'Divine right' or democracy? The Royal Society 'revolt' of 1935

Notes and Records of the Royal Society

Volumn 64, Issue SUPPL. 1, 2010, Pages

  Hughes, Jeff ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Ernest Rutherford; Frederick Gowland Hopkins; Frederick soddy; Royal Society Reform; Social responsibility of science movement; William Henry Bragg

Indexed keywords

EID: 77955647256     PISSN: 00359149     EISSN: 17430178     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1098/rsnr.2010.0048     Document Type: Article

References (80)

1. Soddy, 'Suggestion to the Ordinary Fellows of the Royal Society for a Reform Group to uphold their Rights', 19 February 1934, MS Eng. Misc.170, Soddy papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford [hereafter 'Soddy papers'].
2. L. Badash, 'British and American views of the German menace in World War I', Notes Rec. R. Soc. 34, 91-121 (1979), especially at pp. 93-98.
3. E. Hutchinson, 'Scientists and civil servants: the struggle over the National Physical Laboratory in 1918', Minerva 7, 373-398 (1968-69)
4. R. Moseley, 'Government science and the Royal Society: the control of the National Physical Laboratory in the inter-war years', Notes Rec. R. Soc. 35, 167-193 (1980).
5. The £14 617 debt from this project was written off in 1935. See The Record of the Royal Society of London for the Promotion of Natural Knowledge, 4th edn (Royal Society, London, 1940), at pp. 193-195 [hereafter Record 1940];
6. H. Lyons, The Royal Society, 1660-1940. A history of its administration under its charters (Cambridge University Press, 1944), at p. 310.
7. Record 1940, at p. 111.
8. B. Schroeder-Gudehus, 'Challenge to transnational loyalties: international scientific organisations after the First World War', Sci. Stud. 3, 93-118 (1973)
9. A. G. Cock, 'Chauvinism and internationalism in science: the International Research Council, 1919-1926', Notes Ree. R. Soc. 37, 249-288 (1983)
10. The International Research Council became the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU) in 1931
11. see F. Greenaway, Science international: a history of the International Council of Scientific Unions (Cambridge University Press, 1996).
12. Record 1940, at p. 190.
13. On the earlier history of the Grant-in-Aid see R. M. MacLeod, 'The Royal Society and the Government grant: notes on the administration of scientific research', Hist. J. 14, 323-358 (1971).
14. E. G. T. Liddell, 'Charles Scott Sherrington, 1857-1952', Obit. Not. Fell. R. Soc. 8, 241-270 (1952).
15. Record 1940, at pp. 191-192.
16. E. A. Milne, Sir James Jeans: a biography. With a memoir by S. C. Roberts (Cambridge University Press, 1952), at pp. 32-58
17. J. D. G. Davies, 'Ronald Winckworth, 1884-1950', Notes Rec. R. Soc. 8, 293-296 (1951).
18. Record 1940, at pp. 119-130.
19. J. Mason, 'The admission of the first women to the Royal Society of London', Notes Rec. R. Soc. 46, 279-300 (1992), at p. 280.
20. H. H. Dale, 'Henry George Lyons, 1864-1944', Obit. Not. Fell. R. Soc. 4, 795-809 (1944), especially at p. 804.
21. H. E. Armstrong to Rutherford, 21 March 1926, quoted in D. Wilson, Rutherford: simple genius (Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1983), at p. 465.
22. Statute 12 allowed Council to recommend the election of 'persons who, in their opinion, either have rendered conspicuous service to the cause of science, or are such that their election would be of signal benefit to the Society.' See Yearbook of the Royal Society of London (Harrison & Sons, London, 1936), at p. 74.
23. Wilson, Yearbook of the Royal Society of London, op. cit. (note 13), at pp. 496-537.
24. On pre-1945 'Big Science' see J. Hughes, The Manhattan Project: Big Science and the bomb (Icon Books, Cambridge, 2002).
25. H. E. Armstrong, 'Foreign scientists in Britain. Professor Kapitza's recall to Russia', The Times (7 May 1935)
26. reprinted in L. Badash, Kapitza, Rutherford, and the Kremlin (Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 1985), at p. 123.
27. Among a large literature, see for example G. Werskey, The visible college. A collective biography of British scientists and socialists of the 1930s (Free Association Books, London, 1978)
28. W. McGucken, Scientists, society and state. The social relations ofscience movement in Great Britain, 1931-1947 (Ohio State University Press, Columbus, OH, 1984)
29. P. Collins, 'The British Association as a public apologist for science, 1919-1946', in The parliament of science. The British Association for the Advancement of Science 1831-1981 (ed. R. MacLeod and P. Collins), pp. 211-236 (Science Reviews Ltd, Northwood, 1981).
30. S. Shapin and S. Schaffer, Leviathan and the air-pump. Hobbes, Boyle, and the experimental life (Princeton University Press, 1985).
31. N. Smart, The National Government, 1931-40 (Macmillan, Basingstoke, 1999).
32. 'Democracy and leadership. A manifesto', Manchester Guardian (15 February), 20 (1934).
33. This was followed by 'Liberty and democratic leadership. Four fundamental issues. Manifesto by representative citizens', Manchester Guardian (17 May), 7 (1934).
34. The manifesto was subsequently expanded in The next five years. An essay in political agreement (Macmillan, London, 1935).
