One of the Most Significant Collections of Scientists in History?

I am fortunate to know, and live a few miles from, Prof. Emil Wolf, known for many things, but perhaps most popular as the author of Principles of Optics, with Max Born, 1959 (they have a first edition at the U of R., my version, bought when I entered optics, in Arizona, in 1976, is the 5th edition). He was recently honored for giving one paper in each of the last 50 years – how amazing is that?  We (my wife Prof. Jannick Rolland and I) try to go over, with the kids (Yvan 16, and Roman 14), at least once a month, to collect some of his stories.  The other night, he brought out, as he often does, something from his “collection”.  This night, he offered that we could take it home and try to create a copy (without opening the frame – as you will see this reveals some interesting features of slim digital cameras).  Shown below is a photo given to him by Max Born from a conference in 1927. 

Beyond being a fascinating collection of scientists, it illustrates nicely that these slim digital cameras have some serious barrel distortion. 

Although you could expand the photo, I’ll make it easier.  Most prominent is Albert, in the front row, just right of center, unmistakable.  What about the others?  I knew many, in fact most of them.  I had a few minutes (it’s Saturday morning and I’m sitting by the fire), so I thought I’d Google (Scholar) those that I knew little about.  This, of course, became immediately much too interesting.  The first one, in the lower left corner is “I. Langmeir”, for whom I knew nothing, other than recognizing the name.  Google Scholar does not reveal him on the first page.  Straight Google points to Wikipedia, who spelled his name as “Langmuir” and labels him as an atomist.

Irving Langmuir
Following World War I, Langmuir contributed to atomic theory and the understanding of atomic structure by defining the modern concept of valence shells and ...
Biography - Patents - See also - References
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_Langmuir - Cached - Similar

Even more fun, is the next link is to CERN, and, amazingly, this photo (with better quality).  Links to follow imply he traveled often with Madame Curie, who appears two seats to the right of him.

http://doc.cern.ch//archive/electronic/cern/others/PHO/pauli-archive-pho//016.jpg

Next, to the right we find, Max Planck, known best for Planck’s constant,

Max Planck
Max Planck (April 23, 1858 – October 4, 1947) was a German physicist. He is considered to be the founder of the quantum theory, and thus one of the most ...
Biography - Religious view - Honors and awards - Publications
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Planck - Cached - Similar

There was also the following link on the lead page, that was interesting and relates to describing his Nobel prize. 

He is followed by Madame Curie, best known for contributions to understanding radioactivity.
n.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Planck%23Honours_and_awards&ei=3NxRS-SlEIiWtgeP_qytDA&sa=X&oi=oneline_sitelinks&resnum=1&ct=result&cd=3&ved=0CAsQ0gIoAg&usg=AFQjCNFK6GLcRm3AvCw7tyA9uqUXYrRJNQ
Marie Curie
Madame Curie was decorated with the French Legion of Honor. In Poland, she had received honorary doctorates from the Lwów Polytechnic (1912), ...
Early life - Sorbonne - New elements - Nobel Prizes
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Curie - Cached - Similar

It is interesting to note the rest of the Google page lists biographies written on her, including one by her daughter – has anyone read this one?

Next comes H.A. Lorentz, who I recall as related to my E&M classes and some plots with someone else I cannot recall.  Again, we can resort to Wikipedia, to find:

Hendrik Lorentz
Hendrik Antoon Lorentz (18 July 1853 – 4 February 1928) was a Dutch physicist who shared the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physics with Pieter Zeeman for the ...
Biography - Legacy - See also - References
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hendrik_Lorentz - Cached - Similar

The rest of the Google page is overtaken by links to one John H. Lorentz.

Lowry Hill - Biographies - John H. Lorentz
John H. Lorentz. Director of Alternative Investments. At age nine, John Lorentz completely dismantled his bicycle (much to his mother's horror) only to ...
www.lowryhill.com/biographies/ops_j_lorentz/ - Cached - Similar

I’m not going there, although I am curious to see what comes after “… only to …”

You can solve this inconvenience by noting the photo says “H. A. Lorentz” and going with that you get an interesting cover page in Google.  He received the Nobel Prize in 1902 and was selected for Project Gutenberg.  His books, some written about Einstein’s theories and some written with Einstein (and Minkowski) are available even now from Amazon. 

