Published Resources Details
Book Section
- Title
- Crystal clear: William Henry Bragg and William Lawrence Bragg
- In
- Australia's Nobel laureates vol. III: state of our innovation nation, 2021 and beyond
- Imprint
- One Mandate Group, 2021, pp. 22-31
- ISBN/ISSN
- 9780646830957
- Url
- https://publications.innovatia.au/view/404883545/26/
- Format
- Contains
- Image
- Description
Also freely available online, pdf pages 26-35.
- Abstract
Father-and-son duo William and Lawrence Bragg combined mathematics knowledge with x-ray expertise to create a new method of analysis that is still used today: x-ray crystallography.
William and Lawrence Bragg are the only father-and-son team in the history of the Nobel Prize to have won a joint award. Lawrence Bragg is further distinguished by being the youngest person to have ever been awarded the Prize, aged 25.
Although the work that won the award was carried out in the UK, Australia lays legitimate claim to share in the Braggs' glory by virtue of the formative years they spent in Adelaide, where Lawrence Bragg was born and educated.
His father, William Henry Bragg (to avoid confusion, the son was known by his second name, Lawrence, though they shared the first name William), was born in the English village
of Westward, near Wigton in Cumberland. He was one of three sons to Robert and Mary Bragg. Robert was a farmer; Mary died when William was seven.The elder William was sent to live with his uncle (another William Bragg), a pharmacist in Leicestershire. A bright child, he was the youngest boy at the time to pass the local
Oxford junior examinations, in 1873.At 13, he was sent to school on the Isle of Man, where his mother's brother (another uncle, and not a William) was a teacher.
William's autobiography tells us that he was bullied at first, but went on to be reasonably happy. The religious background of his uncle's home and the school appear to have had a strong influence on his attitudes during his life. As an adult he was a sceptical scientist, with great faith in fact, evidence, and scientific method.
Related entries
People
See also
Related Published resources
isPartOf
- Brescia, Paul [Managing Editor], Australia's Nobel Laureates. vol III : state of our innovation nation : 2021 and beyond (Roseville, New South Wales: One Mandate Group, 2021), 704 pages : colour illustrations, colour portraits pp, https://publications.innovatia.au/view/404883545/. Details