The Bismarck Tribune Newspaper, August 23, 1918, Page 2

- $30,000,000 PLANT T0 MAKE NITRATES FOR WAR AND PEACE Uncle Sam Building World’s Greatest Power Dams on Tennessee River for Project se BY FREDERICK M. KERBY. (N. E. A. Staff Correspondent) Sheffield, Ala., Aug. 23.—The Unit ed States government will never again have to depend upon Chilean nitrates for the manufactiire of its exprosives. One of the greatest.of modern pow- er projects, that will furnish the pow- er to take nitrogen from the air and “fix” it by ahe cyanamid process to make nitric acid and ammonium ni- trate for war use, is under way at Muscle Shoals, on the Tennessee riv- er in northern Alabama. The nitrate plant is the outcome of a‘ten years’ fight to secure water pow- er development at this point. The gov- ernment is spending $30,000,000 to de- velop the 660,000 available horsepower and with it produce nitrates from the air. The once sleepy little town of Shef- field and its sister towns of Florence and Tuscumbia, look like the site of ai army cantonment. Twenty thous- and‘men are at work. Housing struc- tures have already been erected to take care of 19,000, and more are g0- ing up as rapidly as lumber and nails and man power can construct them. The. muddy waters of the Tennessee river are filled with barges of stone, coal -and all kinds of material marked “U. S. Government.” Long lines of mule teams, ‘their negro drivers nod- ding in the sunshine, move along the river bank. , Two Great Dams Needed. ‘Remarkable progress has been made in the work. Two immense power dams must be cvonstructed to develop the water power, They will not be finished in time for use during the war, unless it should last far longer than is now anticipated. But work on the process plants has deen rushed to completion and they will be operated by steam# until the water power is ready. Plant No. 1 has been operating since last October. Its ammonium nitrate shipments are already going to the government pow- der mill at Hadley’s Bend, near Nash- yille. Eventually it will supply one- half of its output to explosive plants, where it will be mixed with “TNT” and loaded into shells. Nitrate Plant No. 2 is nearly com- plete and will begin operation within two months, using power furnished by the Alabama Power company tempor- arily. ‘The great power project—the gov- ernment’s life insurance against fu- ture wars—calls for the erection’ of three dams in the Tennessee river. Qne is a small one for the control of navigation only. The other two are giant structures; the larger, known aS Dam No. 2, will be 104 feet high and 4,500 feet long. To go with it an 850-foot power house will be constructed. ‘The two buildings to- gether will require 1,200,000 cubic yards of concrete. This is tremen- dously larger than the great Roosevelt Dam in Arizona, which contains 240,- 000 cubic yards of concrete, or the Croton Dam in New York, which has 855,000 cubic yards.| This dam and power . house will develop 490,000 reepower. i Longest Dam in World. Dam No. 3 is 15 miles up stream from the first dam. It will be 40 feet high, but it will be 64°5. feet long— the longest dam in the world, exceed- ing even the famous Assouan Dam in the Upper Nile by 25 feet. ‘The government's estimates of the cost’ of power development on ‘the whole project show that it will be less than 1 1-2 mills per kilowatt-hour. At Niagara Falls, the cost of developing electricity ranges from 1.6 mills to more than 3 mills per kilowatt-hour.. When completed these power plants production of fertilizer. sold at cost to farmers. New Era for South, The power developed here is ggtng to make this part of the south the center of a great electro-chemical and electro-metallurgical industry. Within a 300:mile ‘rdius of Muscle Shoals are ‘to be. found raw materials for half a dozen such industries. These include Arkansas banzite, for aluminum man- ufacture; magnesium from the Tenn- essee valley beds of magnesian dolo- mite; potash from the high grade pot- ash felspars of the southern Appalach- ians; zinc, ferro-silicon, and ferro- prosphorus; calcium carbide from limestone and coal near by; chlorine, caustice alkali and sodium, from the salt wells of West Virginia and Louis- iana; electrodes from the graphite fields » of, Albama; phosprorus fer- tilizzer from the deposits of phos- phate rock within 60 miles of Muscle Shoals. It only requires an abundance of cheap power to make these raw ma- terials available. Because Niagara Falls had the cheap power, banxite has been ship- ped all the way from Arkansas there to make aluminum. Graphite had been sent there from Alabama to make electrodes. Similarly the whole electro-chemical industry at the Falls is dependent on ‘the cheap power pro- duced. When Muscle Shoals produces a cheaper power and has the advantage of raw material of its dons, it would soem that a new industrial era is op- ening here for the south. BUY W. 8, 8 —— > CANADA GUTS... OUT LUXURIES Even Street Sweepers and Pianos Have Gone This can be (By (Newspaper Enterprise Assn.) Vancouver, B. C. Aug. Here’s a few signs showing what Canada is do- ing to help win the war by conserva- tion in civilian life. ‘ The: biggest result has been prohibi- tion. hTe dominian is dry as the Sa- hara. The consumption been cut 50 per cent. Picture shows and theatres have shrunk in number to a marked de gree. You can travel from Atlantic to Pa- cific and never see a piano, a phono. graph, violin or other musical instru- ment offered for sale. Everyone’ is wearing his old clothes. a “Why should we buy luxuries and musit when our defenders need bread and the Red Cross is begging for mercy funds?” the Canadian