Norman Feather facts for kids

Norman Feather (born November 16, 1904 – died August 14, 1978) was an English scientist. He was a nuclear physicist, which means he studied the tiny parts inside atoms.

In 1940, Feather and his colleague Egon Bretscher worked at Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge. They discovered that a special type of element 94 (called plutonium) could create a nuclear chain reaction. This was a big step forward in science.

Their work was part of a secret British project during World War II. This project, called Tube Alloys, aimed to develop nuclear weapons. Norman Feather also wrote many helpful books about physics. These books explained the history and basic ideas of physics.

Early life and education

Norman Feather was born in 1904 in Pecket Well, West Yorkshire, England. His father, Samson Feather, was a school headmaster. Norman later went to the same primary school where his father was in charge.

He studied at Bridlington Grammar School and Trinity College, Cambridge. He also spent a year at the University of London. In 1926, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree with top honors.

Feather became a Fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge, from 1929 to 1933. He also taught Natural Sciences there from 1936 to 1945. In 1931, he earned his PhD from Cambridge. His main teachers were James Chadwick and Ernest Rutherford. For his research, he used a Wilson cloud chamber. He studied how long-range alpha particles behaved.

In 1932, Norman Feather married Kathleen Grace Burke. She passed away in 1975.

Career

Discovery of the Neutron

In 1929, Norman Feather visited Johns Hopkins University in the United States. There, he learned that a hospital used radon tubes to treat cancer. These tubes were thrown away after use.

The old radon tubes contained polonium. Polonium is a source of powerful alpha particles. Since polonium was hard to get and expensive, Feather collected many of these discarded tubes. He planned to use them for experiments back in Cambridge.

The radioactive polonium that James Chadwick used to discover the neutron in 1932 came from these very radon tubes. Feather helped Chadwick with his important work. After the neutron was found, Feather did some of the first experiments with it. He was the first to show that neutrons could break apart atomic nuclei. The year 1932 was a very important year for nuclear physics at the Cavendish Laboratory.

Plutonium and Tube Alloys

In 1940, Feather and Egon Bretscher made a big discovery at the Cavendish Laboratory. This was for the Tube Alloys project. They suggested that a special type of element 94 could be made from uranium-238. This happens when uranium-238 captures a neutron.

They believed this new element, like Uranium-235, could create a nuclear chain reaction. This means it could release a lot of energy. A nuclear reactor using uranium could produce a lot of plutonium-239 as a side product. This is because uranium-238 absorbs slow neutrons.

Bretscher and Feather showed that element 94 could be easily split by neutrons. They also found it could be separated from uranium using chemicals. This was later confirmed by Edwin M. McMillan and Philip Abelson in the United States.

Nicholas Kemmer, another scientist on the Cambridge team, suggested names for the new elements. He called element 93 Neptunium and element 94 Plutonium. These names were chosen because they were like the planets Neptune and Pluto, which are beyond Uranus (uranium is element 92). Scientists in America also chose the same names. The first sample of plutonium was made in 1941 by Glenn Seaborg. He used a machine called a cyclotron.

Professor in Edinburgh

From 1945 to 1975, Norman Feather was a Professor at the University of Edinburgh. He continued to do research in nuclear physics. He preferred smaller experiments, unlike the very large ones that became common after the war. Feather was known for his dedication to the University of Edinburgh and the city.

In 1945, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society. This is a very respected group of scientists. From 1946, he was also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He was even the President of that Society from 1967 to 1970. Feather won the Makdougall Brisbane Prize in 1970 for his work.

Author

Starting in 1936, Feather wrote several books about nuclear physics and basic physics. In 1940, he wrote a book about Ernest Rutherford, a famous physicist. Another physicist, J.D. Jackson, said Feather's book Electricity and Matter was a great history of electricity and magnetism. He noted that it explained the original experiments very well.

Death

Norman Feather passed away on August 14, 1978, in Manchester.

Books

• N. Feather, An Introduction to Nuclear Physics, Cambridge University Press, 1936.
• N. Feather, Lord Rutherford, Blackie & Son, 1940.
• N. Feather, Nuclear Stability Rules, Cambridge University Press, 1952.
• N. Feather, Mass Length and Time, Edinburgh University Press, 1962.
• N. Feather, Vibrations and Waves, Edinburgh University Press, 1963.
• N. Feather, Electricity and Matter: An introductory survey, Edinburgh University Press, 1968.
• N. Feather, Matter and Motion, Penguin Books Ltd., 1970. ISBN: 978-0140801286