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Billingham: “The Synthetic”

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Nitrogen Capture

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Abstract

The President of the British Nitrogen and Carbide Company expressed the opinion that it was hardly probable that the Haber-Bosch process could be extended much outside Germany because the operation of its costly and complicated plants presumes a high technical capacity.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This differs from Parke’s account, in which he states that the Oppau report and plans of the Brunner, Mond group were kept secret, even from Moulton’s colleagues.

  2. 2.

    The engineers were N. Archer, G. R. Atkins, S. R. Boyce, F. H. Bramwell, C. W. Ellen, W. M. Gyles, A. G. Hinton, A. Johnson, G. S. Jones, F. S. Lundy, A. A. Munro, W. R. Tate, H. R. Tidswell, H. C. White, and T. M. Wilson. The chemists, all from the state-owned Gretna explosives factory, erected in response to the 1915 shell crisis, and as recommended by Harker of the Munitions Inventions Department, were: Victor E. Parke, F. M. Ray, D. H. B. Wride, and A. T. S. Zealley.

  3. 3.

    Early in 1920, Brunner, Mond considered bringing General Chemical, Solvay and Du Pont into a consortium to develop the ammonia process.

  4. 4.

    Freeth and Donnan during 1921–1922 undertook experiments on ammonia synthesis from nitrogen and hydrogen in high-frequency electromagnetic fields. This work was suggested by the research of a French inventor, Slatineau. Though of scientific interest it was of no use in industrial capture of nitrogen.

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Authors and Affiliations

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

    Anthony S. Travis

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  1. Anthony S. Travis
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Travis, A.S. (2018). Billingham: “The Synthetic”. In: Nitrogen Capture. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68963-0_9

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