Norman Feather
| Norman Feather | |
|---|---|
| Born |
16 November 1904 Pecket Well, Yorkshire |
| Died | 14 August 1978 (aged 73) Manchester |
| Fields | Physics, Nuclear Physics |
| Institutions |
University of Cambridge University of Edinburgh |
| Alma mater | University of Cambridge |
| Thesis | A study of certain corpuscular radiations of the active deposits of radium and thorium by the expansion chamber method (1931) |
| Doctoral advisor | Ernest Rutherford |
| Known for | Creation and fission of plutonium by neutrons, important for nuclear weapons |
| Notable awards | Fellow of the Royal Society (1945) Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1946) RSE Makdougall Brisbane Prize (1970) |
Norman Feather FRSFRSE PRSE (16 November 1904, Pecket Well, Yorkshire – 14 August 1978, Christie Hospital, Manchester), was an English nuclear physicist. Feather and Egon Bretscher were working at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge in 1940, when they proposed that the 239 isotope of element 94 (plutonium) would be better able to sustain a nuclear chain reaction. This research, a breakthrough, was part of the Tube Alloys project, the secret British project during World War II to develop nuclear weapons.
Feather was the author of a series of noted introductory texts on the history, fundamental concepts, and meaning of physics.
He was born the son of Samson Feather, headmaster of Pecket Well, where he was born. The family moved during his infancy when his father became headmaster of Holme Primary School in Yorkshire, and his wife Lucy Clayton.
He was educated at Bridlington Grammar School and Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating BA in 1925 before taking a year in the University of London gaining a BSc in 1926. He was a Fellow of Trinity College from 1929 to 1933 then Fellow and Lecturer in Natural Sciences there from 1936 to 1945. Feather received his doctorate (PhD) at Cambridge in 1931 under James Chadwick and Ernest Rutherford. His research employed a Wilson cloud chamber and focused on the problem of the long-range alpha particles.
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