Page "Henry Louis Le Chatelier" Paragraph 22

Le Chatelier in 1901 attempted the direct combination of the two gases at a pressure of 200 atm and 600⁰C in presence of metallic iron.

The mixture of gases was forced by an air compressor into a steel Berthelot bomb, where they and the reduced iron catalyst were heated by a platinum spiral4.

" Henri Le Chatelier: His Publications ," Ceram.

Abs., 16, ( Oct., 1937 ).

A terrific explosion occurred which nearly killed an assistant.

Sometime later Le Chatelier found that the explosion was due to the presence of air in the apparatus used.

And ’ thus it was left for Haber to succeed where a number of noted French chemists, including Thenard, Sainte Claire Deville and even Berthelot had failed.

In less than five years later, Haber and Claude were successful in producing ammonia on a commercial scale, acknowledging that the account of Le Chatelier's failed attempt had accelerated their research.

Near the end of his life, Le Chatelier wrote, " I let the discovery of the ammonia synthesis slip through my hands.

It was the greatest blunder of my scientific career ” the last book by Henry Le Chatelier “ De la Methode dans les Sciences Expkimentales ," published in 1936, pp. 73 – 76 ( http :// pubs. acs. org / doi / pdfplus / 10. 1021 / ed015p289. 3 ).

( Edited by Aniket S Waval .- Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai, India.