The Alchemy of Air by Thomas Hager

"The Alchemy of Air" has a long subtitle that spells
out the thesis of the book.

The story revolves around the Malthusian prediction made in the late
1890s that human population will outstrip our ability to produce enough food
using only the natural fertilizers available in South America and India.

The story then backs up to the bat guano and nitrate industries in Peru
and Chile in the mid-1800s, then segues into the efforts in Germany to
chemically fix nitrogen from the air for use as a fertilizer.

But that's only the beginning of the story, as fertilizers are closely
related to gunpowder, so a dichotomy results from a product that can both
save the world and destroy it.

Another twist is how all of this naturally led to the Germans inventing
a process for converting coal to gasoline, for use during World War II. Yet
the efforts to industrialize this process well preceded the Nazi efforts to
secure a source of dependable fuel within their borders.

Oh, and this was all largely conceived and executed by a chemist and by
a chemical engineer whose names you probably never heard of.


Submitted by Jim