edited by ROGER R. FESTA School of Education. Box U-33 The University of Connecticut Storrs, CT 06268
Dame Kathleen Lonsdale (1903-19713 Maureen M. Julian Oept. 01 GeoIog~~al Scfences V rgmia Po ytechnic 1nst:tute and Slate Universny Bac*sburg, VA 24061
The flat, hexagonal structure of the benzene ring is part of our chemical heritage. Benzene is a liquid a t room temperature, but because of its complicated packing, the benzene crystal (mp 5.42 OC) was not suitable for the state-of-the-art of crystallography in the 1920's. The addition of six methyl groups on the benzene nucleus produced crystals from which, in 1923, Dr. Kathleen Lonsdale definitively proved that the benzene ring is flat and hexagonal (1,2). This was the first structure of an aromatic compound whose three-dimensional confieuration was determined bv X-rav analvsis. e, ~ a k l e e Yardley n was born in-1903 ~ e w b r i d ~Ireland, just south of Dublin (3).She was the youngest of ten children. Her father, an agnostic and heavy drinker, was postmaster for the British garrison stationed in Ireland. When Kathleen was five years old, her parents separated. Mrs. Yardley took the children who were still a t home t o Seven Kings. a small town east of London which turned out to be on thezeppelin route during the World War I blitz. One night, thirteen-year-old Kathleen witnessed a deafening explosion when the hydrogen in the zeppelin balloon burst into flames as i t was shot down. At sixteen Kathleen Yardley enrolled in Bedford College, a small women's college of the University of London. Three years later Professor William H. Bragg, the 1915Nobel Laureate in physics, was among her RSc. oral examiners ( 4 ) .She headed the university list with the highest marks in ten years. Bragg asked her, "How did you manage to do so well?" He answered his own question by offering her a position in his l a h o r a u ) at ~ Universitv CoUeee. London. Hraee was unhaoov there a n i the followi& y e a r k w e d with m&; of the grid;, includ~neKathleen Yardlev. to the Hoval Institution. For her mastdsdixwrtation she sr;died the structure of succinic acid and related comoounds (5).At the same time. she and William Astbury began ;heir coliahorition on a set of 230 space-group tables, mathematical descri~tionsof the crvstal svmmetries. which berame an indispensable tool of c r y s i a ~ l o g ~ a ~ h(e6r)s: In 1936 to avoid error, her handwritten structure factor tables were photolithoprinted from the original manuscript (7). For her study of ethane derivatives (81, she was awarded the prestigious DSc. On 27 August 1927 she married fellow student Thomas Lonsdale. They took up residence in Leeds where he was working for the British Silk Research Association. At night he set UD exDeriments to comnlete his doctoral thesis on the ~orsionalst;engths of metals ib). Kathleen Lnnsdale was at the Universitv of Leeds working on the hexamethvlbenzene study, the first experimental proof of the planaiity of the benzene r i n ~ . Between 1929 and 1934 their three children Jane, Nan, and Stephen were born. In 1930 Tom Lonsdale's iob in Leeds coliapsed and the family returned to London &here he was able to get a permanent position a t the Testing Station of the Experimental Roads Department in the Ministry of Transport at Harmondsworth. Kathleen Lonsdale worked mostly a t
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DT. Lonsdale in 1943 at the Institute of Advanced Studies Summer School in Dublin, Ireland, giving a lecture on thermal vibrations of atoms and molecules in crystals.
home on the structure factor tables. In 1930 they bought a used tvnewriter for five oounds with an extra lone olaten for -. typingihe long formulas. In 1934 Kathleen Lonsdale returned to the Roval Institution and remained with Professor Bragg until his death in 1942. At first, after the disappointing news that no X-ray set was available, she focused her energies on a big, old electromamet and made another important contribution. Since the di&agneticsusceptiblities of komatic c6mpounds are greater perpendicular to the aromatic rine than in the same plane, she . was able to show that the sigma electronic orbitais were of aromatic dimensions and that the ~i orbitals were of molecular dimensions. This experimental work established the reality of molecular orbitals (10). Lonsdale became interested in thermal vibrations as a result of observing some diffuse (or non-Bragg) spots on an X-ray diffraction photo of benzil (11). Diamonds also have diffuse reflections, which led to her work in natural and manmade diamonds (12). In 1966 a rare wurzite, or hexagonal, form of meteoritic diamond waa named "lonsdaleite" (13).In a letter tc~Clifford Frondel of Harvard Universitv. who sueeested the name, she said, "It makes me feel bo& proud and rather humble that it shall be called lonsdaleite. Certainlv the name seems appropriate since the mineral only occurs in very small quantitv (perhaps 'rare' would he too flatterhe) een-. and is " &ally rithkr mixed up! Thank you all" (14). After Professor Brazg's death. Kathleen Lonsdale founded her own crystalloga& department at University College, 1.undon. In 1919 Judith Crenville-Wells (later .Milledee) rame from South Africa to study diamonds. At fnst, in exc&nge for e "
Profiles in Chemistryls s biographical feaiure, highlightingUw contributions of distinguished chemists in the context of their lives. The column isdesigned i w cuniculum enrichment, allowing the secondary school teacher to enhance the vitality of chemishy with the sense of scholarship and adventure shared by chemists throughout histwy.
