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Updated: June 9, 2025
It probably does not represent in market value much more than a first-class battleship, yet it has been discussed in the Congress over a period of years and for months at a time. It ought to be developed for the production of nitrates primarily, and incidentally for power purposes. This would serve defensive, agricultural, and industrial purposes.
That they have come ultimately from the free atmospheric nitrogen seems certain, and various attempts have been made to explain a method of this nitrogen fixation. It has been suggested that electrical discharges in the air may form nitric acid, which would readily then unite with soil ingredients to form nitrates.
Nitrate of ammonia thus formed would in itself be a manure; but, of course, on the large scale other nitrates will be formed by mixing the acid with cheap alkalies which are abundant in nature, soda from common salt, and lime from limestone.
To obtain the nitrates it is necessary first to remove the top layer of sand and then a layer of clay. Underneath this is found a layer of soft, whitish material called "nitrate." The crude nitrate is sent to the nitrate ports to be crushed and boiled in sea-water. After boiling, the solution is drawn off into shallow vessels and exposed to the heat of the sun to evaporate.
Though detectable amounts of free nitric acid do not accumulate during this process of nitrification, the soluble nitrate or final product is formed by the action of nitric acid upon a mineral base, such as calcium, magnesium, or potassium, which may have been in the soil in insoluble form, so that the nitrogen must pass through the form of nitric acid in the transformation into nitrates.
The fixing of the nitrogen from the atmosphere in order to form nitrates available as manure depends, from the physical point of view, upon the creation of a sufficient heat to set fire to it.
These substances were mainly iodine and bromine, two chemical elements that are of greater value than the nitrates themselves. Within a few years railroads were built to transport the nitrates from the beds to the various ports where the reduction factories were erected. Many men who had large interests in the nitrate beds became immensely wealthy in a short time.
One of them converts the ammonia into nitrites, and the other changes the nitrites into nitrates. These two kinds are known as the nitrite bacteria and the nitrate bacteria. "Technically the last two steps in the process are nitrification proper; but, speaking generally, the term nitrification is used to include the three steps, or both ammonification and nitrification proper.
'Pears I ban't never to graw to love un as I would; an' yet I caan't quite help it when I sees his whole-hearted ferment to put money into my pocket; or when I hears him talk of nitrates an' the ways o' the world; or watches un playin' make-believe wi' the childer himself the biggest cheel as ever laughed at fulishness or wanted spankin' an' putting in the corner."
The materials for plaster cannot be too carefully selected, for if organic matter be present, the result is the formation of nitrates and the like, which combine with lime and produce deliquescent salts, viz, those which attract moisture.
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