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Frederick Soddy

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Frederick Soddy
Soddy in 1921
Born(1877-09-02)2 September 1877
Eastbourne,Sussex,England
Died22 September 1956(1956-09-22)(aged 79)
Brighton,Sussex, England
NationalityBritish
Alma mater
Known for
SpouseWinifred Beilby[2]
Awards
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions

Frederick SoddyFRS[1](2 September 1877 – 22 September 1956) was anEnglishradiochemistwho explained, withErnest Rutherford,thatradioactivityis due to thetransmutationofelements,now known to involvenuclear reactions.He also proved the existence ofisotopesof certain radioactive elements.[3][4][5]In 1921 he received theNobel Prize in Chemistry"for his contributions to our knowledge of the chemistry of radioactive substances, and his investigations into the origin and nature of isotopes". Soddy was apolymathwho masteredchemistry,nuclear physics,statistical mechanics,financeandeconomics.[6][7]

Biography[edit]

Soddy was born at 6 Bolton Road,Eastbourne,England,[8]the son of Benjamin Soddy, corn merchant, and his wife Hannah Green. He went to school atEastbourne College,before going on to study atUniversity College of Wales at Aberystwythand atMerton College, Oxford,where he graduated in 1898 with first class honours in chemistry.[2]He was a researcher atOxfordfrom 1898 to 1900.

Scientific career[edit]

In 1900 he became a demonstrator inchemistryatMcGill UniversityinMontreal,Quebec,where he worked withErnest Rutherfordonradioactivity.[9][2] He and Rutherford realized that the anomalous behaviour of radioactive elements was because theydecayedinto other elements. This decay also producedalpha,beta,andgamma radiation.When radioactivity was first discovered, no one was sure what the cause was. It needed careful work by Soddy and Rutherford to prove that atomictransmutationwas in fact occurring.[10]

In 1903, with SirWilliam RamsayatUniversity College London,Soddy showed that the decay ofradiumproducedheliumgas.[2]In the experiment a sample of radium was enclosed in a thin-walled glass envelope sited within an evacuated glass bulb. After leaving the experiment running for a long period of time, a spectral analysis of the contents of the former evacuated space revealed the presence of helium.[11]Later in 1907, Rutherford andThomas Roydsshowed that the helium was first formed as positively charged nuclei of helium (He2+) which were identical toalpha particles,which could pass through the thin glass wall but were contained within the surrounding glass envelope.[12]

From 1904 to 1914, Soddy was a lecturer at theUniversity of Glasgow.Ruth Pirretworked as his research assistant during this time.[13]In May 1910 Soddy was elected aFellow of the Royal Society.[1]In 1914 he was appointed to a chair at theUniversity of Aberdeen,where he worked on research related toWorld War I.

In 1913, Soddy showed that an atom moves lower inatomic numberby two places on alpha emission, higher by one place on beta emission. This was discovered at about the same time byKazimierz Fajans,and is known as theradioactive displacement law of Fajans and Soddy,a fundamental step toward understanding the relationships among families of radioactive elements. In 1913 Soddy also described the phenomenon in which a radioactive element may have more than oneatomic massthough the chemical properties are identical. He named this conceptisotopemeaning "same place".[14][15]The word was initially suggested to him byMargaret Todd.[16]Later,J. J. Thomsonshowed that non-radioactive elements can also have multiple isotopes.

The work that Soddy and his research assistantAda Hitchinsdid at Glasgow and Aberdeen showed thaturaniumdecays toradium.[17][18]

Soddy publishedThe Interpretation of Radium(1909) andAtomic Transmutation(1953).

In 1918, working with the Scottish scientistJohn Arnold Cranston,he announced the discovery of an isotope of the element later namedprotactinium.[19]This slightly post-dated its discovery by the GermansLise MeitnerandOtto Hahn;however, it is said their discovery was actually made in 1915 but its announcement was delayed due to Cranston's notes being locked away whilst on active service in theFirst World War.[20]

In 1919 he moved to the University of Oxford as the firstDr. Lee's Professorof Chemistry, where, in the period up till 1936, he reorganized the laboratories and the syllabus in chemistry. He received the 1921Nobel Prize in chemistryfor his research in radioactive decay and particularly for his formulation of the theory of isotopes.

His work and essays popularising the new understanding of radioactivity was the main inspiration forH. G. Wells'sThe World Set Free(1914), which features atomic bombs dropped from biplanes in a war set many years in the future. Wells's novel is also known asThe Last Warand imagines a peaceful world emerging from the chaos. InWealth, Virtual Wealth and DebtSoddy praises Wells'sThe World Set Free.He also says that radioactive processes probably power the stars.

