For Ammonia & Gasoline

No rule says that the Nobel Prize in Chemistry shall be awarded for pure (i. e. uncommercial) research, but heretofore the Swedish Academy of Science has followed a tradition in disregarding commercial success when making the award. Last week the Academy departed from that tradition, awarded the 1931 chemistry prize jointly to two Germans whose outstanding work has been the commercialization of scientific processes developed in research laboratories. They were Professor Carl Bosch of Heidelberg, chairman of the I. G. Farbenindustrie (dye trust)--for his process for large-scale production of ammonia from atmospheric nitrogen--and his fellow townsman, Professor Friedrich Bergius--for his work in obtaining gasoline from coal. For the Nobel Prize in Physics the Academy could agree on no one, postponed the award until next year.

Blocky, bristly Professor Bosch was a collaborator of Dr. Fritz Haber, whose process for extracting nitrogen from the air was recognized by the Nobel award of 1918. To utilize the Haber-process nitrogen Dr. Bosch designed a mechanism for the industrial production of ammonia, combining air-nitrogen with hydrogen under a pressure of 200 atmospheres at a temperature of 500-600DEG C. in the presence of a catalyst. As manager of the Badische Anilin-& Soda-Fabrik he built the Oppau ammonia works, without which Germany, cut off from nitrate-producing Chile, might have lost the War in 1914 by running out of munitions. (He was instrumental in perfecting the formula for making saltpetre from ammonia.) In 1917 he built the great Leuna Works to supply hard-pressed Germany with more fertilizer & munitions. After the War the works were turned to dye-making, and in 1925 Dr. Bosch organized and became head of the Farbenindustrie. He says little, listens much, dresses carelessly, and peers through thick spectacles at the workings of the great machinery he has set in motion.

Dr. Bergius is the physical antithesis of his chief in the Farbenindustrie: he is tall, thin, has no top hair, wears a monocle. Last week he was on his way to Pittsburgh to address the International Coal Conference with another German, Dr. Franz Fischer of the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute. His method of hydrogenating anthracite under 100 atmospheres pressure at 100DEG C. to produce synthetic petroleum he turned over to the dye trust and went on to new discoveries. He believes hydrogenation of petroleum would produce 105 gallons of gasoline from 100 gallons of oil, expects this method to be used when the world's oil resources are exhausted. Last year he developed a process for making sugar from wood (TIME, Feb. 10, 1930). He believes production of food from wood far from impossible and will use his prize money to carry on his experiments. Ardent experimenter, he has spent large sums of his own money, raised other large sums, to carry on his work. Bergius beliefs: "Progress is a matter of meeting exigencies. . . . Comfort is the basis of civilization."

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