4.1 Introduction
Throughout his professional life and beyond, Robert Le Rossignol maintained
an active interest in the development of the ammonia synthesis. He derived
great satisfaction from the contribution that the Haber-Le Rossignol
2 Process
had made to the feeding problems of the world—particularly in the developing countries. But as a young man he was only drawn to the ammonia
problem through his contact with Haber. Dietrich Stoltzenberg
3 suggests that
Robert had worked on the ammonia problem with Ramsay before joining
Haber, but Ramsay’s only investigation in this area was published in 1884—
the year of Robert’s birth. No doubt the problem was discussed at UCL
during Robert’s time there but it was hardly Ramsay’s mainstream concern.
Equally however, it would be naïve to presume that Robert travelled to Haber
without any kind of provenance in matters of technical engineering. Indeed,
his early interest in ‘chemical technology’ was one reason for him choosing
Haber over Abegg. Until his death in 1976 Robert was always grateful for his
time at UCL, but as he left us only a modest account of this period,
4 one can
only speculate that it was the knowledge and skills he gained there that laid
the foundations for his later success at Karlsruhe. Although we can call on
little biographical evidence to support this conjecture, Morris Travers in ‘A
Life of Sir William Ramsay’
5 provides ample evidence to suggest that—even
before Robert arrived there—engineering knowledge of the type he eventually
applied at Karlsruhe already existed at UCL.
4.2 Travers’ Liquefiers
In the Kensington Science Museum’s Large Object Store at Wroughton,
Swindon
6
—a second world war maintenance airfield in Wiltshire—lies a
largely forgotten machine with coils, a glass jar and two vacuum vessels. This
machine, the first hydrogen liquefaction apparatus, may well have helped to
change the world. From 1898 to 1903 Ramsay was concerned with the
isolation of neon, krypton and xenon. His laboratory was a foundry of
experimental innovation. The isolation and physical determination of the
inert gases required bespoke equipment much of which is described in
Travers’ biography, but ‘cutting edge’ technology too penetrated the laboratory. By 1899 Ramsay needed to make liquid air in order to accumulate
krypton and xenon-rich residues which were later separated by fractional
distillation. The college had a Hampson air liquefier—minus its compressor
98
D. Sheppard
Throughout his professional life and beyond, Robert Le Rossignol maintained
an active interest in the development of the ammonia synthesis. He derived
great satisfaction from the contribution that the Haber-Le Rossignol
2 Process
had made to the feeding problems of the world—particularly in the developing countries. But as a young man he was only drawn to the ammonia
problem through his contact with Haber. Dietrich Stoltzenberg
3 suggests that
Robert had worked on the ammonia problem with Ramsay before joining
Haber, but Ramsay’s only investigation in this area was published in 1884—
the year of Robert’s birth. No doubt the problem was discussed at UCL
during Robert’s time there but it was hardly Ramsay’s mainstream concern.
Equally however, it would be naïve to presume that Robert travelled to Haber
without any kind of provenance in matters of technical engineering. Indeed,
his early interest in ‘chemical technology’ was one reason for him choosing
Haber over Abegg. Until his death in 1976 Robert was always grateful for his
time at UCL, but as he left us only a modest account of this period,
4 one can
only speculate that it was the knowledge and skills he gained there that laid
the foundations for his later success at Karlsruhe. Although we can call on
little biographical evidence to support this conjecture, Morris Travers in ‘A
Life of Sir William Ramsay’
5 provides ample evidence to suggest that—even
before Robert arrived there—engineering knowledge of the type he eventually
applied at Karlsruhe already existed at UCL.
4.2 Travers’ Liquefiers
In the Kensington Science Museum’s Large Object Store at Wroughton,
Swindon
6
—a second world war maintenance airfield in Wiltshire—lies a
largely forgotten machine with coils, a glass jar and two vacuum vessels. This
machine, the first hydrogen liquefaction apparatus, may well have helped to
change the world. From 1898 to 1903 Ramsay was concerned with the
isolation of neon, krypton and xenon. His laboratory was a foundry of
experimental innovation. The isolation and physical determination of the
inert gases required bespoke equipment much of which is described in
Travers’ biography, but ‘cutting edge’ technology too penetrated the laboratory. By 1899 Ramsay needed to make liquid air in order to accumulate
krypton and xenon-rich residues which were later separated by fractional
distillation. The college had a Hampson air liquefier—minus its compressor
98
D. Sheppard