volumetric flow rate of fluid in a closed tube. Meyer worked a good deal in exploiting the possible uses of cellulose, with applications in the form of artificial limbs, for which he also constructed new joints. In the 1920s and 1930s, Meyer was occupied with the enhanced manufacture of glass tubes, ampoules, etc. and for filling and sealing these. Already in 1906, the newlyweds could evidently make a living from the success of the inventions. The firm Rotawerke was founded in 1909 and thereafter Meyer heeded the earlier business decline of his family in that he did not draw a salary, but simply fed his own pension fund. A daughter, Kläre (later known as Claire), was born in 1907, and another, Margot, in 1909. The united German Empire proclaimed in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles in the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War followed its destiny, especially during the reign of Kaiser William II, towards becoming a vast militaristic-industrial complex and simultaneously largely losing control of its own foreign policy. When the summer of 1914 saw the outbreak of the First World War, this was hailed with enthusiasm by the patriotic German public, and there was no doubt that the course of events would echo those of the rapid victory of 1870. Felix Meyer was a fervent patriot whose spirit was undaunted by defeat or postwar conditions. The debts from his father's time were finally paid off, and the family and its business prospered. Rotawerke had branches in Belgium and France and business ties to Britain. Meyer was wealthy enough to support young artists. The Rude Awakening Meyer remained a German patriot and, like other assimilated Jews of the time, refused to believe that the rise to power of the Nazi party constituted a danger. In Meyer's case, he even returned to Germany in 1938 from a journey to the United States with his wife. That same year, however, events caught up with him, especially after the so-called Kristallnacht of 9–10 November, during which he spent some hours under arrest. This must certainly have been a great shock for Meyer and his wife. He had taken the precaution of carrying a capsule with poison on him and in a letter to his daughters he asked them to show understanding if he or his wife should decide to commit suicide. By the end of the year Meyer had been forced out