Catalogue description Catalogue of the papers and correspondence of Leonard Rotherham (1913-2001), physicist and metallurgist

SECTION A BIOGRAPHICAL NCUACS98.3.01/A.1-NCUACS98.3.01/A.59

SECTION B RESEARCH NCUACS98.3.01/B.1-NCUACS98.3.01/B.29

SECTION C PUBLICATIONS NCUACS98.3.01/C.1-NCUACS98.3.01/C.41

SECTION D LECTURES AND SPEECHES NCUACS98.3.01/D.1-NCUACS98.3.01/D.75

SECTION E VISITS AND CONFERENCE NCUACS98.3.01/E.1-NCUACS98.3.01/E.157

SECTION F SOCIETIES AND ORGANISATIONS NCUACS98.3.01/F.1-NCUACS98.3.01/F.77

SECTION G CORRESPONDENCE NCUACS98.3.01/G.1-NCUACS98.3.01/G.23

The material is presented in the order given in the contents list. It covers the period from 1932 to 1996.

Section A, Biographical, contains a small amount of material relating to various aspects of Rotherham's career, It includes correspondence and papers concerning Rotherham's appointments at Brown-Firth, the UKAEA and the CEGB, and his membership of professional societies and organisations. It also contains documentation, in photographic form, relating to his career between 1957 and 1967.

Section B, Research, comprises a number of notebooks documenting Rotherham's scientific interests and study as an undergraduate and postgraduate at University College, London. The section also contains correspondence relating to the British Fast Reactor Project, a government initiative with which Rotherham became involved between 1975 and 1976. Rotherham's report on fast reactors, prepared in collaboration with C. Hinton, for the Cabinet Office is included in this section.

Section C, Publications, is composed of off-prints of Rotherham's contributions to various journals. Rotherham's collaborative work with his colleagues at the Brown-Firth Laboratories, the Royal Aircraft Establishment, the UK Atomic Energy Authority and the Central Electricity Generating Board is reflected in the number of jointly authored papers in this section. The section includes a small amount of correspondence with publishers.

Section D, Lectures and speeches, presents a good record of lectures, speeches and talks given by Rotherham throughout his later career. Drafts and final versions of most Rotherham's lectures between 1951 and 1966 have been preserved. The sequence includes material relating to informal talks given by Rotherham to colleagues and members of staff within his own organisation. It also contains documentation of lectures he gave to a variety of professional audiences as a representative of the UKAEA and the CEGB and as President of the Institution of Metallurgists and the Institute of Metals. Rotherham delivered the 13th Hatfield Memorial Lecture in November 1960 and the 10th Coal Science Lecture in October 1961.

Section E, Visits and conferences, is composed of correspondence and papers relating to conferences and meetings attended by Rotherham between 1956 and 1969. Rotherham frequently contributed a talk or discussion paper to these conferences, most of which took place in the UK. The section includes material concerning two Royal Society Discussion Meetings, on heavy section steel structures and advanced methods of energy conversion chaired and organised by Rotherham in 1964 and 1965.

Section F, Societies and organisations, contains material relating to the various societies and organisations with which Rotherham was connected in an academic, professional or personal capacity. It includes a series of minutes and papers of the Central Advisory Council for Science and Technology of which Rotherham was a member between 1968 and 1970 and papers concerning the University Grants Committee Technology Sub-Committee on which Rotherham served for ten years from 1961.

Section, G, Correspondence, contains a small amount of miscellaneous correspondence relating to a variety of topics including Institution of Metallurgists business, Windscale Nuclear Power Station, Rotherham's appointment to the Central Electricity Generating Board and the setting up of a Ministry of Defence Study Group.

Compiled by: Lizzie Richmond and Peter Harper

The work of the National Cataloguing Unit for the Archives of Contemporary Scientists, and the production of this catalogue, are made possible by the support of the following societies and organisations:

The Biochemical Society

The British Crystallographic Association

The Geological Society

The Higher Education Funding Council for England

The Institute of Physics

The Royal Society

The Royal Society of Chemistry

Trinity College, Cambridge

The Wellcome Trust

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We are very grateful to Mr. M. Rotherham for his assistance in making this material available.

Rotherham, Leonard, 1913-2001, physicist and metallurgist

NOT ALL THE MATERIAL IN THIS COLLECTION MAY YET BE AVAILABLE FOR CONSULTATION. ENQUIRIES SHOULD BE ADDRESSED IN THE FIRST INSTANCE TO:

THE ARCHIVIST

THE LIBRARY

UNIVERSITY OF BATH

CLAVERTON DOWN

BATH BA2 7AY

An original deposit of material by Rotherham in the University of Bath archives was supplemented in December 1999 by papers received from his son, Mr Miles Rotherham.

OUTLINE OF THE CAREER OF LEONARD ROTHERHAM

Leonard Rotherham was born on 31 August 1913. He was educated at The Herbert Strutt School, Belper, Derbyshire and won a Derby County Major Scholarship as well as a state scholarship to attend University College, London where he obtained a first class degree in physics with subsidiary mathematics. In 1935 he received an MSc from the same institution for research on the viscosity of liquids carried out under the supervision of Professor E. N. da C. Andrade.

Rotherham's first industrial appointment was at the Brown-Firth Research Laboratories in Sheffield where he conducted work on the physical and mechanical properties of metals with particular reference to magnetism, fatigue and creep. By 1939 the laboratories under Rotherham's direct control constituted half of all the Brown-Firth research facilities. Rotherham's own research centred on the development of creep resistant materials. During World War II this area of study gained additional importance through its contribution to the evolution of jet propulsion engines and Rotherham was personally concerned with the manufacture of the special materials which went into the production of the experimental Whittle engines. He also had special responsibilities for the monitoring and development of shells and armour manufacture.

After eleven years in Sheffield Rotherham became head of the Metallurgy Department at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough, Hampshire. Though he joined the Establishment at a difficult time, when the Department of Metallurgy was recovering from a post-war decline, Rotherham initiated new programmes of research on the extraction and characteristics of titanium, the corrosion behaviour and high-temperature properties of aircraft structural materials and the fatigue and creep of metals. After four years he had become an authority on the creep of metals and left behind a much healthier department to take up a new post with the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), Industrial Group, Risley, Cheshire.

As Director of Research at the UKAEA he set up and oversaw the large organisation which was responsible for almost all the metallurgical work involved in the design, installation and maintenance of the Calder Hall and Dounreay nuclear reactors.

Rotherham left the UK Atomic Energy Authority in 1958 to become the Member for Research of the Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB). At the CEGB Rotherham renewed his working association with C. Hinton, later Lord Hinton of Bankside. Hinton was Managing Director of the UKAEA, Industrial Group between 1954 and 1957. His departure to become Chairman of the CEGB preceded Rotherham's own transfer to that organisation by a year. Their subsequent collaborations resulted in several co-authored conference papers and publications.

In 1966 Hinton was appointed Chancellor of the newly established Bath University of Technology (later the University of Bath) and in 1969 Rotherham joined him as the institution's second Vice-Chancellor. He remained in this position until his retirement in 1976.

In recognition of his contributions to the fields of science and engineering Rotherham was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society in 1963 and became a Founder Fellow of the Fellowship of Engineering (later the Royal Academy of Engineering) in 1976. He was President of the Institution of Metallurgists, 1964 and the Institute of Metals, 1965. He served on the Defence Scientific Advisory Council, 1967-1977, the Central Advisory Council for Science and Technology, 1968-1970, and the Advisory Council for Applied Research and Development, 1976-1981.

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