The Braggs, X-ray Crystallography, and Lawrence Bragg’s Sound-ranging in World War I

Abstract

On 11 November 1912, in Cambridge, England, Lawrence Bragg’s discovery of Bragg’s Law and his solution of the first crystal structure (ZnS) were announced. During 1913, he and his father, William Bragg, established the new science of X-ray crystallography. In 1914, their research was halted by the Great War. During 1915, Lawrence began to develop artillery sound-ranging on the Western Front, and in November 1915 father and son shared the Nobel Prize in Physics. In the same year Lawrence’s younger brother and dearest friend were both mortally wounded. Through 1917, sound-ranging reached an extraordinary level of precision, and in 1918 it played a major role in the Allied victory. When war ceased six years later, on 11 November 1918, Lawrence Bragg had created a new field of science, won a Military Cross, been awarded a Nobel Prize and an OBE, and would soon be appointed to Rutherford’s Chair at Manchester. He was just twenty-eight years old!