Haber, Fritz

Name:
Haber, Fritz
Detailed information:
(1868–1934). Born in Breslau, Germany, Haber's great contribution to chemistry, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1918, was his development (with Bosch) of a workable method for synthesizing ammonia by the water-gas reaction from hot coke, air, and steam; the gas mixture obtained includes nitrogen from the air, as well as hydrogen from the steam. It was the first successful attempt to “fix” atmospheric nitrogen in an industrial process. This discovery was developed to production scale in approximately 1912; it enabled Germany to manufacture an independent supply of explosives for World War I.