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Home , Horace Lamb, William Henry Bragg

207 East Terrace – Public Schools Club

STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: This house was the family home of and William , the father and son joint recipients of the for in 1915. Theirs is one of only two Nobel Prizes awarded a South Australian, the other being awarded to Sir , and the only Nobel Prize for Physics awarded to Australians. The house, designed by , was their family home for nine years, during which time Lawrence was completing the first stage of his tertiary education and his father was undertaking the early experiments and research in the field which was to bring them, nearly two decades later, the highest recognition. (HB Assessment Report 9/2004).

RELEVANT CRITERIA (Under Section 16 of the Heritage Act 1993): (g) it has a special association with the life or work of a person or organisation or an event of historical importance.

In February 1886 William Henry Bragg arrived in from to take up the position of Chair of at the University of . Trained as a , Bragg was to discover the field of physics during his time in Adelaide, being required to also teach and demonstrate physics as well as maths at the University.

A keen scientist, Bragg enthusiastically followed developments in physics overseas, and reproduced many of the new discoveries in Adelaide, including that of X-rays by Professor Rontgen in 1895. Bragg's interest in these new rays continued (he was the first to produce an X-ray photograph, of his hand, in South Australia) and was the basis of his future research which eventually led in 1915 to the awarding of the Nobel Prize for Physics to himself and his son, William Lawrence.

Bragg's personal life also flourished while he was in South Australia. In June 1889 he married Gwendoline, the daughter of , then Postmaster-General and Director of the Adelaide Observatory. The couple rented a house in North Adelaide where their two sons were born: William Lawrence in March 1890 and Robert Charles in November 1892. The family lived in this house for 8 years before returning to England for a year's study leave in 1898.

On returning to Adelaide, Bragg purchased a block of land on East Terrace and designed the house that was built on it in 1899. This house was to be the third home of William Bragg in Adelaide. His first three years in Adelaide were spent boarding at Dr Lendon's house on North Terrace. The nine years that the Bragg family lived in the East Terrace house were formative ones for both William and Lawrence. Lawrence completed his schooling and tertiary education and his father continued in his first professional position and began the experiments in X-rays that were to bring him and Lawrence the highest of accolades.

Although the actual work which earned father and son the Nobel Prize for Physics was undertaken after they had returned to England in 1909, the groundwork of education, teaching and researching physics was done in Adelaide, part of which time was spent at 207 East Terrace. It is likely that most of this work was undertaken at the , although it is also likely that the house was an integral part of this process - the homework, checking of research notes and social and family activities which supported the Bragg's scientific creativity.

BRIEF HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

William Henry and William Lawrence Bragg.

William Henry Bragg was born in Westward, Cumberland on 2 July 1862. After a quiet childhood and education at Market Harborough (where an aptitude for science subjects became apparent) and King William's College on the Isle of Man, William's 'exceptional mathematical ability' resulted in the award of a Minor Scholarship to Trinity College, , where he moved to in 1881 (Jenkin, p. 1, 3).

At Cambridge he studied Mathematics and excelled in that subject over the next three years (www.nobel.se/physics/laureates/1915/wh-bragg-bio.html). After sitting examinations for the in 1884, Bragg was both 'astounded and overjoyed' to be placed as Third Wrangler (that is, third in the rank of Honours) (Tomlin, p. 18. Jenkin, p. 7). He later completed the Tripos examination and achieved a First in January 1885. On finishing his mathematics studies he turned to physics, studying such subjects as waves and sound, optics and the theory of light in the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge for part of that year (www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/ bsparcs/exhib/nobel/braggw.htm; Jenkin, p. 7).

Towards the end of 1885 , who held the Chair of Mathematics at the University of Adelaide, resigned to return to work in England. The vacancy was advertised in the British press and had been noted by Bragg, who considered that at 23 and with no teaching experience his chances of appointment would be slight. However he was encouraged to apply by his lecturer, J J Thomson (who was also on the selection committee to appoint a successor to Lamb, and was himself awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1906 for his work on the investigation of the conduction of electricity by gases). Inspired by Thomson's support, Bragg hastily applied for the position, telegraphing his application on the closing date for entries (Medlin, p. 10).

Although there were 23 candidates, Bragg was one of three short-listed for interview. He was notified of his success by a telegram which read 'As new Professor of Mathematics and Physics in Adelaide University would you give some particulars of your career.' (Medlin, p. 10). Formally this position was for mathematics, although it seems to have been 'informally' expanded to include physics, referred to in the 1887 University Calendar as the 'Elder Professor of Pure and Applied Mathematics, who shall also give instruction in Physics' (Tomlin, p. 21). Bragg was delighted in the appointment which, he wrote later, gave him an 'assured position, a salary beyond all expectation [#800], a new country with all the adventure of going abroad to it, a break away from being a subject, to be now my own master'. (cited in Tomlin, p. 20).

