GRIESHEIM EXPLOSION.

Taihape Daily Times, 18 February 1918, Page 6

GRIESHEIM EXPLOSION.

GREAT BLOW FOR GERMANY. LOSS OF POISON GAS PLANT. A paralysing effect was temporarily produced in Germany by the destruction a few weeks ago of the Greisbeim factory. Extreme care was taken by the Berlin Government to prevent details leaking out, and information which has since been obtained from trustworthy sources f makes it clear that there was good | reason for secrecy. It is certain that ! the explosion caused the complete destruction of one of the greatest munition factories in the world. The Greisheim-Electron factory was situated in the neighbourhood of Frankfort, with an extensive frontage on the River Main. It consisted of an enormous group of buildings covering an area of over 54 acres. Twen-ty-eight large chimneys, one of them over 200 ft high, gave the 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 distribute its products among the world's markets economically and quickly. Before the war it ranked as fourth in importance of the great German chemical works and was always a flourishing company, pafying a pre-war dividend of 14 per cent., and worth as a going concern well over £3,000,000. Its commanding position in the chemical world rested not only on its huge onutput, 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 Ger-

many 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 frightfulness which Germany has introduced in the course of the war. That the Imperial Government has taken the fullest advantage of these facilities is shown by the rapid increase of the w r orks both in extent and output since the beginning of the war, and by the fact that the company has recently decided to increase its share capital by 50 per cent., an increase in which the German Government is more than suspected of having a financial interest.

With regard to the productive capacity of Griesheim some authoritative facts the available. It has been producing salt-petre for the manufacture of black powders at the rate of 1000 tons a day, and it is reputed to be the only factory turning out this article. To such an extent has its already im- ; pressive 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 of Rottweil; one 1 of the most important in Germany. Another explosive which is manufactured in large quantities was tonite, thrhugh its facilities for making synthetic phenol and consequently picric acid, from which acid this explosive is derived. ;i

Another circumstances of special interest is the fact that this factory sapplied large quantities of electrolytic hydrogen for the inflation of Zeppjj*! lins, and possessed by way of ;a--re-serve, three gasometers with a-.-total capacity of over 300,000 cubic • -feefi So important was it in this respects that a Zeppelin shed, usually contain-, ing two or three airships, was erected; in close proximity to the works... Eor, the kite balloons at the front the gas was supplied in steel tubes in the liquefied state. Moreover, the extensive electrolytic plant was further util-. ised to produce asphyxiating gas and lachrymatory and poisonous shells. Indeed, it was the greater centre of this manufacture in Germany, and in 19J6 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 the Gricsheim 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 was affected, both from the cut-, tino- off of supplies with many of them formerly drew from Griesheim and from the necessity of making the loss ,of these supplies good from plant already working to their maximum. The deaths of scores of trained workmen and specialists, in the factory itself and in the dwellings within its eonfines, would make the task of coping

with this deficit all the more difficult/