780
T H E J O U R N A L OF I N D U S T R I A L A N D E N G I N E E R I N G C H E M I S T R Y
resorted to. The Chemiker-Zeitung for March rg publishes the results of a n investigation for producing. these products and also potassium salts from certain kinds of seaweed found off the coast of Heligoland and in the North Sea. It is extremely doubtful if i t would be of much avail for Germany to foster such an industry as this, especially as she considers in the article the production of potash for the purpose of export t o the United States, whereas we already have the same idea working on a commercial scale on our western coast. It is perfectly possible, although perhaps difficult for some t o understand, for Germany to rebuild herself and become once more a nation of commercial importance and holding the recognition of the great nations of the world. It will take many years and an entirely different type of leaders from what she formerly had, and at the present time it does not appear as if her new leaders had lost sight of their old ideas of world domination in the future. So far as the United States is concerned, we have been very magnanimous to her on the whole, which is entirely in keeping with the principles for which we fought. If Germany, in her strides for recovery, shows herself worthy, I believe it would still be in accordance with our principles t o assist her in certain ways; but if, on the contrary, she should show any intent of pursuing her old designs, forces t o prevent it cannot be taken too soon. Present internal indications in Germany certainly indicate that she is anxious ‘ib reestablish her business connections, start up the factories, feed her people and pdt herself on a firm basis. Germany’s future rests wholly with herself and, by watching her carefully, the rest of the world will be able to determine what new means t o adopt towards her, judicially, commercially, and if necessary, physically. HEADQUARTERS TROOP, 3RD ARMY A. P. 0.927, GERMANY
PRODUCTION COSTS OF CHKEAN NITRATE By J. MARCO
Received May 24, 1919
As the synthetic processes for the fixation of nitrogen are causing world-wide interest and discussion in regard to the possibility of their competing with the deposits of Chile, it is of interest to ascertain economic conditions which will affect the future of the Chilean nitrate industry. Of these, cost of production is the most important. As Chilean nitrate furnishes approximately 58 per cent of the total fixed nitrogen used in the world and the producers have always had conditions in their favor, many of the factors influencing cost of production to them have been overlooked. It is, therefore, desirable to study the possibilities of lowering this cost of production under commercial competition. It is traditional that the nitrate industry in Chile has not been administered according t o principles of scientific management, and the great savings in cost made in other lines of production by the adoption of business economies lead one to believe that savings could also be made in the mining, extraction, and transportation of nitrate. The managers of the nitrate plants in Chile in obtaining statements of the profits and losses in their business have heretofore depended entirely on the annual or semi-annual balance ohtained by the accounting department when the books were closed and an inventory taken. As a result, no one knows the itemized costs of the various details of the business and it is not possible to determine a t any time the advantage or disadvantage which any modification in methods might produce. A system of cost accounting is, therefore, of great importance t o the improvement of the industry. The facts given below are not, therefore, the result of accurate statistics from the books of the companies, as the books would not
Vol.
