ChadwickNobel dossiers contents

Formal Dossier on Sir James Chadwick’s 1935 Nobel Physics Prize medal and diploma:

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Introduction: commentary on its rarity, prestige, physical and aesthetic impressiveness, dramatic appeal, etc.
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Photos of:
6 - Nobel Prize for Physics medal obverse (with locations of Nobel Prize Medals of other significant Laureates)
7 - James Chadwick’s Nobel Prize for Physics medal reverse, incl. text, dimensions, weight, etc.
8 - Nobel medal case, incl. dimensions etc. (w/ Nobel Prize for Physics medal); biog. info. on medal artist Lindberg
9 - James Chadwick’s Nobel Prize diploma: front exterior is a crushed (hard) Morocco Leather binder
10 - James Chadwick’s Nobel Prize diploma: front interior, painted on vellum (by Elsa O. Noreen)
11 - James Chadwick’s Nobel Prize diploma: rear interior, painted on vellum; notes on Noreen’s use of 23K gold leaf
12 - James Chadwick’s Nobel Prize diploma: rear exterior is a crushed (hard) Morocco Leather binder
13 - James Chadwick’s Nobel Prize diploma: translation from Swedish; data on dimensions, weight, rarity etc.
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Biographical Essay on Chadwick
15- Credit for Manhattan Project’s Success;
16- Chadwick’s Contributions to Manhattan Project’s Success
18- Post-WWII; Significance of the Discovery of the Neutron in 1932, not later
19 - Alerting FDR to Bomb’s Feasibility
21- Epitaphs, the Evolution of his Reputation, and “Fame” in our time
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Highlights and Reviews of Brown, Andrew, The Neutron and the Bomb, (1997) and other Bomb books
22- Dustjacket and highlights from The Neutron and the Bomb
26- Arnold, Lorna, (formerly official historian of the U.K. Atomic Energy Authority) "A Modest Maker of
Modern Physics," Science, 16 Oct. 1998: “… a physicist, a scientist-diplomat, and a good, wise, and humane man”; and a . review of Before The Fallout: From Marie Curie to Hiroshima (2005), on Chadwick’s discovery as “a defining moment”
28- Bondi, Sir Hermann, "How the Bomb's creator learned to love the United States", Times Higher .
Educational Supplement, 27 June 1997: since Rutherford’s influence “during the war … would certainly have been
overpowering and not always forward looking …” it was best that his death in 1937 paved the way for his successor as dean of British physics, Chadwick, to be the physicist leading the British Bomb effort; and an Amazon.com review.
30- Lanouette, William, "Forgotten man," Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists," Jan/Feb. 1998, closing with "Like the neutron he discovered, Chadwick moved unnoticed - but with awesome power" .
32- Bundy, McGeorge, (John F. Kennedy's National Security Advisor) Danger and Survival, (1988) e.g. touting impact . of MAUD Report, upon FDR’s choice to launch Manhattan Project, over that of Einstein’s famous 1939 letter to FDR on Bomb issue
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Speeches: Stockholm, December 1935
33- Pleijel, Prof. F., (Chairman of the Nobel Committee for Physics of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences)
“Nobel Prize in Physics 1935: Presentation Speech”, 10 Dec. 1935
36- Chadwick, James, “The neutron and its properties”, Nobel Lecture, 12 Dec. 1935
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Letters
42- Feldman, Burton, (author of The Nobel Prize, Arcade, N.Y., 2000) May 2001 letter on beauty of Chadwick’s
Nobel Prize diploma, & on Chadwick’s significance exceeded by very few others
44- Chadwick, Judith (daughter of Sir James) correspondence, March 2000, incl. Statement on herself as having
consigned her father’s awards to Glendinnings auction house, and on her approval of engraving of her father’s
name, upon (rim of) those medals issued to him but not bearing his name
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Miscellaneous
45- New York Times, 19 Dec. 1935 photo of Chadwick receiving Nobel Prize, & 25 July 1974 Chadwick obit.
46- Contents of large (128-page) dossier on Chadwick and his Nobel Prize, etc.
48- Schluck, H., & Sohlman, R., Alfred Nobel (William Heineman, 1929) cover; printing on inside pages designating this copy as No. 64 of a limited edition of 100, pen-ink inscription "To Professor J. Chadwick with the compliments of the Nobel foundation and of the authors”

