Ammonia

Ammonia is a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the formula NH3. A colorless gas with a characteristic pungent smell, it was discovered when burning camel dung at the temple of Ammon in Libya.

Ammonia got its name from its ritual use by worshippers of the Egyptian god Ammon.

Although common in nature—both terrestrially and in the outer planets of the Solar System—a ammonia is both caustic and hazardous in its concentrated form.

The ancient Romans used ammonia (derived from urine) and fuller's earth to launder their woolen togas.

During the Middle Ages in Europe ammonia was obtained by heating the horns and hoofs of oxen and was called spirits of hartshorn. 

Basil Valentine, a 15th-century alchemist, showed that ammonia could be obtained by the action of alkali on sal-ammoniac (ammonium chloride),

Is composition was determined by the French chemist Comte Claude Berthollet about 1777. 

In 1859 Frenchman Ferdinand Carre developed an industrial refrigerator using ammonia. Until recently, ammonia was used in some commercial and industrial refrigeration systems, and occasionally, one would leak, causing a minor emergency.

Today most ammonia is produced synthetically from hydrogen and nitrogen.

The global industrial production of ammonia in 2018 was 175 million tonnes.

Ammonia melts at –77.7° C (–107.9° F), boils at –33.35° C (–28.03° F), and has a density of 0.68 at its boiling point and 1 atm (760 torrs) of pressure. 

The world's longest ammonia pipeline is roughly 2400 kilometers (1,500 miles) long running from the TogliattiAzot plant in Russia to Odessa in Ukraine (see below). 

By Антон Оболенский (Azh7) 

When Eric Wolfson of The Alan Parsons Project toured Imperial Chemical Industries in Billingham, England, he saw a street that was lined with miles of pipes and some machinery, but looked to be devoid of any organic life, including people. By the street was a sign reading "Ammonia Avenue" - this was where they made ammonia. This inspired the band's 1984 Ammonia Avenue album.

Sources Fun & Wagnells Encyclopedia, Songfacts