Career
Haas’ paper, however, was initially rejected and even ridiculed. As noted in his autobiography, Haas recalls "When I lectured to the Chemical-Physical Society of Vienna. Lecher..referred to the presentation during open discussion as a carnival joke" (The lecture was held during carnival time in Austria, February 1910).
Soon thereafter, however, by September 1911 at a physical science convention in Karlsruhe, former detractors of Haas" work acknowledged it with greater enthusiasm as noted in a footnote: "We do not know what caused change of mind in 1911 and can merely suggest the general trend of thinking at the time: 1910 saw the beginning of a universal shift of opinion of the quantum concept."
The significance of Haas" work lay in the establishment of a relationship between Planck"s constant and atomic dimensions, having been first to correctly estimate the magnitude of what is today known as the Bohr radius.