Robert Le Rossignol

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 12th 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)