GERMAN CHEMIST

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21716, 3 February 1934, Page 11

GERMAN CHEMIST

DEATH IN SWITZERLAND NITROGEN FROM THE AIR (Received February 2. 6.5 p.m.) LONDOX, Feb. 2 The death has ocourred in Basic, Switzerland, of Professor Frits Haber, inventor of the process for extracting synthetic nitrogen from the air and Nobel prize-winner in 1919. Professor Fritz Haber, famous German chemist, was born in Breslau in December, 1868. After studying in Berlin, Heidelberg and Charlottenburg he went to the technical chemistry department of the Karlsruhe Technical College in 1894. There he became a professor. He was called to Berlin in 1911 to be professor and director of the Kaiser-Wilhelm Insitute of Chemistry. He specialised in electro-chemistry, devoting his chief attention to electronic reductions and to the production of aluminium by chemical means. Later ho became known in connection with researches into gases through the construction of the "Haber interferometer" and of the "Haber fire-damp tube." . Professor Haber's most important achievement was the winning ot nitrogen from the air. This was made beforo tho v.ar, and in IJIJ he was awarded the I-,obel Chemistry Prize for it. Tho award was criticised outside Germany on the ground that the process had been cliieily valuable to the German fighting forces, but the judge who allotted the prize pointed out, that the discovery was of universal importance, as it provided cheap nitrate fertilisers. It is claimed that two-thirds of the world output of synthetic ammonia and three-quarters of its factorj saltpetro are made by processes perfected by Professor Haber. His synthetic nitrafc«s were a severe blow to the natural lvltratcf industry of Chile. Notwithstanding ais great services to Germany in the war, Professor Haber was forced out of his post last after Herr Hitler came into power. 1 lie reason was that he was a pacinst, though not an active ono. _ Addressing the Inter-Parliamentary Union in k 2b. ho said it would bo a great blessing it the nations would at last realise war was not a profitable business. Ihe monstrous thing," he added, "is not so much gas war as war in general the war of the future with its mass operations by aircraft on a defenceless area which will spare neither women nor children. This deserves to be fought with all the resources of politics." 'lhe professor considered that tho effects of gas warfare were exaggerated and that explosives were more deadly.