An archive relating to Nobel prize winning scientist Lawrence Bragg dated 1947
BRAGG, Sir William Lawrence (1890–1971); OROWAN, Egon (1902–1989); ANDRADE, Edward Neville da Costa (1887–1971). An archive relating to the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, March 1947.
Archive of correspondence, working papers, photographs and plans relating to accommodation and floor-space calculations at the Cavendish Laboratory and Mond Laboratory, Cambridge. March 1947.
Fourteen items (c. 30 pages in total), comprising typed letters on Cavendish Laboratory headed paper, autograph letters and notes, manuscript working memoranda, mounted photographic prints, and an annotated architectural plan. Various sizes, several items affixed to card. Overall, very good.
The archive documents a concentrated exchange in March 1947 between Edward Neville da Costa Andrade (then Professor of Physics at University College London), Egon Orowan (Cavendish Laboratory), and Sir Lawrence Bragg (Director of the Cavendish Laboratory and Nobel Prize winner in 1915 for his work on X-Rays), concerning the accurate calculation and representation of laboratory floor space and accommodation within the Cavendish and its associated Mond Laboratory.
The correspondence centres on errors discovered in a wall chart displayed in Bragg’s office, originally compiled by the Cavendish steward, which overstated or understated available research and teaching space owing to the use of reduced photographic drawings, omitted corridors and service areas, and inconsistent measurement conventions. Across a tightly sequenced series of letters dated 3–11 March 1947, Orowan reconstructs the figures from architectural drawings, explains the methodological failures behind the earlier chart, and provides revised calculations.
Bragg intervenes directly, both through typed correspondence and a substantial four-page autograph letter, acknowledging responsibility for the dissemination of incorrect figures and emphasising the reputational sensitivity of the matter, including potential embarrassment should inaccurate data reach official or Royal Society channels.
The archive includes Andrade’s autograph telephone notes and summary memoranda synthesising the corrected figures, together with three contemporary photographic views of the Cavendish and Mond Laboratories and a printed ground-floor plan of the Mond Laboratory annotated by Andrade with area calculations.
A Cavendish Laboratory archive, with direct involvement of a Nobel laureate and two leading figures in British physics, combining correspondence, internal memoranda, and documentary visual evidence. All three scientists made notable discoveries in their fields. The Cavendish itself, under the direction of Bragg would make history with Crick and Watson and the discovery six years after these letters were written.