reasons. ‘Travel is falling off: “ The summer RRR eee of candy has A Y. M,C. A, BEAUTY and the nitrate plants using the power, will turn out nitric acid and ammon- fum nitrate not only for explosives, but for dyestuffs and fertilizer. An American dyestuff industry forever in- dependent of Germany will thus be as- sured. What this will mean to the Ameri- can farmers, too, can scarcely be real- ized. Nitrogen is an essential-in soils. Nitrogenous fertilizers have been high in‘ cost because the sole source of supply for the United States has been the Chilean nitrate beds. After the war, with this great plant in govern- ment ownership, and the necessity of producing nitric acid and ammonium nitrate for explosives reduced to a minimum, the plant will be able to \ band, and is in charge of a commun- devote much of its capacity to the | ity house near. the American sector; Bismarck.ND. | The Oldest and Largest Bank in this sectionof the State... COUNTESS OF POULETT. The Countess Poulett. one of Eng- j land’s prettiest peeresses, has enlist- ed with the Y. W. C. A. for duty at the frnt since the death of her hus- * “Remember that Thrift is the surest and strong- est foundation of an em- 7pire—so sure, so strong, and sp necessary that no great empire. can. long exist that disregards it.” —Earl of Rosebery. To build up a founda- tion for your own future success, thrift and econ- omy are absolutely neces- sary. The success of an individual rests on the same foundation as the success of a country. A Savings Account in this bank can be started with as low as One Dol- % compound - in- terest: paid. lar. Y4 tourist is becoming rare. One of the largest resorts in the Canadian. rock- jes ha san average of only 30 guests, with more than twice as many ser- vants and 500 rooms. A street sweeper would e put in the zzoo. He’s néarly an extinct ani- mal. You'll find him unloading ships and working‘ in mines, And a water wagon—it’s in the, has-been class. Canadians are chiefly concerned with getting enough to eat and wear. War's infltience is everywhere. Three of the buffalo, kept by the gevernment at Banff Springs, broke off diplqmatic relations, and destroy-/ ed each other in a vicious battle of} horns. BUY W, 8. 8. ALLIES LOSE 1235 AIRPLANES IN JUNE! (By Newspaper Enterprise Ass'n.) | London, Aug. 23.—The official ai reports for June from all the theater of war givea total of airplanes | destroyedor put out of action, the Sec-} ond highest monthly total of losses t Sy BISMARCK DAILY TRIBUNE .. ANZAC LEADER GENERAL MONESH. Major Generat Monesh commands the Third division of the Australian. since the war began. army now fighting on the west front. ~ From Any S'ope‘ County Fair at Mandan is for Missouri Slope—Show Year’s ~ Crops Every county of the Missotri Slope has an opportunity to take advantage of the liberal premiums offered at the Missouri Slope fair at Mandan, Sep- tember 10, 11 and 12, and make an ex- den'that have been produced this year, an abnormal year ,and show all vis- itors at the fair that the Slope can Kro- duce good crops under adverse condi- ‘tions. There will be many visitors at the fair from all: pars of the state and many from outside the state and most of these have an idea from re- ports that were circulated early in the jesason that the western part’ of the state,has ‘been entirely dried out. The | writer heard this from all sides at the hidit of the products of farm and gar-| Lyon : Tawa state] fair at Fargo in July and that kind of advertising will certainly not benefit us. The crop reports now coming in show tht even in those places where the crop suffered -most, from dry weather thete will be a fair yield and facts should be advertised and there is no better way to advertise than to show what the season has produced. | Some organization in each county |of the Slope should take this matter jup at once and see that there is‘an exhibit of the county’s best products exhibited at the Missouri Slope fair. [hibit of that county’s, products, and jthe premiums for these exhibits will be paid to the organization or indi- viduals making ‘the exhibits. \) The, management of the Missouri Slope fair has ‘included in its program many - patriotic features and-many features that will be a direct aid to the government in prosecuting the ie OU may have to drive your car until the war is over, whether you want to or not. ‘The first essential, there- fore, isto give it the best of care. ~ Everything about: an: automobile is secondary to the engine-~when that gives out the'car is - “Phe best It imparts to the piston 4 steady driving pressure that gives smooth, rhythmic nower —and lots of 1t. 7 - Red-Crown Gasoline ism for the modern internal:combustion engine, and for that purpose only. perfect, commencing at about 95 degrees Fahrenheit ‘and continuing without ‘a gap beyond 400 degrees, each: fraction: vapor- izing at a different temperature, developing ‘the correct amount of explosive energy for speed, power and quick get-away. - Standard Oil Co, junk. 3 Its chain of boiling point fract (Indiana) ~\ ‘ st way in the world to preserve your motor is to” . - : Bismarck, N. D. FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 1918. in many parts of the Slope the returns! will approach a bumper crop. These} Each exhibit will be placed in a booth by itself and ‘will stand out as an ex-} ade especially ions- is 27.2¢ per gi "war and the government is co-operat- ing by furnishing exhibitions. There i sonly one excuse for holding 9, fair this year.and that is the excuse that it will help win the. war. a BUY W. 8: = —— Tribune Want Ads Bring Results. at the Standard 011 Service Station tee