identity. Clara eventually had to settle into the role of a professor’s wife but
their relationship was constantly troubled and in 1915 it all ended tragically.
2.9 Haber, the Eclectic Electrochemist
Soon after his marriage, Haber threw himself into his work with even more
vigour and his reputation grew. The next five years were the most productive
of his life both in terms of the number of his publications (over fifty
24
) and
the variety of topics studied. The extent to which he was becoming respected
within the German scientific community can be judged from the fact that he
was chosen by the Deutsche Bunsen Gesellschaft (the German Bunsen Society)
to be their delegate to the annual meeting of the American Electrochemical
Society in 1902, with a commission to report on chemical education and the
electrochemical industry in the USA. On 18 August Haber undertook a fully
funded sixteen-week tour. The Americans were impressed by Haber’s vitality,
and his subsequent report published in the Zeitschrift fϋr Elektochemie in 1903
was acclaimed both in Europe and the States, but some in America regarded
his trip as industrial espionage in that many things told to him in confidence
were disclosed. Haber was also building on the rigour he brought to his work,
developing a technique of criticism and suggestion that began to create for
him a reputation for solving problems and getting things done. It was precisely this kind of reputation that was soon to attract the best students to
Karlsruhe.
Haber’s work on nitrobenzene was followed by a number of other studies
viz., the electrolysis of hydrochloric acid, examination of the phenomenon of
‘Zerstäubung’ where large clouds of electrode metal suddenly appear at the
cathode, and the proposal of a general theory of irreversible and reversible
electrochemical reduction, the latter in terms of the quinone–quinol system
—simultaneously developing the theory of the quinhydrone electrode later
used by Einar Biilmann to determine hydrogen ion concentration, ‘pH’. Like
many other electrochemists of the period, Haber was also attracted to the
problem of ‘fuel’ cells where the current-producing process was provided by
the atmospheric oxidation of carbon or carbon monoxide at quite low temperatures. Fuel cells were revolutionary at the time for it was realised that
almost all of the ‘free energy’ of oxidation (i.e., the energy of the reaction
available to perform work) was accessible making the cells highly efficient.
Haber’s efforts here led not so much to the development of a practical fuel cell
but rather to the novel measurement of the ‘free energy of a number of
2 Fritz Haber and Karlsruhe
53
their relationship was constantly troubled and in 1915 it all ended tragically.
2.9 Haber, the Eclectic Electrochemist
Soon after his marriage, Haber threw himself into his work with even more
vigour and his reputation grew. The next five years were the most productive
of his life both in terms of the number of his publications (over fifty
24
) and
the variety of topics studied. The extent to which he was becoming respected
within the German scientific community can be judged from the fact that he
was chosen by the Deutsche Bunsen Gesellschaft (the German Bunsen Society)
to be their delegate to the annual meeting of the American Electrochemical
Society in 1902, with a commission to report on chemical education and the
electrochemical industry in the USA. On 18 August Haber undertook a fully
funded sixteen-week tour. The Americans were impressed by Haber’s vitality,
and his subsequent report published in the Zeitschrift fϋr Elektochemie in 1903
was acclaimed both in Europe and the States, but some in America regarded
his trip as industrial espionage in that many things told to him in confidence
were disclosed. Haber was also building on the rigour he brought to his work,
developing a technique of criticism and suggestion that began to create for
him a reputation for solving problems and getting things done. It was precisely this kind of reputation that was soon to attract the best students to
Karlsruhe.
Haber’s work on nitrobenzene was followed by a number of other studies
viz., the electrolysis of hydrochloric acid, examination of the phenomenon of
‘Zerstäubung’ where large clouds of electrode metal suddenly appear at the
cathode, and the proposal of a general theory of irreversible and reversible
electrochemical reduction, the latter in terms of the quinone–quinol system
—simultaneously developing the theory of the quinhydrone electrode later
used by Einar Biilmann to determine hydrogen ion concentration, ‘pH’. Like
many other electrochemists of the period, Haber was also attracted to the
problem of ‘fuel’ cells where the current-producing process was provided by
the atmospheric oxidation of carbon or carbon monoxide at quite low temperatures. Fuel cells were revolutionary at the time for it was realised that
almost all of the ‘free energy’ of oxidation (i.e., the energy of the reaction
available to perform work) was accessible making the cells highly efficient.
Haber’s efforts here led not so much to the development of a practical fuel cell
but rather to the novel measurement of the ‘free energy of a number of
2 Fritz Haber and Karlsruhe
53