Haber-Bosch Process

Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch, Germany, patents from 1908. Making fertilizer from air feeds half of humanity.

Overview

Haber patented ammonia synthesis in 1908; Bosch's BASF team scaled monstrous high-pressure reactors by 1913. Nitrogen fertilizer from air roughly doubled the food the planet could grow; billions of people are alive because of it. The same ammonia fed munitions in both world wars, keeping Germany in explosives after Chilean nitrate was cut. Haber's Nobel 1918 drew protests for his gas warfare. Half of us owe our nitrogen to this patent.