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Concentrated Nitric Acid and Expansion of the Nitrogen Industry in Germany, France and Britain

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The Synthetic Nitrogen Industry in World War I

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Molecular Science ((BRIESFHISTCHEM))

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Abstract

Around 1912–1913, laboratory studies into the manufacture of nitric acid from synthetic ammonia had been taken up by both the Hoechst Dyeworks and BASF . The Bayrische factory at Trostberg , as noted, already produced nitric acid from cyanamide, while the coal industry used the Gerthe (Ostwald) process to make the acid from coal gas works and coke oven ammonia.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Lefebure led a successful gas cylinder attack near Nieuport in 1916, and was subsequently rewarded with the rank of major. In 1917, he co-organized an inter-allied gas conference to which American observers were invited. He joined the British Dyestuffs Corporation at Blackley near Manchester, in 1919.

  2. 2.

    Victor Lefebure opined, in connection with Article 172 of the Treaty of Versailles , that: “probably the most important point in the clause is its interpretations with regard to the Haber process. Its critical importance in the manufacture of explosives is so great that our neglect to use the Treaty to remove the monopoly is a direct menace to peace. This process undoubtedly saved Germany in 1915 and is largely responsible for the three years of war agony which followed.” Lefebure [18], p. 24.

  3. 3.

    “[T]he key to Germany’s war production of explosives was the Haber process for the production of ammonia from atmospheric nitrogen. It is significant that large scale production by this process only began at the end of 191[3], and that [late in] 1914 great pressure was put on the Badische Co., to increase its output….Without such a process Germany could not have made the nitric acid required for her explosives programme, nor obtained fertilizers for food production after the supply of Chile saltpeter had been stopped by our blockade, and it is probable that she could not have continued the war after 1916.” Hartley [6], p. 214.

  4. 4.

    In a similar vein, Victor Lefebure observed [18], p. 205: “It must be remembered that, after the first Battle of the Marne , the German Government turned to the I.G. [the community of interests of 1916] for a large part of its explosives and practically all its poison gas, and, as has been stated on many occasions, and with reason, Germany would not have been able to continue the war after the summer of 1915 but for the commercial development of the Haber process by the I.G.”

  5. 5.

    After the first German gas attack with chlorine, the Allies condemned the Germans for acting in what in war was still expected to be "sportsmanlike" conduct. Apart from the element of surprise, it was the lack of preparation on the part of the Allies that caused the greatest alarm and provoked panic and hysteria. Nevertheless, for all the tales of horror, chemical warfare was certainly not necessarily as contentious as it was to become in later decades. Despite the condemnation of gas warfare, in public at least, and misgivings concerning its employment among some chemists, there were those in the military, as well as scientists, who believed in its potential for bringing about a quick end to battles. Moreover, the morality of war in general, whether by projecting nitro compound or toxic gases, was often called into question, and even used to argue in defence of gas weapons, including by Victor Lefebure, Harold Hartley, and Major General Amos Fries of the US Chemical Warfare Service.

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  1. Sidney M. Edelstein Center for the History and Philosophy of Science, Technology and Medicine, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Safra Campus, Jerusalem, Israel

    Anthony S. Travis

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Travis, A.S. (2015). Concentrated Nitric Acid and Expansion of the Nitrogen Industry in Germany, France and Britain. In: The Synthetic Nitrogen Industry in World War I. SpringerBriefs in Molecular Science(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19357-1_4

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