[Ian44]

Hello,
I am quite new to this and did not take any chem in college. Im working on an agriculture project and have run into a research failing. While i can easily find the parameters of the industrial instances of the Haber-Bosch Process, i have found little more than a picture and minor anecdotal accounts of the original tabletop apparatus.

My questions are simple?

1. Was Haber's original Nitrogen source merely air? (As in; was Fractional Distillation not necessary or did he provide a pure source externally?)

2.What were the specific Parameters? Heat and Pressure? (I know the later and current industrial applications I am concerned with Haber's original tabletop apparatus)

3.Lastly, By why means was compression achieved and is it, along with the other mechanics, part of the original tabletop design? (or provided externally, etc?)

[Arkcon]

The Wikipedia article on the subject is notably poor on this particular topic.  However, the references in the article could prove more useful for an undergraduate report.  Briefly, the article references that the development of gas liquification equipment and pressure vessels were instrumental in developing the process.  As for removing oxygen from the liquified air, can you see any problem if oxygen is present?  Is oxygen inert to hydrogen at high temperatures and pressures?  You can work that knowledge of yours into any paper you're writing on the topic.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Haber_process#A_new_approach

[Arkcon]

Here's a better article, in French, Google-translated into English:  http://translate.google.com/translate?&u=http%3A%2F%2Ffr.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FHistoire+du+proc%C3%A9d%C3%A9+Haber-Bosch&sl=fr&tl=en

Its just as flowery as the other one, but has some good info --I particularly like the images, it references synthesis gas, and the need to perform some cleanup chemically.