11,
No. 8
give such precise information; they are rather the result of observations made upon the ground, the figures being in accordance with the conclusions arrived a t by many observers. The cost of Chilean nitrate on board ship may be divided into the following items: A-Cost of mining and transportation of the caliche (raw material) from the deposit to the extraction plant. B-Plant costs of manufacture (product, 95 per cent NaN08). C-Cost of transportation from the plant to the ship. D-Administration expenses. We will consider these items in the above order. A-This cost varies from $ 0 . 7 9 to $ 1 . 4 0 per short ton of caliche delivered a t the Oficina (extraction plant). The mining of the caliche is practiced in a very primitive manner, most of the time without knowing the quality of the material dug. This makes it impossible to maintain a uniform extraction cost on account of the variation in the quality of the material and the distance to the plant. If profits are to be realized the composition of the mineral taken from the ground should be followed and it may be possible in times of high prices to extract poorer material a t a profit than could normally be done. Furthermore, most of the mining is hand labor and there is, naturally, a broad field for development in the use of mechanical devices. Transportation from the deposits t o the plant is also now done by means of wagons drawn by mules, and the cost of production can undoubtedly be lowered by the use of trucks or other mechanical devices. Labor is a t present 7 0 per cent of the expense. A decrease in wages cannot be expected as only first class labor can be used. Such labor now obtained gets from $1 to $3 per day. E-The cost of extraction of one short ton of caliche is now @ . g o to $1.37. The principal factors of costs are labor, 30 per cent; fuel, 6 0 per cent; and technical control, less than I per cent. Technical control and advice have been practically forgotten in the Chilean nitrate industry on account of the control of the nitrate markets which the Chilean industry has heretofore maintained. There is no question but that technical advice and control will lower costs. Some plants, for example, now extract no more than 5 j per cent of the nitrate contained in the material, while others, in exceptional cases, get as high as 72 per cent. There is, however, a change taking place in this respect. Chemists and other technically trained men are being engaged in research which will undoubtedly lead to an increase in the percentage extracted and to a reduction in the amount of fuel used. Indeed, toward the close of 1918, E1 Instituto Tecnico del Kitrato was established in Chile with this object in view. Of the total fuel used, 2 0 per cent is devoted to the production of power and 80 per cent to the production of heat. The installation of the Diesel type of motor in power plants has given good results and many central thermoelectric power plants are being planned to serve a number of Oficinas collectively. Under the present method of heating, 65 per cent of the fuel is not utilized, but it is expected that with the adoption of new models of boilers and evaporators, and new methods of chemical procedure these losses will decrease. Lately a process devised by Manuel Prieto, chemical engineer, has given satisfactory results for extraction, obtaining during the test made an extraction as high as 7 j per cent even with poor raw material. C-The costs of transportation from the Oficinas and placing on board ship are about $18.00 a short ton of commercial nitrate. The export tax paid the Chilean government forms the chief item of this expense or 65 per cent of the total (56 c. a quintal = I O I .6 lbs.). The government has under consideration a more rational principle of applying this export tax, the adoption of which will make it possible to exploit poor fields of ni-
Aug., 1919
T H E JOURiVAL OF I N D U S T R I A L A N D ENGINEERING C H E M I S T R Y
trate. The construction of up-to-date docking facilities a t the port of Antofagasta has already been begun and improvements in railroad facilities throughout the nitrate zone are continually being made. D-The costs of administration are approximately 38 to 60 cts. per short ton of caliche. This item probably cannot be reduced, but the adoption of better systems of management should increase the efficiency of production. Last year, under the auspices of the Chilean government, all the manufacturers of nitratc joined together in an attempt to solve many of these important commercial problems. The following table gives the actual results obtained in four Oficinas :
I
S U M M A R Y FOR
781
THE Y E A R O F OUTPUT OF FOUR EXTRACTION PLANTS
I
I1
I11
IV
Production, short tons of commercial 39600 T3800 34200 85200 nitrate ......................... Average per cent of sodium nitrate in the caliche. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 21 16.5 18 Efficiency of extraction, per cent. . . . 64 70 62 65 Lbs. of nitrate extracted per short ton of caliche . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 294 204 234 Cost‘ per short ton of commercial nitrate a t the plant, A. B. D. factors, dollars., . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18.00 13.40 20.60 14.60 1 The exchange value of the Chilean peso was equivalent to 12 d.