Formal Supplementary Dossier for Sir James Chadwick’s Nobel Prize set

Coverage of Chadwick’s Nobel Prize set by the Media:

2 - Munger, Frank, “NEUTRONS FOR ALL” in “Workers pipe up at K-25, told to flush their problem”, Knox News
(Knoxville News Sentinel), November 5, 2003, on Chadwick’s Nobel set owned by J. Schramek being worth “a lot”
2-3 - Doctor, Vikram, “Nobel price: way over Rs 10 lakh”, Economic Times (India) April 7, 2004, quoting J. Schramek,
“who has the only Nobel medal in the world… for sale today”, on the value of R. Tagore’s stolen Nobel medal
4 - Srinivasan, Aruna, “Different . strokes”, April 8, 2004, from her blog “The waves: As the Wind Blows”, endorsing . . (Vikram Doctor’s reporting of) J. Schramek’s view of the value of R. Tagore’s stolen 1913 Nobel medal
5 - Butler, Sharon, “Nobel for Sale”, Fermi News, February 5, 1999: interview with J. Schramek at the national
convention of the Orders and Medals Society of America; translation of Swedish web page bio. of S. Åsberg
6 - Åsberg, Stefan, text of interview (incl. translation of narration, from Swedish) with J. Schramek, 13 October 2006, which was telecast in Sweden on channels SVT1 or SVT2, during intermission of Nobel Prize ceremonies, 10 . December 2006; “Going for the Gold”, Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, May/June 1998: on J. Schramek having acquired Chadwick’s Nobel Prize set from Chadwick’s daughters; Chicago Tribune, March 16, 1998, on same ,
English, James, The Economy of Prestige: Prizes, Awards, and the Circulation of Cultural Value:

7-8 Front cover; excerpts: on sales history of Nobel medals, w/ footnote citing J. Schramek as having provided this
history; chart of sales history of Nobel medals, vs. evolution of their bullion value, 1980-2000
9 More excerpts: English’s analysis of issues pertaining to comments on Schramek’s web site about collecting awards; excerpt from U.K. Observer review of English’s book

Crucial Historic Documents (and info. on their context) pertaining to Chadwick’s achievements:

10 - Chadwick, Sir James, “Possible Existence of a Neutron”, Nature, p. 312 (Feb. 27, 1932); notes on his equipment
11-13 _______________, “Report by MAUD Committee on the Use of Uranium for a Bomb”, to the U.K. gov’t Committee
on the Scientific Survey of Air Defence, July 1941; Wikipedia entry on MAUD Committee
14-15 Churchill, Sir Winston, “Statement by Prime Minister Attlee and Former Prime Minister Churchill on the Atomic
Bomb”, August 6, 1945, touting “particularly Sir James Chadwick, who … spared no effort”, from a UNC web site

Press Coverage of Chadwick’s discovery of neutrons, and of reaction to first use of atomic bomb:

16- 17 “DISCOVERS NEUTRON, EMBRIONIC MATTER”, New York Times, February 28, 1932, Front Page; “A NEW RAY: Dr. Chadwick's Search for ‘Neutrons’ ”, The Times, Monday, February 29, 1932
18-19 Kuhn, Ferdinand Jr., “Chadwick Calls Neutron ‘Difficult Catch’; His Find Hailed as Aid in Study of Atom”, New York Times, February 29, 1932, Front Page; “The Neutron Is Discovered”, editorial in same NY Times edition 20 “Neutron,” Time Magazine, Monday, March 7, 1932; “Doubts & Fears”, Time, Monday, August 20, 1945

Other articles on Chadwick, his achievements, and the physics context of his time:

