Chorleywood the Local Government Act 1894 created districts as subdivisions of the newly created county councils, Chorleywood became part of the Watford Rural District, which encircled Watford. In 1913, the town was separated from Watford Rural District to become Chorleywood Urban District. In the early 1960s, researchers at the British Baking Industries Research Association in Chorleywood improved upon an earlier American bread-making process. This resulted in the Chorleywood Bread Process which is now used in over 80% of commercial bread production throughout the UK. In the 1973 BBC Television documentary, "Metro-land", Sir John Betjeman described Chorleywood as "essential Metro-land". In 1974,
History of the Haber process dinitrogen to obtain calcium cyanamide, a chemical compound used as a fertilizer. Industrialization of the Frank-Caro process began in 1905. By 1918, there were 35 synthesis sites fixing 325,000 tonnes of nitrogen annually. However, the Cyanamide process consumed large amounts of electrical power and was more labor-intensive than the Haber process. Today, cyanamide is used primarily as a herbicide. Wilhelm Ostwald, considered one of the best German chemists of the early twentieth century, attempted to synthesize ammonia in 1900 using an invention. He interested BASF, who asked Carl Bosch, a recently hired chemist, to validate the device. After several tests,