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Tim OMAHA STXDAV BLE: SEPTEMBER U. 1HU.
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Life in the Great Nitrate Desert
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A Great Itiltale "Esxiory
KTOVAQA 3TA, Chile. Durlns
y I the last two weeks I hav.
j beeu traveling through one of
a land that turna out nioits
dollars than the valleys of the
Nile, the Euphrates or the.
Ganges. and one whose workable
area makes the :J06-an-acre corn fields
of Illinois look like 30 rents. This land
ts as barren as the Sahara. It has not
a plant, a tree, a blade of grass, nor any
green thing. It Is land where one often
lias to gc a hundred miles for a drink
nd one upon which the rains never fall.
It Is land made up of rocks, stogie and
tand. and of salty particles that reflect
the rays of the tropical sun Inflaming
the eyes. It Is the great njtrate fields
that run through the desert and up and
4own this west coast from below Anto
lagasta to the Peruvian boundary.
For a generation and more these nttrato
!ields have made Chile richer than any
Jther South American country, and today
Ihey bring to Its annual revenues an
imount equal to t for every family In
'.he republic. Since 1889 the total rev
nue from nitrate export duties has been
vcr tOO.OOO.OOO in gold, and if the pres
nt rate of production continues during
:he next twenty-five years the amount
will be three-quarters of a billion more.
Today the nitrate fields are paying from
tin to 80 per cent of all the government
expenses, and. In addition, are yielding
'ortunes to thoee who exploit them.
Chief Mtrate Point.
Antofagasta, where this letter Is writ
ten, is one of the chief nitrate ports. It
Is 2 403 miles from the Panama canal,
and It will soon have a procession of ni
trate ships sailing northward to the
United States and Europe. Today the
vessels are still going around by the
Strait of Magellan, and the. distance thus
saved will be thousands of miles. The
bulk of the nitrate exports are now con
trolled by an American syndicate, known
as the Nitrate Agencies. Limited. This
t " f
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i nil 'sfauMT p- ,
l v VV' H wHT J jummmmmmutu" -
1
third supposition ts that the nitrates
came from certain electrical discharges
of the Amies which combined with the
air so as to make nitric acid, the acid
being deposited In these beds in the form
of nitrate of soda.
- Tome from Laa-oon.
None of these theories is satisfactory,
and yet the scientists have little better to
offer. Dr. Walter S. Tower of the Chicago
university says they have come from a
great lagoon which was formed in this re
gion by the rising of the land In such a
way that. It formed the home of a world
of bird life. The lagoon was shallow and
the birds waded through it and fed on Its
shores. Their droppings formed guano,
and as evaporation went on this combined
with other chemicals In the water and soli
and the result was nitrate of soda. At
any rate, the nitrates have been preserved
by the dryness of the desert, which has
no moisture to leach them out of the soil.
I wish I could take you out Into the
country and show you how these great de
posits of valuable fertilizer are taken out
of the earth.. Where the mining Is done
the land looks as though it had been
plowed up by giants. The earth l'es in
company exports in the neighborhood of j mammoth clods of all shapes and sizes
l.ooo.OiO.OOD pounds of nitrate a year and
controls about one-fourth of the product.
Its ships are always loading at the nitrate
ports and starting out for the United
States, Europe or far-off Japan. The
syndicate has considerable British cap
ital, but It la under American managers
tnd its methods are entirely American.
The controlling Influence and largest
iwners are W. R. Grace & Co. of New
Tork and London, a firm that has its
nitrate deposits and factories scattered
throughout the desert from here to Peru.
But first let ma tell you something
about nitrate of soda. It Is one of the
richest fertilizers on earth and It has
doubled the crop of rhany an American
farm. It is used largely In Germany,
where It la employed In raising sugar
beets, and in the United States, which la
now buying more than 1,200,000.000 pounds
of It every year. "We take about one-fifth
of the product, and now that the canal
Is completed . shall probably take more.
Among the other targe consumers In Eu
rope are Great Britain, France, Holland
and Belgium. It Is largely used In the
Hawaiian Islands and also In little Japan,
the latter country now Importing about
5,000,000 pounds every month.
4 Looks Like. "alt.
Nitrate of soda when taken out of the
ground and purified looks Just like white
alt. It Is made up of small crystals or
grains, and it Is in this shape that it Is
shipped to the markets. It Is put up In
bans or 200 pounds each, and is carried
from the ports out to the steamers In
iuhters.
