BERGIUS, FRIEDRICH ), German chemist, was born Oct. II, 1884, at Goldschmieden near Breslau. He stud ied at the universities of Breslau, Leipzig, and Berlin and at the technical schools in Karlsruhe and Hanover. Later he founded a private technical research laboratory in Hanover and devoted himself chiefly to the study of the influence of high pressure on chemical actions. This is described in his book The Use of High Pressure in Chemical Actions (1913). These studies led up to his work in connection with the conversion of coal into liquid prod ucts. Through the action of hydrogen under high pressure and at high temperature, he succeeded in converting a high percentage of coal-dust into oil direct, without first obtaining intermediate products. An experiment plant was erected at Rheinau near Mann heim. Bergius was awarded the Nobel prize for chemistry, 1931.