. Review of reviews and world's work . st havetaken their lives in their hands time and timeagain before they were able to announcethat at last they had succeeded. The menwho work in a nitroglycerine factory followno more hazardous vocation than the trainedchemists who are indispensable in a Haberplant. It cost millions to develop the process;but it made Germany independent of Chileand of Norway, and it gave her a new in-dustry. Haber wanted to make ammonia—a partic-ularly useful compound, because it can beconverted into solid ammonium sulphate totake the place of Chilean saltpeter in agri-cul
. Review of reviews and world's work . st havetaken their lives in their hands time and timeagain before they were able to announcethat at last they had succeeded. The menwho work in a nitroglycerine factory followno more hazardous vocation than the trainedchemists who are indispensable in a Haberplant. It cost millions to develop the process;but it made Germany independent of Chileand of Norway, and it gave her a new in-dustry. Haber wanted to make ammonia—a partic-ularly useful compound, because it can beconverted into solid ammonium sulphate totake the place of Chilean saltpeter in agri-culture or changed into nitric acid withoutwhich explosives cannot be made. Meta-phorically speaking, Haber seems to havebanged the laboratory table and to havesworn that he would make nitrogen do whathe expected of it. He squeezes nitrogen andhydrogen in a tank. The pressure is enor-mous—2600 pounds to the square inch. Thepressure is accompanied by the developmentof great heat (1000 degrees Fahrenheit),which facilitates the A LIQUID AIR PLANT—AN ESSENTIAL ELEMENT OF EVERY CYANAMID FACTORY (The nitrogen is obtained by distilling it from liquidair. This is a portion of the immense plant of theAmerican Cyanamid Company at Niagara Falls) The forcible squeezing and the attendantheating occur in the presence of what iscalled a catalyst, which is a substance thatinduces chemical action to take place with-out in itself undergoing any change. Acatalyst is a kind of chemical field gives orders that two elements shall com-bine, and after they have combined, just asif they were two regiments of soldiers, thefield marshal catalyst is able to give moreorders of the same kind. It always remainsthe same imperturbable commander. Unlessit is present to give its chemical orders,nothing happens. The most fanuliar ex-ample of a catalyst is the piece of spongyplatinum, which, when held over a gas burn-er, causes the gas to ignite. Habers catalystis probably some form of iron
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