Ramsay was the charismatic head of Chemistry at UCL.
28 Born in Glasgow
on 02 October 1852, he was a nephew of the geologist, Sir Andrew Ramsay
and until 1870 he studied in his native town. But his love of travelling and
languages eventually led him to Professor Rudolf Fittig’s laboratory at
Tübingen, Germany. While there, his thesis on orthotoluic acid and its
derivatives earned him his Ph.D. and on his return to Scotland in 1872 he
became assistant in chemistry at the Anderson College in Glasgow, two years
later securing a similar position at the University there. In 1880 he was
appointed Principal and Professor of Chemistry at University College, Bristol,
and in 1887 moved on to the Chair of Inorganic Chemistry at University
College London. Ramsay was an accomplished pianist, composer, and poet
but above all he was an outstanding experimentalist. He was a chain smoker
too, rolling his own cigarettes—machine-made ones were unworthy of an
experimentalist—he fashioned his own glass cigarette holders and he kept a
platinum spatula on his watch chain to examine his students’ precipitates!
Ramsay’s earliest works were in the field of organic chemistry. It was
however in inorganic chemistry that his most celebrated discoveries were
made. As early as 1885–1890 he published several notable papers on the
oxides of nitrogen and followed those with the discovery of argon, helium,
neon, krypton, and xenon. Yet another discovery of Ramsay’s, in conjunction
with Professor Frederick Soddy the importance of which it was impossible to
foresee, was the detection of helium in the emanations of radium (1903). In
1904, and during Robert’s stay at UCL, Ramsay was awarded the Nobel Prize
in Chemistry ‘for his discovery of the inert gaseous elements in air, and his
determination of their place in the Periodic system’. As a result, Ramsay
became a considerable celebrity in London and was cartooned both by ‘Spy’
for Vanity Fair and by Henry Tonks, Head of UCL’s Slade School of Art. But
in time, he had his Nobel medals melted down and the proceeds given to
charity, what has been treasured at UCL during the years are therefore merely
duplicates (Plate 1.6).
Prior to his move to the University of London Ramsay had left a small
modern and well-equipped laboratory in Bristol where he had begun to build
up a research group. Student numbers were modest, around a dozen. In
London he had a larger but inferior laboratory where none of the staff were
engaged in research and where student numbers approached fifty. Teaching
was therefore more limited and what was possible in Bristol did not translate
to London. Even so, Ramsay expected his students to know what he was
doing, setting scholarship examination questions such as; ‘Describe what you
know of any researches in progress in this laboratory’. When in London he
toured the laboratories trying to see everyone every day.
1 Robert Le Rossignol
17
28 Born in Glasgow
on 02 October 1852, he was a nephew of the geologist, Sir Andrew Ramsay
and until 1870 he studied in his native town. But his love of travelling and
languages eventually led him to Professor Rudolf Fittig’s laboratory at
Tübingen, Germany. While there, his thesis on orthotoluic acid and its
derivatives earned him his Ph.D. and on his return to Scotland in 1872 he
became assistant in chemistry at the Anderson College in Glasgow, two years
later securing a similar position at the University there. In 1880 he was
appointed Principal and Professor of Chemistry at University College, Bristol,
and in 1887 moved on to the Chair of Inorganic Chemistry at University
College London. Ramsay was an accomplished pianist, composer, and poet
but above all he was an outstanding experimentalist. He was a chain smoker
too, rolling his own cigarettes—machine-made ones were unworthy of an
experimentalist—he fashioned his own glass cigarette holders and he kept a
platinum spatula on his watch chain to examine his students’ precipitates!
Ramsay’s earliest works were in the field of organic chemistry. It was
however in inorganic chemistry that his most celebrated discoveries were
made. As early as 1885–1890 he published several notable papers on the
oxides of nitrogen and followed those with the discovery of argon, helium,
neon, krypton, and xenon. Yet another discovery of Ramsay’s, in conjunction
with Professor Frederick Soddy the importance of which it was impossible to
foresee, was the detection of helium in the emanations of radium (1903). In
1904, and during Robert’s stay at UCL, Ramsay was awarded the Nobel Prize
in Chemistry ‘for his discovery of the inert gaseous elements in air, and his
determination of their place in the Periodic system’. As a result, Ramsay
became a considerable celebrity in London and was cartooned both by ‘Spy’
for Vanity Fair and by Henry Tonks, Head of UCL’s Slade School of Art. But
in time, he had his Nobel medals melted down and the proceeds given to
charity, what has been treasured at UCL during the years are therefore merely
duplicates (Plate 1.6).
Prior to his move to the University of London Ramsay had left a small
modern and well-equipped laboratory in Bristol where he had begun to build
up a research group. Student numbers were modest, around a dozen. In
London he had a larger but inferior laboratory where none of the staff were
engaged in research and where student numbers approached fifty. Teaching
was therefore more limited and what was possible in Bristol did not translate
to London. Even so, Ramsay expected his students to know what he was
doing, setting scholarship examination questions such as; ‘Describe what you
know of any researches in progress in this laboratory’. When in London he
toured the laboratories trying to see everyone every day.
1 Robert Le Rossignol
17