Robert Le Rossignol (27 April 1884 – 26 June 1976) was a British chemist. He is most known for his work with

Fritz Haber Fritz Jakob Haber (; 9 December 1868 – 29 January 1934) was a German chemist who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918 for his invention of the Haber process, a method used in industry to synthesize ammonia from nitrogen gas and hydrog ...

on the fixation of nitrogen from atmospheric air, the

Haber process The Haber process, also called the Haber–Bosch process, is the main industrial procedure for the ammonia production, production of ammonia. It converts atmospheric nitrogen (N2) to ammonia (NH3) by a reaction with hydrogen (H2) using finely di ...

. He was born in

Saint Helier St Helier (; Jèrriais: ; ) is the Capital city, capital of Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands in the English Channel. It is the most populous of the twelve parishes of Jersey, with a population of 35,822, over one-third of the island' ...

Jersey Jersey ( ; ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey, is an autonomous and self-governing island territory of the British Islands. Although as a British Crown Dependency it is not a sovereign state, it has its own distinguishing civil and gov ...

Channel Islands The Channel Islands are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They are divided into two Crown Dependencies: the Jersey, Bailiwick of Jersey, which is the largest of the islands; and the Bailiwick of Guernsey, ...

, and attended school there. He matriculated from the University of London in 1901 and graduated from

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

in 1905 where he remained, becoming a member of the Institute of Chemistry of Great Britain and a Fellow of the

Chemical Society of London The Chemical Society was a scientific society formed in 1841 (then named the Chemical Society of London) by 77 scientists as a result of increased interest in scientific matters. Chemist Robert Warington was the driving force behind its creation. ...

. In 1908–1909, he worked with

in Germany on the difficult problem of demonstrating ammonia synthesis from air, eventually producing a tabletop apparatus that worked at 200 atmospheres pressure. Haber was awarded the

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...

for his discovery that virtually "made bread from the air" and recognized the assistance he'd received from Le Rossignol, whose name appears on Haber's patents for the process. He was interned in Germany in 1914 at the outbreak of the first World War, but was released to work for the

Auergesellschaft The industrial firm ''Auergesellschaft'' was founded in 1892 with headquarters in Berlin. Up to the end of World War II, ''Auergesellschaft'' had manufacturing and research activities in the areas of gas mantles, luminescence, rare earths, radioa ...

during the war.Dietrich Stoltzenberg, ''Fritz Haber: Chemist, Nobel Laureate, German, Jew'' Chemical Heritage Foundation, 2004, , page 63 He returned to the UK after the war. He joined the

General Electric Company The General Electric Company (GEC) was a major British industrial conglomerate involved in consumer and Arms industry, defence electronics, communications, and engineering. It was originally founded in 1886 as G. Binswanger and Company as an e ...

(UK) research laboratory, where he remained for the rest of his career, working on

thermionic valves A vacuum tube, electron tube, thermionic valve (British usage), or tube (North America) is a device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to which an electric potential difference has been applied. It takes th ...

. He lived in

Penn, Buckinghamshire Penn is a village and civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England, about north-west of Beaconsfield and east of High Wycombe. The parish's cover Penn village and the hamlets of Penn Street, Knotty Green, Forty Green and Winchmore Hill. The po ...

and was a noted philanthropist using the royalty income he received from the Haber patent. His two sons were both killed during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

References

British chemists People from Saint Helier 1884 births 1976 deaths Alumni of University College London {{UK-scientist-stub