Bertram boltwood biography of william

(b. Amherst, Massachusetts, 27 July 1870; d. Hancock Point, Maine, 14/15 August 1927)

radiochemistry.

Scientists spent the first several years following Henri Becquerel’s discovery of radioactivity in 1896 largely in studying the physical properties of the radiations.

Bertram boltwood biography of william hurt

By 1904, however, enough radioelements had been found to shift their interest to the bodies emitting these radiations. In the chemical identification of the radioelements and in positioning them in proper sequence in the decay series, Boltwood was an equal among such first-generation radiochemists as Otto Hahn, frederick Soddy, Friedrich Giesel, and Herbert N.

McCoy.

Boltwood’s paternal ancestors came to America from Great Britain in the mid-seventeenth century, They settled in New England, where for several generations they were farmers, millers, and blacksmiths. One was able to work his way through Williams College, graduating in 1814 and later becoming a lawyer in Amherst, Massach