BORN MAX: (1882-1970) German physicist and mathematician, instrumental in the development of quantum mechanics. Nobel Prize winner for Physics, 1954. T.L.S., M. Born, one page, 4to (folding air mail stationery), Bad Pyrmont, West Germany, 25^th October 1966, to Dr. Kasimir Fajans. Born thanks his colleague for their letter and continues to remark 'I regret very much that I am now too old and too ill to remember the scientific points you mention; e.g. I can't remember that you have given a contribution to what is now called Born-Haber-cycle and I am afraid I cannot help you clearing up that question', further writing 'As you mention my Busch translation I can tell you that it was Maler Klecksel, published by Frederick Ungar, New York'. Together with Fajans's retained carbon typed copy of his original letter to Born, unsigned, one page, 4to, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 11^th October 1966, stating, in part, 'I heard from two sides that you prepared a very successful translation of some poetry by Wilhelm Busch into English and I am trying to get a copy of it. I feel relieved by your communication that the statements on p.107 of your book with Kun Huang are entirely due to him. I was seriously disturbed by the authoritative assertion: "the argument of Fajans and Joos appears, however, to be fallacious." I did not understand that you could have approved this opinion and commented on this situation in……my contribution to Weissberger's Handbook, 1960……My question of 9 August, whether you have a letter of mine of 1919 was caused by my feeling that the outcome of the situation you described in your letter to me of 9.10.1919 needs a revision: while you speak about the contributions of yourself, myself, and Haber, one reads in the present literature abut the Born-Haber-cycle with complete omission of my name. I attempted to find out whether you would be willing to help in the historical clarification but in view of your present health condition I do not dare to say any more about this question'. VG, 2

 

Kazimierz Fajans (1887-1975) Polish American physical chemist, a pioneer in the science of radioactivity and the discoverer of chemical element protactinium.

 

In 1919 Fajans had started researching the structure of particle and crystal by the thermochemical and refractometrical methods. The co-relation of Born, Fajans and Haber is one of the basic thermochemical rule.

 

The Born-Haber cycle is an approach to analyse reaction energies. It was named after Born and fellow German scientist Fritz Haber, who developed it in 1919. It was also independently formulated by Fajans and published concurrently in the same issue of the same journal, and some scientists believe a more correct name would be the Born-Fajans-Haber thermochemical correlation. The cycle, or correlation, is concerned with the formation of an ionic compound from the reaction of a metal with a halogen or other non-metallic element such as oxygen.