Siegfried Ruhemann (1859-1943), F.R.S. 1914-1923

Abstract

In October 1891 James Dewar, Jacksonian Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University of Cambridge, and Director of the Royal Institution in London, had printed for private circulation the correspondence relating to his attempt to secure the dismissal of his Assistant in Cambridge, Siegfried Ruhemann Ph.D. of Berlin University. There is a copy of this rare pamphlet of 58 pages in the Cambridge University Library (Cam. c . 891.12), and it is from this that the quotations are taken, unless otherwise attributed. When Dewar was elected to his chair in 1875, at the age of 33, he made clear that he would need an assistant to prepare his lecture demonstrations, and he brought with him from Edinburgh his 22-year old student assistant, Alexander Scott. In the following year Scott was awarded an exhibition which seems to have allowed him to enrol as an undergraduate while still working for Dewar. He obtained first-class honours in part I of the Natural Sciences Tripos and remained in his post until 1884, lecturing on organic and physical chemistry, and supervising advanced students in their first taste of research. After 12 years of very successful teaching at Durham School, Scott was called back by Dewar, this time to act as Superintendent of the Davy-Faraday laboratory which Ludwig Mond had established next door to the original Royal Institution. And here he stayed until 1911 when the managers, doubtless at Dewar’s instigation, terminated his appointment. The acrimony which attended the severance of this long association was typical of Dewar’s professional relationships; which brings us back to Siegfried Ruhemann.