THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 



of this truly remarkable feat is a Swedish scientist, 

 Christian Birkeland by name, Professor of Physics in 

 the University of Christiania. His experiments were 

 begun only about the year 1903, and the practical ma- 

 chinery for commercializing the results in which enter- 

 prise Professor Birkeland has had the co-operation of a 

 practical engineer, Mr. S. Eyde is still in a sense in 

 the experimental stage, albeit a large factory was put 

 in successful operation in 1905 at Notodden, Norway. 

 Professor Birkeland has thus accomplished what many 

 investigators in various parts of the world have been 

 striving after for years. The significance of his ac- 

 complishment consists in the fact that he has demon- 

 strated the possibility of making nitrogen combine 

 with oxygen in large quantities and at a relatively 

 low expense. The mere fact of the combination, as 

 a laboratory possibility, had been demonstrated in 

 an elder generation by Cavendish, and more recently 

 by such workers as Sir William Crookes, and Lord 

 Rayleigh in England and Professors W. Mutjmaan 

 and H. Hofer in Germany. Moreover, the experi- 

 ments of Messrs. Bradley and Lovejoy, conducted on 

 a commercial scale at Niagara Falls, had seemed to 

 give promise of a complete solution of the problem; 

 had, indeed, produced a nitrogen compound from the 

 air in commercial quantity, but not, unfortunately, 

 at a cost that made competition with the Chili nitrate 

 possible. Equally unsuccessful in solving this impor- 

 tant part of the problem had been the experiments, 

 conducted on a large scale, of Professors Kowalski 

 and Moscicki, at Freiburg. 



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