Chapter Four— Scientific Springtime (1928–1936): Smell of Amsterdam's Canals
1. See chapter 3, n. 13.
2. Edoardo Amaldi and E. Segrè, "Sulla teoria dell'effetto Raman" (Quantum theory of the Raman effect), Rend. Lincei , ser. 6, 9 (1929): 407-9.
3. E. Segrè, "Sulla dispersione anomala negli spettri di bande" (Anomalous dispersion in band spectra), Rend. Lincei , ser. 6, 10 (1929): 590-94. See also Nuovo cimento 4 (1930): 144-47.
4. See FP1: 444, 445.
5. F. Rasetti, "Raman Effekt und Struktur der Molekeln und Kristalle," in Peter J. W. Debye, Leipziger Vorträge, 1931 (Leipzig: S. Hirzel, 1931).
6. E. Segrè, "Evidence for Quadrupole Radiation," Nature 126 (1930): 882.
7. E. Segrè, "Über den Zeemaneffekt von Quadrupollinien" (On the Zeeman effect of quadrupole lines), Zs. f. Physik 66 (1930): 827-29.
8. On Zeeman, see the obituary by Lord Rayleigh in Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society of London 4 (1944): 591.
9. On Cornelius J. Bakker (1904-60), see Armin Hermann et al., History of CERN, vol. 1 (Amsterdam and New York: North-Holland Physics Pub., 1987), pp. 127, 158.
10. See E. Segrè, "Righe di quadrupolo negli spettri di raggi X" (Quadrupole lines in X-ray spectra), Rend. Lincei , ser. 6, 14 (1931): 501-5.
11. Arnold Sommerfeld, Atombau und Spektrallinien: Wellenmechanischer Ergänzungsband, vol. 2 (Braunschweig: F. Vieweg, 1939).
12. See E. Segrè, "Otto Stern," in Nat. Ac. of Sciences, Biographical
Memoirs, vol. 43 (Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Sciences, 1973), p. 215.
13. Otto Frisch has written an autobiography entitled What Little I Remember (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1979).
14. Friedrich von Schiller, "Sprüche des Konfucius." One of Niels Bohr's favorite quotations, "Nur die Fülle führt zur Klarheit / Und im Abgrund wohnt die Wahrheit" (Naught but fulness makes us wise,— / Buried deep, truth ever lies!) comes from the same poem. The translation is from Poems of Schiller (New York: John D. Williams, n.d.).
15. Adrienne Thomas's antiwar novel Die Katrin wird Soldat (Berlin: Ullstein Verlag, 1930; Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuch, 1987).
16. Enrico Fermi and E. Segrè, "Sulla teoria delle strutture iperfini" (On the theory of hyperfine structure), Reale acc. d'Italia, memorie cl. scienze fisiche 4 (1933): 131-58, summarized in "Zur Theorie der Hyperfeinstruktur," Zs. f. Physik 82 (1933): 729-49, and in Nuovo cimento 7 (1934). FP75b.
17. E. Segrè and C. J. Bakker, "Zeeman Effect of a Forbidden Line," Nature 128 (1931): 1076.
18. E. Segrè, "Un metodo per l'osservazione dell'effetto Zeeman quadratico" (A method for observing the quadratic Zeeman effect), Ricerca scientifica 4, no. 2 (1933): 531, and "Effetto Zeeman quadratico nella serie principale del sodio" (Quadratic Zeeman effect in the principal sodium series), Nuovo cimento 5 (1934): 304-8.
19. Edoardo Amaldi and E. Segrè, "Einige spektroskopische Eigenschaften hochangeregter Atome" (Some spectroscopic properties of highly excited atoms), in Zeeman Verhandelingen (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1935), pp. 8-17.
20. R. Frisch and E. Segrè, "Über die Einstellung der Richtungsquantelung II" (On the dynamics of space quantization), Zs. f. Physik 80 (1933): 610-16; also R. Frisch and E. Segrè, "Ricerche sulla quantizzazione spaziale" (Investigation of spatial quantization), Nuovo cimento 2 (1933): 78-91; and see I. I. Rabi, "On the Process of Space Quantization," Phys. Rev. 49 (1936): 324.
21. Ernest Rutherford, James Chadwick, and C. D. Ellis, Radiations from Radioactive Substances (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1930).
22. E. Amaldi, O. D'Agostino, E. Fermi, F. Rasetti, and E. Segrè, "Radioattività 'beta' provocata da bombardamento di neutroni, III" (Beta radioactivity produced by neutron bombardment, III), La ricerca scientifica (henceforth cited as RS ) 5, no. 1 (1934): 452-53 [FP86a]; E. Amaldi, O. D'Agostino, E. Fermi, F. Rasetti, and E. Segrè, "Radioattività provocata da bombardamento di neutroni, IV" (Radioactivity produced by neutron bombardment, IV), RS 5, no. 1 (1934): 652-53 [FP87a]; E. Amaldi, O. D'Agostino, E. Fermi, F. Rasetti, and E. Segrè, "Radioattività provocata
da bombardamento di neutroni, V" (Radioactivity produced by neutron bombardment, V), RS 5, no. 2 (1934): 21-22 [FP88a]; E. Amaldi, O. D'Agostino, and E. Segrè, "Radioattività provocata da bombardamento di neutroni, VI" (Radioactivity produced by neutron bombardment, VI), RS 5, no. 2 (1934): 38-82; E. Amaldi, O. D'Agostino, E. Fermi, B. Pontecorvo, F. Rasetti, and E. Segrè, "Radioattività provocata da bombardamento di neutroni, VII" (Radioactivity produced by neutron bombardment, VII), RS 5, no. 2 (1934): 467-70 [FP89a]; E. Amaldi, O. D'Agostino, E. Fermi, B. Pontecorvo, F. Rasetti, and E. Segrè, "Radioattività provocata da bombardamento di neutroni, VIII" (Radioactivity produced by neutron bombardment, VIII), RS 6, no. 1 (1935): 123-25 [FP90a]; E. Amaldi, O. D'Agostino, E. Fermi, B. Pontecorvo, and E. Segrè, "Radioattività indotta da bombardamento di neutroni, IX" (Radioactivity induced by neutron bombardment, IX), RS 6, no. 1 (1935): 435-37 [FP91a]; E. Amaldi, O. D'Agostino, E. Fermi, B. Pontecorvo, and E. Segrè, ''Radioattività indotta da bombardamento di neutroni, X" (Radioactivity induced by neutron bombardment, X), RS 6, no. 1 (1935): 581-84 [FP92a]. And see Segrè, Enrico Fermi, Physicist, pp. 73 ff.
