50 Years ago

'Tizard and the Science of War' — His flair for setting the cat among the official pigeons, and for ignoring the normal channels, made him not always popular with the upper hierarchy. His sharp incisive wit was often exercised at the expense of the complacent, the pompous and the incompetent ... but I never heard of it being used at the expense of the young, the vigorous or the keen. There is a story which shows his ready wit, dating from the meeting of the British Association in Canada before the War. Tizard and a colleague inadvertently crossed over into the United States near Niagara. When challenged by a policeman, and not having their passports with them, they produced their Association membership cards. When the policeman told them that “The American Government doesn't recognize British Science”, the lightning reply came from Tizard, “Oh, that's all right, neither does the British Government”.

P. M. S. Blackett

From Nature 5 March 1960.

100 Years ago

In the course of some experiments on the phosphorescence of minerals ... it was suggested to me by Prof. Strutt that it would be of interest to examine the spectrum of the light from luminous bacteria. Through the kindness of Sir James Dewar, Prof. Strutt was enabled to furnish me with a dish containing bacteria produced from fish, which when viewed in a darkened room, were seen to glow with a greenish-blue light bright enough to enable one to read a watch ... The light emitted by the bacteria consisted of a continuous spectrum extending from wave-length 5000 ... to wave-length 3500 tenth-meters ... The photographs I have obtained indicate that in some cases these bacteria emit ultra-violet radiation, and I hope with another spectroscope, now in course of construction, to obtain more definite information.

R. W. Forsyth

From Nature 3 March 1910.