VOL.6, No. 12
DEVELOPMENT AND
THEORY OP AMMONIA SYNTHESIS
2103
of ammonia with Fe203-Bi& (Bosch, Mittasch, Beck), catalytic preparation of hydrogen according to the reaction
(Bosch and Wild); and the catalytic production of methanol from CO and HZ by ZnO-Cr20a contact agents (Mittasch, Pier, and others).18 We had a relatively small amount of time to spend on other catalytic themes, and will not go into them here. As a matter of fact, a number of scientific results had been obtained by 1014 (unpublished for the most part), but a more intimate study of the theory of ammonia catalysis and ammonia-making catalysts could only be initiated some years ago. See Ber., 59, 13, etc. (1926),
Chemical Repacldng Improves Fertilizer. Breaking up a low-grade fertilizer and pushing its essential elements more compactly into another combination, as one might unpack three loosely filled trunks and cram their contents into a single tightly filled one, is a feat that is occupying much attention on the part of industrial chemists nowadays. At the recent meeting of the American Chemical Society a t Minneapolis, E. L. Larison and R. J. Caro of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company, told how their concern is carrying on the process, in the interest of saving hulk and economizing on freight and truckage charges. Among the most widely used classes of fertilizers are the phosphates. A peculiarity of phosphates is t h a t they can exist in three forms-three degrees of chemical packing. The basic metal-calcium usually-n carry either one, two, or three units of phosphoric acid. Since the phosphoric acid is what the farmer especiallv wants on his field. the triple phosphate is the most desirable form, from the point of view of economy in handling. I n nature, however, phosphate rock usually occurs in the sinale, or monophosphate form. The trick of the manufacture is to break off the phosphate portion of this rock, and tack two units of it on t o a calcium atom already carrying one unit, thus converting the monophorphate into the more concentrated triphosphate. Another trick of double packing in fertilizer manufacture carried on by the Anaconda firm is the combination of ammonia with phosphate. Craps want nitrogen as well as phosphorus, and ammonia contains nitrogen. Therefore a fertilizer combining the two satisfies two needs of plants a t one application, again resulting in an economy in handlinp-.-Science Service 54000 for Bark of Single Tree. The highest priced hark in the world is the distinction claimed for a variety of cinnamon tree that grows in the province of Thanh Hoa, French Indo-China. The tree reaches a height of thirty or thirty-five feet, and bears a white-spotted bark. When the tree is stripped, the bark is divided into three parts. That from the upper portion of the trunk is esteemed most highly, and that from the base the least. The King claims two-thirds of the bark from the upper two-thirds of the tree as his own; the rest is auctioned off. The hark of a single tree brings as much as 100,000 francs, which even a t post-war exchange rates means $4000. The Chinese and Annamese native doctors supply an avid market for this bark; in their mysterious pharmacopeia it is regarded as a cure-all.-Science Service ~
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