While Britain and America built their early chemicals industries out of salt, Germany deployed coal and alchemy. Pharmaceutical giant Bayer had made millions by turning German coal into acetylsalicylic acid, a drug better known as aspirin. BASF had made millions by turning German coal into an extraordinary range of dyes. Turning German coal into a gasoline that could be used in tanks, trucks and planes was, in the circumstances, simply the next logical step.
