FRANKFORT EXPLOSION

Evening Post, Volume XCV, Issue 49, 26 February 1918, Page 7

FRANKFORT EXPLOSION

SEVERE BLOW TO GERMANY

.VAST MUNITION FACTORY

DESTROYED,

From a. well-informed source (says the London Daily Tele.sr.lph) we have received interesting particulars of- the 'great explosion of 22.id November, by which the large chemical factory of Grieshdm-Eliktrou, near Frankfort, was destroyed. No details were obtainable at that time, and no great attention was paid to the report in this country, no doubt from desire to avoid exaggeration of what might, after all, prove to have been an affair of no great importance. But the extreme care- taken to prevent fuller accounts from leaking out from Germany, and the enforced silence of the German Press ..n the subject, are the best proof of the German Government's anxiety to conceal a very serious loss. The first telegram which managed to escape from Frankfort made a significant admission, which the subsequent silence only confirms. It announced that the excitement in Frankfort caused by the explosion was tremendous. Information which has since heen obtained from perfectly trustworthy sources makes it clear that there was good reason for excitement. For it is now certain that the explosion cause i the complete destruction of one of the greatest munitions factories in the world, by which Germany has suffered 0. disaster comparable to a very serious military defeat in its effect on the is3ie of the war. Under these circumstances it is a matter of supreme interest to understand precisely to what exte.it German military equipment was dependent on the source of supply which was wiped out of existence a few weaks aso.

1 The Griesheim factory was situated in the neighbourhood of Frankfort, with an extensive frontage on the Ith er Main. It consisted of an enormous group of buildings covering £n arei of ever fiftyfour acres. Twenty-eight large chimneys, one of them over 200 ft high, gavethe impression more of an industrial . town- than a single factory; and numerous piers abutting on the river, combined with an extensive railway system, enabled this huge concern to distiibute its products among the world's markets economically and quickly. Before tho war it ranked as fourth in importance of the great German chemical works,/ and was always a flourishing company, paying a- pre-war dividend of 14 per cent., and worth as a going concern well over 60,000,000 . marks (£3.000,000). ' _ VAST MILITARY IMPORTANCE. It« commanding position in the chemical, world rested not only on itf huge output but on the extensive variety of its manufactures. These comprised, among other things, aniline dyes of every description, nitric, sulphuric, and other acids, phosphorus, and alkali, with liquid chlorine, hydrogen, and oxygen as important by-products. What it meant to Germany as a source of munitions of war can thus be readily understood. Moreover, as one of the uncommon instances among German chemical works, possessing installations for electrochemical production, it was of prime importance as a source of synthetic nitrates ; and its splendidly organised research laboratory enabled it to play a leading part in the production of poison gas and the other more refined forms of "frightfulnes's" which Germany has introduced in the course of the war. That the Imperial Government has taken tho fullest advantage of these facilities is shown by the rapid increase of the works both in extent and output since the beginning of the war, and by the fact that the company has recently decided to inj crease it 6 share capital by 50 per cent., an increase in which the German Govi ernment is more than suspected of having a financial interest. With .regard to the productive capacity of Gi'iesheim, some authoritative facts I are available which cast an interesting light on the war activities of the concern. It has been producing saltpetre for the manufacture of black powders at the rate of 1000 tons a day, and it is j reputed to be the only factory turning I put this article. To fiuch an extent has its already impressive output of soda [ nitrate and concentrated sulphuric acid ■ been developed, that it ■ supplied the whole demand, of five nitro-glycerine and dynamite factories, as well as two powder works, including that at Rottwell, one of the most important in Germany. Another explosive which it manufactured in large quantities,' was tonite, through its facilities for making synthetic phenol and consequently picric acid, from which acid this explosive ie derived. ZEPPELINS AND POISON GAS. Another circumstance of special inter•est to us is the fact that this factory supplied large quantities of electrolytic hydrogen for the inflation of Zeppelins, and possessed by way of a reserve three gasometers with a total capacity of over 300,000 cubic feet. So important was it in this respect, that a Zep- I pelin shed, usually containing two or three airships, was erected in close proximity to the works. For the kite balloons at the front the gas was supplied in steel tubes. Moreover, the extensive electrolytic plant was further used to produce asphyxiating gas, and lachrymatory and poisonous shells. Indeed, it was the greatest centre of this manufacture in Germany, and in 1916 the output of poison gases reached the colossal figure of nearly 600,000 cubic feet a day. . The extent-of the material loss which Germany has suffered by the destruction of tho Griesheim factory can thus be easily comprehended. But the disaster is of still wider significance. The variety of the materials formerly produced means, in such a closely interlocking industry as chemical manufacture, that every concern in Germany is affected, both from the cutting off of supplies, which many of them formerly drew from Griesheim, and from the necessity of making the loss of those supplies good from plants already working to their maximum. The deaths of scores of trained workmen and speciI alists in the factory itself and in the dwellings within its confines will make, tho ta.sk of coping with this deficit all the more difficult. Even if the material loss can be successfully replaced, the problem of collecting miscellaneous quantities of explosives and acids from various quarters and conveying them over the greater distances thus made necessary is bound to complicate further the transport difficulty, already.; regarded as exceedingly pressing in Germany. It is impossible that the works can bo reconstituted during the war; and sooner or latei Germany must show on >her fighting fronts the effects of this staggering blow which she has suffered within her own territory.. t