply; the agricultural focus is on ammonium
compounds or their equivalent in neutral nitrogen salts and the most
economical means of supply. Here, then, is a parting of the ways to
expediency, and it is at this juncture that with military influences
to the fore the nitrogen developments of the past few years were
led off on an uneconomical tangent of military control. The Bureau
of Mines, however, taking up the work of others, has perfected a
simple, effective means for oxidizing ammonia to nitric acid. This,
beyond question, is the most important contribution of the day. Its
significance may perhaps best be brought out graphically in the
accompanying sketch.
[Illustration]
Ammonia oxidation, it will be observed from the foregoing sketch, gives
a means of supplying the military requirement from the direct line
of agricultural efficiency. From the strictly military viewpoint, it
has the objection of being a roundabout procedure. The dotted line of
direct military procedure, however, has no peace-time function, and
consequently cannot be maintained in time of peace in trim for war, but
must instead be built up expressly to meet wartime exigencies. We have
had an illustration of what this means in the way of time and money,
and this one ought to suffice. The agricultural channel, once built up
on a basis of economic efficiency, is open at all times. At the most,
all that is required is to keep an eye to the emergency needs in the
way of oxidation equipment, a relatively simple matter. Thus, instead
of the precarious procedure of trusting to luck which characterized our
pre-war attitude toward nitrogen on the one hand, or of attempting the
impossible in the way of maintaining a military program of industrial
procedure in time of peace on the other, all that is needed is a
constructive program devoted expressly to the interests of economic
efficiency.
THE NITROGEN OUTLOOK
There is no import duty on nitrogen, nor is there likely to be any,
for nitrogen is an important cog in the mechanism of food supply, and
the peacetime emphasis, reversing the wartime order, is primarily on
cheapness and only secondarily on the point of origin. Accordingly,
looking ahead, the American market conditions, once world trade is
fully restored, are due to reflect the world conditions. As indicated
in Figure 18, the sudden ending of the war, with its calling off of
the military requirement which had been building up steadily since
even before the outbreak of hostilities in 1914, left the world with
a producing capacity 30 to 40 per cent. above normal. To what extent
this apparent overproduction, amounting to some half million tons of
nitrogen, will prove real is impossible to foretell; not all of it
certainly, for under the stimulus of a food shortage the curve of
normal consumption will doubtless bend upward. On the other hand,
however, there is the producing capacity of the plants not yet in
operation to be taken into consideration. Whatever may be the capacity
of agriculture to absorb from the surplus, it cannot be expected to
take up the full amount immediately or without special inducement.
The inference follows that price and production will come down, to
stimulate and co-ordinate with the increase in demand. Where the
meeting point will be between the upcurve of demand and the downcurve
of production it is impossible to predict. It is of interest, however,
to figure in review on how the three types of industrial source, the
natural, the by-product, and the fixation types, are equipped for the
very evident strife of competition implied in the situation.
With the development of fixation, there have been a lot of unfounded
statements to the effect that the day of Chile nitrate is passing.
Whenever a synthetic development comes to the fore, a peculiar fallacy
of reasoning is indulged in which ignores the fact of inherent natural
worth, disregards the inescapable cost of its duplication, and regards
the synthetic achievement as giving open sesame to the natural
treasure. By way of substantiation in the case of nitrogen, the cost
of producing Chile nitrate is high, amounting to around $30 per ton.
This, however, is largely contributed to by the unsystematized crudity
of the operations, by the high export tax, and by overcapitalization.
But these, it will be observed, are variable factors, susceptible of
indefinite modification in keeping with the need. Chile nitrate has
never made any pretense of competing against by-product nitrogen,
with its advantages in the way of low incidental producing costs and
proximity to the market. The discrepancy between the by-product supply
and the total demand for nitrogen has all along comprised the field
of opportunity opening to Chile nitrate. In this its only noteworthy
competitor is the fixation industry.
The fixation sources are impossible of analysis on a definite basis
of cost. Too many variable factors and uncertainties are involved.
Repeated attempts have been made, but all they have served to bring
out is that under certain conditions, as for instance of power supply,
and for certain express purposes, one form of project has an apparent
margin of advantage over another, and vice versa for other conditions;
but that at best the cost of production, if not actually prohibitive,
is dangerously close to the normal pre-war price of fixed nitrogen.
Back of it all is the fact that fixation has to deal with the problem
of overcoming the native chemical inertia of nitrogen, and the problem
has not yet been solved at all convincingly. Always the solution
advanced has called for some special measure of relief from industrial
competition, whether natural, as in the case of the Scandinavian
power supply, or political, as in the case of the American and German
projects.