35. Rutherford was a signatory to all three manifestos. A. Marwick, 'Middle opinion in the thirties: planning, progress and political "agreement" ', Engl. Hist. Rev. 79, 285-298 (1964)
36. T. C. Kennedy, 'The Next Five Years group and the failure of the politics of agreement in Britain', Can. J. Hist. 9, 45-68 (1974).
37. On debates about the proper moral conduct of the scientist in the twentieth century, see S. Shapin, The scientific life: a moral history of a late modern vocation (University of Chicago Press, 2008).
38. L. Merricks, The world made new. Frederick Soddy, science, politics, and environment (Oxford University Press, 1996)
39. G. B. Kauffman (ed.), Frederick Soddy (1877-1956) (D. Reidel, Dordrecht, 1986).
40. J. B. Morrell, Science at Oxford 1914-1939. Transforming an arts university (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1997), at pp. 324-326 and 353-356
41. A. D. Cruickshank, 'Soddy at Oxford', in Kauffman, op. cit., Science at Oxford 1914-1939. Transforming an arts university (note 23), at pp. 157-170.
42. M. Howorth, Pioneer research on the atom. Rutherford and Soddy in a glorious chapter of science. The life story of Frederick Soddy (New World Publications, London, 1958), at p. 234. Howorth's hagiography should be treated, however, with much caution.
43. H. E. Daly, 'The economic thought of Frederick Soddy', in Kauffman, op. cit.,Pioneer research on the atom. Rutherford and Soddy in a glorious chapter of science. The life story of Frederick Soddy (note 23), at pp. 199-218.
44. On Soddy's economic and political activities in this period see Merricks, op. cit., 'The economic thought of Frederick Soddy', Pioneer research on the atom. Rutherford and Soddy in a glorious chapter of science. The life story of Frederick Soddy (note 23), at pp. 108-155.
45. F. Soddy, 'Foreword', in The frustration of science by D. Hall et al., pp. 7-9 (George Allen & Unwin, London, 1935), at pp. 7 and 9.
46. For a brief account of this episode (and of Rutherford's response to the Tutin atom)
47. see R. V. Jones, 'Oxford physics in transition, 1929-39', in The making of physicists (ed. R. Williamson), pp. 113-126 (Hilger, Bristol, 1987), at p. 123.
48. Register of papers, Series A (Jan. 1933 - Jun. 1939), entry 197, Royal Society Archives.
49. Minutes of the Sectional Committee for Physics, 25 January 1934, CMB272, Royal Society Archives.
50. J. Tutin, The atom (Longmans, Green & Co., London, 1934).
51. Soddy, op. cit., The atom (note 1) 1934.
52. 'To the Council of the Royal Society , memorandum dated October 1934, Soddy papers.
53. Ibid. Soddy, The atom, 1934.
54. 'To the Council of the Royal Society , memorandum dated 'October 1934 to February 1935 , Soddy papers.
55. Royal Society Council Minutes, 28 February 1935 and 7 March 1935, Royal Society Archives.
56. 'Election and tenure of the Officers and the Council of the Royal Society', March 1935, MDA.B2.5, Royal Society Archives.
57. Soddy to Fellows of the Royal Society, 21 June 1935, Soddy papers.
58. See correspondence in MDA.B2.5, Royal Society Archives.
59. On Hall, see E. J. Russell, 'Alfred Daniel Hall', Obit. Not. Fell. R. Soc. 4, 229-250 (1942)
60. H. E. Dale, Daniel Hall: pioneer in scientific agriculture (John Murray, London, 1956).
61. 'Unofficial notice that the election will be contested', Soddy papers.
62. 'Challenge within the Royal Society', Manchester Guardian (3 December), 12 (1935).
63. F. G. Hopkins, 'Address of the President, Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins, OM, at the Anniversary Meeting, November 30, 1935', Proc. R. Soc. A 153, 247-272 (1935), at p. 263.
64. 'The Royal Society. Burlington House. Ballotting list - November 30th, 1935', MDA.32.5, Royal Society Archives.
65. Op. cit., The Royal Society. Burlington House. Ballotting list - November 30th, 1935 (note 43).
66. 'Work of the Royal Society, The Times (2 December), 19 (1935).
67. G. Caroe, William Henry Bragg 1862-1942. Man and scientist (Cambridge University Press, 1978).
68. Op. cit., G. Caroe, William Henry Bragg 1862-1942. Man and scientist, 1978 (note 43).
69. W. G. Farr, 'Revolt in the Royal Society', Daily Mail (2 December), 13-14 (1935), at p. 13.
70. H. Dale to H. Lyons, 2 December 1935, MS570, Science Museum Library and Archives, Wroughton.
71. 'Royal Society revolt. Officials' reply', Daily Mail (3 December), 4 (1935).
72. 'Royal Society. Demand for reform , Sydney Morning Herald (23 December 1935), clipping in Soddy papers.
73. The Royal Society. Occasional notices (The Royal Society, London, April 1937), at p. 1.
74. W. H. Bragg to A. V. Hill, 30 July 1937, AVHL I 3/8, A. V. Hill papers, Churchill College, Cambridge.
75. 'Editorial', Notes Rec. R. Soc. 1 (April), 1 (1938)
76. A. V. Hill, 'J. D. Griffith Davies, 1899-1953', Notes Rec. R. Soc. 11, 129-133 (1955)
77. Henry Lyons diary, 1937, MS570, Science Museum Library and Archives, Wroughton.
78. E. F. Armstrong to Soddy, 30 May 1938, quoted in Howorth, op. cit. (note 25), at p. 235.
79. H. Lyons, op. cit. (note 4).
80. R. MacLeod, 'Whigs and savants: reflections on the reform movement in the Royal Society, 1830-48', in Metropolis and province. Science in British culture, 1780-1850 (ed. I. Inkster and J. Morrell), pp. 55-90 (Hutchinson, London, 1983), at p. 55.