Chapter 473: Synthetic Ammonia

While other European countries were crazily expanding their military in preparation for war, Spain was somewhat calm at this time.

Apart from the naval construction that had long been underway, the Spanish army had no plans for military expansion; after all, it had just expanded the army to 424,000 people not long ago, plus the colonial troops and the guards, the total number of Spanish troops had actually reached as many as 750,000.

Gao Da was busy approaching a foreign scientist at this time and had high expectations for this foreign scientist.

This scientist's name was also quite famous: Fritz Haber, an excellent scientist with both a good name and a bad name.

Regarding the good name, in 1909, which was this year, Fritz Haber became the first scientist in the world to manufacture ammonia from the air, which was also what allowed humanity to enter the era of synthetic ammonia, getting rid of the passive situation of purely relying on natural nitrogen fertilizer, and accelerating the development of world agriculture.

The importance of synthetic ammonia was not just in agriculture; it could also replace saltpeter to make gunpowder. In the era without synthetic ammonia, whether it was manufacturing fertilizer or making gunpowder, a large amount of saltpeter ore was needed.

But unfortunately, the world's saltpeter ore was limited; the largest saltpeter mine at present came from Chile's Pampas Desert, and this mining area was firmly controlled by the British.

Precisely because the British controlled Chile's saltpeter mine, it invisibly increased the importance of synthetic ammonia. For Spain, synthetic ammonia could not only be used to make gunpowder, but also could be used to make fertilizer, improving the grain yield of Spain's cultivated land and accelerating the development of Spain's agriculture.

Just these two points had already destined the importance of synthetic ammonia, which was also the reason why Gao Da attached such importance to Fritz Haber, the first scientist in the world to synthesize ammonia from the air.

As for Fritz Haber's bad name, it was actually related to World War I.

As a German chemist, Fritz Haber was heavily used by the German government during World War I, serving as the director of the German chemical arsenal, responsible for developing and producing poison gas, among which were chlorine gas and mustard gas, which had great lethality.

The poison gas produced by Fritz Haber's chemical arsenal was used by the German government in World War I; these chemical weapons caused casualties of nearly one million, and such behavior was also condemned by scientists from all over the world.

As the main person responsible for developing and producing poison gas, Fritz Haber's reputation naturally would not be very good, and in some periods, the bad name even exceeded the good name.

For Gao Da, Fritz Haber's bad name was naturally not that important. After all, Haber had not yet manufactured chemical weapons for Germany at this time, and since he had already come to Spain, naturally he could not go to manufacture chemical weapons for Germany again.

Regarding chemical weapons, Gao Da held the principle of being able to not use them but not being able to not have them, and still hoped that Spain would conduct research related to them.

Spain would not actively use chemical weapons in the war, but if the enemy used chemical weapons, Spain also needed to retaliate with the same means, and could not let the soldiers suffer innocent casualties.

At the same time, researching chemical weapons could also better prevent the enemy's chemical weapons. Although it was not enough to completely change the situation of the soldiers on the battlefield, at least it could let some soldiers think of ways to survive when facing the enemy's chemical weapon attacks.

Of course, at least until now, what Gao Da attached the most importance to regarding Fritz Haber was actually his synthetic ammonia technology.

Spain was absolutely one of the countries in Europe that needed synthetic ammonia the most, because the land in Spain was too barren, plus the reason for drought, the grain yield per mu was at the bottom of the whole of Europe.

If it were not for Spain developing large pieces of land in West Africa to grow grain, it was estimated that relying on the grain yield of the mainland alone would not be enough to feed so many people at present.

Although Spain mined a large amount of phosphate ore in the Morocco and Western Sahara regions, and used these phosphate ores to make a large amount of phosphate fertilizer to improve the grain yield of Spain's mainland.

But these phosphate fertilizers and the nitrogen fertilizer made from synthetic ammonia did not conflict; Spain could completely adopt two types of fertilizers to further improve the grain yield of the mainland.

As a German who was still relatively patriotic, Fritz Haber was originally not interested in coming to Spain. But when the Spanish side offered a salary he could not refuse, Fritz Haber finally gave up Germany and chose to go to Spain to take office.

There was no help for it; the conditions Gao Da offered were too attractive.

Gao Da promised to build a large chemical laboratory for Fritz Haber, with a total investment of no less than 15 million pesetas, and provide Haber with at least 5 million pesetas of research and development funds each year, and not interfere with any of Haber's scientific research.

On this basis, Gao Da would also establish a chemical plant, specifically used for the process of producing synthetic ammonia and subsequently manufacturing gunpowder and fertilizer.

The Spanish royal family represented by Gao Da would hold 90% of the shares in this chemical plant, and Fritz Haber would hold 10% of the shares with technology as capital.

Gao Da promised that the investment in this chemical plant would not be lower than 50 million pesetas; even if Fritz Haber only had 10% of the shares, it could be worth at least 5 million pesetas.

Facing Gao Da's almost naked money-sending behavior, Fritz Haber really could not say no. Apart from the harvest of funds on the surface, Gao Da also personally promised Haber that as long as the fertilizer made from synthetic ammonia could effectively improve Spain's grain yield, he would personally grant Haber a title in the future based on his contribution.

For Fritz Haber, this was already equivalent to a bumper harvest of fame and fortune. The only thing he paid was immigrating from Germany to Spain; this point was still completely acceptable to Haber.

After all, Spain also belonged to a European country, and Spain at this time was very powerful, and the economy was also very prosperous.

For Haber, it was nothing more than changing an environment; being able to possess his own large chemical laboratory plus 10% of the shares of a large enterprise was enough to ensure that he and his family would have no worries about food and clothing for the rest of their lives.

Fritz Haber did not even have too much hesitation; he quickly agreed to Gao Da's invitation, and after passing through transit, finally arrived in Spain.

After being personally received by Gao Da, Fritz Haber finally believed that all this was not a fantasy; the King of Spain, Gao Da, indeed attached great importance to him, and the conditions offered before were all true.

Since these conditions were all true, naturally Haber would not have other ideas. He wished he could immediately immigrate to Spain, go back and forth between his villa and large chemical laboratory, and focus on his experiments.

For such a scientist who was very capable in chemistry, Gao Da naturally attached great importance to him. In order to let Haber invest in chemical research faster, Gao Da first let Haber choose one from all the chemical laboratories of Spanish universities, temporarily using it as a substitute. ===== CHAPTER 474 =====