Francis William Aston: Correspondence and Papers

Aston's research papers consist of four notebooks recording work on positive rays, 1911-1913, and a few unidentified manuscript calculations. His time at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough is documented by reports on his work submitted to the Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, 1917-1919 and a humorous account of wartime activities at Farnborough by an unidentified author. Publications material consists of manuscript and typescript drafts of a small number of Aston's publications, illustrative material, off-prints by Aston, 1919-1939, and a number of typescripts of papers by other scientists including W.H. Bragg, O.J. Lodge and W.J. Pope. There are correspondence and papers, 1935-1945, relating to Aston's Presidency of the International Union of Chemistry's Commission on Atoms. The remaining correspondence consists of a chronological sequence relating to Aston's scientific work, 1914, 1922-1945, and n.d. The sequence is predominantly incoming with a few manuscript drafts by Aston, some on the verso of incoming letters. It provides some documentation of Aston's visits and conferences, especially a visit to the USA in 1922 to lecture at the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

By section as follows: Research, Royal Aircraft Establishment Farnborough, Publications, International Union of Chemistry, Correspondence. Index of correspondents.

Unless restrictions apply, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using the Manuscripts Reading Room at Cambridge University Library. For further details on conditions governing access please contact mss@lib.cam.ac.uk. Information about opening hours and obtaining a Cambridge University Library reader's ticket is available from the Library's website (www.lib.cam.ac.uk).

Transferred from the Cavendish Laboratory to the Library in 1980.

A printed catalogue of the papers and correspondence of Francis William Aston, NCUACS catalogue no. 101/6/01, 20 pp, can be found in the Manuscripts Reading Room.

A catalogue of the collection can be found on ArchiveSearch.

Microfilm available