bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Paul Gordon Fildes, 1882-1971
Authors: Gladstone G. P. , Knight B. C. J. G. , Wilson Graham Selby
Published: December 2006

Paul Gordon Fildes, the founder of the study of bacterial nutrition and one of the foremost microbiologists of the 20th century, was born on 10 February 1882 at 11 Melbury Road, Kensington, London, a large Victorian mansion standing in extensive grounds off the Addison Road and now converted into flats. He was the third of the seven children of Sir Luke Fildes K.C.V.O., R.A., a prominent painter of the Victorian era who began his professional career by illustrating books and periodicals, including Dicken’s
Edwin Drood
. He later became a fashionable portrait painter and painter of subjects with dramatic appeal of which ‘The Doctor’, exhibited in the Royal Academy of 1891, is the best known. Fildes’s mother was Fanny Woods, a sister of his father’s close friend and fellow academician Henry Woods. Of their first two children, one died in infancy. The second, Fildes’s elder brother, was born in 1879. A sister and two brothers followed and finally a second sister born in 1890. By all accounts they were a devoted family.
Edward Charles Dodds, 13 October 1899 - 16 December 1973
Authors: Dickens Frank
Published: December 2006

Edward Charles Dodds, Baronet, for nearly 50 years one of the foremost medical biochemists of his day, becoming a President of the Royal College of Physicians, a Vice-President of the Royal Society and a Master of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London, was born in Liverpool on 13 October 1899. He was the only child of Ralph Edward Dodds and Jane Dodds (
née
Pack), who both had close connections going back over many years with Darlington, to which town Charles Dodds (the name by which he was always known) moved with his parents while he was still very young. At that time his father was in the retail footwear business. The family fortunes seem to have fluctuated considerably, and his father’s place of business to have changed more than once. Unfortunately Charles left no autobiographical notes and I am indebted to his son Ralph and his cousins the Misses Elinor Doris and Mabel Varley, who are artists now living at Malvern Wells. Charles had an aunt, Mrs Richmond, his father’s sister, who also lived in Darlington and whom they frequently visited even after the family had left for London. It was through Mrs Richmond that Charles met his future wife Constance Elizabeth Jordan, daughter of Mr J. T. and Mrs Katherine Jordan who were close neighbours and friends of Mrs Richmond. The Jordan family were well known business people in Darlington where they owned considerable property. Like Charles, Constance was an only child. They were married in 1923 and set up their first home in a flat in Maida Vale, London.
Emmeline Jean Hanson, 14 November 1919 - 10 August 1973
Authors: Randall John Turton
Published: December 2006

Emmeline Jean Hanson died suddenly and prematurely on 10 August 1973 at the height of her career. She was known throughout the world for her own contributions to muscle research, for the warmth and generosity of her personality; and for her outstanding encouragement and help to younger colleagues. It is perhaps some small measure of her character that she was affectionately known as ‘Jean’ to all her colleagues, even the most junior members of the laboratory.
Claude Cavendish Inglis, 3 March 1883 - 29 August 1974
Authors: Thomas A. Rylands , Paton Thomas Angus Lyall
Published: December 2006

Claude Inglis, who died on 29 August 1974 at the age of 91 years, made his mark in India and later in Britain in the field of irrigation and hydraulic research. He was responsible for advances in irrigation management in the Bombay Deccan and made notable contributions on river training and the use of hydraulic models with loose boundaries. A key to his career and achievements lay in his character. K. K. Framji who succeeded Sir Claude as Director of Indian Waterways Experiment Station, Poona, recalls him as: ‘A man of strong character and honesty of purpose, and one indefatigable in his pursuits which reflected unlimited reserves of energy. He expected of his associates no more and no less than what he demonstrated by his own example. He was impatient to achieve progress in his mission of determining rational approaches to hydrodynamic problems and he spared neither himself nor his associates in the work for the benefit of India. It is said that scarcely anyone walked into his room without saying a prayer, but scarcely anyone came out of his room without the happy realization that he had learnt something worth while. He was a good judge of men and all the select research workers whom he fostered have grown to be men of stature in the field. His parting advice at the time of his retirement is characteristic of his own practice throughout his career: “Don’t hide mistakes and be
absolutely honest
with yourself in your work ....” ’
Robert Alexander Watson-Watt, 13 April 1892 - 5 December 1973
Authors: Ratcliffe John Ashworth
Published: December 2006

Robert Alexander Watson-Watt was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1941. Two of his sponsors, H. Tizard and P. M. S. Blackett, were members of the Committee to whom he had proposed the detection of aircraft by radio (radar). The third independent member was A. V. Hill; he did not sign as a sponsor, presumably because he was one of the Society’s Secretaries at the time. They described their candidate in the following way: ‘Director of Communications Development, Air Ministry. Distinguished for his contributions to meteorological physics, as elucidated by radio methods; has been a pioneer in developing the application of the cathode ray oscillograph in radio research generally and, in particular, as an aid to aerial and marine navigation . . ..’ In 1941 all three knew that what is now called ‘radar’ was going to be of the greatest importance in the war and the reference to radio navigation is undoubtedly a cover-up. Indeed, radar is what Watson-Watt will be remembered for.
Harry Raymond Ing, 31 July - 23 September 1974
Authors: Schild Heinz Otto , Rose Francis Leslie
Published: December 2006

