Eyde, Samuel (1866-1940)

Norwegian industrial chemist. He helped to develop a commercial process for the manufacture of nitric acid that made use of comparatively cheap hydroelectricity.

In 1901, while studying the problem of the fixation of nitrogen (the conversion of atmospheric nitrogen into chemically useful compounds), he met his compatriot Christian Birkeland (1867-1917). Together they developed the Birkeland-Eyde process for the economic combination of nitrogen and oxygen (from air) in an electric arc to produce nitrogen oxides and, eventually, nitric oxide.

Eyde was born in Arendal and studied in Germany at the Charlottenburg High School, Berlin. He worked as an engineer in various German cities before returning to Scandinavia. He obtained the hydroelectric rights on some waterfalls in Norway and became director of an electrochemical company 1904, founding a hydroelectric company 1905. He was a member of the Norwegian parliament.