Prof. W. L. Bragg, O.B.E., F.R.S.

Abstract

PROF. W. L. BRAGG, who has been appointed director of the National Physical Laboratory, has held the Langworthy chair of physics in the University of Manchester since 1919. Beginning his research work at Cambridge in 1912, about the time when v. Laue had announced his discovery of the diffraction of X-rays by crystals, Prof. Bragg was attracted to this field of work. One of his early papers explained, in terms of the ‘reflection’ principle, the nature of the patterns observed in the Laue photographs. Along with his father, Sir William Bragg, he developed the X-ray spectrometer. The determination of the structures of the simpler crystals followed, until in 1915, their work was recognized by the joint award of the Nobel Prize for Physics. After his appointment at Manchester, Prof. Bragg quickly established a school of workers engaged in investigations of the solid state of matter. His own particular interest has been in the orderly arrangement of atoms in crystals and in relations between atomic arrangement and the properties of a crystalline substance. The field is a very wide one, and is of interest, not only to the physicist, but also to the chemist who is seeking to understand the nature of the forces which bind atoms together and to the industrial research worker who wants information about the structure of his working materials.