Raymond Ing was a pioneer in establishing the subject of pharmacological chemistry, or as he preferred to call it chemical pharmacology, in Great Britain. Harry Raymond Ing was born at Alford, Lincolnshire, on 31 July 1899. His father and mother were both of Herefordshire stock. His father was orphaned at an early age and became a solicitor’s clerk, which he remained all his life. Raymond remembers him as an easy-going friendly person without ambition. His mother, in spite of much ill health, was an intensely active and ambitious person who dominated her husband and three sons and in spite of her husband’s limited situation always encouraged her children to think that they could make their mark in the world. Ing married in 1941 Catherine Mills Francis, an English scholar who subsequently became a university lecturer in English at Oxford. He and his wife had in common a profound interest in the meaning of words and structure of language. Ing’s education and career were closely bound up with Oxford. At 12 years old he won a scholarship to Oxford High School, a small grammar school which had as its main objective the training of boys for admission to Oxford University. The main subjects taught were Latin, English grammar and mathematics; Ing was especially grateful for the thorough training he received in Latin. He also owed a great deal to his science master who first aroused his interest in natural science and taught him to enjoy experimental work. During the last year at school a Fellow of New College, A. F. Walden, took three of the boys and gave them, at no charge, regular tutorials in physical chemistry. Walden later became Ing’s tutor at New College. Ing had tremendous admiration for Walden, recalling how he went away from his tutorials so excited about chemistry that frequently he did not get to bed until long after midnight.
Barnes Neville Wallis, 26 September 1887 - 30 October 1979
Authors: Pugsley Alfred Grenville , Rowe N. E.
Published: December 2006

This account of the life and works of Sir Barnes Wallis, engineer extraordinary, is arranged in twelve sections in approximate historical order. These sections fall naturally into five groups, covering in turn his background, education and training; his airship work; his wartime work on aeroplanes and bombs; his post-war engineering work; and his dedicated labours for Christ’s Hospital and the R .A .F., with some appreciation of his character.
Philip Ivor Dee, 8 April 1904 - 17 April 1983
Authors: Curran Samuel Crowe
Published: December 2006

Many physicists all over the world noted the death of Philip Dee in April 1983 with sorrow and nostalgia. Dee’s career can be divided readily into several clearly defined periods but many will remember him first and foremost as the impressive looking scientist at the heart of matters of great moment during World War II. In those years he exerted a profound influence on many younger scientists and to the very end of his career he was held in deep respect and affection by all of those who participated in radar and other fields of scientific endeavour during the years 1939 to 1945. However, this was but one phase of the long and most fruitful career of Philip Dee as a physicist. As already mentioned it is tempting to divide Dee’s career into distinct phases but this would be to oversimplify matters and it is not at all difficult to see how each period of Dee’s career linked with the one that preceded it.
Philip Hall, 11 April 1904 - 30 December 1982
Authors: Green James Alexander , Roseblade J. E. , Thompson John Griggs
Published: December 2006

Philip Hall, formerly Sadleirian Professor of Pure Mathematics in the University of Cambridge, was a mathematician of great influence and distinction. For many years he was the only algebraist working in England . He was pre-eminent as a group theorist and made many fundamental discoveries; the conspicuous growth of interest in group theory this century owes much to him. He was Honorary Secretary from 1938 to 1941 and from 1945 to 1948, and President from 1955 to 1957, of the London Mathematical Society, and its de Morgan Medallist and Larmor Prizeman in 1965. He died on 30 December 1982.
Harrie Stewart Wilson Massey, 16 May 1908 - 27 November 1983
Authors: Bates David Robert , Boyd Robert Lewis Fullarton , Davis D. G.
Published: December 2006

Harrie Stewart Wilson Massey suffered a long painful illness with great fortitude. Two months before he died he phoned me (D. R. B.) to ask me if I would be responsible for this Memoir. I visited him in his home on 27 September. Telling me he had scarcely bothered with his Personal Record notebook he gave me some papers, said he would get his secretary Mrs Margaret Harding to give me other papers and then talked at length about his life and work. He recommended that I seek help from Sir Robert Boyd, F.R.S., on space research and from D. G. Davis on the development of physics (and astronomy) at University College and on his science policy making activities since they were thoroughly familiar with how he had thought and what he had done in these areas. Sir Robert and Dr Davis are the authors of the sections just indicated.
Peter Victor Danckwerts, 14 October 1916 - 25 October 1984
Authors: Denbigh Kenneth George
Published: December 2006