The nitrate beds begin at some distance
bi low Antofagasta and they run north
ward to beyond the port of Iqulqut a
dirtance of 400 or SnO miles. It la claimed
tank to tank, so as to act to the best ad
vantage on the salts within. Experiments
have shown Just how much water and how
much salts should be used, and everything
ts done by the rules that experience and
science have proved best for the reduction
It takes three or four hours of boiling to
make the liquid of the required density,
and when It Is run off It looks for all the
world(like a pale maple molasses or thick
lemon synip. It now goes into the cry
stallizing tanks, where it lies for ten or
fifteen days. During this time the soda
all drops to the bottom and the tank Is
halt full of what looks like pure white
sugar or salt. The mother liquor, which
floats on top. Is now drawn off and re
turned to the boiling tank to be used
over again, and the salt is shoveled out
upon drying floors, where It remains until
the moisture has all disappeared. It is
now fitted for export and Is bagged up
and taken on the cars down to the sta
coast. Future of Mtrate.
In my talks with the nitrate experts of
Chile I have learned much as to the
present extent of the fields and their fu
ture. The Antofagasta manager of the
Nitrate Agencies, limited, estimates that
there Is enough salt In sight to run the
world for eighty years more at the pres
ent rate of consumption, and there are
others who say that the nitrate fields will
last for more than a century. There are
j three prlvinces whose deposits are estl
and beyond are nothing but bleak and
bare sand. There Is no sign of vegetation
nor life of any kind. All la sand and salt
rock. The rock Is of different colors. In
some places white and In others yellow,
gray, lemon colored or green. The nitrate
lies In beds or strata at some distance ,,., , a n,v -.
under the surface; and the method of get- others of the estimates are lower, some
iing ii out is 10 oore a rouna note a rooi
in diameter through the layers of sand
and rock above It and blow it out with
blasting powder. The powder Is made on
the spot, and that out of nitrate s'mllar
to that which It is to blow up. The only
things required in addition are charcoal
and sulphur. The explosion breaks up the
earth for a radius of forty feet around
claiming that there are now left only
I about 200.000.000,000 pounds. These esti
mates do not take into account the new
fields which are sure to be found nor
thd possibilities of working over the
dumps about the oftlclnas, which will
contain a large percentage of nitrates.
Indeed, one of the great opportunities
for the inventors of the future lies right
mo vnarge, ana me cnarges are put in in here In these arid deserts of Chile. The
rows so that the mining can be done In caliche as It is brought from the mines
trenches. After the rock has been broken, j seldom averages nvife than 15 per cent of
it is aug up witn p"cks and crowbars. It nitrate of soda, and by the present mcth
Is broken up into lumps of such size tnat ods of reduction fully per cent Is left In
they can be loaded upon the cars, end he the refuse. That means that 40 ner een
taken to the facrles where It is further! of the n'trate contents are still In these
reduced by machinery made for the pur
pose.
eldom Found Pare.
Nitrate is teldom found pure n nature.
As It lies In the desert It la mixed with
ether rock, and the best of the depoolts
contain only from 40 to 60 per cent of
pure nitrate of soda. If the ore contains
more than 30 per cent it Is called caliche,
and If lees than that it Is costra. The
costra lies on the top, and the caliche Is
usually found underneath. Before the
stuff can be used it must he refined an4 was something like $100.
that there Is some nitrate in Peru, but so j the metnoda ot
far the percentage has been so low thatjvl8iud tnl, r(gj
the deposits are not worth the working. .-.,. t-,.
The nitrate beds are found right out in ,. ,. . !
.v.- a . Tk... .. .......... .... l"1J'- nitrate factories are called.
ui'Ti . x i i jr i its a i UK v 1 1 uun fji IfCV
an tne earth and rock taken out. Th
laws require that the salts exported must
be 95 per cent or more pure. It Is such
salts that form the nitrate of aoriti of
commerce.
