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Events/Invention · 1913

Haber-Bosch process comes online

Invention, 1913, Germany.

What happened

The Haber-Bosch process for ammonia started operating in 1913. In the First World War the British Navy blocked Germany's access to Chilean nitrates, and Germany used synthetic ammonia to make explosives.1,2

Why it matters

The source says the Chilean nitrate monopoly and shrinking reserves in the 1890s pushed European scientists to fix nitrogen from the air.1,2

Story cards

Around the same time

  1. Chile exports 3,018,469 short tons of nitrate

    The 1913 figure was the high point of the 1912-15 run; 1914 fell to 2,035,707 short tons.3,4

  2. Haber-Bosch process comes online

    The source says the Chilean nitrate monopoly and shrinking reserves in the 1890s pushed European scientists to fix nitrogen from the air.1,2

  3. US nitrate use doubles with the war

    US use of sodium nitrate rose from a normal 600,000 tons to about 1.3 million short tons.3

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Where next

Mines

Rival ofHumberstone and Santa Laura saltpetre worksChile's nitrate monopoly pushed scientists to fix nitrogen from air. Humberstone worked to 1959.1

Trade routes

Rival ofChilean nitrate from Iquique to EuropeHaber-Bosch ammonia began in 1913, when Chile shipped 3,018,469 short tons of nitrate.3

Sources

  1. Dirty Business Science History Institute
  2. Germany (item Q183), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  3. Gale H.S., Nitrates (chapter in Bulletin 666, Our Mineral Supplies) US Geological Survey
  4. Wikidata item Q14440 (Iquique)

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Cover photos from Wikimedia Commons: Bucket wheel excavators by bluecloud9, CC BY-SA 2.0; Longwall mining by Bochum1805, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0. Pictures: Potosi, Bolivia, NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Space Systems, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (Public domain (NASA media, no copyright)).