30Cathcart (2004: 242–3).
31Cathcart (2004: 252).
32Arms (1966: 71).
33Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series A, Vol. 136, No. 830, 1 June 1932, pp. 735–62.
34Observer, 1 May 1932, pp. 17 and 20. See also CHBIO, Vol. 5, pp. 428–31.
35Parry (ed.) (1968: 114).
36For Rutherford’s view on the British Empire see Anon. (1954: 33–4).
37Parry (ed.) (1968: 114).
38‘Political Painters’, CHSPCH, Vol. 5, pp. 5153–4. CHBIO, Vol. 5, pp. 428–9.
39Eve (1939: 353–4).
40Cathcart (2004: 244–50).
41Daily Mirror, 3 May 1932.
42This point was, however, correctly stressed in the article in The Times, 2 May 1932 (p. 11) and in the review by Waldemar Kaempffert in the New York Times, 8 May 1932, p. xxi.
43Oliphant (1972a: 141). The same remark features in Ritchie Calder’s report on his conversation with Rutherford in ‘The Truth About the Atom’, Daily Herald, 27 June 1932, p. 8. Rutherford’s comments are well reviewed in Badash et al. (1986), where the authors note Lord Hankey’s recollection of Rutherford’s commenting privately in 1930 that one day nuclear physics might have relevance to warfare. As the authors say, ‘It is difficult to evaluate whether Rutherford was engaging in idle chatter or revealing an intuitive feeling, but Hankey believed the latter’ (p. 204).
44Wilson (1983: 572).
45Wings Over Europe opened at the Martin Beck Theater on 10 December 1928 and later transferred to the Alvin Theater in New York. The production ran for ninety performances.
46The New Statesman and Nation, 7 May 1932, pp. 584–5.
47The dinner was on 17 December 1932. Da Costa Adrade (1964: 48, 162).
48The paper announcing Blackett and Occhialini’s discovery of cosmic-ray showers was received by the Royal Society on 7 February 1933.
49See for example: Anon. (1954), Parry (ed.) (1968: 75–99). Einstein quotation: Blackett (1972: 58).
50Wilson (1983: 565).
The Prof advises ‘a scientist who missed his vocation’
1Letter from Isaiah Berlin to Stephen Spender, 20 June 1936, Hardy (ed.) (2004: 175).
2James Tuck, ‘Lord Cherwell and His Part in World War II’, 9 March 1961, in RVJO B395.
3Brendon (1984: 144).
4Country Life, 6 June 1931, pp. 736–8.
5Reader (1975: 82). The Research Council was dissolved towards the end of 1939.
6Harrod (1959: 93, 94–5). Birkenhead (1961: 114, 116). For another description of Lindemann’s laugh: Harrod (1959: 84).
7Birkenhead (1961: 116), Harrod (1959: 84).
8Draft text of talk, LIND E5/1–5.
9Morrell, J., ‘The Lindemann Era’, in Fox and Gooday (eds) (2005: 233–66), see p. 257.
10Several members of the audience will probably have seen the report on the Blackett–Occhialini discovery in ‘New Light on the Atom’ by John Cockcroft, Spectator, 24 February 1933, pp. 245–6.
11Cameron, N., ‘The Owl and the Pussycats: Science, Politics and the Late War’, in The Idler, Vol. 2, No. 9, September 1986, pp. 31–40. See p. 32.
12Daily Telegraph, ‘Splitting the Atom’, 16 March 1933. See also the report in The Times on the same day (p. 6). Both articles are in WSC, CHPC 13.
13Letter from Violet Bonham Carter to R. V. Jones, 25 July 1966, RVJO B.238.
14Harrod (1959: 104).
15Fox and Gooday (eds) (2005: 236).
16BMFRS of Lindemann, November 1958, pp. 47–8.
17Fort (2004: 57–66).
18Crowther (1965: 352), Harrod (1959: 45).
19Lindemann (1920: 437–45).
20See, for example, Crowther (1965: 353), Snow (1960a: 20).
