Dame Kathleen Lonsdale (1903–1971): Her Early Career in X-ray Crystallography

Abstract

Kathleen Yardley started her career in X-ray crystallography under the directorship of Sir William Bragg first at University College London (UCL) and then at the Royal Institution (RI). She was part of a team of young researchers who were keen to discover this new world of molecular and atomic patterns. After her marriage, now Kathleen Lonsdale, she left the RI and moved to the University of Leeds. Whilst at Leeds Lonsdale sought Bragg's support and advice, evidence of which is provided by their correspondence during this period. After returning to London, Lonsdale, now the mother of two daughters, returned to Bragg's team. During the next fourteen years (1932–1946) she established herself as one of the prominent researchers within the rapidly expanding field of X-ray crystallography and was one of the first women to be elected a fellow of the Royal Society.

Keywords

Kathleen Lonsdale William Bragg UCL Royal Institution University of Leeds

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Andrade, E.N.da.C., and Kathleen Lonsdale. 1943. William Henry Bragg 1862–1942. Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society 4: 276–300.

Astbury, W.T., and Kathleen Yardley. 1924. Tabulated data for the examination of the 230 space-groups by homogeneous X-rays. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London A 224:221–57.

Hilton, Harold. 1903. Mathematical crystallography and the theory of groups of movements. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Hughes, Jeff. 2002. Craftsmanship and social service: W.H.Bragg and the modern Royal Institution. In ‘The common purposes of life’ science and society at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, ed. Frank A.J.L. James, 223–224. Aldershot: Ashgate.

James, Frank A.J.L., and Anthony Peers. 2007. Constructing space for science at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, Physics in Perspective, 9: 130–85.

Jenkin, John 2008: William and Lawrence Bragg, father and son. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Lonsdale, Kathleen. 1928. The structure of the benzene ring. Nature 122: 810.

Lonsdale, Kathleen. 1929. The structure of the benzene ring in C₆(CH₃)₆. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A 123: 494–515.

Lonsdale, Kathleen. 1931. An X-ray analysis of the structure of hexachlorobenzene, using the Fourier method. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A 133: 536–52.

10.

Lonsdale, Kathleen. 1936. Simplified structure factor density formulae for the 230 space groups of mathematical crystallography. London: G.Bell & Sons Ltd.

11.

Lonsdale, Kathleen. 1937. Magnetic anistropy and electronic structure of aromatic molecules. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A 159: 149–61.

12.

Lonsdale, Kathleen. 1940. Diffuse reflections on Laue photographs. Nature 146: 806.

13.

Lonsdale, Kathleen. 1944. Divergent beam X-ray photography. Nature. 153: 22–3.

14.

Lonsdale, Kathleen. 1962. Crystallography at the Royal Institution and Reminiscences. In fifty years of X-ray diffraction, ed. P.P.Ewald, 410–420 and 595–602. Utrecht: N.V.A. Oosthoek.

15.

Watson, Katherine D. 2002. ‘Temporary hotel accommodation’? The early history of the Davy-Faraday research laboratory, 1894–1923. In ‘The common purposes of life’ science and society at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, ed. Frank A.J.L. James, 191–223. Aldershot: Ashgate.

16.

Yardley, Kathleen. 1924. The crystalline structure of succinic acid, succinic anhydride and succinimide. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A. 105: 451–67.