Abstract
EVER since the invention of “villainous saltpetre,” the provision of a sufficiency of nitrates has been one of the preoccupations of a ministry of war, and the necessity has become greater rather than less under the conditions of modern warfare. The potass ium nitrate that was required for the fabrication of gunpowder is now replaced by the nitric acid used in making the various types of nitro-explosives, but it is always the nitric ion that has to supply, the oxygen, and the consumption in a modern battle attains a magnitude of which our immediate predecessors using black powder had no conception. Indeed, one truly scientific argument against war may be drawn from the enormous losses it occasions in the world's limited, stock of combined nitrogen.
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H., A. Modern Nitre Beds . Nature 77, 513–514 (1908). https://doi.org/10.1038/077513a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/077513a0