21See comments by G. P. Thomson, GPT, G56, February 1961.
22Harrod (1959: 91).
23The Times, 15 March 1933, p. 15.
24Noakes (2004: 189).
25Coote (1971: 81).
26WSC to Commons, 13 April 1933, HNSRD.
27WSC, Daily Mail, 14 October 1933.
28‘Winston Churchill – The Tragic Truth’, John Bull, 6 May 1933, CHPC 13.
29Strauss, H., ‘Jewish Emigration in the Nazi Period: Some Aspects of Acculturation’ in Mosse and Mohr (eds) (1991), pp. 81–95, see p. 83. Strauss notes that between 278,000 and 300,000 emigrated.
30Birkenhead (1961: 23–5); Fort (2004: 91); Harrod (1959: 107–11).
31Birkenhead (1961: 121–2).
32Letter from Lindemann to Einstein, 4 May 1933, LIND D57. Lindemann says he spent ‘four or five days’ in Berlin, and that he saw ‘a great many’ of Einstein’s colleagues.
33Beveridge (1959: 4–5).
34For the case of Rutherford and his colleagues at the AAC, see the letter from its General Secretary to Szilárd, 19 December 1935: ‘If German scientists with senior qualifications compete for these junior posts it will be regarded by British graduates and other members of staff as competition . . . an abuse of the displaced scholar’s circumstance and would be an unfair act against younger British competitors.’ Fritz London file, SPSL.
35Leaflet is in SPSL 21/1/113. See also the accompanying letter from A. V. Hill to G. P. Thomson, 14 February 1939, SPSL 21/1/114.
36Zimmerman (2006: 36); Fort (2004: 117–18).
37Einstein to Lindemann, 1 May 1933, LIND D57/6.
38Einstein to Lindemann, 7 May 1933, LIND D57/12.
39The meeting took place on 22 July 1933, as indicated in the letter from Einstein’s main host Locker-Lampton to Lindemann, 20 July 1933, LIND D57/22. Martin Gilbert’s Churchill and the Jews specifies that Lindemann was present.
40Einstein to his wife Elsa, July 1933, AEA 143–50 (undated).
41Mendelssohn (1960: 1343); Harrod (1959: 31–2).
42See the introduction to the catalogue of SPSL. Note that the refugees came not only from Germany but also from Austria, Italy, Spain and a few from the USSR.
43Einstein set sail from Southampton on the following Saturday evening: The Times, 9 October 1933, p. 16.
44Einstein to Lindemann, 17 December 1933. LIND D57/27.
45New York Times, 29 December 1934, pp. 1 and 7.
Szilárd’s nuclear epiphany
1Szanton (1992: 94).
2Lanouette (1992: 59–60). See also the remark on Szilárd by Enrico Fermi in the November 1955 edition of Physics Today, pp. 12–16.
3Szanton (1992: 93).
4Szilárd had arrived in London in mid-April 1933: see the letter from Szilárd to Sir William Beveridge, 22 April 1933, SPSL 167/1–2. For a description of Szilárd’s accommodation, see Hobhouse (1971: 199, 207).
5Szilárd (1969: 97–8). Beveridge’s history of the Academic Assistance Council does not mention Szilárd (Beveridge (1959)).
6Szanton (1992: 93–4); Lanouette (1992: 121–7).
7Manchester (1988: 65).
8The Times, 12 September 1933, p. 7. The word covered by the ellipsis is ‘the’, referring to atoms that are split.
9Rutherford’s coolness on the prospect of harnessing nuclear energy was reported on the front page of the New York Times, 12 September 1933 (report continued on p. 18). See also the Los Angeles Times, 12 September 1933, p. 3.
10Manchester Guardian, 12 September 1933, p. 12, and 13 September, p. 7. See also ‘Sayings of the Week’ in the Observer, 17 September 1933, p. 15 (see also p. 16).
11Weart and Szilárd (eds) (1978: 17).
12Weart and Szilárd (eds) (1978: 16).
13Weart and Szilárd (eds) (1978: 17); Lanouette (1992: 134).
