SCI/2/5 - Department of Physics - Dating from 1885-2006
Physics Laboratory Cash Book; Papers and correspondence between James Chawick and others concerning the 156" Cyclotron, circa 1936, tape recordings of lecture and conversation with Sir James Chadwick
| Archive level description: | Sub-series |
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| Physical Description: | 3 series |
| Subjects: |
| Summary: | Physics Laboratory Cash Book; Papers and correspondence between James Chawick and others concerning the 156" Cyclotron, circa 1936, tape recordings of lecture and conversation with Sir James Chadwick |
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| Date: | Dating from 1885-2006 |
| Reference Number: | SCI/2/5 |
| Arrangement: | Arranged into three sections:
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| Related Material: | Photographs of the Nuclear Physics Research Laboratories and 156" cyclotron at D155/3/2 and plans and sketches of the New Physics building at D155/4/4-5, as part of the Papers of Duncan NormanFor Photographs of the Physical Society of University College (later the University of Liverpool) see Archive of the University of Liverpool: Records of the Guild of Undergraduates, Student Societies |
| Biographical/Administrative Information: | The Lyon Jones Chair of Experimental Physics and Mathematics was one of the first established in the University College and was held by Oliver Lodge between 1881-1900. Physics was housed in the refurbished Asylum building until 1904, when the George Holt Physics Laboratory was opened. Lionel Robert Wilberforce (great-grandson of the anti-slavery campaigner) took over the Chair of Physics in 1900 when Lodge left Liverpool to become Principal at Birmingham. Albert Einstein visited the department in 1923 and again in 1930. Sir James Chadwick was succeeded in 1935, bringing research in the Physics department into the atomic age with the installation of the cyclotron. The department Chadwick was succeeded in 1948 by Herbert W. B. Skinner who oversaw the acquisition of a new building, the Nuclear Physics Research Laboratory on Mount Plesant in 1952 housing the original cyclotron and a new synchrocylotron and a 1 million volt High Tension Set. In this period the number of students increased; by 1958-1959, there were almost 700 undergraduates and 32 research students. Skinner had also acquired grants from the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research and the UGC to assist developments in the department. The Chadwick Physics Laboratory opend in August 1959. After Skinner’s death in 1960, J M Cassels, previously Chair of Experimental Physics at Liverpool (1956-1959), returned from Cornell University to take up the Lyon Jones Chair. The Oliver Lodge Laboratories were opened in 1969, and the Mount Pleasant Laboratory converted for other use. Work on the synchrocyclotron moved to a new Nuclear Physics Laboratory in Daresbury, Cheshire, in 1966 where a more powerful electron synchrotron accelerator had been built. This was run by the Science Research Council; the first director of the Laboratory was A.C. Merrison who had succeeded Cassels as Chair of Theoretical Physics. A second Chair of Experimental Physics was established in 1964; L.L. Green was the first appointed and followed by J R Holt who took up in a third Chair in 1966. Merrison left in 1969 and was replaced by C E Johnson. The sub-department of Theoretical Physics became a full department in 1961 under Professor Frohlich. |