21 “Science Channel’s 100 Greatest Discoveries” web page: on Chadwick’s discovery of neutrons as the 10th Greatest
Discovery in Physics; excerpt from Wang, Zuoue & Badash, Lawrence, "James Chadwick," in Dictionary of
World Biography: the 20th Century, ed. by F. MacGill, e.g. on Chadwick’s leading of the shift from little to “big science”
22-23 Close, F.E., “Releasing the Nuclear Genie”, Contemporary Physics, 1996: incl. on 1932 press coverage of neutron
24-25 “Alphabetical Listing of Nobel Prize Laureates in Physics”, from “Nobel Prize Internet Archive” web site
26-27 Settle, Frank, “Nuclear Chemistry: Discovery of the Neutron (1932)”, from a chemistry web site; “The Neutrons” essay w/ diagrams, from a Polish “Quanta and Atoms - the elementary approach” web site
28-29 “Quantum Theory timeline” from a particle physics history website, incl. on Chadwick’s discovering the Strong Force
30-37 Gowing, Margaret, “James Chadwick and the Atomic Bomb”, Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London,
Jan., 1993, esp. on that Chadwick, "not Thomson, drove the Maud work along”
38-44 Brown, Andrew, “Liverpool and Berkeley: The Chadwick-Lawrence letters”, Physics Today; May 1996, e.g. on . . Chadwick’s hopes for neutrons’ effectiveness vs. cancer, and on his Nobel Prize money spent toward a cycletron ..

Reviews of The Neutron and the Bomb: A Biography of Sir James Chadwick, by Andrew Brown:

45 Cathcart, Brian, “Fragile genius”, New Statesman, 06/20/1997: on Chadwick‘s “single-mindedness” in Bomb probe
46-47 Stuewer, Roger W., “Where Engine Grease Meets Up With Experimental Results…”, Physics Today, Dec. 1997, p. 65; and Chadwick's knightly coat of arms, w/ explanations of its symbolism, context, etc.
48 (Included w/ lot) Publications by and about Chadwick, physics in his time, & Nobel Prize objects

........................................................................................... Contents of dossier on

. .................. . Sir James Chadwick and his 1935 Nobel Prize in Physics

.... ...................................................... for his discovery of the neutron in 1932

Svenskt Konstnarslexikon, (translation from Swedish) entry on Elsa O. Noreen, painter of 1935 Nobel Prize physics diploma
Munger, Frank, (Senior columnist) Knoxville News Sentinel, November 5, 2003, "Neutrons for all," on Chadwick Nobel set worth "a lot."

Obit., Rocky Mountain News, 6 Feb. 2003, on Feldman, Burton; excerpts from his book The Nobel Prize (Arcade, N.Y., 2000):
On significance of science over non-science Nobels, and on Physics Nobels over other science Nobels
On the unusually short time between Chadwick's discovery (for which he was honored with a Nobel) and his receipt of his Nobel Prize.
.. Feldman May 2001 letter to J. Schramek, on beauty of Nobel Prize diploma, & on Chadwick's Prize exceeded only "by those everyone
looks up to: Einstein, Bohr, Rutherford, and few of that sort," due partly to "2 brilliant experimental advances": his 1914 finding on the ß ß .. spectrum, and his "first stating that the strong force existed. After that comes a lot of work which eventually led to today's quarks."
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MAUD Committee, U.K. Ministry of Aircraft Production, "Report on the Use of Uranium for a Bomb" (written by Chadwick, July 1941)
Atlee, Clement, & Churchill, Winston, "Statement by the Prime Minister and Mr. Churchill on the Atomic Bomb, 6 August 1945":
on A-bomb work with the U.S. reflecting "great credit on all concerned ... particularly Sir James Chadwick who gave up his work ... to
serve as technical advisor to ... the Policy Committee and spared no effort;" from Gowing, M., Independence and Deterrence (1974)

