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:
“Never can the innate power of a work be hidden or locked away. A work of art can be forgotten by time; it can be forbidden and rejected but the elemental will always prevail over the ephemeral.”
—Stefan Zweig (18811942)
“... in love, barriers cannot be destroyed from the outside by the one to whom the cause despair, no matter what he does; and it is only when he is no longer concerned with them that, suddenly, as a result of work coming from elsewhere, accomplished within the one who did not love him, these barriers, formerly attacked without success, fall futilely.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)
“I pray every single second of my life; not on my knees, but with my work. My prayer is to lift woman to equality with man. Work and worship are one with me. I can not imagine a God of the universe made happy by my getting down on my knees and calling him “great.””
—Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906)