Fixed Nitrogen Research Laboratory

Given the ubiquity of the example, and the dearth of context given in any of the texts I examined, I actually did read the original paper, which notes only that it is of interest to the nitrogen chemists at the Fixed Nitrogen Research Laboratory and as an early (and easily studied) example of first-order decomposition. 

FNRL(Fixed Nitrogen Research Laboratory) (Ref 80) m)Uhde(Ref 39)... 

Cottrell, Frederick G. (1877-1948). American scientist, inventor of an electrostatic precipitator, now known as Cottrell Precipitator, for smoke, dust fumes. Among other inventions are the pebble bed furnace, boiling point apparatus the Cottrell-Daniels process for fixation of atmospheric nitrogen. Cottrell was Director of US Bureau of Mines Director of the Fixed Nitrogen Research Laboratory, and founder of the Research Corporation, a nonprofit organization... 

Casale(Ital) Fixed Nitrogen Research Laboratory... 

Nitrate Division, Ordnance Office, War Department and Fixed Nitrogen Research Laboratory. Report on tile Fixation and UiUization of Nitrogen, No. 2041. U. S. Government Printing Office, 1922. 

The Fixed Nitrogen Research Laboratory, Bureau Of Chemistry and Soils, Dep.uitment of Agriculture, has compiled a very extensive unpublished bibliography on nitrogen fixation which may be consulted In its Library at Washington, D. C,... 

Third, that edition of the campus newspaper generally contains a glowing description of the quality of the work done by the Chemical Warfare Service (CWS) at the university and the fact that the War Department was going to leave the Fixed Nitrogen Research Laboratory. It further provided a very detailed description of the laboratory and the major people responsible for its success. It appears that some of these people remained and could well have supplied the newspaper with other details of the AUES, including... 

Finally, this productive period at the Fixed Nitrogen Research Laboratory resulted in many important contributions to... 

In summary then, the group at the Fixed Nitrogen Research Laboratory by 1925 had shown that doubly promoted iron catalysts containing about 3% aluminum oxide and one percent potassium oxide were entirely satisfactory for commercial use and would, if operated on pure gas, have a very long life. Actually, many similar commercial catalysts are said to retain their activity for more than 5 years. 

Professor H.S. Taylor, who was considered during his lifetime to be the dean of American Catalytic Chemists, is quoted as remarking that the work at the Fixed Nitrogen Research Laboratory could be considered as the basis of a textbook on heterogeneous catalysis. It included catalyst development, reactor design and basic catalyst studies. These latter included the usual basic studies of the physical and chemical adsorption of reactants, the kinetics of the reaction, studies of the catalyst surface and finally, mechanism studies and conjectures. In line with this suggestion we shall now give a compact summary of the basic work. 

In summary one may conclude that the Fixed Nitrogen Research Laboratory and its continuation as a section of the Bureau of Soils over the period of 1919 to 1940 did an outstanding job in laying a foundation for a prosperous and well-built synthetic ammonia industry and for doing its share to develop and study the detailed characteristics and mode of operation of the various catalyst systems involved. 

NEC-Chemico (1928) Based on the Fixed Nitrogen Research Laboratory work. Developed by NEC and Chemico with co-current cooling for tubes. 

Despite the problems at Sheffield, the Atmospheric Nitrogen Corporation, a subsidiary of the General Chemical Company, had built and operated a second plant with the same design at Syracuse, New York by 1921.The original capacity was 15 tonnes per day anunonia but it was later increased to 40 totmes per day. This plant eventually used a fused iron oxide catalyst, promoted with alumina and potash, developed at the Fixed Nitrogen Research Laboratory by A T Larson. It had first test a catalyst developed by de Jahn of the General Chemical Company. 

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