"Ludwig Mond, F. R. S., 1839-1909," : a lecture / by F.G. Donnan.

  • Donnan, F. G. (Frederick George), 1870-1956.
Date:
1939
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: "Ludwig Mond, F. R. S., 1839-1909," : a lecture / by F.G. Donnan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    company to reduce the hours of work from 12 to 8, and to give an annual week’s holiday with full pay to all who deserved it. They took care that their people were decently housed, and provided with recreation clubs and sports fields. No wonder that Mond was both loved and respected by his men. In his Memoir published in the Journal of the Chemical Society, John I. Watts relates the following incident about him:—“During his absence in Rome in 1903, a report reached England that he had died, and obituary notices appeared in some of the papers. The news was quickly shown to be false and, on his next visit to Winnington, the workpeople met him in a torchlight procession, presented an illuminated address of welcome, and made Winning- ton Park gay with fireworks.” I had not the privilege of knowing Ludwig Mond, but, at the meeting of the British Association at Liverpool in 1896, I heard him give his Presidential address to the Chemical Section. The subject was the production of chlorine. Mond gave a masterly account of the history and present state of this great branch of chemical industry. The address was of particular interest on account of the description which he gave of his own investigations and their technical results. Although Ludwig Mond became a rich man, his interest did not lie in the accumulation of wealth. What really attracted him was the strict and quantitative application of the principles of chemical and physical science to the improvement of technical (chemical) processes, and the cheapening of manufacture by high efficiency of construction and operation. Therein lay the great satisfaction of his mind, and at least one deep joy of his spirit. He was blessed with a wife such as few great men are destined to possess. With her sympathy, her knowledge of science, and her trained intelligence, she stood by his side, a faithful helper and adviser in the great enterprises and adventures of his life. Of her he might well have said—Fons et origo boni. She died on 16th May, 1923, at the age of 75. His two sons, Robert and Alfred, gave him great help in various parts of his work, and he lived to see them both grow to manhood, and to trained and highly intelligent activity in many spheres of life: Alfred, in 1895, and Robert, in 1897, became Directors of Brunner Mond & Co. I must not fail to mention the great help which Emile S. Mond gave to Ludwig Mond, and to several of his enterprises, amongst which I would particularly mention, besides Brunner Mond & Co. (elected Director in 1906),