the invention and development of chemical high-pressure methods.’ At the
award ceremony on 10 December 1931, the debt these men owed to the
pioneering work ‘of Haber’ at Karlsruhe was mentioned during the speech by
Professor W. Palmær, Member of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry
2 ;
When Haber, in 1908, approached Germany’s then largest concern in the
field of the chemical industry, namely the Badische Anilin und Sodafabrik
… in order to try to interest them in producing ammonia by the direct
combination of its components, the gases nitrogen and hydrogen, he was
able to point out that he had succeeded in finding two substances … which
acted as powerful … catalysts … to such an extent that, with the help of
pressure, a practical exploitation … was now conceivable as a means of
producing ammonia … from the nitrogen in the air. In this case … pressure
promotes the change to a very great extent … By taking this step, Haber
had given rise to a new method … for which he has already been rewarded
by the Nobel Prize for Chemistry.
At the banquet that evening, neither Bosch nor Bergius mentioned Haber in
their speeches, but both did so later in their subsequent Nobel lectures.
3 With
the award of these prizes, the Academy felt that all the founding fathers of high
pressure chemistry had now been recognised, and that it had also moved
somewhat to atone for the way it had conducted itself over the universally
discredited award to Haber in 1919. For Robert too these awards signified a
closure. Over the years of course, and especially in Germany according to
Jaenicke (Chap. 18), his name had become famous, not for fixation, but for the
‘Rossignol-ventil’ (Rossignol-valve), a piece of ‘classic kit’ familiar to generations
of chemists even though—like the author of these lines—they were not always
familiar with its provenance. But during Robert’s life, no-one ever bothered to
do the ‘joined-up thinking‘ and connect the valve to the birth of high pressure
chemistry. So, despite his profound contribution, with the recognition of Bosch
and Bergius he later told Jaenicke (Chap. 8) that he had come to accept that, ‘my
name will not be remembered for big things.’ And ‘big things’ were certainly
being addressed here, for when Palmær summed up his speech he said;
… two problems of the utmost significance to humanity have been resolved
by the chemical high-pressure methods … nitrogen [has been] made
available to mankind in inexhaustible quantities, in a form suitable for
agriculture …[and] … by the injection of hydrogen under pressure, pit coal,
brown coal, and other carbon-bearing materials can be processed to liquid
fuels which are considered indispensable in modern life for the propulsion
of ships and vehicles.
2
366
D. Sheppard
award ceremony on 10 December 1931, the debt these men owed to the
pioneering work ‘of Haber’ at Karlsruhe was mentioned during the speech by
Professor W. Palmær, Member of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry
2 ;
When Haber, in 1908, approached Germany’s then largest concern in the
field of the chemical industry, namely the Badische Anilin und Sodafabrik
… in order to try to interest them in producing ammonia by the direct
combination of its components, the gases nitrogen and hydrogen, he was
able to point out that he had succeeded in finding two substances … which
acted as powerful … catalysts … to such an extent that, with the help of
pressure, a practical exploitation … was now conceivable as a means of
producing ammonia … from the nitrogen in the air. In this case … pressure
promotes the change to a very great extent … By taking this step, Haber
had given rise to a new method … for which he has already been rewarded
by the Nobel Prize for Chemistry.
At the banquet that evening, neither Bosch nor Bergius mentioned Haber in
their speeches, but both did so later in their subsequent Nobel lectures.
3 With
the award of these prizes, the Academy felt that all the founding fathers of high
pressure chemistry had now been recognised, and that it had also moved
somewhat to atone for the way it had conducted itself over the universally
discredited award to Haber in 1919. For Robert too these awards signified a
closure. Over the years of course, and especially in Germany according to
Jaenicke (Chap. 18), his name had become famous, not for fixation, but for the
‘Rossignol-ventil’ (Rossignol-valve), a piece of ‘classic kit’ familiar to generations
of chemists even though—like the author of these lines—they were not always
familiar with its provenance. But during Robert’s life, no-one ever bothered to
do the ‘joined-up thinking‘ and connect the valve to the birth of high pressure
chemistry. So, despite his profound contribution, with the recognition of Bosch
and Bergius he later told Jaenicke (Chap. 8) that he had come to accept that, ‘my
name will not be remembered for big things.’ And ‘big things’ were certainly
being addressed here, for when Palmær summed up his speech he said;
… two problems of the utmost significance to humanity have been resolved
by the chemical high-pressure methods … nitrogen [has been] made
available to mankind in inexhaustible quantities, in a form suitable for
agriculture …[and] … by the injection of hydrogen under pressure, pit coal,
brown coal, and other carbon-bearing materials can be processed to liquid
fuels which are considered indispensable in modern life for the propulsion
of ships and vehicles.
2
366
D. Sheppard