Smyth, Henry DeWolf, Atomic Energy for Military Purposes, (Official U.S. Govt. report, 1945):
... on transfer of MAUD Report to U.S.: "Chadwick, at least, was convinced that a U-235 bomb of great destructive power could be made;"
... on a key 1941 visit to U.K. of 2 top U.S. physicists: "the principal importance of this visit ... lay ... in the general scientific impressions.
   ... The British, particularly J. Chadwick, were convinced that a U-235 chain reaction could be achieved ... They feared that if the
    ... Germans got atomic bombs before the Allies did, the war might be over in a few weeks. The sense of urgency which Pegram and
   ... Urey brought back with them was of great importance;" and
... on "J. Chadwick ... and N. Bohr ... spent a great deal of time at Los Alamos and gave invaluable advice. Chadwick was the head of a
   ... British delegation which contributed materially to the success of the laboratory."

Zachary, G. Pascal, "Vannevar Bush Backs the Bomb," Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists," Dec. 1992, esp. on Chairman (of the National
Defense Research Committee) Bush's historic decision "to roll the dice" by broaching Bomb idea to FDR on 9 Oct. 1941, days after
receiving final (Chadwick) draft of MAUD Report from U.K.
Atomic Heritage Foundation, Symposium on the Manhattan Project: "The Allies and the Atomic Bomb": (C-SPAN-TV, 27 April 2002)
1 : Rhodes, Richard (author of bestseller The Making of the Atomic Bomb): prepared text, pp. 4-5, on the importance of Allied
statesmen's trust of their scientists' recommendation that monies for a Bomb would not be a waste, with FDR thus launching
Manhattan Project on 9 Oct. 1941; contrasted with Hitler's failure to trust his scientists with such large monies.
2: Brown, Andrew, prepared text, on Nazis bombing Liverpool U. physics dept., as Chadwick was there, using a cycletron (only one not
controlled by Nazis or U.S., bought partly with his Nobel Prize money) researching (on a shoestring budget) for the MAUD Report,
which moved U.S. to start Bomb Project (audio remarks referred to Chadwick's checking the city for radiation after Nazi planes left).
3: Hershberg, James G., George Washington U. (Faculty Profile web page on him as) Assoc. Prof. of History & Int'l Affairs; audio
Remarks: in taking an audience query, (seeking comparison, of the influence in President's choice to start Bomb Project, of 1941
British work vs. that of Einstein's famous 1939 letter to FDR) Hershberg favored the British work, "especially the MAUD report."
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Bundy, McGeorge, Danger and Survival: Choices About the Bomb in the First Fifty Years (Random House, 1988):
On Chadwick being, by Sept. 1941, "preeminent among British nuclear physicists;" on MAUD Committee as "one of the best ever;"
On FDR's 1941 choice to pursue a Bomb being controlled by: "British science then had the commanding prestige necessary to give
    credibility to anything then so implausible as a twenty-five pound device WITH an explosive force of some two thousand tons;"
On Einstein's 1939 letter to FDR: "Compton's … conclusion is persuasive: Things would probably have gone faster if Einstein had
    never written …;" on V. Bush's 9 Oct. 1941 report to FDR clearly based on the MAUD results; on "no bomb in 1945 without the British"
On Churchill's accepting Chadwick's early 1944 recommendation that Britain send all physicists sought by the Americans, & on the
    breakdown of Anglo-U.S. cooperation because Chadwick had not been sent to the U.S. in Oct. 1942
On "Chadwick's masterful conduct of the ensuing British effort" after the 1943 Anglo-U.S. Quebec Agreement on nuclear cooperation
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Gowing, Margaret, Britain and Atomic Energy 1939-1945, (Macmillan, 1965) the official history of the British effort:
On U.S. plea for British to "send Chadwick" in 1941; photo of Chadwick with Groves; on, in U.S. & U.K., "practically everyone had ruled out a a uranium bomb as a serious proposition" for WWII. "The only exception was Chadwick ... he ... had determined to measure the fission

