Encyclopedia, Difference between revisions of "Fritz Haber" - New World
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==Biography== | ==Biography== | ||
| − | He was born in [[Breslau]], [[Germany]] (now Wrocław, Poland) to Siegfried and Paula Haber. His mother died in childbirth. His father was a prominent chemicals merchant in the town. He attended St. Elizabeth's School in Breslau in his early years, during which time he developed an interest in chemistry. From 1886 until 1891 he studied at the [[University of Heidelberg]] under [[Robert Bunsen]], at the [[University of Berlin]] in the group of [[A. W. Hofmann]], and at the Technical College of Charlottenburg (today the [[Technical University of Berlin]]) under [[Carl Liebermann]] | + | He was born in [[Breslau]], [[Germany]] (now Wrocław, Poland) to Siegfried and Paula Haber. His mother died in childbirth. His father was a prominent chemicals merchant in the town. He attended St. Elizabeth's School in Breslau in his early years, during which time he developed an interest in chemistry. From 1886 until 1891 he studied at the [[University of Heidelberg]] under [[Robert Bunsen]], at the [[University of Berlin]] in the group of [[A. W. Hofmann]], and at the Technical College of Charlottenburg (today the [[Technical University of Berlin]]) under [[Carl Liebermann]]. Before starting his own academic career he worked at his father's chemical business and in the [[ETH Zürich|Swiss Federal Institute of Technology]] in [[Zürich]] with [[Georg Lunge]]. |
===Nobel Prize=== | ===Nobel Prize=== | ||
| − | For a period he was uncertain about the direction of his career, but worked for a short time with Ludig Knorr, with whom he published some early research. In 1894, he accepted an assistantship under Hans Bunte at the [[University of Karlsruhe|Karlsruhe]]. , he | + | For a period he was uncertain about the direction of his career, but worked for a short time with Ludig Knorr at the University of Jena, with whom he published some early research. In 1894, he accepted an assistantship under Hans Bunte at the [[University of Karlsruhe|Karlsruhe]]. In 1896, he was promoted to assistant professor after the publication of his thesis on the oxidation of hydrocarbons. In 1898 he was granted an associate professorship, and in the same year published a text on electrochemistry. He married in 1901 Clara Immerwahr, herself a chemist who had aspirations of accomplishment in the field. |
| − | In | + | Haber devoted much of his time to research in electrochemistry. He invented a glass electrode, and studied energy loss in steam engines and electric motors. He also elucidated the structure of the flame of a bunsen burner, demonstrating the different reactions that occur in the flames core and in its outer shealth. |
| + | |||
| + | The work for which he is best known, however, the production of ammonia gas from atmospheric nitrogen, did not begin until 1905. In that year, he published a book on the thermodynamics of gases that contained information on the production of ammonia at temperatures exceeding 1,000 degrees centigrade, using iron as a catalyst. He improved this process, in collaboration with Robert Le Rossignol, by having the reaction occur at pressures of 150 to 200 atmospheres, and at a more practical temperature of 500 degrees centigrade, in the presence of the element osmium. In 1909, Haber and Rossignol demonstrated this process to BASF, the chemical manufacturer. the company was persuaded of its feasibility, and assigned two scientists, Carl Bosch and Alwin Mittasch, to make improvements. for the catalyst, they replaced osmium by a less expensive mixture of iron and other compounds. By 1913, industrial facilities were producing several tons of ammonia a day using Haber's methods. | ||
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| + | Haber's methods were perfected just before Germany went to war with neighboring European countries and the United States. Ammonia could be used as a starting material for the production of high-yield explosives, and Germany's war effort was considerably enhanced by its ability to produce armaments from atmospheric nitrogen, particularly when supplies of mineral nitrates that had been depended on for the same purpose were cut off due to the blockade of German shipping by the Allied forces. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Haber at this time became engaged in the production of chemical weapons, and supervised the use of chlorine gas against Germany's adversaries, even though most nations, including Germany herself, had signed a treaty banning the arming of projectiles with poison gas. the Germans circumvented this restriction by using canisters on the ground, and relying on the wind to spread the gas. The use of these weapons had only mixed success, and was copied by others in the conflict. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Immediately after the war, Haber received the [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] for his work on the synthesis of Ammonia. work. The Haber-Bosch process was a milestone in industrial chemistry, because it divorced the production of nitrogen products, such as [[fertilizer]], [[explosives]] and chemical feedstocks, from natural deposits, especially [[sodium nitrate]] ([[Caliche (mineral)|caliche]]), of which [[Chile]] was a major producer. The sudden availability of cheap nitrogenous fertilizer is credited with averting a [[Malthusian catastrophe]], or population crisis. | ||
He was also active in the research of [[combustion]] reactions, the separation of [[gold]] from sea water, [[adsorption]] effects, and [[electrochemistry]]. A large part of his work from 1911 to 1933 was done at the [[Kaiser Wilhelm Institute]] for Physical and Electrochemistry at [[Berlin-Dahlem]]. | He was also active in the research of [[combustion]] reactions, the separation of [[gold]] from sea water, [[adsorption]] effects, and [[electrochemistry]]. A large part of his work from 1911 to 1933 was done at the [[Kaiser Wilhelm Institute]] for Physical and Electrochemistry at [[Berlin-Dahlem]]. | ||
Revision as of 05:50, 11 July 2007
Fritz Haber (9 December, 1868 – 29 January, 1934) was a German chemist and Nobel lauriate who developed a commercially viable process for turning atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia, and by doing so, making this economical source of nitrogen available for the manufacture of fertilizers and explosives. He headed the German effort during World War I to manufiacture munitions that delivered poisonous gas to enemy troops, thus ushering in the modern age of chemical warfare.
