William Penney

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William Penney, around 1945

William George Penney, Baron Penney (born June 24, 1909 in Gibraltar , † March 3, 1991 in East Hendred , Oxfordshire ) was a British physicist . Penney is considered the father of the British atomic bomb .

Education and early years

Penney was the son of a sergeant major in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps . He grew up in Sheerness , Kent and attended technical schools in Colchester and Sheerness, where his natural science and math talent was noticed early. He studied from 1927 on a scholarship at Imperial College London (Royal College of Science) with a bachelor's degree in mathematics in 1929 and then with top grades and the master's degree in mathematics in 1931. He then conducted research at the University of London , at the he received his doctorate in 1932 with a thesis on solid state physics. As a post-doctoral student he was with a Commonwealth Fund scholarship from 1931 to 1933 at the University of Wisconsin – Madison and from 1933 with an 1851 exhibition scholarship at the University of Cambridge (Trinity College), where he switched entirely to physics. In 1935 he received a doctorate (D. Sc.) In mathematical physics at Cambridge with a thesis on the application of quantum mechanics in solid state physics. In 1936 he was a Stokes student at Pembroke College, Cambridge and in the same year he became a reader (assistant professor) of mathematics at Imperial College, which he remained until 1945.

In solid-state physics, he is known for the Kronig-Penney model he developed in the 1930s .

Second World War

During the Second World War he researched and developed initially for the Ministry of Homeland Security and the Royal Navy until 1943 , among other things on the effect of shock waves in bomb explosions and underwater explosions and the construction of the artificial harbors for landing in Normandy ( Mulberry harbors ). Shortly before landing in Normandy in 1944, he came across the British atomic bomb project (Tube Alloy Project) and became head of the British delegation to the Manhattan Project in the USA. There he was soon recognized by American scientists as a leading member of the laboratory in Los Alamos because of his leadership skills and scientific contributions, in particular to the effects of the shock waves of the explosion. He was present at the Trinity test in 1945 and observed the effect of the shock wave of the atomic bomb explosion with instruments he had constructed himself , advised the Target Committee in Washington DC on the selection of the targets and the detonation height for the first atomic bombs, taking Hiroshima and Nagasaki because of the surrounding mountains endorsed and witnessed the atomic bombing over Nagasaki on an escort aircraft. After the capitulation of Japan, he was one of the first to investigate the effects of the atomic bomb on the spot.

British nuclear bomb project after the war

In 1945 he returned to England, where he was in charge of the development of a British atomic bomb, as Chief Superintendent Armament Research (CSAR, called Caesar) at Fort Halstead in Kent . In this role he was also generally responsible for weapons research. In 1946 he returned to the USA to study the shock wave effects of atomic bomb tests on the Bikini Atolls at the invitation of Leslie Groves (Crossroads company).

When it became clear that the Americans did not want the British to participate in their atomic bomb project as an independent member (McMahon Act 1946), the British began developing their own atomic bomb under the direction of Penney on the instructions of the government of Clement Attlee . In the winter of 1946/47 he returned to Washington to use his contacts as an advisor to the British representative at the Atomic Energy Commission. The atomic bomb development took place in a group with the code name High Explosive Research (HER) at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich and Fort Halstead, from 1950 on the abandoned airfield of the Royal Air Force in Aldermaston (there renamed Atomic Weapons Research Establishment from 1953) . From May 1947, Penney was officially in charge. The aim was to develop a plutonium bomb, the technical details of which had been completely redesigned compared to the Nagasaki bomb. The first test took place on October 3, 1952 on Tremouille Island (part of the Montebello Islands ) off the west coast of Australia ( Operation Hurricane ), followed by numerous other tests in Australia. Penney also led the development of the British hydrogen bomb at Aldermaston, which was tested in 1957 (Operation Grapple). John Clive Ward later claimed the father of the British hydrogen bomb , but other physicists were also named such as Keith V. Roberts , William Richard Joseph Cook (later ennobled and deputy director in Aldermaston), Henry Hulme and John Bryan Taylor . The nuclear tests were later the subject of severe criticism, including Penney, because of the radiation exposure of indigenous peoples and other civilians and military personnel in Great Britain and Australia. Penney retrospectively admitted a threat to the Australian McClelland Commission in the mid-1980s, but insisted that this was in line with accepted safety standards at the time.

The management of the atomic bomb project lay initially with the Ministry of Supply and from 1954 with the newly founded United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA). Penney was on their council from 1954 to 1967 (responsible for nuclear weapons research), was its deputy chairman from 1961 and was its chairman from 1964 to 1967. Penney was head of the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment in Aldermaston from 1953 to 1959. From 1959 he was head of the Atomic Energy Research Establishment in Harwell as the successor to John Cockcroft and thus also responsible for civil nuclear energy development.

In 1957 he was chairman of a commission investigating the Windscale reactor accident .

Later years and private matters

From 1967 to 1973 he was rector of Imperial College London .

From 1968 to 1979 he was director of Tube Investments. From 1971 to 1983 he was on the Board of Directors of Standard Telephones and Cables.

He had been married to Adele Elms since 1935, who died in 1944. The marriage resulted in two sons. In 1945 he married Joan Quennell.

Awards

In 1946 he was elected as a member (“ Fellow ”) of the Royal Society , which in 1966 awarded him the Rumford Medal “ in recognition of his distingsuihed and paramount personal contribution to the establishment of economic nuclear energy in Great Britain ”. 1956 to 1960 he was Treasurer and 1957 to 1960 Vice President of the Royal Society.

In 1952 he was ennobled. In 1970 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and in 1973 a member of the American Philosophical Society . He was an honorary doctor of the University of Bath (1966, D. Sc.).

Fonts

  • The quantum theory of valency, London 1935

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ William Penney in the Mathematics Genealogy Project (English)Template: MathGenealogyProject / Maintenance / id used
  2. ^ Lorna Arnold , Britain and the H-Bomb, Palgrave, 2001, p. 224
  3. ^ The London Gazette, October 31, 1952
  4. ^ Member History: Lord William G. Penney. American Philosophical Society, accessed November 3, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Penney, William
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Penney, William George Penney, Baron (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British physicist
DATE OF BIRTH June 24, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Gibraltar
DATE OF DEATH March 3, 1991
Place of death East Hendred , Oxfordshire