“An Index to Literature Upon the Synthesis of Ammonia
BY EZRA J. WARE,
SCHOOL OF PHARMACY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN.
When ammonia is to be made synthetically one or both its elements must be taken in the nascent state. The various methods which I have consulted, and to which reference is made in the following index, may be grouped under three heads.
(1) The production of the nascent elements through the agency of heat, using water as a source of hydrogen and air as a source of nitrogen.
(2) The production of the nascent state by electricity, using free hydrogen and nitrogen.
(3) The natural methods, as by evaporation, porosity of arable soil, etc., using air and water as the materials.
None of the methods so far published seem fully to meet the demand for a good practicable commercial process. Marguerite and de Saurdeval’s method seems as reasonable as any and upon it are based several others.
In no case has a quantitative estimation of the product been given, so we are quite unable to compare them by their results.
In 1872 a prize of 2,000 f. was offered in Paris for the fixation of the atmospheric nitrogen.”
Reference Data:
Proceedings, by Michigan Pharmaceutical Association, 1887, pages 124-5