23. See E. Segrè, "A cinquant'anni dalla radioattività artificiale provocata da neutroni," Rendiconti della Accademia nazionale delle scienze, detta dei XL, memorie fis., 5th ser., 8, pt. 2 (1984): 165.
24. Aristide von Grosse, "The Chemical Properties of Elements 93 and 94," J. Am. Chem Soc. 57 (1935): 440-41; E. Segrè, "An Unsuccessful Search for Transuranic Elements," Phys. Rev. 55 (1939): 1104-5; G. E. Villar, Boletín de la Facultad de ingeniería (Montevideo) 5 (1938): 231. These papers preceded the discovery of neptunium by Edwin McMillan and Philip Abelson. If the writings of Aristide von Grosse and of Ida Noddack (see n. 25 below) had been better appreciated, the whole history of fission and of the transuranics would have been different. The following papers appeared after the discovery of neptunium: M. Mayer, "Rare Earths and Transuranic Elements," Phys. Rev. 60 (1941): 184; G. T. Seaborg and E. Segrè, "The Trans-Uranium Elements," Nature 159 (1947): 863-65. Starting in 1944, Seaborg developed the concept of an actinide family; see, e.g., The Transuranium Elements, ed. G. T. Seaborg, J. J. Katz, and W. M. Manning (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1949): 1517-20. Seaborg's personal recollections may be found in The Transuranium Elements (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1957).
25. Ida Noddack, "Über das Element 93," Angew. Chemie 47 1934): 653-55.
26. Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann, "Über den Nachweis und das Verhalten der bei der Bestrahlung des Urans mittels Neutronen entstehenden Erdalkalimetalle," Naturwiss . 27 (1939): 39. The history of the discovery of fission is very complicated: important original sources are FP;
Frédéric Joliot and Irène Curie, Oeuvres scientifiques complètes (Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1961); Otto Hahn, Vom Radiothor zur Uranspaltung: Eine wissenschaftliche Selbstbiographie (Braunschweig: Vieweg, 1962); and Fritz Krafft, Im Schatten der Sensation: Leben und Wirken von Fritz Strassmann (Weinheim: Verlag Chemie, 1981).
27. E. Fermi, E. Amaldi, O. D'Agostino, F. Rasetti, and E. Segrè, "Artificial Radioactivity Produced by Neutron Bombardment," Proc. Roy. Soc. (London) A146 (1934): 483-500. FP98.
27. E. Fermi, E. Amaldi, O. D'Agostino, F. Rasetti, and E. Segrè, "Artificial Radioactivity Produced by Neutron Bombardment," Proc. Roy. Soc. (London) A146 (1934): 483-500. FP98.
28. Enrico Fermi, "Natural Beta Decay" (Int. Conf. on Physics, London, 1934), in Nuclear Physics (London: Physical Society, 1934), vol. 1. FP102.
28. Enrico Fermi, "Natural Beta Decay" (Int. Conf. on Physics, London, 1934), in Nuclear Physics (London: Physical Society, 1934), vol. 1. FP102.
28. Enrico Fermi, "Natural Beta Decay" (Int. Conf. on Physics, London, 1934), in Nuclear Physics (London: Physical Society, 1934), vol. 1. FP102.
29. E. Fermi, E. Amaldi, B. Pontecorvo, F. Rasetti, and E. Segrè, "Azione di sostanze idrogenate sulla radioattività provocata da neutroni" (The influence of hydrogenous substances on the radioactivity produced by neutrons), Ricerca scientifica 5 (1934): 282. FP105a.
30. Fritz Haber received the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1919 for synthesizing ammonia from its elements.
31. Hermann Luedemann (1880-1959) was an engineer of liberal-socialist tendencies who turned to politics. From 1929 to 1932, he was Oberpräsident of Silesia—the highest civil official in the province—and Elfriede served as his secretary in that office. The Nazis put Luedemann in a concentration camp, but he survived.
32. On Pegram, see L. A. Embrey, "G. B. Pegram," in Nat. Ac. of Sciences, Biographical Memoirs, vol. 61 (Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Sciences, 1970), p. 357.
33. See J. R. Dunning, G. A. Fink, G. B. Pegram, and E. Segrè, "Experiments on Slow Neutrons with Velocity Selector," Phys. Rev. 49 (1936): 198-99; G. A. Fink, J. R. Dunning, G. B. Pegram, and E. Segrè, "Production and Absorption of Slow Neutrons in Hydrogenic Materials," Phys. Rev. 49 (1936): 199. Also see F. Rasetti, E. Segrè, G. A. Fink, J. R. Dunning, and G. B. Pegram, "Sulla legge di assorbimento dei neutroni lenti," Rend. Lincei, 6th ser., 23 (1936): 343-45, and ''On the Absorption Law for Slow Neutrons," Phys. Rev. 49 (1936): 104.