Work
During school, Abegg fulfilled his duties in the military. In 1891, Abegg became an officer in the German Reserves. In 1900, he became an Oberleutnant in the Reserves in the 9th Regiment of Hussars. In this year, he made his first trip in a balloon, for military purposes. Balloon trips became a frequent pastime of both Abegg and his wife. He made many scientific observations in his subsequent trips, which were never published.
In 1894, Abegg worked as an assistant to Walther Nernst, one of the founders of physical chemistry and, at the time, Professor of Physical Chemistry. Five years later, Abegg became a Privatdozent at the Wrocław University of Technology in Wroclaw, Poland. A year later he became a professor. Clara Immerwahr, the first wife of Fritz Haber, studied and graduated under him. In 1909 he became a full professor. Together with his colleague Guido Bodländer, he published on electro-affinity, then a new principle in inorganic chemistry.
Abegg is best known for his research recognizing the role that valence played in chemical interactions. He found that some elements were less likely to combine into molecules, and from this concluded that the more stable elements had what are now called full electron shells. He was able to explain the attraction of atoms through opposite electrical charges. He also made the distinction between normal valence and contravalence. He found that the sum of these two valences always comes to eight, a rule that is now known as Abegg's rule.
Abegg was the editor of Zeitschrift fur Elektrochernie from 1901 until his death in 1910.
Read more about this topic: Richard Abegg
Famous quotes containing the word work:
“The dominant and most deep-dyed trait of the journalist is his timorousness. Where the novelist fearlessly plunges into the water of self-exposure, the journalist stands trembling on the shore in his beach robe.... The journalist confines himself to the clean, gentlemanly work of exposing the griefs and shames of others.”
—Janet Malcolm (b. 1934)
“Freedom of enterprise was from the beginning not altogether a blessing. As the liberty to work or to starve, it spelled toil, insecurity, and fear for the vast majority of the population. If the individual were no longer compelled to prove himself on the market, as a free economic subject, the disappearance of this freedom would be one of the greatest achievements of civilization.”
—Herbert Marcuse (1898–1979)
“... actresses require protection in their art from blind abuse, from savage criticism. Their work is their religion, if they are seeking the best in their art, and to abuse that faith is to rob them, to dishonor them.”
—Nance O’Neil (1874–1965)