The Chemists' War
eBook - ePub

The Chemists' War

1914-1918

  1. English
  2. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

The Chemists' War

1914-1918

About this book

Within months of the start of the First World War, Germany began to run out of the raw materials it needed to make explosives. As Germany faced imminent defeat, chemists such as Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch came to the rescue with Nobel Prize winning discoveries that overcame the shortages and enabled the country to continue in the war. Similarly, Britain could not have sustained its war effort for four years had it not been for chemists like Chaim Weizmann who was later to become the first president of the State of Israel.

Michael Freemantle tells the stories of these and many other chemists and explains how their work underpinned and shaped what became known as The Chemists' War. He reveals:

• how chemistry contributed to the care of the sick and wounded and to the health and safety of troops;
• how coal not only powered the war but was also an important source of the chemicals needed for the manufacture of explosives, dyes, medicines and antiseptics;
• how Britain's production of propellants relied on the slaughter of tens of thousands of whales;
• how a precious metal played a critical role in the war;
• how poisonous chemicals were used as weapons of mass destruction for the first time in the history of warfare and how chemists developed gas masks for protection against these weapons;
• how the British naval blockade of Germany imperilled agricultural production in the United States.

The book will appeal to the general reader as well as the many scientists and historians interested in the Great War.

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Yes, you can access The Chemists' War by Michael Freemantle in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Physical Sciences & Science History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Table of contents

  1. Cover image
  2. Title page
  3. Copyright
  4. Preface
  5. About the Author
  6. Contents
  7. Chapter 1 Much More than Chemical Warfare
  8. Chapter 2 Calling All Chemists
  9. Chapter 3 Women’s Contributions
  10. Chapter 4 Nobel War Efforts
  11. Chapter 5 Powering the War
  12. Chapter 6 The Chemistry of a Single Firearm Cartridge
  13. Chapter 7 The Acetone Crisis
  14. Chapter 8 Whaling for War
  15. Chapter 9 Germany in a Fix
  16. Chapter 10 May Sybil Leslie
  17. Chapter 11 An Element of War
  18. Chapter 12 Fritz Haber: Revered and Reviled
  19. Chapter 13 The World’s First Weapons of Mass Destruction
  20. Chapter 14 Pope and the Mustard Agents
  21. Chapter 15 The Biltz Brothers
  22. Chapter 16 Solutions at Sea
  23. Chapter 17 America’s Wartime Potash Problem
  24. Chapter 18 Fractured Friendships
  25. Chapter 19 One Building, Two Memorials
  26. Chapter 20 Fifty Chemicals of the Great War
  27. Bibliography
  28. Subject Index