On 14 January 1886 Bragg left England on the P&O ship Rome and used the voyage time to read text books on physics and brush up on his knowledge in that field, having only spent a short time studying physics at Cavendish.

Bragg disembarked at Glenelg on 27 February 1886 and was met on the following day by Dr Alfred Lendon who took Bragg on a tour of Adelaide during his rounds (it is not clear how Bragg made his acquaintance) (Jenkin, p. 9). Lendon invited Bragg to board with him in his house on North Terrace, opposite the University, and Bragg stayed there for three years (Jenkin, p. 9). Bragg also made early acquaintance with the Todd family. He had already met Charles Todd (then Director of the Adelaide Observatory and Postmaster-General). Todd, who was in England at the time that Bragg had applied for the position at Adelaide University, had been invited to the interview panel, together with Professor Lamb, J J Thomson and Sir Arthur Blyth (the Agent-General for South Australia) (Medlin, p. 10). Bragg was both impressed and delighted with the Todd family: Charles and his wife Alice, their two sons (Charles and Hedley) and particularly their four daughters, Lizzie, Maude, Gwendoline and Lorna and became a regular visitor to their household (Jenkin, p. 11).

During this time, Bragg and Gwendoline Todd began a relationship which was to lead to their engagement in January 1888 and to their marriage on 1 June 1889 in St Luke's Church, Whitmore Square (SHR 13598) (Jenkin, p. 11, 23). The couple rented a two storey terrace house in North Adelaide at 58 LeFevre Terrace (SHR 12831) on the corner of Tynte Street, from Henry Steiner, an Adelaide jeweller. It was here that their first son, William Lawrence was born on 31 March 1890, followed by their second, Robert Charles on 25 November 1892 (Jenkin, p. 23).

William Henry Bragg took up his work at the University of Adelaide with enthusiasm. He was 'responsible for all the pure and applied mathematics and all the physics and practical physics teaching, and for much of the secondary-school public examining in these subjects as well.' (Jenkin, p. 13). He even went to a firm of instrument makers to learn how to make apparatus to fill the deficiencies of his teaching laboratory (Tomlin, p. 21). Bragg was concerned that the practical aspect of the sciences was deficient at both the University and schools. He addressed the deficiency within the University by establishing systematic practical courses which he himself instructed for many years with very little assistance (Medlin, p. 12). From being one of 'the least impressive of lecturers', Bragg soon developed skills in clear presentation and demonstration and found great satisfaction in sharing his knowledge with both students and public audiences alike (Medlin, p. 12).

Over a period of years he gave a series of extension lectures, the subjects of which included radiation, X-rays and sound (Tomlin, p. 24) and always kept a keen interest in new developments in physics and news from overseas, incorporating these into his lectures. His attention was particularly attracted by X-rays. News of the discovery of X-rays by Professor Rontgen in Germany in December 1895, reached Australia in January 1896. Several Australian , including Bragg, found ways to replicate Rontgen's discovery. The production of the first X-ray picture in Australia is credited to Professor Lyle in Melbourne (Tomlin, p. 25). Bragg wasted no time collecting and making the necessary equipment to produce X-rays, including the hard-to-come-by vacuum tubes. Bragg demonstrated his success in private demonstrations and in public lectures, given in the University Library (now the main first floor room in the Mitchell Building), producing an X-ray image of his hand on 1 June 1896, the first X-ray photograph to be taken in South Australia (Jenkin, p. 27; Tomlin, p. 27). Although only six at the time, young Lawrence Bragg became one of the earliest recipients of an X-ray taken for medical use after smashing his elbow in a bicycle fall. The experience, down in his father's laboratory at the University, was no doubt one of his first in practical physics.

In July 1897 Bragg applied for, and received from the University, leave of absence to return to England in 1898 where he would be able to 'study the advances both of [physics] itself and the methods of teaching it.' (Jenkin, p. 33). William and Gwendoline left Adelaide in December 1897, to be joined later by their sons. While William was busy with the various activities he had set himself, Gwendoline and the boys stayed in Cambridge and in uncle William Bragg's house, 'Catherwood' in Market Harborough (Jenkin, p. 33).

