AN 'OLE IN 'OLBORN

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Paul Dirac had used quantum mechanics to develop a theory of the electron. At the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge Patrick Blackett realised that the concept had potential for being studied experimentally. With Beppo Occhialini, he built a geiger counter-controlled cloud chamber in which passing cosmic rays could trigger the device to take photographs of them. This enabled him to observe a number of phenomena in particle physics that had not been appreciated previously. However, he had come to chafe at being a middle-ranking member of a hierarchy that was run by Ernest Rutherford in an authoritarian manner. The University of London's Birkbeck College offered him the opportunity to head his own laboratory. In 1933 he returned to his home city, a place that he had always found to be more congenial than Cambridge.

The optimum conditions for Blackett's cloud chamber experiments were ones in which there was only minimal interference from extraneous rays. He found a well-insulated environment 100ft. (30m) below street level. The infrastructure of Holborn Underground Station included a platform that was never used. There, the professor and his assistants conducted their investigations.

Location: The Blackett Building, Imperial College, SW7 2AZ. Blackett's final academic position was at Imperial. (orange, yellow)

Holborn Underground Station, 88-94 Kingsway, WC2B 6AF (blue, purple)

Birkbeck College, Malet Street, WC1E 7HX (orange, red)

David Backhouse 2024