Economics[edit]

Part ofa serieson
Ecological economics
Humanity's economic system viewed as a subsystem of the global environment
Concepts
People

Organizations:

Works
Related topics

In four books written from 1921 to 1934, Soddy carried on a "campaign for a radical restructuring of global monetary relationships",[21]offering a perspective on economics rooted in physics – thelaws of thermodynamics,in particular – and was "roundly dismissed as a crank".[21]While most of his proposals – "to abandon thegold standard,let internationalexchange ratesfloat, use federalsurpluses and deficitsasmacroeconomic policy toolsthat could countercyclical trends,and establish bureaus ofeconomic statistics(including aconsumer price index) in order to facilitate this effort "– are now conventional practice, his critique offractional-reserve bankingstill "remains outside the bounds of conventional wisdom" although a recent paper by theIMFreinvigorated his proposals.[21][22]Soddy wrote that financial debts grew exponentially at compound interest but the real economy was based on exhaustible stocks offossil fuels.Energy obtained from the fossil fuels could not be used again. This criticism ofeconomic growthis echoed by his intellectual heirs in the now emergent field ofecological economics.[21]

The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics,an influential reference text in economics, recognized Soddy as a "reformer" for his works on monetary reforms.[23]

Political views[edit]

InWealth, Virtual Wealth and Debt,Soddy cited theProtocols of the Learned Elders of Zion,which had been widely disseminated byHenry Fordin the United States, as evidence that the belief in a "financial conspiracy to enslave the world" was widespread at the time.[24]He further wrote that "conscious conspiracy or not...a corrupt monetary system strikes at the very life of the nation ".[25]Later in life he published a pamphletAbolish Private Money, or Drown in Debt(1939).[26]

The influence of his writing can be gauged, for example, in this quote fromEzra Pound:

Professor Frederick Soddy states that the Gold Standard monetary system has wrecked a scientific age!... The world's bankers... have not been content to take their share of modern wealth production – great as it has been – but they have refused to allow the masses of mankind to receive theirs.[27]

Though some activists have insubstantially accused Soddy of anti-Semitism, most of his biographers dispute this narrative and argue that among Soddy's friends and students were some Jews who held positive views of him.[5][6]

Descartes' theorem[edit]

He rediscovered theDescartes' theoremin 1936 and published it as a poem, "The Kiss Precise",[28]quoted atProblem of Apollonius.Thekissing circlesin this problem are sometimes known asSoddy circles.[29]

Honours and awards[edit]

He received theNobel Prize in Chemistryin 1921 and the same year he was elected member of theInternational Atomic Weights Committee.A smallcrateron thefar side of the Moonas well as the radioactive uranium mineralsoddyiteare named after him.[30]The authorH. G. Wellsdedicated his novelThe World Set Freeto Soddy'sInterpretation of Radium(1909).[31]

Personal life[edit]

In 1908, Soddy married Winifred Moller Beilby (1885-1936), the daughter of industrial chemist SirGeorge Beilbyand Lady Emma Bielby, a philanthropist to women's causes. The couple worked together and co-published a paper in 1910 on the absorption of gamma rays from radium.[32]He died inBrighton, Englandin 1956, twenty days after his 79th birthday.[2]

