Travis A.S. The Synthetic Nitrogen Industry in World War I: Its Emergence and Expansion

Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London, 2015. – 169 p. – ISBN: 9783319193564.In 1909, the German physical chemist Fritz Haber devised an apparatus for the synthesis of ammonia from its elements, hydrogen and nitrogen, under conditions of very high pressure and temperature, in the presence of a catalyst, osmium in particular. Four years later, in September 1913, mainly thanks to the industrial chemist Carl Bosch at BASF, Haber’s method was turned into a process for the manufacture of nitrogen fertilizer. It was, arguably, one of the greatest inventions of the twentieth century, and for many certainly the most beneficial. However, the inauguration less than a year before the outbreak of World War I of what became known as the Haber-Bosch process would mean that its earliest large-scale application was to be in the manufacture of explosives for the Kaiser’s armed forces. Nevertheless, and despite much belief to the contrary, then and now, it was not the only important process employed in Germany for the manufacture of nitrogen products during the war.
Since the 1980s, there have appeared several published accounts of the life and work of Fritz Haber, who also happens to be associated with the introduction of large-scale gas warfare in 1915. None of these accounts, however, deal in a balanced way with the technical story of both ammonia, with which Haber and Carl Bosch were so intimately associated, and the rival nitrogen processes, in particular the electric arc and Frank–Caro (cyanamide) processes. It is in order to make up for this lacuna that I here present the result of an extensive reworking of my earlier research, incorporating the studies of several colleagues, including participants in the European Science Foundation’s Evolution of Chemistry in Europe, 1789–1939 programme.Electric Arcs, Cyanamide, Carl Bosch and Fritz Haber.
The Great War.
Concentrated Nitric Acid and Expansion of the Nitrogen Industry in Germany, France and Britain.
Nobel Prizes and New Technologies.
Conclusion: A Legacy of Synthetic Nitrogen.