From nuclear transmutation to nuclear fission, 1932-1939

The volume deals with a particular phase in the early history of nuclear physics: what in effect became a race between four laboratory teams to be the first to achieve the transmutation of atomic nuclei with artificially accelerated nuclear projectiles (protons) in high-voltage discharge tubes. (Earlier experiments under Ernest Rutherford had relied on alpha-particles from radium in the disintegration of atomic nuclei.) The laboratories and their team leaders were as follows: John D.

Cockcroft at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, England; Ernest O.

Lawrence at the Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley, California; Merle A.

Tuve in the Carnegie Institution of Washington; Charles C.

Lauritsen at the Kellogg Radiation Laboratory in Pasadena, CA.

As is generally known, the "race" was won by the English team in 1932; however, the details of the race are less well known.

The volume covers the background for the development of particle accelerators in the 1920s, the growth of the laboratories and their teams, the race itself and its aftermath.Rounding out the volume, it also covers the reaction of the different laboratories to the discovery of nuclear fission, their wartime roles, and a brief epilogue on the later careers of the principal personalities.

While focusing on a particular theme in early modern physics, the book thus also provides an overview of the history of nuclear physics, from Rutherford's nuclear atom of 1911 to nuclear fission on the eve of World War II.