Never-the-less, Haber’s lecture was reported widely including in the UK
when The Times carried a report of the talk entitled ‘The Synthetical
Production of Ammonia’, in their Engineering Supplement on 18 May 1910.
Much of the technical side of the process was reported including the temperatures, pressures, catalysts, cooling system, circulation process and yields—
which reached commercially appealing levels ‘upwards of 8%’. The article
also reported—probably for the first time—that Haber had conducted ‘a
series of experiments with the assistance of Mr R. Rossignol’, however there
was no mention of Robert’s nationality, the inference being that this was
probably a Franco-German collaboration. However, Robert was now ‘tagged’
to Haber and ‘fixation’ at a ‘popular’ as well as a scientific level. Because of the
continued secrecy and tensions at the Hochschule, Haber began to re-direct
his efforts towards other research areas, and over the months he gradually
became less and less attached to his chair at Karlsruhe. Haber however had
become a respected member of the Institute. His relationships with Bunte
and Engler were familiar and strong. Baden’s capital city too was quiet and
cosy, and one less ‘driven’ might well have accepted the crown of ‘Saviour’
and spent their remaining career there. But his ambition, along with matters
brewing in Berlin, were to decide his future for him. Haber was about to
enter a period of his life that was to define him to his own generation and of
many more to come - even down to those of today.
10.4 Of Koppel and the Kaiser
Unbeknown to Haber, the prospect of Berlin appeared just two months after
his talk at the Scientific Union, and its somewhat unexpected architect was
Adolf Von Harnack, a theologian and prominent church historian. Deeply
religious, but highly critical of conservative theology, von Harnack was
equally appreciative of the role of science in German life—even being elected
as a Member of the Academy of Sciences in 1890. It was as a distinguished
‘organiser of science’ that von Harnack was to unwittingly, but profoundly,
affect Haber’s life.
Von Harnack had been a close observer of the expansion of Imperial
Germany at the time, and had become increasingly concerned by its fragility.
Expansion he maintained, had to be driven by economic power, which in
turn depended on efficient and innovative industrial strength. As Germany
acquired political influence in Europe, so too her acquisition of overseas
territories made her an increasingly important player on the world stage, but
this in turn demanded a corresponding expansion in the German navy, one to
10 Of Koppel and the Kaiser
205
when The Times carried a report of the talk entitled ‘The Synthetical
Production of Ammonia’, in their Engineering Supplement on 18 May 1910.
Much of the technical side of the process was reported including the temperatures, pressures, catalysts, cooling system, circulation process and yields—
which reached commercially appealing levels ‘upwards of 8%’. The article
also reported—probably for the first time—that Haber had conducted ‘a
series of experiments with the assistance of Mr R. Rossignol’, however there
was no mention of Robert’s nationality, the inference being that this was
probably a Franco-German collaboration. However, Robert was now ‘tagged’
to Haber and ‘fixation’ at a ‘popular’ as well as a scientific level. Because of the
continued secrecy and tensions at the Hochschule, Haber began to re-direct
his efforts towards other research areas, and over the months he gradually
became less and less attached to his chair at Karlsruhe. Haber however had
become a respected member of the Institute. His relationships with Bunte
and Engler were familiar and strong. Baden’s capital city too was quiet and
cosy, and one less ‘driven’ might well have accepted the crown of ‘Saviour’
and spent their remaining career there. But his ambition, along with matters
brewing in Berlin, were to decide his future for him. Haber was about to
enter a period of his life that was to define him to his own generation and of
many more to come - even down to those of today.
10.4 Of Koppel and the Kaiser
Unbeknown to Haber, the prospect of Berlin appeared just two months after
his talk at the Scientific Union, and its somewhat unexpected architect was
Adolf Von Harnack, a theologian and prominent church historian. Deeply
religious, but highly critical of conservative theology, von Harnack was
equally appreciative of the role of science in German life—even being elected
as a Member of the Academy of Sciences in 1890. It was as a distinguished
‘organiser of science’ that von Harnack was to unwittingly, but profoundly,
affect Haber’s life.
Von Harnack had been a close observer of the expansion of Imperial
Germany at the time, and had become increasingly concerned by its fragility.
Expansion he maintained, had to be driven by economic power, which in
turn depended on efficient and innovative industrial strength. As Germany
acquired political influence in Europe, so too her acquisition of overseas
territories made her an increasingly important player on the world stage, but
this in turn demanded a corresponding expansion in the German navy, one to
10 Of Koppel and the Kaiser
205