The respect a scientist enjoys can be measured in many ways, including the number of appointments they are offered by other colleges and universities. Bach was a highly coveted academic. Within 8 years he received offers from several renowned institutions: the Federal Polytechnic in Zurich, Berlin College of Technology and Vienna College of Technology.
Luckily for Stuttgart, he declined all these offers. But he used them as a means of pressurising the college, city and state into providing more financial support for his ideas and projects. The funding for the new engineering laboratory, for example, became more readily available when it became clear that he had been offered a position in Zurich. Bach's popularity can also be seen in a letter of thanks from his students, written when Bach rejected the appointment in Zurich.
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