207 East Terrace

Alice Todd, Gwendoline's mother, had died while they were overseas and after returning to Adelaide in March 1899, the Braggs stayed with Charles Todd for several months. In June 1899 Bragg purchased a block of land on the corner of East Terrace and Carrington Street, which had an outlook similar to that of the North Adelaide house, looking over the parklands to the Adelaide Hills (CT 647/48). Bragg had designed a house in the Edwardian style, with pronounced gables and apparently had to make a model of the building for Gwendoline, who could not understand plans (Jenkin, p. 35). There is little else known about the origins of the house. Adelaide City Council records for 1898-99 note that plans were approved on 14 August 1899 for two residences on Town Acre 431 on East Terrace; one application from Brown and Peel and the other from H A Parsons (ACC Digest of Proceedings, 1898-99, p. 249). There is no other reference to TA 431 in that year. One of the applicants, H A Parsons, is listed in the Directories for 1898 as a solicitor, so it can be reasonably assumed that Brown and Peel were the builders for the Bragg's house.

A foundation stone, mounted on a wall on the verandah, was laid by Charles Todd on 9 September 1899 and bears the inscription: 'In situ posuit, C. Todd, 9 Sept. 1899'.

The Braggs were to remain in the East Terrace house for just on nine years, during which time Lawrence completed his secondary education and first university degree and his sister, Gwendoline Mary was born in 1907 (Caroe, p. 35). Lawrence attended the private Queen's School in Barton Terrace, North Adelaide for two years after the family returned from England (Jenkin, p. 37). In 1901 Lawrence entered St Peter's College at the age of 11. Here he studied languages and maths and chemistry, but not physics. He excelled at school, being top of the class in Mathematics, Chemistry and French and passed the Higher public examination in 1905 with credits in Pure and Applied Mathematics and Inorganic Chemistry (Jenkin, p. 51). He had completed his secondary education at the age of 15.

Lawrence enrolled in Physics, Inorganic Chemistry, and Pure Mathematics (the latter at a second year level) at the University of Adelaide in 1906 and obtained a First Class pass in all subjects. He continued with Pure and Applied Maths, Physics and Chemistry in 1907, and given the subjects chosen, there is no doubt that he was taught, in the main, by his father (Jenkin, p. 63). Undertaking the honours mathematics course in 1908, Lawrence graduated with a BA with first-class honours. It is interesting to note that, like his father, Lawrence did not focus on physics during his early university training, but was to pick it up later when studying at Cambridge.

It was not until 1904 that William Henry Bragg began to seriously consider taking an active part in research. In all the time that he was in Adelaide he had 'followed, studied and explained new scientific developments, and repeated experiments' (Caroe, p. 43) but had not 'published any significant piece of original work' (Tomlin, p. 33). His duties at the University would have allowed little time for research in between lecturing and giving laboratory classes, and research at that time was not considered a profession in itself, it was merely a consequence of academic employment (Medlin, p. 15). However, in January 1904 Bragg was to give the Presidential address to the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science (now known as ANZAAS) in Dunedin, a task which was to change the course of his career. In researching for his paper entitled 'On some recent advances in the theory of the ionization of gases', he came 'upon some results described by Mme Curie which seemed to me capable of only one interpretation, and that an interpretation which had not yet been suggested': that particles of 'alpha' radiation must actually travel through atoms of air that it met, that there is, therefore, a moment when two atoms - the alpha-particle and atom of air - occupy the same space (Caroe, p. 43-44). Although this idea was contrary to all that Bragg understood, he knew it was right and tested his hypothesis by experiment on returning to Adelaide.

Equipment and materials were purchased and set up in Bragg's laboratory in the basement of the Mitchell building at the University and a series of experiments on alpha-particles and gamma rays was undertaken over the next few years. An outcome of these experiments was further work into the nature of X-rays. Bragg renewed his suggestion (made when X-rays were first investigated, and at the time of discovery of gamma-rays) that they might consist of material particles. 'He proposed that a gamma-ray was a neutral pair, a positive and negative particle combined, which would have great penetrating power, be uninfluenced by magnetic and electric fields and which would ultimately suffer a violent encounter, from which its negative component would emerge as a secondary electron.' (Jenkin, p. 65). His experiments with gamma-rays set out to prove his neutral pair theory: the liberated electrons would fly off predominantly in the forward direction, rather than equally in all directions (Jenkin, p. 65). Future developments have shown that this theory is untenable, but they had established Bragg's reputation as a ' of the first rank' (Medlin, p. 22).