Fixation has been widely heralded of recent years as due not only to
emancipate the world from its dependence upon the Chilean source, but
to reduce materially the cost of nitrogenous fertilizer, hence the
cost of food production, to the marked betterment of living conditions
as well. In its promise of political and economic betterment in one,
it has claimed the attention of all. However, the claim of special
economic advantage coming from an industry barely, if at all, able to
meet conditions even as they are, has been overdrawn.
This does not aim to imply that there is nothing but failure ahead
for fixation in the test of competition. It has its possibilities of
development into something commercially and economically as well as
politically worth while, but the existing hothouse order of upgrowth
is unquestionably due for a lot of training down, and much that is
worthless is as certainly due to go. The American developments have
a particularly inauspicious economic setting in the prevailing scale
of costs. The only saving alternative for them would seem to be in
one form or another of federal provision for their continued support
on some such basis as that on which they were projected, and this is
unlikely, for there is no apparent reason. True, lowered nitrogen costs
tend to make for a lowering in the cost of foodstuffs, but so, for that
matter, would a lowering in the cost of agricultural implements, and
any arguments that apply in the case of nitrogen apply as equally for
potash, for phosphate, for agricultural implements, for coal--in fact
for industry in general.
With reference to by-product nitrogen the situation is very different.
In general, the by-product sources are of an order such that they
were not materially affected one way or the other by the war, and
consequently are not due to be materially affected in the process
of readjustment, except in the case of coke-oven ammonia, where the
temporary slump in the steel industry will result in a temporary
slump of probably 15 to 20 per cent. from the 1918 output. Of
special significance in connection with what lies on beyond for the
by-production of nitrogen is its relationship to the progress of
industrial co-ordination. The whole current trend of industrialism,
as represented in integration, volume production, and the like, is
actuated in the interests of co-ordination and the overcoming of
lost motion; and nitrogen comes in for an important share in these
developments.
With reference to the organic group of compounds, the outlook for
the future is as uncertain as are the actual conditions of today.
The centralized development of meat packing, of animal-rendering
establishments, and of cotton ginning gave rise in their time to
highly important recoveries of nitrogenous waste; but with the forward
progress of developments this usage in turn is giving way to a more
advanced order. Cottonseed as a fertilizer is giving place to a
cottonseed-products industry; tankage as a fertilizer is giving place
to the artificial compounding of animal food; horses, an important
contributor of agricultural nitrogen in times past, are yielding much
of their place in the sun to the automotive engine. Meanwhile, with
the factor of dilution to be overcome, our sewage disposal is employed
to pollute streams and destroy the fish supply instead of being put to
useful ends. So it goes. Developments are on foot that lead in both
directions, and there is no telling how the balance is due to shift.
Probably the best guess is that relatively at least it will be downward
rather than upward.
The outlook for by-product ammonia is more definite. Ammonia is the
end point of material refinement; so here the nitrogen developments
hold all they get, rather than go on to lose out again in a further
refinement of usage, as in the case of the organic group. The output
has increased consistently and rapidly, owing to the transition
from beehive to by-product coking operations, to the progress of
centralization and co-ordination; in other words, with reference to
coke manufacture. Even now, less than half of the coal coked is treated
in the retort oven; but the beehive oven is out of the line of progress
and is due to be entirely displaced. Also, the industry is still
expanding as the process of transition, with its separate potentiality
for doubling the present output of coal-product ammonia, goes forward.
So far, the recovery of by-products in connection with the use of coal
has been confined in the one direction of coke making, along with the
analogous procedure of gas manufacture. But the development which
has thus started in the coke industry will not stop there. The loss
of motion resulting from lack of co-ordination in the use of coal is
just as great in other directions as in that of coke making, and the
advantages of integral usage may confidently be expected to assert
themselves. Already projects of the kind are coming under serious
contemplation in proposals such as those for furnishing gas to cities,
for employing by-product operations located at the mine in support of
the waning natural-gas supply, and for integrated heat, light, and
power projects operating on coal with by-product recovery. Meanwhile,
the motor-fuel situation is suggestive of interesting developments
ahead. There is every reason to believe that the petroleum resources
can not continue to meet the growing demand, in fact, that the occasion
for support is already at hand. Whatever the nature of these supporting
developments, whether they take the form of a shale-oil industry or
what, it seems certain they will usher in an important source of
by-product nitrogen.
Figure 17 summarizes the American situation with reference to chemical
nitrogen, as does Figure 18 in less detail that for the world. Organic
nitrogen is omitted, partly because of the lack of information, partly
because the issues more directly involved in the situation as it stands
are those of chemical nitrogen.
