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Abstract

DRS. BOSCH and Bergius, who share the Nobel prize for chemistry in 1931, represent German developments in industrial chemistry which have earned the admiration of the whole scientific and industrial world and have stimulated extensive researches along parallel lines in other countries. Dr. Bosch's name is indissolubly associated with that of Prof. Haber in regard to the catalytic production of ammonia from atmospheric nitrogen, whilst Dr. Bergius's researches on the production of volatile hydrocarbons by hydro-genation of organic material under pressure have already given us the expressive term ‘berginisation’. Thus the fame of each rests on the reaction of hydrogenation under pressure leading to materials of international importance. The catalytic synthesis of ammonia originated with Haber and van Oordt's work in 1905, when atmospheric pressure was employed, but as the work progressed, and was taken up by Nernst, Jost, and others, the question of providing adequate experimental facilities for working under pressure arose; the process was adopted by the Badische Anilin und Soda Fabrik in 1910, and Dr. C. Bosch, whose name is particularly associated with studies on the catalyst poisons, took a prominent part in its development. The success with which his pioneering investigations were conducted is illustrated by the world-wide use, at the present time, of the Haber-Bosch process for the fixation of nitrogen.