14Lanouette (1992: 136).
15Lanouette (1992: 137–8, 140–2). Szilárd soon afterwards consulted Rutherford’s colleague Mark Oliphant: Weart and Szilárd (eds) (1978: 47).
16Letter from Rutherford to Walter Adams of the AAC Council, 30 May 1934, AAC, Szilárd papers.
17Rhodes (1986: 200–2, 209–13).
18Ratcliffe (1975: 462).
19Draft letter from Chadwick to Bainbridge
, dated February 1974, CHAD 13/1.
20Szilárd chose to frame the chain reaction not in terms of neutrons, as he had previously done, but using helium nuclei. Rutherford saw immediately that such a reaction would be impossible.
21Weart and Szilárd (eds) (1978: 46).
22Badash et al. (1986: 209), Bainbridge (1974: 203), correspondence in CHAD IV 13/2.
23Lanouette (1992: 143).
24Weart and Szilárd (eds) (1978: 18n).
25Lanouette (1992: 145–7).
26Thomson to Walter Adam at the AAC, 26 July 1933, GPT J113.
27Weart and Szilárd (eds) (1978: 20).
28Morrell, J., ‘The Lindemann Era’, in Fox and Gooday (eds) (2005: 233–66), see p. 262.
29Arms (1966: 68). Other members of the group included Kurt Mendelssohn and Nicholas Kurti. See the letter from the Oxford University authorities concerning one of the group’s grant applications to the Rockefeller Foundation, 5 August 1933, LIND B15/3.
30Arms (1966: 82).
31Hoch, P. K. (1991) ‘Some Contributions to Physics by German-Jewish Emigres in Britain and Elsewhere’, in Mosse et al. (eds) (1991) pp. 229–54, see p. 236.
32Szilárd to Lindemann, 3 June 1935: Weart and Szilárd (1978: 41–2).
33Lanouette (1992: 170–1).
34Fort (2004: 148–58).
35Lindemann to Groves, 12 July 1945, http://www.dannen.com/decision/lrg-fal.html.
Churchill fears war – and that nuclear energy will soon be harnessed
1WSC speech to Commons concerning Science in War, 21 March 1934: HNSRD.
2WSC to Commons, 7 February 1934, HNSRD.
3WSC to Commons, 30 July 1934, HNSRD.
4‘Angels of Peace’, Manchester Guardian, 7 February 1934, p. 12.
5WSC to Commons, 28 November 1934, HNSRD.
6Brendon (1984: 220).
7WSC, ‘The Effect of Air Transport on Civilization’, News of the World, 8 May 1938 (CHPC 17). CHESSAYS, Vol. 4, pp. 427–34.
8WSC to Commons, 7 June 1935, HNSRD.
9Lindemann to WSC, 22 January 1935, CHAR 2/243/10–11.
10Birkenhead (1961: 178–181).
11Snow (1960a: 6).
12Radar was developed simultaneously in several other countries, including the US and Germany. The committee first met on 28 January 1935, see Zimmerman (2001: 55).
13Edgerton (2011: 107–8); Reynolds (97–8).
14Rowe to Roskill, 7 July 1968, ROSK 7/131.
15Correspondence relating to this meeting is in CAB 21/426.
16WSC to Swinton, 19 November 1936, CHAR 25/7/63–4.
17Quoted in CHBIO, Vol. 5, p. 716.
18Birkenhead (1961: 150–5).
19Rose (1994: 230–3).
20Clarke (2012: 135).
21Letter from Reves to WSC, 24 October 1939, CHUR 2/386, f. 35, 36. See also Jenkins (2001: 523).
22Kipling to WSC, 26 October 1934, CHAR 8/487, ff. 72–3.
23The phrase ‘largest circulation in the world’ was printed on the newspaper’s letterhead. See, for example, the letters from officials of the newspaper to WSC stored in CHAR 8/551.
24Carr to WSC, 30 October 1937, CHUR 8/551.
25‘Vision of the Future Through the Eyes of Science’, News of the World, 31 October 1937, p. 12.
