Abstract
Payne-Scott experienced a postscript to her career as a radio astronomer in August 1952—13 months after her resignation and less than a year after the birth of her son, Peter Hall. She attended the 10th URSI (International Union of Radio Science) General Assembly at the University of Sydney from 11 to 21 August 1952. URSI was one of the first international scientific congresses to be held outside the US and Europe. The first international congress to be held in Australia was the Second Pan-Pacific Science Congress in Melbourne and Sydney, more than 30 years earlier in August of 1920.( 1 )
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Notes
- 1.
Interview with Goss, Palo Alto, California, February, 2007. Bracewell reported that his enjoyment of the conference was compromised by a serious illness which forced him to miss many of the scientific sessions. There was a silver lining; he recuperated in the Sydney home of his future wife, Helen.
- 2.
URSI documentation provided by Bracewell in 2006–2007 and by Madam Inge Heleu, Executive Secretary of URSI in February 2007.
- 3.
In his closing remarks, Appleton confessed that he had only been able to visit the Dapto and Potts Hill field stations. “I am sorry I have not yet been able to visit Dover Heights—which is now an historic site—but I hope to do so before I leave Sydney.” It is not known if he visited this scenic sea side site.
- 4.
URSI, Proceedings of the General Assembly, Vol. IX, Fascicule 1, Administrative Proceedings 1952, Brussels, page 9.
- 5.
Ibid.
- 6.
- 7.
Due to continued ill will as a result of WWII, the Germans and Japanese were not invited. Martyn did go to Japan after the Assembly, however, to transmit news of the proceedings (Gillmor 1991). Japan submitted a national report in the published URSI proceedings; Germany did not. Also, as the Cold War had begun, there were no participants from the USSR.
- 8.
NAA: C3830, C6/2/4B, correspondence for URSI 1952.
- 9.
Ibid.
- 10.
Bolton (1953) described the official field trips to Dapto and Potts Hill. The trip to Hornsby is not mentioned, but Bolton did say that “private visits were made to other field stations engaged on galactic work.” Surprisingly, based on the lack of photographic evidence from the CSIRO Radio Astronomy Image Archive, there was likely no tour of the Dover Heights site.
- 11.
Kerr also had doubts about the status of theory in explaining emission processes in radio sources: “The discussion showed that this is a very difficult subject, and a thorough understanding of the nonthermal processes that are important in radio astronomy is still a long way off.” Indeed the recognition of the importance of synchrotron emission was not to occur until the mid 1950s. The importance of the publication, Cosmic Radiation and Radio Stars, by Alfvén and Herlofson (1950), who proposed synchrotron emission, was not recognised in 1952 (see also Chap. 8). Herlofson (from Stockholm) attended URSI 1952.
- 12.
Although Payne-Scott has no pin, she was a registered participant; she appeared in the list of participants with profession “physicist”, address 120 Woronora Parade, Oatley. Her name was listed as “Ruby Payne-Scott (Mrs. W. Hall)”. Only three women were registered for the URSI Assembly.
- 13.
Interview with Sally Atkinson, February 1999, Epping, NSW. Sally Atkinson was at the RPL from 1942 to 1971 and secretary to the Chief of RPL, E.G. Bowen from 1946 to 1971. As Honorary Archivist at RPL from 1971 to 1992 she was responsible for transferring over 60 m of files from RPL to the National Archives of Australia. Sylvia Mossom Blackwood (1914–1987) worked in the RPL administration during World War II, starting in 1941; she was also an infrequent babysitter for the Hall family in the 1950s (letter from her husband, Fred Blackwood, July 1999). In the late 1950s, Mossom was a literary assistant to D. P. Mellor as he prepared the influential volume, The Role of Science and Industry, in the series Australia in the War of 1939–1945. Series 4, Civil (1958), sponsored by the Australian War Memorial.
- 14.
In the closing address to the congress on 21 August 1952, the past President Sir Edward Appleton thanked numerous Australian hosts including Pawsey: “Dr. G. L. (sic) Pawsey, whose absence we deplore”. A few months later J.A. Roberts was returned to Australia by ship after finishing a Ph.D. degree at the Cavenish Laboratory in the UK. Although not present for the conference, he had heard that the organisation was outstanding. “I was sorry to hear that you were down with the flu. I gather that the rainmakers [from the RPL Cloud Physics group] turned on a little too much for the conference!” (NAA, C3830, F1/4/ROBE1. Pawsey was present at the opening ceremony. By the last week of August, Pawsey was able to provide tours of the Dapto field station for overseas visitors to the URSI congress (John Murray, interview 2007).
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Goss, W.M. (2013). 1952: Ruby Payne-Scott’s Last Experience as a Radio Astronomer at the International Union of Radio Science. In: Making Waves. Astronomers' Universe. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35752-7_11
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