Preface
In the abstract to a recent paper for the Royal Society in London,
1 this author
described Le Rossignol’s long life in the following, ‘matter-of-fact’, terms.
In March 1908, the BASF at Ludwigshafen provided financial support to Fritz
Haber in his attempt to synthesise ammonia from the elements. The process that
now famously bears his name was demonstrated to BASF in July 1909. However,
its engineer was Haber’s private assistant, Robert Le Rossignol, a young British
chemist from the Channel Islands with whom Haber made a generous financial
arrangement regarding subsequent royalties. Le Rossignol left Haber in August
1909 as BASF began the industrialisation of their process, and took a consultancy
at the Osram works in Berlin. He was interned briefly during WWI before being
released to resume his occupation. His position eventually led to His Majesty’s
Government formulating a national policy regarding released British internees in
Germany. After the war, Le Rossignol spent his professional life at the GEC laboratories in the UK, first making fundamental contributions to the development of
high-power radio transmitting valves, then later developing smaller valves used as
mobile power sources in the airborne radars of WWII. Through his share of Haber’s
royalties, Le Rossignol became wealthy. In retirement, Le Rossignol and his wife
gave their money away to charitable causes.
As befits an abstract, such a description only provides the outline of the paper,
and although the body naturally continued to elaborate on many areas of Le
1
Deri Sheppard, ‘Robert Le Rossignol, 1884–1976; Engineer of the Haber Process’, Notes and
Records, 71, 3, 263–296, (September 2017). Published online, 25 January 2017. https://doi.org/
10.1098/rsnr.2016.0019.
ix
In the abstract to a recent paper for the Royal Society in London,
1 this author
described Le Rossignol’s long life in the following, ‘matter-of-fact’, terms.
In March 1908, the BASF at Ludwigshafen provided financial support to Fritz
Haber in his attempt to synthesise ammonia from the elements. The process that
now famously bears his name was demonstrated to BASF in July 1909. However,
its engineer was Haber’s private assistant, Robert Le Rossignol, a young British
chemist from the Channel Islands with whom Haber made a generous financial
arrangement regarding subsequent royalties. Le Rossignol left Haber in August
1909 as BASF began the industrialisation of their process, and took a consultancy
at the Osram works in Berlin. He was interned briefly during WWI before being
released to resume his occupation. His position eventually led to His Majesty’s
Government formulating a national policy regarding released British internees in
Germany. After the war, Le Rossignol spent his professional life at the GEC laboratories in the UK, first making fundamental contributions to the development of
high-power radio transmitting valves, then later developing smaller valves used as
mobile power sources in the airborne radars of WWII. Through his share of Haber’s
royalties, Le Rossignol became wealthy. In retirement, Le Rossignol and his wife
gave their money away to charitable causes.
As befits an abstract, such a description only provides the outline of the paper,
and although the body naturally continued to elaborate on many areas of Le
1
Deri Sheppard, ‘Robert Le Rossignol, 1884–1976; Engineer of the Haber Process’, Notes and
Records, 71, 3, 263–296, (September 2017). Published online, 25 January 2017. https://doi.org/
10.1098/rsnr.2016.0019.
ix