Fritz%20Haber%20Alfred%20Nobel

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Fritz HaberAlfred Nobel

• And the explosives industry

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Explosives

• These are chemicals that react very rapidly when
  stimulated in the correct and controlled manner.
• There are two main types
• Those that release large amounts of gas very
  rapidly
• Those that release large amounts of energy very
  rapidly

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Mechanism of an explosive

• Detonation is usually caused by a shock or
  electrically sensitive compound being stimulated
  into decomposing rapidly
• This sets off the main explosive which is much
  less sensitive but much more powerful.
• Fuse ----- detonator ------ dynamite

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History

• China (10th century) Was thought to be the
  inventor of the first explosive gunpowder a
  mixture of potassium nitrate, sulphur and
  charcoal (carbon). By the 12th century it had
  arrived in Europe,
• This was the dominating explosive throughout the
  middle ages and forged a route for western
  colonisation of India, Africa and South America.

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New explosives

• With chemistry investigations proceeding rapidly
  during the 18th and 19th century many new
  unstable substances were discovered.
• Nitroglycerine (Ascanio Sobrero, 1846)
• Picric acid
• Tri-Nitro Toluene (TNT) 1902
• Ammonium nitrate (Amotal)

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Manufacture and use

• All of the explosives contain either the nitro-
  NO2 group or the nitrate NO3 group of atoms.
• To make them you need nitric acid HNO3

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Nitroglycerine

• This is a very unstable compound that was used as
  an explosive for many years causing innumerable
  deaths

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Alfred Nobel

• Alfred Nobels family had a nitroglycerine
  business
• After several fatal explosions in the factory
  (one of which killed his brother) he set out to
  find a way to make nitroglycerine safe to handle.
• He invented the blasting cap (using gunpowder)
• He invented dynamite

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Nobels contribution

• Alfred Nobel made high explosives freely
  available allowing
• Use of high explosives in war
• Engineering projects such as dams for
  irrigation, bridges, railways, mines and
  road-building became possible.

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19th and 20th century politics

• Europe, for the past 1000 years has been
  politically very unstable with many wars between
  neighbouring countries.
• Although a lot of damage can be caused with
  gunpowder and steel the new explosives brought
  warfare into a new dimension..
• At the beginning of the 20th century the European
  map looked like ?

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Raw materials

• To make explosives you need nitrates
• Chile Saltpetre NaNO3
• India Bengal saltpetre Ca(NO3)2
• Guanine (from guana)
• And they come from..

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Guanine comes from guana
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And guana comes from
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The Germans needed
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• And to manufacture munitions they needed the raw
  materials to which they had no access because of
  the naval blockade.

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So they called on
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Among which was
Fritz Haber
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The Haber process

• Fritz Haber, a chemist, recognised that
  Germanys requirement of nitrates for explosives
  could come from the oxidation of ammonia
• Ammonia oxygen ? nitrogen oxide water
• Nitrogen oxide water oxygen ? Nitric acid
• Nitric acid ? explosives

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The problem

• Ammonia could be made from nitrogen and
  hydrogen, both of which were freely available in
  Germany
• BUT
• The reaction
• N2 3H2 ? 2NH3
• is very difficult and inefficient

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The Haber process

• So Haber developed the process by which
• He used pressure to push the reaction to the
  right hand side
• He used a catalyst to speed the reaction up
• He liquefied the ammonia to remove it from the
  reaction as soon as it was formed, preventing its
  decomposition.

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Result?

• This allowed Germany to fight the war for four
  years from 1914 to 1918
• Fritz Haber was put in charge of Germanys
  chemical weapons program
• Some of the consequences.

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The Somme

• 1st July 1916 after a week long bombardment of
  the German frontline, nearly 100,000 British
  soldiers rose from their trenches and marched
  into No Man's Land.

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The Somme
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The Somme

• Wave after wave of British infantry rose from
  their trenches and walked forward. but they
  advanced to their deaths the German machine-gun
  nests had survived and so had much of the wire,
  blasted into even more impenetrable tangle. The
  British army suffered the highest Losses it had
  ever taken in a single day, 57,000 deaths

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The Somme

• The territorial gains were unspectacular along
  a 48-km (30 mile) front the greatest penetration
  was about 11 km (7 miles) deep and had no
  strategic significance. The British Empire had
  sustained 450,000 casualties and the French
  suffered about 150,000. German losses exceeded
  600,000.
• All in all....

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• Casualties
• Austria-Hungary 2,300,000 dead
• Belgium 88,000 dead
• Britain Empire 908,371 dead
• Bulgaria 14,000 dead
• France Empire 1,327,000 dead
• Germany 1,773,700 dead

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• Greece 5,000 dead
• Italy 460,000 dead
• Portugal 7,000 dead
• Romania 219,800 dead
• Russia 1,700,000 dead
• Serbia 45,000 dead
• Turkey 236,000 dead
• USA 50,585 dead
• TOTAL 12,599,000 deaths

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Poisonous gases

• Fritz Haber continued working as a chemist and
  was responsible for the development of Zyklon B
  during the first world war as a poison gas
  weapon

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Zyklon B

• Zyklon B was later put to an even more notorious
  use.

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The concentration camps

• Dachau
• Auschwitz
• Treblinka
• Buchenwald
• And many more
• Used Zyklon B (among other gases) to kill the
  prisoners in the concentration camps

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So wheres the good?

• Ammonia is also a raw material in the manufacture
  of.....
• Ammonium sulphate
• Ammonium nitrate
• Ammonium chloride
• Ammonium phosphate
• all used for

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Fertilizers
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Fertilizers

• Which have saved millions of lives in countries
  all over the world..

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Haber

• Fritz Habers wife could not take the stress and
  pressure of living with a man who was (she
  thought) responsible for so many deaths she
  committed suicide.
• Haber resigned after the Nazis came to power (he
  was Jewish) and fled to England in 1933 where he
  died depressed one year later.

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Nobel

• Nobel became a fabulously wealthy man from his
  inventions but became increasingly depressed with
  what he saw to be his culpability in the evils of
  warfare.
• He left a large amount of money to fund the Nobel
  prizes that are awarded every year for people
  that have conferred the greatest benefit for
  mankind

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One World Essay

• Title The explosives industry
• You can use the biographies of Haber and Nobel
  to exemplify the ethics and morals involved.
• You should include
• The chemistry of explosives
• Their uses in society
• Their dangers to society
• Suggestions for their use
• You should address the following question
• Were Nobel and Haber justified in feeling
  depressed about their contributions to society
  and humanity?