One hundred years ago Chile exported its first ton of nitrate of soda. The ton was shipped to New York, where no buyer appeared, no one knew exactly what to do with it. By now the U. S. (and every one else) knows well enough what to do with Chilean nitrate. In peacetimes one throws it on the ground as fertilizer. In wartimes one must have nitrogen to make explosives. Out of Germany's War-time need for nitrates came various processes for making synthetic nitrogen. And out of these processes came ever-increasing synthetic competition for...
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