Bibliography[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^abcFleck, A.(1957)."Frederick Soddy Born Eastbourne 2 September 1877 Died Brighton 26 September 1956".Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society.3:203–226.doi:10.1098/rsbm.1957.0014.JSTOR769361.
  2. ^abcde"The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1921 – Frederick Soddy Biographical".Nobelprize.org.Retrieved28 November2017.
  3. ^Davies, M. (1992). "Frederick Soddy: The scientist as prophet".Annals of Science.49(4): 351–367.doi:10.1080/00033799200200301.
  4. ^Kauffman, G. B. (1997). "Book Review:The World Made New: Frederick Soddy, Science, Politics, and Environment Linda Merricks".Isis.88(3): 564–565.doi:10.1086/383825.
  5. ^abGeorge B. Kauffman(1986).Frederick Soddy (1877–1956): Early Pioneer in Radiochemistry (Chemists and Chemistry).Dordrecht; Boston; Hingham: D. Reidel Pub. Co. p. 272.ISBN978-90-277-1926-3.
  6. ^abWatson, Katherine D. (2007). "Soddy, Frederick (1877-1956)".Van Nostrand's Scientific Encyclopedia.doi:10.1002/0471743984.vse9748.ISBN978-0471743989.
  7. ^Davies, Mansel (1992)."Frederick Soddy: The scientist as prophet".Annals of Science.49(4): 351–367.doi:10.1080/00033799200200301.ISSN0003-3790.
  8. ^"The story behind Eastbourne resident Frederick Soddy discovering the isotope".Great British Life.6 May 2014.Retrieved1 May2022.
  9. ^John Gribbin (2014).13.8: The Quest to Find the True Age of the Universe and the Theory of Everything.London: Icon Books.ISBN978-1-84831-918-9.
  10. ^Trenn, Thaddeus J.; Stuewer, Roger H. (1 September 1978)."The Self - Splitting Atom: The History of the Rutherford - Soddy Collaboration".American Journal of Physics.46(9): 960–960.doi:10.1119/1.11543.ISSN0002-9505.
  11. ^"Experiments in radioactivity, and the production of helium from radium".Proceedings of the Royal Society of London.72(477–486): 204–207. 1904.doi:10.1098/rspl.1903.0040.S2CID96923410.
  12. ^*Ernest Rutherford, Thomas Royds (1909). "The Nature of the α Particle from Radioactive Substances".Philosophical Magazine.17.281
  13. ^Pirret, Ruth; Soddy, Frederick (1911)."LXXVII. The ratio between uranium and radium in minerals. II".The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science.21(125): 652–658.doi:10.1080/14786440508637078.ISSN1941-5982.
  14. ^Soddy, Frederick (1913)."Intra-atomic Charge".Nature.92(2301): 399–400.Bibcode:1913Natur..92..399S.doi:10.1038/092399c0.ISSN1476-4687.S2CID3965303.
  15. ^Giunta, Carmen (2017)."Isotopes: Identifying the Breakthrough Publication"(PDF).Bulletin for the History of Chemistry.42(2): 103–111.Archived(PDF)from the original on 21 July 2020.
  16. ^Britton, Kate (August 2017). "Archaeological Futures: A stable relationship: isotopes and bioarchaeology are in it for the long haul".Antiquity.91(358): 853–864.doi:10.15184/aqy.2017.98.hdl:2164/8892.ISSN0003-598X.S2CID164265353.
  17. ^Soddy, Frederick; Hitchins, A. F. R. (August 1915)."XVII. The relation between uranium and radium.—Part VI. The life-period of ionium".Philosophical Magazine.6.30(176): 209–219.doi:10.1080/14786440808635387.
  18. ^Soddy, Frederick (15 February 1917)."The Atomic Weight of" Thorium "Lead".Nature.98(2468): 469.Bibcode:1917Natur..98Q.469S.doi:10.1038/098469a0.S2CID3979761.Retrieved12 April2014.
  19. ^Soddy, Frederick; Cranston, John A. (1 June 1918)."The parent of actinium".Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Containing Papers of a Mathematical and Physical Character.94(662): 384–404.Bibcode:1918RSPSA..94..384S.doi:10.1098/rspa.1918.0025.
  20. ^"University of Glasgow:: Story:: Biography of John Arnold Cranston".Archived fromthe originalon 11 March 2020.Retrieved28 November2015.
  21. ^abcdZencey, Eric (12 April 2009)."Mr. Soddy's Ecological Economy"(Opinion).The New York Times.Retrieved22 December2017.
  22. ^Beneš, Jaromír; Kumhof, Michael (August 2012),The Chicago Plan Revisited,SSRN2169748
  23. ^Macmillan Publishers Ltd, ed. (2018).The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics.London: Palgrave Macmillan UK.doi:10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5.ISBN978-1-349-95188-8.
  24. ^Soddy, Frederick (1961) [1933].Wealth, Virtual Wealth and Debt: The Solution of the Economic Paradox(3rd ed.). United States: Omni Publications. Chapter XIV:International Relations.§Is there a Financial Conspiracy?
  25. ^Soddy (1933),Chapter XIV:International Relations.§The Real Conspiracy.
  26. ^Ridley, Matt (2012).Francis Crick: Discoverer of the Genetic Code.Harper Collins. p. 6.ISBN9780062200662.
  27. ^Surette, Leon (1999).Pound in Purgatory: From Economic Radicalism to Anti-Semitism.University of Illinois Press. p. 218.
  28. ^Soddy F(20 June 1936)."The Kiss Precise".Nature.137(3477): 1021.Bibcode:1936Natur.137.1021S.doi:10.1038/1371021a0.
  29. ^"Apollonius Problem".MathWorld.
  30. ^"Soddyite Mineral Data".webmineral.com.
  31. ^"H.G. Wells and the Scientific Imagination".The Virginia Quarterly Review.Retrieved6 August2022.
  32. ^Ogilvie, Marilyn Bailey; Harvey, Joy Dorothy (2000).The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: L-Z.Taylor & Francis.ISBN978-0-415-92040-7.

Further reading[edit]

  • Merricks, Linda (1999).The World Made New: Frederick Soddy, Science, Politics, and Environment.Oxford University Press.ISBN0-19-855934-8.

External links[edit]

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