SUMMARY
Nitrogen, itself, is an inert gas of no particular use, but nitrogenous
compounds are necessary to agriculture, to refrigeration, to munitions
manufacture, and to the applications of chemistry in general. In the
native gaseous state, it makes up about four-fifths of the atmosphere,
and combined it occurs as nitrate minerals, as organic compounds, and
in carboniferous deposits. Atmospheric nitrogen is of use only after
it has been artificially compounded or fixed, a proposition which the
natural inertness of nitrogen renders difficult and expensive. The
only mineral deposits of consequence are those comprising the nitrate
fields of northern Chile. The organic resources include all manner of
animal and vegetable refuse. Coal-tar ammonia from retort-coke and gas
manufacture, along with some shale-oil ammonia, makes up practically
the whole supply derived from the carboniferous sources. This range of
associations, including animal, vegetable, mineral, and atmospheric
sources, transgresses all established rules of resource occurrence,
and consequently all regularly constituted research. As a result the
nitrogen resources and their needs for attention have never been
comprehensively investigated. This became strikingly apparent when the
war, threatening swift disaster in the guise of a nitrogen shortage,
showed us up to be quite devoid of any systematic nitrogen program and
precipitated an hysterical effort to devise a makeshift one instead.
The atmosphere was found to provide the only independent source of
supply available on an emergency rating; so, following the lead of the
European countries, several plants for the fixation of atmospheric
nitrogen were projected governmentally.
Industrially, the nitrogen sources may be classified as natural,
by-product, and fixation. The natural supply is almost wholly in the
form of sodium nitrate from the Chile nitrate deposits. These are
controlled and operated by British, Chilean, German, and American
capital. The American imports are largely handled by three companies,
whose system of control is effected through the medium of shipping and
warehouse facilities.
The by-product sources include nearly all of the organic nitrogen
used, and the nitrogen from coal and oil shale as well. The supply is
governed as to magnitude by the progress of industrial co-ordination
through the medium of centralization in the preparing of animal,
vegetable, and coal products. Thus the development and marketing
of the by-product supply tends naturally to gather to industrial
combinations. These, however, are natural developments, not
developments artificially created in the interest of price control. The
price of by-product nitrogen is controlled not by trade combinations,
but by the price of the product from other sources, which is to say,
by the price of Chile nitrate. Beyond that, the advantages accruing in
the way of low-producing costs do not go wholly to commercial profit
but to the saving of costs with reference to the major production, as
for instance in the case of gas-works ammonia, which makes its chief
contribution toward lowering the price of gas to the consumer. The
rapid development of fixation is attributable largely to political
influences, activated by conditions leading to and through the war.
There are a number of projects for fixing nitrogen, but only three
have any genuine measure of industrial achievement to their credit,
are fixation in Norway, Haber synthetic ammonia fixation in Germany,
and cyanamid fixation in a number of places. Three of the four large
American plants are of the last-named order; the other is a synthetic
ammonia proposition. All four were contracted for by the Government,
and so far as fixation can be said to have gained an industrial
foothold in the United States it is wholly in response to the dictates
of political control.
Probably rather less than half of the nitrogen consumed is organically
associated, and rather more than half of it chemically combined.
Practically all of the organic nitrogen and around one-fourth of the
chemical nitrogen is of domestic by-product derivation. So far, the
balance has been supplied from Chile nitrate, supplemented by small
imports of guano, animal refuse, by-product ammonia, and cyanamid from
abroad.
There is no apparent likelihood of this adjustment being materially
affected as an immediate outcome of developments with reference to
fixation. These have shown themselves to be of the utmost political
significance as affording an unlimited, independent source of nitrogen
supply. Their genuine economic significance at the present stage
of enforced expansion, however, is questionable. In this country,
especially, the scale of costs gives an unpromising setting. The
by-product sources growing out of centralized industrial co-ordination
are in line with the trend of modern industrialism and may be looked
to as assuring a steady increase in yield, especially if the process
of industrial evolution in the direction of co-ordinated economic
efficiency is adequately cultivated instead of being interfered with.
In this same connection the most significant accomplishment recorded
for nitrogen, lies in the working out of a means for the oxidation
of by-product ammonia, thus rendering the growing by-product supply
available for the full range of nitrogen uses.
With reference to the economic and political aspects of the outlook
ahead, all else is obscured and lost to view in the pressing need for
a constructive program worked out on a comprehensive basis, in keeping
with the comprehensiveness of the resources themselves, with which to
supplant the uneconomical makeshift program brought into being by the
war. The program called for is one calculated to bring out, and bring
out co-ordinately, the best there is in bacterial as well as chemical
fixation, in the industrial by-product sources of organic and chemical
nitrogen, and in the province of sanitation.