Show phosphates 1 POTASH AND NITRA NITRATES TES by V W C EBAUGH the economic aspect of soil exhaustion is expressed concisely by one economist who says that for every fourteen tons of fodder carried off from the soil there are carried away two casks of potash one of soda a carboy of vitriol a large demijohn of phosphoric acid and other essential ingredients very often scientific practice has preceded scientific theory the use of fertilizers is a case in joint generations ago men learned that an application of manure of lime or of some other substances would increase the yield of crops per acre it was left for liebig one of the most noted chemists of the first half of the nineteenth century to show the whys ghys and wherefores ps of success along these lines according to the theories propounded by liebig and his followers about 1840 plants must have available as food in the soil or air certain substances such as silica iron lime phosphoric acid potash nitrogen etc the first three named are present in sufficient quantity in almost any soil in some lime may be deficient especially in the so called acid or sour soils but phosphoric acid potash and nitrogen are found but sparingly and if they are removed in the crops they must be restored naturally or artificially jf if the fertility is to be maintained thus the chemist becomes the close ally of the farmer and by supplying him with the means of giving back phosphoric acid potash and nitrogen to the soil he helps solve the problem of restoring soil fertility phosphates the first of these soil constituents for us to consider is phosphorus the annual world production of phosphate rock amounts to about five million tons and of this amount the united states takes about one half in germany alone about one hundred million dollars are spent annually for phosphate manures of various kinds As raw materials for phosphates are used a bone meal or ground bones b guano a fossil excrement of certain birds and reptiles c thomas slag a product from certain kinds of steel furnaces d phosphate rock a material found in algiers and tunis florida south carolina and the intermountain country in 1909 tons of phosphate rock came from north america and tons from north africa the total value of the rock was about to make this phosphate rock available for plant food it must be treated with sul pharic acid oil of vitriol a process that chemistry dept university of utah salt lake city changes the insoluble tertiary calcium phosphate into the soluble prim primary ary phosphate and gypsum the resulting mass a allowed to harden and then ground into a fine powder analyses of the finished alper phosphate as the material is now called are made to determine the quantities of soluble and insoluble phosphoric acid present and the value of the fertilizer is fixed accordingly it contains usually about 1820 18 20 per cent of soluble phosphoric anhydride P azos 0 O instead of theoretical 23 per cent so far as the proximity of raw materials is concerned salt lake city is located in a splendid position for the manufacture of super phosphates with almost unlimited deposits of phosphate rock near the utah idaho state line and with smelt eries near the city turning out every month thousands of tons of sulphur dioxide which could be converted into sulphuric acid nothing more could be asked there are imported into the united states about tons of pyrite a month for use in sulphuric acid making here we burn almost almose an equivalent quantity of sulphides sulp hides monthly and let the sulphur oxides obtainable go to waste but our location with respect to the great world markets is one of splendid isolation the cost of transporting the to the place where it is to be used would more than devour the profits reasonably expected our smelting smelling sm elting companies and the national government have examined the merits of the question quite thoroughly and the fact that there is no fertilizer plant here speaks for itself potash with respect to the second essential fertilizing til izing constituent one may well say that we must crook the pregnant hinges oi of the knee to our fortunate trade enemies our german friends in olden times the worlds supply of potash came almost exclusively from plant ashes but this source could not begin to give a tithe of the potash needed now the dearth of potassium supplies was felt even sixty or seventy years ago when liebig promulgated his doctrines concerning fertilizers and the appearance upon the market of potassium chloride from stass furt germany in 1861 was hailed with joy oy A mighty kall kali industries Indu grow grew up with amazing rapidity and today all nations of the earth are beggars at the doors of the german agerman government and the the veritable dictators in this business T they hey control a huge natural monopoly that sup piles 92 95 per cent of all the potassium salts used in the world for many centuries common salt way was obtained from the Stass stassfurt furt district and la in 1837 the prussian government began making I 1 deep borings bolings in order to test out the ground thoroughly in 1851 56 the first w were ere sunk in the salt layers and shafts ts the r res were disappointing because common salt i sodium chloride was wanted and b MU salts c containing onta ining potassium itter and r magnes aa buia were obtained instead it was soon zed however that these rec waste salts sa were really more valuable than the comm 1 salt that they had been seeking and in 1861 the first factory at stassfurt Stass furt was erected and the separation of the various salts was begun the most important of these stassfurt Stass furt salts is ik 01 6 hio hao others are hard salt 0 a mixture of kcf na cl anakie and kiese ser ite magso HO kcf MSO 3 HO etc of these more than worth were produced in 1909 including pot cassium chloride 80 kcf tons tolls potassium sulphate 42 kcf tons tolls potassium magnesium sulphate tons poorer grades used chiefly in germany 3 total tons in 1912 the exports from the german empire and the imports into the united states were as follows exports from germany met tons crude potassium salts potassium chloride Postas sulphate potassium magnesium sulphate imports into U S met alet tons crude potassium salts potassium chloride potassium sulphate potassium magnesium sulphate knowing that no other sources of potassium salts are now available the german government has arbitrarily passed laws regulating the output of the stassfurt Stass furt mines tie the tax upon the product the prices to be demanded d etc ap in in its thoroughly paternalistic way it is practicing extreme conservation with a vengeance why are not other deposits of potassium salts found the search is in progress our own government is examining the saline lakes of the west and private companies comp attlies are mining prospect holes borings bolings bo rings inmany in many supposedly likely localities thus far it must be admitted the positive results are meagre nevertheless within the last three or four months many thousands of acres j of land in california and nevada supposed to contain potassium have been withdraw from entry the national government evi dently intends to do some conserving on olt its own account and to see that an all odious doea d monopoly on another staple commodity not have a chance to