It is, therefore, hoped and expected that economies may be made in the mining and marketing of sodium nitrate and that it will for some time pay to compete with the synthetic nitrogen. DETROIT,MICHIGAN
FOREIGN INDUSTRIAL NEWS B y A. MCMILLAN, 24 Westend Park St., Glasgow, Scotland
TRJF’LEX GLASS A pamphlet received from the Triplex Safety Glass Company of I , Albemarle Street, London, gives some details about the uses to which their material has been put during the war. This glass, which is the invention of a Frenchman, M. Benedictus, consists of two pieces of glass between which is introduced a transparent sheet of xylonite, adhesion being effected by the use of a special cement and high pressure. The result is a strong and tough material which does not splinter like ordinary glass, and which, in the thicker qualities, will even resist a rifle bullet. I n the air it has been used for goggles and for the wind screens of fighting aeroplanes, and many pilots attribute the saving of their eye:; and even their lives t o its employment. On the water it has been adopted for bulkhead-door illuminators and portholes, in view of its power to remain air-tight and water-tight in spite of being badly smashed by a blow, and in submarines it has found On land, again, its place in periscopes and instrument cases. it has been fitted in the observation windows of armoured cars and in other vehicles, and has been employed in military hospitals. R further field of use is in field glasses and spectacles. CUTTING TOOLS A difficulty with cutters is t o get them of sufficient strength and rigidity to withstand the strain of constant hard work. For the sake of economy many firms have experimented with special steel tips fixed to wild steel shanks by means of a fux, but the economy of this method is doubtful owing to the constant breaking of the tool a t the joint when subjected to twisting strain for any prolonged period. To meet this difficulty a process has been introduced by the J. B. R. Tool Works, Longsight, Manchester, England, whereby the tools are made with a carbon steel shank to which is dovetailed and welded a piece of special high-speed steel which is subsequently hardened and ground in the manner of an ordinary high-speed steel tool forged from the bar. The tips last till they are ground off by use, and when they are used up the tools can be retipped by the same process. The cost of these tools, which can be supplied in a number of standard shapes to cover the whole field of regular machining operations, is stated to be about one-fifth of the ordinary cutters, and their life even under the hardest conditions about 6 weeks. In a test recently made in the machine shop of a Clyde shipbuilding yard with a No. 3, small-size, I in. by 3 / 4 in. section roughing tool in a large lathe on a bar of hightension steel 8 in. in diameter and about z ft. long, a cut was put on the full size of the cutting edge, about 3/4in.,the tool traverse being z in. a minute. The tool traversed sweetly along the job, and was in perfect condition when the third cut down stopped the lathe.
LARGE LAUNDRY MACHINES Since I 914 military requirements have obliged laundry engineers to give special attention to the production of machines which are not only capable of handling huge quantities of work with a minimum of labor, but also are as simple in c‘esign as possible, to fit them for operation by unskilled men. An example is afforded by a multiple-roller ironing, drying, and finishing machine, which was extensively used in military laundries during the war. It consists of a series of six cast-iron rollers 108 in. long by 12 in. in diameter, which are arranged on the flat and are curved with woolen blanketing and cotton covering. They revolve in a like number of cast-iron steam chests or “beds,” concave in form and semi-circular, which are heated by steam a t a pressure of 65 lbs. per sq. in. and serve to dry the articles which pass between them and the rollers. Arter this operation the goods are fed rounda I Z in. roller, also of cast-iron and steam heated, and then go to a 30 in. steam-heated roller by which they are finished, and from which they are delivered a t the opposite side of the machine from which they entered. A ribbon feed is provided, which not only obviates risk of accident to the attendant’s fingers, but also permits much quicker feeding than would be possible without it. The articles are laid on traveling feed bands which convey it under the first roller, and the feeding speed is as high as 5 2 ft. per min. Six attendants are required-two feeding, two receiving, and two folding. WELDJNG OF ALLOY STEELS ,Many steels are considered practically non-weldable. To facilitate their rn elding, u elding powders containing both iron filings to supply a fusible medium and borax to prevent oxidation are sometimes used. In the Z. Vey. deut. Ing.,Feb. 19, 1919, Dr. K . Czako claims to weld various nickel, chrome, and tungsten steels to a mild steel, and also to a high-speed tool steel with the aid of a powder which contains neither iron filings nor borax but which he does not describe. He was anxious to weld his high-speed steel ( I ) containing 4 per cent chromium, 4 per cent molybdenum, and g per cent tungsten; ( 2 ) containing 12 per cent chromium; (3) containing 12 per cent manganese; (4) containing 3 per cent nickel, 0 . 5 per cent chromium; ( 5 ) containing I per cent chromium, z per cent silicon; ( 6 ) containing 1.6 per cent carbon; and (7) a gray cast iron. Ehotographic reproductions of sections of his welds are given in the journal mentioned. He welded No. I of his specimens in an ordinary coke fire, but his tests were merely made with plates 4 cm. X 2 cm. up to I cm. thick which were welded to rods of the other material. In some cases, the demarcation between the welded portion and the alloy was distinct and not all of his welds stood the hammer test.
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