The papers therefore described what was ostensibly a viable process and
with enough detail to allow a reconstruction by anyone interested in this most
important of industrial reactions. But its whole content was of course technically obsolete. With patents already granted, and progress on the industrialisation so far advanced, the BASF’s part in permitting publication can
only be seen as mischievous, designed to pacify Haber but to send any new
workers ‘off on the wrong path’. For those who wished to follow the path
however, the suggested sources of hydrogen (Chap. 8) would soon prove
uneconomic and often too ‘dirty’, the ‘contact’ substances described would be
unusable on an industrial scale, and the importance of the valves, the fragility
of the apparatus and the inevitability of ‘hydrogen attack’ would all have to be
discovered anew—and if they did so they would find the problems already
discovered and solutions patented.
Of course, at the time of their experiments none of these problems had
emerged, so for Haber and Robert the papers were still a true reflection of the
work they had conducted—although both knew that what they presented to
the world in 1913 was hardly ‘de rigueur’, but rather more ‘passé’. Even so,
just as at the Scientific Union meeting in 1910, interest was international and
immense. By the end of the year, Haber was to travel to Liverpool to address
the British Society of Chemical Industry and to provide the prestigious
Hurter Memorial Lecture
14 which he entitled ‘Modern Chemical Industry’.
For Robert, the 1913 papers together with Haber’s frequent, sincere and
public acknowledgement of his help, was to make his involvement in the
discovery of the technology internationally known. We know that Robert
kept reprints the paper (certainly the German language version) well into later
life as a testament of his work (Chap. 18), and on the rare occasions that he
mentioned this part of his life he did so with reference to this paper.
Eventually however, his expertise in the production of ammonia in Germany
was also to make him known to the Department of Munitions in the UK.
12.4 Life in Berlin, 1913
Unlike Sir William Ramsay, Haber often kept in touch with former colleagues and students, and as both he and Robert were working in Berlin, their
relationship was particularly close. Robert of course had been personal
assistant to Haber in Karlsruhe for some years and naturally remnants of this
relationship still existed, the two men often being in contact by telephone and
‘face to face’. The manifestation of this relationship can be seen in a letter
Robert wrote to an old Karlsruhe colleague
15 on behalf of Haber, to whom
12 Berlin 1911–1914
229
with enough detail to allow a reconstruction by anyone interested in this most
important of industrial reactions. But its whole content was of course technically obsolete. With patents already granted, and progress on the industrialisation so far advanced, the BASF’s part in permitting publication can
only be seen as mischievous, designed to pacify Haber but to send any new
workers ‘off on the wrong path’. For those who wished to follow the path
however, the suggested sources of hydrogen (Chap. 8) would soon prove
uneconomic and often too ‘dirty’, the ‘contact’ substances described would be
unusable on an industrial scale, and the importance of the valves, the fragility
of the apparatus and the inevitability of ‘hydrogen attack’ would all have to be
discovered anew—and if they did so they would find the problems already
discovered and solutions patented.
Of course, at the time of their experiments none of these problems had
emerged, so for Haber and Robert the papers were still a true reflection of the
work they had conducted—although both knew that what they presented to
the world in 1913 was hardly ‘de rigueur’, but rather more ‘passé’. Even so,
just as at the Scientific Union meeting in 1910, interest was international and
immense. By the end of the year, Haber was to travel to Liverpool to address
the British Society of Chemical Industry and to provide the prestigious
Hurter Memorial Lecture
14 which he entitled ‘Modern Chemical Industry’.
For Robert, the 1913 papers together with Haber’s frequent, sincere and
public acknowledgement of his help, was to make his involvement in the
discovery of the technology internationally known. We know that Robert
kept reprints the paper (certainly the German language version) well into later
life as a testament of his work (Chap. 18), and on the rare occasions that he
mentioned this part of his life he did so with reference to this paper.
Eventually however, his expertise in the production of ammonia in Germany
was also to make him known to the Department of Munitions in the UK.
12.4 Life in Berlin, 1913
Unlike Sir William Ramsay, Haber often kept in touch with former colleagues and students, and as both he and Robert were working in Berlin, their
relationship was particularly close. Robert of course had been personal
assistant to Haber in Karlsruhe for some years and naturally remnants of this
relationship still existed, the two men often being in contact by telephone and
‘face to face’. The manifestation of this relationship can be seen in a letter
Robert wrote to an old Karlsruhe colleague
15 on behalf of Haber, to whom
12 Berlin 1911–1914
229