This repute had some effect. Firstly, Bragg was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in March 1907, nominated by many of his peers, including J J Thomson who had helped to select Bragg for the Adelaide University professorship, Horace Lamb and (newly appointed Langworthy Professor of Physics at University and later recipient of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1908). Secondly, there were offers from other universities: to be the first Professor of Theoretical Physics at McGill University, Canada (as a replacement for Rutherford) in 1906 (which did not eventuate due to the effect of a fire at the University on its finances) and to the Cavendish Professor of Physics at the in 1908. The University of Leeds was so keen to have Bragg on its staff that it offered to provide him with a retirement allowance as well as a minimum budget of #1,000 for equipment (Jenkin, p. 37; Medlin, p. 22). It seems that Bragg may have been reluctant to accept this at first. he 'loved Adelaide, and industrial Leeds was far less attractive' (Jenkin, p. 37), but the prospect of more time for research (less teaching), better facilities and greater opportunities to meet with others in his field was too tempting and he tendered his resignation from the University of Adelaide in April 1908.

William, Gwendoline, Lawrence, Robert and their sister Gwendoline left Adelaide for the last time on the Waratah in January 1909.

The East Terrace house was sold to James Wallace Sandford, a merchant, In March 1913. Following the death of Sandford in July 1958, the property was acquired by the Public Schools Club in November 1959 (LTO CT647/48). Adelaide City Council records indicate that additions to the club were granted special approval, with conditions, on 15 July 1968 (ACC Digest of Proceedings, 1968- 69, p. 27).

Nobel Prize

William Bragg held the position of Cavendish Professor of Physics at Leeds University from 1909 to 1915. Lawrence entered Trinity College, Cambridge, starting in Mathematics but later transferring to Physics, graduating with first class Honours in June 1912, and stayed at Cambridge to begin research work at the Cavendish Laboratory.

From 1912 to 1914 Lawrence worked with his father, via correspondence, researching X-rays and crystal structure. William built an X-ray spectrometer and other equipment to further study the properties of X-rays, while Lawrence investigated van Laue X-ray patterns and identified that X-rays were explained in part as waves and also as particles. From this he formulated Bragg's law, which led to a means of locating atoms in crystals. With the spectrometer William 'started by exploring further his study of radiation, while [Lawrence] set out to analyse the arrangement of atoms within the crystal. But the two sides of the work soon merged into the new science of X-ray .' (Caroe, p. 74). Lawrence had provided the idea, William the means by which it could be tested and used (Caroe, p. 74).

The results of their work were published in 1915 in X-Rays and Crystal Structure (1915). It was this work - the use of X-rays for revealing the way in which crystals are built - for which they were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 'for their services in the analysis of crystal structure by means of X-rays'. (Jenkin, p. 79).

The Braggs received one of only 8 Nobel Prizes that have been awarded to Australians and are the only Australian recipients of the Prize for Physics. The only other South Australian born Nobel Laureate was Sir William Florey (b. 1898) who won the Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1945 for his work with Sir Alexander Fleming and Sir Ernest Boris Chain 'for the discovery of penicillin and its curative effect in various infectious diseases.' Florey lived at 'Coreega' (SHR 11515) in Springfield for 15 years but, like the Braggs, undertook most of his research and postgraduate education overseas, rather than in Adelaide.

In 1919 Lawrence was appointed Professor of Physics at Victoria University, Manchester. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1921 and became the Director of the National Physical Laboratory at Teddington, Middlesex, in 1937 and held the position of Cavendish Professor of , Cambridge from 1938 to 1954. He was knighted in 1941 and retired from active scientific work in 1965. He died in July 1971.

William Bragg became Professor of Physics at the University College, London in 1915, where he remained until 1923. He was knighted in 1920 and was director of the until 1942 and President of the Royal Society from 1935-1940. He died in March 1942 at the age of 79 (www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/ bsparcs/exhib/nobel/braggw.htm).

The Bragg Laboratories (SHR 13757) at the University of Adelaide were opened in 1962 to commemorate the centenary of William Henry Bragg's birth.

REFERENCES

Lands Titles Office, CT 647/48

Heritage Branch files: Dwelling, 58-60 Lefevre Terrace, North Adelaide (12831) Mitchell Building, The University of Adelaide (10879) Bragg Laboratories, The University of Adelaide (13757)

Jenkin, J. c1986, The Bragg Family in Adelaide: a pictorial celebration, University of Adelaide Foundation in conjunction with La Trobe University

Caroe, G. M., 1978, William Henry Bragg, 1862-1942: Man and Scientist, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

Bulbeck, F. P. 1998, Some Plaques and Memorials of South Australia, vol. 1, Author, Adelaide

University of Adelaide, Bragg centenary, 1886-1986, [Centenary delegates portfolio] University of Adelaide, Adelaide, 1986 Tomlin, S. G., 1974, Physics and physicists in the University of Adelaide, Department of Physics, Adelaide University Medlin, E. H. (ed.), 1986, Some Reflections on Physics at the University of Adelaide, Department of Physics, Adelaide University

South Australian Directories, 1898, 1899

Adelaide City Council, Digest of Proceedings 1898-1899; 1968-69