Peter Danckwerts was born at Emsworth in Hampshire and was the oldest among two other brothers and two sisters. His father, Victor Danckwerts, C.M.G., died on active service as a Vice-Admiral in 1943, but Peter’s mother,
née
Joyce Middleton, survived him and was 97 at the time of Peter’s death. On the father’s side the family were of German extraction but for some generations had lived in Britain. A grandfather had been a highly successful Q.C. and an uncle became a Lord Justice of Appeal. Having this naval and legal background it is perhaps surprising that Peter chose a very different career. It seems that from an early age he knew that he wanted to become a chemist and, while still a schoolboy, he created for him self a laboratory in one of the attics at his home. There he prepared samples of gunpowder and nitrogen iodide, and also constructed a Wimshurst machine. His fascination with explosives was to stand him in good stead during World War II. In his own autobiographical notes Peter spoke of spending many weary hours at school on Latin and Greek. Nevertheless he was grateful to his ‘prep-school’ and to Winchester College for having given him an excellent grounding in chemistry and physics, together with the writing of English.
Alister Clavering Hardy, 10 February 1896 - 22 May 1985
Authors: Marshall Norman Bertram
Published: December 2006

When he disembarked at Falmouth, England, on 29 September 1927, Alister Hardy had been two years away on ‘A voyage of natural history to study whales, plankton and the waters of the Southern Ocean in the old Royal Research Ship
Discovery
’. At the end of his book
Great waters
(61), much of which is based on his
Discovery
journals (the quotation above is from its subtitle), he wrote: ‘ I might perhaps have dwelt upon our feelings as we approached home after being two years away, but I was too excited, and perhaps too nervous! Sylvia, daughter of (now the late) Professor Walter Garstang, and I had almost got engaged just before I sailed; and then we finally decided by cable, or was it wireless, to announce the event half-way through the voyage. We had expected to sail into Falmouth Bay on the afternoon of 29th September. Mrs Kemp and Sylvia had come to meet us, and were watching from the cliffs; a change of wind, however, delayed us and robbed them of the sight of our sails appearing over the horizon— it was dark before we got in. I shall never forget the excitement of dropping anchor, going ashore with Kemp in the ship’s boat, and meeting my wife to be for the first time since we were actually engaged—meeting her on the steps of the quay on a dark and windy night. For me it was a fitting end to one voyage and the beginning of another’. The latter ‘voyage’ ended on 22 May 1985. Alister was not long survived by Sylvia, who died on 26 October 1985. For many years friends awaited their Christmas card with a drawing by Alister, usually of some part of Oxford. In 1984 the drawing was of Emden House, ‘where we now have a flat’, and their news was not good. The printed message began: ‘We are getting too old to draw a new card this year, so we are using one of two years ago. Sylvia is now 86 and Alister 88’. Their troubles included Sylvia’s attack of shingles and broken leg and Alister’s visits to hospital with an erratic heart. Time ‘must have a stop’ was not far away. Meantime there was life to be lived and their daughter Belinda was a great support. Their fortitude was, and still is, inspiring.
Oleg Alexander Kerensky, 16 April 1905 - 25 June 1984
Authors: Horne Michael Rex
Published: December 2006

Oleg Alexander Kerensky was born in St Petersburg on 16 April 1905 into a well-to-do middle-class family. His father was the Alexander Kerensky who, after the February 1917 revolution in Russia, became a member of the Provisional Government formed by the Duma, first as Minister of Justice, then as Minister of War and of the Navy. In July of that year he headed the reorganized government as Prime Minister until the Bolsheviks took over power in the October Revolution. Before then Alexander Kerensky had been a barrister and, from 1912, a member of the Duma, where he had become leader of the Trudoviki group, the moderately left opposition to the Tsarist régime. In the male line, Oleg’s great-grandfather was an orthodox priest. Oleg’s paternal grandfather, Feodor M. Kerensky, not wishing to follow the family tradition of becoming a priest, went to the University of Kazan and became first a teacher, then a school inspector, and then headmaster of two high schools in Simbirsk, one for boys and the other for girls. Feodor’s wife was a general’s daughter and the niece of a professor of divinity in the University of Kazan. When Alexander Oleg’s father, was nine years old, Feodor was further promoted to be the Inspector of Education for the then very recently acquired province of Turkestan, so the family went to live in Tashkent and the children did not see European Russia again until the time came to go to university in St Petersburg.
Martin Ryle, 27 September 1918 - 14 October 1984
Authors: Graham-Smith Francis
Published: December 2006

Sir Martin Ryle, Nobel Laureate and Astronomer Royal, was a founding father of radio astronomy, inventor of aperture synthesis in radio telescopes and the first to appreciate the major contribution that radio astronomy can make to observational cosmology. He lived through an epic period of scientific history, starting his career in the turmoil of wartime electronic countermeasures, and turning eventually to a deep concern about the future of mankind in the age of nuclear power and warfare. He was an instinctive scientist, blessed with an extraordinary scientific insight; he was also a most sensitive personality, with the gift of inspiring all who worked with him.
William Richard Joseph Cook, 10 April 1905 - 16 September 1987
Authors: Penney William George , Macklen V. H. B.
Published: December 2006

