25. The VC i at the time showing Robert living at 7 St. John’s Road, Harrow, a
property that was to remain in the family certainly until the early 1950s.
26. The issue of 24 November 1900.
27. The phrase, ‘That Godless Institution in Gower Street …’ was coined by
Thomas Arnold describing the (then) ‘University of London’, established in
1826 but which later became UCL. It was ‘Godless’ because it was completely secular, no Minister of religion was allowed to sit on the College
Council.
28. Much of what follows is due to University College London from their
website at http://ucl.ac.uk/ramsay-trust/life. I am grateful for their permission
to reproduce it.
29. Morris W. Travers, A Life of Sir William Ramsay K.C.B., F.R.S., Edward
Arnold London, (1956).
30. C. T. Gimingham was a friend of Robert. The two men published this work
as; C. Le Rossignol and C. T. Gimingham, ‘The Rate of Decay of a Thorium
Emanation’. Phil. Magazine. ser. 6, 8, 43, 107–110, (1904), communicated
by Prof. F. T. Trouton, FRS. Unfortunately, Robert was attributed as ‘C. Le
Rossignol’. The Philosophical Magazine was the Journal of choice for many
notable scientists at the time. Le Rossignol and Gimingham therefore published alongside Lord Rayleigh, Ernest Rutherford, J. J. Thompson and
Trouton himself.
31. Robert’s success was reported in The Victorian, op. cit. (note 24), March
1906.
32. Reported as passing ‘in the first division’ from Victoria College according to
the local Jersey/Guernsey newspaper, ‘The Star’, on 20 July 1895.
33. England and Wales Probate Calendar for 1905 shows Austen left £164 5s.
2d., several times the average annual wage at the time.
34. Subsequently the Royal Institute of Chemistry and now the Royal Society of
Chemistry. He took the exams on 3–6 July 1906, as listed in; Proceedings of
the Institute of Chemistry of Great Britain and Ireland, 30, 29, (1906). His
address at the time was listed as 2 Caesarea Place, Jersey.
35. Jaenicke’s and Robert’s letters from this period and the transcript of their
conversation are held at the Max Planck Gesellschaft, Archiv der MPG, Va.
Abt., Rep. 0005, Fritz Haber. Haber Sammlung von Joh. Jaenicke. Nr.
253 (Jaenicke’s letters) and Nr. 1496 (conversation transcript). Jaenicke’s
English is often clumsy and I have had to interpret it as best I can. My thanks
to Berndt Hoffman at the MPG for providing the documentation by email,
(Mar–Apr 2013). See also Chap. 18. Page 2 of Jaenicke’s transcript records
Robert declaring; ‘I always was interested in mechanics …’. The same sentiment was expressed later in Robert’s 3-page hand-written account of his
career, supplied to me by Prof. Alwyn Davies, FRS, from the Archives at
UCL Chemistry Department. Here Robert says; ‘My aim when I came to the
College was to study under Prof. Ramsay and at the same time to learn as much as
1 Robert Le Rossignol
35
property that was to remain in the family certainly until the early 1950s.
26. The issue of 24 November 1900.
27. The phrase, ‘That Godless Institution in Gower Street …’ was coined by
Thomas Arnold describing the (then) ‘University of London’, established in
1826 but which later became UCL. It was ‘Godless’ because it was completely secular, no Minister of religion was allowed to sit on the College
Council.
28. Much of what follows is due to University College London from their
website at http://ucl.ac.uk/ramsay-trust/life. I am grateful for their permission
to reproduce it.
29. Morris W. Travers, A Life of Sir William Ramsay K.C.B., F.R.S., Edward
Arnold London, (1956).
30. C. T. Gimingham was a friend of Robert. The two men published this work
as; C. Le Rossignol and C. T. Gimingham, ‘The Rate of Decay of a Thorium
Emanation’. Phil. Magazine. ser. 6, 8, 43, 107–110, (1904), communicated
by Prof. F. T. Trouton, FRS. Unfortunately, Robert was attributed as ‘C. Le
Rossignol’. The Philosophical Magazine was the Journal of choice for many
notable scientists at the time. Le Rossignol and Gimingham therefore published alongside Lord Rayleigh, Ernest Rutherford, J. J. Thompson and
Trouton himself.
31. Robert’s success was reported in The Victorian, op. cit. (note 24), March
1906.
32. Reported as passing ‘in the first division’ from Victoria College according to
the local Jersey/Guernsey newspaper, ‘The Star’, on 20 July 1895.
33. England and Wales Probate Calendar for 1905 shows Austen left £164 5s.
2d., several times the average annual wage at the time.
34. Subsequently the Royal Institute of Chemistry and now the Royal Society of
Chemistry. He took the exams on 3–6 July 1906, as listed in; Proceedings of
the Institute of Chemistry of Great Britain and Ireland, 30, 29, (1906). His
address at the time was listed as 2 Caesarea Place, Jersey.
35. Jaenicke’s and Robert’s letters from this period and the transcript of their
conversation are held at the Max Planck Gesellschaft, Archiv der MPG, Va.
Abt., Rep. 0005, Fritz Haber. Haber Sammlung von Joh. Jaenicke. Nr.
253 (Jaenicke’s letters) and Nr. 1496 (conversation transcript). Jaenicke’s
English is often clumsy and I have had to interpret it as best I can. My thanks
to Berndt Hoffman at the MPG for providing the documentation by email,
(Mar–Apr 2013). See also Chap. 18. Page 2 of Jaenicke’s transcript records
Robert declaring; ‘I always was interested in mechanics …’. The same sentiment was expressed later in Robert’s 3-page hand-written account of his
career, supplied to me by Prof. Alwyn Davies, FRS, from the Archives at
UCL Chemistry Department. Here Robert says; ‘My aim when I came to the
College was to study under Prof. Ramsay and at the same time to learn as much as
1 Robert Le Rossignol
35