was uncomfortable for everyone present, but equally Haber would often bring
students home at very inconvenient times for Clara and that may well have
contributed to her lack of commitment to her guests. Robert also remembered that when they were first engaged, they often ‘walked out’ together, but
after their marriage Haber ‘forgot his bride’, so even as early as 1906, all of
this was taking its toll. Robert had also seen a photograph of Clara when she
was young (possibly Plate 2.1) she was as ‘pretty as a picture’, but now he
hardly recognised the lady he met, and of Clara’s depression, Robert says he
‘knew nothing’.
52
Like Coates, Robert also recalls many walks with Haber into the Black
Forest. There were often lots of people on these trips, sometimes there was
‘tom-foolery’—Robert once recalling someone ‘mimicking’ Bunte—and there
were always lots of speeches but with Haber monopolising the whole event.
Robert also supports Coates’ opinion of Haber’s laboratory skills … ‘he was
not a good experimentalist’. Robert said, ‘we used to laugh … he could be just
doing something and it would go off with a bang!!’
52 But Haber could sometimes become angry with his students, Robert recalls a time when he asked a
group about ‘Ohmsche Gesetz’ (Ohm’s Law). ‘Nobody knew what it was, I
was there just as a witness’, but Haber said furiously ‘I never take any people
until they can answer these questions!’
52 But such was Haber, sometimes a
storm, sometimes a sunbeam.
After just a few months in the Hochschule, Robert’s standing and his
command of the German language
57 were well enough regarded by Haber for
the ‘great man’ to ask him to contribute to Lamb’s translation of his internationally acclaimed book on technical gas reactions,
34
—an accolade in itself.
Eventually published in October 1907, his translation of the Appendix to
Chap. 5 (Some examples of reactions involving a change in the number of
molecules) was acknowledged by Lamb in the Translator’s Preface, so even in
this short period of time Robert had clearly made an impact. And of all the
capable physical chemists at Karlsruhe it was Robert who Haber ‘asked’
54 to
work with him and eventually contribute to his ‘Magnum Opus’ viz, a
successful solution to the problem of the ‘fixation’ of nitrogen. But why was
‘fixation’ so important to Germany, and why was Robert so well suited to help
achieve it? We pursue these questions in Chaps. 3 and 4.
70
D. Sheppard
students home at very inconvenient times for Clara and that may well have
contributed to her lack of commitment to her guests. Robert also remembered that when they were first engaged, they often ‘walked out’ together, but
after their marriage Haber ‘forgot his bride’, so even as early as 1906, all of
this was taking its toll. Robert had also seen a photograph of Clara when she
was young (possibly Plate 2.1) she was as ‘pretty as a picture’, but now he
hardly recognised the lady he met, and of Clara’s depression, Robert says he
‘knew nothing’.
52
Like Coates, Robert also recalls many walks with Haber into the Black
Forest. There were often lots of people on these trips, sometimes there was
‘tom-foolery’—Robert once recalling someone ‘mimicking’ Bunte—and there
were always lots of speeches but with Haber monopolising the whole event.
Robert also supports Coates’ opinion of Haber’s laboratory skills … ‘he was
not a good experimentalist’. Robert said, ‘we used to laugh … he could be just
doing something and it would go off with a bang!!’
52 But Haber could sometimes become angry with his students, Robert recalls a time when he asked a
group about ‘Ohmsche Gesetz’ (Ohm’s Law). ‘Nobody knew what it was, I
was there just as a witness’, but Haber said furiously ‘I never take any people
until they can answer these questions!’
52 But such was Haber, sometimes a
storm, sometimes a sunbeam.
After just a few months in the Hochschule, Robert’s standing and his
command of the German language
57 were well enough regarded by Haber for
the ‘great man’ to ask him to contribute to Lamb’s translation of his internationally acclaimed book on technical gas reactions,
34
—an accolade in itself.
Eventually published in October 1907, his translation of the Appendix to
Chap. 5 (Some examples of reactions involving a change in the number of
molecules) was acknowledged by Lamb in the Translator’s Preface, so even in
this short period of time Robert had clearly made an impact. And of all the
capable physical chemists at Karlsruhe it was Robert who Haber ‘asked’
54 to
work with him and eventually contribute to his ‘Magnum Opus’ viz, a
successful solution to the problem of the ‘fixation’ of nitrogen. But why was
‘fixation’ so important to Germany, and why was Robert so well suited to help
achieve it? We pursue these questions in Chaps. 3 and 4.
70
D. Sheppard