claimed by the published statistics, or whether much of i t did not go into explosives without being so recorded. It is important that we should study the nitrogen situation of Germany. As in the newer military strategy, she has shown the way in preparedness, and as her tank formations and airplane tactics are being copied, so must me follow closely her organization for nitrogen production. There are seven German plants for the synthesis of ammonia ranging in capacity from the titanic Leuna (862,700 tons) to the Herten (22,000 tons). Of these plants, two with a capacity of 1,012,000 tons of nitrogen employ water-gas hydrogen, five with a capacity of 220,000 tons of nitrogen employ coke-ovengas hydrogen, and one with a capacity of 3000 tons of nitrogen (still in the experimental stage) employs electrolytic hydrogen. For cyanamide manufacture there are five plants ranging from the Trotzberg (50,000 tons of nitrogen) to the Hirschfelde (1000 tons of nitrogen). Our nitrogen capacity, which after a slump a few years ago has now begun to show further increase, may be placed at 360,000 metric tons, including plant KO. 2 a t Muscle Shoals. This figure is uncorrected for svnthetic methanol diversion of hydrogen capacity. I n additLon, we have a coke-oven byproduct capacity of 180,000 metric tons. The synthetic production is distributed over nine plants; 275,000 tons awconcentrated in two of these, leaving a balance of 86,000 tons in five plants one of which, Muscle Shoals, has 36,000 metric tons. This is far from sufficient for a modern army and guarding against possible risk pare this figure with Germany’s 1,500,000 to conquered plants. It may be objected agricultural consumption of 630,000 metri published statistics is far in excess of that States. Of the German agricultural cons we know what they have told us and no moie; and though their exports were doubtless closely watched by thesitrogen Cartel, the Cartel expressly left a member nation’s intern 1 consumption to her own devices. Just to what fraction their capacity her plants have been working through these years, only Germany would know, and a nation that can evolve heavy tanks and dive-bombing tactics in such secrecy may well have arranged some nitrogen surprises.
POTASH H. I. SMITH U. S. Geological Survey, Washington, D. C .
P
*
~
Q
TABLEI. CAPACITY IN METRIC TONSOF NITROGEN IN Axis POWERS’ CONTROL Country Synthetic Ammonia Germany 1,240,000 France” 200,000 Belgium 212,000 Holland 136,000 Italy 86,000 Norway 86,000 Poland 52,000 Caecho-Slovakia 29.000 2,041,000 a
TH E
Cyanamide
By-product
Total
128,000 31,000 5,000
125,000 46.000 26,000 9,000
37,000 8,000
5,000 7,000
1,493,000 277,000 242,000 145,000 120,000 114,000 94,000 44.000
266,000
222,000
2,529,000
29;ooo 28,000
5,000
...
OTASH is a term broadly used for the various compounds of potassium’. Less than 10 per cent of the world output is used in industry; the balance is used in agriculture. As a fertilizer i t increases the output and quality of farm products and the shipping and keeping qualities of vegetable foods. The latter function is particularly important in time of war, as was amply demonstrated during the last World War when our supply of potash was cut off. The domestic potash situation when war was declared in Europe last September was very different from that a t the outbreak of the last S170rldWar when Germany was supplying practically all the potash requirements of the world, including ours. At the outbreak of the present war, potash mas being Droduced from brines in Palestine, mined from underground deposits in Russia, Poland, Spain, France, and Germany, and p duced from both brines and deep-seated deposits in the UnitefStates. However, Spain has not been able to export since its civil war; Russia has been consuming own output and has taken by conquest the otash deposits; shipments from Palestine have been d since the entrance of Italy into the war; and the of &nce has eliminated its output from world Potash from Germany is probably available to ntinental countries of Europe in exchange for war B S the markets of the Western Hemisphere and c Ocean countries that were supplied largely - . by . France a d Germany prior to the war are open to American producer@who supplied about 8.5 per cent of the world o w u t in 1938 and sold potash in twenty-five countries in 1939. Since there will be strong competition from European producers who will seek to regain lost markets in the United States and elsewhere when Germany, through conquest or treaty, again has access to the sea, the American public would hesitate to make the necessary capital investment to supply temporarily all the potash needs of nonbelligerent countries. I n 1939, potash production in the United States was equivalent to 79 per cent of the domestic demand, but none of the refineries were operating a t full capacity, as shown by the fact that one mine was idle for more than 100 days during the year. The deposits of potash in this country cover large areas, and the reserves are ample for all our needs for many decades. The present capacity of American refineries is, in round numbers, about 350,000 tons of potassium chloride‘ in terms of potassium oxide and 200,000 tons of run-of-mine or crude salt, listed by the fertilizer trade as kainite or manure salt, which gives a surplus of about 100,000 tons for increased domestic demands and export trade. I n the temporary absence of foreign competition, most of the domestic production of high-grade salt is needed to fill the domestic demand, and little potassium chloride is available for export although some may be exported by jobbers. The lower grade salt is not an attractive product for either domestic or export trade, siqce the cost per unit of potassium oxide is higher because of the relatively high freight rates. Prior to the construction of the refineries in California and Kew Mexico that produce nearly pure potassium chloride, much of the
- - -
Without the Toulouse plant (40,000 tons) in unoccupied territory.
