History of fertilizer facts for kids

The history of fertilizer is super interesting! Fertilizers are like special food for plants. They help crops grow bigger and healthier. For a long time, people used natural things like animal waste or minerals to make their farms more productive. But then, scientists learned how to make fertilizers in factories. This changed farming a lot, and even affected how countries worked together and how our environment looks today.

Global Fertiliser consumption over time

Early Days of Fertilizers

People have been helping their plants grow for thousands of years! Ancient Egyptians, Romans, and Babylonians all knew how to make their farms better. They used things like minerals and animal manure. Even wood ash was spread on fields to help plants.

In the Andes mountains, people used guano (which is bird droppings) for over 1,500 years. Later, in the 1800s, European countries started bringing huge amounts of guano from places like Peru and Chile. They needed it for their growing farms during the Industrial Revolution. This demand for guano even led to a conflict between Peru, Chile, and Bolivia. People also used fish as fertilizer as early as the 1600s.

Key Scientists and Their Discoveries

Many smart people in Europe helped us understand how fertilizers work.

Charles Townshend and Crop Rotation

In the 1730s, Viscount Charles Townshend studied a clever farming method. He saw farmers in Flanders (a region in Europe) using a four-crop rotation system. This meant they grew different crops in the same field each year. This helped the soil stay healthy. Townshend helped spread this idea, earning him the nickname "Turnip Townshend" because turnips were a key crop in this system.

Johann Friedrich Mayer's Experiments

Johann Friedrich Mayer (1719–1798) was one of the first to do experiments with gypsum and farming. Gypsum is a soft mineral. Many scientists in the 1800s followed his lead. They had different ideas about how gypsum helped plants:

• Some thought it was the sulfuric acid in gypsum that made a difference.
• Others believed gypsum pulled important elements for plants right from the air.
• One scientist, Humphry Davy, found that gypsum could even slow down rotting. He thought gypsum became part of the plant's food.

Mayer also encouraged new ways of rotating crops.

Justus von Liebig and Plant Nutrition

Chemist Justus von Liebig (1803–1873) greatly improved our understanding of how plants get their food. He argued that plants needed specific inorganic minerals. He also highlighted the importance of ammonia for plant growth. Liebig tried to make a commercial fertilizer in England using treated bone meal. It was cheaper than guano, but it didn't work well because plants couldn't absorb it easily.

Sir John Bennet Lawes and Artificial Fertilizers

John Bennet Lawes, an English businessman, started experimenting with different manures in 1837. He soon found a way to make a new kind of fertilizer. In 1842, he patented a fertilizer made by treating phosphates with sulfuric acid. This was a huge step! He basically started the artificial fertilizer industry. He also founded the Rothamsted Experimental Station, where scientists still study how fertilizers affect crops today.

Jean Baptiste Boussingault and Nitrogen

In France, Jean Baptiste Boussingault (1802–1887) showed how important the amount of nitrogen is in different kinds of fertilizers. Nitrogen is a key nutrient for plants.

Gilchrist-Thomas Process

Metallurgists Percy Gilchrist (1851–1935) and Sidney Gilchrist Thomas (1850–1885) invented a process for making steel. A cool side effect was that the lining of the steel-making machine turned into calcium phosphate. This could then be used as a fertilizer, known as Thomas-phosphate!

The Birkeland-Eyde Process

In 1903, Norwegian scientists Kristian Birkeland and Sam Eyde developed the Birkeland–Eyde process. This process could take nitrogen from the air and turn it into nitric acid. Nitric acid is then used to make synthetic fertilizer. They built factories in Norway that used a lot of hydroelectric power. This process used a lot of energy, so it was later replaced by a more efficient method.

The Haber Process

In the early 1900s, Nobel Prize-winning chemists Carl Bosch and Fritz Haber developed the Haber process. This amazing process uses nitrogen gas from the air and methane gas to create ammonia. Ammonia is a super important ingredient for making many modern fertilizers.

The Ostwald Process

The Ostwald process, developed by Wilhelm Ostwald (patented in 1902), is another key chemical process. It takes the ammonia made by the Haber process and turns it into nitric acid. This nitric acid is then used to make common fertilizers like ammonium nitrate. These two processes (Haber and Ostwald) are vital for making most of the fertilizers we use today.

Erling Johnson and Nitrophosphate

In 1927, Erling Johnson created an industrial way to make nitrophosphate, also called the Odda process. This process used nitric acid to treat phosphate rock (found on islands like Nauru). This created a fertilizer that provided both nitrogen and phosphorus to plants.

The Fertilizer Industry Today

The way fertilizers are made and sold has changed a lot over time.

British Fertilizer Companies

In the 1850s, British companies like Fisons and Packard started making superphosphate fertilizers. They built factories and shipped their products all over the world. By 1871, there were about 80 factories making superphosphate in Britain! After World War I, these companies faced competition from natural guano imports.

Later, companies like Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) developed new synthetic fertilizers. They made ammonium sulfate in 1923 and a more concentrated fertilizer called CCF in 1931. ICI became a major player in the world fertilizer market.

Global Growth and Mergers

Other European and North American companies also grew. This led to many English pioneer companies merging, like Fisons, Packard, and Prentice Ltd. in 1929. They produced huge amounts of superphosphate. By World War II, they had bought about 40 other companies.

After the war, fertilizer production increased even more. This was partly due to the "Green Revolution" and new types of seeds that could absorb more nitrogen. Today, many of the original company names are part of larger global companies like Yara International and AstraZeneca. Major players in the market now include companies like the Russian fertilizer company Uralkali.

See also

• Fertilizer
• History of agriculture