Notes
1. Jaenicke’s and Robert’s letters from this period and the transcript of their
conversation are held at the Max Planck Gesellschaft, Archiv der MPG, Va.
Abt., Rep. 0005, Fritz Haber. Haber Sammlung von Joh. Jaenicke. Nr.
253 (Jaenicke’s letters) and Nr. 1496 (conversation transcript).
2. One of the few references to the ‘Haber–Le Rossignol’ Process that ever
appeared in the literature, this one from Chirnside’s sensitive Obituary of
Robert. R. C. Chirnside, ‘Robert Le Rossignol, 1884–1976’, Chemistry in
Britain, 13, 269–271, (1977).
3. Dietrich Stoltzenberg, Fritz Haber. Chemist, Noble Laureate, German, Jew.
Chemical Heritage Press, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, (2004).
ISBN-0-941901-24-6.
4. Robert’s Obituary, Chirnside, op. cit. (note 2), was based upon a
tape-recorded interview Chirnside conducted with Robert on 29 March
1976, a few weeks before Robert died. A transcript of the interview remains
with the Le Rossignol family. Robert’s modest account of his time at UCL is
contained here.
5. Morris W. Travers, A Life of Sir William Ramsay K.C.B., F.R.S., Edward
Arnold London, (1956).
6. Science Museum at Wroughton, Swindon. UK. SN4 9LT. Inventory
number 1931–1158.
7. £100 from a private benefactor according to Travers, op. cit. (note 5).
8. Robert Whitehead was a brilliant Victorian engineer who, whilst honoured
by many countries world-wide, received little or no recognition from the land
of his birth. He was the world leader in torpedo development and production
up to the First World War.
9. At the time Fiume was part of Italy but now it belongs to Croatia.
10. Incidentally, the first one to be described in the scientific literature for liquefying hydrogen; Morris W. Travers, XXXVII ‘The liquefaction of hydrogen’. Philosophical Magazine, Ser 6, 1, 4, pp. 411–423, (1901). Liquefaction
of hydrogen had also been achieved by Sir James Dewar, however Dewar and
Ramsay were not on friendly terms at the time and there was no chance of
UCL ‘borrowing’ Dewar’s equipment. Travers’ apparatus was later donated
to the Science Museum, South Kensington, LONDON.
11. Gases such as nitrogen—the major constituent of air—cool upon expansion
at room temperature (a +ve Joule-Thompson effect) but hydrogen warms up
(a −ve Joule-Thompson effect). For hydrogen gas to cool upon expansion its
temperature must be below its pressure dependent inversion temperature T J-T
when internal interactions allow the gas to do work on expansion. This
requires pre-cooling of the gas to 78 K (about −195 °C) which the
vapourisation of the liquid air achieves.
106
D. Sheppard
1. Jaenicke’s and Robert’s letters from this period and the transcript of their
conversation are held at the Max Planck Gesellschaft, Archiv der MPG, Va.
Abt., Rep. 0005, Fritz Haber. Haber Sammlung von Joh. Jaenicke. Nr.
253 (Jaenicke’s letters) and Nr. 1496 (conversation transcript).
2. One of the few references to the ‘Haber–Le Rossignol’ Process that ever
appeared in the literature, this one from Chirnside’s sensitive Obituary of
Robert. R. C. Chirnside, ‘Robert Le Rossignol, 1884–1976’, Chemistry in
Britain, 13, 269–271, (1977).
3. Dietrich Stoltzenberg, Fritz Haber. Chemist, Noble Laureate, German, Jew.
Chemical Heritage Press, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, (2004).
ISBN-0-941901-24-6.
4. Robert’s Obituary, Chirnside, op. cit. (note 2), was based upon a
tape-recorded interview Chirnside conducted with Robert on 29 March
1976, a few weeks before Robert died. A transcript of the interview remains
with the Le Rossignol family. Robert’s modest account of his time at UCL is
contained here.
5. Morris W. Travers, A Life of Sir William Ramsay K.C.B., F.R.S., Edward
Arnold London, (1956).
6. Science Museum at Wroughton, Swindon. UK. SN4 9LT. Inventory
number 1931–1158.
7. £100 from a private benefactor according to Travers, op. cit. (note 5).
8. Robert Whitehead was a brilliant Victorian engineer who, whilst honoured
by many countries world-wide, received little or no recognition from the land
of his birth. He was the world leader in torpedo development and production
up to the First World War.
9. At the time Fiume was part of Italy but now it belongs to Croatia.
10. Incidentally, the first one to be described in the scientific literature for liquefying hydrogen; Morris W. Travers, XXXVII ‘The liquefaction of hydrogen’. Philosophical Magazine, Ser 6, 1, 4, pp. 411–423, (1901). Liquefaction
of hydrogen had also been achieved by Sir James Dewar, however Dewar and
Ramsay were not on friendly terms at the time and there was no chance of
UCL ‘borrowing’ Dewar’s equipment. Travers’ apparatus was later donated
to the Science Museum, South Kensington, LONDON.
11. Gases such as nitrogen—the major constituent of air—cool upon expansion
at room temperature (a +ve Joule-Thompson effect) but hydrogen warms up
(a −ve Joule-Thompson effect). For hydrogen gas to cool upon expansion its
temperature must be below its pressure dependent inversion temperature T J-T
when internal interactions allow the gas to do work on expansion. This
requires pre-cooling of the gas to 78 K (about −195 °C) which the
vapourisation of the liquid air achieves.
106
D. Sheppard