Rosenhain Centenary Conference - Walter Rosenhain and materials research at Teddington

Abstract

At this Conference we aim to honour the memory of Walter Rosenhain who initiated formally the study of materials at the N.P.L. and we wish also to look forward by examining the contribution of scientific studies of the structure and constitution of materials to engineering practice. To produce an impact was one of Rosenhain’s aims and I have been told that the concept of such a Conference as this, and its method of organization, would have appealed to Rosenhain were he here. I have designed this written presentation, of which a shorter version will be presented at the Conference, to cover three themes. The first is that of Rosenhain the man and metallurgist and what he and his colleagues brought about. The second sketches the historical development of the scientific study of materials on the Teddington site and hence must touch upon the organization of this and with the growth of the Engineering Department at the N.P.L.— which gave rise to the National Engineering Laboratory; and with the story of the National Chemical Laboratory. The third part is very much a personal view and deals with the definition of a technologist. Several memoirs of Walter Rosenhain appeared shortly after his death on 17 March 1934; obituary notices in the Journal of the Institute of Metals (D.H. 1934); Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society 1932-35 (Desch 1934) and the Institute of Metals Autumn Lecture in 1934 delivered by Dr J. L. Haughton, one of his colleagues under the title ‘The work of Walter Rosenhain’ (Haughton 1934). Haughton’s account contains a list of all of Rosenhain’s published papers. A recent reappraisal of his work appeared in the Dictionary of scientific biography (Cahn 1975). I give the main facts concerning his life and the honours he received in Appendix 1.