require ingenious design of new experimental equipment. In this, Le Rossignol
proved a master …
It was clear that Le Rossignol had a profound influence on the evolution
of the ‘Haber process’, but I was amazed that, in my ‘previous life’, I had
never heard of this fellow ‘Brit’. Back home, an exhaustive search on the
Internet revealed an obituary of Le Rossignol written in 1977 by friend and
colleague Ralph Chirnside, but otherwise a dearth of biographical evidence.
Robert who? was clearly a question that needed attention. So, intrigued by the
lines from Charles’ book, and guided by Chirnside’s ‘road map’ to Le
Rossignol’s life, I embarked on a biographical Odyssey to find out more
of the man who helped create the most influential technology of the twentieth
century. My first acknowledgments are therefore to Daniel Charles and Ralph
Chirnside. Had I never encountered the work of the former, Le Rossignol’s
life would still be an enigma. Had I never encountered the work of the latter,
the biographical effort involved may well have been beyond me. For after only
a short time into my Odyssey, I realised that Le Rossignol had left little of
himself behind and that which was left was fragmented and widely distributed. Every new ‘nugget’ of information regarding this man had to be
‘hunted down’ down.
It follows, therefore, that this book would have been impossible for me to
write if it were not for the Internet and its ‘world wide web’ of accessible
digitised material. The various instantaneous communication systems of the
Internet allowed this ‘virgin’ biographer to effortlessly contact academics,
members of the public, libraries and archives, charities, newspapers, public
record offices and other concerned organisations, worldwide. The efforts of
thousands of workers in digitising billons of photographs, newspapers, scientific papers, textbooks, certificates of births, deaths and marriages and
compiling online resources such as ‘Wikipedia’, built an unparalleled digital
‘honey pot’, made sensible by the ‘search engines’, whose software ‘incisions’
cut through the ‘fog of big data’. My journey across the web introduced me
to many people, far too many to thank on an individual basis, but where their
efforts have resulted in an element included in the book, such as a photograph
or a letter, I have recorded this in the legend. Needless to say, many people
who have helped me will go unrecognised.
But others I can recognise. Thanks, therefore, go to Professor Alwyn
Davies FRS at UCL Chemistry Department for originally suggesting I write a
paper for the Royal Society, for materials he has supplied and for his continued interest in the Le Rossignol story. To Professor Margit Szöllözi-Janze,
University of Munich, for answering my many questions regarding her
biography of Haber. To the Le Rossignol family for fully engaging with this
xiv
Acknowledgements
proved a master …
It was clear that Le Rossignol had a profound influence on the evolution
of the ‘Haber process’, but I was amazed that, in my ‘previous life’, I had
never heard of this fellow ‘Brit’. Back home, an exhaustive search on the
Internet revealed an obituary of Le Rossignol written in 1977 by friend and
colleague Ralph Chirnside, but otherwise a dearth of biographical evidence.
Robert who? was clearly a question that needed attention. So, intrigued by the
lines from Charles’ book, and guided by Chirnside’s ‘road map’ to Le
Rossignol’s life, I embarked on a biographical Odyssey to find out more
of the man who helped create the most influential technology of the twentieth
century. My first acknowledgments are therefore to Daniel Charles and Ralph
Chirnside. Had I never encountered the work of the former, Le Rossignol’s
life would still be an enigma. Had I never encountered the work of the latter,
the biographical effort involved may well have been beyond me. For after only
a short time into my Odyssey, I realised that Le Rossignol had left little of
himself behind and that which was left was fragmented and widely distributed. Every new ‘nugget’ of information regarding this man had to be
‘hunted down’ down.
It follows, therefore, that this book would have been impossible for me to
write if it were not for the Internet and its ‘world wide web’ of accessible
digitised material. The various instantaneous communication systems of the
Internet allowed this ‘virgin’ biographer to effortlessly contact academics,
members of the public, libraries and archives, charities, newspapers, public
record offices and other concerned organisations, worldwide. The efforts of
thousands of workers in digitising billons of photographs, newspapers, scientific papers, textbooks, certificates of births, deaths and marriages and
compiling online resources such as ‘Wikipedia’, built an unparalleled digital
‘honey pot’, made sensible by the ‘search engines’, whose software ‘incisions’
cut through the ‘fog of big data’. My journey across the web introduced me
to many people, far too many to thank on an individual basis, but where their
efforts have resulted in an element included in the book, such as a photograph
or a letter, I have recorded this in the legend. Needless to say, many people
who have helped me will go unrecognised.
But others I can recognise. Thanks, therefore, go to Professor Alwyn
Davies FRS at UCL Chemistry Department for originally suggesting I write a
paper for the Royal Society, for materials he has supplied and for his continued interest in the Le Rossignol story. To Professor Margit Szöllözi-Janze,
University of Munich, for answering my many questions regarding her
biography of Haber. To the Le Rossignol family for fully engaging with this
xiv
Acknowledgements