William Richard Joseph Cook, usually called Bill Cook, was an influential scientific civil servant, dedicated to national defence. He was brilliant at leading a team to develop a new piece of hardware to meet a military requirement. He was outstanding at evaluating the merits of a technological development project, particularly if it was in trouble. He was decisive and fair-minded and he demanded value for money and results on time. He worked in various defence ministries for 32 years but he also had a spell of 10 years in the Atomic Energy Authority, working first on nuclear weapons and second on reactor development and engineering. When he retired from the Ministry of Defence in 1970, he went into industry and made some important contributions, notably with Rolls-Royce and the RB211 aircraft engine. Much of his work was secret and to understand what he did, without going into the secrets, it is necessary sometimes to explain what the national defence policy was at the time. He was a good applied mathematician but he did not write scientific papers. His handiwork, to those who know, can be traced in contributions he made to the effectiveness of the weapons and equipment of our fighting services and to some important civil technology as well.
Hannes Olof Gosta Alfven. 30 May 1908–2 April 1995
Authors: Pease R. S. , Lindqvist S.
Published: December 2006

Hannes Olof Gosta Alfven was born in Norrkoping, Sweden, the son of Johannes Alfven (1878–1944) and Anna–Clara Romanus (1874–1947). Both his parents were practising physicians; they settled in the industrial town of Norrkoping because of their interest in social work. Hannes had one sister Anne–Marie (b. 1913), who became a librarian.

His father, who grew up in Stockholm, had a strong interest in science and especially psychiatry. One of his father's many brothers was also a physician, Andrew Alfven; he was politically radical and devoted much of his time to giving evening lectures at worker's institutes. Another uncle, Gosta Alfven, was an agronomist with concern for environmental issues; he also took a private interest in astronomy, keeping a daily journal of luminosity of the stars. A third uncle, Hugo Alfven (1872–1960) was a musician, famous both as a conductor and composer.
Sir Frank Whittle, O. M., K. B. E.. 1 June 1907–9 August 1996
Authors: Feilden G. B. R. , Hawthorne William
Published: December 2006

Sir Frank Whittle has a permanent place in history as the original inventor of the turbo–jet engine, as described in his first patent published in January 1930, when he was only 22 years old. His invention has revolutionized both civil and military air transport all over the world. Frank Whittle, the first child of Moses and Sara Alice Whittle, was born on 1 June 1907, at 72 Newcombe Road in the Earlsdon district of Coventry, and was educated at Earlsdon and Milverton Council schools. He learned much from his father, who, although he was virtually uneducated, having started work in a Lancashire cotton mill at the age of 11, had become a skilful mechanic and was a prolific inventor. Whittle wrote (2)*:
John Gordon Collier, F.R.Eng. 22 January 1935 — 18 November 1995
Authors: Hewitt G.F.
Published: December 2006

John Collier was a chemical engineer who, in his earlier career, was a specialist in two–phase flow and heat transfer. He was formerly Chairman of the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) and was Chairman of Nuclear Electric plc when he died on 18 November 1995.

John Collier was born in London on 22 January 1935. His father, Jack Collier, was a musician who was one of the country's leading double–bass players. Jack had turned down the job of lead bass with the Hallé Orchestra at the age of 20 and set out to see the world. While playing in the ship's band on a transatlantic trip he met John's mother (Edith Georgina de Ville, a passenger on the same ship) and married her soon afterwards, in 1925. John was their only child and his infant years were spent in prewar London, his father making a name for himself playing music of a wide variety. During the war, Jack Collier became a member of ENSA, the Forces' entertainment service. His attempts to protect his wife and child against the bombing seemed to be relatively unsuccessful; he moved them to Southampton, Coventry and Manchester in turn! The young John Collier, at the age of six, was actually machinegunned by a German fighter plane flying down a Southampton street. John and his mother finally returned to London just in time for the start of the V1 (flying bomb) raids. All these moves meant that John attended nine different schools during the war years–a very disruptive experience.

The family was reunited again after the war but their happiness was short–lived; John's mother (Edith) had a recurrence of the cancer she had suffered towards the end of the war and died in 1948. In 1951, Jack Collier married Guinevere (Jean) Olga Northcote. By this time, he was working freelance, playing with the major London orchestras; he was much in demand. He still did some work with lighter music, particularly on the radio where he played in such programmes as ITMA (Tommy Handley) and The Goon Show (Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe and Peter Sellers), and he later played on television shows such as The Morecombe and Wise Show.
Sir Samuel Crowe Curran. 23 May 1912 — 25 February 1998
Authors: Fletcher W.
Published: December 2006

Samuel Crowe Curran was born in Balleymena on 23 May 1912, where his mother had gone to her ancestral home just a few weeks before so that Sam could be born in Northern Ireland. Soon afterwards she returned with him to her husband and family in Wishaw, Lanarkshire, Scotland, where Sam was to spend the remainder of his childhood and youth. He was essentially in speech and outlook a man of the West of Scotland.
Paul Jose De Mayo. 8 August 1924 — 26 July 1994
Authors: King James F. , Overton Karl
Published: December 2006

Paul de Mayo was born in London, the only son of Nissim and Anna de Mayo, who were originally members of the Sephardic Jewish community of Salonika (now Thessalonike). They emigrated to England in 1919 with their three-year-old daughter, Flora, to escape the civil disturbances that preceded the cession of Salonika from Turkey to Greece. Anna de Mayo's grandfather had been born in Gibraltar, and this British connection inclined the family to seek permanent refuge in England rather than in France, where other parts of the family had gone. Once settled in London, Nissim established a business as an importer of plant materials, especially of those reputed to have medicinal properties.
Dorothy Hill, A.C., C.B.E. 10 September 1907 — 23 April 1997
Authors: Campbell K.S.W. , Jell J.S.
Published: December 2006

