Robert Le Rossignol

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Deri Sheppard was a Graduate of the Royal Institute of Chemistry (GradRIC), University of Salford, Manchester, UK (1970). He has a PhD (Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy), Department of Physical Chemistry, University College (Wales) Cardiff, UK (1974) and a Post Graduate Diploma in Computer Science (CNAA), Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Polytechnic of Wales, UK (1980). He has been a Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry (MRSC) and a Chartered Chemist (CChem) since 1979.

Part One: The true story of the discovery of 'fixation'.- Robert Le Rossignol The early years, Victoria College, UCL and Ramsay.-  Fritz Haber and Karlsruhe Breslau to Karlsruhe ...  an unexpected journey.- Germany and 'fixation' Of the 'Prussian', Chile, and 'fixed' nitrogen.- The Golden Chemist Robert's 'ammonia apprenticeship' at UCL.- Hamburg, May 12^th 1907 The Bunsen Society Meeting.- Determination of the ammonia equilibrium under pressure.- Taking care of business Haber's contracts with the BASF and Le Rossignol.- 8. The 'Big Fix' Synthetic ammonia at Karlsruhe.-  Part Two: The industrialisation of 'fixation' and the Great War.- The Auergesellschaft, Berlin Tungsten filaments and a pawn in a power game.- Of Koppel and the Kaiser Progress at the BASF, 'fixation' revealed, and the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute, Berlin.- From Karlsruhe to Oppau Industrialisation of the Haber-Le Rossignol process.- Berlin, 1911-1914 Of patents, publications and the prelude to the Great War.-  Haber and the 'Chemists'  War'. 1914-1918 Fixation' and gas warfare.- Robert's war. 1914-1918 Internment at Ruhleben, release to the 'Auer' and finally home.- Part Three: The GEC Laboratories, the second world war and retirement.- The Post-War Years, 1919-1930 Of airships, unfinished business from Germany and the GEC Laboratories.- The Post-War Years, 1930-1939 Of CATs, Cambridge and the BBC.- The Second World War and immediate post-war years. 1939-1949 Wembley at war, 'St Helier' and retirement.- Penn, Buckinghamshire. 1949-1976 Retirement years, 'coming out' and remarkable benevolence.- February 2012 A personal pilgrimage to Penn to meet with some who still remember the Le Rossignols.- End Notes and References.- Appendix A: Heat capacity and enthalpy.- Appendix B: The Third Law in action; thermodynamics of the n-butane to iso-butane isomerism.- Appendix C: The Nernst approximation formula.- Appendix D: The Haber(-Le Rossignol) equations 1907-1914.- Appendix E: Thermionic valves.- Appendix F: Robert Le Rossignol's patents. 1909-1956.

"Sheppard certainly has made a strong case for the vital part Le Rossignol played in this ground breaking discovery. ... While this book might seem like just one more telling of the nitrogen fixation discovery, the scientific and engineering detail separate this book from the crowd. I strongly recommend its purchase to anyone with a suitable technical background interested in seminal chemical discoveries." (E. Thomas Strom, Bulletin for the History of Chemistry, Vol. 46 (1), 2021)