Next comes our hero, Albert…

Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, in the Kingdom of Württemberg in the German Empire on 14 March 1879. His father was Hermann Einstein, a salesman and ...
Early life and education - Marriages and children - Patent office
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein - Cached

also on the Google cover page we find this fun image,

I may have to do something with this.

To his right, P. Langevin, again, a name to me, where we find,

Paul Langevin
Paul Langevin (23 January 1872 – 19 December 1946) was a prominent French physicist who developed Langevin dynamics and the Langevin equation. ...
Life - See also - References - Sources
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Langevin - Cached - Similar

 

One useful quote from the Google cover page is “Paul Langevin was the first person to write the 'Newton's equation' for a Brownian particle. ...”

Also on the cover page, we find he was Madame Curie’s “companion”, which at one point he defended by offering to duel, with real pistols – someone let me know what happened next?

Continuing right, we have next E. Guye, I had not idea who we have here, Google says, basically, he was at the 1927 conference – he does not rank a listing Wikipedia, yet.  As a result, his Google cover page lists a number of different links to the 1927 conference, and an earlier one in 1911.  His name is linked with DeBroglie and Lorentz-Einstein experiments.

Towards the bottom of the page is a great blog link – “the Lousy Linguist"
http://thelousylinguist.blogspot.com/2008/06/when-conferences-meant-something.html

Here you find the quote:

One of my all time favorite pictures, this comes from what may have been the most valuable academic conference in history, the Fifth Solvay International Conference on Electrons and Photons held in Brussels, Belgium 1927. Rarely has a single conference involved such critical debate about a new theory (I'm no physicist, of course).

From Wikipedia's page: "Perhaps the most famous conference was the October 1927 Fifth Solvay International Conference on Electrons and Photons, where the world's most notable physicists met to discuss the newly formulated quantum theory.

How fun is that?  The title of the article is “When Conferences Meant Something”, how appropriate.

OK, two to go (in this row),  next we find another unknown to me, C.T.R. Wilson,

Charles Thomson Rees Wilson
C. T. R. Wilson. The 1927 Solvay conference. Born, Charles Thomson Rees Wilson 14 February 1869(1869-02-14) Midlothian, Scotland ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Thomson_Rees_Wilson - Cached - Similar

Reading down the Google cover page for “C. T. R. Wilson” I realize I do know Wilson, he discovered, or invented, the cloud Chamber.  There are a number of great looking links on the page, should you be so inclined.

Finally, for today, we have another unknown to me, D.W. Richardson,

Owen Willans Richardson
Sir Owen Willans Richardson, FRS (26 April 1879 - 15 February 1959) was a British physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1928 for his work on ...
Biography - Honours - References - Bibliography
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owen_Willans_Richardson - Cached - Similar

Yet another Nobel Prize winner.  This is the only case I was forced to click through to fill in the … above.  It reads “…for his work on thermionic emission, which lead (sic) to Richardson’s Law.” 

"If then the negative radiation is due to the corpuscles coming out of the metal, the saturation current s should obey the law  ."[3]

This also made available the photo below, again from this clearly monumental conference.

 

Niels Bohr and Richardson (right) at the 1927 Solvay conference

Born	26 April 1879 Dewsbury, Yorkshire, England
Died	15 February 1959 (aged 79) Alton, Hampshire, England
Nationality	United Kingdom
Fields	Physics
Institutions	University of Cambridge Princeton University King's College London
Alma mater	University of Cambridge
Doctoral advisor	J. J. Thomson
Doctoral students	Arthur Compton Clinton Davisson
Known for	Richardson's Law
Notable awards	Nobel Prize in Physics (1928) Hughes Medal (1920)

Sir Owen Willans Richardson, FRS (26 April 1879 - 15 February 1959) was a British physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics.

Since I seem to have exceeded the blog guidelines, 2 pages and 1 figure, and the fire has died down, I’ll save the remaining two rows, and those missing from the photo, listed at the bottom for blogs to follow.  Feel free to respond with more tidbits.

Comments

[Patricia Daukantas]

I read Eve Curie's biography many years ago (back in the 1980s, I think). Very nicely written, but it glosses over Madame Curie's affair with Paul Langevin. I suppose that, in 1937, it wasn't proper to write in a book that one's own mother had an affair, even after she was widowed.

Incidentally, Eve Curie died in 2007, a couple of months before she would have turned 103. It makes you wonder how much longer her mother and sister would have lived (they died at ages 66 and 58, respectively) if they had not exposed themselves to so much radiation.