26Compare Muller (ed.) (2009) p. 289 with CHESSAYS, Vol. 4, pp. 410–14, p. 414.
27Chadwick to Feather, 13 August 1971, FEAT 13/2.
28Nature, 30 October 1937, pp. 754–5.
29WSC, ‘Life in a World Controlled by the Scientists’, News of the World, 7 November 1937 (CHAR 8/567).
30Clementine to WSC, 9 August 1937, CHAR 1/322/10.
31Wells to Clementine Churchill, 16 August 1937: Smith (ed.) (1998b: 166). Wells visited Chartwell on 15 August 1937 and signed the visitors’ book.
32WSC to H. G. Wells, 4 July 1937, WELLS C238-11.
33‘A Federation for Peace Is the Hope of the World’, News of the World, 21 November 1937. Republished in CHESSAYS, Vol. 4, pp. 422–6.
34Manchester Guardian, 15 March 1938, p. 11.
35‘The Union of the English-Speaking Peoples’, News of the World, 15 May 1936, CHESSAYS, Vol. 4, pp. 435–42, see p. 435; ‘Europe’s Plea to Roosevelt’, Evening Standard, 10 December 1937, CHPC 16.
36‘Mr Churchill’s Plea to Germany’, Daily Telegraph 19 November 1936, CHPC 15. The words in ellipsis are ‘We must try to do the work ourselves. But’.
37‘Whither Churchill?’, Daily Sketch, 17 March 1938 (CHPC 17); ‘Churchill’, Time and Tide, 28 November 1936, pp. 1567–8, see p. 1567 (CHPC 15).
38WSC to Sir Kingsley Wood, 9 June 1938, CAB 21/630, NA. The consequences are discussed in Zimmerman (2001: 139–41).
39Memo from Tizard to Secretary of State for Air, 22 June 1938, CAB 64/5, NA.
40Sir Frederick Brudrett on Sir Henry Tizard, 22 December 1959: ‘This, indeed, was the only matter on which I ever found Tizard entirely unreasonable, but [Lindemann] was worse.’ BRUN 1/5.
41Birkenhead (1961: 195) Brundrett uses similar words in his testimony on 22 December 1959: ‘in this matter, both these eminent gentlemen behaved like a couple of spoiled children’, BRUN 1/5.
42Cabinet Minutes, 12 September 1938, CAB 23/95, NA. See CHDOCS, Vol. 13, p. 1156.
43Bialer (1980: 158).
44Macmillan (1966: 522).
45‘The Promotion of Peace’, Nature, 8 October 1938, p. 629.
46WSC’s speeches to Parliament, 5 and 6 October 1938.
47WSC to Lindemann, 27 October 1937, LIND K 67/4.
48WSC, ‘What Other Secrets Does the Inventor Hold?’, News of the World, 23 October 1938.
49Review in the Observer, 24 July 1938.
50‘J. B. Priestley’s American Novel’, New York Times, 31 July 1938, p. 72.
Bohr thinks the Bomb is ‘inconceivable’
1French and Kennedy (eds) (1985: 185).
2Bohr (1961: 1115); Bohr to Rutherford, 9 January 1924, RFD.
3Snow (ed.) (1938) pp. 49–76. See pp. 71–2.
4Dirac (1964: 306–9).
5‘Prohibition of Nature in Germany’, Nature, 22 January 1938, p. 151.
6‘Reich Will Last 1000 Years’, Manchester Guardian, 15 December 1938, p. 11.
7Daily Telegraph, 11 November 1938.
8Wheeler, J., ‘Of Historical Note’, Institute for Advanced Study Newsletter, Spring 2010.
9Kevles (1995: 282).
10This was a meeting of the physicists’ ‘journal club’. See Cohen and Stachel (eds) (1979: 343).
11Badash, Hodes and Tiddens (1986: 211).
12Laurence (1947: vii).
13Rhodes (1986: 274–5).
14‘Revolution in Physics’, New York Times, 3 February 1939, p. 11.
