Sir Charles Drummond Ellis | |
|---|---|
 Sir Charles Drummond Ellis, FRS byAndrew Freeth | |
| Born | (1895-08-11)August 11, 1895 Hampstead |
| Died | January 10, 1980(1980-01-10) (aged 84) Cookham |
| Occupation(s) | physicist, scientific administrator |
Sir Charles Drummond EllisFRS[1] (11 August 1895 inHampstead – 10 January 1980 inCookham) was an Englishphysicist and scientific administrator. His work on the magnetic spectrum of the beta-rays helped to develop a better understanding ofnuclear structure.[2]
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Ellis was the son of Abraham Charles Ellis, a general manager of theMetropolitan Railway, and Isabelle Flockart Carswell. He won a scholarship toHarrow School where he excelled academically as well as at sport. In 1913, he became acadet in theRoyal Military Academy in preparation for a career in theRoyal Engineers.
He was holidaying in Germany the following summer whenWorld War I broke out. All British nationals were rounded up and sent to theRuhleben internment camp just outside Berlin. The camp had been a horse racecourse. During internment the detainees had a large degree of freedom. They had access to books, and Ellis made good use of his time to study. Another detainee in the camp wasJames Chadwick who was later to receive theNobel Prize for his work on the discovery of theneutron. Chadwick inspired Ellis and together they erected a laboratory in one of the horse stables where they undertook scientific experiments on thephotochemical process.
After the war Ellis decided to abandon a military career. He enteredTrinity College, Cambridge where he studiednatural sciences. After graduating in 1920 he became engaged in research work at theCavendish Laboratory,Cambridge, where the director, SirErnest Rutherford, had now engaged Chadwick. While Rutherford and Chadwick worked on alpharadioactivity and alpha particles for nuclear disintegration experiments Ellis studied beta and gamma radiation. He became a leading authority on the subject, publishing many articles in scientific journals.
In 1921 Ellis had become a fellow of Trinity College and was appointed assistant lecturer in natural science. In 1925 he married Paula Warzcewska, the daughter of a wealthy Polishshipbuilder. Although there were no children Paula (known as Polly in England) had a daughter from a previous marriage. In 1929 he was elected a fellow of theRoyal Society.[1]
In 1930 Rutherford, Chadwick and Ellis published together a classic monographRadiations from Radioactive Substances.[3]
During the early 1930s Ellis worked withNevill Mott on energy relations inbeta decay. Mott said later that Ellis had “practically discovered theneutrino”. He worked with W.J. Henderson on the energy distribution ofpositrons in artificial radioactivity.[4] In 1936 Ellis was elected a fellow of theAmerican Physical Society.[5]
In 1936, a year after Chadwick's appointment to a professorship atLiverpool, Ellis was appointed to the Wheatstone chair of physics atKing's College London in succession toEdward Victor Appleton who had become professor of natural sciences at Cambridge. Ellis continued his research alongside his new teaching and administration commitments.
In 1940, Ellis became a member ofMAUD who were investigating the possibility of usingnuclear fission to develop new weapons. He became scientific adviser to the army council from 1943 to 1946, serving on several high-level committees. He wasknighted in 1946 for his war service.[citation needed]
After World War II Ellis held several posts which were not related to nuclear weapons. He was director of the Finance Corporation for Industry, in charge ofresearch and development for theNational Coal Board. He was president of the British Coal Utilization Research Association from 1946 to 1955 and a member of the advisory council to the minister of fuel and power from 1947 to 1955. He became scientific adviser to theBritish American Tobacco Company (BAT) at a time when the association betweensmoking and various diseases was just starting to be suspected. He retired from the Gas Council in 1966 and from BAT in 1972.
During his final decade his health was poor. In 1980 he died in a nursing home in Cookham after a short illness.
In 1927 Ellis and William Alfred Wooster (1903–1984)[6] performed an important experiment with β-rays.[7] Their experiment led to Pauli's suggestion of the neutrino.[8]
In beta decay, an atom emitted electrons with a continuous range of energies up to a certain maximum value. This phenomenon had been known since 1914, but it was not until 1927 that Charles Drummond Ellis, a British experimental physicist, and his colleague William Alfred Wooster were able to establish conclusively that the energies were distributed continuously at the electrons' emission from the nucleus. Before this result, Ellis had engaged in a long dispute withLise Meitner in Germany, who held that that the electrons were slowed down unevenly only after being emitted.[9]
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