Fritz Haber's more tame discovery was that of nitrogen-based fertilizer. His invention has saved millions of lives from starvation and is key in feeding the current global population, but only through extension. His real pursuit was developing a fertilizer-distilled bomb for use by the Germans in World War I. German military leaders recruited him to make the bombs to flush the Allies out of the trenches. His first attempt didn't work, and the unsuspecting Brits didn't even know they had been attacked when the shells were lobbed into the trenches. Their second attempt failed because of stupidity. They took the new shells to Russia to be tested, and the liquid inside them froze rather than explode. Haber decided to switch to chlorine gas. Chlorine was much better for this use because it was so much smaller than the previously used gas, bromine. Chlorine can dart into the body much faster, due to its smaller size. Victims drown from a liquid buildup in their lungs.
His wife did not approve of his experiments. She was a very smart woman, having been the first to get a Ph. D in her college. Her husband never let her work with him, though. He always kept her busy doing domestic work and only let her translate his works. When she learned of his gas experiments, she downright refused to help him. They argued regularly about it, and she pleaded with him not to continue them. He paid her no mind. One night, after a particularly violent argument, she took his army pistol, ran out into the garden, and shot herself in the chest. He left for work the next morning as if nothing had happened.
Haber won the 1918 Nobel Prize for chemistry for his fertilizers. The next year, he was deemed an international war criminal. For the next six years, he tried to extract dissolved gold from the ocean so he could help pay Germany's reparations to the Allies. He had invented Zyklon A as an insecticide. With some tinkering, a German company made Zyklon B. Eventually, Haber was exiled from Germany for being Jewish and the Nazis, who were coming to power, began to use Zyklon B to gas Jews in their ever-so-famous concentration camps. Haber's chemical was used against his own people.
I can't believe how Chlorine can dart into the body and cause victims to drown from a liquid buildup in their lungs. That sounds really gruesome. I can't believe that after the way Haber treated his wife, and after she killed herself, he went on the next day as if nothing happened.I can't believe that the chemical that he invented as an insecticide was used against his own people. This chapter seems really awesome and I've only read a portion and am already hooked.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that his founding of fertilizer was actually caused from his research for a bomb is pretty sad. It shows how global mankind was not the priority but war was. I also like the fact that his wife didn't approve of his experiments and he didn't care. He must have been a really shallow person or very dedicated to his research. I cannot believe that his own chemical was weaponized by the Germans and it ended up killing his own people. Just wow…
ReplyDeleteThis is literally one of my favorite stories in science - Fritz Haber is really a complex figure in history and it gives you a lot to think about. It is hard to wrestle with the fact that he killed so many people on the battlefield, and at the same time he saves millions from starvation. It is not always easy to pin someone down as good or bad - people are much more complicated creatures...
ReplyDeleteThis is a very thought provoking post. Haber can be seen in two different lights. In a great way, he helped to support the world hunger problem with his nitrogen based fertilizers. In a horrible way, he constructed many war weapons that were, as cruel as they were, very effective. If only he had listened to his wife! What a weird turn of events, receiving the Nobel Prize and then being deemed a international war criminal.
ReplyDeleteHaber sounds like he was a heartless man. Although his cruel work ended up being beneficial for today's society, he did cause many deaths. Not to mention, he basically was detrimental to his wife's death.
ReplyDeleteIts so interesting that Haber was involved in the first uses of chlorine gas as a chemical weapon, and in the farming industry for nitrogen based fertilizers. Last year I wrote an argumentative paper against the uses of chemical weapons, and chlorine gas was among the primary weapons listed. I do have one question though. Was Haber involved in the production of Tabun gas?
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