15‘The Presidency: Wives’, Time magazine, 13 February 1939.
16LaFollette (2008: 271, note 3).
17LaFollette (2008: 186–7).
18Davis and Potter (1939). This article appears to have been based on the article ‘Is World on Brink of Releasing Atomic Power?’, Science Service, 30 January 1939.
19‘Blown to bits’: Davis and Potter (1939: 86).
20Anderson (1984: 27).
21Weart and Szilárd (eds) (1978: 53).
22Lanouette (1992: 189).
23Weart and Szilárd (eds) (1978: 54).
24Pais (1991: 456).
25Letter from Bohr to Abraham Flexner, 31 May 1939: IAS, Director’s Office Member Series, Box 12a, 1936–47.
26‘Armies on March’, New York Times, 15 March 1939, pp. 1 and 14.
27Wheeler, J., ‘A Few Memories of Bohr and Heisenberg’ (remarks made on 27 March 2000, at a symposium on the play Copenhagen) – private communication from Peter Goddard. See also Wheeler, J., ‘Of Historical Note’, Institute for Advanced Study Newsletter, Spring 2010.
28At a public meeting in late April 1939, however, reports suggest that Bohr did consider that a bomb was possible in principle, if not in practice: ‘Vision Earth Rocked by Isotope Blast’, New York Times, 30 A
pril 1939, p. 35; ‘Physicists Here Debate Whether Experiment Will Blow Up 2 Miles of the Landscape’, Washington Post, 29 April 1939, p. 30.
29Badash, Hodes and Tiddens (1986: 215).
30Weart (1976: 29–30).
31Bohr was in the UK with his son Aage from c.23–28 June 1939 – see correspondence in the NBA.
32See, for example, ‘If War Came’, Manchester Guardian, 26 June 1939, p. 12.
33‘Foreign Affairs’, The Times, 27 June 1939, p. 19.
34‘Incomparable Promise or Awful Threat?’, Scientific American, July 1939, p. 2; Badash, Hodes and Tiddens (1986: 217).
35Sime (1996: 277). The meetings began in April 1939.
36Bohr, N., ‘Recent Investigations of the Transmutations of Atomic Nuclei’, 6 December 1939. Translation in Aaserud (1986: 443–66).
37‘English War Cabinet with Churchill and Eden?’, Politiken, 2 September 1939, p. 2.
Churchill – nuclear weapons will not be ready for the war
1Churchill to Sir Kingsley Wood, 13 August 1939, AIR 19/26, NA (copy in CHAR 25/17).
2Discovery, September 1939, Editorial, pp. 443–4.
3It is tempting to suggest that Bohr hazarded some early version of these views when he visited Cambridge in June 1939 and spoke about nuclear fission at the Kapitza Club. If so, Snow would probably have heard about them directly, or through the grapevine.
4CHBIO, Vol. 5, pp. 1101–2. Manchester (1988: 499).
5Manchester (1988: 519).
6Edgerton (2011: 36).
7Jenkins (2001: 552).
8Colville (1985: 3).
9Manchester (1988: 606).
10Edgerton (2011: 5, 7, 29, 32, 37).
11See, for example, ‘That “Secret” Weapon’, Daily Express, 21 September 1939, p. 2; ‘Hitler’s New Weapon’ – letter to The Times from Leopold Loewenstein-Wertheim, 22 September 1939, p. 9.
12Gowing (1964: 38); crop-eating-locusts suggestion is in the Daily Mirror, 9 November 1939, p. 4; death-ray suggestion – Chatfield to Hankey, 27 November 1939, CAB 21/1262, NA.
13‘At Random’, Observer, 5 February 1939, p. 13.
14‘Scientists Make an Amazing Discovery’, Sunday Express, 30 April 1939, p. 17.
15Fort (2004: 234).
16‘Note on uranium’ by Tizard, c.26 April 1939, CAB 21/1262, NA.
17Lindemann refers to ‘the recently discovered chain processes’, whereas scientists had ascertained only that the processes were possible.
Churchill's Bomb Page 45