Frederick Soddy was born in Eastbourne, Sussex, England on September 2, 1877. He was the 7th and last child of a prosperous corn merchant, Benjamin Soddy. He never knew his mother, Hannah Green Soddy, well because she passed away when Frederick was only 18 months old. He received an education at Eastbourne College where he was taught by R.E. Hughes. Hughes encouraged Soddy to study chemistry, and continue those studies at Oxford. Soddy moved on to the University of Wales, Aberystwyth for one year, then on to Oxford. He graduated at Merton College, Oxford in 1898. He had earned a scholarship in 1895 which allowed him to attend Oxford and receive the First Class Honors Degree in Chemistry. Two years later he moved to Canada where he was a Demonstrator in the Chemistry Department at McGill University, Montreal. He worked with Professor Ernest Rutherford investigating problems dealing with radioactivity. With Rutherford, he wrote a numerous amount of documents about radioactivity, as well as gaseous emanation (release) of radium and found that it was a phenomenon involving the atomic disintegration (breakdown) formations of new kinds of matter.
After leaving Canada in 1903, Soddy worked with Sir William Ramsay at the University College, London where he furthered the study of radium emanation. He and Ramsay demonstrated that the element helium was produced in a radioactive decay of a sample of radium bromide proved by spectroscopic means. Also he found that Helium was evolved in a decay of emanation (discharge). Later, Soddy became the lecturer in physical chemistry and radioactivity at the University of Glasgow from 1904 to 1914. During this time was when he married his wife, Winifred Beilby in 1908. He was still working with radioactive chemicals and radioactive materials. With these experiments was how he later founded the “Displacement Law”. This mainly evolved around the belief that emissions of an alpha particle from an element causes that element to move back two places in the periodic table (FreeArticleBase.com). He reached the high point of his studies around 1913 when he figured out the concept of isotopes after James Chadwick had discovered the neutron. This meant that certain elements exist in more than one form which have different atomic weights; however they are all indistinguishable chemically. He was moved up to Professor of Chemistry at Aberdeen University in 1914 where he conducted military research to help the war effort.
During War he became Dr. Lees Professor of Chemistry around 1919 back at the Oxford University, where he used to go to school. He had become disillusioned with science feeling that advances in science had led to no concomitant advances in human civilization (Free Articles Base.) which means that he did not think that the advances in science had associated advances for humans. He held the position until 1936 but did no further work with radioactivity even though he worked with some of the world renowned scientists of the century. Instead he was interested in economic, social and political theories like women’s suffrage (right to vote) and the status of Ireland and other topics that had nothing to do with science. He was not as successful in these areas as he was in science. He felt it was time to retire in 1936 due to the lost of his beloved wife. He and his wife had no children, and he passed away on September 22, 1956 at Brighton (NobelPrize.org).
Soddy was a gifted chemist and a talented writer. During his lifetime he wrote several books including Radioactivity(1904), The Interpretation of Radium (1909), The Chemistry of the Radioelements (1910), The Interpretation of the Atom (1032) and The Story of Atomic Energy (1947). He also wrote books on economic theory. In 1921 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work on the origins and nature of isotopes (NobelPrize.org). Society has benefited from his work. Isotopes are used in scientific research as tracers, to kill cancerous cells, and in many other ways. His studies also led to information that helped fill in the empty spaces Mendeleev left in the periodic table, and then added more elements to the table.
Works Cited
"Frederick Soddy - Biography." Nobelprize.org. Web. 08 Dec. 2010.
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Last edited 12/13/2010 12:00:00 AM