Science, and the attempt to develop the academic standards of Australian universities, were the interests that dominated Dorothy Hill's life. We refer not only to scientific endeavours as undertaken by herself and her colleagues, but also to basic approaches to administrative, commercial, educational and personal aspects of her life. Early in her career she learned how to develop and test hypotheses. To apply this philosophy to a wider range of problems, she had to be able to trust people and to make valid critical judgements; this required a high standard of conduct on her part as well as that of other people. Her students and the university staff responsible to her during her later years all attest to the fact that she could be utterly relied upon. Guile was a word she did not recognize. In an interview that she gave at the end of her career, she commented that she had been most concerned with the integrity of those with whom she had dealings of significance. This approach stood her in good stead in most of her dealings but, as one would expect, her judgements of the quality of fellow workers were not always faultless.
Norman Adrian De Bruyne. 8 November 1904 – 7 March 1997
Authors: Kinloch Anthony J.
Published: December 2006

Norman de Bruyne was a man of outstanding achievements and in 1967 he was elected to the Fellowship of The Royal Society. The citation at the time read:

Distinguished for his practical application of science to certain problems in aircraft construction, especially the use of plastic materials and adhesives….

His was a strong personality and he acquired many life–long friends. His approach to engineering challenges-and a hint of his puckish sense of humour–are contained in the single word that he used for his entry in Who's Who: under the heading ‘Recreations’ he wrote ‘inventing’
Nicholas Kurti, C.B.E. 14 May 1908 — 24 November 1998
Authors: Sanders J.H.
Published: December 2006

Nicholas Kurti was born in Budapest into a middle–class Jewish family. During most of the nineteenth century his father's family name had been Karfunkel, a name of German origin that conformed to the eighteenth–century decree of the Austrian Emperor that all Jews should take German names. At the end of the nineteenth century the Magyarization of the German names of Jews became widespread after the emancipation of the Jews, and Karfunkel became Kürti (4)*.
Malcolm Douglas Lilly. 9 August 1936 — 18 May 1998
Authors: Clarke Patricia H.
Published: December 2006

Malcolm Douglas Lilly grew up in Eltham in South London. His father, Charles Victor Lilly, had several awards for excellence in science at St John's School, Walworth, but left school at the age of fourteen to join Hobson & Son of Tooley Street, London, as an office boy. In due course he rose to become a director of the company. The firm was the leading manufacturer of uniforms; Charles Lilly was responsible for hats. Malcolm's mother, Amy Gardiner, also worked there before her marriage. Their younger son, Christopher, who became an electronics engineer, was born in 1946.
Sir John Cowdery Kendrew. 24 March 1917 – 23 August 1997
Authors: Holmes K.C.
Published: December 2006

John Kendrew was born in Oxford, where he spent his childhood years. His father, Wilfred Kendrew, was Dean of the St Catherine's Society and was a geographer and reader in climatology at Oxford University. His mother, Evelyn Sandberg, came from a Hereford parsonage. John's parents separated when he was four years old, his mother moving to Italy and finally to Florence, where she became an art historian working with Bernard Berenson in the Uffizi. She was an authority on Italian primitives and published under the nom de guerre Evelyn Sandberg Vavalà. John remained with his father in Oxford and attended the Dragon School. He re–established contact with his mother a few times during his early years and her influence on him remained strong throughout his life. Although he had the attention and affection of his paternal grandmother and two doting maiden aunts, his childhood was rather lonely. One of his aunts noticed that the child was much in need of spectacles. John's pebble glasses were to shield him from enquiring eyes until late in life when a cataract operation rendered them less necessary. His aunts introduced him to photography, which remained a lifelong interest.
William John Strang, C.B.E., F.R.Eng., F.R.Ae.S. 29 June 1921 – 14 September 1999
Authors: Page Frederick
Published: December 2006

Bill Strang was a dedicated aerospace engineer of great integrity and much respected by all who came into contact with him. He was Technical Director of the Commercial Aircraft Division of British Aerospace until he retired in 1983 to become Chairman of the Airworthiness Requirements Board. All his postgraduate career was spent in the British aerospace industry, mostly at Filton near Bristol, except for a brief spell in the Aeronautical Research Laboratory, Melbourne, Australia, from 1948 to 1951. Dr Strang made the biggest industrial contribution to the aerodynamic design of Concorde and in 1977 was elected a Fellow of The Royal Society as a result; he served on several of the Society's committees from 1977 until 1989. From 1983 until 1990 he was Chairman of the Civil Aviation Airworthiness Requirements Board. He was also a keen sailor and became a Coastal Skipper with The Island Cruising Club at Salcombe before qualifying for his Master's Ticket with the Royal Yachting Association. He loved the countryside and walking. He was awarded a C.B.E. in 1973 and in 1997 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. The Royal Aeronautical Society awarded him the Silver Medal in 1971 and the Gold Medal in 1973. In his later years he suffered from a heart problem that was the cause of his death in 1999.
Kenneth George Denbigh. 30 May 1911 – 23 January 2004
Authors: Rowlinson John
Published: December 2006

