‘That’s not a problem!’ declared Nernst. Belittling Haber, he announced to
the audience, ‘You can do that in my apparatus, as much as you like!’.
Haber was taken aback by this jibe enquiring only, ‘Do your seals
31 permit
that?’ to which Nernst replied with confidence ‘Yes … why not?’ Haber
however, had realised that at the heart of Nernst’s attack was the question of
the accuracy of the ammonia determination at such a low pressure. With total
confidence in Robert’s ability he leapt to his defence.
‘Then I want to say the following. Being able to determine down to
one-hundredth of a milligram of ammonia through our titration method is
simply not a problem. The earlier difficulties emerged because such precise
measurements were not available to us.’
To Nernst this still wasn’t good enough and he now felt he had the upper
hand, so he summed up with a final cruel attack.
‘Then perhaps may I just note one fact that is of general technical interest.
It is regrettable that the equilibrium tends even more to the side of much
reduced formation [of ammonia] than has been assumed up to now because of
Haber’s highly erroneous
32 [previously published] data, for one could really
have thought of producing ammonia synthetically from hydrogen and
nitrogen. But in fact the conditions are even less favourable. The yields are
about one third of what was previously expected.’
Haber remained silent for the remainder of the session and the audience
was stunned at his public humiliation. In a charitable act, one which Haber’s
previous behaviour towards Le Blanc hardly deserved, Chairman Prof. Dr.
Le-Blanc moved to deflect the course of the discussion away from Haber
towards a more general appraisal of the ammonia synthesis. He enquired;
‘I have also seen, with some regret, that the gains become unfavourable at
high temperatures, for my laboratory is also busied with attempts to develop
ammonia, - but in different ways. Recently we worked with dark electric
discharges at high temperatures and the question now naturally arises whether
at these temperatures the discharge itself may have some influence. Is anything well known about that? Nernst however was not to be drawn to an area
where he had no experience simply declaring, ‘We did not work with electric
discharges’, and by failing to stimulate discussion in another direction, Le
Blanc probably felt that Haber had been humiliated enough. He drew the
session to a close noting that in view of the highly unfavourable equilibrium
ratios discussed, the fixation of nitrogen via this route was ‘doubtful’ and the
nitrogen-oxygen route may yet prove more successful.
Now Nernst’s outburst was really quite puzzling from a number of perspectives. Firstly, Haber had publicly withdrawn his old figures, and Robert’s
new figures were in better agreement with Nernst’s approximation formula
5 Hamburg, 12 May 1907
121
the audience, ‘You can do that in my apparatus, as much as you like!’.
Haber was taken aback by this jibe enquiring only, ‘Do your seals
31 permit
that?’ to which Nernst replied with confidence ‘Yes … why not?’ Haber
however, had realised that at the heart of Nernst’s attack was the question of
the accuracy of the ammonia determination at such a low pressure. With total
confidence in Robert’s ability he leapt to his defence.
‘Then I want to say the following. Being able to determine down to
one-hundredth of a milligram of ammonia through our titration method is
simply not a problem. The earlier difficulties emerged because such precise
measurements were not available to us.’
To Nernst this still wasn’t good enough and he now felt he had the upper
hand, so he summed up with a final cruel attack.
‘Then perhaps may I just note one fact that is of general technical interest.
It is regrettable that the equilibrium tends even more to the side of much
reduced formation [of ammonia] than has been assumed up to now because of
Haber’s highly erroneous
32 [previously published] data, for one could really
have thought of producing ammonia synthetically from hydrogen and
nitrogen. But in fact the conditions are even less favourable. The yields are
about one third of what was previously expected.’
Haber remained silent for the remainder of the session and the audience
was stunned at his public humiliation. In a charitable act, one which Haber’s
previous behaviour towards Le Blanc hardly deserved, Chairman Prof. Dr.
Le-Blanc moved to deflect the course of the discussion away from Haber
towards a more general appraisal of the ammonia synthesis. He enquired;
‘I have also seen, with some regret, that the gains become unfavourable at
high temperatures, for my laboratory is also busied with attempts to develop
ammonia, - but in different ways. Recently we worked with dark electric
discharges at high temperatures and the question now naturally arises whether
at these temperatures the discharge itself may have some influence. Is anything well known about that? Nernst however was not to be drawn to an area
where he had no experience simply declaring, ‘We did not work with electric
discharges’, and by failing to stimulate discussion in another direction, Le
Blanc probably felt that Haber had been humiliated enough. He drew the
session to a close noting that in view of the highly unfavourable equilibrium
ratios discussed, the fixation of nitrogen via this route was ‘doubtful’ and the
nitrogen-oxygen route may yet prove more successful.
Now Nernst’s outburst was really quite puzzling from a number of perspectives. Firstly, Haber had publicly withdrawn his old figures, and Robert’s
new figures were in better agreement with Nernst’s approximation formula
5 Hamburg, 12 May 1907
121