So BASF could see what he was doing Haber wrote a six page paper on what he has been working on for his nitrogen fixing lab. There were two things that this lab included his arc process and the work he had been doing with ammonia. When BASF got the paper they were more interested in the arc, but they were not sure if they were going to sign a contract with him. This was until Haber talked about his other offers including one from BASF’s rival Hoechst. The finally gave him a contract. The contract funded Haber and gave him ten percent of all the earning they could make off his research. The contact also included that BASF owned all of his patents for his nitrogen work and Haber wasn’t aloud to publish anything without their permission. Even though Haber was disappointed that they mostly made the contract because of his arc work and not his ammonia work he and his lab partner, Le Rossignol, signed it because they needed the equipment badly. They started right away and already started to make progress. Since they had better equipment they could put more pressure on the reaction to make ammonia. Many scientists that had been doing this research didn’t apply any more pressure for the fear of an explosion.The pressure that they applied was the pressure someone would feel if they were a mile below the ocean. They started to make more and more ammonia. There was a worry that if he was to sell this idea many people wouldn’t buy it because there wasn’t a reactor that could hold all this pressure for so many times. As Haber worked he got word that Nernst had been making progress too, but it ended up being a hoax, but Haber was not going to let his rival beat him too it so he worked even harder.Haber and Le Rossignol kept improving the machines and eventually made a process that used the heat from the ammonia reaction to warm the nitrogen and hydrogen going in. They made tons of money off this idea because they later patented it because it was so successful. Haber was having so much success with his new machinery that he could lower the pressure from 1000 degrees celsius to 600 and make just as much. He was balancing the pressure and temperature. For the catalyst of the reaction many people like Ostwald and Nernst used iron, but Haber thought to use a different on he began trying different elements. Everyone was a failure though. Until he tried an unusual element called osmium. The ammonia production went way up. They were very excited because they just came up with a way that could supply the whole worlds need for fertilizer. He ran everywhere and told everyone to come see in the lab and they were amazed when half a teaspoon of ammonia came out (that was a lot for the time for the size of their machine). The director of BASF was not impressed because he said that we can’t make a huge quartz ammonia machine because there isn’t a quartz rock big enough and any other material would explode. Also osmium was very rare and was very expensive. Engler like he did the first time wrote a letter to the head of BASF because BASF wouldn’t approve of Haber’s work. When three of the BASF’s head people came to look at Haber’s machine Haber explained it needed 100 atmospheres is work and two hundred for a better production they thought he was out of his mind except one of them named Carl Bosch which was the person who looked at Ostwald’s first machine and said that the ammonia he was producing was really contaminants.
Bosch knew a lot about metals. Before he majored in chemistry he studied mechanical engineering for two years. This is the reason he was assigned to replicate Ostwald’s machine to see if it worked. It didn’t when he tried to make it. Bosch decided to contact Ostwald who was baffled. So Ostwald supplied all the materials to make the machine to Bosch. It did produce ammonia, but a very low amount and would stop after a small amount of time. He researched this and Bosch found the reason was because the wire Ostwald was using contaminated the ammonia with iron nitride. The reason that ammonia was being made was because the nitride on the wire would then react with the hydrogen gas when heated and formed the ammonia. So Bosch came up with the conclusion Ostwald was making ammonia from ammonia. Ostwald was furious when Bosch reported his findings to BASF. Ostwald was going to become rich, but instead he just got humiliated. He decided Bosch wasn’t right because he was such a small time and experienced chemist (he has only been working for less than a year). Ostwald went in to check his machine and went down kicking and screaming when they found out Bosch was correct. BASF was very impressed with Bosch. He got rewarded with a cozy job as head of their Nitrogen research. Brunck especially looked at Bosch’s work and was always impressed. Now nine years later Bosch was looking at Haber’s research on nitrogen. Bosch stunned, but agreed with Haber’s results. Bosch saw the two problems not enough Osmium and the amount of pressure needed. Bosch especially wanted this to work because he wanted to be known for something and wanted to have a rich future for his up and coming family. Even though the odds were against them and they needed the biggest compressors in the world, just about new everything, pure nitrogen and hydrogen amounts that were too big to even think about, and the millions of dollars that were needed to actually do this Bosch thought this would work. Even though his entire future was being risked by this project he told BASF they should try it. Brunck the head of BASF was willing to gamble, but he needed to fix a few things first. One was the amount of osmium needed to catalyze the reaction. There was no way they could find a way to deal with this so they needed a new catalyst. Haber and Le Rossignol the found uranium to be pretty much as good. This was great because it came in the amount they needed. Finally the time came for Bosch to come and see the actual machine that Haber made. But disaster struck. The machine started to break down because one of the workers on the machine said that a seal started to leak and the pressure could not get risen up to the right pressure. So bosch waited and waited with other people from BASf. Haber finally told them that he had another appointment to attend to and the would have to leave. Bosch ended up leaving with Haber’s future. Until a man named Mittasch stayed with a technician they wanted very badly to see the machine work. Finally the machine was fixed and Haber and the two BASF works looked in amazement when about a cup of ammonia would be produced every two hours. They watched for five hours then Mittasch went back to BASF and was convinced this was the solution of ammonia shortage. He calculated that if this machine worked they could compete with the nitrate workers in Chile and there would no longer be starvation in the world. Germany could just make their own gunpowder and fertilizer right in their country. Haber had finally beat Nernst and Ostwald. He was going to be one of the most famous and richest chemists of all time.
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