Kenneth Denbigh started his career as a physical chemist but his early industrial experience and his wartime work led him increasingly in the direction of chemical engineering and in particular to the study of the thermodynamic and kinetic factors that determine the yield of chemical reactions. He was one of the creators of the field of reaction engineering. His interests later broadened to encompass the philosophical aspects of time, a field on which he wrote extensively during the last part of his career.
George Porter KT OM, Lord Porter of Luddenham. 6 December 1920 – 31 August 2002
Authors: Fleming Graham R. , Phillips David
Published: December 2006

Lord Porter of Luddenham was the creator of flash photolysis and a world leader in the study of rapid chemical and biological processes. During his career at Cambridge, Sheffield, the Royal Institution and Imperial College, London, he saw time resolution improve by 12 orders of magnitude to reveal the very fastest events in chemistry and photobiology. He made extraordinary contributions to the public understanding of science and campaigned tirelessly for the public funding of scientific research, for human rights of dissident scientists, and for improvements in the British education system.
Robert Millner Shackleton. 30 December 1909 – 3 May 2001
Authors: Dewey John Frederick , Leake Bernard Elgey
Published: December 2006

Robert Millner Shackleton, who died peacefully in his sleep on 3 May 2001, was born on 30 December 1909 in Purley, Surrey, the son of John Millner Shackleton (an electrical engineer of Irish derivation who, at one time, worked for the Post Office telephones) and Agnes Mitford Shackleton (née Abraham). He was distantly related to the Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton and was educated at the Quaker school of Sidcot, which profoundly influenced his subsequent life and career. He entered Liverpool University in January 1927 and graduated with a first–class honours BSc in geology in July 1930 under P. G. H. Boswell FRS, the first George Herdman Professor of Geology. He was only the fourth student in the history of the department to achieve a First. Shackleton's first visit to Africa was as an undergraduate in July to September 1929 to attend the 15th International Congress in Pretoria, South Africa. He always remembered Boswell's help and how he had persuaded him into going and even shared a cabin on the Union Castle ship to South Africa with him to reduce the cost at a time when most professors would not have done so. He saw the Karroo, the Kimberley diamond mine, the Witwatersrand mines, the Bushveld, Rhodesia, and the Drakensberg. This visit to Africa was to be the foundation of his love of Africa, its people and its geology. Shackleton went on to complete a PhD at Liverpool in December 1933 on the Moel Hebog area of North Wales, between Tremadoc and Nantlle, although some of the work was done while at Imperial College, London (IC), where he was Beit Research Fellow from 1932 to 1934, largely facilitated by Boswell, who was also an IC man and had moved back there to the Chair in 1930. The Moel Hebog mapping included examining some cliff faces never scaled by any geologist or, indeed, anyone before; it was part of a systematic re–survey of North Wales encouraged by Boswell, and followed the surveys of Snowdonia by David and Howell Williams. The Moel Hebog mapping was superb and, with his other field achievements, led to his receiving the Silver Medal of the Liverpool Geological Society in 1957. Shackleton was one of several Liverpool students, including one of us (B.E.L.), who from the 1920s onwards did part of their PhD work at IC. He had a petrological training, being taught silicate analysis by A. W. Groves at IC, but the petrological and palaeogeographic interpretation of his PhD area was hindered by the fact that ignimbrites had not yet been recognized and only a few chemical analyses could be completed. The published account (7) è did not appear until 1959 and then only because of the encouragement and devoted help given by Dr J. C. Harper.
Physical properties of surfaces. II—Viscous flow of liquid films. The range of action of surface forces
Authors: Bastow S. H. , Bowden Frank Philip
Published: December 2006

The present paper describes experiments which were carried out in order to determine the extent to which the fluid properties of water and other liquids may be modified by the presence of a solid surface. For this purpose, measurements of the viscous flow of a liquid very near to a surface are particularly suitable, since they provide a sensitive test for the existence of any induced structure in the liquid. If the surface has no appreciable effect, the smallest applied pressure will cause the liquid to flow and the rate of flow plotted against pressure will give a straight line passing through the origin,
see
fig. 3. If, however, as many authors have suggested, long chains of oriented liquid molecules with a definite rigidity are formed by the influence of the surface, the liquid will show a resistance to shear, which will be specially evident at low pressures; Poiseuille’s law will not hold and the pressure-flow curve will be of the form shown in fig. 4. A method has been developed for measuring the viscosity of thin liquid films enclosed between flat polished surfaces of glass and steel. The film thickness can be varied from about 10
-5
cm to any desired distance and can be accurately determined. The experiments show that films of a liquid, known to possess a bulk structure (liquid crystal), possess a high rigidity, but there is no sign of induced structure in normal liquids even with very thin films and at temperatures near the freezing point.
The function of hydrogen in intermolecular forces
Authors: Bernal John Desmond , Megaw Helen D.
Published: December 2006

We already know the essential nature of the four chief types of forces that can exist between atoms in molecules or crystals, and to a certain extent a quantitative quantum mechanical account can be given of them. The metallic, homopolar, ionic, and residual (van der Waals’s) forces are, however, only idealized types, and in very many substances the nature of the interatomic forces partakes at the same time of two or more of these types. Such intermediate forces are more difficult to study, and consequently present some of the most interesting problems of interpretation.
The electrical resistance of bismuth alloys.
Authors: Thompson N
Published: December 2006

