1904

Biographical

William Ramsay was born in Glasgow on October 2, 1852, the son of William Ramsay, C.E. and Catherine, née Robertson. He was a nephew of the geologist, Sir Andrew Ramsay. Until 1870 he studied in his native town, following this with a period in Fittig’s laboratory at Tübingen until 1872. While there his thesis on…

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Award ceremony speech

Presentation Speech by Professor J.E. Cederblom, President of on December 10, 1904 Your Majesty, Your Royal Highnesses, Ladies and Gentlemen. One of the most prominent features of natural science research in our day is the reciprocal action characterizing physics and chemistry, causing an important discovery in one of these sciences almost invariably to affect the…

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Nobel Prize lecture

Nobel Lecture, December 12, 1904 The Rare Gases of the Atmosphere The discoveries which have gained for me the supreme honour of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry appear to me to have been the result of causes only partially within my control; and as it is one of the rules of the Academy, of which…

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Biographical

Frédéric Mistral (1830-1914) came from an old and well-to-do family of landowners that had settled in Provence in the sixteenth century. He was deeply influenced by his early years in the leisurely and patriarchal manor of his father. Mistral read law, but after taking his degree devoted himself entirely to writing poetry in Provençal, the…

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Biographical

José de Echegaray (1833-1916), son of a professor of Greek, was born in Madrid. He went to an engineering school, studied economics, and had a distinguished career in the Spanish Government. He was successively Minister of Public Works and Finance Minister. At the height of his career he turned to the stage, a passion that…

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Award ceremony speech

Presentation Speech by C.D. af Wirsén, Permanent Secretary of the on December 10, 1904 One sometimes hears it said that the Nobel Prizes should be awarded to authors still in the prime of life and consequently at the height of their development, in order to shelter them from material difficulties and assure them a wholly…

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