Rowland Wynne - Evan James Williams

Preface

The article on the link between Bohr and three Welsh scientists was published in Y Traethodydd: Gareth Ffowc Roberts and Rowland Wynne, Copenhagen a Chymru, YTraethodydd, 169 (2014), 95113.

Details of the books by J. Tysul Jones and Goronwy Evans are provided below under .

1 I have a dream

Dykes, David, The University College of Swansea: An Illustrated History (Stroud: Alan Sutton, 1992).

Evans, Goronwy, Gwell Dysg na Golud (Llandysul: Gwasg Gomer, 2003).

Jones, J. Tysul (ed.), Yr Athro Evan James Williams, DSc, FRS, 19031945.Gwyddonydd o Gymro Byd-Enwog/A World-famous Welsh Scientist (Llandysul: Gwasg Gomer, 1970).

Pierce, Arwyn (ed.), Canmlwyddiant Addysg Uwchradd yn Llandysul/HundredYears of Secondary Education in Llandysul (Llandysul: Gwasg Gomer, 1995).

Goronwy Evanss book provided a valuable backdrop for this chapter, as did a collection of tributes edited by Tysul Jones, and a book edited by Arwyn Pierce celebrating the centenary of Ysgol Llandysul (including extracts from the school magazine). The book by David Dykes, which records the history of University College Swansea, was particularly helpful in providing a sketch of the colleges early days. In addition, the opportunity to browse the Richard Burton Archive at Swansea University, and Patrick Blacketts papers (kept in the Library of the Royal Society), was valuable and productive.

The author is indebted to Goronwy Evans for making available the documents relating to Williams that had entered into his possession, and which are relevant to this and other chapters; some of that material has been transferred to Neville Evans, who was also very helpful (the material has by now been transferred to Swansea University).

2 Shaking the foundations

Aaserud, Finn and Heilbron, John L., Love, Literature and the Quantum Atom (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013).

Kumar, Manjit, Quantum: Einstein, Bohr and the Great Debate about the Nature of Reality (London: Icon Books, 2008).

Morus, Iwan Rhys, When Physics Became King (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005).

Pais, Abraham, Niels Bohrs Times, in Physics, Philosophy, and Polity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991).

There is no shortage of books on the history of quantum physics. However, Manjit Kumars record is particularly appropriate for the present study. Given Niels Bohrs central role in the development of quantum physics, use has been made also of Abraham Paiss biography of Bohr. Bohrs correspondence with Edwin Owen can be viewed at the Niels Bohr Archive, Copenhagen, and references to their friendship in Cambridge are included in the book co-authored by Finn Aaserud, director of the archive. Iwan Moruss history of nineteenth-century physics is also a valuable source setting out the growth of physics before the development of quantum physics.

3 Doctorates, 4 New horizons, 5 Achieving eminence

Blackett, Patrick, Evan James Williams, 19031945, Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society, 5 (1947), 386406.

Brown, Andrew, The Neutron and the Bomb: A Biography of Sir James Chadwick (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997).

Cathcart, Brian, The Fly in the Cathedral (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004).

Ellis, E. L., The University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, 18721972 (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1972).

Farmelo, Graham, The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Quantum Genius (London: Faber & Faber, 2009).

French, A. P. and Kennedy, P. J. (eds), Niels Bohr: A Centenary Volume (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1985).

Hunter, Graeme K., Light is a Messenger: The Life and Science of WilliamLawrence Bragg (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).

Monk, Ray, Inside the Centre: The Life of J. Robert Oppenheimer (London: Vintage, 2013).

Moore, Walter, A Life of Erwin Schrdinger (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994).

Nye, Mary Jo, Blackett: Physics, War and Politics in the Twentieth Century (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2004).

Oliphant, Mark, Rutherford: Recollections of the Cambridge Days (Amsterdam: Elsevier Publishing Company, 1972).

Pais, Abraham, Niels Bohrs Times in Physics, Philosophy and Polity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991).

Peierls, Rudolf, Bird of Passage: Recollections of a Physicist (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1985).

Schweber, Silvan S., Nuclear Forces: the making of the physicist Hans Bethe (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2012).

Segre, Gino, Faust in Copenhagen (London: Pimlico, 2008).

Sekido, Yataro and Elliot, Harry (eds), Early History of Cosmic Ray Studies (Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing Company, 1985).

Wheeler, John A., Geons, Black Holes and Quantum Foam (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1998).

These three chapters concentrate on Williamss academic career, for which the summary of his research as recorded by Patrick Blackett in his memorial tribute is a valuable starting point. Direct evidence of Williamss extensive contributions is, of course, to be found in his approximately sixty papers (see pages 16973) published in recognised academic journals, most of which have an international reputation (such is their complexity that the present study has barely touched on the content of these papers). include an outline of the nature of the research centres at which Williams worked, and reference to some of his colleagues at those centres. The biographies of the heads at those centres, and those of other eminent scientists with whom Williams had worked, are particularly useful, the most relevant of which are listed above.

Many books have been published on the nature and character of some of the most well-known physics institutes at which Williams had worked. Those by Brian Cathcart (on the Cavendish) and Gino Segre (on the Institut) are particularly valuable in this context. Mervyn Jones, a lecturer in the Department of Physics at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, kept a typed record of the history of physics at the college from its beginnings in 1872 up to 1991. The author was able to borrow a copy of the typescript courtesy of Guto Roberts, formerly one of Joness research students, and was able to take advantage of the information provided therein regarding Williamss time in the department, which is set within a wider context in Edward Elliss book recording the history of the college, and in correspondence kept in the colleges archive.

Further light was shed on many aspects of the book by browsing the Williams archive in Aberystwyth University, the Bohr Archive in Copenhagen, and the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 archive (the correspondence between Bohr and Williams can be viewed on microfilm in the library of the Science Museum, London). The author was also able to borrow from Goronwy Evans letters sent by Williams from Copenhagen to his parents. The BBC Wales archive service kindly permitted the author to read and to refer to the script of Williamss radio broadcast, The Atomic World.

6 Securing the seas

Budiansky, Stephen, Blacketts War (New York: Vintage Books, 2013).

Davies, John, Broadcasting and the BBC in Wales (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1994).

The development of Operational Research techniques as part of the campaign against U-boats during the Second World War is a specialist field, which has not attracted the same attention as some other aspects of the war. The author is indebted to Stephen Budianskys accessible account of the history, and this chapter draws heavily on Budianskys book, not only in relation to Williamss work, but also through its description of the development of submarines as an instrument of war. As in the previous chapters, Patrick Blacketts comments in his memorial tribute, coupled with material in some of the biographies referred to above, proved informative. The events leading to the establishment of the BBCs Welsh Region are described in John Daviess history of the BBC in Wales.