   cross- section in the Liverpool cyclotron. This work was about to begin when Chadwick heard of the Peierls-Frisch memorandum," which
   calculated that the fission cross-section ( the prospect of a neutron entering a U235 nucleus and remaining to cause a chain-reaction) was
   higher than previously thought; this memorandum led to the creation of the MAUD committee..
On Chadwick representing the MAUD committee to the War Cabinet's Scientific Advisory Committee: "Chadwick, known by his

fellow . scientists to be cautious in stretching forward to conclusions, was able to assure them that the evidence was overwhelming."
On the key 1941 visit to U.K. of 2 top U.S. physicists: "Chadwick ... told Pegram and Urey ... 'I wish I could tell you that the bomb is not going
to work, but I am 90 percent certain that it will.'" "Chadwick assured them, as he had ... the Scientific Advisory Committee, that the

evidence that a bomb could be made was overwhelming. This assertion, coming as it did from Chadwick, carried great weight with the

Americans, as with the Scientific Advisory Committee."
On Chadwick's display of "the highest qualities of diplomacy" in his interactions with Groves

Gowing, M., "James Chadwick and the Atomic Bomb", Notes & Records of the Royal Society of London, 47:1 (1993): Chadwick, "not

... Thomson, drove the Maud work along; … without the British work, World War II would have ended ... before an atomic bomb was dropped." Alperovitz, Gar & Bird, Kai, "A theory of cold war dynamics: U.S. policy, Germany, and the bomb," (1st page) History Teacher, May 1996, on a
line of development including contributions (1905-38) by Einstein, Chadwick, (neutron) Fermi, etc.: "It is rare acknowledged that had this
line of development not been moving at this particular rate we would never have gotten to ...the 1941 MAUD Committee report, and then to
the Manhattan Project - to the point ... where large sums of money ... could have produced an atomic bomb by August 1945,"
Lawrence, William, (New York Times ace reporter) Dawn Over Zero, (Knopf, 1946) on Chadwick at the first Bomb test, 1945: "Never before ...
... had any man lived to see his own discovery materialize ... with such telling effect on the destiny of man ..."
Groves, Gen. Leslie, Now It Can Be Told (Harper, 1962): Edward Teller's Introduction, ending with his recollection of Chadwick's emphatic
... rejection of Teller's critique of Groves' driven pursuit of the Bomb Project
Szasz, Ferenc, British Scientists and the Manhattan Project, (St. Martin's, 1992) esp. on the British contribution to the Manhattan Project's
... success being roughly as vital as that of Oppenheimer, contrary to statements in American accounts; and on Oppenheimer conceding that,
... before MAUD, the U.S. bomb program floundered.
Brown, Andrew, The Neutron and the Bomb (Oxford 1997):
.... Preface, on the significance of Chadwick over Thomson; Contents, incl. Ch.15, "The scientist-diplomat"
On Einstein, in 1914, impressed with Chadwick's discovery (in Berlin) about the ß spectrum, "working virtually single- handed in a
    foreign department." Other physicists would ignore Einstein's view and dismiss Chadwick's insight
On Chadwick's desolation in 1941, (related in 1969) while "head of a secret ... weapon programme ... which could have a critical
   influence on the course of the war," at being first person to know: " 'that A-bomb was not only possible, but inevitable ...I had
   noboy to talk to ... I had then to start taking sleeping pills ... I've never stopped since then.' "
On Chadwick chosen to control all research for the MAUD Committee, as he was the "one obvious candidate … fitted by his
   incomparable experience of marshalling the research programme at the Cavendish for over a decade;"
On Chadwick chosen to write the final draft of the MAUD Report, 2 July 1941
On Chadwick chosen to lead U.K. delegation to Manhattan project, and his Sept. 1943 meeting with Groves, and Groves' choice
   of Chadwick as his viceroy of scientists
On Chadwick's access to all U.S. research and production sites (otherwise restricted to Groves and his science advisor)
On Chadwick's briefings from his subordinates (forwarded to Groves) surpassing the briefings to Groves from U.S. scientists

