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Creating the Twentieth Century$
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Vaclav Smil

Print publication date: 2005

Print ISBN-13: 9780195168747

Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: July 2005

DOI: 10.1093/0195168747.001.0001

New Materials and New Syntheses

Chapter:
(p. 152 ) 4 New Materials and New Syntheses
Source:
Creating the Twentieth Century
Author(s):

Vaclav Smil (Contributor Webpage)

Publisher:
Oxford University Press
DOI:10.1093/0195168747.003.0004

Steel became a ubiquitous and inexpensive material thanks to the introduction of basic Siemens-Martin open-hearth furnaces and high-performance specialty alloys. Invention of the Hall-Héroult process of aluminum production introduced a new lightweight metal whose massive use subsequently revolutionized transportation and many areas of manufacturing. Powerful new explosives, starting with Nobel’s dynamite, and Haber-Bosch synthesis of ammonia from its elements (without which it would be impossible to feed the 20th-century population) were the key revolutionary advances in chemical syntheses.

Keywords:   steel, open-hearth furnaces, alloys, aluminum production, new explosives, dynamite, synthesis of ammonia

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