Prof. Walter Makower, O.B.E.

Abstract

THE death of Prof. W. Makower at the age of sixty-five occurred on July 7. Makower graduated from University College, London, where he took honours in chemistry; but going to Cambridge as a research student under Thomson effected his transformation into a physicist, and his M.A. was for a thesis on the diffusion properties of radium emanation (radon). From the Cavendish Laboratory he went to Manchester as a John Harling Research Fellow under the directorship of Schuster. On the latter's retirement in 1906, Makower became lecturer on the staff of Rutherford, whose arrival in Manchester gave a great impetus to radioactive studies. Over a period of years Makower did experimental work in this subject; he showed that radium A, B and C all had different temperatures of volatilization and that the behaviour of the active deposit depended largely on the pressure conditions within the vessel. Later on he collaborated with Prof. S. Russ on radioactive recoil, with Fajans on the beta-rays from radium B and with Moseley on the gamma radiation from the same substance; with Geiger he wrote a timely book on radioactive measurements. He had previously written one of the earliest books on radioactivity entitled "The Radioactive Substances".