Biography
He was born in Breslau, Germany (now Wrocław, Poland) to Siegfried and Paula Haber. His mother died in childbirth. His father was a prominent chemicals merchant in the town. He attended St. Elizabeth's School in Breslau in his early years, during which time he developed an interest in chemistry. From 1886 until 1891 he studied at the University of Heidelberg under Robert Bunsen, at the University of Berlin in the group of A. W. Hofmann, and at the Technical College of Charlottenburg (today the Technical University of Berlin) under Carl Liebermann. Before starting his own academic career he worked at his father's chemical business and in the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich with Georg Lunge.
Nobel Prize
For a period he was uncertain about the direction of his career, but worked for a short time with Ludig Knorr at the University of Jena, with whom he published some early research. In 1894, he accepted an assistantship under Hans Bunte at the Karlsruhe. In 1896, he was promoted to assistant professor after the publication of his thesis on the oxidation of hydrocarbons. In 1898 he was granted an associate professorship, and in the same year published a text on electrochemistry. He married in 1901 Clara Immerwahr, herself a chemist who had aspirations of accomplishment in the field.
Haber devoted much of his time to research in electrochemistry. He invented a glass electrode, and studied energy loss in steam engines and electric motors. He also elucidated the structure of the flame of a bunsen burner, demonstrating the different reactions that occur in the flames core and in its outer shealth.
The work for which he is best known, however, the production of ammonia gas from atmospheric nitrogen, did not begin until 1905. In that year, he published a book on the thermodynamics of gases that contained information on the production of ammonia at temperatures exceeding 1,000 degrees centigrade, using iron as a catalyst. He improved this process, in collaboration with Robert Le Rossignol, by having the reaction occur at pressures of 150 to 200 atmospheres, and at a more practical temperature of 500 degrees centigrade, in the presence of the element osmium. In 1909, Haber and Rossignol demonstrated this process to BASF, the chemical manufacturer. the company was persuaded of its feasibility, and assigned two scientists, Carl Bosch and Alwin Mittasch, to make improvements. for the catalyst, they replaced osmium by a less expensive mixture of iron and other compounds. By 1913, industrial facilities were producing several tons of ammonia a day using Haber's methods.
Haber's methods were perfected just before Germany went to war with neighboring European countries and the United States. Ammonia could be used as a starting material for the production of high-yield explosives, and Germany's war effort was considerably enhanced by its ability to produce armaments from atmospheric nitrogen, particularly when supplies of mineral nitrates that had been depended on for the same purpose were cut off due to the blockade of German shipping by the Allied forces.
Haber at this time became engaged in the production of chemical weapons, and supervised the use of chlorine gas against Germany's adversaries, even though most nations, including Germany herself, had signed a treaty banning the arming of projectiles with poison gas. the Germans circumvented this restriction by using canisters on the ground, and relying on the wind to spread the gas. The use of these weapons had only mixed success, and was copied by others in the conflict.
Immediately after the war, Haber received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on the synthesis of Ammonia. work. The Haber-Bosch process was a milestone in industrial chemistry, because it divorced the production of nitrogen products, such as fertilizer, explosives and chemical feedstocks, from natural deposits, especially sodium nitrate (caliche), of which Chile was a major producer. The sudden availability of cheap nitrogenous fertilizer is credited with averting a Malthusian catastrophe, or population crisis.
