Industrial Ammonia Synthesis according to the Haber-Bosch Process (1938)

Industrial ammonia synthesis took place in I.G. Farben's Merseburg-based ammonia plant according to the Haber-Bosch process. Large-scale ammonia production had both military and civil applications. Ammonia could be oxidized into nitric acid for military use (e.g. in explosives production) or made into nitrogenous fertilizer for agricultural use. The enormous reactors pictured here make clear that industrial production took place on a very different scale than laboratory experiments. To get a sense of that scale, note the person in the lower right corner.