It has been known for a long time that the electrical resistance of bismuth, and more particularly the temperature coefficient of resistance, depends to a great extent on the purity of the sample, but the earlier results are not consistent. In particular it was known that small traces of tin, and possibly also of lead, could make the temperature coefficient at room temperature less than zero, and also that some samples of commercial bismuth showed a negative temperature coefficient at low temperatures. Since a negative temperature coefficient has hitherto been thought to be a distinguishing feature of electronic semiconductors, it seemed desirable that the matter should be investigated in more detail. The results already obtained have shown that the phenomena are much more complex than was at first thought, this complexity being quite adequate to explain the discordant results of the earlier workers. Experimental Preliminary experiments soon showed that very small traces of impurity were sufficient to produce very marked changes in the resistance, and accordingly all the later measurements have been made with Hilger “H. S.” bismuth, with a purity quoted as 99·997% (Lab. Nos. 9506 and 10283). The alloying metals, being present in small percentages, were usually of commercial purity only. It soon became evident that the results depended very much on the crystalline state of the specimen, and that consistent and interpretable results would only be obtained if single crystals were used. A technique for producing these in a suitable shape was therefore developed. The metal was first cast into a rod of about 1 mm square section, and about 3 cm long, using an apparatus essentially similar to that described by Schubnikow. The specimen was next grown into a single crystal by a modification of one of Kapitza's methods whereby the process could be carried out
in vacuo
to prevent oxidation. Bismuth crystallizes with hexagonal symmetry, and by using a seed, crystals could be grown with any desired orientation. Now the resistance in a direction making an angle α with the principal axis in such a crystal is given by the Voigt-Thomson law ρ
α
= ρ
‖
cos
2
α + ρ
⊥
sin
2
α, (1) where ρ
‖
and ρ
⊥
are respectively the resistances parallel and perpendicular to the principal axis. Thus
d
ρ

a

/
d
α = sin 2α (ρ
⊥
- ρ
‖
). If α = 0 or π/2 this vanishes, and thus small errors in the value of α near these limiting positions have little effect on the value of ρ

a

. For example, for pure bismuth, for which ρ
‖
= 138 × 10
-6
, and ρ
⊥
=109 × 10
-6
ohm-cm at 20° C, an error of as much as 10° in α gives the values (ρ
10
= 109·9) and (ρ
80
= 137·2) which are incorrect by less than 1%. In consequence of this the orientation of the specimen could be determined with sufficient accuracy from the direction of the main cleavage plane, which is perpendicular to the principal axis.
Significance tests for continuous departures from suggested distributions of chance
Authors: Jeffreys Harold
Published: December 2006

1—The problem to be considered is as follows. A trial law gives the chance of an observation in a given range of an argument as a continuous function of the argument; for instance, the suggested distribution of chance may be uniform or normal. We wish to know whether a set of observations indicates any departure from this law; thus for a suggested uniform distribution we may want to test a linear or a harmonic departure, and for a suggested normal one we may want to test a symmetrical departure giving excesses or deficiencies at the tails. In the first place we consider problems where the trial hypothesis is
q
is that the distribution of chance is uniform; we can then choose a linear function
t
of the argument
x
, so that
t
will be 0 at the lower and 1 at the upper limit. The chance of an observation falling in a range
dx
is
dt
, and that of
n
observations in specified ranges is
II(dt)
, provided that they are independent.
The adsorption of argon, nitrogen and oxygen on smooth platinum foil at low temperatures and pressures.
Authors: Wilkins F. J.
Published: December 2006

The work to be described in this paper is, in effect, an extension of the earlier researches of Langmuir (1918), who measured the adsorption of argon, nitrogen, oxygen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and methane on mica and glass at pressures up to 0∙1 mm. and temperatures of 90° and 155° K. He also investigated the adsorption of these gases on a smooth platinum foil surface, but except for a slow irreversible adsorption of oxygen at temperatures above 0° C., he was unable to detect any adsorption. In order to interpret his experimental results, Langmuir deduced his well-known adsorption isotherm:
x
=
abp
/(1 +
ap
), where
x
is the amount adsorbed at a pressure
p
and temperature
T
. Of the constants
b
is equal to the saturation maximum;
a
is equal to

a
0
eϕ/RT

where
a
0
is a constant and
ϕ
is the adsorption potential.
I. A coal-dust explosion
Authors: Galloway W. , Scott Robert Henry
Published: December 2006

The Silkstone pits of Altoft’s Colliery, near Normanton, in Yorkshire, in which the explosion took place, are 420 yards deep. Both shafts are round, the down-cast being 12 feet and the up-cast 10 feet in diameter. The thickness of the working, including a bed of soft shale below the seam, used as a holing, is 4 feet 6 inches. The system of working is longwall. The number of men and boys employed.underground in the day shift was about 350. The colliery is now twenty-one years old.
The morphology of the retrocalcarine region of the cortex cerebri.
Authors: Smith Grafton Elliot , Macalister Alexander
Published: December 2006

