Abstract
In the inter-war years Soddy held the Dr. Lee’s Professorship of Chemistry at Oxford University. During this period it appeared that Soddy had abandoned scientific research in order to indulge in ill-informed sociological and economic theorising. Insofar as Soddy did become scientifically unproductive, this paper investigates the reasons for his failure to maintain in the inter-war years the high standard of research he had achieved prior to World War I.
Reprinted from The British Journal for the History of Science 12: 42 (November 1979): 277–88.
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Notes
General biographical details have been obtained from the following sources: F. Soddy, Extracts from Royal Society, “Personal Records of F. Soddy”, Soddy Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford, Catalogue Number 2 (Hereafter SCB 2); F. Soddy, ‘Nobel prizeman in chemistry 1921 (awarded 1922)’, 7 July 1950, (SCB 2); A. Fleck, ‘Frederick Soddy’, Biographical memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, 1957, 3, 203–13; A. Fleck, ‘Frederick Soddy’ (Obituary), Nature, 1956,178, 893; F. Paneth, ‘A tribute to F. Soddy’, Nature, 1957, 180, 1085–7; E. J. Bowen, ‘Note on Frederick Soddy’, 29 January 1974 (SCB 1); F. M. Brewer, ‘Frederick Soddy’, in M. Howorth (ed.), An appreciation of Professor Frederick Soddy, London, 1956, pp. 12–15 (SCB 28).
F. Soddy, ‘Resume of Original Investigations, 1900–1913, of Frederick Soddy’ (SCB 3); ‘The Joint Researches of Sir William Ramsay and Frederick Soddy’, March 1946 (SCB 2); ‘The Origins of the Conception of Isotopes’, Nobel Lecture delivered at Stockholm, 12 December 1922 (Stockholm, 1923). For biographical and scientific details (and further bibliography) see T. J. Trenn, ‘Soddy, Frederick’, in C. C. Gillispie (ed.), Dictionary of Scientific Biography, New York, 1976, xiii, 504–9. I have written my own commentary on this work: A. D. Cruickshank, ‘Soddy, Science, and Society’, University of Oxford BA (Chemistry) Part II dissertation, 1976.
Professor Soddy’, The Crucible, 1919, 2, 17–19 (SCB 15); W. T. H. Williamson, ‘Soddy’s War-Work at Aberdeen’ (SCB 32); for a recent study see Kenneth R. Page, ‘Frederick Soddy: The Aberdeen Interlude’, Aberdeen University Review, 1979, 40, 127– 48.
F. Soddy, ‘The Wider Aspects of the Discovery of Atomic Disintegration — Contrasting Experimental Facts with the Mathematical Theories’, address to the Fourth conference of Nobel prizewinners, 30 June 1954, (London, 1954) (SCB 44).
F. Soddy, ‘Science and the state’, presidential address to Aberdeen University Scientific Society, in F. Soddy, Science and Life, London, 1920, chapter IV.
F. Soddy, ‘The Public Support of Scientific Work’, address to the National Union of Scientific Workers, Scientific Worker, 1920, 1, 15–20 (SCB 44).
F. Soddy, ‘Petition — To the King’s Most Excellent Majesty in Council — The humble petition of Frederick Soddy’, 19 September 1927 (SCB 18). ‘Reply of the University of Oxford to the Petition dated 19 September 1927 — To the King’s Most Excellent Majesty in Council — The humble petition of Frederick Soddy’, 21 March 1928 (SCB 18).
F. Soddy, ‘Scientific and Sociological — The Social Abuse of Science’, lecture delivered at Aberdeen, 1 November 1918 (SCB 114).
A. J. Toynbee,,4 Study of History, 18 vols., Oxford, 1962.
P. G. Werskey, ‘British Scientists and Outsider Politics, 1931–45’, Science Studies, 1971, 1, 67–83.
H. Rose and S. Rose, Science and Society, Harmondsworth, 1971, 52–4.
C. H. Douglas, Economic Democracy: Credit Power and Democracy, London, 1920. Soddy’s economic thinking is more fully detailed in the article by T. J. Trenn, chapter 10.
F. Soddy, The Inversion of Science, and a Scheme of Scientific Reformation, London, 1924, p. 10.
F. Soddy, ‘Summation of Infinite Harmonic Series’, Proceedings of the Royal Society, 1941–2, 179A, 377–86; ‘The Three Infinite Harmonic Series and Their Sums’, ibid., 1943–4, 182A, 113–29; ‘The Kiss Precise’, Nature, 1936, 137, 1021; ‘The Hexlet’, ibid., p. 958. Soddy’s mathematical notebooks and the card on which he wrote his instructions to his executors are in SCB 46–9.
F. Soddy to N. Hinshelwood, 6 February 1937 (SCB 236), and other material in SCB 236.
F. Soddy to M. Howorth, 22 February 1955 (SCB 29).
F. Soddy to M. Howorth, 25 December 1952 (SCB 29).
C. Clark, ‘The Aberration of Genius’, The tablet, 13 October 1956, pp. 298–300 (SCB 45).
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© 1986 D. Reidel Publishing Company
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Cruickshank, A.D. (1986). Soddy at Oxford. In: Kauffman, G.B. (eds) Frederick Soddy (1877–1956). Chemists and Chemistry, vol 6. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-5297-3_11
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