independence, four commercial-sized Fischer-Tropsch plants were under
construction. These were soon expanded to become nine, and by 1944 4.1
million barrels of oil were being produced annually. ‘Liquid Assets’, Chemistry
World, 8, 5, (May 2011).
20. Stoltzenberg, op. cit. (note 6), p. 131, his reference no. 15.
21. Charles, op. cit. (note 15), p. 176, also (Chap. 11).
22. Indeed in September 1915 the War Ministry asked Haber ‘who knows how
difficult it is to steer the nitrogen ship’, Charles, op. cit. (note 15) p. 177, to
mediate on their behalf in its negotiations with the BASF. Haber the ‘poacher’ had now clearly turned ‘gamekeeper’, driving the German industrial
machine towards synthetic ammonia obviously suited his financial needs.
23. The first of which occurred on 27 May 1915, Oppau being the only German
fixed nitrogen plant in range of WW1 aircraft at the time. It also happened to
be the largest.
24. See for example, Alan Dronsfield, Letters, Chemistry World, 6, 2, (February
2009), p. 37.
25. There was an alternative view however, especially amongst those who had a
‘smattering’ of science, such as the wealthy amateur chemist J. A. Le Bel, who
became one of William Ramsay’s closest ‘foreign’ friends. On 15 November
15 1915, Le Bel wrote to Ramsay with his concerns that the blockade would
not affect the course of the war. ‘Germany can manufacture nitric acid by the
electric process’, he wrote, ‘she can import all the iron ore she needs from Sweden,
and if the supply of cotton is cut off she can manufacture explosives from wood
pulp …’ See Morris W. Travers, A Life of Sir William Ramsay K.C.B., F.R.S.,
Edward Arnold London, (1956), p. 289. Needless to say, Germany knew
better.
26. An observation from, ‘Nitrates from the Air’, The Times, Thursday 22 May
1920, p. 17.
27. Coates, op. cit. (note 5), p. 1658.
28. Vaclav Smil, Enriching the Earth, MIT Press, (2001), p. 105.
29. The German Board of Public Health in December 1918 claimed that
763,000 German civilians died from starvation and disease caused by the
blockade up until the end of December 1918. An academic study done in
1928 put the death toll at 424,000. From the Wikipedia entry, ‘Blockade of
Germany.’
30. Paraphrasing the words of Clara Haber, (Sect. 2.7 Clara Immerwahr, Chap. 2),
who so longed for marriage, seems both poignant and apposite. Little would she
have known that her feelings and her words could later have applied to a whole
generation of European women. Although some regard this ‘lost generation’ as a
myth. Jeremy Paxman’s series, ‘The Great War’, BBC Television, 2014,
claimed 80% of men returned from the war. But in areas where the ‘Pals’
regiments were raised, the male population was decimated and even amongst
13 Haber and the Chemist’s War 1914–18
269
construction. These were soon expanded to become nine, and by 1944 4.1
million barrels of oil were being produced annually. ‘Liquid Assets’, Chemistry
World, 8, 5, (May 2011).
20. Stoltzenberg, op. cit. (note 6), p. 131, his reference no. 15.
21. Charles, op. cit. (note 15), p. 176, also (Chap. 11).
22. Indeed in September 1915 the War Ministry asked Haber ‘who knows how
difficult it is to steer the nitrogen ship’, Charles, op. cit. (note 15) p. 177, to
mediate on their behalf in its negotiations with the BASF. Haber the ‘poacher’ had now clearly turned ‘gamekeeper’, driving the German industrial
machine towards synthetic ammonia obviously suited his financial needs.
23. The first of which occurred on 27 May 1915, Oppau being the only German
fixed nitrogen plant in range of WW1 aircraft at the time. It also happened to
be the largest.
24. See for example, Alan Dronsfield, Letters, Chemistry World, 6, 2, (February
2009), p. 37.
25. There was an alternative view however, especially amongst those who had a
‘smattering’ of science, such as the wealthy amateur chemist J. A. Le Bel, who
became one of William Ramsay’s closest ‘foreign’ friends. On 15 November
15 1915, Le Bel wrote to Ramsay with his concerns that the blockade would
not affect the course of the war. ‘Germany can manufacture nitric acid by the
electric process’, he wrote, ‘she can import all the iron ore she needs from Sweden,
and if the supply of cotton is cut off she can manufacture explosives from wood
pulp …’ See Morris W. Travers, A Life of Sir William Ramsay K.C.B., F.R.S.,
Edward Arnold London, (1956), p. 289. Needless to say, Germany knew
better.
26. An observation from, ‘Nitrates from the Air’, The Times, Thursday 22 May
1920, p. 17.
27. Coates, op. cit. (note 5), p. 1658.
28. Vaclav Smil, Enriching the Earth, MIT Press, (2001), p. 105.
29. The German Board of Public Health in December 1918 claimed that
763,000 German civilians died from starvation and disease caused by the
blockade up until the end of December 1918. An academic study done in
1928 put the death toll at 424,000. From the Wikipedia entry, ‘Blockade of
Germany.’
30. Paraphrasing the words of Clara Haber, (Sect. 2.7 Clara Immerwahr, Chap. 2),
who so longed for marriage, seems both poignant and apposite. Little would she
have known that her feelings and her words could later have applied to a whole
generation of European women. Although some regard this ‘lost generation’ as a
myth. Jeremy Paxman’s series, ‘The Great War’, BBC Television, 2014,
claimed 80% of men returned from the war. But in areas where the ‘Pals’
regiments were raised, the male population was decimated and even amongst
13 Haber and the Chemist’s War 1914–18
269