develop we know that feldspar mica and other ot minerals and rocks occurring in large quad Q titles contain potash why not use them t as fertilizers the reason is easily under stood all these compounds are ansol insoluble ia t water and therefore not available as P food efforts are being made to convert con ae E M J 2 22 13 lbs 1 no equivalent to 65 cars j capacity six days a week them into a soluble condition but thus far no commercial process has been perfected Nitro nitrogen gerl at present the most important source ot nitrogenous fertilizer fer tilzer is chili saltpetre salt petre or sodium nitrate about 1825 this substance was discovered in chili in a rainless desert between the sea coast and the cordilleras cordilleran Cordi lleras it lies in beds about half a yard to two yards thick having been deposited from lakes when the latter evaporated to dryness the crude material called caliche baliche ca liche contains 10 to 65 per cent of sodium nitrate much common salt some saltpetre salt petre sodium and sodium the usual grade of caliche baliche mined will run from 20 to 30 per cent in sodium nitrate some factories refine it for shipment their salt used for fertilizer containing about 95 per cent of sodium nitrate exports are reported as follows 1850 25 tons toils 1870 1890 1900 worth 1909 1912 the shipments of 1912 were destined for the following countries europe tons great britain united states other countries and it is said that one quarter of the chili saltpetre salt petre is used in the technical industries and the remaining three quarters in agriculture as a fertilizer fifty years ago guano the residual excreta of birds and reptiles that lived in prehistoric ages was much used as a fertilizer today practically none of it is used for the supply has been exhausted the same sama thing bids fair to take place with respect to chili saltpetre salt petre it has been estimated that at the present rate of consumption the supply will be exhausted about 1935 or 1940 turning our attention to the purely chemical methods of utilizing our free nitrogen of the atmosphere we can say that at least two means of solving the problem have met with commercial success both employ the electric current as a source of energy in the one instance advantage is taken ot ol the fact that when air is passed through an electric spark a part of the cin be made to burn to an oxide of nitrogen and this compound of oxygen with nitrogen en cn then diser dissolve I 1 ve in water to form nitrous and nitric acids these acids in turn can coni combine with kalies alkalis al or lime and give us salts like saltpetre salt salL petre two american inventors bradley and lovejoy working with the power developed at niagara falls caused arcs to form from a current of volts drew these arcs out to their limit upon their going out made them reform and then thoy they forced a current of air through their box filled with chained lightning some arcs a minute are thus formed and broken and a small portion of the entering air about 2 per cent near them is L burned into nitrogen oxides by absorption in water nitric and nitrous acids acid sare are made itis it is said that nitric acid can be made thus at a cost of two or two and a half cents a pound birkeland and eyde norwegian chemists have worked out what is perhaps a better way for accomplishing the same result one powerful electric are arc is made between water cooled copper electrodes placed in a narrow chamber but one with ample height and breadth A powerful electromagnet enters the chamber near the are arc thus creating a magnetic field in its neighborhood As the arc is made and extinguished fifty times per second the magnetic field causes it to spread out in the chamber until it forms a veritable electric sun six or eight feet in diameter it is said that ir in the latest furnaces the arc is made to ex tend until its diameter is about fifteen feet air is introduced through the sides of the chamber and the burning to oxides of nl ni trogen solution in water and neutralization with al kalies or lime follow in due order about 97 per cent of the oxides are collected the chief product of the process thus far is calcium nitrate known as norwegian saltpetre salt petre and used extensively as a fertilizer at the international congress of applied chemistry held in new york last september 1912 dr eyde described in detail the furnaces the process and the results of their method and aroused great interest among his auditors from his account it appears that their theil plants have increased from a little one using 25 horse power and employing two men to a mammoth installation with horse power and employing 1340 workmen ana this growth took place between 1903 and 1911 their product is shipped all over the world california orchards consume large quantities of it and gives as good results as chili saltpetre salt petre itself and hessberger invented another are arc furnace that has proven to be a commercial success for it is now operated by the Ba dische alilin und Soda fabrik of ludwigshafen Ludwigs hafen although an are arc from an alternating 1 1 current can be extinguished easily by blowing air across it it can be made to burn steadily and evenly if a current of air be blown around it as in a helix their furnace consists of a number of concentric iron tubes with the arc formed at the bottom and the air blown in so that it is forced to pass through an annular space where it is heated up by the escaping gases and then enter the are arc chamber here the are arc is drawn out until it has a length of fifteen or twenty feet the rest of the process is like that of birkeland and eyde described above both of these processes are in use in the same plant and seem to give equally satisfactory results A distinctly different application of the ci current is i f s made by frank and caro the familiar calcium carbide used for generating acetylene is made by heating lime and coke in an electric furnace to a very high temperature pera ture ireA approximately 1500 deg C ni trogen is separated from the oxygen of the air by the linde process i e by first liquefying the air at high pressure and very low temperature and then allowing the liquid air to boll boil nitrogen boils at deg 0 and oxygen at 1825 deg C so the nitrogen is collected after most of the oxygen has boiled off frank and caro tried to make calcium cyanide by heating calcium carbide with nitrogen but were astonished to find that instead of calcium cyanide cacas caan CaC Ca CN Ns they obtained cyanamid caan Ca CN CNa the temperature used is about 1000 deg 0 commercially this stuff is sold under the name or As a nitrogen fertilizer it is almost ideal for it gives off ammonia slowly when treated with water and thus affords a continuous supply to plants here too science has improved on nature for whereas the manure from one horse will supply about pounds of nitrogen annually one electrical horse power can yield pounds of nitrogen in the form of cyanamid in the same time here in the west we have all the materials te rials for establishing a industry and hydraulic power plants could deliver the current cheaply but the transportation problem remains as the bugaboo to frighten away investors from such a venture it is the penalty we must pay for our aforementioned state of splendid isolation |