USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -The first artificial fertilizer was superphosphate, invented by the English agricultural chemist John Bennet Lawes. In 1842, he patented a process of treating phosphate rock with sulfuric acid to make the phosphate soluble, thus initiating the chemical fertilizer industry.

Detailed explanation-2: -Historical overview. Since ancient times man used natural resources such as manures, vegetables material, and bones as fertilizers. In 1840 Liebig, the German chemist, suggested the formation of superphosphate by dissolving bones in sulfuric acid that made the P more available to plants.

Detailed explanation-3: -The use of manure and compost as fertilizers is probably almost as old as agriculture. Many traditional farming systems still rely on these sustainable fertilizers, and their use is vital to the productivity of certified organic farms, in which synthetic fertilizers are not permitted.

Detailed explanation-4: -A hundred years ago two German chemists, Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch, devised a way to transform nitrogen in the air into fertiliser, using what became known as the Haber-Bosch process. But Haber’s place in history is controversial.