Although many writers, amongst whom Henschen, Vialet and Ramon y Cajal may be specially mentioned, have devoted a considerable amount of attention to the study of the white streak in the occipital cortex cerebri, which Gennari first described in 1776 as “lineola albidior admodum eleganter,” no one, so far as I am aware, has ever used this feature as a guide to the identification of homologous areas and sulci in different brains. On the contrary, it has been employed as evidence that the furrows on the surface of the hemisphere have no value for the orientation of physiological areas, seeing that it occupies the edges of two adjoining gyri and the floor of the sulcus between them* In this preliminary note I hope to demonstrate that Gennari’s stria is a sure criterion for the identification of three or perhaps four sulci.
The significance of the zoological distribution, the nature of the mitoses, and the transmissibility of cancer.
Authors: Bashford E. F. , Murray James Alexander , Bradford John Rose
Published: December 2006

The object of this communication is to relate some results of the work conducted under the immediate direction of the Executive Committee of the Cancer Research Fund during the past year. We believe that these results will convince others of the important practical assistance which biologists generally can give in the further elucidation of certain problems of cancer which must be settled before preventive and curative measures can be devised. It will also be made evident that the elucidation of cancer is something more than a problem of human pathology. We shall adduce evidence tending to show that the wide zoological distribution, the character of the mitoses, and the transmissibility of cancer, are nearly related phenomena with a common basis.
Cultural experiments with ‘biologic forms’ of the
Erysiphacece
.
Authors: Salmon Ernest S. , Ward Harry Marshall
Published: December 2006

Erysiphaceæ
.
Theory of amphoteric electrolytes.
Authors: Walker James
Published: December 2006

During the past few years considerable attention has been devoted to the behaviour of amphoteric electrolytes,
i. e.,
of substances capable of behaving as acids towards bases and as bases towards acids. The most exhaustive investigation of such substances is that by Winkelblech, who determined by the customary hydrolytic methods the dissociation constants of a number of amino-acids, both with respect to their ionisation as acids and as bases.
Atmospherical radio-activity in high latitudes.
Authors: Simpson George Clarke , Schuster Arthur
Published: December 2006

In 1901 Elster and Geitel first showed that a wire stretched out in the open air and charged to a high negative potential becomes radio-active; this observation has since been repeated by others, and the discoverers themselves have undertaken a series of daily measurements extending from December, 1901 to December, 1902.
On a criterion which may serve to test various theories inheritance.
Authors: Pearson Karl
Published: December 2006

(1) One of the most difficult problems in the treatment of hered is that of obtaining a satisfactory criterion which will enable us to dtinguish the truth or falsehood of various hypotheses. As a rule, the criteria used have been based irpon a determination of the type offspring due to parents of selected types.
The effects of changes of temperature on the modulus of torsional rigidity of metal wires.
Authors: Horton Frank , Thomson Joseph John
Published: December 2006

This paper contains an account of some experiments performed with the object of ascertaining, as accurately as possible, the manner in which the modulus of torsional rigidity varies with the temperature. The law governing this variation has been expressed in several different forms by those who have investigated it, but all the more recent experimenters have been content with finding the modulus at two temperatures only and assuming a linear law to hold between them.
On certain physical and chemical properties of solutions of chloroform in water, saline, serum, and hæmoglobin. A contribution to the chemistry of Anæsthesia.—(Preliminary communication.)
Authors: Moore Benjamin , Roaf Herbert E. , Sherrington Charles Scott
Published: December 2006

The number of substances which have been shown to possess more or less well-marked anæsthetising properties reaches some hundreds, and hence it is obvious that the action cannot have a different explanation in each case, but rather depends upon some general type of interaction between the anaesthetic and the active part of the cell, which is the cell-protoplasm.
On the liquefied hydrides of phosphorus, sulphur, and the halogens, as conducting solvents.—Part II.
Authors: Archibald E. H. , McIntosh D. , Ramsay William
Published: December 2006

In continuation of the preceding investigation, a very large number of substances have been examined with regard to their solubility in the four substances—hydrogen chloride, bromide, iodide, and sulphide. The following is a brief summary of the results which have been so far obtained :— No salt of the metals has been found to dissolve in more than traces in either solvent, and in no case was it certain that such substances dissolved at all.
On the electric effect of rotating a dielectric in a magnetic field.
Authors: Wilson Harold Albert , Thomson Joseph John
Published: December 2006

It was shown by Faraday in 1831 that an electromotive force is induced in a conductor when it moves in a magnetic field so as to cut the lines of force. The object of the experiments described in this paper was to see if a similar electromotive force is induced in a dielectric when it moves in a magnetic field.
On the electric equilibrium of the Sun.
Authors: Arrhenius Svante , Huggins William
Published: December 2006

In recent years many attempts have been made to apply the pressure of radiation, that is a consequence of the theories of Maxwell and Bartoli, to the explanation of cosmical phenomena. Especially the enigma of the nature of comets’ tails has been elucidated from this new point of view. In a memoir presented to the Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1899, I pointed out that several electric and magnetic phenomena, especially auroras and magnetic storms, might also be connected with the pressure of radiation.