Today in Technology History
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August 27
Carl Bosch was born on August 27, 1874 in Cologne (Köln), Germany; he helped to modernize the industrial production of chemicals.
Bosch was an engineer's son, so he balanced his university education in chemistry with some training in engineering. In 1899 Bosch began working for a German company named Badische Anilin- und Soda-Fabrik -- which corporation is still prominent, although you probably only know it by its initials: BASF.
Early on, Bosch was involved in BASF's consuming search for methods to synthesize indigo and other dyes. A few years later, however, Bosch was asked to find a cheap way to produce great quantities of ammonia.
Ammonia is an eminently useful chemical. It is valuable as a cleaning agent, and it is extremely important as an element in both fertilizer and explosives. It is also used in the dyeing process, and in making some drugs and other chemicals. In about 1909, another scientist had discovered a technique for synthesizing ammonia; even though that scientist rightly won a Nobel prize for his discovery, his technique was only fit for the laboratory, not a big-scale operation.
Bosch had to alter the ammonia-producing process, finding new containers, catalysts and temperatures that would work at the industrial level. The principles Bosch discovered were eventually used to mass-produce many other chemicals as well.
Considering the value to mankind of cheap ammonia and the other chemicals produced with his techniques, Bosch was awarded the Nobel prize in chemistry in 1931. He died in 1940.
Related links:
Click here to read the official Nobel biography of Bosch.
Click here to read the speech presenting the Nobel prize to Bosch.
Click here to visit the homepage of the Carl Bosch Museum.
Click here to learn more about ammonia, its uses and production.
Click here to read about the history of BASF.
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