other new radioactive elements were in fact identical, all of which help lay the
foundations of the concept of isotopes later expounded by Frederick Soddy.
Whereas Hahn went on to become a giant in radio chemistry taking the
Nobel prize for chemistry in 1944, Sakur left to join Haber and died in an
explosion in the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin in 1915 (Chap. 13).
1.6 And Finally … Controversy at UCL
Robert’s chemistry education at UCL was of the highest standard, studying a
‘blue skies’ discipline under a Nobel laureate, in a laboratory internationally
renowned for practical innovation and learning, alongside others, many of
whom were to go on to achieve world wide scientific recognition themselves.
But his education also allowed him to experience a common consequence of
‘life at the top of the scientific tree’ … controversy. During Robert’s last years
at UCL, Ramsay became involved in what were to prove the thoroughly
discredited processes of extracting gold from sea water and then later the
‘transmutation’ of one element into another by purely chemical means.
Robert Le Rossignol was not involved in either of course, but he was able to
observe for the first time the significant consequences to one’s reputation of
getting things scientifically wrong.
Ramsay’s excursions into controversy began in 1905. His high standing in
scientific circles led to his unfortunate endorsement of the Industrial and
Engineering Trust Ltd., a corporation with a supposed secret process to extract
gold from sea water. The man behind the process was H. J. Snell, a
well-known stained glass and ceramic painter, playwright, songwriter, supposed ‘scientist ‘and inventor who had apparently made ‘experiments’ into
methods of extracting gold from seawater. He was a larger than life character.
The son of a gentleman’s servant, he was married to ‘the girl next door’ at
twenty-one, with whom he had seven children. He started the first of a string
of ‘creative’ businesses at the age of thirty-two and also wrote several books on
stained glass painting, together with many plays and books of poetry, which
can be found in the British Library’s rare books collection. Today it seems
utterly bizarre that a figure as eminent as Ramsay could associate himself with
—let alone endorse—the work of someone like Snell, but we have to
understand the conditions under which scientists such as Ramsay worked in
order to rationalise his behaviour. The days of government research grants
had not yet arrived, and unlike the German Universities, British counterparts
28
D. Sheppard
foundations of the concept of isotopes later expounded by Frederick Soddy.
Whereas Hahn went on to become a giant in radio chemistry taking the
Nobel prize for chemistry in 1944, Sakur left to join Haber and died in an
explosion in the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin in 1915 (Chap. 13).
1.6 And Finally … Controversy at UCL
Robert’s chemistry education at UCL was of the highest standard, studying a
‘blue skies’ discipline under a Nobel laureate, in a laboratory internationally
renowned for practical innovation and learning, alongside others, many of
whom were to go on to achieve world wide scientific recognition themselves.
But his education also allowed him to experience a common consequence of
‘life at the top of the scientific tree’ … controversy. During Robert’s last years
at UCL, Ramsay became involved in what were to prove the thoroughly
discredited processes of extracting gold from sea water and then later the
‘transmutation’ of one element into another by purely chemical means.
Robert Le Rossignol was not involved in either of course, but he was able to
observe for the first time the significant consequences to one’s reputation of
getting things scientifically wrong.
Ramsay’s excursions into controversy began in 1905. His high standing in
scientific circles led to his unfortunate endorsement of the Industrial and
Engineering Trust Ltd., a corporation with a supposed secret process to extract
gold from sea water. The man behind the process was H. J. Snell, a
well-known stained glass and ceramic painter, playwright, songwriter, supposed ‘scientist ‘and inventor who had apparently made ‘experiments’ into
methods of extracting gold from seawater. He was a larger than life character.
The son of a gentleman’s servant, he was married to ‘the girl next door’ at
twenty-one, with whom he had seven children. He started the first of a string
of ‘creative’ businesses at the age of thirty-two and also wrote several books on
stained glass painting, together with many plays and books of poetry, which
can be found in the British Library’s rare books collection. Today it seems
utterly bizarre that a figure as eminent as Ramsay could associate himself with
—let alone endorse—the work of someone like Snell, but we have to
understand the conditions under which scientists such as Ramsay worked in
order to rationalise his behaviour. The days of government research grants
had not yet arrived, and unlike the German Universities, British counterparts
28
D. Sheppard