Epilogue: Why Did We Write This Book?

Abstract

The rationale of our writing this description of the life of Ruby Payne-Scott has an ironic origin. John Bolton and Ruby Payne-Scott were viewed by colleagues at RPL as antagonists (Chap. 8); the “bust up” at Dover Heights between the two in late 1947 had been announced to Pawsey by McCready a few months after Pawsey left for his trip to the US and Europe. Payne-Scott had been “exiled” to the Hornsby site, a result that had positive scientific results (Chap. 8). We were surprised to learn of these antipathies in 1999. In the 1940s and 1950s, RPL was characterised by strong personalities. The characterisation of the “triangle of antagonism at RPL” between Bolton, Payne-Scott and Piddington has been described in Chap. 1.¹ Indeed, there were turbulent relationships among some of the senior scientific staff. In 2007, Mills² suggested a fascinating theory that provides a whimsical view of the political alignment of the early years of radio astronomy at RPL. This suggestion is consistent with the dynamic that led to the partial rupture of RPL in the early 1960s as Mills and Christiansen left for the University of Sydney (School of Physics and Electrical Engineering, respectively). Shortly afterwards, in 1962, Pawsey left RPL for the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (Green Bank, West Virginia, USA), just before his premature death on 30 November 1962, at the age of 54. Mills postulates that two camps were already taking shape in the late 1940s and early 1950s: the “English” faction of Taffy Bowen (the Chief of the Division), and the recently recruited scientific staff member, John Bolton.³ This faction was in contrast to the “Australian” camp of Ruby Payne-Scott, Chris Christiansen and Bernie Mills. According to Mills, Pawsey was in neither camp as “he tried to keep things on an even keel. He knew there would be trouble; he hoped for simple and healthy competition which was not the way it turned out.” Paul Wild, an Englishman, was “in the middle with a foot in both camps.” In the end, Australian radio astronomy flourished. After 1960, Mills, Christiansen, Wild, Bowen and Bolton remained leaders in this rapidly expanding field.