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tossed up 5 or 6 ft. These “puffs” came from beneath the almost completely burned mass. At magazine No. 264 the smoke immediately on emission from the picric acid was black, though less dense than that from burning crude petroleum, but above this the cloud was of a decided yellow color. The gas or vapors a t this magazine were very pungent, sharply acrid, and very irritating to the mucous membrane of the nose and lungs. It was the men laboring in this magazine who experienced ill effectsfrom the inhalation of these products, which gave rise to choking and strangulation.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT The writer’s sincere thanks are due Major A. J. Stuart, Ordnance Department, U. S. A., for giving him access to the official reports on this event.
The Geography of Electrochemistry’ By W.S. Landis AMERICANCYANA~IID Co.. 511 FIFTHAvs., NEWYORL,N. Y.
HE two main applications of the electric curLent which
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are of value to the chemist are as a convenient source of heat and as a powerful decomposing agent. Many factors apply in a comparison of the cost of electric heat with combustion heat. The fact must be considered (and is often overlooked) that electrically generated heat is released in intimate contact with the absorber, a t rates balanced against rates o€ absorption, and in any desired atmosphere, It permits the attainment of high temperatures on a scale unknown to the combustion engineer. The combustion of a ton of high-grade bituminous coal yields approximately the same number of heat units as a kilowatt year of electricity. The losses OF heat in flue gases, careless admission of air, incomplete combustion, and radiation from large cornbustion chambers increase the relative cost of combustion heat. Modern steam power plants operating large units convert the potential energy of coal into electrical energy a t thermal efficiencies approximating twenty per cent. This relationship, coupled with the highly efficient conversion of electric energy into usefully applied heat, does not in any sense exclude the steam-electric combination as a competitor of direct firing, and there are many other advantages to help pay the heavier overhead. In different parts of the world different relationships exist. I n parts of Italy favored with water power developments the kilowatt year is produced rather cheaply and many installations have found it cheaper to generate steam by submerging a resistor in a boiler than to burn expensive imported coal. Norway also possesses no coal, but has abundant hydraulically generated power averaging less than $12 per kilowatt year. A plan has actually been worked out for heating all the houses in Bergen from central hot water storage plants, the water itself being electrically heated. The sole domestic metallurgical fuel of Sweden is charcoal, which is becoming more scarce each year. I n the manufacture of pig iron in the blast furnace approximately one ton of charcoal is required per ton of pig iron produced. Of this, one-third is used in chemical reduction of the iron ore and two-thirds are burned up to supply heat for operating the furnace. Onefourth of a kilowatt year per ton of pig iron is sufficient to keep the furnace hot, and when, ten years ago, the price of charcoal rose to a point where a ton OF charcoal cost more than three1 Abstract of a paper presented before the Cleveland Sections of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers and of the American Chemical Society, Cleveland, Ohio, February 16, 1922.
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eighths of a kilowatt year, the old blast furnaces were supplanted by electric furnaces. I n other words, when the kilowatt year can be purchased for the same price as two and a half tons of charcoal or coke, the blast furnace becomes obsolete, Norway, Italy, Sweden, and Japan have made the change, and India, Brazil, and our own Pacific States are contemplating the adoption of the electric furnace in the iron industry. The mere fact that low cost electric power exists somewhere does not always make i t cheap. Raw materials, labor, and transportation are often more important factors than electric energy. Norway possesses cheap power. She has little else in the shape of raw materials and must import supplies. Her labor is scarce, fairly high priced, and of uncertain temperament. She has built up a great nitrogen industry using only air, water, and electricity, and holds a practical monopoly of this type of process. The carbide and cyanamide processes have failed for several reasons, chiefly because of high cost of imported coal and coke and long hauls on limestone. Her aluminium industry is undergoing a change with the hope of utilizing a local feldspar instead of the usual French ores. Her steel industry has remained small. Sweden has an electric iron and steel industry of fair proportions, but is handicapped by lack of fuel. Swedish ores will continue to be exported in the face of available electric power for home manufacture. Germany has developed a considerable electrochemical industry in spite of very limited hydropower. Brown coal efficiently burned under boilers is operating melting furnaces, caustic and cyanamide plants, steel furnace, and other electrochemical processes. She is quite a factor in this industry, certainly leading Europe, and yet has a potential hydroelectric power development of less than one and one-half million horse power. France possesses great possibilities of hydro development, some of it already available. She possesses the start of a large electrochemical industry, early entering the fields of electrosteel, aluminium, caustic, and fine chemicals. Her coal supply is deficient but other raw materials are plentiful, as are also transportation and labor. Neither Switzerland nor Italy possesses coal deposits of consequence; yet both are well supplied with water power. Switzerland early started carbide and ferro-alloy production, but demands of the power for manufacturing and transportation will always hold back the electrochemical industry. Italy, on the other hand, is just a t the beginning of important developments. Iron, steel, nitrogen fixation, and chemicals will receive a great deal of attention in there. Russia possesses few important hydroelectric possibilities and will be years recovering from her present political condition. Finland possesses great hydro possibilities and may develop a small industry, but raw materials are not plentiful and the country lacks all the real fundamentals of a manufacturing community. England, on steam power, has always been foremost in electrochemical development. She has been the birthplace of many industries which have moved to more favored locations. The rising costs of fuel in England will not revive some of these departed industries, but steam power costs are decreasing slowly with the larger units being developed and the life of the industry as now existent will be prolonged. The metal working industries can easily survive on steam, and electrolytic refining is gaining a strong foothold. The water power resources, while not large, are fair, and are being closely investigated. Asia is of little present interest to us. Siberia has no remarkable water power possibilities, in fact very meager ones. She has no industrial foundation to build on and may be dismissed from consideration for a long time. It takes more than water and a drop in elevation to start an electrochemical plant.
