About book The Alchemy Of Air: A Jewish Genius, A Doomed Tycoon, And The Scientific Discovery That Fed The World But Fueled The Rise Of Hitler (2008)
The book titled "The Alchemy of Air" by Thomas Hager was a great book. Hager had me intrigued from the Very beginning. I couldn't put the book down without wanting to read more. The book talks about the founding of Farber, Germany's largest chemical company. It also talked about Farber factories produced ammonia, synthetic gasoline, and synthetic rubber for the Third Reich under Hitler's command.I would recommend this book to anyone who likes chemistry. This book is based on chemistry and lots of it. Mrs. Buescher asked me to read this book and give her feed back, since this book is on her summer read list. I would reccommend this book to Mrs. Buescher. She will definitely love reading this book this summer. The first few pages left me wondering if I'd really get through the book, but then reading flowed and I was hooked. So many interesting facts and factors in this book. I'll list a few.The world would only sustain 1-2 billion people without fertilizer which captures nitrogen from the air.People were enslaved to harvest guano from the Galapagos.Wars were waged over natural sources of nitrogen.Germany succeeded in capturing nitrogen from air and making synthetic fertilizer.The synthetic means for making fertilizer could also be used to make explosives.Germany had amazing chemical engineers, and before WW2, 1/4-1/3 were Jewish. Chemical companies such as BASF, Krupps, Bayer and the like emerged.Haber was a baptized Jew, who faught for Germany and helped create chemical weapons which in subsequent years were developed into the gas which killed millions in concentration camps.The Germans heavily guarded their chemical plants during the World Wars, which could have been won earlier by the allies if they would have succeeded in destroying the plants.China had horrible famine until the introduction of fertilizer plants.And many more very interesting twists of real life that I am not able to do justice to this amazing nonfiction.Haber and Bosch were somewhat antisocial and I always wonder about such amazing scientists and whether they were in the Asperger's spectrum.
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One of the most exciting and thought provoking true stories I have ever read.
—aprilfulsom