REVIEWS of this book, in chronological order, by: Pippard, Brian, "Gifted discoverer of the neutron," Nature, 29 May 1997;
Cathcart, Brian , "Fragile genius," New Statesman, 20 June 1997: "Not enough has been written about Britain's role in the Manhattan Project
    and what there is did not do full justice to Chadwick's efforts; that has been now largely remedied;"
Bondi, Sir Hermann, "How the Bomb's creator learned to love the United States", Times Higher Educational Supplement, 27 June 1997;
Calder, Nigel, "The Accidental Physicist", New Scientist, 12 July 1997, on Chadwick as Groves' "viceroy among the scientists;"
Stuewer, Roger, in Physics Today (Dec. 1997): "Chadwick's scientific and diplomatic services … have often been undervalued;"
Lanouette, William, "Forgotten Man," Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists," Jan/Feb. 1998: on Brown;s book showing Chadwick's "importance
    to both science and society;" review closes with "Like the neutron he discovered, Chadwick moved unnoticed- but with awesome power;"
Bethe, Hans, (Nobel Prize, 1967) in the American Journal of Physics, May 1998, on "Chadwick, known for his organizing ability, was asked
    to write the [MAUD] committee's report to the government," and who "retained to his old age the shyness of a young lad;" and
Arnold, Lorna, "A modest maker of modern physics," Science, 16 Oct. 1998: "… a scientist-diplomat, and a good, wise, and humane man."
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Glendinings 15 Nov. 1995 auction catalogue pages on Chadwick awards; Chadwick, Judith (daughter of Sir James) correspondence to J.
Schramek, March-July 2000, incl. on herself as having consigned her father's awards to Glendinnings
"Sir James Chadwick, Kt., C.H., F.R.S., 1891-1974, Nobel Prize in Physics 1935" Supplement, Journal of the Orders and Medals Research
.. Society, (of the U.K.) Spring 1996, on Glendinings' sale of Chadwick awards
Pleijel, Prof. H., (Chairman of Nobel Committee for Physics) speech presenting Nobel Prize to Chadwick, 10 Dec 1935
N.Y. Times, 19 Dec. 1935 photo of Chadwick receiving Nobel Prize
Swedish Institute Fact Sheet on Alfred Nobel and the Nobel Prizes; Wang, Zuoue & Badash, Lawrence, "James Chadwick", in Dictionary of
.. World Biography, The Twentieth Century, (Fitzroy Dearborn, 1999) esp. on his leadership in "the change from 'little science' to 'Big
.. science,' " and on his "remarkable friendship" with Groves
Chadwick, James, Prospects for Atomic Power, 1954 lecture at U. of Toronto, incl. advocacy of breeder reactors
______________, Radioactivity and Radioactive Substances, 1947: cover
Gribbin, John, "Famous for 14 minutes, 49 seconds," New Scientist, 13 March 1993, on how Chadwick's discovery of neutron "transformed
.. physics ... Protons and neutrons are now understood to be held together by another force, the strong interaction."
Popular Science, ed. Sill, William & Norman Hoss, Encyclopedia of the Sciences, (195 ) on Chadwick's discovery of the neutron as one of just over
100 most "Important Events in Science." (600 B.C.-1963)
Simonis, Doris, ed., Scientists, Mathematicians, and Inventors (Oryx,1999): Chadwick one of the top 205 of all time, incl. Florence Nightengale &
Henry Ford; details & legacy of discovery of neutron
QuantumTheory Timeline, Chadwick as one of the roughly twenty-five most significant contributors (from
http://particleadventure.org/particleadventure/other/history/quantumt.html ) in that, in 1921, he and a colleague were the first to see that the "strong
force" holds the nucleus together.
Photos (from 2001) of J. Schramek in Stockholm: at office, etc. of Royal Coin Museum, with Secretary, Nobel Committee for Physics; at offices of Nobel Foundation, with Secretary to Secretary of Nobel Foundation, (incl. with only complete Nobel Prize diploma possessed by
    Foundation office); Nobel Prize diploma-producing specialists at Falth & Hassler, (bookbinders) near Stockholm