ABC Of Atoms

Private Library Stamp FLEP, Light toning else content appears as unread and unblemished with near fine blue/gold gilt decorated, cloth covered boards displaying no significant surface/edge wear. A few of the pages have not been cut or separated, (in binding process – closed at bottom). DJ displays surface/edge wear as shown, held together by tape. (But Hey! It is covering the book) (;-).

Many of my books are from the 19th Century. Books were not written in at that time, instead an index card with info. Am enclosing the one found in this book for you. Enjoy.

Bertrand Russell is one of those rare intellectuals who covered several disciplines. I always had an interest in his work since I discovered he was born in Monmouthshire. I recently acquired a short book by Bertrand Russell, 'The A,B, C of atoms'. A small hard covered book, and the paper is of that pale cream stiff variety associated with old books. It was published in 1923. The copy I have belonged to the library of one R.C. Trevelyan, who has a wiki page of his own. He was a friend of Russell, so fortuitously I have a copy of the book that is linked to Bertrand himself.

One of Trevelyan's brothers was the famous historian G.M. Trevelyan, a somewhat notorious figure in some circles within Wales because of his indirect connection with the Pen-y-berth arson in 1936. Saunders Lewis, one of the arsonists, bemoaned the decision to build a bombing school in North Wales and he summarized how other locations were dismissed as possible sites. 'Then came Holy Island in English Northumberland. Mr. G. M. Trevelyan wrote a letter to the Times on January 13th to explain that Holy Island was a sacred region: it was a holiday resort for city workers; it had historical associations with Lindisfarne and St. Cuthbert; it was the most important home of wild birds in England. He argued that the Northumberland duck were no less sacred than Dorset swans. He was supported by leaders of English scholarship and letters. The Air Ministry summoned a public conference to consider the matter, and the Bombing Range was withdrawn'.

Back to the book on atoms. It is mostly easy reading and something of a time-capsule which records the state-of-play in physics at that time.

Russell was an astonishing polymath, but he resists the temptation to overwhelm his audience. For example, in describing electron orbits, he notes that:

…it seems that they (electrons) are arranged in successive rings around the nucleus, all revolving round it approximately in circles or ellipses. An ellipse is an oval curve, which may be described as a flattened-out circle…'

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