less formal lines than is usual with journals of scientific societies. Crookes’ life
was one of unbroken scientific activity. He was never one of those who gain
influence by popular exposition; neither was he esoteric. The breadth of his
interests, ranging over pure and applied science, economic and practical
problems, and psychical research, made him a well-known personality, and he
received many public and academic honours. He was knighted in 1897 and he
died in London 04 April 1919. I am grateful to Oxford University’s Chemistry
Department earlier web page: http://www.chem.ox.ac.uk/icl/heyes/LanthAct/
Biogs/Crookes.html.
10. From, ‘Thermodynamics of Technical Gas Reactions’, Haber, Lecture Five.
http://www.archive.org/details/thermodynamicsof00haberich. Later, Robert
could not have been more aware of the nitrogen problem and Haber’s attitude to it, after all he was the translator of the Appendix to the chapter in
which these words appeared.
11. Indeed Haber once calculated that the binding of nitrogen to oxygen during
thunderstorms in the upper atmosphere deposited several tenths of a gram of
fixed nitrogen per km
2 to the earth’s surface. Haber had also studied the
oxidation of nitrogen in an electric arc as early as 1907 in collaboration with
BASF and Adolf Koenig and had proposed a mechanism for the reaction and
a process which retarded the decomposition of the oxide—see Chap. 7
However, by the time the ammonia synthesis had been perfected he had
abandoned this route.
12. Geoffrey Martin and William Barbour, Manuals of Chemical Technology III,
Industrial Nitrogen Compounds and Explosives. Crosby Lockwood and Son, 7
Stationers’ Hall Court, Ludgate Hill, E. C., and 5 Broadway, Westminster S.
W., LONDON, (1915).
13. Obtained by the ‘Linde’ process, i.e., the liquefaction of air.
14. See, Smil, op. cit. (note 5), Chap. 4, for a ‘potted history’ of all the pre-1900
attempts at the synthesis of ammonia, or his reference, Gmelins Handbuch der
anorganischen Chemie, Stickstoff. Berlin: Verlag Chemie, pp. 327–328,
(1936).
15. Wilhelm Ostwald, Lebenslinien: Eine Selbstbiographie. (Lifelines: An autobiography). Volume 2, Chap. 12, Berlin: Klasing, (1926).
16. Fritz Haber, Nobel Lecture 2 June 1920; ‘Fritz Haber—Nobel Lecture: The
Synthesis of Ammonia from Its Elements’. Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media
AB 2014. Web. 9 March 2016. http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/
chemistry/laureates/1918/haber-lecture.html.
17. The Silliman Memorial lecture series was established in 1888 in memory of
the mother of Benjamin Silliman, one of the first professors of science at Yale
University. The University began publishing the lectures of distinguished
science guest speakers in 1901.
94
D. Sheppard
was one of unbroken scientific activity. He was never one of those who gain
influence by popular exposition; neither was he esoteric. The breadth of his
interests, ranging over pure and applied science, economic and practical
problems, and psychical research, made him a well-known personality, and he
received many public and academic honours. He was knighted in 1897 and he
died in London 04 April 1919. I am grateful to Oxford University’s Chemistry
Department earlier web page: http://www.chem.ox.ac.uk/icl/heyes/LanthAct/
Biogs/Crookes.html.
10. From, ‘Thermodynamics of Technical Gas Reactions’, Haber, Lecture Five.
http://www.archive.org/details/thermodynamicsof00haberich. Later, Robert
could not have been more aware of the nitrogen problem and Haber’s attitude to it, after all he was the translator of the Appendix to the chapter in
which these words appeared.
11. Indeed Haber once calculated that the binding of nitrogen to oxygen during
thunderstorms in the upper atmosphere deposited several tenths of a gram of
fixed nitrogen per km
2 to the earth’s surface. Haber had also studied the
oxidation of nitrogen in an electric arc as early as 1907 in collaboration with
BASF and Adolf Koenig and had proposed a mechanism for the reaction and
a process which retarded the decomposition of the oxide—see Chap. 7
However, by the time the ammonia synthesis had been perfected he had
abandoned this route.
12. Geoffrey Martin and William Barbour, Manuals of Chemical Technology III,
Industrial Nitrogen Compounds and Explosives. Crosby Lockwood and Son, 7
Stationers’ Hall Court, Ludgate Hill, E. C., and 5 Broadway, Westminster S.
W., LONDON, (1915).
13. Obtained by the ‘Linde’ process, i.e., the liquefaction of air.
14. See, Smil, op. cit. (note 5), Chap. 4, for a ‘potted history’ of all the pre-1900
attempts at the synthesis of ammonia, or his reference, Gmelins Handbuch der
anorganischen Chemie, Stickstoff. Berlin: Verlag Chemie, pp. 327–328,
(1936).
15. Wilhelm Ostwald, Lebenslinien: Eine Selbstbiographie. (Lifelines: An autobiography). Volume 2, Chap. 12, Berlin: Klasing, (1926).
16. Fritz Haber, Nobel Lecture 2 June 1920; ‘Fritz Haber—Nobel Lecture: The
Synthesis of Ammonia from Its Elements’. Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media
AB 2014. Web. 9 March 2016. http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/
chemistry/laureates/1918/haber-lecture.html.
17. The Silliman Memorial lecture series was established in 1888 in memory of
the mother of Benjamin Silliman, one of the first professors of science at Yale
University. The University began publishing the lectures of distinguished
science guest speakers in 1901.
94
D. Sheppard