GREAT GERMAN MUNITIONS EXPLOSION.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLII, Issue 11469, 22 February 1918, Page 7

GREAT GERMAN MUNITIONS EXPLOSION.

POISON GAS FACTORY DESTROYED. Loudon, Dec. 12. It will be remembered that on Nov. 28rd it was reported that the largo chemical factory of GresheimElecton, near Frankfurt, had been destroyed ns the result of au explosion. It is now cert-tin that the explosion caused the complete destruction of one of the greatest munition factories in the world.

The Greislieim factory consisted of buildings covering an area of over 51 acres. Before the war it ranked as fourth in importance of the great German chemical works, and was worth as a going concern well over £3,000,000. It ■ has since boon greatly enlarged. It manufactured, 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. It was of prime importance as a source of synthetic nitrates; and its research laboratory enabled it to play a leading part in te production of poison gas and other forms of "frightt'nlness” which Germany lias introduced in the course of the war. It has been producing saltpetre for the manufacture of black powders at the rate of 1000 tons a day, and it is resulted to be. the only factory turning out this article. 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 000,000 cubic feet In 1910 the output of poison gases readied nearly 000,000 cubic feet a dav.