He was also active in the research of combustion reactions, the separation of gold from sea water, adsorption effects, and electrochemistry. A large part of his work from 1911 to 1933 was done at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical and Electrochemistry at Berlin-Dahlem.
World War I
Haber played a major role in the development of chemical warfare in World War I. Part of this work included the development of gas masks with absorbent filters. In addition to leading the teams developing chlorine gas and other deadly gases for use in trench warfare, Haber was on hand personally to aid in its release.
Gas warfare in WWI was, in a sense, the war of the chemists, with Haber pitted against French Nobel laureate chemist Victor Grignard.
His wife opposed his work on poison gas and committed suicide with his service weapon at a dinner party in tribute to his having personally overseen the first successful use of chlorine at the Second Battle of Ypres. She shot herself in the heart, and died in the morning. That same morning, Haber left for the Eastern Front to oversee gas release against the Russians.
Haber was a patriotic German who was proud of his service in World War I, for which he was decorated. He was even given the rank of Captain by the Kaiser, a rare thing for a scientist too old to enlist in military service.
In his studies of the effects of poison gas, Haber noted that exposure to a low concentration of a poisonous gas for a long time often had the same effect (death) as exposure to a high concentration for a short time. He formulated a simple mathematical relationship between the gas concentration and the necessary exposure time. This relationship became known as Haber's rule.
Haber defended gas warfare against accusations that it was inhumane, saying that death was death, by whatever means it was inflicted. In the 1920s, scientists working at his institute developed the cyanide gas formulation Zyklon B, which was used as an insecticide, especially as a fumigant in grain stores, and also later in the Nazi extermination camps.
Post-War
Though he had converted from Judaism in an effort to become fully accepted, he was forced to emigrate from Germany by the Nazis in 1933 on account of his being Jewish in their eyes. He struggled to cope with the new reality that his enormous contributions to German industry were not enough to prevent his vilification by the Nazi regime. He moved to Cambridge, England, for a few months, and considered a position in Rehovot, Palestine British Mandate (now Israel), but never settled anywhere permanently. He died of heart failure, aged 65, in a hotel in Basel, on his way to a convalescent retreat in Switzerland.
Haber's immediate family also left Germany. His second wife, Charlotte, with their two children, settled in England. Haber's son, Hermann, from his first marriage emigrated to the United States during World War II. He committed suicide in 1946. Members of Haber's extended family died in concentration camps, gassed by Zyklon B.
Dramatic treatment
A fictional portrait of Haber's life, and in particular his longtime relationship with Albert Einstein, appears in Vern Thiessen's 2003 play, Einstein's Gift. Thiessen portrays Haber as a tragic figure who strives unsuccessfully throughout his life to evade both his Jewish background and the moral implications of his scientific contributions.
See also
- Ammonia
- Nazism
- World War I
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Daniel Charles, Master mind: The Rise and Fall of Fritz Haber, the Nobel Laureate Who Launched the Age of Chemical Warfare (New York: Ecco, 2005), ISBN 0-06-056272-2.
- Dietrich Stoltzenberg, Fritz Haber: Chemist, Nobel Laureate, German, Jew: A Biography (Chemical Heritage Foundation, 2005), ISBN 0-941901-24-6.
- Vaclav Smil, Enriching the Earth: Fritz Haber, Carl Bosch, and the Transformation of World Food Production (2001) ISBN 0-262-19449-X
External links
- Nobel e-Museum - Biography of Fritz Haber
- Photographs of Fritz Haber's life
- A short biography of Fritz Haber, by Bretislav Friedrich
- Biographical Film about Fritz Haber
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1901: Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff | 1902: Hermann Emil Fischer | 1903: Svante Arrhenius | 1904: William Ramsay | 1905: Adolf von Baeyer | 1906: Henri Moissan | 1907: Eduard Buchner | 1908: Ernest Rutherford | 1909: Wilhelm Ostwald | 1910: Otto Wallach | 1911: Marie Curie | 1912: Victor Grignard, [Paul Sabatier | 1913: Alfred Werner | 1914: Theodore William Richards | 1915: Richard Willstätter | 1918: Fritz Haber | 1920: Walther Nernst | 1921: Frederick Soddy | 1922: Francis William Aston | 1923: Fritz Pregl | 1925: Richard Adolf Zsigmondy |
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