Volume 59
Number 11 November 1982
965
room and board at the Lonsdales, Grenville-Wells did some of the secretarial work on the "International X-Ray Tables," a very long and detailed project for which Lonsdale served as one of the main editors. Grenville-Wells became Lonsdale's scientific colleague and devoted friend. Their studies together included natural and artificial diamonds, minerals a t high pressures and high temperatures, and the mechanisms of solid-state reactions. The most important example was the detection of the X-ray diffraction patterns of the intermediate products in the conversion of the photo-oxide of anthracene into a mixed crvstal of anthrone and anthraauinoue (15). After seeing collection of body stones-Gidney, bladher, and aall stones-Kathleen Lonsdale beaan an extensive chemical and demographic study (16). s h e loved to exhibit an X-ray diffraction photograph of Napoleon 111's bladder stone! D. June Sutor, a New Zealander whose second Ph.D. was from Cambridge University, worked with her on this project and eventually took over and extended it (17). From her youth, when she lived under the threat of the zeppelins, until her death in 1971, Kathleen Lonsdale felt the horrors of war and worked, wrote, and lectured for peace. She and her husband become Quakers in 1936. They sheltered refugees in their home during World War 11. Kathleen went to jail for a month as a pacifist in 1943 rather than register for war duties. She became interested in prison reform and actively served on many prison boards. On a scientific trip to Russia in 1951, she asked to visit a prison. Upon leaving, she noticed her interpreter grinning; Lonsdale asked why. "The prison governor wants to know how it is such a nice lady knows so much about ~risons."was the reolv. In 1956, upsit by extensive nuclea; testing in Russia, the United States. and Great Britain. Lonsdale interruoted other work and in six weeks wrote he; book, "Is Peace ~ossible?" In the foreword she stated that the book was "written in a personal way because 1 feel a sense of corporate guilt and resr)onsil~ilit,that scientific knowledge should have been so &used" (18). She explored the correlation between international peace and world population needs with the personal perspective of being the youngest of ten children. She was strongly against all nuclear weapons. When her husband retired they moved from London to the relatively quiet town of Bexhill-on-Sea. He assisted his wife in her pacifist and prison commitments. The first of their ten grandchildren was born on the day before the announcement that Kathleen Lonsdale would receive the honorary title Dame
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Journal of Chemical Education
Kathleen, a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Kathleen Lonsdale had a number of important firsts. She was one of the first women elected as fellows to the Roval Society. She was the first woman professor at University Colleae, London. In 1966 she was the first woman resident of thclnrernntimal Union of Crystallography and kvoyears lnrer the first woman president of the British Association for the Advancement of science. On April 1, 1971, Kathleen Lonsdale died of cancer. A decade later the chemistry building a t University College was renamed the Kathleen Lonsdale Building. This is a fitting tribute to this energetic woman who was the first woman crystallographer to attain a worldwide reputation not only as a scientist but also as a humanist. Her willingness to be of service to others was personified in her careful work on the "International X-Rav Tables" as well as her prison reform interest and her peace efforts. Scientifically she showed the planarity of the benzene ring; she demonstrated the reality of molecular orbitals; she did important work on diamonds, diffuse scatterine. and temoerature factors: she studied solid-state reactiiis; and when she was almost 60, she began an exhaustive studv on hodv stones. Kathleen Lonsdale was indeed an incredible worker, a methodical organizer, and a scientist of highest degree. Literature Cited (1) Lonsdale, K.,Proc. R. Soc London A, 133,536 (1931): L o d a l e , K.,Nolue,122,810 (1928);Lonsdale, K. Noc. R. Sac. London A, 123.494 (1929): h n s d a l e , K.,TIOM. Forodoy Soc.. 25.352 (1929). 12) Julian,M.M.,J. CHEM.E~uc.58.365(1981): Julian,M. M.,PhysicsToocher. 19,159 (3) Hodgkin, D., Biographical Mem. ofFelloua olRay Soe, 21,447 (1976). (4) Ewald, P. P., "Fifty YemofX-Ray Diffrsnion," N.V.A.OmthaPs UiteetersmsataThe NethhhI~~dn chaooii. , , ,. Utreeht. ~. . I9RZ.n 596 .~ 5 , Yar.11,). K , P r r i X So.. I m o o n A . 105, $ 5 , $3241 6, Aqll.uri. W.T a d .l\'dLy K Phd l ) n n , X $ 0 ~London 1,221,221 11921, IIrmrlale. K j,rnpl#fiea 5 t r . c t u l r P ~ t l rmtl Flmn n I ~ P l O il rm~tae L #I~ ~ r lY he21U Spsrcl:nupa ..I hlnthrrnal8rrl Cr).fallrgrophy." C Ilcli and SIC,.. I.~.ndt.n. ~
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(6) Yardley,K..Pmr.R. Soe London A, 118,449(1928). (9) Londale, T., Phil.M a g , 1169 (1931). (10) Lonsda1e.K.. Pr0c.R. Soc. A, l59,149(1937). (11) Lonsdsle, K., K n w m I. Ellie, Moller, A., and Ubhlohdc, A. R.,Nature. 145. 820 llQ*", ~.".",.
(12) Lonadale. K.. Noture.London. 153.669 (1944). (13) Lonsdalo, K.; A m e n Miners,56,333 (1971). 114) Frondel, C.,privsteeomrnunic.%tation. (15) Lonsdale, K., Nave, E., and Stephens, J. F.. Phil. ~ r i n sR. . Soc. London A, 261.1
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(16) Lonsdale. K., Science, 159,1199 (1968). (17) Lonsdale, K., Scientific Amerieon, 219,104 (1968): Lonsdde, K.,Sutor, D. J.. and Wwley, S., RI J. Ural., 40 1331,402(1968). (18) Lonsdale, K.,"le PeaeePmsible?': Penguin Bmh, London, 1951.p. 5.