i nere nave neen nut few changes in
nitrate reduction since I
on, now more than fifteen
ears ago. There are many more offl-
cral thousand feet above the sea, on the
western slope of a tang of low hills that
run along the coast. They are from
great dumps surrounding the oftlcinas,
and that If this can he saved it will add to
the world 40 per cent of all the nitrats so
far taken out of the earth. Such a prod
uct would be worth hundreds of millions
of dollars. The? fields have been mined
since 1S30. and In 1RS0, at the time of the
Peruvian war, they were already taking
out millons of pounds every year. In 1890
the output was more than 1,000,000 tons,
and in 1911 the exports were more than
2,50,OiO tuns, and the value of the output
.000.000. This work
has been going on steadily at the present
rate for more than a generation, and In a
lees degree for a generation and more be
fore that. All this time only SO per cent of
the prod jet has be. n saved. The other 40
Per cent still lies In the dumps, and In
this rainless country there it will continue
to He unti the "open sesame" of some in
ventor's brain unlocks the robber cave of
the methods of working are Just about
the same. The average offlclna Is a col-
lection rt rrnt htiiMlna wltt. .n - i. .
twenty to HiO miles back from the coast' ,,,. ,iti . '
which they lie is seldom tand. of dol,ar8.. w,rth "
nitrate and thus enriches himself and th.
and the output has been quadrupled; but ! world.
and the belt in
more than ten miles In width. It is
therefore not hard to get the stuff to the
teaboard and the most of the haul is
down h'ii
The bed of nitrate la not regularly and
evenly dlwtiibuted throughout. Much of
it is In pockets. There la one .alt field
In the province of Tarapaca that covers
on area of more than W square miles,
but there are others where the beds of
good nitrate are confined -to a few hun
dred acres, and the purity of the ore
varies grently.
Near to the Surface.
As a general thing the nitrate is clean
to the surface. It crops out here and
there, and It seldom extends for more
than twenty feet below the surface of
the desert.
As to whence these great fields of
mirate come, there are many different
theories. One Is that this part of Chile
v. as once the bed of an inland sea, and
that the nitrate came from the decaying
of the nitrogenous seaweed. Another
thfory is that the ammonia which arose
from the vast beda of guano in the la
ldjids of the west coast was carried by
the wimis to the mainland, where It con.
densf.I and united with the other chemi
cals of the soil to form the depot, Its. a
ery. vast tanks for boiling the nitrate
reck and crushers like those of a smelter
that break the rock to pieces. It has set
tling vats, In which the liquor contain
ing the pure nitrate of soda is left, until
it has dropped its burden of valuable
baits, and also arrangements for bagging
the salts and shipping ihrm down to the
seacoast over the railroad. -
Some of the largest planLs of this k'nd
cost millions of pesos and some of them
employ hundreds of men. Some have an
output of a half million pounds of nitrate
per day, and there is one which markets
m a good sea-on as much as 2uO.OOO.0iG
liounds per annum.
Done. Pelentirit-ally.
The work of the big nitrate factory Is
scientifically done. The rock ts crushed
.tibt so f ne and boiled lust so much and
no more. The boiling tanks are usually
situated in a building high above the
ground. Each is big enough to form ai
bathtub for an elephant. It is equipped!
To Ket at Loir Coat.
And still tho most careful study Is
taken to get out the nitrate at the lowest
possible cost, and to ave every cent In
product and labor. Paid ona of the great
officina managers to me:
"Our profits are a question of small
savings. The difference of a cent In the
cost of the reduction of each 100 pounds
would mean a profit of at leant $i,3 a
month. We have to watch everything,
and especially the matter of labor. Oui
workmen have to come from the outside,
and their wages are very high for thla
part of the world The present average
is about U per day, although boys are
paid less than t There are altogether
about 40.000 hands employed In the re
ductlon of nitrate and some of the larger
works have from MO to 1.000 apiece. We
have to provide housea or the men, and
uiso neat. nt,nt and water, although the
ic.bi oi tuese are deducted from
ges."
FRANK O
their
CARPENTER.
A Sore rare.
uoetor. fsaid he. "I'm a victim of In-
with coils of steam Pipe that keen the I ' " . . ' r ' .nere. l" !t
temperature of th. fluid within at Just I for Instance " ""1 " c fenc'
the desired point. The caliche, or nitrate! "Thm powder will be effective." replied
ore. is carried up an inclined railway and j irnoHon" "" con,'KJUnJln" Pre
dumped into the tank. Then the water " hen' do I take It, doctor?"
containing a certain portion of nitrite of "You don't take it. You give tt to the
soda In solution is allowed to flow roin ""I-"-Pittsburgh. ChroiUcl.
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Telephone Tyler 1000
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