duty of the family in responding to all requests for information, the
appearance of the Haber biographies, a number of BBC radio programs
(Chap. 13) and various articles describing Haber’s life, little has appeared
which has added to the public recognition of Robert Le Rossignol. And that
which has appeared is often misinformed. On Clement’s death in November
2014, the material collected by him passed to his next of kin. And there it
remains, like a latter-day sleeping King Arthur, awaiting the call of his
country. Well … perhaps.
18.12 A Lasting Legacy But a Life Forgotten
and a Story Abandoned
Robert Le Rossignol’s passing hardly caused a ripple of recognition amongst
the British chemical community at the time, yet his ground-breaking
experimentation and engineering at Karlsruhe helped change the world.
Haber’s theoretical contributions to the discovery of high-pressure fixation—
arguably one of few levels where he was involved ‘hands on’—were tested on
Robert’s work which in turn provided the template for a giant of industrial
chemistry and the evidence to support a Third Law of Thermodynamics.
Eventually, Robert’s work also played a part in four fellow scientists achieving
a Nobel Prize. In another life, his contribution(s) to thermionic technology
laid the foundations of today’s modern world of communication, and a
‘spin-off’ was the timely development and progression of ‘radar’, probably the
most important technology of the second world war. Yet, his whole life seems
to have been something of a paradox, because throughout all of this he has
remained anonymous, Today, the author of these lines knows of just one
memorial to Robert. Follow in his footsteps if you wish but you’ll find
nothing of Robert at 17 David Place, 7 St John’s Road, St Helier, Caesarea
Place and the Merlewood extension no longer exist, the latter being replaced
to make way for a new single-story wing in the 1990s. He has gone, taking his
secrets with him, leaving only a few fading memories amongst those who
knew him—and a legacy.
But for us chemists, what a legacy.
40 Those interested in what fixation has
achieved in the 100 or so years after the discovery of the technology need look
no further than Vaclav Smil’s book, ‘Enriching the Earth’ (Chap. 2). And
amazingly, hardly any of the chemistry involved has changed since Bosch and
Mittasch scaled up Le Rossignol’s pioneering engineering at Karlsruhe to
develop the huge plants at Oppau and Leuna—adding just one fundamental
18 Penn, Buckinghamshire 1949–1976
493
appearance of the Haber biographies, a number of BBC radio programs
(Chap. 13) and various articles describing Haber’s life, little has appeared
which has added to the public recognition of Robert Le Rossignol. And that
which has appeared is often misinformed. On Clement’s death in November
2014, the material collected by him passed to his next of kin. And there it
remains, like a latter-day sleeping King Arthur, awaiting the call of his
country. Well … perhaps.
18.12 A Lasting Legacy But a Life Forgotten
and a Story Abandoned
Robert Le Rossignol’s passing hardly caused a ripple of recognition amongst
the British chemical community at the time, yet his ground-breaking
experimentation and engineering at Karlsruhe helped change the world.
Haber’s theoretical contributions to the discovery of high-pressure fixation—
arguably one of few levels where he was involved ‘hands on’—were tested on
Robert’s work which in turn provided the template for a giant of industrial
chemistry and the evidence to support a Third Law of Thermodynamics.
Eventually, Robert’s work also played a part in four fellow scientists achieving
a Nobel Prize. In another life, his contribution(s) to thermionic technology
laid the foundations of today’s modern world of communication, and a
‘spin-off’ was the timely development and progression of ‘radar’, probably the
most important technology of the second world war. Yet, his whole life seems
to have been something of a paradox, because throughout all of this he has
remained anonymous, Today, the author of these lines knows of just one
memorial to Robert. Follow in his footsteps if you wish but you’ll find
nothing of Robert at 17 David Place, 7 St John’s Road, St Helier, Caesarea
Place and the Merlewood extension no longer exist, the latter being replaced
to make way for a new single-story wing in the 1990s. He has gone, taking his
secrets with him, leaving only a few fading memories amongst those who
knew him—and a legacy.
But for us chemists, what a legacy.
40 Those interested in what fixation has
achieved in the 100 or so years after the discovery of the technology need look
no further than Vaclav Smil’s book, ‘Enriching the Earth’ (Chap. 2). And
amazingly, hardly any of the chemistry involved has changed since Bosch and
Mittasch scaled up Le Rossignol’s pioneering engineering at Karlsruhe to
develop the huge plants at Oppau and Leuna—adding just one fundamental
18 Penn, Buckinghamshire 1949–1976
493