page_title: Rjukan–Notodden Industrial Heritage Site
section_title: Process development
hierarchical_section_title: Rjukan–Notodden Industrial Heritage Site / History / The Birkeland–Eyde process / Process development
caption_attribution_description: English: Birkeland–Eyde furnace (1905) exhibited in Notodden, Norway
context_page_description: The Rjukan–Notodden Industrial Heritage Site is a World Heritage Site in Vestfold & Telemark county, Norway, created to protect the industrial landscape around Lake Heddalsvatnet and Vestfjorddalen valley. The landscape is centered on the plant built by the Norsk Hydro company to produce calcium nitrate fertilizer from atmospheric nitrogen using the Birkeland–Eyde process. The complex also includes hydroelectric power plants, railways, transmission lines, factories, and workers' accommodation and social institutions in the towns of Notodden and Rjukan.
  This site, along with the Odda–Tyssedal Industrial Heritage Site, was placed on the tentative World Heritage list on 19 June 2009. On 5 July 2015, it was placed on the World Heritage list under Criteria II and IV with the following description of the Outstanding Universal Value:
  Located in a dramatic landscape of mountains, waterfalls and river valleys, the site comprises hydroelectric power plants, transmission lines, factories, transport systems and towns. The complex was established by the Norsk-Hydro Company to manufacture artificial fertilizer from nitrogen in the air.
context_section_description: When the power production capability of The Royal Frederick University proved insufficient, the experiments were moved offsite to a warehouse in Kristiania. In October 1903, the experiments were again moved to Ankerløkken Testing Station in Maridalen, where they could be powered directly by the Hammeren Hydroelectric Power Station. The final relocation of the experimental phase was to Vassmoen, near Arendal, where the first industry-capable arc furnaces were developed. After its completion, the process was presented by Otto Witt at the Technical University of Berlin on 18 November 1905. On 5 December 1905, Kristian Birkeland gave a lecture about the process at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, while Sam Eyde gave a lecture at the Norwegian Polytechnic Society.
caption: The only surviving Vassmoen arc furnace used for the Birkeland–Eyde process, built c. 1905.
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