Francis William Aston, 1877-1945

Abstract

Hard winds are blowing. The contemporaries of Lord Rutherford who helped him to lay the foundation of the nuclear sciences are following one by one their great leader. Francis William Aston, one of the most successful architects of that edifice, was born on 1 September 1877, at Camomile Green, Harborne, Birmingham, as the third child and only surviving son of a family of seven. His father, William Aston, was a metal merchant of Harborne, second son and third child of George Aston, farmer and metal merchant of Birmingham. The family is presumably descended from a branch of the well-known family Aston of Tixall, Staffordshire. His mother was Fanny Charlotte Hollis, youngest daughter of Isaac Hollis, gunmaker of Birmingham, founder of Isaac Hollis & Sons, now the Birmingham Small Arms Company. Francis William Aston was brought up on his father’s small farm, now Tennal House, Harborne, then in the county of Staffordshire. He was fond of all animals, a passion which followed him all through his life. His earliest memories of a scientific nature were the formation and study of soap bubbles in the rick- yard. His first research (carried out under conditions of extreme secrecy in a disused pigstye) was the action of sulphuric acid on pieces of zinc in an old blacking bottle.