The Rise and Fall of the Salitre (sodium Nitrate) Industry
Year: 2001
Type: article
Abstract: The nitrate fields in Chile are exceptional for their mineral content and unknown origin and serve as an excellent example how a chemical technology can arise to create a very large and almost exclusive market, to be sent then almost into oblivion by competing technologies. The income from sodium nitrate export provided for many years almost 50% of the income of the Chilean government and a large part of the world needs for fertilizers. Development of the Haber-Bosch process for ammonia synthesis resulted in the crash of the dream and a serious economic crisis for Chile.
Authors: Jaime Wisniak, Ingrid Garcés
Institution: Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Language: English
Subfield: History and Philosophy of Science
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2344820738