Good publicity for Wilhelm
Ostwald
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Scientific/Historical Traveling
“Traveling with the Atom:
Completing the Story”
Exploratory Trip to Warsaw, Berlin, Leipzig, and St. Petersburg May-June 2003 |
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This is a brief
report about an exploratory scientific traveling trip to Warsaw, Berlin,
Leipzig, and St. Petersburg from May 19 to June 11, 2003. Dr. Antoni Moskwa was my traveling
companion while we were visiting Poland and Russia. (Dr. Moskwa is a Professor of Economics at
Allegheny College and a native of Poland.)
My daughter Jennifer Rodgers traveled with me while visiting Berlin,
Leipzig, Grossbothen, Freiberg, and Dresden. |
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May 27, 2003 (Grossbothen, about 20
miles southwest of Leipzig) After
checking into the Leipzig International Youth Hostel and exploring that city
for a day (the 8th annual Bach Fest was in full swing), Jen and I
set out for the Wilhelm-Ostwald-House called “Energy”. This was Ostwald’s
residence and includes his original furniture, artistic paintings, library,
and laboratory with self-constructed apparatus, experimental data notes and
manuscripts. Ostwald is considered to
be one of the founders of the sub-discipline of physical chemistry. He was particularly important in establishing
the field of catalysis for which he was awarded the 1909 Nobel Prize in
Chemistry. Interestingly, for much of
his professional life, he refused to accept atomic theory as anything but a
convenient fiction. We were hosted here by Dr. Karl Hansel and Anna-Elisabeth
Hansel. This house and its environs is
a thoroughly intriguing scientific traveling site in a very small German
town. In addition to the main house,
there is the recently renovated “Werk” house completely set up for speakers,
seminars, dining, etc. as well as the “Gluckauf” house set up as guest
quarters. We should look into the
possibility of the study tour group staying in these facilities. The old Saxon city of Dresden is not many
miles to the east by autobahn. The old
town area by the Elbe River is a wonderful place for students to wander
around for several hours or more. |
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You’ll find all
the text under: |
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March, 2nd 2005: |
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“Hello Ralf, |
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Recently we heard that the Saxony district
had withdrawn all funding from the institute and that concerns us. Dr.
Ensberg and I are in the process of sending a letter of protest to the
Finance Minister of the state of Saxony. You might be interested in sending a
letter as well. |
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Best regards, |
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Dr. Glen E. Rodgers |
