By Ludwig Mond.

As exemplifying to a certain extent the application of methodical research to an industrial problem, I propose to bring before you to-day an account of the work I have been engaged in for many years in relation to the procuring of new and abundant supplies of ammonia, and to investigations connected therewith.

Through the classic researches of Lawes and Gilbert, who proved, in opposition to no less an authority than Liebig, that ammonia is a most valuable manure which enables us not only to maintain, but to multiply, the yield of our fields, and thus to feed on the same area a much larger number of inhabitants, the immense importance of an abundant supply of ammonia, more particularly for the Old World, with its teeming population and worn-out soil, has been apparent to every one.

For many years Europe has paid to South America millions upon millions of pounds for ammonia in the shape of guano, and more recently, since the supply of guano practically ceased, for nitrate of soda, which effectually serves the same purpose as ammonia. During the past year South America exported 750,000 tons of nitrate, of which 650,000 went to Europe, representing a value of not less than 6,500,000l.

The problem of saving this immense expenditure to Europe, of making ourselves independent of a country so far away for the supply of a material upon which the prosperity of our agriculture - our most important industry - depends, by supplying this ammonia from sources at our own command, is certainly one of the most important which our science has to solve.

It is more than 100 years since Berthollet ascertained that ammonia consists of nitrogen and hydrogen, two elements which we have in great abundance at our command, and innumerable attempts have been made during this century to produce this valuable product by the direct combination of the elements, as well as by indirect means. It has been equally well known that we are in possession of three abundant sources of nitrogen:

(1.) In the shape of matter of animal origin.

(2.) In the shape of matter of vegetable origin.

(3.) In the atmosphere, which contains no less than 79 per cent. of uncombined nitrogen.

In olden times ammonia was principally obtained from animal matter, originally in Egypt by the distillation of camel dung, later on from urine, and from the distillation of bones and horn. The quantity so obtained was very small and the products very expensive. The introduction of coal gas for illumination gave us a considerable and constantly increasing supply of ammonia as a by-product of the gas manufacture, and until recently all practical efforts to increase our supply of ammonia were directed toward collecting and utilizing in the best possible manner the ammonia so obtained. The immense extension of the coal gas industry all over the world has in this way put us into possession of a very considerable amount of sulphate of ammonia, amounting in Europe now to 140,000 tons per annum. In recent years this has been augmented by the ammonia obtained by the distillation of shale, by the introduction of closed ovens for the manufacture of coke, combined with apparatus for condensing the ammonia formed in this manufacture, and also by the condensation of the ammonia contained in the gases from blast furnaces working with coal.

But all these new sources have so far added only about 40,000 tons of sulphate of ammonia to our supply, making a total of 180,000 tons per annum, of which about 120,000 are produced in the United Kingdom, while we still import 650,000 tons of nitrate of soda, equivalent to 500,000 tons of sulphate of ammonia, to make up our requirements.

Many processes have from time to time been proposed to obtain ammonia from other sources. The distillation of turf, which contains upward of 3 per cent. of nitrogen, has received much attention, and a large number of inventors have endeavored to produce ammonia from the nitrogen of the air; but none of these processes has to my knowledge been successful on a manufacturing scale.

My attention was called to this subject at an early part of my career. Already, as far back as 1861, I undertook experiments to utilize, for the production of ammonia, waste leather, a waste material of animal origin at once abundant and very rich in nitrogen, containing from 12 per cent. to 15 per cent. of this element. Distillation in iron retorts yielded about half the nitrogen of this material in the form of ammonia, the carbon remaining in the retorts containing still from 6 per cent. to 8 per cent. Distillation with a moderate quantity of hydrate of lime increased the yield of ammonia only by 1 per cent. to 1½ per cent. A rather better result was obtained by distilling the ground residual carbon with hydrate of lime, but this operation proceeded very slowly, and the total yield of ammonia still remained very far below the quantity theoretically obtainable, so that I came to the conclusion that it was more rational to utilize the leather, reduced to powder by mechanical means, by mixing it directly with other manures.

A few years later I became connected with a large animal charcoal works, in which sulphate of ammonia was obtained as a by-product. Here again I was met with the fact that the yield of ammonia by no means corresponded with the nitrogen in the raw material and that the charcoal remaining in the retorts contained still about half as much nitrogen as had been present in the bones used.

From this time forward my attention was for many years given exclusively to the soda manufacture, and it was only in 1879 that I again took up the question of ammonia. I then determined to submit the various processes which had been proposed for obtaining ammonia from the nitrogen of the air to a searching investigation, and engaged Mr. Joseph Hawliczek to carry out the experimental work.

These processes may be broadly divided into three classes: