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The Alchemy of Air: A Jewish Genius, a Doomed Tycoon, and the Scientific Discovery That Fed the World but Fueled the Rise of Hitler | 
 enlarge | Author: Thomas Hager
Publisher: Harmony
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $16.47
You Save: $8.48 (34%)
New (39) Used (11) from $13.90
Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 63687
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 336
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.3
ISBN: 0307351785
Dewey Decimal Number: 540.92244
EAN: 9780307351784
ASIN: 0307351785
Publication Date: September 9, 2008
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Product Description
A sweeping history of tragic genius, cutting-edge science, and the discovery that changed billions of lives—including your own.
At the dawn of the twentieth century, humanity was facing global disaster. Mass starvation, long predicted for the fast-growing population, was about to become a reality. A call went out to the world’s scientists to find a solution.
This is the story of the two enormously gifted, fatally flawed men who found it: the brilliant, self-important Fritz Haber and the reclusive, alcoholic Carl Bosch. Together they discovered a way to make bread out of air, built city-sized factories, controlled world markets, and saved millions of lives. Their invention continues to feed us today; without it, more than two billion people would starve.
But their epochal triumph came at a price we are still paying. The Haber-Bosch process was also used to make the gunpowder and high explosives that killed millions during the two world wars. Both men were vilified during their lives; both, disillusioned and disgraced, died tragically. Today we face the other un intended consequences of their discovery—massive nitrogen pollution and a growing pandemic of obesity.
The Alchemy of Air is the extraordinary, previously untold story of two master scientists who saved the world only to lose everything and of the unforseen results of a discovery that continues to shape our lives in the most fundamental and dramatic of ways.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
Bosch, Haber and Fixation of Nitrogen October 26, 2008
Chemistry One (Indiana)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
The author has written a well researched and readable account of the
early 20th century work of Carl Bosch and Fritz Haber, who set in place
modern nitrogen fixation methods. The author has done a good job of simplifying the technical details for the average reader.
As an academic chemist, I feel compelled to quibble a little with some of the details, none of which should bother most readers.
The author states(chapter 12) that nitric acid could not be made from ammonia, but could be made from cyanamide( this is in 1914). He goes on to say that Bosch built a factory to produce sodium nitrate from ammonia. This is confusing on several grounds. The presently used production of nitric acid proceeds through the catalytic oxidation of ammonia. The book mentions Bosch having a catalyst.Synthetic sodium nitrate would be produced from nitric acid. As for cyanamide, it is a source of ammonia-
therefore it is hard to understand how nitric acid could be prepared from
cyanamide, but not from ammonia, as the author suggests.
The book has a very extensive bibliography, and perhaps I can solve all these questions by recourse to the original sources. None of this makes much difference for the main points of the book.
I have read quite a bit on this general area, and this is one of the best books I have found on Haber and Bosch, and I found it interesting and provocative.
I found one puzzling entry in the bibliography which may have been included in error : a biography of Whistler, which as far as I can tell is not referenced anywhere else in the book.
Couldn't put it down October 30, 2008
anonymous
This is a fabulous true tale exceptionally well told by Thomas Hager. History changing events in Latin America and Europe are made palpable, interesting, and are told in a way that makes you care very intensely about the protagonists involved. Especially fascinating is the telling of the history of contesting in Peru and Chile over the raw materials for nitrogen fertilizer. Get this book now and I guarantee you won't put it down and will learn much about world history and how it could have been quite different. I can't say enough good things. Just get the book now. Gee, it almost sounds like I know the author, or stand to gain somehow. I don't and just want to share this book with the world.
John Lavender
Fabulous book about a great invention that feeds the world November 17, 2008
crunkcar (New York)
This book is an excellent history of the people and times surrounding one of the greatest inventions of mankind, artificial nitrogen fixation. Mr Hager makes the events and personalities come alive. He writes a lucid and penetrating account of the Haber Bosch process, which stands as almost the single force which has prevented mass starvation in the 20th and 21st centuries. This book would make an excellent holiday gift for that hard to buy for techie on your list.
Science, History, Biography -- and Entertaining! November 21, 2008
Jorge Madrazo (Nutley, NJ United States)
This centers on the Haber-Bosch process which has so much influence to the current day.
Super relevant.
excellent December 9, 2008
Steve (Denver, CO)
I recommend this book to anyone interested in how the modern world has come to be what it is (for better or worse). The technical level is well suited to a general audience.
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