28. But Haber’s approach to his work was to try and master a subject ‘overnight’.
He would work tirelessly absorbing the experience and knowledge of others
until he ‘got it’. Haber had barely set foot in physical chemistry, yet he was
prepared to take on the establishment and make his mark. Inexperienced or
not, his work on nitrobenzene was still being referenced almost 70 years later,
see for example Harwood, U.S. Patent No., 3,338,806, 1967.
29. ‘Professor’, but without a Chair, subordinate to the main professor who runs
the department.
30. ‘Immerwahr’ (roughly) translates literally to ‘always true’. This may not have
been the case for Haber however, see for example D. Sheppard, ‘Haber’s
legacy’, Letters, Chemistry World, 5, 11, 34, (2008).
31. The same kind of marriages were also common to Jersey’s elite families.
S. J. Le Rossignol, Historical Notes (Local and General) with special reference to
the Le Rossignol Family (and its connections in Jersey), Trowbridge, (1917)
shows that down the years the Le Rossignol family bonded in the same way.
32. From Stoltzenberg, op. cit. (note 6), p. 174, although see Charles, op. cit.
(note 6), p. 51, who has a slightly different version.
33. Passivity, an element’s tendency to become un-reactive often due to the
formation of a tight (oxide) layer that protects it. Coates, op. cit. (note 1),
p. 1649, describes Haber’s explanation of iron’s passivity in detail.
34. ‘Thermodynamics of Technical Gas Reactions’. By the term ‘Technical’ Haber
was referring the technical realisation of a gas reaction through chemical
technology or engineering. Published in 1907, the whole book is now out of
copyright but is currently available ‘on-line’ in English and PDF format from
the internet archive at the University of California Digital Library;
http://www.archive.org/details/thermodynamicsof00haberich, (also note 43).
35. Even though Haber had pointed out to the brothers the low cost of obtaining
ammonia as a by-product from coking plants.
36. W. Ramsay and S. Young, Decomposition of Ammonia by Heat, Trans.
Chem. Soc., 45, 88, (1884).
37. By performing the decomposition first, the tiny amount of ammonia left
guaranteed that a virtually stoichiometric ratio of 3H 2(g) :1N 2(g) entered the
second tube. The importance of this ratio in maximising the yield of
ammonia was later established by Haber in his ‘The Thermodynamics of
Technical Gas Reactions’, Haber, op. cit. (note 34).
38. See Chap. 3, Ostwald was already well aware of this problem but he did not
communicate it to Haber.
39. Haber made this point in his Nobel acceptance speech in 1920 … “it needed
only a slight modification of the pressure oven, such as that used by Walther
Hempel 15 years earlier to carry out nitrogen absorption in the case of indirect
ammonia synthesis under pressure of up to 66 atmospheres. But I did not think it
worth the trouble …”. Fritz Haber, Nobel Lecture 2 June 1920; ‘Fritz Haber
—Nobel Lecture: The Synthesis of Ammonia from Its Elements’. Nobelprize.
74
D. Sheppard
He would work tirelessly absorbing the experience and knowledge of others
until he ‘got it’. Haber had barely set foot in physical chemistry, yet he was
prepared to take on the establishment and make his mark. Inexperienced or
not, his work on nitrobenzene was still being referenced almost 70 years later,
see for example Harwood, U.S. Patent No., 3,338,806, 1967.
29. ‘Professor’, but without a Chair, subordinate to the main professor who runs
the department.
30. ‘Immerwahr’ (roughly) translates literally to ‘always true’. This may not have
been the case for Haber however, see for example D. Sheppard, ‘Haber’s
legacy’, Letters, Chemistry World, 5, 11, 34, (2008).
31. The same kind of marriages were also common to Jersey’s elite families.
S. J. Le Rossignol, Historical Notes (Local and General) with special reference to
the Le Rossignol Family (and its connections in Jersey), Trowbridge, (1917)
shows that down the years the Le Rossignol family bonded in the same way.
32. From Stoltzenberg, op. cit. (note 6), p. 174, although see Charles, op. cit.
(note 6), p. 51, who has a slightly different version.
33. Passivity, an element’s tendency to become un-reactive often due to the
formation of a tight (oxide) layer that protects it. Coates, op. cit. (note 1),
p. 1649, describes Haber’s explanation of iron’s passivity in detail.
34. ‘Thermodynamics of Technical Gas Reactions’. By the term ‘Technical’ Haber
was referring the technical realisation of a gas reaction through chemical
technology or engineering. Published in 1907, the whole book is now out of
copyright but is currently available ‘on-line’ in English and PDF format from
the internet archive at the University of California Digital Library;
http://www.archive.org/details/thermodynamicsof00haberich, (also note 43).
35. Even though Haber had pointed out to the brothers the low cost of obtaining
ammonia as a by-product from coking plants.
36. W. Ramsay and S. Young, Decomposition of Ammonia by Heat, Trans.
Chem. Soc., 45, 88, (1884).
37. By performing the decomposition first, the tiny amount of ammonia left
guaranteed that a virtually stoichiometric ratio of 3H 2(g) :1N 2(g) entered the
second tube. The importance of this ratio in maximising the yield of
ammonia was later established by Haber in his ‘The Thermodynamics of
Technical Gas Reactions’, Haber, op. cit. (note 34).
38. See Chap. 3, Ostwald was already well aware of this problem but he did not
communicate it to Haber.
39. Haber made this point in his Nobel acceptance speech in 1920 … “it needed
only a slight modification of the pressure oven, such as that used by Walther
Hempel 15 years earlier to carry out nitrogen absorption in the case of indirect
ammonia synthesis under pressure of up to 66 atmospheres. But I did not think it
worth the trouble …”. Fritz Haber, Nobel Lecture 2 June 1920; ‘Fritz Haber
—Nobel Lecture: The Synthesis of Ammonia from Its Elements’. Nobelprize.
74
D. Sheppard