Our path is therefore clear. llTe must build beyond any immediate or foreseeable needs, build for strategic and tactical requirements regardless of commercial considerations. The remunerative angle in arming for nitrogen should play no part in the building of new plants. The “postwar use” argument must not be permitted to interfere. These new plants should be looked upon in the same light as coast defense guns, expensive to build and maintain in peace but a vast comfort if war should come. And our entire capacity must be available within our continental limits, unhampered by the necessity of assuming that greatest of military risks-the crossing of salt water. 1171
1 The chemists’ designations “potassium chloride”. “potassium sulfate”. and “potassium oxide” are used here in preference t o “muriate of potash”, “sulfate of potash”, and “KzO”, respectively, which are more familiar in the fertilizer industry, where i t is maintained t h a t t h e terms convey a somewhat different meaning.
1172
INDUSTRIAL A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
potash used in this country was of a lower grade than the 25 per cent crude potash salt mined in New Mexico, and if present conditions continue, a demand may develop for all the available run-of-mine salt. In addition to the large potash plant at Searles Lake, Calif., the two large mines producing from a deposit of sylvite in New Mexico, and a small production from Utah and Maryland, a third mine now under development in New Mexico is scheduled to enter the market this fall, and the resulting increase in production capacity may permit a larger export trade in 1941 to countries cnt off from the European supply. The domestic stock of potassium sulfate and double sulfate is low at present, hut an ample supply by 1941 is anticipated. Within tho last yoar two producers of potassium chloride began the maniifacture of potassium sulfate from potassium chloride, and when the new mine in New Mcxieo reaches t.he production stage, it will provide an additional source of sulfate and also a source of double sulfate of potar sium-magnesia. The seaboard price of potassium chloride, 53.5 cents a
FLOTATION
unit, is the same as before the outbreak of the war, but the price a t Carlsbad is ahout $7 E ton less than a year ago. The prewar price of run-of-mine salt was increased from 58.5 to 60 cents a unit at seaboard to help equalize an increase in freight rates. There is no duty on agricultural potash hut thereisaduty on potash compounds used in industry, and when countervailing duties on imports from Germany were increased in April, 1939, Amcrican chemicd companies reviewed the possibilities of increasing the output of potash compounds in this country. As a result, and particularly since the beginning of hostilitios in Europe, facilities for the production of the chlorate, nitrate, hydroxide, cyanide, and other potassium compounds have been enlarged or, in some instances, new plants have boen constructed. The extent of the manufacture of potash compounds in this country is indicated by the consumption last year of approximately 50,000 tons of potassium chloride for other than agricultural purposes. Pas~zsamoby permission of the Direotor. United States Ceolo~ioalSurvey.
BRUNN D E W Y , American Cyanamid Company. New York, N. Y.
ODAY by far the largest part of the nonferrous metals which are used by industry, and especially those indue tries engaged in producing materials vital to national defense, are smelted and refined from concentrates produced by the chemical froth-flotation process. The most important of these nonferrous metals arc, fronr the tonnage standpoint, copper, lead, zinc, and molybdenum. During the first World War, concentrates of these metals which were delivered to the smelters and refineries by the mining companies were produced by gravity concentration
T
VOL. 32, NO. 9
or the then new and as yet not widely used oil bulk-flotation process. The oil hulk-flotation process, while a great improvement over gravity concentration methods for many ores, was soon superseded by the improved chemical frothflotation process. The main difference between the oil bulk method and the chemical froth method is the substitution, for the crude insoluble oils which acted as collectors in the former process, of frothers of the pine oil and cresylic acid types, water-soluble promoters of the xanthate and dithiophosphate types, the use of depressors, such as oya-
