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Powell, Herbert Marcus, 1906-.
Herbert M. Powell papers, 1921-1991.
Biographical material includes obituaries, curricula vitae and Powell's autobiographical drafts principally relating to his family background and school and university education. There are also examples of his short stories and other fiction. Oxford University material includes Powell's undergraduate notebooks and his notes on the lecutres of F. Soddy, C. N. Hinshelwood, J. W. J. Taylor and D. L. Chapman, for 1925 and 1926. Chemical crystallography material is not extensive but includes a small number of papers from or relating to Dorothy Hodgkin and Powell's historical notes on the development of chemical crystallography at Oxford. Powell's lecture notes were found in considerable disorder but cover an extended period from 1928 and such topics as crystal chemistry and molecular compounds. Powell's research is represented by laboratory notebooks covering the early part of his career from 1928 to about 1940, including a notebook with lecture notes made during a visit by Powell to the Mineralogy Institute of the University of Leipzig in 1930. There are also later notes and drafts of 1950s work in inert gases, tri-o-thymotide, etc. There are drafts of some of Powell's invitations and publication lectures 1953-1968 and of his scientific papers 1942-1966, including drafts and correspondence relating to his 1960 paper on Japanese chemical writing and his 1966 spoof paper on color in chemistry. There are also biographical accounts of colleagues in crystallography and chemistry including early recollections of Dorothy Hodgkin at Oxford and drafts for text by Powell of a general or popular scientific nature. A film on crystal structure made by the Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) Film Unit in collaboration with Powell is documented by scripts, drafts, and correspondence. Visits and conference mateial covers the period 1948-1974. Particularly well documented is his 1962 visit to China as a member of a Royal Society delegation to the Academia Sinica, Peking. There are also papers relating to visits to Roumania in 1964 and Russia in 1966 and 1969. Powell's linguistic interests are documented by notes and drafts on his work on language representation. There are also drafts for a course on learning Russian prepared with the scientific student in mind. Scientific correspondence is not extensive. There is, however, an alphabetical sequence of principal correspondents including scientific colleaugues such as W. Baker, F. G. Mann and R. S. Nyholm and industrial concerns interested in the applications of Powell's work such as the British Oxygen Company, Imperial Chemical Industries, and Johnson, Matthey and Company.
Born in 1906, and educated at Henry VIII School, Coventry, and St. John's College, Oxford. Taught at Oxford University where he pioneered x-ray crystallography. Dorothy Hodgkin (Nobel Laureate Chemistry 1964) was his first research student. He went on to become first University Demonstrator and then in 1944 Reader in Chemical Chrystallography and Head of the Chemical Crystallography Laboratory, before being given a Personal Chair in 1963. Powell became a Professorial Fellow of Hertford College, Oxford in 1963. He retired from his Chair in 1974. His research field was the determination of crystal structures by x-ray diffraction methods. He also originated and named a new class of molecular compounds (clathrates) in which one atom or molecule is enclosed in a cage formed by other. Powell was an excellent linguist with particular accomplishments in Russian and Chinese. In 1960 he published a paper on how to read Japanese chemical papers without having to learn the language, which aroused great interest amounst Western chemists. He also addressed questions of language representations, seeking to represent linguistic communication by a system of visual symbols. Amongst other interests was writing short stories and other fiction. Powell's scientific achievements were recognised by his election to the Fellowship of the Royal Society in 1953.
Hodgkin, Dorothy, 1910-1994
Hinshelwood, Cyril Norman, Sir, 1897-1967.
Soddy, Frederick, 1877-1956.
University of Oxford.
Royal Society (Great Britain)
UniversittĖƒ Leipzig
Crystallography
Chemistry
Molecular crystals.
Russia -- Travel.
China -- Travel.
Laboratory notes. aat aat aat
Obituaries. aat ftamc
Resumes. aat aat
Autobiographies. aat
Film (material). aat
Lecture notes. aat
Chemists. lcsh
Crystallographers. lcsh
Baker, W.
Chapman, D. L.
Mann, F. G.
Nyholm, R. S.
Taylor, J. W. J.
Academia Sinica.
British Oxygen Company.
Imperial Chemical Industries, ltd.
AIP-ICOS
University of Oxford. Bodleian Library. Department of Western Manuscripts. Oxford, England, UK
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